unit-5 food security tpds

7/27/2019 Unit-5 Food Security TPDS

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UNIT 5 FOOD SECURITY- TPDS

Structure

5.0 Objectives

5.1 Introduction5.2 Increasing the Domestic Production of Food-grains

5.3 International Trade in Food-grains

5.4 Ensuring Regional Food Security5.5 Stabilising Food-grain Prices5.6 Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)5.7 Food Subsidy5.8 Diversion from the PDS

5.9 Restructuring of the PDS5.10 Let Us Sum Up

5.11 Suggested Readings and References5.12 Check Your Progress - Possible Answers

5.0 OBJECTIVES

After studying the unit you should be able to:

Describe the various elements that are essential to ensure food security in thecountry; and

State the role of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in ensuring food security.

5.1 INTRODUCTION

During the first two decades after independence, India had to import large quanta of food grains to meet the shortfall in domestic production. Then came the period of thegreen revolution and the country emerged virtually self-sufficient in the production of food grains. Being a large country of continental dimensions, India cannot afford todepend on large-scale import of food grains to meet domestic requirements. The country,therefore, has to plan for a system of food security . The model of food security outlined here consists of the following essential elements:

1) Increase in the domestic production of food grains.

2) A limited presence in the international trade in food grains.

3) Ensuring regional food security within the country.

4) Stabilization of the prices of food grains by maintaining a buffer stock.

5) Providing subsidized food grains to the poor through the PDS.

In this unit we deal with the important theme of Food Security, which is a vital elementin the process of poverty eradication.

5.2 INCREASING THE DOMESTIC PRODUCTION OFFOOD-GRAINS

You are perhaps aware of the fact that the Domestic production of food grains plays animportant role in providing food security. We can better understand this if we have a


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look at the post-independence scenario. Table 5.1 shows the historical trend in the production of food grains in India since independence. Total production of food-grainsin the country increased from 50.82 million tonnes in 1950-51 to 196.81 million tonnes in2000-01. Today, the country is virtually self-sufficient in the production of food-grains.Despite the fact that the country experienced rapid growth of population at the rate of about 2 per cent per annum, we could maintain the production rate of food-grains at alevel above the rate of population growth and thus ensured increase in per capita

production of food-grains.

Table 5.1: Production of Food Grains in India

(Million Tonnes)

Year Rice Wheat Coarse

Cereals Pulses Total

Food-grains

1950-51 20.58 6.46 15.38 8.41 50.82

1960-61 34.58 11.00 23.74 12.70 82.02

1970-71 42.22 23.83 30.55 11.82 108.42

1980-81 53.63 36.31 29.02 10.63 129.59

1990-91 74.29 55.14 32.70 14.26 176.39

2000-01 84.98 69.68 31.08 11.07 196.81

Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Statistics at a Glance , 2003.

You will observe some interesting trends in the production of food-grains from the abovetable. While total food-grain production increased almost four fold between 1950-51and 2000-01, the production of wheat increased 10 fold during this period. Production of rice increased four fold during this 50-year period while that of coarse cereals doubled during the same period. Increase in the production of pulses, however, has been lessimpressive.

Let us now turn to per capita net availability of food-grains. Table 5.2 shows the data on

per capita net availability of food-grains in India during the period, 1950-2001. The tableshows that per capita net availability of rice increased by 20 per cent during the period while in the case of wheat it has doubled. There was, however, a consistent decline inthe net per capita availability of coarse cereals and pulses during the period.

Increasing the production of food-grains in the country continues to be a major elementof our agricultural strategy. In the past surplus production was realized primarily inPunjab, Haryana and Western UP. In future, we cannot depend entirely on this regionfor surplus production. Already, there is a tendency among farmers in this region todiversify towards crops other than food-grains. Moreover, further increases in the

productivity of food-grains in this region will be difficult to realize.

Table 5.2: Per Capita Net Availability of Food-grain in India

(kgs./year)

Year Rice Wheat Coarse

Cereals Pulses Total

Food-grains1951 58.0 24.0 40.0 22.1 144.1

1961 73.4 28.9 43.6 25.2 171.11971 70.3 37.8 44.3 18.7 171.11981 72.2 47.3 32.8 13.7 166.01991 80.9 60.0 29.2 15.2 186.2

2001 69.5 49.6 20.5 10.9 151.9Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Statistics at a Glance , 2003.


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The main vehicle through which the Government encourages farmers to increaseagricultural production is through its food procurement operations at the Minimum SupportPrices (MSP) announced from time to time. The Commission for Agricultural Costsand Prices (CACP) recommends prices for various agricultural commodities. In itsrecommendations the CACP takes into account not only a comprehensive overview of the entire structure of the economy and details relating to a particular commodity butalso a number of other important factors. This is reflected in the list of factors that gointo the determination of support pricescost of production, changes in input-output

prices, open market prices, demand and supply, inter-crop price parity, effect on industrialcost structure, general price level, cost of living and the international price situation.

Based on the recommendations made by the CACP the Government announces theminimum support prices. The objectives of the pricing policy are two fold (i) to assurethe producer that the price of his/her produce will not be allowed to fall below a certainminimum level, and (ii) to protect the consumer against an excessive rise in prices.

The region, in the country, which has the maximum potential of increasing the productionof food-grains, particularly rice, is the eastern region. The next stage of green revolutionin the country has to come about in the eastern region. Extending the green revolution tothe eastern region will also result in the expansion of employment and income earningopportunities in this region and will result in substantial fall in the levels of poverty.

Check Your Progress INote: a) Write your answers in the space provided.

b) Check your progress with the possible answers given at the end of theunit.

1) List the five elements of the model that facilitates achievement of food security

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2) Fill up the blanks in the following sentences:

i) Total food grains production increased ................. fold between 1950-51

and 2000-01.

ii) Production of rice increased ........................................... fold between

1950-51 and 2000-01.

iii) Production of wheat increased ................................................. fold between 1950-51 and 2000-01.

iv) Per capita net availability of rice increased by ...................................... per cent during 1951-2001.

v) Per capita net availability of wheat increased by ...........................per cent

during 1951-2001.


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5.3 INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN FOOD-GRAINS

We will now discuss Indias potential in the international market for food-grains. Alongwith the expansion in the production of food-grains, it is necessary that India should establish a limited presence in the international market for food-grains. We cannotenter the international market for food-grains in any substantial way. This is becauseworld trade in food-grains is only a fraction of Indias own production. Table 5.3 givesthe percentage share of various countries in the total world production of paddy and wheat. In the case of paddy, Indias share in world output is 22.1 per cent and in thecase of wheat it is 12.0 per cent. In both cases, India emerges as a major producer inthe world.

International trade in rice is only about 10 per cent of Indias own domestic production.So, if India decides to enter the world food market with exports or imports of riceequivalent to about 10 per cent of its domestic production, it would create major upheavals in the international market and India will not be able to realize substantialgains from such trade. Any news of Indias decision to export will bring down pricesand vise versa in the international food-grains market. Thus, we can at best maintaina limited presence in the world food-grains market as a part of our objective inrelation to the operation of buffer stocks and the maintenance of stability in food-grain prices.

Table 5.3: Percentage Share in the Total World Production(1998-2000)

PADDY WHEAT

Country % share Country % share

Bangladesh 5.6 Argentina 2.5

Brazil 1.7 Australia 3.8

China 33.1 Canada 4.4

India 22.1 China 18.4

Indonesia 8.5 France 6.5

Japan 1.9 India 12.0

Myanmar 3.2 Iran 1.6

Pakistan 1.2 Italy 1.3

Philippines 1.8 Pakistan 3.3

Thailand 3.9 Russia 5.4

USA 1.5 Turkey 3.1

Vietnam 5.2 UK 2.7

USA 11.0

Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Statistics at a Glance, 2003 .

