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Module Structure

Understanding Contemporary Ruralities I Introduction,Studies of Village India: Change and continuity, Rural India Today; Some Issues Concerning India’s Villages; In Brief.

Description of the Module

Items Description of the Module

Subject Name Sociology

Paper Name Agrarian Relations and Social Structure in India

Module Name/Title Understanding contemporary ruralities I

Module Id 6.3 A

Pre Requisites

Objectives This module introduces you tothe changing fortunes of the idea of the village and the attendant

Role Name Affiliation

National Coordinator

Subject Coordinator Prof Sujata Patel Dept. of Sociology,

University of Hyderabad

Paper Coordinator Manish Thakur

Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Content Writer Somyabrata Bagchi Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Content Reviewer Manish Thakur Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Language Editor Manish Thakur Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Technical Conversion

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discourse on rurality. It helps you trace the historical evolution of the idea of the village, and its place on the academic and political agendas of the day.

Key words Village, rurality, tradition, change, community

Introduction

For long, the village has been seen as the epitome of social, cultural, and economic life of the

country. The term village does not merely refer to a peculiar type of rural settlement distinct

from cities and town. It also represents a different type of social formation (Jodhka, 2013: 1).

Village is often conceived as paragon of traditionalism, a kind of settlement smaller in size,

and conveys elementary mode of social and economic organization. The economic life of a

village is organized around agriculture. Apart from

livelihood, the social and cultural life, sentiment, and even

identity of a villager revolve around land. The small-scale

nature of village life makes it feasible for the villagers to

know one other intimately. In a village, the inhabitants

perceive each other as the members of the same

community. They possess a feeling of oneness and shared

identity. The villagers generally share strong kinship bonds and some of the kin live under the

same roof, as in joint families.

The idea of the village has had an important place in both academic and political discourses.

In pre-independent India, the village was considered the template through which “India was

imagined and imaged” by the colonial rulers and the nationalist leaders (ibid, 2013: 4). For

the colonial rulers as well, the village was a signifier of the ‘native life’. Charles Metcalfe, a

British colonial administrator, referred to Indian villages as ‘little republics’. Indian

nationalist leaders too put the village on a higher moral pedestal by calling it ‘the real India’.

Indian villages and village life have also been represented and disseminated through art,

literature, cinema, and television. Social scientistsinterested in studying Indian society and

culture have also been invariably drawn to the village and village life. The economist

primarily looks at the village in terms of its economy. On the contrary, sociologists and social

Multimedia link

A short documentary on village life in North India

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAkMZD4zFGg

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anthropologists conduct long term fieldwork to analyze social structure, social organization,

and beliefs and value system of the villagers.

Even before Independence, fieldwork was conducted in Indian villages. For example, Wiser

in his ‘The Hindu Jajmani System’ (1936) discussed that reciprocity was the underlying

function of the Indian villages. The social organization of villages is hierarchal but such

interdependence integrates different caste groups. He wrote “Each serves the other. Each in

turn is master. Each in turn is servant” (cited in Jodhka 2013: 8). Some relevant works on

Indian village are collected and published by M.N.Srinivas in 1955 in the form of a book

entitled as ‘India’s Villages’. In the same year McKimMarriott’s ‘Village India’, D. N.

Majumdar’s ‘Rural Profiles’, and S.C. Dube’s ‘Indian Village’ are published. Dube’s ‘Indian

Village’ is the first full length study of village. The influence of Robert Redfield, an

American anthropologist,

especially his concept of ‘little

community’ was quite apparent in

the study of Indian village.

Village studies, after the

independence, became an

attractive field of enquiry.

These studies helpedus get rid

of the stereotypical

portrayals of the village by the

colonial administrators.

These studies argue that Indian villages are well connected with the broader economy and

society. The ‘book view’ of Indian society does not match with the actual reality of the

village life. The caste system which is an important institution of village is not a closed and

inflexible system even as vertical ties are the basis of village social organization. In fact, “the

caste system divides the village and weakens the sense of village solidarity” (Lewis, 1958:

314). As part of his village study, McKim Marriot modified the Redfieldian notion of great

tradition and little tradition and developed the concepts of universalization and

parochilization. The universalization is a process by which a local phenomenon becomes

universalized and by the parochialization ‘Sanskritik’ elements are internalised by the folk

people. Likewise, M.N.Srinivas observed the existence of dominant caste as a feature of

village life in many parts of India. When the population of a caste group in a village is high

Do You Know In June 2011, Shiv Nagar, a village

in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India

became SnapDeal.com Nagar. The villagers had to

walk for miles to collect drinking water.

