2. contents
01 02 03
04 05 06
about us themes features
family and
kinship
caste and
class
future
trends
3. About
Us
India offers astounding variety in virtually every aspect of social life.
Diversities of ethnic, linguistic, regional, economic, religious, class,
and caste groups crosscut Indian society, which is also permeated
with immense urban-rural differences and gender distinctions.
Differences between north India and south India are particularly
significant, especially in systems of kinship and marriage. Indian
society is multifaceted to an extent perhaps unknown in any other
of the world’s great civilizations—it is more like an area as varied as
Europe than any other single nation-state. Adding further variety
to contemporary Indian culture are rapidly occurring changes
affecting various regions and socioeconomic groups in disparate
ways. Yet, amid the complexities of Indian life, widely accepted
cultural themes enhance social harmony and order. ndia is a
hierarchical society. Whether in north India or south India, Hindu or
Muslim, urban or village, virtually all things, people, and social
groups are ranked according to various essential qualities.
Although India is a political democracy, notions of complete
equality are seldom evident in daily life.
Indian
Society
4. Themes Hierarchy
Purity and
Pollution
Social
Interdependence
Many status differences in Indian
society are expressed in terms of
ritual purity and pollution, complex
notions that vary greatly among
different castes, religious groups,
and regions. Generally, high status
is associated with purity and low
status with pollution. Some kinds of
purity are inherent. Purity is
associated with ritual cleanliness—
daily bathing in flowing water,
dressing in freshly laundered
clothes, eating only the foods
appropriate for one’s caste, and
avoiding physical contact with
people of significantly lower rank or
with impure substances, such as
the bodily wastes of another adult.
Involvement with the products of
death or violence is usually ritually
polluting.
One of the great themes pervading
Indian life is social interdependence.
People are born into groups—
families, clans, subcastes, castes, and
religious communities—and feel a
deep sense of inseparability from
these groups. People are deeply
involved with others, and for many,
the greatest fear is the possibility of
being left alone, without social
support. Psychologically, family
members typically experience
intense emotional interdependence.
Economic activities, too, are deeply
imbedded in a social nexus. Through
a multitude of kinship ties, each
person is linked with kin in villages
and towns near and far. Almost
everywhere a person goes, he can
find a relative from whom he can
expect moral and practical support.
Societal hierarchy is evident in
caste groups, amongst individuals,
and in family and kinship groups.
Castes are primarily associated
with Hinduism, but caste-like
groups also exist among Muslims,
Indian, Christians, and other
religious communities. Within
most villages or towns, everyone
knows the relative rankings of
each locally represented caste,
and behavior is constantly shaped
by this knowledge. Hierarchy plays
an important role within families
and kinship groupings also, where
men outrank women of similar
age, and senior relatives outrank
junior relatives. Formal respect is
accorded family members
5. Features Indian society is a pluralistic society with a complex social order
characterised by a multitude of ethnic, linguistic, religious and
caste divisions. Hindus constitute the majority community and
comprise about 82% of the population. They stand evenly
distributed across regions. The Muslims constitute 12% and the
Sikhs 2% of the population.
Pluralistic Society:
About 70% of the Indian people live in villages and Indian villages
continue to be under-developed even backward. Lack of civic
amenities, employment opportunities, roads, transport facilities,
electricity, hospitals and schools in rural areas is a hard reality.
The gains of industrialisation and development during the past
45 years have mostly been cornered by the urban areas.
Predominantly Rural Society:
Poverty of the masses is an important feature of Indian social
system. Despite the fact of having made considerable progress in
the fields of agriculture and industrialisation, India continues to be
an economically backward country.
Poverty:
6. Features Illiterates constitute a major part of Indian social system. A large
number of Indians are still illiterate. Nearly 64% of the population
continues to be illiterate. Despite the spread of the educational
network and adoption of ideal like free and compulsory
education for children upto 14 years and the ideal of making 80
million adults literate by 1995, India remains a state inhabited by
a large majority of illiterates.
Illiteracy and Ignorance:
On the basis of language, Indian society stands’ divided into
linguistic groups. The constitution of India recognises as many as
15 languages as the major languages which are spoken by 87% of
population. There are as many as 1652 ‘mother tongues’ in India.
Linguistic Diversity:
India is inhabited by people of different racial connections. People
of the North are of Aryan race whereas the people of South
represent the Dravidian race. In the Eastern States people have
affinity with Mongolian race. The racial inter-mixing has taken place
but only in a limited way.
Racial Diversity:
7. Family and Kinship
Family Ideals Family Authority and
Harmony
In the Indian household, lines of
hierarchy and authority are clearly
drawn, and ideals of conduct help
maintain family harmony. All family
members are socialized to accept the
authority of those above them in the
hierarchy. The eldest male acts as family
head, and his wife supervises her
daughters-in-law, among whom the
youngest has the least authority.
Reciprocally, those in authority accept
responsibility for meeting the needs of
other family members.