5.4 ENSURING REGIONAL FOOD SECURITY

In India, we also need to maintain food security at the regional level. An essentialelement of this strategy should be the removal of all restrictions on the movement of food-grains from one part of the country to the other. While the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has been a major instrument for facilitating the movement of food- grainsfrom one region to the other, the role of private trade in this regard also needs to bestrengthened.


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At this stage, it is important to remember that limited international trade and unrestricted domestic trade together would help in bringing desirable features like transparencyand efficiency in allocations into the Indian food-grains market. This can also help inreducing governmental intervention in the domestic market to the minimum, i.e. onlyto the extent it is necessary to serve a perceived social goal such as building aminimum buffer stock to meet any exceptional and severe situation of shortage in thedomestic market.

An important factor in maintaining regional food security is the extent of costsinvolved. It is well known, for instance, that the northwestern region is a major surplus producing area and the state most chronically in deficit is Kerala. Suchregional concentrations make transport costs and bottlenecks very crucial in theoperation of food-grains trade in the country.

It has been observed that the benefits of operating the PDS have been concentrated within a few states like Kerala that have a strong infrastructure for the PDS. Withrespect to Kerala, it has been observed that this state, which accounts for about 3

per cent of the countrys population, enjoyed a share of about 12 per cent of food-grains distributed through the PDS. In this connection, it has to be pointed out thatthe major beneficiaries of the PDS are not only the major food deficit states but alsothe major food surplus states. While the PDS helps achieve the objective of food security in food deficit states, it also creates a ready demand for the supplies generated in surplus producing states. In this context, it can be noted that Bihar is one of thestates that benefits least from the operation of the PDS, as this state benefits neither from the procurement operations nor from the distribution operations to any reasonableextent.

The MSP Scheme served the country well in the past four decades. In the recentyears, however, it has started encountering certain problems. This is mainly becausethe scenario of agricultural production has undergone significant changes over the

past few years. Surpluses of several agricultural commodities have started appearingin several states and this trend is likely to continue in the coming years as well.Former deficit regions like Bihar, Assam and Eastern UP have started generating

surpluses of certain cereals, and logically the FCI should procure from these areasalso. As of now, however, the procurement operations of the FCI are largely confined to Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

One way of dealing with this issue is to promote the scheme of decentralised procurement, so that the State Governments themselves carry out their own procurement operations with the financial support of the Central Government. Mostof the states, however, have not shown any eagerness to participate in this programmeand decentralized procurement is today confined to the states of West Bengal, MadhyaPradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.To encourage the states to accept the system of decentralized procurement, some of the FCI godowns may be handed over to the states. The storage capacity in these

regions may also have to be enhanced through construction of godowns under the plan schemes operated by the Food Corporation of India and the Central/StateWarehousing Corporations. There is also a need to reduce FCI manpower in a

phased manner in Punjab and Haryana and redeploy the same in the Central and theEastern parts of the country to ensure better protection for farmers in the region.

There are, however, limitations to extending the coverage of the system of decentralized procurement. The operation of food procurement and maintenance of a buffer stock is best undertaken by a centralized agency. This is necessary to ensure prompttransfer of food grains from regions of excess production to the deficit regions.Moreover, the cost of operating a buffer stock will be less if it is centralized rather than if each state tries to maintain its own buffer stock.


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Check Your Progress II

Note: i) Write your answers in the space provided.

ii) Check your progress with the possible answers given at the end of theunit.

1) Fill up the blanks in the following sentences:

i) Indias share in world output of paddy is .............................. per cent.

ii) Indias share in world output of wheat is ............................... per cent.

iii) ................. ................... .................. .............. international trade and

an ............................................................ domestic trade would help bring desirable features into the Indian food-grain market.

2) Write a brief note on decentralized procurement.

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5.5 STABILISING FOOD-GRAIN PRICES

We have examined in some detail the first three elements of maintaining food security inIndia. Now we shall turn to the fourth element namely, the stabilization of food prices.The stabilization of prices for food-grains in India is sought to be achieved by maintaininga buffer stock. Crucial elements involved in the operation of a buffer stock in India arethe following:

i) Fixation of procurement prices by the Government based on the recommendationsof the CACP.

ii) Procurement, storage and distribution operations, which are carried out primarily by FCI.

iii) Fixation of issue prices of food-grains by the Government.

iv) Distribution of food-grains to the public through the PDS outlets.

While the provision of food subsidy is an important element of the food security systemin India, an equally important role is played by food procurement and buffer stock operations. Since agricultural production is subject to fluctuations due to climatic factors,it is necessary to maintain an adequate level of buffer stocks to bring about stability infood grain prices in the country.

The FCI can maintain a minimum level of buffer stocks and then undertake open marketoperations within a prescribed price band. It can conduct open market operations byreleasing stocks in the open market when shortages are prevalent and prices are high.The FCI can also purchase food-grains from the open market when there is excesssupply and prices are depressed. Its objective, however, should not be to procure all thatis offered by the farmers, but only to maintain an optimum level of buffer stocks.

Recognising the fact that a high level of buffer stocks can itself be a factor contributing


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to inflation, it is reasonable for the FCI to limit its role in the future to more manageableand optimum levels.

The FCI could also play a role in the international market for food-grains by resorting toimports when stock levels are low and exporting food grains when there is a surplusstock. The private sector and the farmers must also be allowed a role in the export and import of food-grains.

5.6 TARGETED PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

(TPDS)

You know that rationing was first introduced in India in 1939 in Bombay by the BritishGovernment as a measure to ensure equitable distribution of food-grains to the urbanconsumers in the face of rising prices due to increased demand from the armed forces.In 1943, the First Food-grain Policy Committee set up by the Government recommended continuation of rationing, maintenance of reserve stocks and extension of rationing torural areas also. The recommendations were, no doubt, based on the experience of thefall of Burma, which was a major supplier of rice, and the Great Bengal Famine in the

preceding year. Rationing in India, however, continued largely as an urban-oriented programme. Immediately after independence, rationing was abolished by the Government

only to be reintroduced in 1950 as shortages led to higher food-grain prices.

From the first phase of rationing of food-grains in short supply, the system evolved intothe present day Public Distribution System (PDS) in the mid 1960s as the Governmentenvisaged an elaborate PDS as a necessary part of its strategy to boost agricultural

production in selected areas through infrastructural investment, technological inputs and price incentives to farmers through government intervention in the food-grain markets.This second phase, characterized by near self-sufficiency in food-grains production,holding of huge buffer stocks of food-grains by the government and rapid expansion of the network of distribution outlets deep into the rural areas of the country has continued till the present day. During the past four decades, the Public Distribution System hasmeasured up very well in reducing the year-to-year and inter-regional variations in theavailability of food-grains. It has also been largely successful in realizing its other objectives of reducing inter-regional and inter-seasonal variations in prices of food grains,even in the face of severe drought situations due to failure of the monsoon during someyears during this period.

The Public Distribution System, however, has failed in translating the macro-level self-sufficiency in food-grains achieved by the country into micro-level household food security for the poor in the country. In a system that allows access to all, the rich and the poor alike, the quantum supplied by the PDS to each household forms only a small

portion of the familys total requirement. Increases in the Minimum Support Price over the years, considered necessary by the Government to keep up agricultural production,has led to corresponding increases in consumer prices in the PDS, adversely affectingthe economic access of the poor to the PDS food-grains. The holding of huge buffer stocks through a highly centralized Food Corporation of India has led to enormous costsof storage and transportation, which have to be borne by the Government.