SnapDeal, an Indian e-commerce company, have

installed 15 hand pumps. After that the villagers

decided to change the name to convey their

gratitude.

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and the members possess substantial number of land and political power, the caste group is

said to be dominant. The dominant castes play important role in settlement of local disputes

and control of local resources. Srinivas also develops the concept of Sanskritization to

analyse the process of social change among the low caste groups. To him, the people having

lower status change their way of life in the direction of a high caste. He points out that the

village and caste are the two sources of identity for the villagers. The villagers perceive that

an insult to their village means an insult to them. Dube also stressed this argument. He is of

opinion that villages all over the Indian subcontinent have some common features. In a

village different castes and communities have mutual reciprocal obligations to each other.

The social life of a village is fragmented by the existence of different caste groups but it

appears as an organized compact entity to the outside world (Dube, 1955: 202). As Beteille

argues “...the village was not merely a place where people lived; it had a design in which

were reflected the basic value of Indian civilization.”

(Beteille, 1980: 108). Apart from these scholars, G.C.Ghurye,

F.G.Bailey, A.C.Mayer, E.B.Harper, K.Ishwaran, S.Epstein,

A.R.Beals, Y.V.Lakshmana, H.Orensteen, G.P.Steed, and

B.R. Chauhan produce their works on village society. The

aforesaid is merely to underline the significance of village in

the early wave of sociological studies in India. As you will

see, in this module, our focus is more on the contemporary trends in village studies rather

than on studies in the past. We will also speculate on the future trends of village studies in

India given its glorious past in the history of sociology.

Studies of Village India: Change and continuity The independence of India brought about considerable changes in the village society and

agrarian economy. The Indian state undertook several initiatives to transform the village

economy and to reduce poverty and inequality through its rural development programmes.

Land reforms were considered necessary for the modernization of agriculture and to eliminate

intermediary tenures, control rent and tenancy rights, grant ownership right to tenants, impose

limitation on land holdings, and distribute the excess land among the poor. It was meant to

have an impact on the existing power structure of the rural society.

The Green Revolution was introduced in 1960s. It is actually the implementation of

Higher Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, infrastructure for irrigation, and

pesticides. The other parts of Green Revolution are cheap institutional credit, price incentives

Multimedia link

Morning life on an Indian village street

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKLty3P1AUo

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and marketing facilities. At first it was proclaimed that the introduction of new technology

would benefit both the rich and small farmers. But in reality it is observed that only the big

farmers find it beneficial as they produce enough surpluses to buy the required inputs. But for

the small farmers who do not have enough surpluses to invest in new technology, it increases

the burden of debt. Therefore, the economic and political conditions of the rich farmers are

enhanced by the Green Revolution on one hand, and the dependency of small farmers on rich

farmers grows on the other hand.

The poor villagers were mostly dependent on usurious moneylenders. In a report

(1969),the Reserve Bank of India reported that approximately 91% rural cultivators take

loans from informal credit sources including local moneylenders (69.7%). So, the

Government of India decided to expand the formal sources of easy and cheap loans in the

rural areas. The cooperative credit societies were formed in the villages. Commercial banks

are directed to open branches in the rural areas and provide loans to the agricultural sectors.

As a result, the dependency of rural

people on usurious moneylenders has

declined significantly over the years. In 1981,

on an average, 62.6 % of the total credit

requirements were managed by institutional

sources of credit (RBI 2013: 11). However,

some scholars argue that the benefits of the

formal sources of credit are largely used by the

better off sections of the society instead of the rural poor.

Community Development Program (CDP) was launched for the all-round development of the

rural poor in 1952. But the program failed to do well as there was no formal institution at the

village level to convey the needs of the rural people. Therefore, the Balwantrai Mehta

Committee recommended democratic decentralization through Panchayati Raj Institutions.

