Social Issues in india- Historical and Contemporary

Social Issues through the Ages in Indian Society:-

• The Indian society, being part of an ancient civilisation, has passed through different historical phases. The Vedic period in India sowed the seeds of a civilisation – characterised by the emergence of sophisticated philosophy, religion, astrology, science and medicine. Its institutional base centered around Varnashram and caste, emphasis on rituals, higher position of ritual performers over others and the sacrifice of animals. The following were the major social issues and problems in the early phase of the Indian civilisation.
• Conflict between the two major social groups, i.e., the Aryans and the Dasas Dasyu as mentioned in the Vedic texts.
• Increasing rigidity of social hierarchy,
• Emphasis on the observance of rituals,
• Sacrifice of animals.
• Jainism and Budhism emerged as a protest against these practices. It is to be noted that during the Vedic and the post-Vedic periods, the social position of Women was quite high. The child marriages were not common in this period.
• India’s contact with Islam has passed through the phases of conflict, gradual accommodation, increasing synthesis and the revival of communal antagonism. With the advent of the Muslim rule in India, two major trends were visible in the Indian Society:
• The first was the trend of the growing insularity and attitude of avoidance towards others. This strengthened the notion of the purity – pollution and practice of untouchability. The rigid restrictions on the sea – voyage were imposed on the people in this period. As a consequence, firstly, it reduced the spirit of enterprise and adventure among the Indians. Secondly, it minimised contacts of Indians with the outside world. During the early phase of invasions and conflicts, the practice of Sati and the child-marriage developed as a defense mechanism among the Hindus. Only a small section of the Muslim population immigrated to India from Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and the Arab countries. The rest of them were local people who accepted Islam. Due to contacts with Hinduism and conversion, the Muslim in India were also influenced by caste-system. Thus, the social hierarchies were introduced even among the Muslims in India.
• The second trend was in the form of the emulation of the customs of the Muslim rulers by the elite and section of the upper caste Hindus. This encouraged the adoption of the practice of Pardah (veil to cover the face) by the upper caste women in north India. In the medieval period, the Bhakti movement, reassert the humanist elements of the Indian civilisation by preaching equality, speaking against rituals, the caste rigidity and untouchability. The practices of untouchability, child marriage, sati, infanticide, organised thagi (cheating) increased in the Indian Society particularly during the declining phase of the Mughal empire. Even the religious beliefs encouraged the addiction of tobacco, hashish and opium.
• By the early part of the 19th Century, the colonial administration in India was fully established. After 1820, it adopted a reformist zeal. There were several. social reform programmes to eradicate the practices of Sati and the Thagi – widely prevalent during this period. In the early 19th Century, the questions related to the social problems of sati, remarriage of widows, spread of modern education, evils of child marriage and of untouchability were raised by social reformers.
• In the 19th century, there were four major reform movements:
  • Brahmosamaj–led by Raja Rammohan Roy,
  • Aryasamaj–led by Swami Dayanand Sarawati
  • Prarthana Samaj–led by Mahadeva Govind Ranade,
  • Ramakrishna Mission–inspired by Ramkrishna Paramhansa and led by Swami Vivekanand.
• These reform movements opposed the practice of untouchability, Sati, infanticide and propagated in favour of the remarriage of widows and the modern education. Due to the tireless efforts of Raja Rammohan Roy, the practice of Sati was legally abolished in 1829. The Arya Samaj contributed significantly in weakening the caste-rigidity and reducing the practice of untouchability in the Punjab, Haryana and the Western Uttar Pradesh. The activities of the Prarthana Samaj were mainly confined to the Bombay Presidency. The Ram Krishna Mission contributed significantly in the field of educations and health services..

Social Issues: Contemporary Phase:-

• In contemporary India, there are several social issues. Though, they are called as social issues, yet, in some social issues socio-cultural overtones are more prominent, whereas, in some others, the economic and legal overtones are conspicuous. Thus, the contemporary social issues may be classified in the following categories:
  • Socio-Cultural Issues: communalism, untouchability, population explosion, child-abuse, problems of the scheduled castes, the scheduled tribes, the backward classes, women, alcoholism and drug addiction,
  • Socio-Economic Issues: poverty, unemployment, black money;
  • Socio-Politici-Legal Issues: crime, delinquency, violence, terrorism
• These classifications are only the purpose of narration. They are closely interrelated with each other. Poverty is an economic as well as a social issue. Similarly, Communalism is closely linked with economic factors. The Crime and Delinquency are having legal overtones but they are closely related to the social and economic factors.
• As there were organised social movements against social Issues in the previous phases of the Indian society, similarly, concerted social and political movements were launched in the contemporary period against communalism, casteism, untouchability, illiteracy, alcoholism and drug addiction. Gandhi– as the leader of the national movement after 1919, devoted a considerable part of his action-programme for the uplift of Harijans, Adivasis and Women. He tried to reorganise education and village industries. He fought relentlessly against communalism, untouchability and alcoholism.
• In the contemporary period, there are organised movements of women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backwards castes and labour to protect their interests. There are voluntary organisations working against ecological degradation, drug addiction and child abuse in India.