As mentioned earlier, the importance of an effective Public Distribution System thatensures availability of food at affordable prices at the household level for the poor canhardly be over emphasised. The PDS as it stood earlier, however, was widely criticised for its failure to serve the population below the poverty line, its urban bias, negligiblecoverage in the States with the highest concentration of the rural poor and the lack of transparent and accountable arrangements for delivery. Realising this, the Governmentstreamlined the PDS by issuing special cards to families Below Poverty Line (BPL)

and selling food-grains under the PDS to them at specially subsidized prices with effectfrom June 1997.


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Under this new scheme, viz., the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), each poor family was originally entitled to 10 kgs of food-grains per month at specially subsidized prices and this was likely to benefit about 6 crore (i.e. 60 million) poor families. Theidentification of the poor is done by the States as per the state-wise poverty estimates of the Planning Commission. These estimates regarding the proportion and the number of the poor in each state are based on the methodology developed by the Expert Groupchaired by late Prof. Lakadwala. The policy thrust is to include only the really poor and vulnerable sections of the society, such as the landless agricultural labourers, marginalfarmers, rural artisans/craftsmen such as potters, tapers, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters,etc, in the rural areas and slum dwellers and persons earning their livelihood on a daily

basis in the informal sector like porters, rickshaw pullers and hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers on the pavements, etc. in the urban areas.

Keeping in view the consensus on increasing the allocation of food-grains to BPL categoryand to better target the food subsidy, the Government of India increased the allocationto BPL families from 10 kgs. to 20 kgs. of food-grains per family per month on April 1,2000. The allocation for the Above Poverty Line (APL) population was retained at theearlier level.

The number of BPL families was increased in the official records with effect fromDecember 1, 2000, by shifting the base from the earlier population projection of 1995 tothe population projections of the Registrar General as on March 1, 2000. This changehas resulted in raising the number of BPL families to 652.03 lakhs as against 596.23lakhs originally estimated when the TPDS was introduced in June 1997. The increased level of allocation of food-grains for BPL category is about 147 lakh tonnes per annum.

In order to reduce the excess stocks lying with the Food Corporation of India,the Government initiated the following measures under the TPDS with effect fromJuly 12, 2001:

The BPL allocation of food grains was increased from 20 kgs. to 25 kgs. per family per month with effect from July 2001 and the issue price for BPL familieswas fixed at Rs. 4.15 per kg. of wheat and Rs. 5.65 per kg. of rice.

The Government decided to allocate food-grains to APL families at a discounted rate. For the APL families, the issue price of wheat was reduced to Rs. 610 per quintal from the earlier Rs. 830 per quintal, and the issue price of rice was reduced to Rs. 830 per quintal from the earlier Rs. 1130 per quintal.

Further, under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, 25 kgs. of food-grains are being provided tothe poorest of the poor families at a highly subsidized rate of Rs. 2 per kg. of wheat and Rs. 3 per kg. of rice. In a decision taken on March 3, 2002, the Government increased the issue quantity of food-grains to 35 kgs per month for all the APL, the BPL and theAntyodaya households. It needs to be mentioned that the Public Distribution System(Control) Order 2001 was also promulgated. It seeks to plug the loopholes in the PDSand make it more efficient and effective.

It would not be prudent on the part of the Government to depend entirely on the PublicDistribution System (PDS) outlets to make food-grains available to the poor. Further expansion of the PDS network can be achieved only at a tremendous cost in the form of food subsidy and increasing unit costs in the operation of the system. It is high time theGovernment took measures to strengthen private trade in food-grains all over the country.Unfortunately, we find ourselves in an atmosphere of mistrust when comes to theinvolvement of private traders in the management of food-grains in India. The predatory

behaviour of traders in conditions of scarcity has earned them this distrust. Privatetraders, however, can be an efficient means of providing food to all those who have the

purchasing power, as today food-grains are available abundantly and the risk of unsocialtrade practices has reduced considerably.


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Check Your Progress-III



1) What are the crucial elements involved in the operation of buffer stocks inIndia?

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2) Fill up the blanks in the following sentences.

i) The FCI can maintain a minimum level of buffer stocks and then

undertake ......................, ............................, .....................................

ii) Rationing was first introduced in India in .................... in ...................

iii) Under Antyodaya Anna Yojana ....................... kgs of food-grains are

provided to the poorest of the poor families at a highly subsidized rate of

Rs. .............. per kg of wheat and Rs. ................... per kg of rice.

5.7 FOOD SUBSIDY

All is not well with the operation of the PDS in India. The annual food subsidy involved in maintaining the system is huge (see Table IV). For the year 2004-05 an amount of Rs. 25800 crore is proposed to be spent on food subsidy according to the budget estimates.This volume of food subsidy accounts for 5.40 per cent of the total budgeted expenditureof the Central Government. A close look at Table IV would show that the level of food subsidy in India as a proportion of the total government expenditure has gone up from a

level of about 2.5 per cent or less during the beginning of the 1990s to more than 5 per cent today.

Table 5.4: Food Subsidy of the Central Government

Year Amount % of (Total Government.(Rs. in crores) Expenditure)

1990-91 2450 2.33

1991-92 2850 2.56

1992-93 2785 2.27

1993-94 5537 3.90

1994-95 4509 2.80

1995-96 4960 2.78

1996-97 6066 3.19

1997-98 7500 3.34

1998-99 8700 3.30

1999-00 9200 3.09

2000-01 12010 3.69

2001-02 17494 4.83

2002-03 24176 5.84

2003-04 25200 5.31

2004-05 25800 5.40

Source: Ministry of Finance, Budget Documents.


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5.8 DIVERSION FROM THE PDS

A study was conducted by the Tata Economic Consultancy Services to ascertain theextent of diversion of commodities (from the distribution system) supplied under thePDS. At the national level, it is assessed that there is 36% diversion of wheat, 31%diversion of rice and 23% diversion of sugar. These are most likely the estimates of diversion based on the sample survey conducted. It was also found that diversion ismore in the Northern, Eastern and North Eastern regions. Diversion is comparativelyless in the Southern and Western regions. Several State Governments, as brought out inthe report, have disputed the huge extent of leakages. A view has also been expressed that the sample size used in the study was small and therefore was not truly representative.

It is significant to note that diversion estimated in the case of sugar is less than that inthe case of rice and wheat. In this connection, it has to be noted that sugar is acommodity that is bought from the PDS outlets even by the well-to-do sections. Greater diversion in the case of rice and wheat (not generally purchased by the well-to-dosections from the PDS outlets) is perhaps an indication that a large amount of the quotameant to be distributed among the well to do is actually diverted to the open market.This again strengthens the argument for excluding the population above the poverty linefrom the PDS.

5.9 RESTRUCTURING OF THE PDS

The Tenth Five Year Plan Working Group on the Public Distribution System and Food Security made the following recommendations for restructuring the Public DistributionSystem:

1) The coverage of TPDS and food subsidy should be restricted to the population below the poverty line. For the people above the poverty line who have the purchasing power to buy food the requirement is only to ensure availability of food-grains at a stable price in the market. There is no need to extend the coverage

of food subsidy to this population. Stability in food-grain prices should be ensured through the maintenance of a buffer stock and open market operations of the FCI.

2) Items other than rice and wheat need to be excluded from the purview of TPDS.The main objective of providing food subsidy to the poor is to ensure food security.Rice and wheat are the two commodities, which are eagerly sought after as basicnecessities by the poor in India. Provision of food subsidies should be restricted tothese two commodities.

3) Items such as sugar should be kept outside the purview of the PDS. Sugar should be decontrolled and the system of levy on sugar should be discontinued.

4) There are difficulties in supplying coarse cereals through the PDS and bringingthem under the cover of food subsidy. The average shelf life of coarse grains islimited making them unsuitable for long-term storage and distribution under thePDS. Inclusion of coarse cereals under the PDS cannot be taken up as a nationallevel program since there is no standard variety of coarse grains. But initiativesfrom the side of the State Governments are possible for catering to the needs of specific localities.

