Pakistan’s efforts since the mid-1990s::::
Furthermore, Pakistan’s efforts since the mid-1990s to reassure Moscow that it was not an implacable ideological foe were beginning to carry conviction. With inter-governmental consultations in Islamabad, the stage has been set for President Putin’s historic visit in early October.
No less significantly, high-level contacts between military leaders of the two countries are under way. It is time to map the promising landscape in which bilateral and larger strategic considerations are converging. Given the troubled past, it is a new beginning where building blocks for long-term cooperation can come alike from bilateral benefits and from sharing a new perspective on changing regional and pan-Asian equations.
Unlike Europe where an economic union and a powerful military pact have shaped the march of history for decades, the Asian continent has lacked stable security architecture; it has a few multilateral economic institutions that function with varying degrees of success. South Asia, inhabited by more than a billion people, is particularly deficient in this respect. Some of the worst conflicts of the post-Second World War period have taken place in Asia.
It has, however, not prevented a number of Asian countries from achieving phenomenal economic success. China, the leader in bringing about a shift in the centre of gravity of global economy eastwards, has also demonstrated unusual diplomatic skill in resolving or mitigating contentious issues with its neighbours. India has maintained a high rate of growth for years but has not emulated China well in forging mutually beneficial relations with its neighbours.
More recently, the United States has been strengthening its presence in Asia and is now engaged in ‘pivoting’ strongly to the Pacific. This strategic manoeuvre is not restricted to an upgraded Pacific Command but also aims at reducing the gravitational pull of the Chinese economy for a growing number of Asian states. Washington continues to count on Japan, with which it has a formal treaty, and India, that it hopes to enlist as a strategic counterweight to China in creating a new Asian order under its oversight.
Inevitably, it would lead to fresh contentions. Considering the worsening of tensions in the South China Sea and East China Sea, the Asian continent would see more flux. Meanwhile, Moscow has often been seen to be too preoccupied with the consequences of the disintegration of the Soviet Union to be an actor of substance in Asian affairs despite occupying a vast space of the continent.
A retrospective look at 12 years of President Putin’s ascendancy in Russian politics leaves one in no doubt that reviving a Eurasian policy was always an essential aspect of his endeavour to restore his nation’s global status. Moscow’s efforts to establish special relations with the states that broke away began soon after the unravelling of the Soviet Union. For Moscow, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Collective Security Treaty Organisation and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, were steps towards what is often described as Russia’s geopolitical resurgence.
In an article published by Izvestia in October 2011, Putin proposed, notwithstanding reservations of Ukraine and Georgia, that the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan should become the cornerstone of a Eurasian Union including Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and open to other states. The suggested Union would have a single currency.
Putin has carefully tended relations with China and India. He widened the quest and lent his name and authority to ideas for a more robust engagement with the Pacific region. Two years ago, a major Russian institution produced a seminal report Going East: Russia’s Asia-Pacific Strategy, the leitmotif of which was Russia’s restored capacity to address relations with the West, stability in the South and a window to the East.
The just concluded meeting of the leaders of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) in Vladivostok represents a high water mark in implementing this comprehensive approach. Way back in 1996 in that port city of the czarist dreams of a position of prestige and profit in the East, I heard a small group of local intellectuals express despair about the region’s future. Leading up to the Apec meeting in 2012, Putin had committed $20bn to its uplift with projects going far beyond the cosmetic demands of hosting a large international event. Clearly, the objective is to equip Russia with the means to be more effective in the Asia-Pacific region.
If Moscow is now exploring a place for Pakistan in its reinvigorated Asia policy, Islamabad’s reasons for a substantive relationship with Russia also go beyond cooperation in some specific projects. Its excessive participation in the US-led war on terror led to noticeable shrinkage of the parameters of its foreign policy. The kind of assistance it received from the United States and most other partners since 9/11 did little good to its declining economy.
Pakistan needs enlargement of its diplomatic and economic space, a desire not always supported by its Western allies. The worst example of abridging Pakistan’s choices is the American opposition to the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline which, incidentally, may figure, together with the Turkmenistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, as areas of future cooperation with Russia. In fact, Pakistan’s best hope to overcome the crippling energy crunch seems to lie in large scale collaboration, be it in hydel or coal-based generation, with Russia and China.