Social Issues Arising out of Structural Transformation:-

• Several attempts have been made to understand Indian social Issues in terms of structural transformation. In the Indian context, the following three patterns of transformation are visible:
  • Sanskritisation
  • Westernisation,
  • Modernisation.
• Sanskritisation is a process through which lower castes achieved upward social mobility and change either by adventure or by emulating the customs and rituals of the upper castes. It is a cultural process but changes in social status and occupations as a consequence of the upward mobility brought about by sanskritisation makes it also a structural process.
• The contact with the West, particularly with England, set in motion another process of transformation in India known as Westernisation. It is characterized by Western patterns of administration, legal system and education through the medium of the English language. Under the impact of the Western way of life, a sizeable section of educated and urbanised Indian adopted Western style of dress, food,drink, speech and manners. The emulation of the West inculcated the values of Western democracy, industrialisation and capitalism. There are cultural as well as structural aspects of Westernisation. It brought about structural changes by the growth of modern occupations related with modern education, economy and industry, emergence of urban centres with the introduction of colonial administration and the rise of urban middle class under the impact of education, administration, judiciary and press.
• Modernisation and westernization are closely related in the Indian context. The major components of modernisation such as education, political participation, urbanisation, migration, mobility, money, market, modern technology, communication-network and industrilisation were introduced by the colonial administration. They received an impetus in the post-independence period.
• The independent India adopted a modern constitution, founded a secular democratic state and followed the policy of planned socio-economic development, democratic decentralisation and the policy of protective discrimination for the weaker sections. The real question is how these patterns of structural transformation have generated social new issues in India? The processes of transformation–represented by sanskritisation, westernisation and modernisation have been, by and large, smooth and gradual in the Indian context.

Issues arising out of Structural Breakdown and Inconsistencies:-

• The following two concepts may help us in understanding the relationship between structural transformation and social Issues through the ages and Contemporary times:
• structural breakdown, and
• structural inconsistencies.
• The concept of the ‘Structural Breakdown’ means the systemic rigidity which tries to resist or retard social transformation and thus leads to the breakdown of the system or the social disorganisation. In the Third World Countries, there is a growing urge for modernisation in the post-independence period. These countries borrowed parliamentary democracy, adult franchise, modern constitution without the supporting structural base of economy, industrialisation, modern technology, literacy and normative base of rationality, civic culture and secular values. As a result, in several of the ex-colonial societies – democracy could not function successfully. The ethinic, communal, tribal, caste and regional aspirations have become so strong that they are eroding even the basic structures of democracy, modern state and civic society. This is so obvious in the case of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and in many countries of Africa. The impact of social transformation on the Indian society is visible in the following manner.
• On the one hand, three patterns of transformation as mentioned earlier, has created new problems of adjustment,
• On the other hand, occasionally, the process of social transformation has been resisted. In this context, we may cite the examples of the resistance of the urge of the upward social mobility of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, denial of the rightful claims of women, and obstructing land reforms by hook or crook.
• In the Indian context, Structural Inconsistencies are also visible. They are symptoms as well as the cause of social disorganisation and social problems. By structural inconsistencies is meant the existence of two opposite substructures within the same structure which are not consistent with each other. In India, on the one hand, there are highly sophisticated modern metropolitan upper and upper middle classes influenced by consumerism. On the other hand, there is a large number of the Indian people who live in inaccessible tribal and rural areas and who might have not seen even a train. A small section of the Indian society belongs to the jet age, whereas, a large Indian population even today depend on the bullock-cart. This situation is the clear indicator of the gap between the rich and the poor, the rural and the urban creating a gulf between the different groups and strata. These structural inconsistencies are the indicators of poverty, inequality, inaccessibility and deprivation existing in Indian society.

Social Issues arising out of Indias Stance of Soft State:-

• Gunnar Myrdal in his book ‘Asian Drama’ discuses the problems posed by modernisation in several Asian countries – including India. He feels that strong states, effective governments with their capacity to take hard decisions and strict enforcement of the rule of law are the major features of modern European society but in South Asian countries in general and in India in particular, an approach is being followed by the ruling elite in the post-independence period which has been termed as the policy of ‘soft-state’ by Myrdal.
• The democratisation of polity has further strengthened this policy. It has weakened the capacity of state in enforcing the rule of law. As a result, there is an increasing rate of crime, violence, terrorism, violation of law, corruption in the public life and the criminalisation of politics.