The essential themes of Indian cultural
life are learned within the bosom of a
family. The joint family is highly valued,
ideally consisting of several generations
residing, working, eating, and
worshiping together. Such families
include men related through the male
line, along with their wives, children, and
unmarried daughters. A wife usually
lives with her husband’s relatives,
although she retains important bonds
with her natal family. Even in rapidly
modernizing India, the traditional joint
household remains for most Indians the
primary social force, in both ideal and
practice.
8. Family and Kinship
Veiling and the
Seclusion of Women
Life Passages
The birth of an infant is celebrated with
rites of welcome and blessing, typically
much more elaborate for a boy than for a
girl. Although India boasts many eminent
women and was once led by a powerful
woman prime minister, Indira Gandhi,
and while goddesses are extensively
worshiped in Hindu rituals, statistics
reveal that girls are, in fact, disadvantaged
in India. Marriage is deemed essential for
virtually everyone in India, marking the
great watershed in life for the individual.
Death causes the restructuring of any
family. The demise of a woman’s husband
brings the dreaded status of inauspicious
widowhood
A significant aspect of Indian family life
is purdah (from Hindi parda, or
“curtain”), or the veiling and seclusion of
women. In much of northern and central
India, particularly in rural areas, Hindu
and Muslim women follow complex
rules of veiling the body and avoidance
of public appearance, especially before
relatives linked by marriage and before
strange men. Purdah practices are
linked to patterns of authority and
harmony within the family.
9. Caste and Class
Social inequality exists throughout the world, but perhaps nowhere has inequality been so elaborately constructed as in the
Indian institution of caste. Caste has existed for many centuries, but in the modern period it has been severely criticized and
is undergoing significant change.
Castes are ranked, named, endogamous (in-marrying) groups, membership in which is achieved by birth. There are
thousands of castes and subcastes in India, involving hundreds of millions of people. These large kinship-based groups are
fundamental to South Asian social structure. Caste membership provides a sense of belonging to a recognized group from
whom support can be expected in a variety of situations.
The word caste derives from the Portuguese casta, meaning species, race, or kind. Among Indian terms sometimes
translated as caste are varna, jati, jat, biradri, and samaj. Varna, or color, actually refers to four large categories that include
numerous castes. The other terms refer to castes and subdivisions of castes often called subcastes. Many castes are
associated with traditional occupations, such as priests, potters, barbers, carpenters, leatherworkers, butchers, and
launderers. Members of higher-ranking castes tend to be more prosperous than members of lower-ranking castes, who
often endure poverty and social disadvantage. The so-called “Untouchables” were traditionally relegated to polluting tasks.
Since 1935, “Untouchables” have been known as “Scheduled Castes,” and Mahatma Gandhi called them Harijans, or
“Children of God.” Today, the politically correct term for these groups, who make up some 16% of the population, is Dalit, or
“Oppressed.” Other groups, usually called tribes (often referred to as “Scheduled Tribes”) are also integrated into the caste
system to varying degrees. Most Indians reside in villages, where caste and class affiliations overlap. Large landholders are
overwhelmingly upper caste, and smallscale farmers middle caste, while landless laborers typically belong to the lowest-
ranking castes. These groups tend to form a three-level class system of stratification in rural areas, and members of the
groups are drawing together within regions across caste lines in order to enhance their economic and political power.
10. Future
Trends Now numbering over one billion, India’s population grew by more than 18 million—the equivalent of an
Australia—every year over the past decade. In ten years, the most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, expanded
more than 25 percent to some 166 million, equal to 60 percent of the population of the United States. India
supports a population more than three and a half times the size of the American population in an area about
one-third the size. Family planning is gaining in popularity, so the rate of population increase is gradually
declining, but it is estimated that by the year 2050, India’s people will number some 1.5 billion, and India will
have surpassed China as the world’s most populous nation.
In India’s vociferous democracy, different groups are increasingly demanding their share of scarce resources
and benefits. While new agricultural crops and techniques are expanding productivity, forests, rangeland, and
water tables are diminishing. As competition grows, political, social, ecological, and economic issues are hotly
contested. Justice in matters pertaining to class, gender, and access to desirable resources remains an elusive
goal.
India is but one of many nations facing these crucial problems and is not alone in seeking solutions. For many
centuries, the people of India have shown strength in creating manageable order from complexity, bringing
together widely disparate groups in structured efforts to benefit the wider society, encouraging harmony
among people with divergent interests, knowing that close relatives and friends can rely upon each other,
allocating different tasks to those with different skills, and striving to do what is morally right in the eyes of
the divine and the community. These are some of the great strengths upon which Indian society can rely as it
seeks to meet the challenges of the future.
11. Thanking You
-DR. SUDHANSHU RAI
Business Communication AmanPal(rollno.-016)
AniketTrivedi(rollno.-020)
Divyanshi Katiyar(rolln0.-051)
AkanshaRoy(rollno.-011)
(3rdsemester)
Section:A
