Structural functionalism | Sociology Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

M.N. Srinivas started structural-functional analysis in sociological and social anthropological research in India. The structural-functional perspective relies more on the field work tradition for understanding the social reality so that it can also be understood as ‘contextual’ or ‘field view’ perspective of the social phenomena.

M.N.SRINIVAS:

• Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas (1916-1999]was a world-renowned Indian sociologist He is mostly known for his work on caste and caste systems, social stratification and Sanskritisation in southern India. Srinivas’ contribution to the disciplines of sociology and social anthropology and to public life in India was unique. It was his capacity to break out of the strong mould in which [the mostly North American university oriented] area studies had been shaped after the end of the Second World War on the one hand, and to experiment with the disciplinary grounding of social anthropology and sociology on the other, which marked his originality as a social scientist.
• It may be important to point out that it was the conjuncture between Sanskritic scholarship and the strategic concerns of the Western bloc in the aftermath of the Second World War which had largely shaped South Asian area studies in the United States. During the colonial era, the Brahmins or Pandits were acknowledged as important interlocutors of Hindu laws and customs to the British colonial administration.The colonial assumptions about an unchanging Indian society led to the curious assemblage of Sanskrit studies with contemporary issues in most South Asian departments in the U.S. and elsewhere. It was strongly believed that an Indian sociology must lie at the conjunction of Indology and sociology.
• Srinivas’ scholarship was to challenge that dominant paradigm for understanding Indian society and would in the process, usher newer intellectual frameworks for understanding Hindu society. His views on the importance of caste in the electoral processes in India are well known. While some have interpreted this to attest to the enduring structural principles of social stratification of Indian society, for Srinivas these symbolized the dynamic changes that were taking place as democracy spreads and electoral politics became a resource in the local world of village society.
• Srinivas wanted to understand his countrymen not on the basis of western textbooks or from indigenous sacred texts but from direct observation, field study and field experience. He made intensive field study of Coorgs between 1940-42. In his study, he describes the concept of functional unity by Coorgs, mainly Brahmins ( priests), Kaniyas (astrologers and magicians) and Bannas and Panikas (low castes). In the context of the study of Rampura also, he describes that the various castes in a village are interdependent.
• Srinivas studies of caste and religion highlighted not only their structural-functional aspects, but also the dynamics of the caste system in rural setting. He proposed conceptual tools like ‘dominant caste’ ‘sanskritization – westernization’ and ‘secularization’ to understand the realities of intercaste relations and also to explain their dynamics.

Srinivas explains two basic concepts to understand our society :

• Book view (bookish perspective) : Religion, Varna, caste, family, village and geographical structure are the main elements, which are known as the bases of Indian society.The knowledge about such elements is gained through sacred texts or from books. Srinivas calls it book view or bookish perspective. Book view is also known as Indology, which is not acceptable to Srinivas and he emphasised to the field view.
• Field view (field work) : Srinivas believes that the knowledge about the different regions of Indian society can be attained through field work. This he calls field view. Consequently, he prefers empirical study to understand our society. Srinivas took the path of small regional studies rather than the construction of grand theories. In this context, field work plays an important role to understand the nativity of the rural Indian society.

WRITINGS OF SRINIVAS:

Srinivas has written on many aspects of Indian society and culture. He is best known for his work on religion, village community, caste and social change He was influenced by Radcliffe-Brown’s notion of structure, who was his teacher at Oxford He studied Indian society as a ‘totality’, a study which would integrate “the various groups in its interrelationship, whether tribes, peasants or various cults and sects” (Patel). His writings are based on intensive field work in South India in general and Coorgs and Rampura in particular (Shah).

• Social Change : Brahminization, sans-kritisation, westernization and secularization
• Religion and Society
• Study of Village
• Views on Caste
• Dominant Caste

Social Change:

‘Social change’ as a theme continues to be a significant concern of Indian sociologists.This hold true not only for the pre-independence phase but also for post-independence period Srinivas attempted to construct a macro-level analysis using a large number of micro-level findings on the processes of ‘sanskritisation, ‘westernization’ and ‘secularization’. Interestingly enough,Srinivas returned to his micro-empirical setting a village- after nearly a quarter of century and in a diachronic frame highlighted the nature of social change in that village over period of time.

