35 most important Questions and Answers on India

1. How does communication play important role in Modernization & traditionalization in India?

In the Indian case, this media-exposure results both in modernization and traditionalization. Postal and telegraph services not only bring with them more information about distant places and the relatives located distantly, thus increasing peoples, psychic mobility but also the facility to organize caste associations and other traditional group activities more efficiently.

Hence, the modernization of the channels of communication and modes of transport results into a kind of cultural syncretism between the value systems of tradition and modernity.

2. Explain that nationalism and political culture of democracy are other forms of normative innovations?

Nationalism and political culture of democracy are other forms of normative innovations which are essentially modern in ethos and have a pan-Indian character. Both of these phenomena are of exogenous nature and pose serious challenges to the primordial normative structure of the Indian tradition. Nationalism implies the consciousness of one nationhood and its related sense of political identity, which results from political consensus.

3. Explain the evolution of new cultural goals?

Communal values based on estates gradually disappeared and were replaced by values of freedom, equality and humanism. These were guaranteed to individuals though recognition of their civil rights within the political frame work of democratic nation-states. The materialization of these cultural goals was gradual and was closely linked with the past cultural traditions.

4. Compare the evolution of nationalism and democracy in India and world?

First, these values have been derived from an alien tradition and have grown on the soil of Indian under a colonial patronage, which is a psychologically irksome factor. Secondly, the economic and social structural factors of the contemporary Indian are not comparable to those of the 17th and 18th century west. Thirdly, for historical reasons these institutional innovations have been interjected in the Indian body-politic in a compressed from which in the West had evolved gradually, and this phenomenon creates new and far greater cultural stresses than it did in the West.

5. Are you agree that Indian nationalism has been a forerunner to democratic polity? Explain.

Historically, Indian nationalism has been a forerunner substantively; it was never modelled completely after the Western pattern. From Rammohan Roy to Gandhi, the nationalistic consciousness was oriented towards the Indian tradition; in this matter there were differences of degrees but not of kind. The national leaders were for modernity but not at the cost of traditional cultural identity. Tilak and Gandhi represent extreme forms of this movement, being the advocates of kind of nationalism which was deeply embedded in the past Hindu tradition.

6. What was fundamental feature of Gandhi’s philosophy of nationalism?

Gandhi had an uncanny skill to project to Indian masses the many humanistic values of the model West through traditional cultural symbolism; the kind of nationalism if which he was an advocate was rooted in the Hindu tradition but at the same time was non-communal and to that extent secular secularism for Gandhi did not mean a religiosity but the spirit of religious tolerance which he postulate on the basis of universalistic ethic of Hinduism itself.

7. How can role of Indian nationalism in the cultural modernization be analysed?

The concepts of communalism and secularism provide useful conceptual tools for the analysis of m role of Indian nationalism in the cultural modernization of the nation. Secularism is a sub-process. Modernization spread implies that various issues and events in personal and social life are evaluated. Not from a religious point of view but utilitarian.

8. What was the contribution of Congress in Secular nationalism?

Movement was primarily led by the Indian National Congress which right from its beginning took a non communal standpoint One year after its founding in 1885; its report stated that “the Congress is community of temporal interests and not of spiritual convictions that qualify men to represent each other in the discussion of political questions.” Commitment to this ideal was kept intact by till Congress.

9. How was secular form of India cemented?

India becoming a secular state free India adopted a Constitution which guarantees individual and collective freedom of religion and lays down that there should be no state discrimination on the ground of religion in public employment and education; it further provides that state as such must be neutral to religious goals and should not levy taxes for religious purposes or encourage religious teachings in educational institutions wholly financed by the state.

10. What was the principal tolerance of Hindu community during British rule?

It may be pointed out that the Hindu community right from the beginning of the British rule took a more liberal attitude towards various social legislation’s which abolished many of its pseudo-religious customs by low. It even tolerated legislation affecting the caste system quite early in the 19th century, as we mentioned above.

11. Which are those factors disharmonize with the value system of secular India?

In the political sphere too, many political parties and groups have continued to voice communal point of view on contemporary issues. Political parties like the Hindu Sabha, Rama Rajya Parishad, Jana Sangh and Muslim League which directly or indirectly have communal orientations are active in the Political arena. Movement based on caste, regionalism, and linguistic affinities voice degrees of particularistic identities in political processes. Since secularism implies a universalistic world-view, these contemporary movements in India do not harmonize with its value system.

