Rural Society

• Meaning of Rural Society
• Features of Rural Society
• Issues- Indebtedness
• Impact of Green Revolution
• Changes in Rural Society

Meaning of Rural Society

India is predominantly characterized by its rural landscape, where over 76% of the population still relies on agriculture or related activities as their main source of livelihood. Agriculture isn’t just a means of income in these rural areas; it’s deeply ingrained in the fabric of life itself. Rural society encompasses various facets including cultural, religious, economic, and political dimensions, with an emphasis on self-sufficiency across all aspects of life, thereby serving as the foundation of Indian society.

The term “rural society” is often used interchangeably with “villages,” “countryside,” or “folk society,” with “village” being the most commonly employed term in sociological discourse. In the Indian context, a settlement with a population density of less than 500 persons per square kilometer, where three-quarters of the population are engaged in agriculture as their primary occupation, and which has a village panchayat for administrative purposes, is classified as a village.

Sociologists use the term “rural society” to describe several key characteristics:

• Size: Typically, rural societies are small in both population and geographical area.
• Population Density: Rural areas have a sparse population, often organized into clusters based on social status.
• Economy: These societies are predominantly agrarian, with agriculture being a central economic activity.
• Cultural Traits: Rural societies tend to maintain traditional moral customs, preserving their folkways and traditional culture.

Features of Rural Society

A rural setting typically embodies a compact, thinly spread-out populace, largely uniform in their occupation, with agriculture being the predominant pursuit (although there exist deviations from this norm, particularly in industrialized nations). Historically, rural communities often reflected a folk culture. Below outline the defining traits of rural societies:

1. Size of the Community: The size of village communities is typically smaller compared to urban communities, resulting in lower population densities due to their smaller geographical areas.

2. Density of Population: In regions with sparse population, individuals tend to cultivate close interpersonal bonds and engage in frequent face-to-face interactions. In rural settings, there exists a strong sense of community where familiarity among residents is widespread.

3. Agriculture is the Main Occupation: Agriculture stands as the cornerstone of rural livelihoods, serving as the primary occupation for rural communities and the foundation of their economic sustenance. Within this domain, farmers engage in a multitude of tasks, requiring collaboration from fellow family members. Consequently, Lowry Nelson has aptly characterized farming as a collective endeavour involving the entire family unit.

4. Close Contact with Nature: Rural inhabitants maintain a profound connection with nature, with their daily routines deeply intertwined with the natural world. Consequently, rural life is distinctly shaped by these natural influences, setting it apart from urban living. Villagers regard the land as their ultimate provider, as it sustains them with food, clothing, shelter, and fulfills all essential survival requirements.

5. Homogeneity of Population: The village communities exhibit a sense of homogeneity. The majority of their residents are engaged in agricultural pursuits and related activities, although there is diversity among them in terms of caste, religion, and social class.

6. Social Stratification: In agrarian communities, social hierarchy is deeply ingrained, predominantly structured by the caste system, which historically maintains strict boundaries. These societies are segmented into distinct layers determined by caste affiliation, serving as the central axis around which their entire social fabric revolves.

7. Social Interaction: In rural regions, social interactions occur less frequently compared to urban areas, yet they tend to be more stable and enduring. Primary groups foster intimate relationships where families meet members’ needs and exert control. The dynamics of interaction are governed by the customs, traditions, and cultural norms unique to each society.

8. Social Mobility: In rural regions, social mobility is constrained by the entrenched caste system, where occupations are predetermined by birth. Transitioning between occupations is challenging due to the rigid caste boundaries, which also dictate the social standing of individuals within the community.

9. Social Solidarity: Social cohesion tends to be stronger in rural settings in contrast to urban environments. Villages foster unity through shared experiences, goals, customs, and traditions.

10. Joint Family: Joint family prevalent in rural India serves as the cornerstone of societal structure. Within this framework, familial authority dictates individual conduct, typically with the father assuming the role of patriarch. Charged with upholding discipline, he oversees the family’s affairs and ensures its smooth functioning.

Issues- Indebtness

Poverty significantly contributes to rural indebtedness, stemming from the meager incomes and uncertain agricultural practices prevalent among small landholders. This economic instability renders it difficult for rural dwellers to sustain their livelihoods adequately. Consequently, many resort to borrowing to meet their essential needs, perpetuating a cycle of debt within rural communities. This issue transcends individual circumstances, persisting across generations. Loans are commonly sought for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes, such as household expenses, social obligations like weddings and funerals, legal fees, among others. Regrettably, borrowed funds are often utilized for non-productive endeavors, exacerbating the financial strain on rural populations. Consequently, repayment becomes challenging, prompting further borrowing to settle outstanding debts, perpetuating the cycle of indebtedness.

