Cultural Change — Class 12 Sociology

Alongside the structural changes of colonialism came cultural change — in ways of life, norms, values and even body language. The chapter looks at two developments. First, the deliberate social reform movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which fought social evils such as sati, child marriage, the ban on widow remarriage and caste discrimination. These reformers — among them Raja Ram Mohun Roy, Vidyasagar, Jotiba Phule, Pandita Ramabai, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Viresalingam — combined modern western liberal ideas with a fresh reading of traditional texts, aided by new modes of communication (the printing press, railways), new organisations (Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj) and new ideas. Female education was intensely debated. Second, the chapter explains four less deliberate processes of cultural change. Sanskritisation (M.N. Srinivas' term) is the adoption of upper-caste customs by lower castes to raise status, criticised for accepting hierarchy and eroding Dalit culture. Westernisation is change resulting from over 150 years of British rule, affecting technology, institutions, dress and thought. Modernisation is the shift towards universal, rational, individual and choice-based ways of life, while secularisation is the declining influence of religion — though in India ritual often has secular dimensions and caste has itself become 'secularised' into political pressure groups. These processes overlap and coexist, often within the same person.