Unit 01:Indian Society

Unit 01:Indian Society Agenda Constitution of IndiaStructure Of Indian SocietyIndian Social DemographySocial and Cultural differentiationInstitutions of marriageFamily and KinshipSecularizationPanchayatraj InstitutionsVarious Reservations and Commissions

CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

Fundamental Duties • Fundamental Duties – It shall be the duty of every citizen of India • (a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem; • (b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom; • (c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India; • (d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so; • (e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;

(f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture; • (g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures; • (h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform; • (i) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence; • (j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavor and achievement; • (k) who is a parent or guardian, to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years.

Part III (Articles 12 – 35)(Subject to certain conditions, some exceptionsand reasonable restrictions)guarantees theseFundamental Rights • Right to Equality • before law and equal protection of laws; • irrespective of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth; • of opportunity in public employment; • by abolition of untouchability and titles.

Right to Freedom • of expression, assembly, association, movement, residence and profession; • of certain protections in respect of conviction for offences; • of protection of life and personal liberty; • of free and compulsory education for children between the age of six and fourteen years; • of protection against arrest and detention in certain cases.

Right against Exploitation • for prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour; • for prohibition of employment of children in hazardous jobs. Right to Freedom of Religion • freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion; • freedom to manage religious affairs; • freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion; • freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in educational institutions wholly maintained by the State.

Cultural and Educational Rights • for protection of interests of minorities to conserve their language, script and culture; • for minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Right to Constitutional Remedies • by issuance of directions or orders or writs by the Supreme Court and High • Courts for enforcement of these Fundamental Rights.

The English word "society" emerged in the 15th century and is derived from the French société. The French word, in turn, had its origin in the Latinsocietas, a "friendly association with others," from socius meaning "companion, associate, comrade or business partner." • The Latin word is probably related to the verb sequi, "to follow", and thus originally may have meant "follower". • In political science, the term is often used to mean the totality of human relationships, generally in contrast to the State, i.e., the apparatus of rule or government within a territory:

In the social sciences, a society has been used to mean a group of people that form a semi-closed social system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. • Society is sometimes contrasted with culture. For example, Clifford Geertz has suggested that society is the actual arrangement of social relations while culture is made up of beliefs and symbolic forms. • According to sociologist Richard Jenkins, the term addresses a number of important existential issues facing people: • How humans think and exchange information – the sensory world makes up only a fraction of human experience. • To understand the world, we have to conceive of human interaction in the abstract (i.e., society).

Types of societies • Society’s are categories of social groups that differ according to ; • the way that humans use technology to provide needs for themselves. Although humans have established many types of societies throughout history, anthropologists tend to classify different societies according to the degree to which different groups within a society have unequal access to advantages such as resources, prestige or power.

Virtually all societies have developed some degree of inequality among their people through the process of social stratification-the division of members of a society into levels with unequal wealth, prestige or power. Sociologists place societies in three broad categories: • Pre-industrial, • Industrial, and • Postindustrial.

Pre-industrial Societies • In a pre-industrial society, food production; which is carried out through the use of human and animal labor; is the main economic activity. • These societies can be subdivided according to their level of technology and their method of producing food. • These subdivisions are hunting and gathering, pastoral, horticultural, agricultural and feudal. • Hunting and Gathering Societies • The main form of food production in such societies is the daily collection of wild plants and the hunting of wild animals. • Hunter-gatherers move around constantly in search of food. As a result, they do not build permanent villages or create a wide variety of artifacts. and usually only form small groups such as Bands and Tribes.

The need for mobility also limits the size of these societies. • They generally consist of fewer than 60 people and rarely exceed 100. • Statuses within the tribe are relatively equal, and decisions are reached through general agreement. • The ties that bind the tribe are more complicated than those of the bands. • Leadership is personal-charismatic-and for special purposes only in tribal society; there are no political offices containing real power, and a chief is merely a person of influence, a sort of adviser; therefore, tribal consolidation for collective action are not governmental. • The family forms the main social unit, with most societal members being related by birth or by marriage. • This type of organization requires the family to carry out most social functions; including production and education.