For the Committee, “public participation in community works should be organized through

statutory representative bodies” (Mathew, 2002: 8). Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime

Minister of India, introduced panchayati raj in Naguar district of Rajasthan on 2nd October,

1959 and by the mid-sixties panchayats had been set up in most part of the country. In its

initial phase, a substantial number of younger people began to participate in democratic

election and, as a result, a large number of leaders emerged from the local level. But after

Nehru’s death, the political leaders started ignoring the panchayat system. The panchayat

bodies suffered from scarcity of funds and irregular elections. In many cases, these bodies

Point to remember ShaniShingnapura village in

the Indian state of Maharashtra, is

famous for the fact that no house in

the village has doors, only door

frames.

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were simply defunct. Therefore, in order to make panchayats viable and responsive

institutions the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act (1993) was passed. Through this

amendment,the establishment of panchayati raj has been mandated for all the states. A

massive change in village societies has occurred through the introduction of the PRIs. A

considerable number of people from underprivileged sections of the society, and women

come forward and join politics. Thus, a change in rural power structure and gender role, and

women’s status has taken place in villages.

Karanth (1987) is of opinion that the traditional jajmani system in the Indian villages has

adapted itself according to the changing needs of the people. Intervention of new technology

in the village economy has made significant impact. It does not alter mutual relationship and

dependency among the agrarian communities. In Rajapira village Karanth (1987) has

observed that introduction of sericulture did not affect the jajmani system. New technology

helps to emerge new types of service specialist in the villages. The roles of these new

specialists are not hereditary. Either they

replace old specialists or they compete with

them. In this way it changes patron-client

composition in the network of the jajmani system.

People still engage in the jajmani network

mainly because of two reasons. First, their

hereditary works are found as supplementing their

income. Many villagers consider their caste occupation such as priesthood as a side work.

Second, maintaining caste tradition gives a sense

of satisfaction (Karnath, 1987: 114). The point

is that the village economy continues the

elements of tradition.

Common Property Resources (CPR) and

their importance in rural economy have

received enough attention by the researchers and

development planners after the

independence. CPR includes those resources which are obtainable to the all villagers and no

particular individual has absolute property rights for example, village pastures forests, ponds,

river and riverbeds, and waste dumping place. Village pastures provides gazing land and

fodder that help in livestock production. The small farmers cannot use their paddy field as

pasture land. CPRs also play an important role during crisis time such as drought.

Point to remember

Gahmar is the largest village in India. It is situated in the Ghazipur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Point to remember

‘Ha’ village in Arunachal Pradesh is the smallest named village in India.

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Jodha(1986) has argued that 84-100% poor villagers are dependent on CPRs for food, fuel,

fodder, and fibre items. Though the dependency of large farmers on CPRs is low in

comparison to the poor, they collect silt from ponds to increase the productivity of their land.

It has also been noted that the large farmers use timber from village forests for their private

use. CPRs are neglected because the rural development planning mainly emphasized on

Private Property Resources (PPR) including high yielding crop varieties, distribution of

cross-bred cattle, providing infrastructures for ground

water lifting devices. Another important reason is that

exploiting CPRs does not require any specialized

knowledge. Collecting resources from CPR are also a

laborious job. Moreover, it has a low-pay-off. So it is

unappealing for the rich.

A gradual decline of CPRs is also noted. It is mainly

because of physical loss of resources, deterioration of

resources, and privatization CPR. Physical loss of CPRs happens due to development

initiatives such as construction of irrigation dam, road, and building. In many areas CPRs are

used as daily basis that leads to a gradual deterioration of resources. In many areas CPR lands

are distributed among the poor and landless people.The movement and agitation of the

villagers in different parts of the country have also acquired a dimension in study of village

societies. In the central part of India the villagers organized ‘Chipko movement’ (1970)

against the deforestation and chopping down trees for commercial use. In West Bengal, the

villagers protested against the acquisition of arable land for industrial purposes in 2007.Thus

the contemporary trends in the study of Indian village are shaped by the post-independence

development initiatives, policy reforms, change of agrarian economy, empowerment of rural

people, and the rapid development of technology and communication.

Rural India today Role of women in Indian villages Cattle dung is an important source of fuel, fertilizer, and plaster in many Indian villages.

