Cultural Change and Economic Development
By DR. V. JAGANNADHAM
(The
Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi)
There
is a keen desire and a clear plan for economic development in the
underdeveloped countries. It is not certain whether the same can
be said of social change. The reason for the lag between the certainty of one
and the uncertainty of the other is the difference in the nature of the two
phenomena. Economic development is definite and concerete and social change is
vague and abstract. It is therefore not quite appropriate to speak about the
two in the same breath but we do so because there appears to be a cause and
effect relationship between the two. There is a view that economic
development affects, indeed some say that it determines, social institutions
and social behaviour. There is also the contrary view that socio-cultural
institutions and beliefs condition economic development. The former view is
more widespread than the latter but experience in the endeavours for economic
development in the underdeveloped countries shows that without
developing appropriate attitudes and beliefs, traditions and institutions
suitable for rapid and large scale industrial urban society, economic
development would be handicapped. The interaction between the two and the close
interrelationship of each to the other is felt to be obvious
but to what degree and in what proportion it is difficult to define. We
may, however, analyse the complex phenomena.
By
economic development we mean a rise in per capita income of the people, a rise
in the standard of living manifested through higher levels of consumption and
services. We also mean the promotion of large scale industries and the
reorganisation of agricultural production through the application of modern
researches and equipment. The components of present day economic development
are capital, labour and managerial skills, political stability and efficient
administration and an appropriate social organisation. Capital may be self
generated or imported. For a time technical labour and managerial skills also
may be obtained from outside through technical assistance cooperation schemes,
but in the long run they must come from indigenous sources. The other factors
namely, political stability, efficient administration and appropriate social
organisation have to develop from within and must be sustained by the presence
of leaders who are resourceful and capable, of adapting the politico-social
systems to the processes of the rapid economic developments. The politico-social
factors are enumerated along side the purely economic ones because economic
development is helped or hindered by the former. Besides this, such economic
development as can be brought about by importing capital and skills from
outside would be short-lived or surface-deep unless the imported capital and
skills prompt the people of the land to acquire the skills themselves and to
improve upon them on their own initiative. The assimilation of and emulation in
these skills need corresponding changes in education and health, in attitudes
and beliefs towards work, wealth, well-being and in the various auxiliaries
demanded by the imperatives of industrial development. Economic development is
thus a process of comprehensive alround shift in the techniques of production
and in the auxiliaries thereto from those prevailing in a pre-industrial
society. The shift demands changes in different aspects namely, the material,
mental, environmental, educational and behavioural aspects.
If
these are the elements and factors in economic development, the corresponding
ones in social change are difficult to describe because the term social change
is not concrete and there are no precise measurable units. Moreover social
change is intimately related to a culture pattern. The culture pattern is an
intangible, abstract one whose roots are deep down in the outlook on life, in
the beliefs and behaviour patterns of individuals and groups in society and in
the inherited traditions and institutions of a nation. In the words of Shri
Aurobindo: “The culture of a people may be roughly described as the expression
of a consciousness of life which formulates itself in three aspects. There is a
side of thought, of ideal, of upward will and the soul’s aspirations; there is
a side of creative self-expression and appreciative aesthesis, intelligence and
imagination; and there is a side of practical and outward
formulation…..Together they make up its soul, mind and body.” *
Social
change cannot be brought about without culture change, i.e., a change in the
attitudes and relationships of a group of people embodied in such institutions
as customs and traditions, family and class or caste, forms of property and
systems of succession, urges and aspirations in regard to work and leisure,
acquisition of wealth and enjoyment of pleasures in this life, freedom and
mutuality in social behaviour, flair for efficiency in organisation and
execution of functions and services etc.
There
is a time factor involved in social change. This change can be brought about
only by change in values and institutions inculcated and inherited respectively
by generations over a period of time and whose practical usefulness is tested
by time and which are transmitted to generations without radical changes in the
conditions in which they originate, develop and persist. Further, the process
of social change pre-supposes “Sanskritization” or the gradual adoption of
values and ways of life of classes by masses, i.e., values and ways of life
initiated by small elite groups would have to be adopted by larger masses of
people. The change also implies the adoption by the elite of the new values and
ways of life. The Reformation and Renaissance, the French and Russian
Revolutions have set in motion such new values and ways of life. So have
Industrial Revolution and Urbanisation. These are still in process of
assimilation by people in the Western countries but the bulk of the population
in Afro-Asian countries are strangers to these values and ways of life. They do
not also have the roots of the ideology or the system of technology which can
sustain these values. These, however, could be developed in case there is a
consensus about the goodness of the set of values now prevailing in the
industrially advanced countries. These nations also present the picture of a
divided house as between free and authoritarian societies. Many intellectuals
in these countries are also having second thoughts about the basic concepts of
man’s relation to the speed and mobility created by Scientific-Industrial
Revolutions. Vis-a-vis the pace of these changes, the requisites for social
change are certainty, stability and continuity of the new values and ways of
life and the conditions which give rise to them.
