Different Kinds of Social Change

Sanskritisation

The term sanskritisation was coined by sociologist M.N. Srinivas. It refers to the process by which a 'low' caste, tribe, or other group adopts the customs, rituals, beliefs, ideology, and style of life of a high, particularly a 'twice-born' (dwija) caste.

The impact of Sanskritisation is wide-ranging. Its influence can be seen in language, literature, ideology, music, dance, drama, style of life, and ritual. Though it is primarily a process that takes place within the Hindu social space, Srinivas argued that it was visible even in sects and religious groups outside Hinduism.

Regional Variations

Studies of different areas show that Sanskritisation operated differently across the country:

• In regions where a highly Sanskritised caste was dominant, the culture of the entire region underwent a certain amount of Sanskritisation.
• In regions where non-Sanskritic castes were dominant, their influence was stronger — this can be termed the process of 'de-Sanskritisation'.
• In Punjab, Sanskritic influence was never very strong; for many centuries until the third quarter of the 19th century, Persian influence was the dominant one.

What Sanskritisation Presupposes

Srinivas argued that Sanskritisation of a group usually has the effect of improving its position in the local caste hierarchy. It normally presupposes either:

• An improvement in the economic or political position of the group concerned, or
• A higher group self-consciousness resulting from its contact with a source of the 'Great Tradition' of Hinduism, such as a pilgrim centre, a monastery, or a proselytising sect.

Obstacles to Sanskritisation

In a highly unequal society such as India, there were and still are obstacles to any easy taking over of the customs of higher castes by the lower. Traditionally, the dominant caste punished those low castes that were audacious enough to attempt it.

The autobiography of Kumud Pawade, a Dalit woman who became a Sanskrit teacher, captures this problem. As a student, she was drawn towards Sanskrit — perhaps because it was a means to break into a field closed to her on grounds of gender and caste, or perhaps to read in the original what the texts say about women and Dalits. As she proceeded with her studies, she met with varied reactions ranging from surprise to hostility, from guarded acceptance to brutal rejection. She reflects: "What comes by birth, but can't be cast off by dying — that is caste."

Key Features of Sanskritisation

• It suggests a process whereby people want to improve their status through adoption of names and customs of culturally high-placed groups.
• The 'reference model' is usually financially better off.
• The aspiration to be like the higher placed group occurs only when people become wealthier.

Criticisms of Sanskritisation

Sanskritisation as a concept has been criticised at several levels:

1. Exaggerates social mobility: It leads to no structural change but only positional change of some individuals. Inequality continues to persist though some individuals may improve their positions within the unequal structure.

2. Accepts upper caste ways as superior: The ideology of Sanskritisation accepts the ways of the 'upper caste' as superior and that of the 'lower caste' as inferior. Therefore, the desire to imitate the 'upper caste' is seen as natural and desirable.

3. Justifies inequality and exclusion: It appears to suggest that believing in pollution and purity of groups of people is justifiable or all right.

4. Leads to harmful practices: Since Sanskritisation results in the adoption of upper caste rites and rituals, it leads to practices of secluding girls and women, adopting dowry practices instead of bride-price, and practising caste discrimination against other groups.

5. Erodes Dalit culture and identity: The key characteristics of Dalit culture and society are eroded. The very worth of labour which 'lower castes' do is degraded and rendered 'shameful'. Identities based on work, crafts, artisanal abilities, and knowledge forms of medicine, ecology, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc., are regarded useless in the industrial era.

Later Developments

With the growth of the anti-Brahminical movement and the development of regional self-consciousness in the 20th century, there was an attempt in several Indian languages to drop Sanskrit words and phrases.

A crucial result of the Backward Classes Movement was to emphasise the role of secular factors in the upward mobility of caste groups and individuals. Among dominant castes, there was no longer any desire to pass for Vaisyas, Kshatriyas, or Brahmins. On the other hand, it became prestigious to be a member of the dominant caste. Recent years have seen assertions of Dalits who now pride their identity as Dalits.

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Westernisation

M.N. Srinivas defines westernisation as "the changes brought about in Indian society and culture as a result of over 150 years of British rule, the term subsuming changes occurring at different levels — technology, institutions, ideology and values."

Different Kinds of Westernisation

First kind: The emergence of a westernised sub-cultural pattern through a minority section of Indians who first came in contact with Western culture. This included the subculture of Indian intellectuals who not only adopted many cognitive patterns (ways of thinking) and styles of life, but supported its expansion. Many of the early 19th century reformers were of this kind.

