Modernization

By Dr. Upasana Borthakur

Modernization
• Modernization refers to a model of a progressive transition from a pre modern
or traditional to a modern society.
• According to scholars, the process of modernisation sums up the changes that
combine to convert an agricultural or underdeveloped society with a weak state
into an industrialised society with a relatively efficient, active government.
• The modernisation process embraces changes that leads up to this
industrialisation and urbanisation.
• Thus modernization is a process of social transformation from traditional
society to well advanced society based on science and technology.
• It is a process of change in behaviour, way of life and rational way of thinking.
Definitions of Modernization
• According to Wilbert Moore, “modernisation is a ‘total’ transformation
of a traditional or pre-modern society into the types of technology and
associated social organisation that characterizes the advanced,
economically prosperous and relatively stable nations of the Western
World”.
• Daniel Lerner defined modernisation as “the process of social change in
which development is the economic component”.
• According to Alatas, “Modernization is a process by which modern
scientific knowledge is introduced in the society with the ultimate
purpose of achieving a better and a more satisfactory life in the
broadest sense of the term as accepted by the society concerned”.
 Features of Modernization
• It emphasises a high degree of structural differentiation and specialisation.
• It is based on a mode of production that has come to be known as the capitalist mode
of production.
• It is essentially a wage labour economy. It highlights the growth of a market economy
in which both buyers and sellers are seen as individuals capable of engaging in a
rational choice and operating within a framework of voluntarism.
• It highlights the growth of bureaucratic institutions, which themselves are constructed
on principles of rationality and role differentiation. It is these bureaucratic
organisations that are seen as being the foundations of this theory. The entire gamut
of institutions that maintains and regulates social order are seen as bureaucratic.
• It emphasises the growth of a political system based on the principle of right as
crystallised within the notion of state and mediated through a set of constitutional
principles.
• The powers of the state are absolute and there is a democratic process based on the
principle of political representation and adult franchise.
• This process of democratisation of society has led to the existence
of various interest groups within the political process who
represent various competing ideologies that highlight the different
ways in which the affairs of the state are to be managed.
• Modernisation process also emphasises the growth of
individualism, wherein the individual and individual rights are seen
as being at the center of all social, economic and political
development.
• Finally, the modernisation processes also emphasise the idea of
social progress and through the process of democratisation it is
possible for societies to achieve higher levels of individual and
social emancipation.
 Daniel Lerner: The Passing of the
Traditional
• Daniel Society
Lerner’s 1958 book, The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East, was
among the first book-length publications to set out a psychosocial theory of modernization.
• In Passing of Traditional Society, Lerner explained how nations became “modern,” a term that for
Lerner and other modernization theorists meant “Western.” The book was a study based on
roughly three hundred surveys conducted in each of six countries—Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon,
Turkey, and Syria—in 1950 and 1951. Respondents answered 117 questions about their living
conditions, their opinions on politics and foreign countries, their use of mass media, their level of
happiness, and their basic demographic characteristics. Based on a final total of about 1,600
respondents across all countries, Lerner statistically extracted three types or categories of people
and nations—the traditional, the transitional, and the modern.
• During the Cold War era, the Middle East was a battleground for a fierce ideological contest
between the United States and the USSR. The two nations struggled to win the hearts and minds
of the “new nations” of the postcolonial world by providing them with modernization projects. It
was a war to entice the emerging nations into two differing versions of modernity. Part of the war