Cattle are largely found in rural houses. These cattle are mostly owned by the men. But cattle

dung and dung work are exclusively associated with women. In villages it is very usual to see

women walking at the back of the herds of animals or moving around the gazing land to

collect dung. Men have a feeling of abhorrence to handle those excrements. Jeffery et al

(1989) argue that men from underprivileged sections of society particularly Chamar (leather

Point to remember ShaniShingnapura village in

the Indian state of Maharashtra, is

famous for the fact that no house in

the village has doors, only door

frames.

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workers) and Bhangi (sweeper) castes were engaged in dung work for hereditary patrons in

the jajmani system (Jeffry et al 1989: 147). But now women do most of the dung work,

although they belong to the rich peasant households (ibid,

1989: 147). Dung work is a strenuous job. Women

continuously need to bend and pick up ordure, and then lift

it on their heads and carry up to a quarter of mile. Women

can abandon this job only during pregnancy (ibid, 1989:

148).Despite this huge contribution from the side of rural

women, their roles are not considered significant by the

economists, policy makers, and scholars of Indian villages.

Land is considered an important asset in rural India because

the Indian society is predominately an agrarian society. Inheritance of property rights or the

ownership of land mostly follows patrilineal lines. So, in most parts of the country males are

the owner of land. There are some exceptions in

matrilineal societies found in some parts of Southern

and North-Eastern India. Before the adoption of

modern technology in agriculture during the

1970s, India had homestead agricultural economy. Then

women had massive participation in agricultural

practices. After implementing mechanised

agriculture system, India becomes an agriculturally surplus economy but women participation

in agriculture is reduced drastically. In modern agriculture, human labour is replaced by

machineries which are predominately operated by the males. So Goli and Apollo Pou (2014)

argue ‘female labour is systematically replaced by man’ (Goli et al, 2014: 214). The women

are not given their rights of ownership and control of their land in most part of rural India. It

has been reported that not more than two percent land ownership belongs to women (Ghosh,

2009). They do not even have liberty to spend their earnings independently. As they are

excluded from property rights, they have low autonomy and decision making power in

society. Goli and Apollo Pou (2014) find that in villages women are still dominated by the

male even when they are employed and educated.

Changing nature of Village Politics Indian villages are replete with caste and agrarian conflicts. In general, people from the

underprivileged sections of the society are exploited by the dominant caste groups. However,

Multimedia link

A day in the life of rural women

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwMPoVtLSnk

Figure 1: Rural womencarrying cow dungs

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the emergence of caste politics has witnessed a massive reconfiguration of power relations in

the countryside. Politically, the backward castes have begun to challenge the authority of the

upper caste, and economically they challenge semi-feudal practices (Vaddiraju, 1999:181). In

North India,Dalit politics is a force to reckon with despite its split with the emergence of

MBC or More Backward Castes. The rise of MBCs alters social relations and power equation

in the villages (Pain and Singh, 1997: 179). Traditionally, the caste conflict was prevalent

between the upper and lower caste groups. But with the emergence of the MBCs, the

underprivileged sections are divided into several sub groups. It affects the political

preferences of the villagers (ibid, 1997: 179).

The rise of regional politics and the introduction of the village panchayatshave brought about

massive change in the villages. The state of West Bengal is a good example in this context. In

1977, the Left Front Government came to power in West Bengal. One of their achievements

was to revive the Panchayati Raj System of the state (Lieten, 1988, 1992). To bring contest

and accountability, they introduced party politics

in panchayati raj (ibid, 1988, 1992). From 1978

to 2008,in panchayat elections, the Left Front

Government had achieved an

overwhelming majority.

Debraj Bhattacharya argues “CPI (M) has

always had an ambivalent attitude

towards the relationship between the Party and the Panchayat” (Bhattacharya, 2013: 119).

The CPI (M)’s West Bengal State Committee document (1994) mentions that party will

provide direction and guidance to active panchayat in conformity with the principles and

ideals of the party (Bhattacharya, 2013: 119-120). Therefore, panchayat sub committees are

formed at each level of panchayat by CPI (M) (ibid, 2013: 119). These are also known as

‘ParichalanCommitte’ in Bengali. Through these committees party domination has been

established over the panchayats. All major decisions and activities of gram panchyats are

overseen by the party (Kohil, 1987, Bhattacharyya, 2002, Bhattacharya 2013:

120).RajarshiDasgupta (2009) calls it as well-oiled CPI (M) machinery.

