Questions
- Critically examine the cultural theories of social change with suitable examples. (20 Marks)
- Discuss some of the striking issues of development-induced imbalances that need urgent attention. (20 Marks)
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Model Structures
Q1. Critically examine the cultural theories of social change with suitable examples. (20 Marks)
Introduction
- Social change is essentially a process of alteration with no reference to the quality of change.
- Changes in society are related/linked to changes in culture, so that it would be sometimes useful to talk about ‘socio-cultural change.
Main Body
- Sociologists, however, differentiate between social change and cultural change. Social change is defined as alterations in the social structure, (including the changes in the size of society) or in particular social institutions, or in the relationship between institutions. They feel that social change refers mainly to actual human behaviour. Cultural change, on the other hand, refers to variation in cultural phenomena such as knowledge and ideas, art, religion, moral doctrines, values, beliefs, symbol systems and so on.
- Changes can take a cyclical pattern, e.g. when there is the recurrence of centralisation and decentralisation in administrative organisations. It can also be revolutionary. Revolutionary change can be seen when there is an overthrow of the government in a particular nation.
Cyclical Theories
- The basic premise of the cyclical theories is: cultures and civilisations pass through stages of change, starting and often ending with the same stage. This passing through stages is called a cycle. The cycle, when completed, repeats itself over and over again. The ancient civilisations in Greece, China and India for instance, can be explained by the principle of cycles.
- Some cyclical theorists are pessimistic in that they think that decay is inevitable. Oswald Spengler (1945) believed that every society is born, matures, decays and eventually dies. The Roman Empire rose to power and then gradually collapsed. The British empire grew strong, and then deteriorated. Spengler believed that social change may take the form of progress or of decay, but that no society lives forever.
Q2. Discuss some of the striking issues of development-induced imbalances that need urgent attention. (20 Marks)
Introduction
- Development is a change on account of best use of technological and economic capabilities.
Main Body
- Various socio-cultural changes are accompanied with it and it provides various options to man to fulfill his needs. However, if the fruits of development are enjoyed by few regions or few sections of society then this results in several imbalances in society. Some of such issues are discussed below:
- In order to achieve rapid economic growth, India has invested in industrial projects, dams, roads, mines, power plants etc which have been made possible only through massive acquisition of land and subsequent displacement of people. Many times adequate compensation is not paid. Lack of proper rehabilitation also adds to the misery.
- Green revolution has been a big success in Punjab and Haryana. Socio-economic status of people in these areas had improved significantly. However, this success story was not replicated in other parts of India. This has created regional imbalance.
- Economic overheads like transport and communication facilities, power, technology, banking and insurance etc. are considered very important for the development of a particular region.
- Due to adequacy of such economic overheads, some regions are getting a special favour in respect of settlement of some developmental projects whereas due to inadequacy of such economic overheads, some regions of the country, viz., North- Eastern Region, Himachal Pradesh etc. remained much backward as compared to other developed regions of the country.
- Moreover, new investment in the private sector has a general tendency to concentrate much on those regions having basic infrastructural facilities.
- Adverse climate and proneness to flood are also responsible factors for poor rate of economic development of different regions of the country as reflected by low agricultural productivity and lack of industrialization. Thus these natural factors have resulted in uneven growth of different regions of India.
- Such a scenario has provided space for various issues. For example-
- Regionalism
- Son of soil doctrine
- Demand for new states
- Caste conflicts
- Issue of Naxalism, secessionist tendencies, etc
- Demand for OBC status and reservation
- Rise of regional parties
- Communal violence
Conclusion
- The root cause of these issues is inequitable access to the fruits of development. Such issues need to be addressed so as to maintain peace and harmony in society.