5) All further attempts to include more and more commodities under the coverage of food subsidy should be resisted.

6) At the same time the FPS should be permitted to sell all commodities (other thanrice and wheat) at full market prices through the PDS outlets so as to ensure their economic viability.


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7) With the liberalization of the external sector, the operation of the buffer stocks can be supplemented by timely exports and imports. In effect, this means that the buffer stocks required will be smaller in size.

8) Ration cards should not be used by the administration as an identification card for various purposes. This role should be assigned to multi-purpose identity cards inthe future. Many people get ration cards issued only to establish their identity for administrative purposes.

9) There are several plan schemes in operation, which are in the nature of welfare or

income transfer schemes where the distribution of food-grains is involved. Suchschemes, all serving the same purpose, could be merged and some sort of convergence among them could be evolved.

Check Your Progress IV



1) Fill up the blanks in the following sentences.

i) The level of food subsidy in India as a proportion of the total government

expenditure has gone up from a level of about ............................... per cent or less during the beginning of the 1990s to more than............................... per cent at present.

ii) The Tata Economic Consultancy Services study estimated that there is......................... per cent diversion of wheat,................. per centdiversion of rice and ............................. per cent diversion of sugar from the PDS.

5.10 LET US SUM UP

Being a large country of continental dimensions, India cannot afford to depend on large-scale import of food-grains to meet domestic requirements. While on the one hand,there is a need to produce adequate food-grains domestically, which can be supplemented

by imports in times of need, there is also the requirement to have an efficient distributionnetwork on the other. The Public Distribution System (PDS) in the country facilitatestransfer of the food-grains produced in the country to the poor and needy in variousgeographical regions. In the light of the growing food subsidy and food stocks manydoubts have been raised about the cost-effectiveness of the PDS. We need to restructurethe Public Distribution System to eliminate hunger and make food available in a cost-effective manner to the poor wherever they may be.

5.11 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

Government of India, 2002, Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07), Planning Commission, New Delhi.

Government of India, 2001, Report of the Working Group on Public DistributionSystem and Food Security , Planning Commission, New Delhi.

Government of India, 2003, Annual Report 2002-03 , Department of Food and PublicDistribution, New Delhi.

Government of India, 2003, Agricultural Statistics at a Glance , Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi.


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Rajeev, P.V., 1999, Planning For Social Reforms , Deep and Deep Publications, NewDelhi.

Tata Economic Consultancy Services, 1998, Study to Identify Diversion of PDS Commodities from Fair Price Shops , New Delhi.

5.12 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS - POSSIBLE ANSWERS

Check your progress-I

1) The five elements of the model that facilitates achievement of food security are:

Increase in the domestic production of food-grains.

A limited presence in international trade in food-grains.

Ensuring regional food security within the country.

Stabilisation of prices of food grains by maintaining a buffer stock.

Providing subsidized food-grains to the poor through the PDS.

Check your progress-II

1) i) 21.9

ii) 11.5

iii) limited, unrestricted.

Check your progress-III

1) Fixation of procurement prices by the Government based on therecommendations of the CACP.

Procurement, storage and distribution operations, which are carried out primarily by the FCI.

Fixation of issue prices of food-grains by the Government.

Distribution of food-grains to the public through the PDS outlets.2) i) The FCI can maintain a minimum level of buffer stock and then undertake

open market operations within a prescribed price band.

ii) 1939

iii) 25 kgs, Rs. 2/-, Rs.3/-

Check your progress-IV

i) 2.5%, 6%.

ii) 36%, 31%, 23%.


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1.0 Introduction

1.1 Objectives

1.2 The Concept of Rural Society

1.3 The Ideal Model of the Rural Society

1.4 Tribes and Peasants

1.5 Rural and Urban Societies: Differences and Relationships

1.5.1 Characteristics of Villages

1.5.2 Characteristics of Cities

1.6 Little and Great Traditions

1.6.1 Characteristics of Little and Great Traditions

1.6.2 Critical Assessment

1.7 Types of Village

1.8 Important Rural Studies conducted in India

1.9 Let us sum it up

1.10 Key Words

1.11 Suggested Readings

1.12 Check Your Progress: Possible Answers

1.1 OBJECTIVES

After reading this lesson, you will be able to:

define rural society;

differentiate between tribal, peasant, and urban societies;

identify the types of village in India; and

talk/write knowledgeably about a few important rural studies conducted in India.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This is the first unit of the course, Rural DevelopmentThe Indian Context. The purpose of this unit is to acquaint you with the concept of rural society. According

to 2001 Census, 72.22 per cent of Indians live in about 6,38,691 villages. You know


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that in 1901, 89.2 % of Indians resided in villages and by 1961 this percentage had reduced to 82.03. It shows a declining trend which is bound to continue. There is,however, no doubt that even today a significant proportion of Indians lives in and derives livelihood from villages. Thus, rural society assumes a considerable significancein any form of discussion on development.

In this unit we discuss the concept of rural society; we will also attempt to answer some questions like what is meant by the terms like village, countryside, or folk society? The unit will also discuss the distinctions between different types of ruralsociety. relationships between rural and urban societies and also some of the importantrural studies conducted in India. In the remaining units of this block we will discussrural demography , rural social and economic structures and finally rural

poverty .

1.2 THE CONCEPT OF RURAL SOCIETY

The Bureau of the Census of the United States defines a rural community on the basis of the size and the density of population at a particular place. In India, on theother hand, the term rural is defined in terms of revenue : the village means the

revenue village. It might be one large village or a cluster of small villages. Accordingto the Census Commission of India, a village is an entity identified by its name and a definite boundary.

You may have observed that the Indian villages exhibit a great deal of diversity.Different states in India have different numbers of villages. According to the Censusof India 1991, the largest number of villages (1,12,566) is found in undivided Uttar Pradesh, followed by undivided Madhya Pradesh (71,352), undivided Bihar (67,546),Orissa (46,553), and Maharashtra (39,354). The smallest villages having the smallest

populations are in the states of Sikkim (440) and Nagaland (1,112).

We see that on the one extreme are the affluent villages of Punjab, where manyfamilies receive handsome amounts of money regularly from those of their youngmembers who live and work abroad. Some writers have preferred to call thesevillages gray villages because they have large populations of old people whosechildren are away. At one time many of these old people also were away workingin foreign lands, and after making sufficient wealth, they returned to their soil to lead retired lives or to work as commercial farmers.

On the other extreme we have the extremely poor villages of Bihar, Orissa, or Chattisgarh, where for one square meal, the parents are sometimes forced to selltheir children to liquor vendors or moneylenders. Several villages in arid parts of Rajasthan are now uninhabited because of inhospitable environment. Villages at theoutskirts of towns and cities are usually known as fringe villages, which undergogradual transformation as they lose their identity by and by, and eventually become

parts of the urban world. Take the example of New Delhi, where many residentialcolonies, such as Wazirpur, Patpar Ganj, Mohammad Pur, Chandrawal, etc, are named after the villages that used to exist there earlier, but have now been completelyassimilated within the expanding universe of urban life. Some villages have nowgrown into towns, such as Kohima. All this points to the diversity of Indian villages.

In other words, while speaking about the Indian village, one has in mind several typesof communities, some multi-caste, some having the members of just one caste. Someare close to the centers of civilization, the towns and cities, while some are situated in remote backward areas, and some are more developed than others in terms of

material possessions and facilities (such as electricity, schools, dispensaries, etc.). If


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you move from one region to the other, from one state to the other, you will comeacross immense diversity in the lifestyles and material conditions of villages.

Notwithstanding the huge variations, which are bound to take place in a vast countrylike India, there are certain general features that all rural communities have in common.