Point to remember

‘JangalMehfujaMehduda Nain GujranTihra’ is the longest named village in India. It is situated in Himachal Pradesh.

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Therefore, it is evident that panchayats are dominated by the party. As a result of party

domination, the common villagers keep themselves away from the activities of panchayats

and politicization of rural life also occurs side by side (Bhattacharya, 2002).

Role of technology in changing village life

As the cliché goes, the foundation of the village economy is agriculture. It provides

sustenance to millions of people of the country. Science and technology have played

important roles in increasing productions. Despite the increasing use of agricultural

technology, Indian villages have a severe technology deficit. There is also dearth of

electricity, water, health and communication facilities in rural areas. Government of India has

taken several measures to transform rural India by introducing modern technology. In what

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follows we will talk about some of the technology initiatives having a bearing on the village

life in general.

Green revolution

India faced food crisis during the mid-1960s owing to her agriculture being seasonal, nature

bound, and household based. Green revolution transforms household bound agriculture into

science and Industry based. The success of green revolution depends on use of modern

technologies including high yielding varieties of seed, use of fertilizers, pesticides,

agricultural machinery, and irrigation. Therefore, it is crucial to build proper infrastructure in

rural areas, and cultivators should be endowed with credit facilities and marketing

opportunities. It has been observed that the Green Revolution has mixed impacts across the

country. The package of modern technology cannot be implemented totally in all villages.

Irrigation facilities are still unavailable in many drought prone regions. However, there is a

marked increase in agricultural production. Such increase in production promotes

transformation of earlier subsistence-centred agriculture into a market-oriented one in some

regions of the country (Bhalla and Singh 1997: A15). The hired labours gained substantially

through this development (Shergill and Singh 1995: A80). When cultivation was nature

based, the labours were hired only once in a year. But as a result of Green Revolution

farming happens twice or more in a year. So there is a sharp increase in the demand of

agricultural labours. On the other hand, agricultural

mechanization leads to the formation of a new class

of labours who are skilled in operating modern

technology such as drivers of tractors, and the operators

of power tillers. Besides, diversified income

opportunities including off- farm labour are also

increased in rural areas as the absorption power of

agriculture reached its limits (Simmons and Supri 1996: 182). Indigenous agricultural

implements such as plough, ladder, and livestock such as the bullock have almost vanished.

As a result, traditional work-groups that maintain their livelihood by manufacturing those

tools have moved out as well (Sammader and Das, 2008: 547). Another important feature of

village agriculture is that in Indian villages cultivation is not only a means of subsistence but

also it is deeply embedded in the long tradition of cultural practices. Many rituals are

performed according to the agricultural cycle. Adoption of modern technology changes the

nature of agricultural cycle. Moreover, modern package of agriculture has not been

Multimedia link

Millions Fed: Leaving the Plow Behind (A documentary on Green Revolution)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysM2EuoVYfI

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implemented uniformly all over the country. Therefore, differences in cultural practices have

been noted in different villages. For example, Vasavi (1999) finds that traditional customs

and beliefs remain integrated in modern agriculture, but on the whole, the tendency is

towards their decline.

Agricultural rituals are essential components of the traditional production system. Such

rituals are performed in different stages of farming. In general, agricultural rituals can be

classified into four types such as land preparation rituals, transplantation rituals, post-trans-

plantation rituals, and harvesting and post-harvesting rituals. It has been observed that

peasants are reluctant to perform agricultural rituals in the wake of Green Revolution.