Till
recently man has been accustomed to constant ways of production and living. The
contrast between the old constant ways of life and the new shifting forms of
social affiliation is well brought out in the following paras of an article
entitled “Changing Social Structures”** by Clark Kerr. “The world is currently
undergoing a great economic and social transformation. In essence, this
transformation is the commitment of man to a new way of life. Throughout
history most of man has been committed to a constant way of life, even though
particular ways have varied from one place to another and, to a much lesser
extent, from one time to another. Commitment to a constant way of life seems to
be the natural state of man.”
“The
current period of history is distinguished from all others, however, by the
immensity of the process of destroying old commitments, no matter how constant
they have been, and by the worldwide uniformity of the new commitment. Men
everywhere are transferring themselves fully and finally into the Industrial
way of life. Great uniformity is developing out of great diversity.
Industrialism, itself, is the significant new form of social affiliation.”
Economic
advance in modern times in some ways militates against the prerequisites of
cultural progress. Economic advances alter the conditions in which a particular
set of values arise and flourish. Modern economic advances are marked by rapid
changes in techniques of production and the quantity and variety of goods and
services produced. There is an ongoing process in these changes which thereore
create a permanent state of transition and flux. While rapid pace and complex
variety are thus the characteristics of current economic advances, a slow
process of permeation and long periods of inculcation in the context of a
stabilised environment are needed for social change. These two conflicting
characteristics of economic development and requirements of social change
create a gulf between social skills and technical skills. Some questions have
to be answered before we can relate appropriately the two phenomena namely
social change and economic development. These are: How to bridge the gulf
between material and non-material backgrounds of pace and processes of growth
in modern society? Can we insist upon conformity in an industrial society to
values and ways developed in a predominantly agrarian society? Or is there a
universal code of ethics which can flourish without reference to changes in
techniques or conditions? Or do political, social and moral philosophies also
need revision in the light of the new pace and scale of change brought about by
science and technology?
The
experiences in developed societies can throw some light on these questions.
There is however a vague fear that the ‘affluent’ societies are suffering from
‘mental’ illnesses while the ‘underdeveloped’ societies are suffering from
‘bodily’ indigences. If all societies are suffering from some form or other of
disorganising discontents, the great question before mankind is not whether
social change and economic development are needed but how best can the present
and future generations mobilize and harness the physical and psychic energies
to cultivate values and ways of living suitable for happiness and harmony of
individuals and groups. This requires us to define and explain as to what are
the suitable values and ways of life in the context of the rapidly changing
pace and scale of material conditions?
When
underdeveloped societies catch up with affluent societies, as they surely would
in due course, there is a possibility of material values and ways of life
tending to be almost alike in almost all the countries except for the
differences between urban and rural areas, at least in their outward
manifestation. About inward motivations and reactions in the non-material
aspects, it is difficult to diagnose or dogmatise. These tend to be
differentiated more and more on individual and “primary group” basis than on
“secondary group” or national basis. Probably there will be angry young men,
hopeful middle aged and cynical old people in all countries and climates. We
have to devise social policies and economic systems that enable these
heterogenous generations to live in harmonious coexistence while progressive
changes take place peacefully and evenly.
The
more important problem in regard to economic advance and social change is a
reassessment and restatement of such fundamental aspects as liberty, equality,
dignity, morality, and responsibility of individuals and groups. When a certain
level of affluence is reached, each society will be confronted with the
stresses and strains of the conflict between the traditional values and way of
life as inherited by them from pre-industrial ages and the set of values and
ways of life suitable to and dictated by the compulsions of conditions of life
in an industrial society which is characterised by rapid speed and mobility, by
mass media of communication, by impersonal urban agglomeration and by
individualistic self-satisfaction. In other words, people in industrial
societies would be compelled to cultivate a new outlook or a new culture
consistent with an economic advance built upon dynamic disequilibrium rather
than relatively “static” equilibrium. The issue, therefore, is what culture
pattern can stand the strain of modern economic advances?
In
the article by Clark Kerr, referred above, the concluding paragraph spotlights
the issue when it states “The real problem is not the adaptability of man,
which is almost infinitely greater than we once supposed, but the suitability
of institutions and their policies. The contact of civilisations, the
traditional and the industrial, can be managed well or managed badly. The
social management of this contact, not the adjustability of individual men, is
the heart of the matter. This management can greatly hinder the commitment of
an industrial labour force. Beyond commitment, it can vastly affect both the
liberty and welfare of the new industrial man.” **
Progress
in science and technology have enabled mankind to rise to new levels of
material and cultural standards. Individuals as well as groups find it
difficult to change and adjust themselves to new environments, equipments and
experiences without feeling the stress and strain of adaptation. In the case of
the cultural assimilation now taking place in India the selective process is
affected by the vagueness and uncertainty of the values in the donor and
receiving cultures. In any case the rise in material culture sets the pattern
for non-material culture. It however takes a long time before the inspiration
of the cultural elite becomes the respiration of the masses in culture.
* Sri Aurobindo: The
Foundations of Indian Culture–Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram,
Pondichery, 1959. p. 59.
** Clark Kerr: Changing
Social Structures. Reprint No. 158 from Labour Commitment and Social
Change in Developing Areas. Ed. by Wilbert E. Moore & Arnold S.
Feldman, New York. 1960. p. 348