The term rural is used in contrast with the term urban. Some scholars think of acontinuum, i.e., a kind of continuity from the rural to the urban. The left end of thecontinuum consists of the rural, whilst the right of the urban. Societies having all, and also pure, characteristics of the rural or urban are found at the poles. In betweenare placed societies, which are in bulk, having a mix of the characteristics that areattributed to the rural and urban worlds. Societies tilted more to the rural end of thecontinuum have more of the rural characteristics; similarly, societies placed moretowards the urban end display more of the urban characteristics. Change takes placefrom rural to urban, rather than in the other way. This change is called urbanization,which is defined as the almost permanent migration of populations from rural areasto the urban. The changes that result because of urbanization are irreversible; so,when urban people migrate to rural areas, as has happened and is happening in thevillages of Punjab, because of one or the other reason, they carry with them thestamp of urban influence.

What then is the ideal nature of a rural society? As a consequence of the constantinteraction between the rural and the urban societies, most of the societies deviateconsiderably from the ideal models of either the rural or the urban society. Thus, thesocieties that are designated as rural bear the influence of urban areas invariably.

Check Your Progress I

Note: a) Write your answers in the space provided.

b) Check your answers with the possible answers provided at the end of the unit.

1) Define the concept of the degree of urbanization?

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1.3 THE IDEAL MODEL OF THE RURAL SOCIETY

You might have noted earlier that the term rural society is used almost interchangeablywith terms like village, countryside, or folk society. Of these, the term mostcommonly used in sociological literature on rural society is the village . The termcountryside is chiefly popular in the western world. It primarily denotes a quiet

place, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, where one is in close proximityto nature. One chooses to retire to the countryside. It is not a place bereft of facilities, as villages are in the developing world. There are pubs and recreationalcenters in the countryside. What it lacks is the fast life of the city.

Let us now look at the term folk, which attained popularity through of the worksof Robert Redfield. It implies a person or persons belonging to a small traditional and

homogeneous community. By implication, a folk society is traditional and homogeneous.


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This category is best understood in terms of culture and stands in contrast with thefast-changing and heterogeneous urban society. As we spoke of the rural-urbancontinuum earlier, in the same way, Redfield has written about the folk-urban continuum.A folk society is past-oriented, so said Redfield, in the sense that its members arecontent with their lot, with what they have, and they proudly hold their tradition high.By tradition , sociologists mean the conventionalized modes of social behaviour and thought, i.e. the behaviour and thought that were established long time back areconsidered valuable and applicable at all times, present and future.

In comparison with a rural society, we find that an urban society is future-oriented.Here, people are not satisfied with what they have, and they unceasingly want tochange virtually everything they have. If urban dwellers are forward-looking, thefolks are backward-looking. If change is the catchphrase of urban living, stabilityis that of the folk society. Let us now turn to the term, rural society.

From sociological point of view, the term rural society implies the following:

In comparison with the urban society, it is a small society, meaning thereby thatit has a small population and extends over a shorter physical area. Variousinstitutions (such as police stations, hospitals, schools, post-offices, clubs, etc)may or may not be there, and if existent, they are not available in plenty.

Density of the rural population is also low, and it may be clustered according tothe criteria of social status. In other words, people occupying the same statusmay share the same neighbourhood, and may observe considerable social, and sometimes physical, distance from others, especially those lower in hierarchy.

A sizable number of rural people are engaged in agriculture, which is the mainstayof their lives. In addition, a rural society has several other groups, engaged invarious other occupations of arts and crafts, usually known as artisans and craftsmen, who regularly supply their services to agriculturalists in exchange for grains and cereals.

Rural society has some full-time and a large number of part-time specialists.Craftsmen and artisans also indulge in agricultural pursuits, especially during themonsoon and the agricultural produce of such specialists and small agriculturalistsis mainly for domestic consumption.

Rural society is regarded as the repository of traditional mores and folkways.It preserves the traditional culture, and many of its values and virtues are carried forward to urban areas, of which they become a part after their refinement.When scholars say that India lives in villages, they mean not only that villagesconstitute the abode of three-quarters of Indians, but also that the fundamentalvalues of Indian society and civilization are preserved in villages, wherefromthey are transmitted to towns and cities. One cannot have an idea about thespirit of India unless her villages are understood.




1) What is an affluent village?

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2) Give three salient characteristics of a rural society

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1 .4 TRIBES AND PEASANTS

The term rural society, as we said previously, includes a wide variety of people and villages of differing sizes and compositions. Generally, a rural society is an agrariansociety, which includes agriculturalists, artisans, craftsmen, and other occupationalgroups, and they are all dependent, in one way or the other, upon agriculture, butthese are not the only people who live in villages. Communities of people, who arecalled tribals, also live in villages, and some of them have been having long-standingrelations with other non-tribal communities. Then, there are villages exclusively of tribespersons. To bring out this distinction clearly, sociologists have introduced theconcepts of tribes and peasants.

According to the recently circulated Draft of National Policy on Tribal Populationsof India, there are 67.8 million Scheduled Tribespersons, constituting about 8.08 per cent of Indias population. There are 698 Scheduled Tribes spread all over India

barring the States of Haryana and Punjab and the Union Territories like Chandigarh,Delhi and Pondicherry. Orissa has the largest number (sixty-eight) of Scheduled Tribes. By definition, the Scheduled Tribes are those people who are notified as such

by the President of India under Article 342 of the Constitution of India. The firstnotification, in this regard, was issued in 1950. The President considers severalcharacteristics such as the primitive traits of the tribe, its distinctive culture, itsgeographical isolation and social and economic backwardness before notifying it asa Scheduled Tribe. Seventy-five of the 698 Scheduled Tribes are identified as PrimitiveTribal Groups. They are more backward than the Scheduled Tribes. They continueto live in a pre-agricultural stage of economy and have very low literacy rates. Their

populations are stagnant or even declining.

It is clear from the foregoing that in defining a tribe , emphasis is laid on the isolationof its members from the wider world. Because a tribe has almost negligible relationswith the other communities, it tends to develop its own culture, which has littleresemblance with the culture of those communities that have enjoyed long-terminteraction among themselves. That is the reason why tribal communities inanthropological literature are known as cultural isolates. The implication of this

metaphor is that one can understand a tribal society without bothering to study the


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external world, of which the tribe may be an island. A tribal society is characteristicallya holistic (i.e. complete) society.

The term peasant also shot into prominence with the works of Robert Redfield. For the first time, however, the term was defined in the writings of the Americananthropologist, A.L. Kroeber. His oft-quoted definition of peasants is as follows:Peasants are definitely rural yet live in relation to market towns; they form a classsegment of a larger population which usually contains also urban centers, sometimesmetropolitan capitals. They constitute part-societies with part-cultures. They lack theisolation, the political autonomy, and the self-sufficiency of tribal populations; but their local units retain much of their old identity, integration, and attachment to soil and cults.

If tribes are isolated, peasants are not. They are agriculturalists attached to soil,as Kroeber observes who intend to produce primarily for their subsistence, but theyhave to produce a little more, because they do not manufacture and produce everythingthey need for their survival. They have to transfer and sell whatever little surplus theyhave to the markets located in urban areas so that they acquire the things they donot produce. Peasants are dependent upon urban markets, the consequence of whichis that they are constantly in touch with urban societies. Therefore, for understandingthem, we need to look at their relationship with the outside world of which they area part. Kroebers words that peasants are a part-society with part-culture implytheir constant interaction with other communities. The impact of these interactionscan be seen on all the aspects of their life. Along with Kroeber, one remembersGeorge Fosters words: Peasants constitute a half-society.