Sammadar and Das (2008) in their field work have observed that only post harvesting rituals

are performed by the farmers during the harvesting and the storing of the rice crop. The

peasants no longer follow the traditional calendar of sowing, broadcasting, and

transplantation because of the introduction of high yielding varieties of seeds and controlled

irrigation. The farmers are more concerned on

increasing their production. It is thought that

agricultural rituals are mostly associated

with insecurities related to production such as

monsoons, and rainfall. As they have irrigation

facilities, and pesticides, the value of agricultural

rituals has been supplanted. The folklore,

rhymes, and aphorism which are developed through generation have lost their significance in

the new production system. On the contrary, performing family rituals have flourished

significantly due to increase in annual income (Sammader and Das, 2008: 551). The farmers

adore the God and Goddess and pray for their success in farming and well-being. The

celebration of community rituals is another new dimension of village life in post Green

Revolution period. Village youth or political clubs organize festivals. The members collect

contributions from different families in the village. In such ceremonies both affluent and poor

people can worship the Gods together. Different villages compete with each other in

organizing these ceremonies. Sometimes villagers hire stage performers to vie with

neighbourhood villages. These family and community rituals denote prosperity of the

villages. It also shows wealth and economic status within the traditional village hierarchy. It

has been noted that as a result of technology adoption and economic gains, the traditional

caste hierarchy and patriarchal order are no more rigid as these were in the past. The lower

caste rich villagers invite Brahmin priests to perform their family rituals. Women are freed

Point to remember The state Uttar Pradest has the highest number of villages in the country. The state has more than 1 Lac villages.

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from farm work and they have more authority to manage household works according to their

own plans and desires.

Mobile technology

Mobile technology is introduced in India in 1995. Government has taken conscious efforts to

expand mobile networks in the rural areas. Many service providers and handset companies

compete with each other to make inroads among the rural consumers. The government

initiatives and competition among the private companies have resulted in reduction in tariff

and handset prices. Now mobile phones are the most widely used communication technology

device in rural India. Establishing mobile technology in an area is cheaper than that of land

phone connection. Moreover, using computer and internet requires skills and basic education

but using mobiles phone does not require literacy. It has been reported that there were 130

million mobile phones in India on October, 2006 (Tenhunen, 2008: 515). But by July, 2014

the subscriber base has been raised to 918.72 million as reported by the Telecom Regulatory

Authority of India (TRAI) (TRAI, 2014). Among them 378.29 million people are the rural

consumers, and the proportion of rural Tele-density is 41.18 (TRAI, 2014)1.

Mobile phones bring significant benefits to the rural poor. Phones are used to search

market related information, agricultural production, and also provide access to the police,

hospitals, legislators, and other emergency services in the remote rural areas. In Chennai, the

Foundation of Occupational Development (FOOD) provides micro entrepreneurial training to

the women. The trained women are endowed with mobile phones. It has been observed that

mobile phones help to increase their earnings and empower them to take new initiatives (ibid,

2008: 517). Mobile phone technology in rural areas helps maintain social capital among the

rural migrants. In this way, it facilitates rural to urban migration for work and study (ibid,

2008: 517). Tenhunen (2008) in her ethnographic observation in Bankua district of West

Bengal, India, has observed that mobiles phones are used in some areas where there is no

electricity. The users travel to other villages where electric facilities are available to charge

their mobile batteries. To her ‘the mobile phone has become the home’s second electric

gadget after the radio’ (ibid, 2008: 519). Initially mobile phones are used by the car and

tractor drivers. It helps them to stay in touch with the customers, and to make emergency

contact with service and repair centres.

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Before the arrival of the mobile telephony in rural areas, making a phone call comprised long

steps. Land phones were available only in few homes. So persons needed to identify the

neighbourhood phones of the persons to whom s/he wanted to speak. First, s/he requested the

neighbours to call the person. The later would wait by the neighbourhood phone at a specific

time. Sometimes, the caller delivered his/her message to the owner of the phone and

requested him to forward it to the exact person. Literate villagers used to write letters to

exchange information. But ‘calling has replaced most of the letter writing’ (ibid, 2008: 522).

One village post master informs Tenhunen (2008) that the circulation of private letters at first

declined and then ceased completely. Rural people also exchanged news through visitors. If

someone came from another village, s/he was asked about his/her villages. S/he was

requested to deliver certain news to the relevant persons. Such visitor networks once were a

reliable network of communication in rural areas

(ibid, 2008: 523). Now people get the news of

their relatives instantly without visiting or

travelling distant places. In this way mobile

phones help to reduce expenditure on travel.

Reducing travel cost is the prime motivation for

rural people to purchase phones (ibid, 2008: 524).