12. What is Donald E. Smith’s view about India’s secularism?

Donald E. Smith says “it is meaningful to speak of India as a secular state, despite the existence of the problems…. India is a secular state in the same sense in which one can say that India is a democracy. Despite various undemocratic features of Indian politics and government, parliamentary democracy is functioning, and with considerable vigour.

13. Explain about the post-Independence polity of India?

The last Act was never enforced but has substantially influenced the federal nature of the parliamentary system as adopted through the Constitution. Despite this linkage with the British heritage, democracy in India cannot be said to be patterned entirely on any foreign model. This obtains both in case of the formal pattern and the processes of democratic functioning.

14. Focus upon the cultivated Gandhi’s philosophy in Indian constitution?

The Indian Constitution recognizes the diversities in the Indian tradition through its emphasis on federalism and decentralization; it has an imprint of the Gandhian philosophy in its recognition of the need for village panchayats, cottage industries and to a great extent its emphasis on a welfare state embodies the central values of humanism and tolerance preached by Gandhi.

15. Show a glimps of change India with an example? Answer

Traditionally, home-made clothes were worn by villagers all over the country, a custom which now survives only among a few castes in some regions in India. The factory produced clothes now have replaced the home-spun clothes and occasionally one might come across modern synthetic fabrics like nylon, Terylene, etc., even in remote parts of the country.

16. How are traditional habits of India changed? Answer

Modernization has also reached the level of food habits and mode of eating; commensal restrictions form an essential part of the normative structure of the caste system and are related to the ideas of pollution and purity. First compromise in eating habits and norms were made after the introduction of railways and other public transport systems such as buses and ferries.

17. Which are those materialistic changes, taken place in India over the period?

Prof. Srinivas writes about the Mysore region “that popularity of travel and tea shops is not confined to city folk but extends to villages are well.” Other new items of food which are gaining popularity even at the village level are sweets, soft drinks and other edibles processed and packed in factories. Meat- eating and use of eggs among the higher caste members is on the increase, and in north Indian villages where a decade back poultry farming was looked down upon as a polluting occupation the number of such farms has now multiplied.

18. How has English language become popular among masses?

Many terms from the English language have now become an organic part of colloquial expression of rural folk, also bringing with them nuances of cultural modernization. Expansion of civil administration popularized the terms like ‘court’, ‘collector’, ‘judge’, ‘barrister’, etc. Expansion of transport facilities has rendered the terms like ‘rail’, ‘station’, ‘signal’, etc., matters.

19. Show an explainer relation between language and tradition?

Many linguistic motifs of modernization have now become parts of the little tradition. There may be contextual variation in meanings of these terms but that is less important considering the elements of ‘psychic mobility’ which these phrases imply for the common people.

20. What kind of relationship do the modern technology and cultural equipment share with tradition?

Modern technology and cultural equipment too now form part of the little tradition of India. In the urban areas ‘the pressures of urban life itself, as Prof. Srinivas says, make people adopt new schedules of work and personal habits and motivate them to use modern media of transport, communication and leisure. But due to changes in the frontiers of trade, transport, and expansion of administrative, developmental and political activities at the village level in India, these modern technological and cultural equipments have made an impact on cultural life too.

21. What is the impact of technological revolution on rural India?

In many households one will find China cups and pots radios & cosmetic goods bought from the cities or presented by family members working in urban centres and cities. Bicycle has become a popular conveyance and with its increasing number many workshops have sprung up in village. This brings Indian villages closer not only to commercial but also to technological know-how on the one hand and establishes their stable contact with the urban centres on the other.

22. What is role being played by cultural media in Modernization?

Themes from urban life, contemporary politics and social economic issues are being borrowed buy the cultural media of the fold tradition. Folk songs now often use metaphors, idioms and tunes of popular cinema songs; many of them refer caustically to contemporary feuds and tensions among various castes and groups; election propaganda is often made through the media of folk dramas, songs and devotional meetings.

23. How does the little tradition of Modernization receive support from great tradition of modernization?

This Little tradition of modernization spreads through interaction of its networks of communications with the Great traditions of modernization. The indigenous centres and networks of the little and Great Indian tradition functions sometimes independently and sometimes also as bearers of the little and Great traditions of modernization.