Causes of Indebtedness

Here are the primary factors contributing to indebtedness:

1. Poverty: Rural indebtedness often stems from poverty, primarily driven by the meager incomes and precarious farming practices prevalent among small landholders. These conditions make it challenging for rural residents to fulfill their basic needs, leading them to resort to borrowing in order to make ends meet.

2. Inherited Debt: Many of the financial burdens faced in rural areas today stem from past generations and tend to accumulate over time. Those who inherit such debts are responsible for repayment only in proportion to the assets they inherit.

3. Social and Religious Needs: In rural communities, residents are largely guided by entrenched social norms and practices, viewed as deeply significant and obligatory. Various ceremonies such as weddings, childbirths, funerals, and religious festivities demand financial resources, often leading villagers to seek loans. However, due to inadequate incomes, many struggle to settle these debts, resulting in a mounting burden over time.

4. Litigation: Typically, farmers in India find themselves entangled in a multitude of conflicts concerning land, property, and other matters, prompting them to seek recourse in the legal system. They often perceive winning these cases as crucial for upholding their family’s reputation and dignity. However, this pursuit entails significant financial burdens and consumes considerable time, leading many to resort to loans, exacerbating their indebtedness.

5. Backwardness of Agriculture: Agriculture in India is fraught with uncertainty, largely reliant on unpredictable rainfall patterns for irrigation. In the absence of adequate or timely rainfall, crops face devastation, rendering the investments made in agriculture futile. Consequently, loans taken for agricultural purposes transform from assets to burdens, exacerbating the cycle of farmer indebtedness.

6. Excessive Burden of Rent: Land taxation imposed by the government in certain regions, alongside rent payments to landowners, is increasingly becoming an overwhelming burden for small-scale farmers. To meet these financial obligations, farmers often resort to taking loans, leading to indebtedness exacerbated by unforeseen events such as floods and droughts.

7. Defective Money Lending System: The village’s lending system presents inherent flaws. Its operators, primarily concerned with maximizing profit, exploit farmers relentlessly. They manipulate account records, impose exorbitant interest rates, and exploit farmers by purchasing their produce at unfairly low prices. Consequently, farmers find themselves unable to repay their loans, plunging deeper into debt. Ultimately, the lenders seize farmers’ lands and assets, perpetuating a cycle of indebtedness that entraps the farming community.

Conclusion: Based on the preceding explanation, it is evident that impoverished, uneducated, uninformed, and pressured farmers turn to informal money-lending sectors rather than banks for various reasons. The complexities of bureaucracy and extensive documentation requirements deter farmers from opting for banks, compelling them to resort to local money-lenders. These lenders exploit their lack of knowledge, ensnaring them in debt that sometimes extends to future generations.

Consequences of Rural Indebtedness

Rural indebtedness poses multifaceted challenges for rural communities, yielding a range of adverse outcomes. Among these are:

1. Leads to Pauperization: Economically speaking, the rise in rural indebtedness contributes to the worsening impoverishment of small and marginal farmers. They often resort to mortgaging their land to moneylenders, eventually resulting in its loss.

2. Conversion to Landless Labourers: Due to the depletion of land, marginal farmers are pushed into becoming landless laborers, forced to relinquish their farming livelihoods. Small-scale farmers suffer from receiving meager prices for their crops in comparison to their expenses. Indebtedness serves as both the root cause and consequence of escalating poverty among Indian farmers, leading to the transformation of independent farmers into a class of landless laborers and tenants.

3. Moral Degradation: Farmers burdened by debt find themselves compelled to offer up their possessions to either landlords or moneylenders. Regrettably, in some cases, even the women of these farmers become vulnerable targets for exploitation by both landlords and moneylenders. Such circumstances exacerbate the moral decline within rural communities.

4. Violent Revolt: In numerous regions across the nation, small-scale farmers, who have been dispossessed of their land by wealthy creditors, have risen up in violent protest. This issue is especially acute in certain areas of Bihar, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh. Within these states, affluent money-lenders from high castes have taken advantage of vulnerable and uneducated farmers and tribal communities, stripping them of their land. This exploitation has directly fuelled the emergence of Naxalite movements in these regions.