Mobile phone helps to improve social network of

the villagers. It enables villagers to contact with their relatives and familiar persons who

reside in cities or abroad. Before, the arrival of mobile phones they could see each another

once in a year or two. At present, they can communicate whenever they want. As a result of

such frequent communication, flow of information on employment opportunities outside the

village have been increased (ibid, 2008: 524). Rapid expansion of mobile networks also

brings changes in village politics. Tenhunen (2008) in her ethnographic observation finds that

traditionally villagers depend on village leaders to solve disputes. But now they can seek help

from outside villages during conflicts. The mobile technology makes rural politics faster,

heterogeneous and trans-local. Earlier, the politics at the central and state level could not

reach at the grassroots level. The village politics were isolated from the state politics. Now

the rural activists can communicate with other activists and organizations more efficiently by

using their mobile phones (Tenhunen, 2012: 415). The activists can spread their words more

broadly and accurately through phones. The rural people are no more dependent entirely on

their local leaders and now they get an extra medium for verbalization of alternative

discourses. Hence a change in the rural power structure has occurred because the power shifts

Figure 2: Bridging the divide

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from local leaders to trans-local networks. Such transformation leads to democratization of

the rural politics and it assists the growth of the opposition in rural West Bengal (ibid, 2012:

416).

Mobile phones bring considerable changes in the village economy as well. At first, the

farmers had to negotiate with the middlemen for selling their produces. Prices were fixed in

advance. Now the farmers can sell their produces by phone. They can negotiate with many

buyers without taking help of the middlemen. They can settle their prices at the last moment.

Thus, their earnings have gone up.

Digital divide

The term ‘digital divide’ stands for ‘the gap that exists between those who have and those

who do not have access to technology and related services’ (Rao, 2005: 363). Thus, India can

be divided into people who have and who do not have access to modern equipment including

telephones, computers, and internet facilities. Digital divide is apparent between the people in

cities and villages. According to the World Bank, adult literacy rate is 61% in India (World

Bank, 2006: 207). Moreover, Information and

Communication technologies (ICTs) are growing

rapidly in the country. But in reality,access to ICTs

remains poor in villages. The digital gap has widened

in terms of certain infrastructural

parameters including electricity, IT penetration, Tele

density, and the internet density. The growth

rate of IT penetration in India is not encouraging. The

Hindu, a popular national newspaper in India, reported on June 5, 2014 that the IT

penetration growth in India is the lowest in Asia Pacific3. One of the important reasons for

slow IT penetration rate in India is the high cost of new computers. The installation cost of a

new computer including software is almost 40,000 INR (Rao, 2005: 365). Moreover, national

Tele density in India is one of the lowest in the world (ibid, 2005: 365). The rural and urban

Tele densities are 42.43 and 139.42 respectively in 2014 (TRAI, 2014)4. The figures clearly

indicate the digital gap between rural and urban. It has been estimated that 70 % of India’s

population, almost 83.3 crore people reside in villages5. The rest 37.7 crore people live in

urban areas. But there are 90 million urban internet users6 whereas in rural areas there are

only 68 million claimed internet users and among them only 49 million are active internet

users7by the end of October, 2013. It is also observed that a significant portion of rural users

Multimedia link

Microsoft India Highlights Digital Divide In Urban & Rural India

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBs2jYSnDNQ

15

are mobile internet users. Bridging the digital gap between rural and urban is necessary

because internet is not only a communication medium but also a place of economic activity.

Students and workers from remote corners get instant information about their study and jobs.

Through internet rural people can be endowed with the facilities of distance education, e-

governance, Tele medicine, job matching, and market place.

Several measures are taken to improve the condition of the villagers by introducing ICTs in

rural areas. For example, in Tamilnadu an e-commerce platform, named India Shop, has

been designedto sell the products made by the rural women co-operatives (Patil et al, 2009:

3). The Dhan Foundation and Swayam Krishi Sangam implement ICTs in order to manage

microfinance projects (ibid, 2009: 3). In West Bengal, an ICT project called ‘nabanna’ has

been implemented in Baduria, a rural region of North 24 Paraganas in order to empower the

rural women. The beneficiaries have reported that they are respected by their family and

community members. They feel that they are able to get jobs with enough confidence. As the

young women learn computer together at the centres, a sense of solidarity is growing among

them (United Nations, 2005: 8)8. In this way, subsistence patterns and patriarchal rigidity of

traditional Indian villages is changing with aid of modern technology.