24. How can the separated existence of tradition and modernity be shown?

In the contemporary processes of culture-change in India both syncretic and separate existence of tradition and modernity, which often seems enigmatic to many, can be explained by these processes. Culturally, therefore, we may find in India three important ramifications: the traditional, the modern and the traditional-modem. This last ramification is one which is paramount in the processes of cultural change. This constitutes a transitional phase which Fred W. Riggs, calls ‘prismatic’ stage of change.

25. What is the net result of modernization? Explain in short.

It is reasonable to assume that since modernization in traditional society’s proceeds through a transitional or prismatic stage, in which traditional cultural forms have necessarily to undergo syncretic changes, the net result of modernization which would finally emerge at the conclusion of this transitional phase will have the imprints of tradition.

26. Explain the elasticity of modernity and tradition?

Tradition and modernity as heuristic concepts are easy to formulate, but to separate them at substantive level is rather difficult. Modernization as a process, in fact, has more elasticity of form than tradition. It implies an open world-view which like science undergoes perpetual self-falsification and self- transcendence in its value-structure and postulates.

27. Describe the perceptions of comparative studies and modernization?

Comparative studies on modernization in the new states have shown that contrary to stereotyped beliefs, old traditions are not completely displaced by modernization, what follows is an accretion and transmutation of forms. Similarly, tradition does not necessarily retard the process of modernization. As we have mentioned above, religious leaders in Indonesia studied by Geertz serve as carriers of modernization.

28. How is caste associations related to political modernization in India? Explain.

In India, caste associations, which are otherwise typical symbols of tradition, have in increasingly been found to serve the ends of political modernization. Lloyd I. Rudolph calls this phenomenon ‘modernity of tradition’ and concludes with Edward Shils that “modernity has entered into Indian character and society but it has done so through assimilation and not replacement.”

29. How is modernization opined from historical point of view?

Processes in the institutional realm of modernization are also in harmony with historical growth of phenomenon in India. Historically, the rise of nationalistic movement which later changed into a movement for political, cultural and economic modernization was itself never bereft of the consciousness of the past tradition of India. The new leadership that is now emerging is more conscious of national identity and prides in the traditional culture of India.

30. What kind of relationship does the specialization of work held with traditional forms of authority?

Specialization of work in traditional societies was, in fact, structurally undifferentiated from traditional, forms of authority and particularistic patterns of social relationship. Even the craft guilds were not based on rational-universalistic forms of authority with regard to the allocation of resources and facilities in the group structure. “The merchant and craft guilds of the Occident”, Max Weber writes, “cultivated religious interests along with these modernistic centres at education but gradually even they came under the influence of the former.

31. What is the impact of western education on modernization?

In education western influences are more positive. Modern education has been standardized in government schools and universities; and private and communal schools and colleges, whatever special distinguishing features of their own they may have, are yet made to conform to general standards by systems of grants-in-aid and general provisions. Even the old institutions have tended slightly in the direction of modernization.

32. Explain the developments taken place in educational modernization?

Since independence the aspiration for modern education has increased in all communities. Many states have also taken policy measures to curtail the element of communalism in education for reinforcing the policy of secularism. This has not always succeeded or been accepted without resentment.

33. What has the attitude of Muslim religious elite been towards modern education?

The reaction of Muslim religious elie to modern education always ranged from ambivalence to hostility. Resistance had been especially stronger from the lower level of these elites (bazar Maulivis). But a recent study reveals that religious conservation persists even among a sizeable section of the Muslim political elites, especially in regard to personal laws, system of purdah, and family planning.

34. Describe the crisis of values of modern education in Islam?

Without an agonizing consciousness of deviation from the traditional path new sources of legitimation of modernizing adaptations by Muslims have not yet been fully institutionalized. It has not been institutionalized even of Hinduism, but its general characteristics of permissiveness in cultural innovations and lack of an organized church does not lead to the same degree of crisis of values as in Islam.

35. What is the position of modernization in Muslim community? Explain benefit.

This lack of confidence is the major bottleneck in the growth of new principles of legitimation which are necessary for modernization. Logically, the Hindu community can help remove this suspicion and strengthen the forces of modernization in Islam. Until then, modernization will continue to be a half­hearted response and will remain eclectic in nature.