was fought through the provision of development aid, but the main rivalry was pursued over the
air waves, via mass media: specifically, in the competition between Radio Moscow and Voice of
America (VOA).
• In 1949, VOA, funded by the State Department, commissioned the Bureau of Applied Social
Research (BASR) at Columbia University to conduct a survey on the radio-listening habits of
people in the six Middle Eastern countries of Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iran. The
purpose of the study was to help VOA beat its Soviet competitor in influencing public opinion in
the Middle East.
• Lerner’s premise is that Modernisation is a global process occurring in a similar
manner the world over, and the role of indices of development like mass media,
urbanisation, increase in literacy, etc. are responsible for the emergence of a new
economic order. According to Lerner, modernity is result of not merely
institutional changes in society but also due to changes in the personality of
people.
• For Lerner one of the crucial aspects of modernisation is the development of a
“mobile personality” which is characterised by rationality and empathy. Empathy
is the capacity to see oneself in the other person’s situation, and this enables
people to operate efficiently in a changing world.
• Empathy, then, would lead the person to desire the lifestyles and values exercised
in those far-away lands. Based on his VOA data, he described a “modern” Middle
Eastern person as someone who has opinions, has empathy, and is happier than a
“traditional” person.
• Lerner was a firm believer in the role of mass media in bringing about societal
transformations.
 Modernization in the Indian Tradition
• Modernization of Indian Tradition is a famous book written by Yogendra Singh in
1973 which tries to understand the nature of modernization and social change in
India.
• Yogendra Singh considered social change as ideology and characterized truth
asserting concepts as Sanskritization, westernization, parochialization,
universalization, little and great traditions, rural – urban dichotomy or continuum
etc. enriched the body of sociology of knowledge.
• M. N. Srinivas defined that “Sanskritization is a process by which a lower caste or
tribe or any other group changes its customs, rituals, ideology and way of life in the
direction of a higher or more often twice-born caste.”
• 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.”
• The terms little and great traditions were coined by Robert Redfield in the 20 th
century to describe the cultural practices of peasant societies.
• Little traditions are indigenous customs, deities, and rites found at the folks or
peasants level.
• Great traditions are those traditions that grow because of outside contacts and
are found at the elite level.
• Elements of the little tradition, indigenous customs, duties and rites circulate
upward to the level of the great tradition and are identified with its legitimate
forms. This process Marriott calls ‘universalisa­tion’.
• Likewise, some elements of the great tradition also circulate downward to
become organic past of the little tradition, and lose much of their original form in
the process. He (McKim Marriott) used the term ‘parochialisation’ to denote this
kind of transaction be­tween the two traditions.
• Yogendra Singh observes that when the little tradition moves upward to the great
tradition, it is the proc­ess of universalisation. And, when the great tradition moves
downward to the local or village level, it is parochialisation.
 Study of Indian society
• Singh analyzed Indian society in terms of caste, class and community.
• He based this argument on his long term analysis of social change in rural India from 1955-
2007.
• Singh observed more on social, cultural, political and economic fields and he discusses two
types of tendencies of social change in modern India.
• There has taken place a substantial change in the social structure without bringing about a
structural change in the society.
• He has tried to bring out the changes which have come as a result of modernization.
• Social change in India takes place primarily through two ways primary or secondary and also
the sources of modernization need to be analyzed both at the levels of social structure and
cultural traditions.
• Primary changes takes place through orthogenetic (internal) sources of change. For example
within Indian culture the influence of Buddhism, Jainism, Bhakti, Sufi movements has led to
social change.
• Secondary changes takes place through heterogenic (external) sources of change. For
example contact with other culture.
Cultural Change