Pastoral Societies • Pastorlism is a slightly more efficient form of subsistence. Rather than searching for food on a daily basis, members of a pastoral society rely on domesticated herd animals to meet their food needs. • Pastoralists live a nomadic life, moving their herds from pasture to another. Because their food supply is far more reliable, pastoral societies can support larger populations. Since there are food surpluses, fewer people are needed to produce food. As a result, the division of labor; the specialization by individuals or groups in the performance of specific economic activities; becomes more complex. • For example, some people become craft workers, producing tools, weapons, and jewelry. • The production of goods encourages trade.

This trade helps to create inequality, as some families acquire more goods than others do. • These families often gain power through their increased wealth. • The passing on of property from generation to another helps to centralize wealth and power. Horticultural Societies • Fruits and vegetables grown in garden plots that have been cleared from the jungle or forest provide the main source of food in a horticultural society. • These societies have a level of technology and complexity similar to pastoral societies. Some horticultural groups use the slash-and-burn method to raise crops. • The wild vegetation is cut and burned, and ashes are used as fertilizers. Horticulturists use human labor and simple tools to cultivate the land for one or more seasons. • When the land becomes barren, horticulturists clear a new plot and leave the old plot to revert to its natural state.

Agricultural Societies • Agricultural societies use technological advances to cultivate crops over a large area. Sociologists use the phrase Agricultural Revolution to refer to the technological changes that occurred as long as 8,500 years ago that led to cultivating crops and raising farm animals. • Increases in food supplies then led to larger populations than in earlier communities. • This meant a greater surplus, which resulted in towns that became centers of trade supporting various rulers, educators, craftspeople, merchants, and religious leaders who did not have to worry about locating nourishment. • Greater degrees of social stratification appeared in agricultural societies. For example, women previously had higher social status because they shared labor more equally with men. In hunting and gathering societies, women even gathered more food than men.

However, as food stores improved and women took on lesser roles in providing food for the family, they became more subordinate to men. • As villages and towns expanded into neighboring areas, conflicts with other communities inevitably occurred. • Farmers provided warriors with food in exchange for protection against invasion by enemies. • A system of rulers with high social status also appeared. • This nobility organized warriors to protect the society from invasion. In this way, the nobility managed to extract goods from the “lesser” persons of society.

Feudal Societies • From the 9th to 15th centuries, feudalism was a form of society based on ownership of land. • Unlike today's farmers, vassals under feudalism were bound to cultivating their lord's land. • In exchange for military protection, the lords exploited the peasants into providing food, crops, crafts, homage, and other services to the owner of the land. • The caste system of feudalism was often multigenerational; the families of peasants may have cultivated their lord's land for generations.

Between the 14th and 16th centuries, a new economic system emerged that began to replace feudalism. • Capitalism is marked by open competition in a free market, in which the means of production are privately owned. • Europe's exploration of the Americas served as one impetus for the development of capitalism. • The introduction of foreign metals, silks, and spices stimulated great commercial activity in Europe.

THE FACTORS OF UNITY IN DIVERSITY • We can discuss the following five factors of unity in diversity of India: • 1. Geographical and Demographic Factors • The first striking feature about India is its diversity because of India’s geographical environment and numerous population. • 2. Religious Factors • India is a multi-religious country. • There are seven major religious groups in India according to 1991 census. • The Hindus constitute the majority of Indian population, about 82 per cent. The Muslims constitute (about 12.12 per cent). • The Christians (about 2.34 per cent), the Sikhs (about 1.94 per cent), the Buddhists (about 0.76 per cent), the Jains (about 0.40 per cent) and others the Jews, the Zoroastrians or Parsis and the Animists (about 0.44 per cent) .

3. Cultural Factors • The story of Indian culture is one of continuity, synthesis and enrichment. • Culture is also a source of unity as well as diversity like religion. • Powerful kingdoms and empires such as the Mauryas and the Guptas did not aggressively intervene in social and cultural matters; leaving much diversity intact. • 4. Political Factors • It is generally believed that India’s continuity as a civilization was social and cultural rather than political. Order and stability were maintained not by means of the state but through culture and society. • This also accounts for the fact that political unity is not the normal characteristic of ancient and medieval Indian history.

5. Linguistic Factors • India is a multilingual country. Language is another source of cultural diversity as well as unity. • It contributes to collective identities and even to conflicts. Eighteen languages are recognised by Indian Constitution. • All major languages have regional and dialectical variations, for example, Hindi has Awadhi, Brij, Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Bundeli, Pahari, Malwi and several other dialects. • The situation is further complicated since 179 languages and 544 dialects are recognised in India.

