Relevance: Sociology paper II
Urbanisation has been viewed as an important force of social change. In India, this process has, on the one hand, meant economic growth, political change, new values and new attitudes. It reflects also the elements of continuity between rural and urban social structures. That is why, our discussion of the elements of urban social structure in India is in terms of the basic social institutions of Indian society, namely, family, marriage, kinship and caste. We show how in some respects, basic values and attitudes continue to dominate and how new ideas are gradually taking roots in the urban population.
Family, Marriage and Kinship in Urban India
It is usually assumed that the process of urbanisation leads to a decline in, family size, weakening of family ties and break up of joint family system into nuclear families. This assumption presupposes that joint family, as it is found in India, is an institution of rural India associated with agrarian economy. But as a matter of fact, joint families are found in urban areas as well. The correlation of “joint” family with rural areas and “nuclear” family with urban is not tenable. Sociologists have gathered ample proof that joint families are as common in urban areas as in rural and that in both rural and urban areas a family may undergo a process of cyclical change from nuclear to joint and back to nuclear within a period of time.
When we observe the household dimension of family in urban India, the studies by K.M. Kapadia, I. P. Desai, A.M. Shah, R. Mukherjee indicate that there is no correlation between urbanisation and ‘separate’ nuclear households. Assumption that Indian urbanites live in nuclear households and that urbanisation leads to breaking up of joint families cannot be sustained.
Some studies show that not only kinship is an important principle of social organisation in cities but also that there is structural congruity between joint family on one hand and requirements of industrial and urban life on the other. From a detailed case study of nineteen families of outstanding business leaders in Chennai city, Milton Singer argues that a modified version of traditional Indian joint family is consistent with urban and industrial setting. The role of wider family relationships is brought out by I.P. Desai. He points out that when there is some serious illness and people need to utilise the hospital facilities not available locally, members of the family and close kin residing in the bigger cities are called in for help. Likewise, when a person in rural areas needs educational or economic advancement, he calls upon his urban counterparts for help. Recent studies show the important role of family and kinship ‘networks’ for the rural based boys seeking new avenues in the urban setting. They also show how the elders negotiating with urban institutions like banks, the administration, or the polity, ask for the help of their young relatives in cities.
This does not however suggest that there have been no changes in the family structure. Some of the changes, which call attention to the gradual modification of the family structure in urban India, are:
i) diminishing size of the family, owing to the increasing awareness of family planning measures,
ii) reduction in functions of family as a result of relegation of certain educational, recreational and other functions previously performed by families to other institutions, and
iii) relative equality in regard to status and rights of women, as a consequence of more and more women seeking employment resulting in economic independence of women.
Dependence on close kin is important also in urban areas
The phenomenon of inter-caste, inter-communal and inter-regional marriage,
no matter how infrequent, in cities points to the changing attitudes of the urban individual. Similarly, one can see the change in the selection pattern too. In selection for their bride, a higher proportion of men from urban middle-class background tends to favour urban educated, preferably working girls. Thus, the non-traditionality as regards bride selection is found largely in urban areas.
The evidence also suggests that the new concept of wifehood, i.e., emphasis
on conjugal relationship, in India is associated with urban living. There has also been some evidence of increase in age at marriage in urban areas.
Simplification of rituals at marriages and incidence of court marriages in the cities reveal a gradual separation of the institution of marriage from its sacred religious complex. Attitude of Indian urban youth towards marriage reflects
willingness to depart from the traditional practices but often they are not able to put it in practice due to traditional sanctions and moral pressure which have retained their rigours to an appreciable degree in cities.
Still there is a general preference for arranged marriages, marriages within one’s caste group and dowry. The increasing incidence of bride burning or dowry deaths as they are called, clearly shows the increasing emphasis on dowry both in terms of cash and goods like coloured television sets, cars etc.
In this regard, value of the college-educated urban youth of India has increased in the matrimonial ‘market’.
Caste
Generally, caste is thought to be a phenomenon of rural India mainly associated with agrarian economy. Caste system has been viewed as a system, which has restricted the development of non-agrarian economy. It is assumed that urbanisation along with industrialisation would induce certain essential changes in the caste-based system of stratification.
Sociologists, like Ghurye, Gore, D’Souza , Rao, have conducted studies in urban areas. Their studies have shown that caste system continues to play an important role in urban areas. Opinions are, however, divided regarding the degree of persistence or degree of flexibility in the caste system found in urban setting. In this section we will discuss how the caste system has continued to persist and exert its influence in some sectors of urban social life while it has changed its form in some other sectors. For this purpose, we take examples from sociological studies of urban life in India.
When it comes to everyday reality caste plays a significant role. Harold Gould’s
study of the rickshawallas of Lucknow shows that, as far as their occupation is concerned, they follow secular rules but when it comes to personal, family matters, such as marriage, the caste identities are all important. Thus, a dichotomy exists between workplace and domestic situation.
To take another example, M.S.A. Rao has shown that caste system exists in cities. But he points out some significant organisational changes in the way it exists in cities. He says that due to the introduction of modern industry, growth of professions and the emergence of new occupational categories there has emerged a new class structure along with new status groups.
Due to the impact of democracy and the electoral system adopted by India, the power axis, i.e. distribution of power and the formation of different kinds of elites, has changed from the traditional system.
In respect of the change in the distribution of power, we find that in pre- British India, upper caste was also the upper class. It would seem that now with education and new types of occupations this correlation of caste and class is no longer the case. A. Beteille has pointed out that higher caste does not always imply higher class. This disharmony is most often found in the Indian cities where new job opportunities have developed.