5. Political Consequences: Rural debt holds significant political consequences within rural communities. Those who control the means of production, such as money-lenders, often transition into political figures, leveraging their influence over indebted farmers during elections across various levels of governance, from village panchayats to the state assembly and national parliament. Consequently, this manipulation undermines the integrity of democracy, turning it into a mere facade.

6. Frustration: From a psychological perspective, it is evident that borrowers often experience frustration due to their inability to repay loans. Consequently, this can lead to scapegoating, where farmers may direct their frustration towards family members, resulting in escalating tensions and perpetual worry within the household.

Conclusion: Based on the aforementioned explanation, it becomes evident that rural indebtedness poses a significant challenge for rural farmers, particularly marginal ones. Due to the tight control exerted by moneylenders and landlords, sustaining their families becomes arduous, leaving family members in a perpetual state of concern and stress. It is imperative for the government to address this issue earnestly, with all political parties uniting to support farmers, transcending ideological differences. Only through such collective efforts can this longstanding issue be resolved and instances of farmer suicides mitigated.

Impact of Green Revolution

The Green Revolution originated in Mexico during the 1940s and gained global momentum throughout the 1950s and 1960s, significantly boosting agricultural yields and calorie production per acre. Norman Borlaug, an American agricultural scientist, is credited with pioneering this transformation by developing high-yield varieties of wheat.

In India, the Green Revolution denotes a period marked by the industrialization of agriculture, facilitated by the adoption of modern techniques and technologies. This includes the use of high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, mechanization with tractors, improved irrigation systems, and the application of pesticides and fertilizers. The initiative was spearheaded by agricultural scientist M. S. Swaminathan and commenced in 1966, resulting in a substantial increase in food grain production, particularly in regions like Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

The Green Revolution has profoundly influenced India’s economy and way of life, as evidenced by the following impacts:

1. Increase in Production: The inception of the Green Revolution in 1967-68 marked a significant upsurge in agricultural crop yields. This transformative movement, starting from 1967, primarily targeted the enhancement of wheat cultivation, earning it the moniker of the Wheat Revolution.

2. Prosperity of Farmers: As farm production rose, so did the incomes of farmers, leading to increased prosperity, particularly among large-scale farmers with over 10 hectares of land.

3. Decrease in Import of Food-grains: The primary advantage of the Green Revolution lay in its ability to significantly boost food-grain production, consequently reducing the need for imports. At present, we’ve achieved self-sufficiency in food-grains, with ample reserves in the central pool, enabling us to explore export opportunities.

4. Capitalistic Farming: Farmers who possessed over 10 hectares of land reaped substantial rewards from the Green Revolution’s technology. They made significant investments in various resources such as high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilizers, machinery, and more, fostering a trend towards capital-intensive farming.

5. Reinvestment of Profit: The advent of the green revolution has notably boosted farmers’ income levels. With increased earnings, farmers have begun allocating their surplus funds towards enhancing agricultural productivity. Consequently, this cycle of reinvestment has spurred additional advancements in the agricultural sector. A study conducted by Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, revealed that approximately 55 percent of farmers’ income is dedicated to fostering agricultural progress.

6. Industrial Growth: The Green Revolution led to extensive mechanization in agriculture, sparking a surge in the need for various machinery such as tractors, harvesters, threshers, combines, diesel engines, electric motors, pumping sets, and more. Additionally, there was a heightened demand for chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, and weedicides. Conversely, the Green Revolution also spurred the growth of industries reliant on agricultural produce, such as textiles, sugar, vanaspati, and others.

7. Rural Employment: Mechanization in agriculture has led to widespread unemployment, yet it has also spurred a significant rise in demand for labour through practices like multiple cropping, fertilizer usage, and the growth of agro-based industries. This increased demand offers a more stable employment alternative compared to traditional agriculture.

8. Change in the perspective of Farmers: Before the advent of the green revolution, Indian farmers were often characterized as illiterate, adhering to traditional methods of cultivation that had persisted for generations. However, the introduction of the green revolution marked a significant shift in both their approach to farming and their overall way of life. With the adoption of modern technology and improved farming techniques, farmers now enjoy a higher standard of living compared to previous generations.