Given Pakistan’s situation, Russia and China may expect preferential treatment. President Zardari has invested considerable energy in re-setting relations with Russia and strengthening ties with China. He should make sure that these expectations are not wantonly frustrated.
There is also a global interest in developing trade routes through the hub constituted by Pakistan and Afghanistan, and cordial relations between Pakistan and Russia can have a beneficial impact on the regional strategic balance. The quadrilateral summit of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Russia alone can open new vistas for future.
Sunday, 13 March 2016
Friday, 11 March 2016
future of Pakistan-Russia relations
The future of Pakistan-Russia relations....
The events are unfolding so swiftly that it has become difficult to keep track of who will be whose friend after Americans pack up from Kabul and leave. One thing is for sure; foes of yesterday will be compelled by the realities of realist politics of today to switch sides and embrace each other.
Russia of today is the successor of Soviet empire of yesteryears, though reduced to much smaller in size. Russia, and then the USSR, which played for centuries the Great Game for gaining influence and foothold in Central Asia and get a direct access to Kabul finally lost the Game to the West in the battlefields of Afghanistan. Along with this defeat, it also lost its imperial glory by ceding a sizeable portion of its territory to independent Central Asian States. It, however, seems that it never gave up its ambitions on Afghanistan; it has been watching with amused interest the plight of NATO forces in Afghanistan. It had read the writing on the wall and was confident that NATO would not meet a fate different from what it itself encountered after a decade-long war of 1980s.
Russia under Putin has revived its hope in Afghanistan and is moving to deepen its geo-economic ties with South Asia as a whole, with Pakistan serving as a gateway for energy trade to the entire subcontinent in advance of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2014. Badly bruised by harsh treatment meted out by the Americans, Pakistan feels compelled to look towards not only its old friend China but also its longtime adversary, Russia. If India after having been in the cold during Cold War can warm up to the US, why can’t Pakistan hope to be friends with Russia? This is what the realist politics is all about. For Pakistan, Russia can not only help the civilian government in Islamabad to shore up its economic record, it can also offer an alternative source of military hardware to the country’s armed forces. Diversifying its sources of military supplies has taken on newfound importance for Islamabad given Washington’s increasing reluctance to supply the full spectrum of arms and China’s continued inability to meet all of Pakistan’s requirements.
To understand the potentials of Pak-Russia friendship, we will have to make an assessment of the present state of US-Russia relations. This subject has dominated the foreign policy debates of both the major contenders of power in next presidential elections of the US which are just round the corner. The Obama administration is being harshly criticized by the opponents for its increased focus on its Pacific Century and allocation of future military and political resources to contain China. In their view, Russia under president Putin is a much greater threat to American ambitions than China. According to Foreign Policy, Russia is the major counterweight to American power and influence. A huge country that straddles what the great geographer Halford Mackinder called the Eurasian "heartland" is sure to operate with substantial effect in the world. A country with thousands of nuclear weapons, still-substantial armed services, and a cornucopia of natural resources will have its innings in high politics. Republican presidential candidate, Romney's assertions about Russia should be seen less as stale strategic thinking and more as a critique of Barack Obama's looming "Pacific shift," which implies that China has moved into position as our top geopolitical foe. Yet Beijing, in the throes of modernization and heavily weighed down by a massive population, increasingly urgent energy needs, and a troubled political transition can hardly be seen as new No. 1 geopolitical foe of the US.
According to this analysis, China's military is still decades away from having any kind of ability to project force over meaningful distances. The 100-mile width of the Taiwan Strait could just as easily be a thousand miles, given China's lack of force-projection capability. Even the quite large People's Liberation Army is full of question marks, with few substantive changes evident since it got such a bloody nose during the 1979 war with Vietnam. To be sure, the Chinese navy is very innovative, with its emerging swarms of small, short-ranging missile boats. And Chinese hackers are among the best in the world. But these capabilities hardly form the leading edge of a global military power.
