Question 1(a) · 10 marks · 192 words written
Provide a note on M N Srinivas contribution to social change in India.
Opening
M.N Srinivas is the sociologist, who introduced structural functionalism into the Indian society.
He analyzed the micro perspectives of Indian society (villages), in order to understand macro structure (Indian society)
Body · points and prose
contritution to social change
Close
He introduced the social change concept, in his coorg study [Religion and the social change].
During his field view analysis, he found that concepts like sanskritisation, Westernisation and Modernisation.
Intially during his study he introduced the term Brahmanisation, which means people there emulate their behaviours similar to that of Brahmans. eg:- practising brahmans ritual process. (performing Amavaya rituals, etc)
Later, he observed that people tried to emulate the behaviours of the dominant caste of that region. The dominant caste people were also financially better than the other caste. This he termed as Sanskritisations. eg:- Brahmins of Haryana. eg:- Peasants emulating the life style of Jats of Haryana (dominant caste).
Later due to the arrival of british and 150 years of colonising rule, people started to adopt western culture like clothing, food, etc. which he termed as Westernisation.
However he was critised by many thinkers like Yogendra Singh that village studies would no longer help to understand Indian society.