Elements of social and economic life in India

(Foundation course paper I, section I for Arts, science and commece faculties)

This text has been prepared in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Bombay University for the Foundation Course (Paper I, Section I) on "Elements of Social and Economic Life in India."

The book broadly discusses the unique character of the social structure of traditional Indian society, its cultural patterns, its ethnic composition, the peculiar features of its village community, its institu tional infrastructure, the problems of integrating its religious and lingu istic minorties into a composite whole, and other allied topics.

The latter part of the book analyses the effect of the British impact on traditional Indian society. During the British period, India was kept down as an agrarian raw material producing appendage of the British economy. The British rule retarded the growth of heavy indu stries in this country and encouraged the dominance of foreign capital. This resulted in a lopsided development of the country. The new processes generated by the British adversely affected the old techniques and methods of production but did not replace them by healthier ones to any appreciable extent. Nevertheless, despite these limitations the British rulers did usher in a process of modernisation in Indian society.

The novel socio-economic processes generated by the British led to the break-up of the traditional Indian social system. Indian society actu ally experienced a metamorphosis. As the modernisation process operated within a colonial framework, it suffered from a number of con tradictions and distortions. However, its significance in transforming the traditional socio-economic structure and in breaking the isolation of the self-sufficient village community should not be under-estimated. The new socio-economic processes generated by industrialisation, commerci alisation, monetisation and atomisation shattered the basis of traditional Indian society. The introduction of the new land policy, the extensive network of communications, the widespread acceptance of Western. education in India, the uniform legal system, the cash-nexus-cum market-oriented economy- all these brought about a profound change in rural and urban areas. Moreover, the British policy of colonial exploitation brought the Indian village into the vortex of world. economy.