This, by implication, suggests that with Russia's greater capabilities, and intentions so clearly and so often inimical to American interests, the smart geopolitical move now would be for Washington to embrace Beijing more closely, giving Moscow a lot more to think about on its eastern flank. This was a strategic shift that worked well for President Richard Nixon 40 years ago, when he first played "the China card"; it might do nicely again today.
The present US-China relations do not suggest any potential conflict given the fact that U.S. trade with China amounts to more than half a trillion dollars annually -- more than ten times the level of Russo-American economic interaction. And Beijing also serves as a major creditor. It simply makes little sense to provoke China, as Obama's announced Pacific shift already has. If Romney is right about the return of post-Soviet Russia as the world's bête noire, then any American Pacific shift should be more about alliance with, rather than alienation of, Beijing.
The Russian stance on the issues of US intervention in Syria for regime-change clearly suggest the divergence of interests of both the countries. With reinstallation of president Putin in Moscow, hopes that Russia will support any American initiative are fading away. According to a report by Brookings, the US has a list of demands which Russia may not accept. These include further reductions of nuclear arms, including non-strategic nuclear weapons; a cooperative NATO-Russia missile defense arrangement; joint efforts to deal with the proliferation challenges posed by North Korea and Iran; and consultation on steps to bolster security and stability in Central Asia as the NATO coalition prepares to withdraw its military forces from Afghanistan. The United States is trying to explore ways to increase trade and investment relations with Russia, which could help build a foundation for a more sustainable relationship.
President Putin’s re-election is considered a major challenge to smooth-sailing from the American point of view. Mr. Putin spent his formative years in the 1980s as a KGB officer. As his rhetoric during the election campaign made clear, he holds a wary skepticism about U.S. goals and policies. For example, his comments suggest he does not see the upheavals that swept countries such as Georgia, Ukraine, Tunisia or Egypt as manifestations of popular discontent but instead believes they were inspired, funded and directed by Washington. This may seem like a paranoiac view, but Mr. Putin has made so many allusions to it that it is hard to conclude that he does not believe it. That is a complicating factor for the bilateral relationship.
According to Brookings, Mr. Putin’s experience as president dealing with the Bush administration was not a happy one. In 2001-02, he supported U.S. military action against the Taliban, including overruling his advisors to support the deployment of U.S. military units into Central Asia; shut down the Russian signals intelligence facility in Lourdes, Cuba; agreed to deepen relations with NATO; calmly accepted the administration’s decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; and agreed to a minimalist arms control agreement that fell far short of Moscow’s desires. In his view, he received little in return. His perception is that Washington made no effort to accommodate Moscow’s concerns on issues such as the future of strategic arms limits, missile defense deployments in Europe, NATO enlargement, relations with Russia’s neighbors in the post-Soviet space or graduating Russia from the Jackson-Vanik amendment.
As against yesterday, Mr. Putin faces a tougher opposition at home. Soviet and Russian leaders in the past resorted to the image of a foreign adversary—all too often the United States—to rally domestic support, and one can see aspects of that in Mr. Putin’s campaign rhetoric. But the constituency to whom that appeals is already largely on Mr. Putin’s side. He may conclude that he can focus better on his domestic challenges if his foreign policy results in more positive relations with countries such as the United States. The upshot is that Mr. Putin’s return can and probably will mean more bumpiness in the U.S.-Russia relationship. He will pursue his view of Russian interests. On certain issues, those will conflict with U.S. interests, and Washington and Moscow will disagree, perhaps heatedly.
In this state of US-Russia relationship, Pakistan sees its opportunity in warming up to Russia after 2014. The much-awaited visit of president Putin to Pakistan, the first after becoming president and two significant visits of Pakistan’s army and air chiefs to Russia give some indications of the future Pakistan-Russia relations. It would be the first visit by a Russian head of state to Pakistan which stood on the other side of the Cold War, peaking in its emergence as the staging ground for the U.S. campaign to defeat the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan. It’s now again the frontline state in America’s war against Islamist militants in Afghanistan, but it is a far more conflicted partner than those days of war against the godless communists. So fraught and uncertain is the nature of the relationship with the United States that Pakistan has sought to deepen ties with long-time ally China, but also Russia, the other great power in a dangerously unstable neighborhood.