Cultural change

Significant processes of changes

in the domian of culture in India

The processes of change in

culture due to forces of
Substantive structures of culture
globalization,
and its relationship with social
telecommunication, revolution
institutions
and the emergence of market
economy
Structural Change

Structural change

Changes at the macro

level of culture

Political Innovation
Role differentiation and new structures of
and new legitimization bureucracy, industry,
elite
 Integrated Approach
Sources of change Cultural Structure Social Structure

Heterogenetic Little Tradition Great Tradition Micro Macro

Islamization Secondary Islamic Role Political
Impact differentiation innovation

Primary Secondary New legitimization New structure of

westernization westernization/ elite bureaucracy
modernization

Orthogenetic Sanskritization Cultural Pattern recurrence Elite circulation

Traditionalism Renaissance Compulsive Succession of
migration or kings, rise and fall
population shift of cities and trade
centres
The Traditions of India
• The traditions of India before modernization were based on hierarchy, holism,
continuity and transcendence.
• These factors to some extent existed in the traditional west.
• The changes which thus occurred were confined to differentiation within the
framework of traditional social structures and values.
• Structural changes were way few, and those which took place were limited in
respect of the types of roles.
• Similar development in religious role structure and organizations partially
followed the emergence of other traditions.
• But these changes could by no means called structural, since differentiation of
roles was segmental and did not alter the system as a whole.
 Classical theories of modernity
• The classical theorists are those who are foundational theorists – they are the pioneer
thinkers. Among them are included Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel and Tonnies.
• Though these thinkers have not taken the concept of modernity in a formal way, their works
indicate that they are concerned with the process of modernization.
• Karl Marx: It is commodification
• Marx’s concern with modernity was in terms of production relations. It was the objective of
the capitalist class to increase its production as more production means more profit.
• Marx therefore argued that for capitalism everything is a commodity.
• Dance, drama, literature, religion, in fact, everything in society is a commodity. It is
manufactured and sold in the market. Even religion and rituals are also items of commodity.
• Alienation, exploitation and oppression are all due to commodification.
• Modernization therefore according to Marx, is nothing but a commodity, a thing to be bought
and sold, an item for trade and commerce.
• In a word, modernity is commercialization.
 Emile Durkheim: It is differentiation
• Durkheim was an evolutionist and he traced the origin of society.
• In its evolutionary stage, the society had mechanical solidarity. Collective conscience, collective
representations and repressive laws held the mechanical society together.
• In course of evolution, the mechanical solidarity attains the stage of organic solidarity.
• In this society there is differentiation, multiple occupations, plural ethnicities and varying people.
• This functional organic solidarity is held together by social density and contractual relations.
• Durkheim defines modernity in the context of social solidarity. His thesis is: more there is
differentiation, more there is modernity.
• Modernity creates functional dependence. In a modern society, the people depend on one
another and this keeps the society in a state of solidarity.
• Differentiation does not create disorganization; it creates dependence.
• And therefore of Durkheim, modernity is differentiation, it is stratification.
• More is a society stratified, greater is the level of modernity.
Simmel: City and money economy
make modernity
• Simmel is seen as investigating modernity primarily in two major
interrelated sites: the city and the money economy.
• The city is where modernity is concentrated or intensified, whereas the
money economy involves the diffusion of modernity, its extension.
• Thus for Simmel, modernity consists of city life and the diffusion of
money.
• Money is substantial in human life. It gets manifestation through
modernity.
• Modernity is not without its bad effects. It alienates men from the vital
processes of human life.
 Max Weber: It is rationality
• For Weber modernity is synonymous with rationality.
• People in modern societies favour rationality, a way of thinking that emphasizes deliberate,
matter-of-fact calculation of the most efficient way to accomplish a particular task. Sentimental
ties to the past have no place in a rational worldview, and tradition becomes simply one type of
information.
• Weber viewed both the Industrial Revolution and the development of capitalism as evidence of
modern rationality.
• Such changes are all part of the rationalization of society, the historical change from tradition to
rationality as the main type of human thought.
• Weber went on to describe modern society as “disenchanted” because scientific thinking has
swept away most of people’s sentimental ties to the past.
• Weber considered the growth of large, rational organizations one of the defining traits of
modern societies. Another term for this type of organization is bureaucracy.
• Weber believed that bureaucracy has much in common with capitalism, another key factor in
modern social life.
Ferdinand Tonnies: It is a move
towards gesellschaft societies
• Ferdinand Tonnies characterized key characteristics of simple and modern
societies with the German words Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.
• Gemeinschaft means human community, and Tonnies said that a sense of
community characterizes simple societies, where family , kin, and community
ties are quite strong.
• As societies grew and industrialized and as people moved to cities, Tonnies said,
social ties weakened and became more impersonal. Tonnies called this situation
a Gesellschaft and found it dismaying.
• Gesellschaft relationships arose in an urban and capitalist setting, characterized
by individualism and impersonal monetary connections between people. Social
ties were often instrumental and superficial, with self-interest and exploitation
increasingly the norm.