Religion and Society

• Srinivas’s work ‘Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India’ led him to formulate the concept of Brahminization to represent the process of the imitation of life-ways and ritual practices of Brahmins by the lower-caste Hindus.The concept was used as an explanatory device to interpret changes observed in the ritual practices and life-ways of the lower castes through intensive and careful field study. The notion of Brahminization, however, had implicit possibilities of further abstraction into a higher level concept, Sanskritisation, which Srinivas introduced because his own field data and those of many others indicated limitations of using only Brahminic model as frame of reference. Later, sanskritisation, as a concept, thus, replaced Brahminization at a more abstract level.
• Srinivas achieved this through enlarging the meaning of sanskritisation and by distinguishing it from another concept, westernization, using both terms in a systematic manner to explain the processes of social change in India. This conceptual scheme, though referring mainly to the processes of cultural imitation, has a built-in structural notion, that of hierarchy and inequality of privilege and power, since the imitation is always by the castes or categories placed lower in social and economic status. We find a systematic placed lower in social and economic status.
• We find a systematic formulation of the two concepts in Srinivas’s ‘Social Change in Modern India’, wherein he defines ‘sanskritisation’ as the process by which a ‘low’ caste or tribe or other groups takes over the custom, ritual beliefs ideology and style of life of a high and in particular, a ‘twice-born (dwija), caste. The sanskritisation of a group has usually the effect of improving its position in the local caste hierarchy.The major emphasis in study of social change through concepts of sanskritisation and westernization and of the levels of traditions is on the changes in cultural styles, customs and ritual practices.

Sanskritisation:

• The term Sanskritisation was introduced into Indian Sociology by Prof. M.N. Srinivas.The term refers to a process whereby people of lower castes collectively try to adopt upper caste practices and beliefs, as a preliminary step to acquire higher status. Thus, this indicates a process of cultural mobility that took place in the traditional social system of India.
• Meaning of Sanskritisation : Sanskritisation is not a new phenomenon. It has been a major process of cultural changein Indian history, and it has occurred in every part of the Indian sub-continent It denotes the process in which the lower castes try to imitate the life-styles of upper castes in their attempt to raise their social status.
• Definition of Sanskritisation: The definition of Sanskritisation was given by M.N.Srinivas in his “Social Change in Modern India” published in 1971. It means “a process by which a low caste or a tribe or other group changes its customs, rituals, ideology, and a way of life in the direction of a high and frequently, twice born caste.”

Impact of Sanskritisation as Modernizing Force:

• Modern education,Western literature and philosophy of people widened and as a result the mental horizons and visionary of people changed They welcomed rationality and other good features of and made good use of liberal and humanitarian ideas and thoughts.
• Vedas has been conceived through intellectual contemplation and empirical observation and used Upnishads (speculative interpretation of Vedas or Mythology) for the creation of human imagination.
• Reformists and their organizations had purely an economic and social thrust They aimed at establishing a social order based on Vedic teachings and practices. They criticized the mumbo-jumbo of rituals and superstitions created by some selfish people to entangle the ignorant and poor masses. They laid emphasis on interpreting Vedas in a rational and scientific way.
• It reduced or removed the gap between the ritual and secular rankings. It also helped upliftment of weaker persons.The lower caste group which successfully got into the seat of secular power also tried to avail of the services of Brahmins especially at the time of observing rituals, worshipping and offering things to God.

Criticisms of Sanskritisation :

• According to J.F Stall, Sanskritisation as used by Srinivas and other anthropologists isa complex concept or a class of concepts.The term itself seems to be misleading, since its relationship to the term Sanskrit is extremely complicated
• Yogendra Singh opines that sanskritisation fails to account for many aspects of cultural change in past and contemporary India as it neglects the non-sanskritic traditions.
• As it neglects non-sanskritic traditions like Bhakti movement, Buddhism and Islamisation. So it is more of culturological model than sociological
• Sanskritic influence has not been universal to all parts of country. In most of northern lndia, especially in Punjab, it was the Islamic tradition which provided a basis for cultural imitation.
• When we try to interpret certain changes that have taken place in the field of social mobility in the light of Sanskritisation, we face certain paradoxes. According to Dr.Srinivas, political and economic forces are normally favourable for Sanskritisation. But the “policy of reservation” a poltico constitutional attempt to elevate the status of lower caste, and class people, presents here a different picture. Theoretically, the policy of reservation must be supportive of Sanskritisation. But paradoxically it goes against it.

Westernisation:

• Definition of Westernisation : According to M.N.Srinivas,”Westernisation” refers to “the changes brought about in the Indian society and culture as a result of over 150 years of British rule and the term subsumes changes occurring at different levels -technology, institutions, ideology and values.”
• Meaning of Westernisation: In comparison with Sanskritisation, Westernisation is a simplier concept It explains the impact of Western contact (particularly of British rule) on the Indian society and culture. M.N. Srinivas used the term “Westernisation” to describe the changes that a non-western country had undergone as a result of prolonged contact with the western one. It imples, according to Srinivas, “certain value preferences”, which in turn subsumes several values, such as “humanitarianism”.