In spite of these changes’ caste has not disappeared and in the process of establishing social identities, it is still widely used in all parts of India. In fact, some sociologists say that it is not necessary at all that with the process of urbanisation it will give way to class system of stratification in urban areas.
The establishment of caste association in order to help their caste fellows in terms of educational and occupational opportunities, political power, etc. again reveals the vitality of caste system. The most powerful role that caste identity is playing in contemporary period is in politics which governs the power dimension. The need to gain power through the modern political System has forced leaders to mobilise people of not only one’s immediate sub caste but also the wider caste group itself. Caste provides a readymade identity and people align themselves along with the caste lines. In India we have at all levels a parliamentary democracy where the number of votes become very important. Therefore, in today’s India, horizontal unity of caste over a wide area, in both rural and urban sectors, provides a vote ‘bank’ that can ensure the election of a candidate from one’s own caste.
Caste seems to have also become a basis for organising trade union like associations. These trade unions are nothing but interest groups which protect the rights and interest of its caste members, such as the, Gujarat Bania Sabha; the Kshatriya Mahasabha (Gujarat), Jatava Mahasabha of Agra (U.P.); etc. These are caste associations, which perform the functions of a trade union for its caste members. On the one hand, this can be viewed as the strength of a caste; on the other, as pointed out by Leach once a caste becomes a trade union-like organisation, it becomes competitive and therefore it becomes a class group.
Certain aspects of behaviour associated with caste ideology have now almost disappeared in the urban context. The rules of commensality have very little meaning in the urban context where one may not know or may ignore the caste identity of one’s neighbours, friends, servants, etc. Though in family and marriage matters, caste is still quite important but other factors such as, education, occupation etc. of the partners are also just as important as caste.
The frequency of inter-caste, inter-region marriages have increased with the young people coming more in contact with each other in urban areas. It is clear that caste is still significant in urban areas, although its functions have changed and become modified. We may say that it has lost some of its earlier rigidities and has become more flexible.
In the Indian context, there have been very scant sociological studies relating to neighbourhood relations in urban settlements. M.S. Gore has studied
the relationships among immigrant groups in neighbourhoods of Mumbai. He tends to suggest that neighbourhood interaction is marked by a high degree of informality and that caste, kinship and other traditional collectivities are the major basis of such participation. In this sense the concept of urban neighbourhood does not appear to be a significant feature of urban life in India.
Sylvia Vatuk has shown that there has not been any marked change in the traditional family and kinship system in the urban areas. Neither does the Indian urbanite suddenly become an anonymous, city-bred person who is totally isolated from primary contacts outside the nuclear family. She found that the kinship organisation in the old wards of Meerut city in the past, and amongst the poorer section of the population in the city even today, follows the same pattern as in the rural districts of this region. The persistence of the similar pattern of kinship organisation, as found in the villages, in the older and poorer sections of the city goes to show that there is no sharp cultural discontinuity between the masses of the pre-industrial towns and the peasants of the countryside.
URBAN POLITICS
Urban areas were places where the first experiments in political representation were tried in India during the British rule. Long before state (provincial) governments were democratised, almost a hundred years ago some form of elections based on limited franchise had been introduced in the Indian cities.
With only municipal governments opened for public participation, some of the most qualified persons entered public life through the municipal institutions.
Even Subhas Chandra Bose had taken active interest in Kolkata municipal affairs. Mumbai had its sheriffs, and the municipality at Mussoorie ran a post graduate college on its own; some others-maintained hospitals. A number of princely states too had begun to associate peoples’ representatives with activities like inspection of public transport systems, running of schools, and primary health service in ‘capital’ cities. From the point of view of the then rulers, these were half way measures to meet the demand for local government and initial training in democracy.
The independence movement had its counterparts in urban setting in the nature of promotion of the Swadeshi movement and organisation of the trade unions, the two elements of the independence movement were widely supported by urbanities of many cities. Gandhiji advocated the idea of the entrepreneurs becoming the trustees of the labour class and succeeded in organising the trade union in Ahmedabad. Trade unions, which started as political wings of political activities, have shown their relevance for elections and for acting as pressure groups.
The city government in independent India shows the nature of urban politics first in the elections to the municipal bodies, second in the working of these institutions, and thirdly in relation to state and national elections. We may ask the question- is the new political system transforming the existing socio-cultural system into new forms and are new political institutions adapted to the existing social structure? Many authors studying various aspects of urban politics indicate the resistance of the traditional social structure in the face of democratic politics. Rosenthal’s study of municipal politics in Agra and Poona
and Khadija A. Gupta’s study of political process in Uttar Pradesh suggest that wealth, communal, sectarian and caste factors prevail over secular factors in politics and that political processes are by and large the same everywhere in urban India.
Evidence also suggests that during elections, the traditional element of caste plays a dominant role. Adrian Mayer studied municipal elections in the town of Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, and found that political party and its units were main bases of support for one of the candidates, and the management of local leaders and their kinsmen for the other. A weak political structure makes the ad-hoc arrangements based on caste kinship and neighbourhood more important for political activities. Mayer calls these ad-hoc arrangements, which may no longer be activated after elections as ‘action-sets’. Robert G. Wirsing has on the other hand observed a proliferation of diverse types of voluntary organisations in urban areas. These organisations serve as major means of the democratisation of urban politics. During recent years the bodies such as Citizens for Democracy, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Sampurna Kranti Manch, Samprdayikta Virodhi Samiti, Common Cause etc. may be seen as important non-party organisations playing an important role in the process of democratisation, politicisation, and secularisation in urban areas.