Social Demography • The study of human population is known by two terms: • (1) population studies:- • Population studies is commonly taken to mean a study of population variables, such as birth, death, migration, marriage, etc. and relationships between population changes and other variables, such as social, economic, political, biological, genetic, geographical and the like.

(2) Demography:- • It is taken to mean a mathematical and statistical study of size, composition, distribution of human population and changes therein. • Both the terms are, however, used interchangeably as synonyms by various population analysts. But the latter term has become more popular than the former. • The term ‘demography’ was first used in 1885 by Guillard. • Demography consists of two roots — ‘demos’ and ‘graphy’. • The first root refers to ‘people’ while the other refers to ‘descriptive science’. • These two roots combined together refer to a systematic, descriptive and scientific study of the people. • Thus, demography means a science of the logical and systematic study of people and various related aspects. • Demography is the study of statistics of births, deaths, and movement of people, age, rural-urban structures of population etc.

Thus, two basic sub-divisions of demography are: demographic processes and demographic structures. • The demographic processes consist mainly of fertility, mortality and migration. • Similarly, demographic structures consist mainly of age composition of population, male-female composition, size of population, territorial or regional composition and social composition of population. • On the above lines, demography is commonly classified as formal demography and social (or substantive) demography.

Socio-demographic Profileof India • We have seen that social demography a complex subject because it combines a number of demographic and social factors. • Salient features of demographic trends in India. • India is the second most populous country in the world. • India’s population is roughly around 16% of the total population of the world while China’s population is about 22%. But China has almost attained demographic stability, which has not yet been achieved in India. • According to the Human Development Report 2002, prepared by UNDP, the total fertility rate in India was 5.4 per woman during 1970-75. Whereas during 1995-2000, the total fertility rate was 3.3 per woman.

Population:1,166,079,217 (2009 est) • Growth rate:1.548% (2009 est) • Birth rate:22.22 births/1,000 population (2009 est) • Death rate:6.4 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est) • Life expectancy:69.89 years (2009 est) • –male:67.46 years (2009 est) –female:72.61 years (2009 est) • Fertility rate:2.72 children born/woman (NFHS-3, 2008)

Age Structure • 0-14 years:31.1% (male 190,075,426/female 172,799,553) (2009 est) • 15-64 years:63.6% (male 381,446,079/female 359,802,209) (2009 est) • 65-over:5.3% (male 29,364,920/female 32,591,030) (2009 est) • Sex ratio: • At birth:1.12 male(s)/female (2009) • Under 15:1.10 male(s)/female (2009) • 15-64 years:1.06 male(s)/female (2009) • 65-over:0.90 male(s)/female (2009) • Nationality: • Nationality:noun: Indian adjective: Indic • Major ethnic: • Language:

1) The birth rate, the death rate and the infant mortality rates of population in India have declined but they are still quite high as compared to developed countries. • The growth rate of population has declined over the years, but the size of total population in India has increased. • India has crossed a population of more than one billion now

National Population Policy (2000) aims at • Stabilising population at a level consistent with the requirements of the national economy. • The problems of over-population and of development have been examined from varying perspectives. They may be classified into four broad categories: • 1. Demographic perspective • 2. Economic perspective • 3. Sociological perspective • 4. Historical perspective

In the Population Policy 2000, The following are the main objectives: • 1.To reduce crude birth rate, total fertility rate, crude death rate and infant mortality rate as well as maternal mortality rate to the sustainable level of development. • 2. To provide basic reproductive and child health care services. • 3. To make school education compulsory up to the age of 14 years all over the country with greater emphasis on the expansion of population education. • 4. To enhance the age at marriage and more scrupulously enforce the child Marriage Restraint Act, 1976. • 5. To achieve the target of universal immunisation programme for children.

6. To achieve universal access to information, counseling and services related to measures for fertility reduction. • 7. To control the spread of Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and to prevent and control various other communicable diseases. • 8. To integrate reproductive and child health care services into the Indian system of medicine. • 9.To vigorously promote the idea of small family norm to achieve the replacement levels of Total Fertility Rate (TFR). • 10. To promote the idea of people centered programme of population and make it an integral part of the overall process of social development and transformation.

Caste, Class and Tribe in India • CASTE SYSTEM • Caste is an English term, which is derived from the Portuguese word ‘casta’ which means a group. • Castes are astrictive groups, membership of which is determined by birth. • An individual is born into a caste, and this status is more or less permanent. • Initially, European scholars used caste as a synonym for the Indian concept, Varna, but later on it was also used for • other terms like jati and up-jati. • Most sociologists today translate caste as jati and not as varna. Caste and varna in Sociology represent two different orders of reality.