Some Issues concerning India’s villages

16

Out of 121 crore Indians, 83.3 croreIndians reside in rural areas as per 2011 census. The

agriculturally active population has grown by 50% in between 1980 and 20119. Agriculture

provides sustenance to millions of people of the country. On the other hand, poverty and

malnutrition are two major problems facing rural India. According to the Eleventh Five Year

Plan (2007-2012), the number of poor people in the country amounted to 302 million as on

2004-0510. A large portion of them lives in rural areas11. According to Business Standard

report published in July, 2013, ‘almost half of rural India lives below poverty line’12. The

major causes of poverty among India’s rural people includes lack of access to productive

assets and financial resources, high levels of illiteracy, inadequate health care, limited access

to sanitation, drinking water, and other social services. These limitations result into massive

malnutrition, particularly undernourishment, in rural areas. In this context World Bank posits

that ‘malnutrition is largely a reflection of poverty: people do not have enough income for

food’ (The World Development Report, 1980: 59). Scholarly articles also argue that the

nutritional status of urban children is

better than that of the rural children

(Smith, Ruel, and Ndiaye, 2005:

1285). In villages men and women of

agricultural families go to fields in the

early morning. Many women

engage in cattle work in addition

to their domestic activities. Poor

women from landless families work as maid servants, casual labours in cities. So they have

limited time to take care of their offspring. In most cases, when they go for work, they hand

over their younger children to their elder sons and daughter. Hence, the children do not get

proper maternal attention and nutritional requirements. Besides, the elder children are not

allowed to go schools because if they go to schools, who will look after their siblings? Apart

from this, due to rampant poverty and overburden of work, women in rural areas also suffer

nutritional deficiency. According to UNICEF, ‘Malnutrition is more common in India than in

Sub-Saharan Africa. One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India’13.

Michael Lokshin et al (2005) point out two reasons for malnutrition. First, a large number of

people are unable to buy sufficient food (Lokshin et al, 2005: 613), and second majority of

population do not access proper sanitation and their living condition is so penurious that they

are exposed to diarrheal diseases and parasitic infections (ibid, 2005: 613). Malnutrition

severely affects country’s human resources.

Figure 3: Malnutrition a ‘National shame’

17

In Brief

In this module, we have briefly told you about the efflorescence of village studies in the

1950s. Much of the work then looked at the village as the microcosm of Indian society and

culture. Students of village India sincerely thought that their studies of a particular village

had insights that could reveal larger dimensions of macro reality. Subsequently, government

initiatives like community development programme and the Green Revolution drew a large

number of sociologists to the study of processes of change in rural society. They were

interested in knowing if village institutions, values and mores impeded the processes of

induced social change. Viewed thus, we can safely say that students of village society, for

long, were occupied with the grand narrative of change and continuity that Indian sociology

had spawned. They wanted to demonstrate as to which aspects of village society were the

exemplification of change and which ones were the embodiment of continuity. As a

consequence, their studies remained confined to the staple of social institutions like caste and

joint family and the like. In due course, politics at the village level became an exciting field

of studies. The rise of the OBCs, the Dalit politics, political capture of local level institutions,

caste conflicts, land reformswere some of the popular themes for sociological investigation.

We have, though, indicated to you studies that covered the hitherto neglected areas of study

such as common property resources, changing role of women in village society, the

implications of the ICT for the villagers, digital divide and the other attendant changes in the

village economy. We have also identified some of the issues of concern for the villagers like

health, nutrition, education, lack of employment opportunities. In the next module (6.3 B), we

will talk about some of these areas of concern in the context of government initiatives. You

will find references there. These two modules (6.3 A and 6.3 B), put together will tell you

two things – (1) changes in the choice of substantive themes over the years, and (2) the new

issues having a bearing on the village life and its dynamics. You would see that there has not

been necessarily a fit between the two. More often than not, academic studies have lagged

behind the fast-paced changes in the village society. That is why, in the next module, we also

underline some of the new themes that students of village society can take up for further

investigation as they remain understudied.