Society and Social Change in India

By Society and Social Change in India

The subject of the transformation of Indian rural society under British colonial rule is a widely debated one. The debate has largely centred on the question of to what extent Indian rural traditions were restructured and re-defined under colonial rule. Such scholarly engagement brought under its ambit the subject of transformation of the Indian village from ancient times to the contemporary situation. At a basic level scholars have disagreed on the various nature of Indian villages. One of the central questions which has drew the attention even of colonial scholars and continued to generate interest among later scholars of varying ideological attachments is, was the Indian village a self-contained entity or not? The other most important question centres around the level and intensity of interaction of British rule with the Indian villages or to put it differently, did the Indian rural society come under the influence of ‘modernity’?