Second kind: The general spread of Western cultural traits, such as the use of new technology, dress, food, and changes in the habits and styles of people in general. Across the country, a very wide section of middle class homes have a television set, a fridge, some kind of sofa set, a dining table and chair in the living room.

Important Observation

Westernisation does involve the imitation of external forms of culture. It does not necessarily mean that people adopt modern values of democracy and equality. For example:

• People may be western educated but hold very prejudiced views about particular ethnic or religious communities.
• A family can adopt external forms of western culture like the way interiors of houses are done up but may have very conservative ideas about women's role in society.
• The practice of female foeticide combines discriminatory attitude towards women and the use of very modern technology.

Westernisation in Art and Literature

The west influenced Indian art and literature. Artists like Ravi Varma, Abanindranath Tagore, Chandu Menon, and Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay were all grappling with the colonial encounter.

Ravi Varma's 1870 portrait of Kizhakke Palat Krishna Menon's family is a transitional work that blends elements of a flatter, two-dimensional style popular within earlier water-colours with newer techniques of perspective and illusionism made possible by oil as a medium. The spatial organisation of seated figures in deference to age and hierarchy is reminiscent of 19th century European portraits of the bourgeois family. Notably, this portrait was painted in matrilineal Kerala at a time when most Nayars would have been unused to living in patrilocal nuclear families.

Generational Conflict and Westernisation

In the contemporary context, conflicts between generations are often seen as cultural conflicts resulting from westernisation. The excerpt from Anima Dutta's story captures this: a mother feels she has nothing in common with her children — one lives in a different country and culture, her daughter wears pants and buggy shirts instead of the mekela-chadar, her son sports unruly hair, and they prefer pop music and western tunes over traditional Bargeet and Meera bhajans.

Who Seeks to Westernise?

Srinivas suggested that while 'lower castes' sought to be Sanskritised, 'upper castes' sought to be Westernised. However, in a diverse country such as India, this generalisation is difficult to maintain. Studies of Thiyyas (by no means considered 'upper caste') in Kerala show conscious efforts to westernise. Elite Thiyyas appropriated British culture as a move towards a more cosmopolitan life that critiqued caste.

Western education often implied opening up to new opportunities for different groups of people in the North-East. As the account of a Naga family shows, grandfathers who had come into close contact with Europeans were convinced that education was the only way to get ahead. They sent their children away to school — first in neighbouring Assam, then as far away as Shimla. For Nagas, English was more than a gateway to upward mobility; in a region where tribes living no more than 20 kilometres apart speak completely different languages, it became a medium through which they could communicate amongst themselves and with the world.

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Modernisation and Secularisation

What is Modernisation?

From the 19th and more so the 20th century, the term modernisation began to be associated with positive and desirable values. People and societies wanted to be modern.

In the early years, modernisation referred to improvement in technology and production processes. Increasingly, however, the term had a wider usage. It referred to the path of development that much of west Europe or North America has taken, and suggested that other societies both have to and ought to follow the same path of development.

Characteristics of Modernity

Sociologists Rudolph and Rudolph (1967) have tried to define what constitutes the modernisation process. Modernity assumes that:

• Local ties and parochial perspectives give way to universal commitments and cosmopolitan attitudes.
• The truths of utility, calculation, and science take precedence over those of the emotions, the sacred, and the non-rational.
• The individual rather than the group is the primary unit of society and politics.
• The associations in which people live and work are based on choice, not birth.
• Mastery rather than fatalism orients people's attitude toward the material and human environment.
• Identity is chosen and achieved, not ascribed and affirmed.
• Work is separated from family, residence, and community in bureaucratic organisation.

In other words, people are influenced not just by local but universal contexts. How you behave and what you think is no longer decided by your family, tribe, caste, or community. What job you wish to do is decided not by the job your parent does, but by what you wish to do. Work gets based on choice, not birth. On whom you depend is based on what you achieve, not who you are. A scientific attitude gains ground.

India's Distinct Path

In India, the beginnings of capitalism took place within the colonial context. The story of India's modernisation and secularisation is, therefore, quite distinct from their growth in the west. This is evident when we discuss westernisation and the efforts of the 19th century social movements.

Secularisation

In the modern west, secularisation has usually meant a process of decline in the influence of religion. It has been an assumption of all theorists of modernisation that modern societies become increasingly secular. Indicators of secularisation have referred to:

• Levels of involvement with religious organisations
• The social and material influence of religious organisations
• The degree to which people hold religious beliefs

Challenges to the Secularisation Thesis …