Now let us try to find out as to whether the tribal societies, which were isolated, existin India? We infer that they might have existed in the distant past, but whatever historical material we have been able to garner indicates that there have always beenrelations of exchange between communities of tribespersons and others. Do youknow that tribals supplied honey, medicinal plants, toys, baskets, nets, medico-religiousknowledge and supernatural healing to other communities. In exchange, they got salt,grains, cereals, clothes, etc. In fact, their isolation increased when harmful external

contacts with moneylenders, land-grabbers, liquor vendors, and other usurpers of resources led to devastating effects on tribes. The only option for tribes to escapefrom these exploiters was to move to isolated areas, so that they could have atemporary respite from their exploiters and oppressors.

Several tribal communities in India practice settled agriculture, with the result that itis difficult to distinguish them from peasants. Some sociologists propose the termtribal peasants to designate them, for they combine the characteristics of both thetribal and peasant societies. In several cases, tribes or their sections have settled down close to villages, and started supplying certain services to other communities.With the passage of time, they have become inseparable parts of those villages. Thatis how tribespersons have got incorporated into villages.

In India, tribes are associated with other modes of production as well, such as huntingand food gathering, shifting cultivation, fishing, horticulture, and the practice of artsand crafts. Instead of relying on just one way of acquiring food, they combine variouseconomic activities. The combination of different economic pursuits is dependentupon the ecological cycle of the area they inhabit, as their habitat provides them withthe seasonal economic avenues that condition their practices such as hunting, fishingand/or gathering. In comparison with full-fledged agrarian villages, tribal habitationsare small and spread over large areas. Each habitation is a cluster of few hutsinhabited by people related by the ties of kinship. For such clusters, the term generallyused in sociological literature is hamlet. A hamlet may be a part of a large village,or a group of several hamlets spread over a large area may be administratively


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classified as a village.

Check Your Progress III



1) Define the term Scheduled Tribe.

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1 .5 RURAL AND URBAN SOCIETIES: DIFFERENCES ANDRELATIONSHIPS

After having learnt about the various characteristics of the rural society, it will now be easier for us to compare it with the urban society. Just to revise: rural and urbansocieties, or the village and the city, constitute two ends of the continuum. Over a

period of time, rural societies undergo a variety of changes. Some of them areassimilated into urban societies; some start resembling urban societies in certainmaterial and social terms, but retain their identity as a village ; while some remainless affected by the forces emerging from cities. It may be so because of their location. Villages closer to the centers of urban growth are likely to change appreciablyand faster than their counterparts located in interior areas. With the passage of time,villages may grow into towns, which later on grow into cities. Continuity may, thus,

be unmistakably noticed in the transition from the village to the city.

For cities, which grow from the village, the term used by Robert Redfield and MiltonSinger is orthogenetic cities. These cities emerge from below, i.e. from the village,rather than get imposed on a population from outside. When a city is imposed on a

populace, as happened during the colonial period in India, it is called heterogeneticcity. Such a city, emerging from above, does not have its origin in local villages.The social consequences of these two types of city are not alike. In an orthogeneticcity, the migrants coming from villages will have less of a culture shock on encounteringthe city and will not suffer much from any sort of cultural inadequacy while dealingwith the city dwellers. By contrast, both the experience of a culture shock and thefeeling of cultural inadequacy will be tremendously high for rural migrants in aheterogenetic city. It is so, because an orthogenetic city carries forward the traditions

of the village and the villagers can identify the segments of their culture in it and canrelate with them easily. In a heterogenetic city, by contrast, members will feelcompletely out of place, because such a city contains the elements of a traditionwhich grew somewhere else, with which the local people have no familiarity.Consequently, they will feel out of place in it.

The point that has been stressed through out this lesson is that generally rural and urban areas are dependent upon each other. There is a mutually supportive relationship

between them. Sociologists have analyzed these relations in economic, political, social,and cultural terms.

Check Your Progress IV


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1) List three main differences between a rural and an urban society

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1.5.1 Characteristics of Villages

Villages are principally food-producing units and they are agriculture-based. They produce not only for their own subsistence but also for the urban societies, which arenon-food producing units. An urban society is not an agrarian society. A tribal society,in theoretical terms, has subsistence economy; people produce primarily for their ownconsumption. Tribal economy does not generate surpluses. A peasant society, incontrast, has to generate surpluses not only for acquiring things that it does not

produce, but also for the city. Those who produce on a commercial basis, on a massscale, with the basic objective of multiplying their gains, are known as farmers .

Whether the producers are peasants or farmers, they all supply food to cities. Citydwellers, once their economic needs are met with, devote themselves to thedevelopment of arts and crafts, and other non-agricultural pursuits. The innovationsthat take place in cities diffuse to villages. Thus, in economic terms, land is the

primary means/unit of production in rural societies, which is not the case in urbanareas. In industrial-urban cities, however, the production and distribution of industrial

goods and services becomes the primary resource base. So, the occupational structureis highly diversified in cities. Also, there is a greater degree of occupationalspecialization needed there. Thus, full-time specialists, whose occupations requirehigher education and skills, characterize urban societies invariably. In addition, semi-skilled and unskilled workers who support specialists in various ways are also found in cities.

Economic interaction is closely linked with the political. Although each village has itsown council (called a panchayat in India), which takes up and resolves disputes

between/among the people and communities in the village, the ultimate seat of authority,controlling villages, is situated in urban areas. The political power centered in citiescontrols villages. Prices of goods that villagers bring to city markets to sell are

decided by urban political powers. Often, villagers protest against such controls. Weare familiar with the protests made by Indian farmers when the prices of sugarcaneor oil-seeds are fixed much below the expectation of their producers. When the

prices of furs were reduced sometime back, the agro-pastoralists (those who practiceagriculture as well as rear animals for profit) also launched protests.

The practice of internal mobilization for achieving their objectives is not unknownamong village communities, but sometimes it does not build up enough strength

because of a lack of support or poor publicity. The result is that villagers exploitationat the hands of the city powers continues unabated. Marshall Sahlins has called

peasants underdogs, who are not able to muster enough revolutionary fervour to bring about a change in their state of existence. Along with economic dependence,


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villages are also politically dependent upon cities. In both economic and politicalterms, the city enjoys supremacy over the village.

Let us now come to the third aspect dealing with the social and cultural factors pertaining to rural societies. We have learnt previously that rural societies are relativelymore homogeneous in terms of their social and economic characteristics. Their technological and organizational aspects are also simpler, in the sense that they can

be learnt easily. Also, changes among rural societies occur at a slower pace. Thegeographical, social and economic areas of interaction of the villagers are restricted.That is why some people call rural societies small-scale societies. The role of tradition in controlling the behaviour of people is very strong. Religion also plays asignificant role in governing the lives of people and individuals have limited freedomto choose their occupations or mates. In other words, the range of choice among therural people is highly restricted. Their territorial, occupational, and upward socialmobility also is limited.

