Paper-13 SOCIETY and POLITY in INDIA
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POLITICAL SCIENCE 3rd Semester Paper - XIII SOCIETY AND POLITY IN INDIA Author Dr. Ratnaprava Barik & Dr. Jayanta Kumar Dash Edited By Prof. Amareswar Mishra 1 Unit 1 Society in India: Elements of Diversity; Problems of National Integration Unit II Social Stratification in India: Caste and Class; The Backward Classes, Reservation Issue Unit III Social Change in India: Factors and Areas of Change; Processes of Change; Sanskritization, Westernization. UNIT IV Modernization in India: Features; Major sources and means of Modernization: Industrialization, urbanization, Mass Media and Education, Political Change in India: Crisis of Govern Ability 2 UNIT-I Society in India 1.0: Objectives 1.1: Introduction 1.2: Social system in India 1.2.1: Stages of Indian Society 1.2.2: Elements of diversity in India 1.2.3: Diversity in Different Phases 1.2.4: Unity amidst Diversity in India 1.2.4.1: Indian Culture and Diversity 1.2.4.2: Diversity in different contexts 1.2.4.3: India and its Cultural unity 1.3: National Integration: Meanings 1.3.1: Need of National Integration 1.3.2: Definition of National Integration 1.3.3: Importance of National Integration in India 1.3.4: Hindrances to National Integration in India 1.3.5: Measures of achieving National Integration in India 1.4: National Integration Council (NIC) and National Integration in India 1.5: summary 1.6: Possible Questions 1.7: Further Study 3 1.0: Objectives After going through this unit, you will be able to: Discuss the social system in India Explain the elements of diversity in india Briefly explain the meaning and importance of national intergration Analyse the problems and issues against national intergration in india Highlights the present day caste politics in india 1.1: Introduction India is a county of immense diversities. It is a land of wide-spread multiplicities of religion, races, classes, languages, sub-cultures, tribes and so on. Nearly 400 languages are spoken in allover India. Some of the prominent languages documented by the constitution of India, in its 8thschedule include Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannad, Kashmiri andMalaylam, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Telegu and Urdu.India is a country consists of not only variety of languages but also variety of scripts. Someof the popular scripts in ancient times were Pali, and Devanagari. The most important thing is that theselanguages have their own unique literature. These literatures also differ a great deal from each other. From the religious point of viewIndia possesses a great diversity. It is a country where almost all the principal religions of the world like Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and christiantity are practiced. The constitution of Indiadeclaresit as soverign, socialist, secular, democratic and republic.Notwithstanding its differentiated nature, India remains united. It is having a unique feature of ‘Unity in Diversity’. With a plurality of culture, the society of India is conceptually identified with the concept of ‘to maintain the unity and integrity of India with a composite culture’. 1.2: Social system in India India is a vast country. It has a long and glorious history. Its society and culture has evolved through the ages. Its society has also been affected by foreign invaders and their influences. Notwithstanding, all these influences and invasions, the country is established on the theme of ‘unity amidst diversity’.The important characteristic of the Indian society is ‘Unity’. Moreover, India is famous for its complex and composite social systems. Its society is multifaceted to an extent perhaps unknown in any other of the world's great civilizations. Almost no oversimplification made about Indian society which is effective for all of the nation's manifold groups. The ethnic and linguistic diversity of Indian civilization are the mostly dynamics of India’s diversity problems. One is living within the embrace of the Indian nation signifies that the person is living within a vast number of different regional, social, and economic groups, each with different cultural practices. The society of India is predominantlysignificantby the differences between social structures and kinship systems 4 in the north and the south. There is a great religious difference throughout the country. The important among them are the conflict between the Hindu majority and the large Muslim minority; and other Indian groups such as Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Jews, Parsis, Sikhs, and practitioners of tribal religions all pride themselves on being unlike members of other faiths. The society in India is also different on the grounds of accessing wealth and power. The vast differences in socio- economic status in India are the concret evident of its diversity. Indian society is a blend of the urban and rural areas where the poor and the rich liveside by side. Notwithstanding with these differences of region, language, wealth, status, religion, urbanity, rurality etc., are the special feature of Indian society that has received most attention from all over the world. Given the vast diversity of Indian society, any observation must be tempered with the understanding that it cannot apply to all Indians. Still, certain themes or underlying principles of life are widely accepted in India. 