Varna may be described as an abstract classification of people on the basis of mythical origin. • Caste, by contrast, is a concrete empirical grouping based on social, ritual and occupational criteria. Caste or jati is a concrete, and generally, endogamous group with characteristics of its own such as its hereditary occupation. • The Caste stratification of the Indian society had its origin in ‘chaturvarna’ system. • According to this the Hindu society was divided into 4 varnas Brahmins, Kashtriyas, Vaishyas and Shrudras. • The Varna system was mainly based on division of labour and occupation. • There are about 2800 castes and sub-castes in India.

Definitions Of Caste 1 According to Ghurye, “any attempt to define caste is bound to fail because of the complexity of phenomenon. • “Caste is a collection of families bearing a common name claiming a common descent from mythical ancestor mythical ancestor professing to follow the same hereditary calling and regarded by those who are competent to give an opinion as forming a single homogeneous community” Characteristics of caste: • Based on birth • Hereditary specialization • Interdependence • Stratification • Cultural pluralism • Interaction

Merits and Demerits of the Caste System • The caste system is credited to ensure the continuity of the traditional social organisation of India. • It succeeded in accommodating multiple communities by ensuring each of them a monopoly of a specific means of livelihood. • The caste system has handed down the knowledge and skills of the hereditary occupation of a caste from one generation to another. • It has, thus, helped the preservation of culture and ensured productivity.

The caste system creates obstacles to the unity of the country. • It opposes national consciousness by imposing social restrictions and ideas of purity and pollution. • Untouchability is the cancer of society. • Caste hinders horizontal and vertical social mobility and may, thus, force an individual to carry on the traditional occupation against her or his will and capacity. • This is a great hindrance to the industrial development. • The caste system usually does not provide opportunity to enhance the status of women in the public sphere.

CLASS SYSTEM • Social class is a type of social stratification which is most evident in industrial societies. But classes are found in non-industrial societies also. • Unlike the other types of strata, classes are neither defined by law nor sanctioned by religion. • Social class is generally defined as a stratum of people occupying similar social position in terms of wealth, income, occupation and factors like education. • Classes are related to one another in terms of inequality or hierarchy. • Class is a system of stratification in which a person’s social status depends upon her or his achievement. It permits an individual to strive for and attain a change in her or his status.

It encourages individuals to select their occupations. Membership of a class is not inherited as in the case of the caste system. • Social status in the caste system is ascribed to a person at the moment of her or his birth, which she/he bears for life. • The boundaries betweenclasses are never rigid . • There are no formal restrictions on inter-marriage between people from different classes.

Upward and downward movement within hierarchy or startification – is much more common in the class system than in other forms of stratification such as caste system or caste. • However, the individual may not achieve upward social mobility in the class system at • ease under all the circumstances. • Further, a social class is also a cultural group sharing a particular way of life. • It is related, of course, to the life chances available for the group. • Karl Marx talked about two classes in the capitalist society on the basis of the ownership or lack of ownership of means of production, viz.,

Max Weber had, however, suggested that there can be more than two classes on the basis of social status and political power in society. • Cumulative inequality is the characteristic of caste, whereas dispersed inequality is the characteristic of the class system. • The class division, understood in a broad sense, existed there between the ruler and the ruled. • There were also the classes of administrative officers of various ranks of merchants, artisans and specialists of different kinds. • The most important feature of the class structure in modern India is that all the classes have now come to live as integral parts of a single national economy and under a single state regime.

Caste and Class • They represent two main forms of social stratification. • There is hierarchy both in caste and class. Caste system is based on a person’s birth, while class does not depend on birth. • An individual in the class system remains either at the higher or lower place of stratification according to her or his wealth, income and position in a society. • This is not possible in the caste system. • In terms of mobility, class is more open. One changes one’s class position by dint of one’s occupation, power and wealth. • The caste system is usually considered closed. But M.N.Srinivas thinks that movement is always possible through the process of Sanskritisation and Westernisation. • Andre Beteille has also noted some scope of mobility in the caste system. • In class structure, one chooses one’s own occupation suitable to one’s ability, temperament and efficiency. • In caste system, occupation of its members is not so freely available for adoption.

Unit 01:Indian Society