According to an assessment of warming up Pakistan-Russia relations, Reuters, bilateral visits alone don’t transform ties, and especially ones with a troubled history behind them. And then there is India to be factored in, both for Russia and Pakistan. Moscow has long stood in India’s corner from the days of the Cold War to its role as a top weapons supplier to the Indian military, still ahead of the Israelis fast clawing their way into one of the world’s most lucrative arms markets. A nuclear-powered submarine has just sailed from Russia to be inducted into the Indian navy - a force-multiplier in the military with the sub’s ability to stay beneath waters long and deep and far from home. But the stepped up Russia-Pakistan diplomacy suggests a thawing of ties at the very least. And at another level, by raising the quality and quantity of these exchanges, is Russia signaling it will pursue a multi-vectored policy in a fast changing South Asia? Tanvir Ahmad Khan, a former Pakistani foreign secretary who was also once the country’s ambassador to Moscow, says the two countries are on the verge of ending a “long history of estrangement” and that two factors have led to this landmark development. One is that there is now a national consensus in Pakistan to engage Russia earnestly, and two, “Vladimir Putin’s Russia has read the regional and global scene afresh and recognized Pakistan’s role as a factor of peace and stability.”
Pakistan’s compulsion to diversify its foreign partners is its present ties with the United States which have soured so much that it can longer be considered be an ally, ready to do its bidding as in the proxy war against the Red Army in Afghanistan. And India’s ties with the United States, on the other hand, have been transformed, with Washington virtually legitimizing it as the world’s sixth nuclear weapon state, something that even Russia never went as far to support during all the years as close allies. And if India and the United States are holding ever so advanced joint military exercises (there is one going on now in the Rajasthan desert which has a border with Pakistan) and considering multi-billion dollar defense deals as part of a new booming strategic relationship, Russia and Pakistan are also looking at launching military exchanges. Last year the commander of the Russian ground forces, Col-Gen Alexander Postinov, was in Pakistan and according to Pakistani newspapers discussed with Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani the possibility of expanding defense ties by holding joint military exercises, exchanging trainees and trainers and selling and buying weapons, although it seems these were to be confined to counter-terrorism equipment.
It may be interesting to know that the 50 JF-17 Thunder fighter planes that China is supplying to Pakistan use a Russian engine, and it’s likely that Russia gave the green signal for China to go ahead. New Delhi was probably not impressed, but it has kept its silence. Russia is also reported to have indicated its willingness to get involved in the 1,640 km TAPI project bringing piped gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and into energy-starved Pakistan and India, a project that has been hanging fire for years. Russian investors were also interested in the Thar coal project which involves developing a large energy complex in Sindh province to produce 6,000 MW of coal-based power and introduce to the country the concept of gasification and production of liquid fuel from coal.
Kiyani’s Visit to Russia And The New Great Game
PKKH Exclusive Report: By Atiq Durrani
General Kiani’s visit to Russia has raised the brows of many in the region. We want to aware the nation, for once, of the Post Afghan War scenario that awaits the fate of the region: The weak position of the US/Allies inRussia in Indian Ocean along with China at the straits of Hurmuz. As this alliance strongly surrounds Afghanistan, the anti-US/NATO/ISAF forces will be getting help from the new alliance to throw out the old alliance and wipe its footprints from the region for good. On the Economic End, a regional scenario is thinkable where; Russia will be keen to take human resource for its untapped rich resources from the allied countries and on the other hand will be investing in infrastructure for the rich untapped resources in the countries like Pakistan. Russia benefits from Gawadar, the warm waters and the Middle Eastern Market with an approach of strategic edge in the region by keeping any eye on the routes. Previously Russia has shown its strength by the presence of a strong fleet the Abkhazia region, in the Black Sea, making missile defense shield useless. Now if, as planned, Washington is going to pull out its two divisions of combat forces from the Red Sea, the shield will be totally vulnerable, meaning EU will be on its own. Think of all that and imagine, while one alliance is going into a mess (US-EU), another alliance (Pak-Russia-China) is in the making. Think of all that, and then the visits of Russian officials to Pakistan and Pakistani officials to Russia and derive the results. Dehli and Washington surely need to make some plans to save their face (more like their a$$e$ ) in the coming days.
