The Nature of Rural Social Structure

Social Structure
Rural Social Structure in India

In order to better understand rural social structure, we first clarify what we mean by social structure. We then relate this understanding of the concept to the ethnographic description of society in rural India.

Social Structure

The human world is made up of individuals. Individuals communicate with each other to satisfy their needs. Furthermore, they occupy a certain status and role in social life with associated rights and duties. Their social behavior has a pattern and is associated with certain norms and values, which give them guidance in social interaction. Various social units such as groups, communities, associations and institutions arise in society as a product of social relations in human life. In this scenario, social structure is understood as the pattern of interconnected statuses and roles found in a society that represent a relatively stable set of social relationships. It is the organized pattern of the interconnected rights and duties of individuals and groups in a system of interaction

Rural Social Structure in India

India is a country whose ancient civilization dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization which started in the third millennium BC. flourished. Apart from a brief interlude during the Rig Vedic period (c. 1500-1000 BC) when urban centers were overrun, rural and urban centers co-existed in India. Rural and urban centers share certain facets of life. They show interdependence, particularly in the field of the economy, urban migration and the dependence of city dwellers or city dwellers on villages for various products (for example cereals, milk, vegetables, raw materials for industry) and the growing dependence of villagers on villages. cities for manufactured goods and market. Despite this interdependence between the two, certain distinctive traits separate them in terms of size, demographic composition, cultural anchoring, way of life, economy, employment and social relations.

The rural population lives in populated villages. Three main types of settlement patterns have been observed in rural areas:

The most common type is the village with nuclei found throughout the country. Here a dense agglomeration of houses is surrounded by the fields of the villagers. In this case, a remote fraction or more satellite fractions are also annexed to some villages.
Secondly, there are linear settlements in some parts of the country, e.g. in Kerala, Konkan and Bengal delta countries. In such settlements, the houses are strung together, each surrounded by its own land. However, there is little to physically delineate where one village ends and another begins.
The third type of settlement is simply a scattering of farms or clusters of two or three houses. In this case, even the physical delimitation of the villages is not clear. Such settlements are found in the hilly regions, Himalayan foothills, Gujarat highlands and Satpura mountains of Maharashtra.

Furthermore, we find that the population size of the village is small and the population density low compared to cities. India is rightly called a country of villages. According to the 1981 census, there were 4029 towns and 5,57,137 inhabited villages in the country. By the year 1991, this number had risen to 4,689 cities and 5,80,781 villages. According to the 2001 census, there are 5161 towns and 6,38,365 villages (including uninhabited villages) in India (Census of India (Provisional), 2001). Furthermore, according to the 2001 census, about 72% of the total population lives in villages. In addition, rural life is characterized by a direct relationship between men and nature, that is to say the earth, the animal and plant world. Agriculture is their main occupation. For example, agriculture in India supports about 58% of the working population.

The enduring rural social institutions in India continue to be family, kinship, caste, class and village. They have millenary historical roots and structures. They include the entire sphere of life: social, economic, political and cultural of rural populations. It reflects the complexity of social norms and values, statuses and roles, rights and duties. Therefore, we will now discuss them separately in the following paragraphs.

The Nature of Rural Social Structure

Contents

Social Structure

Rural Social Structure in India

Further Reading

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