Impact of Westernisation

• Opened up the doors of the knowledge
• Modern education opened up the doors of the knowledge flourished in Europe after Renaissance movement of Middle Ages. It had widened the mental horizons of Indian intelligentsia.
• Education for all – During second half of the nineteenth century, British government in India opened the doors of education to all the sections of Indian society, irrespective of caste or creed Still very few amongst the general public could avail the advantages of formal modern education. Education remained confined within a small section of society.
• Highlighted evil practices-Modern education had highlighted the evil practices and weaknesses developed into the system, like rigidity and harshness of many social customs and practices prevalent at that time for the weaker sections of the society i.e. untouchability and inhuman treatment to women,Sati, Polygamy, child marriage etc. prevalent at that time.
• Attracted attention of social reformers- Modern education had attracted the attention of intellectuals and social reformers towards real issues evils caused by ignorance, irrationality of mumbo-jumbo of rituals and superstitions created by some selfish people to entangle the ignorant and poor masses.They suggested remedies for social, political and economic ills of the country. They took upon themselves the responsibility to build a modern, open, plural culturally rich, prosperous and powerful India out of a fragmented, poverty stricken, superstitious, weak, indifferent, backward and inward looking society. As a result of such efforts, it led to abolition of Sati and slavery. Female infanticide practice lowered to a great extent
• Realization of the worth of liberty and freedom- It equipped national leaders with intellectuals tools with which they fought the oppressive British Raj. Indians realized the worth of liberty and freedom. They got exposure to the philosophies of thinkers like Locke, Mill Roussseau, Voltaire, Spencer and Burke etc.They understood the reasons and impact of English, French, American revolutions.

Criticisms of Westernisation :

The concepts of Sanskritisation and Westernisation primarily analyse social change in “cultural” and not in “structural” terms. This denoted that these terms have limited range of application and use.

• Srinivasas model explains the process of social change only in India which is based on the caste system. It is not useful for other societies. Though Srinivas claimed that the concept of Westernisation is “ethically neutral” it is not really so. The Western model which Srinivas has eulogised has its own contradiction. Mention can be made of the facts of Western life such as racial prejudice, colour segregation and exploitive nature of the Western economy, etc.These facts contradict humanitarian ideals or rational outlook on life.
• It is also commented that the Western model which Srinivas has eulogised has its own contradiction. The western model sometimes conveys values that are contrary to the ones referred by Srinivas.
• Daniel Learner has raised some objections to the use of Westernisation as conceived by Srinivas :
  • It is too local label and the model which is imitated may not be western country; but Russia.
  • One of the result of prolonged contact with the west is the rise of the elite class whose attitude towards the West is ambivalent is not invariably true. In this context, Lerner refers to the appeal of Communism in non-western countries.
  • Westernisation in one area or level of behaviour does not result inWesternisation in another related area or level
  • While there is certain common elements in Westernisation, yet each represent a particular variant of a common culture and significant difference exists between one country and another.

Study of Village :

Besides religion and caste, the third traditions component of Srinivas’ Study is village. Srinivas got the seed idea of studying India’s villages from his mentor Radcliffe-Brown in. He conducted the study of Rampur – a Mysore village – which gave him the concept of ‘dominant cast’. The study has been contained in the Remembered Village; it is here only that Srinivas takes some time to discuss social and economic changes, which have taken place in Rampura. He informs that the technological change occupied a prominent place in the life of the people of Rampura soon after independence. Technological change, of course, went hand in hand with economic, political and cultural changes.

• The main aim of Srinivas has been to understand Indian society. And’ for him, Indian society is essentially a caste society.
• He has studied religion, family, caste and village in India. Srinivas search for the identity of traditions makes him infer that the Indian traditions are found in caste, village and religion.
• Ideologically, he believed in status quo: let the Dalits survive and let the high castes enjoy their hegemony over subaltern. For him, it appears that Indian social structure is on par with the advocates of Hindutva, say, the cultural nationalism. Srinivas though talks about economic and technological development, all through his works he pleads for change in caste, religion and family.
• Even in the study of these areas he sidetracks lower segments of society. They are like ‘untouchables’ for him.
• Srinivas has extensively talked about the social evils of the caste society; he pleads for change in caste system and discusses westernization and modernization as viable paradigms of changes. But his perspective of change is Brahminical Hinduism or traditionalism.

CONCLUSION

Despite above mentioned criticism, Srinivas stands tall among the first-generation sociologists of India. His focus on ‘field view’ over the ‘book view’ is a remarkable step in understanding the reality of Indian society. This reflects sociology of nativity. His field work among the Coorgs relates his approach as structural-functional and represents an exposition of the complex interrelationship between ritual and social order in Coorgs society. It also deals with the crucial notion of purity and pollution as also with the process of incorporation of non-Hindu communities into the Hindu social order. This refers to the concept of ‘sanskritisation’ which he used to describe the process of the penetration of Sanskritic values into the remotest parts of India.