1.5.2 Characteristics of Cities

In contrast, urban societies are characterized by, as Louis Wirth noted, large size, highdensity of population, and heterogeneity. Cities have a large population, and its growthis much faster because of the migration of people from rural to urban areas. Invillages, the rate of growth of population is slower, and the population mostly increasesas a result of high birth rate. Migration of people to villages is comparatively muchless. Surely, there have been cases of tribal people migrating to villages in search of subsistence, but their number is too negligible to bring about any significant changein the village. Cities are cultural mosaics; they have people from different culturesand backgrounds. Thus, the way of life of people shows a wide variety. The rangewith respect to income, housing, education, etc, is quite large. Technology is quitecomplex, and its knowledge cannot be acquired at home, as happens in rural societies.The son of a blacksmith, for example, in a village learns the art of smithy at home,observing his father and other male relatives at work and holding apprenticeshipunder them. In urban societies, these crafts become highly sophisticated, and their teaching and learning is transferred to specialized institutions. As technology becomes

complex, so do the organizations and the societies that use them.You know that change in urban societies takes place at a fast pace. Urbanites havea larger area of interaction. They interact with people who live in different territories,and work in different organizations. In a nutshell, they come in contact with peoplewho hail from different walks of life. For regulating such a wide variety of interaction,the urban society needs to impose, as Wirth said, formal mechanisms of socialcontrol. Mechanical time, records, and formal rules become essential for purposefullyregulating the urban living. This is in sharp contrast to villages, which have face-to-face relationship. Here, the same people meet everyday, time and again, with theoutcome that each adult knows most of the aspects of the life of the other. Relationshipsin villages are informal, by comparison to formal and specific relationships in urban

societies. The same urban dwellers may meet everyday for business, but will notachieve the kind of intimacy that villagers possess because of regular and sociallyintense interaction. Relationships in villages are not of the means to ends type, asthey are in cities. Mobility, both in space and occupations, is highly pronounced inurban societies as compared to the rural ones.

To sum up: rural and urban societies can be distinguished in terms of a number of variables, each of which exercises its impact on the other. Cultural features fromvillages are carried forward to cities where they are refined, systematized, and developed. They are then sent back to villages. Similarly, innovations taking place incities percolate down to villages.


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Check Your Progress V



1) Elaborate on the meaning of the phrase folk-urban continuum

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1.6 LITTLE AND GREAT TRADITIONS

For analyzing the relationship and the ceaseless interaction between rural and urbansocieties, the concepts of little and great traditions , which Redfield proposed on the

basis of his study of Mexican communities, have been found to be quite useful.

Redfield proposed the concept of little community, which may be imagined to belike a village. A little community has the following characteristics: small size, largelyself-sufficient, homogeneous, and relatively isolated. Its members are generallyunlettered, i.e. their tradition is not based upon reading and writing. They accept their tradition as it is, without subjecting it to any critical scrutiny. If there are contradictionsand paradoxes in their tradition, they continue to remain. People make no attemptsto remove or reconcile them, or to answer questions that have remained unanswered in their tradition. In a little community, the tradition is accepted as infallible and transcendental, and it forges and maintains unity among the people.

1.6.1 Characteristics of Little and Great Traditions

The tradition of the little community is known as little tradition. It may be defined as:

the tradition of the unlettered (i.e.. non-literate and illiterate) many peopleinhabiting a particular area,

who are unreflective , i.e. they do not critically examine or comment upon it, and accept it as it is;

this tradition is cultivated at home ; and

is transmitted from one generation to the next as part of the process of socialization .

The type of society with which the little community unremittingly interacts is the city.Redfield, and many other scholars, have viewed city as the center of civilization. Infact, both these words city and civilization come from the same root in Latin.City is also the abode of a group of intellectuals whom Redfield calls literati, whose

job is to create the tradition of a higher level by refining and systematizing the littletradition. The tradition of the literati is known as the great tradition, which has thefollowing characteristics:


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It is the tradition of the lettered people who are few in number.

They are reflective , i.e. they think about the tradition, make it sophisticated and systematize it, thus making it universal .

This tradition is cultivated in separate and distinct institutions , such as temples,mosques, churches, synagogues, etc.

It is transmitted as a part of the specialized, rigorous, and long learning , inwhich the individual is expected to internalize the tradition correctly.

If the little tradition is of villagers and the unlettered people of cities, the elites and scholars, such as the Brahmins, Imams, priests, rabbis, etc, guard the great tradition.The tradition of these scholar-elites is universally held. At the same time it is to berealized that little and great are ideal types, while in reality the situation is complex.Let us now analyse the whole concept critically.

1.6.2 Crit ical Assessment

Redfields approach is popularly known as the cultural approach, because he looksat the interaction of the lifestyles of the two communities, the village and the city.This interaction is an outcome of the relative dependence (economic and political) of

one on the other. Little traditions and great traditions interact constantly, as a resultof which continuity is established between them. Cultural traits from the little traditionare carried forward to the great tradition where they are systematized. As greattraditions have universal applicability, the cultural elements they systematize also

become universal. Accordingly, the process whereby cultural features of the littletraditions become parts of the great traditions is known as universalization , a term

proposed by Redfield. The reverse process of the mobility of cultural traits from thegreat tradition to become parts of the little tradition is also possible. A little traditionhas a narrow coverage and is confined to a local area. When it accepts elementsfrom the great tradition, it might modify them so that they are compatible with thecharacteristics of the society in general. As the incoming cultural traits are changed and coloured to suit local conditions, knowledge and thoughts, the process is termed localization or parochialization. These terms were used for the first time in McKimMarriotts famous article on the village of Kishangarhi in Aligarh.

Many scholars think that Redfields analysis is extremely simple for understanding thecomplexities of Indian civilization. Some propose the idea of multiple traditions inIndia, rather than just two traditions. But, the concepts of little and great traditionshelp us greatly in understanding the cultural continuity between villages and cities inIndia. In this context, certain observations of Milton Singer, which are given below,are highly relevant:

The Indian civilization has evolved out of the folk and regional cultures. Thelocal stories and folklore have evolved into great epics such as Ramayana,Mahabharata, and other religious scriptures after being refined and systematized over a long period of time.

Cultural continuity is a major feature of the great traditions. It is based on theidea that people throughout the country share common cultural consciousness.

Consensus exists in India about sacred books and sacred objects. It is one of the major bases of a common cultural consciousness that people in India share.

Cultural continuity with the past is a major feature of the Indian society. As aresult most of the modernizing thoughts and ideologies of progress do not lead to a linear form of social and cultural change. Rather, the modern institutions are


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traditionalized in India. They adapt to the social organization of communitiesinstead of constraining them to adapt to modernity.

Check Your Progress VI



1) Enumerate three salient characteristics of the great tradition

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1.7 TYPES OF VILLAGE

You know that villages have been classified on the basis of size. According to theCensus of India 1991, 94.7 per cent of villages had less than five thousand people.According to the size of population, the villages were divided into three categories:

26.5 per cent villages were inhabited by less than five hundred people;

48.8 per cent villages had a population falling between 500 and 2000; and

19.4 per cent villages had a population falling between 2000 and 5000.

It is clear that villages of the medium-size were almost fifty per cent of the villagesin India.

Another classification of India villages divides them into nucleated and dispersed villages. It is well known that villages comprise homestead land ( bd ) and cultivableland. In nucleated villages, all the households are clustered together in a compact unit,surrounded on all sides by cultivable land. When households are distributed over alarge area, and each cluster of a few houses is separated by cultivable land, it isknown as a dispersed village. Most of the villages in India are of compact nucleated type. Dispersed villages are found in the coastal areas of Kerala in south India, inBhil settlements to the east and north of Gujarat, and in Coorg and western Mysore.

M.N. Srinivas proposes that detailed studies of these two types of village need to becarried out to see differences in their respective organizational patterns. For example,he notes that in nucleated villages the responsibility of defending the village fromrobbers and wild animals falls on all the inhabitants. In dispersed villages, each farmhas to protect itself against the enemies. The kin group owning the farm must haveenough people to defend itself when the need arises. It is quite likely that houses indispersed villages are built with an eye to defense. One may hypothesize that dispersed villages are associated with large kinship groups and martial traditions.

1.8 IMPORTANT RURAL STUDIES CONDUCTED IN INDIA

The year of 1955 is of tremendous significance for village studies in India. For thefirst time, in that year, four books and several papers on the Indian village were

published. The four books were: S.C. Dubes Indian Village , D.N. Majumdars


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Rural Profiles , McKim Marriotts Village India , and M.N. Srinivas Indias Villages .In the same year, a conference on the state of Indian society was held in Madrasunder the chairpersonship of Irawati Karve in which Robert Redfield also participated.In this conference, village studies and their scope were discussed. The proceedingsof this conference were disseminated in the form of a book titled Society in India .