With the United States and NATO set to leave Afghanistan over the next two years, foreign policies of Pakistan and other neighbors of Afghanistan are also changing. Power in the region is shifting, with the US influence on decline in the region, regional powers are once again gaining in the region and are active to score maximum benefits from the post US/NATO pull out scenario. In this new scenario Pakistan once again became center of the regional politics because of its geographical importance and influence in Afghanistan.
Improving Pak-Russia relations are one of the examples of change in the regional politics. Russia and Pakistan both are changing their foreign policies to seek strong relations with the regional powers. At one end regional powers like Russia and China are encouraging Pakistan in this shift of policies because it’s not only in the favor of Pakistan but it’s also in favor of the region and at the other side US and India are losing their grip on this region and don’t want this to happen. When Mr. Puttin postponed his visit to Pakistan, Western and Indian media started their propaganda against Pak-Russia relations but the recent Chief of Army Staff’s visit to Russia once again closed all doors for this negative propaganda and proved that Russia and Pakistan are determined to take forward their mutual relationship.
In some reports it was mentioned that Mr. Puttin was pressurized by the US through India and the Indian lobby in Russia to cancel his visit to Pakistan. If that’s true and the US-India had managed to postpone Mr. Puttin’s visit to Pakistan then COAS visit to Russia at this time is a nice move by military strategists.
Russia and Pakistan both are concerned with the likely US strategy to manage the post 2014 stability in Afghanistan which has definite implications for both the countries. US came in this region to gain influence and to stop strategic partnership of Central Asian Powers with the South Asian Powers because they knew it will make a powerful block in the region against their vested interests. But their stay in the region since 2001 and their poor strategic policies in the war against terror acted as a catalyst for the initiative of strong strategic relations between Central Asian Powers and the South Asian Powers.
A decade long US war against terror not only made Afghanistan a graveyard for their soldiers and dragged the neighboring countries of Afghanistan in war but it also deeply affected their economy. Now as it is obvious from the situation in Afghanistan and the statements of US Military and Government representatives that US/NATO may leave before their proposed date of exit from Afghanistan, regional powers like Russia and China are back in action once again.
Pakistan enjoys a great strategic edge, serving as a bridge and corridor to different regions. This also gives Russia an attractive spot to materialize on its strategic depth. In the present scenario when US is all set to leave Afghanistan and decline in the US influence in the region, Russia is reaching out to Pakistan and Afghanistan to improve economic ties, secure their borders and to gain influence in the region. Russia eyes a role in Afghanistan and for that they need Pakistan because they know that after the exit of US /NATO from Afghanistan, Kabul will be likely to fall in the hands of elements which will share strong ties with Pakistan at least. Russia cannot achieve its goals in Afghanistan without the help of future Afghan Government; at the same time Russia also want to protect its borders from the militant groups, already active in the region. Russia needs a partner in the region, which may secure its interests and which may not become a threat for its future plans and economics structures to be implemented. For this purpose they don’t have any better option than Pakistan. Only by strong bilateral relation with Pakistan they can achieve their goals in the region.
China the other regional power and key member of SCO (Shanghai Cooperative Organization), an important anti-American regional initiative to bring peace and stability in the region, is also a close ally of Pakistan. Pakistan has strong strategic and economic relations with China. China and Russia are also allies and the SCO is led by both. Pak-China relation also made Russia to improve its relations with Pakistan and Russia’s interests in the region compelled it to join the Afghanistan, China and Pakistan Club.
Reaching warm-water ports through land route and trade with Middle East is another dream of Russia and Pakistan is best suited to meet this demand that will open up new opportunities for the landlocked Central Asian Republics. Gawadar port can play a vital role in the improvement of their trade with Middle East. In this regard President Zardari already announced to provide southern warm water access to Russia during his visit.