Changes in Rural Society

It’s a commonly held belief that change is an inherent aspect of nature and an undeniable facet of life itself. Social transformation, a dynamic phenomenon, is evident across various societies, with rural communities being no exception. Nonetheless, the pace of such change varies geographically and temporally. At present, rural societies are undergoing significant shifts due to processes such as industrialization, urbanization, and modernization. These changes are ongoing and can be characterized as follows:

1. Caste system: The caste system has long been integral to rural society, playing a pivotal role in traditional village life. However, the advent of industrialization, urbanization and modernization has ushered in significant changes, altering the dynamics of the caste system in rural areas. Today, factors such as wealth, education, abilities, and efficiency are increasingly supplanting caste as indicators of status, marking a departure from previous norms. Traditional aspects of the caste system, such as dietary restrictions, dress codes, modes of living, and marriage practices, are gradually losing their rigidity in the face of evolving socio-economic conditions. Economic transformations have diminished the authority of panchayats in rural communities, while the prevalence of untouchability has declined, with education and skills gaining precedence over considerations of caste. Overall, the traditional structure of the caste system is undergoing profound shifts, reflecting the changing realities of rural life influenced by broader societal changes.

2. Jajmani System: The Jajmani system, an arrangement involving the exchange of services, encompasses the offering and acceptance of services. Individuals receiving services are termed Jajmans, while those providing services are referred to as Yagmans. However, this system has witnessed a decline due to various influences. Factors such as the elevation of lower caste statuses and heightened social mobility have contributed to its weakening. Additionally, monetary compensation, in the form of wages, has gradually replaced the traditional exchange of services in rural societies, leading to its gradual extinction.

3. Change in Marriage System: In rural communities, there are noticeable shifts in the traditional marriage customs. While endogamy remains prevalent, there is a noticeable rise in love marriages and inter-caste unions, alongside an emerging trend of divorce. In the past, parental arrangements governed marriages, but nowadays, individuals have more say in selecting their partners. This evolution has altered the sacred essence of marriage, transforming it into more of a social agreement over time.

4. Change in Family System: The predominant characteristic of rural families in India lies in their adherence to the joint family structure. However, due to various influences like Western ideologies and the rise of individualism, these joint families are undergoing a transformation into nuclear units. Consequently, the traditional authority of senior members within the family is diminishing, leading to a weakening of the family’s role as a social control mechanism.

5. Change in Economic Landscape: Various transformations are evident in the economic landscape of rural communities. Presently, farmers are adopting improved seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and machinery, resulting in enhanced agricultural output. The establishment of credit cooperative societies and commercial banks in rural regions has liberated villagers from dependence on moneylenders. Access to loans at lower interest rates, coupled with government financial aid for various needs, has stemmed the tide of migration from villages.

6. Change in Education: Residents of rural areas exhibit higher levels of illiteracy in contrast to their urban counterparts. Over the years, there has been a significant improvement in literacy rates, with figures climbing from 36% in 1981 to 59.21% in 2001, owing to the collaborative efforts of government bodies and various organizations. This upward trend underscores a growing awareness among villagers about the pivotal role of education in fostering social transformation and steering them away from traditional beliefs, superstitions, and conservative customs. To facilitate this progress, educational institutions such as schools and colleges have been established in rural locales, ensuring access to education for rural inhabitants.

7. Change in Political System: Lately, there has been a noticeable rise in the involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions in cultivating political awareness among rural communities. Alongside, mass media platforms such as radio, television, and newspapers have significantly contributed to enhancing the political engagement, consciousness, and understanding among villagers. This heightened awareness has led to a more discerning selection of leaders by the rural populace compared to previous times.

8. Social and Religious Practices: The close-knit social connections and communal bonds that once defined traditional village life are now nearly extinct in rural areas. Community spirit and hospitality have dwindled, giving way to a more individualistic mindset. Many no longer rely on spirituality as deeply, instead placing greater emphasis on objectivity.

9. Change in Rural Environment: In the past, rural areas boasted cleaner and more verdant surroundings compared to urban settings. However, contemporary circumstances reveal a shift, attributed to various factors like industrial expansion in rural locales, river valley projects, deforestation, and more. Consequently, these developments have led to significant environmental challenges in villages, impacting the rural community adversely.

10. Change in Health Facilities: The contemporary landscape of rural healing methods has undergone significant changes. Nowadays, numerous healthcare facilities have emerged within rural communities. This shift can be attributed to the various awareness initiatives launched by the government, fostering a heightened sense of health consciousness among villagers. As a result, rural residents are increasingly inclined to access modern healthcare services when needed, indicating a growing acceptance and utilization of such resources.

Conclusion: Based on the preceding description, it is apparent that the traditional fabric of village communities has evolved significantly. Nowadays, villages boast amenities akin to those found in urban areas, blurring the distinction between rural and urban societies. This transformation permeates various aspects of village life. However, despite these changes, with over 75% of the population residing in rural areas, India remains predominantly rural in character.