The late 1950s produced certain monographs on villages, and they are still regarded as of crucial importance. They were: G.M. Carstairss Twice Born (1957), S.C.Dubes In di as Changing Vil lages (1958), D.N. Majumdars Caste and Communication in an Indian Village (1958), F.G. Baileys Caste and the EconomicFrontier (1957), and Oscar Lewiss Village Life in Northern India (1958). AlbertMayers book titled Pilot Project India (1958) summarizes the main achievementsof the Etawah project. In 1959 came A.R. Desais edited volume titled An Introductionto Rural Sociology in India . Adrain Mayers work Caste and Kinship in Central

India (1960) was the first book length study of kin relations in an Indian village.Andr Bteilles Caste, Class and Power (1964) was a study of the changingdimensions of rural stratification. A general description of a village in Rajasthan was

provided in B.R. Chauhans 1967 book titled A Rajasthan Village .

Since then, there have been a number of monographs on villages. Among the recent books, one may look at Gloria Goodwin Rahejas The Poison in the Gift (1988),which is an examination of the nature of caste system in a village of Saharanpur. For students of rural history, A.M. Shahs Exploring Indias Rural Past (2002) will beof tremendous value. One of the most recent anthologies on the rural society in Indiais Vandana Madans The Village in India (2002).

Check Your Progress VII



1) Define a nucleated village

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1.9 LET US SUM UP

This unit intends to introduce the basic features of the rural society in relation to other kinds of society, such as tribal and urban societies. Their relationship has beenanalysed in terms of the concepts of folk, urban societies, little traditions and greattraditions. It has been shown that rural/folk and urban societies are characterized by

significant differences of attitudes and values. However, while using this differentiationwe have shown that villages in India are of many types. A major distinction is made

between nucleated and dispersed settlements. We also discussed the useful idea of a continuum , where we conceptualized one of its ends consisting of rural societiesand the other of urban societies. These two types of society have always beeninteracting. An Indian village was never a self-sufficient unit, as many British colonialofficers tended to believe. It was always dependent upon the outside world other villages and cities for various things. As a result, the rural society was alwaysabsorbing various types of changes that were being introduced in it from outside.Though with the passage of time the rural population in India has reduced, yetseventy-two per cent of our people live in villages. Towards the end of the unit, wehave also made a mention of some important rural studies conducted in India .


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1.10 KEY WORDS

Rural society : This term is used for a small society, which comprises onlya few hundred households, who mostly produce their ownfood. Agriculture is the mainstay of their life. In this society,the number of people engaged in non-agricultural pursuitsis small, but these members also practice agriculture.

Tribal society : This term is used for a small society, smaller than the

typical agriculture-based society. It is largely isolated fromother societies and the centers of civilization. The tribalcommunities practice a large number of economic pursuits,ranging from hunting and food gathering to settled agriculture. There are many villages in India where tribesand non-tribal people live together.

Urban society : This term is used interchangeably with two termstownsand cities. Characterized by a much larger area and

population, an urban society grows faster because of themigration of people from villages to cities. An urban society,whether pre-industrial or industrial, is basically a non-agrarian society. It is heterogeneous, complex, and future-oriented.

Great Tradition : It is the tradition of the intellectual class called literatiwho live in cities.

Little Tradition : It is the tradition of the unlettered people in villages and cities.

Universalization : The process, by which cultural traits from the little traditionget carried forward, reflected upon, and systematized to

become a part of the great tradition, is called universalization.

Parochialization : The process, by which cultural traits from the great traditionget carried downwards to the village where they becomea part of the little tradition, is called parochialization.

Fringe villages : These are the villages that are found at the meeting points of typical rural and urban areas. They depict thecharacteristics of both the types of social organization.

1.11 SUGGESTED READINGS & REFERENCES

References :

Epstein, Scarlett. 1973. South India: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, MysoreVillages Revisited. London: Macmillan.

Freed, S.A. and R.S. Freed. 1959. Shanti Nagar. The Effects of Urbanization ina Village in North India . American Museum of Natural History.

Madan, Vandana (ed.). 2002. The Village in India . Oxford University Press.

Potter, Jack M., May N. Diaz, George M. Foster. 1967. Peasant Society, A Reader .Boston: Little, Brown and Company.


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Redfield, Robert. 1956. Peasant Society and Culture: An Anthropological Approachto Civilization . Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Srivastava, V.K. 1996. On the Concept of Peasant Society. In Vijay Kumar Thakur and Ashok Aounshuman (eds.) Peasants in Indian History: Theoretical Issues and Structural Enquiries . Patna: Janaki Prakashan (pp. 19-50).

Suggested Readings:

Beals, Alan R. 1962. Gopalpur: A South Indian Village . New York: Holt, Rinehart

& Winston.

Bharucha, Rustom. 2003. Rajasthan: An Oral History, Conversations with KomalKothari . Penguin Books.

Chauhan, Brij Raj. 1967. A Rajasthan Village . New Delhi: Associated PublishingHouse.

Kantowsky, Detlef. 1995. An Indian Village through Letters and Pictures . Delhi:Oxford University Press.

Marriott, McKim (ed.) 1955. Village India, Studies in the Little Community . Chicago:

University of Chicago Press.

Orenstein, H. 1965. Gaon: Conflict and Cohesion in an Indian Village . Princeton:Princeton University Press.

Rao, Aparna. 1998. Autonomy: Life Cycle, Gender and Status among HimalayanPastoralists . New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books.

Srinivas, M.N. 2002. Collected Works . Oxford University Press

1.12 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS: POSSIBLE ANSWERS

Check Your Progress I

1) The degree of urbanization is arrived at by dividing the number of people livingin towns and cities by the total population of that country, and then, multiplyingthe fraction thus obtained by one hundred. If a country has a large populationdwelling in villages, then its degree of urbanization will be low, whatever theabsolute number of people living in urban areas. India has a low degree of urbanization in comparison to Australia, although the number of people living inIndian cities is far more than their counterparts in Australian cities.


1) The general impression of an Indian village is that it is a conglomeration of mud-and thatched houses inhabited by people of different castes who struggle tomake both ends meet with highly limited resources. Although scarcity and povertyare differentially distributed in Indian villages, on the whole they are rampant,that is why, the programmes of poverty-alleviation and development are urgentlyneeded for them. Contrary to this image are the affluent villages in Punjab and Haryana where, speaking in relative terms, there is no scarcity, resources arein plenty, and facilities generally found in cities are easily available. Out-migrationfrom these villages is usually to the developed world, where people wish to gowith the sole intention of maximizing their assets and affluence.

2) The three salient characteristics of a rural society are:


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i) It is small in size with a low density of population.

ii) Members of the rural society are engaged in agriculture, which is themainstay of their life; and

iii) A rural society is tradition-bound, i.e. the same way of life, norms and folkways, customs and practices, and beliefs and values, tend to perpetuateover time, and the extent of change among them is considerably low. Thatwas the reason why Robert Redfield characterised a rural society as past-oriented.

Check Your Progress III

1) Scheduled Tribe is a constitutional term. There is an all-India list of Scheduled Tribes. Each of the Scheduled Tribes is a community of people that has beenrelatively isolated, because of which it is backward, less developed, and sometimessuffers from acute poverty and scarcity. In order to bring it at par with other developed communities, it is essential that its interests are protected and takencare of. All the states provide such protection and the needed extra supportunder the policy of what is known as compensatory discrimination, protectivediscrimination, or positive discrimination. The list mentioned above lists thenames of the tribes/communities that need such discrimination and each of thelisted communities is called a Scheduled Tribe.