As a neighboring country, though there is a cold rift between Pakistan’s and Iran’s policies, both these countries share some regional interests. Iran, who is right now in the Indian block, will have to join the block of Pakistan, Russia and China. Iran and Russia were already sharing strong ties with India, but due to India’s old habit of going down with the sinking ship, probably Iran will re-consider its Middle Eastern policies to make strong and normal ties with Pakistan.
Therefore, ongoing developments between Moscow and Islamabad, high-level visits, and Pakistan’s possible role in the SCO, signs for a greater South and East Asian alliance in the form of the SCO, and an axis of a China-Russia-Pakistan partnership can bring positive omens not only to the region but also to the Asian continent as a whole.
This alliance will play a vital role in the future in both cases, if US/NATO leaves Afghanistan, this will be the end of their influence in this region but if they stay in the region which obviously they can’t afford, it will be the end of US itself because if they stay and the anti US forces already sitting on the gates of Kabul get help from both sides of Afghanistan, that will be the last nail on the coffin of US.
The most important thing in this scenario is the isolation of India in the region. India’s relations with Russia are not as strong as it was before because of their recent military agreements with US. Dehli never had as strong relations with Beijing as Pakistan has. Exit of US from Afghanistan will automatically announce pack-up of India from Afghanistan. Pakistan also never had good relations with India although “Aman ki Asha” tried its best but the comments on Kashmir in recent UN summit by both countries once again proved that without resolution of Kashmir issue it will be only “Aman ka Tamasha”. This will leave India alone in the region and can be pressurize by the regional powers for the resolution of its disputes and normalization of its relations with the neighboring countries.
In this era of the new great game, Pakistan is clearly coming out of the US shadow but Pakistan also needs to have its proper role and share to achieve its strategic and economic objectives in the region. Unlike the western powers, particularly the United States, the Russian federation will not only provide military assistance to Pakistan but it will also provide assistance for strengthening the industrial infrastructure of Pakistan. Since 1950’s when Pakistan joined the anti-communist alliance, Pakistan was close ally of United States. Several billion dollars of economic and military aid was provided by United States and many western powers to Pakistan, but they never assisted Pakistan to uplift the socio-economic conditions and to achieve self-reliance in industrial-technological area. In these 60 years of relationship with western powers they were not able to provide a landmark like Pakistan Steel Mills that was provided by the Russian Federation. Pakistan Steel Mills is the greatest landmark in the history of Pakistan-Russia relations which reflects the base for a longstanding relationship.
Pakistan, in spite of being an active member of the world community in combating terrorism, making all its efforts and sacrifices, always gathered only negative publicity from the western media. Pakistan’s efforts in combating terrorism were never appreciated by the west and Pakistan is always pressurized to do more. In such situation it will be more useful for Pakistan to expand cooperation with the SCO states, especially Russia and China. Pakistan can develop long-term economic cooperation with Russia. Moscow has expressed interest in participating in the construction of the TAPI (the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India, Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline), CASA-1000 (Central Asia South Asia Regional Energy and Trade) energy project and the Pakistan Steel Mill.
Delay in Mr. Puttin’s visit is not the end of Pak-Russia relation but the visit of Chief of Army Staff’s visit to Russia is definitely a new beginning of the Pak-Russia relations. In the present scenario Russia is in needs of Pakistan to achieve its strategic and economic objectives in the region after US exit from Afghanistan. But Pakistan should not compromise its national interests in these new relations. Pakistan in its re-visit and re-formed policy should have an even handed approach to all great powers, near and distant, to fulfill their national security objectives.
Russia’s Growing Engagement with Pakistan
Smita Purushottam
Asif Ali Zardari’s first official visit to Russia, which, according to his website, was also the first time that a Pakistani President had been officially invited to Russia since 1974, took place on May 11-13, 2011. The bilateral Summit yielded agreements on air services, energy and agriculture. The two sides agreed to maintain regional peace and reiterated support for the joint fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, and expansion of coordination on these and other issues. They also agreed to cooperate in bilateral trade, investment, the financial sector including barter and swap schemes, and business and joint projects including the modernization of a metallurgical plant in Karachi, construction of power generation facilities and the development of gas fields in Pakistan.