1.2.1: Stages of Indian Society In this context, T.K. Oomen said the whole process of Indian society into the following stages. About 3500 years ago Aryans intervantions in India brought Hinduism, the caste system and Sanskrit to the India sub-continent. There were pre- Aryans early settles (adivasi) and non- Aryan Dravidians in India, before the Aryans. About 2600 years ago there was an emergence of Hindu protestant religion such as Jainism and Buddhism in India. The emergence of Christinity and Islam in India took place in the 1st and 7th century Kerala respectively, occurred immigration and conversion of religion and local upper castes. Arrival of immigriant communities like Jews, zorsstrians, and later, the baha’s. Muslim conquest of North-India which began in 18th centry and continued till 18th century turning the Indian subcontinent into largest Muslim congregation in the world. The emergence of the youngest Indian religion Sikhism nearly 450 years ago with Punjab as it epicenter. Western Christian colonialism which started in South India and gradually spread to the rest of the subcontinent. While the Portuguese, Dutch, French and the British were competing colonizers, the British succeeded in establishing their hegemony. This colonial intervention witnessed a substantial increase in the conversion of the local population of the Christinity. The anti-colonioal movement which consolidated the crystallization of the Indian national consciousness as against the erstwhile civilizationl oriention which prevailed in the subcontinent as a whole. The partition of the subcontinent based on religion in 1947 into India and Pakistan and the subsequent division of Pakistan in 1972 based on language leading to the emergence of Bangladesh and Pakistan as sovereign ststes. 5 Establishment of the Indian Republic based on democracy, secularism and socialism. Nation building is a unique feature. In a multiplicity of land, like India, it is a more complicated and demanding phenomenan. In the process of nation building, national integration has become as a vital important.Due to the multiplicity of language, caste, creed, religion, identity, in India, national integration is in great threat. These serious threat graspes the society from the unitied to diffracted one.In this context, India is considered by a plurality of people divided on the basis of religion, region, language, caste and class. The country has a hierarchical social order comprising groups and individuals with unequal status. Besides its unique slogan ‘Unity in Diversity’, India is still facing a lot of problems with multiplicity of status or groups with differential access to resources and opportunities for employment, education, health, religion, region etc. However, to understand the process, we need to understand the meaning of diversity, unity and pluralism as well as their relevance to the Indian society 1.2.2: Elements of diversity in India Before going to explain the element of diversity in India, it is pertinent to discuss the meaning of diversity and its various elements. In its literary term, diversity means differences. Inthe societal context, the meaning is more specific and precise. It means collective transformations among people, that is, those differences which mark off one group of people from another. These differences may be of any category such as biological, religious, linguistic etc. On the basis of biological differences, there is racial diversity. On the basis of religious differences, there is religious diversity. Thus, diversity refers to collective differences. The term ‘diversity’ is contradictory of uniformity and consistency. Uniformity means similarity of some sort that characterizes a people. ‘Uni’ means one and ‘form’ means the common ways. So when there is something common to all the people, it refers that there is uniformity between them. It is said that when students of a school, members of the police or the army wear the same type of dress, they are known as ‘uniform’. Corresponding to diversity, uniformity is also a collective idea. When a group of people share a similar characteristic, such as language or religion or anything else, it shows uniformity in that respect. But when we have groups of people hailing from different races, religions and cultures, they represent diversity. Thus, diversity means variety or multiplicity.From the ground of fragmentation, diversity is a phenomenon of variety and variability. Is is referring the existence of alterations in a whole. It may not mean separate parts or differences, but it means different parts where each part would be a whole in itself. Practically, it means the existances of variety of groups and cultures. Moreover, in India there is a variety of races, religions, languages, castes and cultures where that is the reason for which India is known as socio-cultural diversity and differentiation.