India has traditionally been a rural society, with more than 75% of the population living in villages throughout history. Villages first developed during the Vedic period as self-contained communities that enjoyed autonomy. Under British rule, the centralization of administration weakened village governance and the exploitative zamindari system impoverished many villages. While villages still dominate in terms of population, factors like urbanization, industrialization, and the introduction of new technologies are causing rural-urban migration and the decline of village importance and self-sufficiency.

1. RURAL LIFE IN INDIA

2. RURAL INDIA
• India is a land of villages.
• Present world still dominated by villages.
• Many people prefer to stay back in villages.
• World population predominantly rural
• More than 23 of world’s population still lives in
villages.
• More than ¾ population of India resides in more
than 5.58 lakh villages.
• Study of India becomes meaningful only if villages
are studied
• The task of rural sociology is to study village life.

3. Vedic Period
• Villages existed in India even during vedic period.
• These villages self contained little republics.
• They enjoyed for centuries autonomy
• Under British period exposed to modern trends
• Scholars started making systematic studies.
• They have thrown light on village solidarrity, villge
settlement patterns, rural class structure, land
reforms, agrarian unrest.

4. • Indian villages undergoing fast change have
not brought positive results.
• Large number of villages suffer from problems
like- poverty, unemployment, illiteracy,
indebtedness, superstition
• Progress can be achieved only if the problems
solved.

5. INDIA A CLASSIFIED LAND OF VILLAGES
• Social life of man undergone different stages of
development
• Earliest human communities, loosely organised
aggregations of few families for food gathering
and defending themselves against enemies.
• With development of agriculture, these
communities had permanent settlement known
as village communities
• Village is oldest permanent community of man
• All early communities basically rural in character

6.  Bogardus:
• Human society craddled in rural group.
 Kropotikin:
• We do not know one single human race or single
nation, which has not had its period of village
communities.
• India is a land of villages
• Villages constitute back bone of the country
immemorial
• Villages continue to dominate the indian way of life
• Villages constitute one of the elements of social
stucture, caste and joint family
• Majority of India’s population liveing in more than 5.58
lakh villages

7. VARIED SIZE OF THE VILLAGES
• Less than 500-village
• Between 500-2000
• Between 2000-5000
 Medium size villages constitute half of total
villages Uttar pradesh followed by Madhya
pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Maharashtra
 In Sikhim and Nagaland, smallest number of
villages
 People prefer to settle in villages where they get
some land for cultivation, some source of
drinking water, friendly physical environment.

8. Causes for the decline in the importance of
villages:
1. Denial of financial assistance:
-British government never provided any grant to
village fund from village revenue
2. Centralisation of administration:
-The British established centralised and uniform
legal system
-It put an end to power and authority of village
administration
-British courts took over criminal and civil
matters.

9. 3. Impact of urbanisation:
- During British rule, process of urbanisation got
momentum
- Cities became more attractive than villages
4. Introduction of Exploitative Zamindari system:
- The British introduced Zamindari system
- A new system of revenue collection.
- It ruined the villages.
- Class and caste hatred started.

10. 5. No Sincere Efforts To Revenue Village Panchayats:
- The British passed Panchayats Acts to revive village
Panchayats only for name sake.
- The Acts remained dead letters.
6. Impact of Industrialisation and technology:
- Process of industrialisation, technological
advancement, transport, communication resulted in
rural-urban migration
- Western culture made people egoistic individualistic
- This led to group conflicts, factional strife's, caste, class
conflicts at the cost of village harmony.
- Thus self-reliance, self-sufficiency autonomy of villages
sacrificed at the alter of british rule.