Since Russia had announced its interest in participating in the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, the Joint Statement issued at the Summit mentioned the interest of both sides in TAPI and the Tajikistan- Afghanistan-Pakistan CASA-1000 (Central Asia-South Asia) electricity transmission project. Russian energy companies such as Gazprom are backing the initiative. Interestingly, Gazprom is also seeking a role in Bangladesh.
The two main themes at the Summit were therefore energy, business and economic cooperation on the one hand and combating drug trafficking and terrorism to stabilise the security situation in the region on the other. Russia and Pakistan had earlier discussed transit issues and opening a route to the “warm waters”. So it was not surprising that on the eve of the Summit President Zardari reiterated the invitation to Russia to take advantage of Pakistan’s access to the southern seas.
ASSESSMENTS
The timing of the Summit - just 10 days after the killing of Osama bin Laden - inevitably gave rise to some speculation as to whether it was calculated to send a signal to the US. This needs to be laid to rest. Such high-level visits are planned well in advance. Thus, this visit had been planned after President Zardari told President Medvedev - on the sidelines of the second Pakistan-Afghanistan-Russia-Tajikistan (hereinafter referred to as the PART) Summit at Sochi in August 20101 - that he wished to visit Moscow.
Moreover, President Medvedev and other Russian leaders left no one in doubt about their reactions to the killing of Osama bin Laden.2 The Kremlin welcomed the operation and the Russian Foreign Ministry publicly appreciated the US informing Russia about the operation before President Obama’s official announcement. Dmitry Rogozin, Russian envoy to NATO, reportedly called the liquidation of Osama “a great political success”. Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, justified it by referring to the Security Council resolution adopted after 9/11 “recognizing the US’ right of self-defense under Article 51… The right of self-defense envisages no restrictions. Those who carried out the operation, had a sound legal basis” as per “the right of self-defense under the UN Charter, confirmed moreover in the resolution of the Security Council.” Thus Article 51 allowed “a country against which an attack was made to take all necessary measures to prevent any future such attacks and punish those responsible.”3
A high-level security meeting on terrorist attacks on Russian targets abroad was held a day before President Zardari’s arrival in Russia, inadvertently serving as the backdrop to his visit.
Post American Withdrawal Scenario
Clearly, therefore, the Summit was not timed to exploit Pakistan’s emerging rift with the United States. Instead, it was part of Russia’s ongoing initiatives to play a greater role in stabilising the region before the expected withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan presented the region with “a whole range of potential worst-case scenarios,” with the only hope being “they will not all come true at once”.4
Thus, Pakistan, already suffering from multiple crises, had accelerated its tactical nuclear weapons programme. China is moreover readying itself to take advantage of the American withdrawal. Pakistan immediately rushed to China to find succor, and reportedly weighed in on Afghan President Karzai to throw in his lot with Pakistan and China.5 In fact, the tone of the American Administration seemed to change once the China card was played by Pakistan. The China factor may even be a reason for the Americans to reconsider their withdrawal plans after 2014.
Significantly, the CSTO’s Russian Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha stated that foreign troops needed to stay in Afghanistan.6 Fyodor Lukyanov, the reputed Editor in Chief of Russia in Global Affairs also opined that Russia and neighboring countries were not interested in a quick US withdrawal.
Russia’s Concerns
Like all affected countries, Russia is deeply concerned at the accentuation of instability in the region and its spillover effects into its southern periphery, increase in drug trafficking and terrorism, etc. Russia may also be uneasy at the erosion of its influence in Eurasia, while China increases its stranglehold over the region’s resources, transportation and energy networks. Thus the massive copper deposits at Aynak – discovered by Soviet experts – are now being exploited by China.
Russia has accordingly tried to re-engage constructively in the region over the past few years. Apart from its activism in SCO and CSTO, Russia has intensified its involvement in Afghanistan, through the Russia-Afghan forum, the SCO-Afghan contact group and the CTSO7-Afghan working group. Despite severe funding constraints, Russia has also explored the possibilities of greater engagement in Afghanistan’s development programmes, such as restoring Soviet-era pipelines and hydroelectric stations, and investing in Afghanistan’s mineral, oil and gas deposits – many of which were discovered by the Soviets.
