Chapter – 2

Cultural Change

In this post we have given the detailed notes of class 12 Sociology Chapter 2 (Cultural Change) in English. These notes are useful for the students who are going to appear in class 12 board exams.

Printed Books Are Available Now!

Cultural change

• The change in the culture of a country i.e. the thinking, beliefs, beliefs and ideals of the people, is called cultural change
• Cultural change can be understood by four processes: –
  • Culturalization
  • Westernization
  • secularism
  • modernization

Culturalization

• The term sanskritisation was first used by M.N. Srinivasa
• Culturalization is a process in which people from lower castes, tribes or other groups try to imitate the lifestyle, ideals and ideologies of people of certain castes
  • Impact of Culturalization on Lower Castes
    • Improvement in social status
    • Positive impact on religious life
    • The potential for economic growth is huge.
    • Social Development
    • Changes in the business sector

Characteristics of Culturalization

• Not Brahminization
• In ancient times, Indian society was divided into four varnas i.e. Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. During the process of culturalization, the lower castes not only tried to imitate the lifestyle of Brahmins, but they also tried to imitate the lifestyle of other varnas i.e. Kshatriya and Vaishya.
• Many models
  • Different patterns have been found in different areas of the process of culturalization.
• Imitation of the lifestyle of the upper castes
  • The lifestyle of the upper castes is imitated by the lower castes in the process of culturalization.

Criticism of culturalization

• In this process, an attempt has been made to make the upper caste lifestyle look good while the lower caste lifestyle has been shown as inferior.
• Despite the adoption of upper caste lifestyle by the lower castes, they do not get respect in society.
• The upper castes consider it their right to discriminate against the lower castes, due to which discrimination has not decreased even after culturalization.
• Inequality and exploitation persist in the process.
• The process of culturalization did not benefit the girls much.

Westernization

• The growing influence of the culture of western countries is called westernization.
• In other words, when the influence of western lifestyles, practices and ideals increases in a country, this process is called Westernization.
• For example: –
  • Industrialization and ideological change during the British rule in India

Features of Westernization

• Westernization is different from modernization; Westernization is related to lifestyle while modernization is related to the process of production;
• The process of Westernization continues even after India’s independence, even in the present time, the increasing influence of the lifestyle of western countries can be seen in India.
• Westernization is a complex process that affects every part of society.
• The process of Westernization is not limited to cities, its impact can be seen throughout the country.
•  

Westernization and Indian Society

• Since the colonial period, Western ideas have influenced Indian society in a big way. The impact of Westernization in India can be seen in the following forms:
  • Impact on the family
  • Impact on marriage rules
  • Abolition of untouchability
  • Impact on religious life of Indians
  • Impact on the caste system prevailing in India.
  • Ideology of secularism

Secularism

• Secularism is a situation in which all religions, beliefs and beliefs are considered equal and given equal rights.

India and Secularism

• The Indian Constitution declares India a secular state.
• The following are the reasons why this secular ideology prevails in India:
  • Indian Culture
  • Developed transport and communication system.
  • Modern education system
  • urbanisation
  • Westernization

Modernization

• The general meaning of modernization is the development in the process of production, but this meaning has changed over time and in the present era, modernization is understood to mean development in line with western countries.

Social reform movement

• H movements by which efforts are made to eliminate religious and social evils spread in the society run social reform movements
• During the 19th to 20th centuries, large-scale social reform movements were carried out in India.
• The main reasons for the growth of social reform movements in India during the 19th to 20th centuries were as follows:
  • Evils spread on a large scale in Indian society.
  • The emergence of an educated class in the society
  • Lack of awareness of equality in the minds of people
  • Condition of women
  • Need to spread awareness.
  • During this period, social reform movements were carried out mainly against the following practices.

Sati Practice

• This practice was started by Brahmins. Under this, after the death of the husband, the wife was burnt alive along with her pyre. This practice was extremely atrocious and wrong. This practice was opposed by the British. Raja Rammohan Roy strongly opposed the practice of Sati and in 1829 the British government passed the Sati Pratha Act declaring it illegal.

Child marriage

• Child marriage was the age of 4 to 5 years in that period. This age for marriage was very low because at this age the child did not have knowledge of marriage and related responsibilities. The British government passed a law in 1860 to increase the minimum age of marriage to 10 years.

Widow remarriage

• At that time, in Indian society, widows could not remarry, that is, widows could not remarry, due to not being able to remarry after the death of the husband, it was very difficult for the woman to live a happy and happy life, that is why in 1856, the British government passed the Widow Remarriage Act and gave widows the right to remarry.

Curtain practice

• The practice of purdah was prevalent in Muslim society at that time, according to which women had to cover their face with curtains while going out, many social reformers opposed it and the chief among them was Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who strongly opposed it and over time there was some flexibility in this practice.

Dowry system

• At that time, the practice of dowry was prevalent on a large scale in Indian society, due to which there was additional pressure on the parents of the girl child and the girl was seen as a burden, due to which there was a huge difference in the number of women and men in the country, due to which there were many movements against it and in 1861, the Government of India passed an Act and declared the dowry practice illegal. went

Untouchability

• Untouchability or untouchability is the worst aspect of the Indian caste system, under which a particular community was considered contaminated and touching them was also considered a sin.
• These communities had no part in the caste hierarchy
• It used to be completely different from the society, those people who were considered to be around got nothing but exclusion, disrespect and exploitation from the society.
  • Dimensions of Untouchability
    • social boycott
    • disregard
    • exploitation
    • These people were called Harijans by Gandhiji, Harijan means people of Lord Hari.
    • Untouchability has been banned by the Indian Constitution to eliminate untouchability in the country
    • This Act of the Indian Constitution is effective from June 1, 1955
  • Caste system
    • The caste system in India has a long history
    • These castes are determined on the basis of the work being done by the person and these castes are associated with a person from birth.
  • Other Backward Classes
    • In India, socially and economically backward castes are included in the OBC category, it included those who neither belong to the very upper caste nor go down the very low, but these were the people who were living a normal poor life and were economically and educationally weak.
    • The OBC Commission was first constituted under the chairmanship of Kakasaheb Kalelkar.
    • But given the circumstances of that period, it was not considered further
    • After the imposition of Emergency in the country, once again the demand for the rights of OBCs arose, in this period, the second Backward Class Commission was appointed under the chairmanship of BP Mandal.
    • Their recommendations were incorporated in the 93rd Amendment of the Constitution and other backward classes were given reservation in higher educational institutions.

We hope that class 12 Sociology Book 2 Chapter 2 (Cultural Change) notes in English helped you. If you have any query about class 12 Sociology Book 2 Chapter 2 (Cultural Change) notes in Hindi or about any other notes of class 12 Sociology in English, so you can comment below. We will reach you as soon as possible…