Russia has moreover facilitated the transit of military supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan through its territory, in addition to making available helicopters and other facilities. It is to be hoped that the stand-off regarding stationing of ballistic missile defences in the European theatre does not derail the developing understanding between the US, NATO and Russia for stabilising the region.
Russia may have also concluded that isolating Pakistan from any dialogue to stabilise the region would be counter-productive, and hence intensified its outreach to Pakistan. This explains the PART initiative in 2009 and why Russia publicly supported Pakistan’s membership in the SCO at the Moscow Summit of May 2011, with India also formally applying for SCO membership around this time.8 The bilateral Summit was a logical extension of this strategy.
Implications for India
A perennial question is whether a rapprochement between Russia and Pakistan will adversely impact Indo-Russian relations, particularly whether Russia will sell arms to Pakistan. The Russian Secretary of the Security Council and Pakistan’s Defence Minister were reportedly present at the talks at the recent Summit. India’s relationship with Russia is however too well entrenched to be easily disturbed, while the possibility of major Russian arms sales to Pakistan in the near future is remote. Russia’s outreach to Pakistan is a part of its efforts to stabilise this volatile region, and also part of its multi-vector diplomacy and desire to play a more meaningful role in Asia. Russia probably means to resurrect the role of “honest broker” it played at Tashkent, and India may thus expect a little more even-handedness from Russia. Other than that, India and Russia should not perceive each other’s relationships with other countries as a zero sum game.
Of far greater urgency, especially for India, is the need to address the worsening regional security situation. The Indian PM’s visit to Afghanistan to forge a strategic partnership was a good move. But the effort to shape the agenda for regional cooperation and the contours of a peaceful Eurasia has to extend beyond Afghanistan by proactively reaching out to Russia, the Central Asian countries, the United States and other constructive partners like the EU, UN and the ADB, and even China - to build connectivity and spheres for mutual engagement and cooperation.
The Summit has underlined the necessity for skilful regional diplomacy to manage the complex dynamics and fresh security challenges emerging in the region, which India would do well to factor into its own security strategy.
Russia Endorses Full SCO Membership For Pakistan
Submitted by Aurangzeb on November 9, 2011 – 1:48 am4 Comments
ST. PETERSBURG: Russia on Monday, for the first time, publicly endorsed Pakistan’s bid to get full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made this announcement in response to Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani’s address at the 10th Heads of Government meeting of SCO, at the Constantine Palace.
The Russian Premier also supported Prime Minister Gilani’s proposals for implementing trade and energy projects.
He announced financing 0.5 billion US dollars for the CASA- 1000 that would ensure power transmission from Turkmenistan Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Putin said in practical and tangible terms, Russia wants materialization of projects including TAPI (Turkmenistan- Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline project and the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Trade and Transmission Project (CASA 1000).
Later, the two leaders held bilateral meeting and discussed several important issues including fight against terrorism and extremism, besides calling for the need to adopt regional approach towards dealing with major challenges.
Russian Premier Putin termed his meeting with Prime Minister Gilani “very pleasant” and expressed satisfaction over bilateral and trade ties between the two countries.
“Pakistan is important for us in trade and economy and it is an important partner in South Asia and in Islamic world,” he told Prime Minister Gilani.
Putin offered Russia’s assistance in expansion of Pakistan Steel Mills and provision of technical support for the Guddu and Muzaffargarh power plants.
He said Russia could facilitate Pakistan in the execution of Thar Coal Project.
Gilani said this was his fourth meeting with Prime Minister Putin. He mentioned that he joined other leaders at the SCO forum despite the occasion of Eid, because of the importance of the forum and also of Pakistan’s commitment to the regional issues.
He appreciated Russia’s support for mega projects including CASA 1000.
Putin supported Pakistan’s stance on war on terror and agreed to pursue the policy of counter-terrorism for ensuring regional peace.
The two Prime Ministers agreed that collective regional efforts were required to eliminate terrorism from the region to usher in peace and stability, and re-direct all energies towards economic interaction among the members of SCO.
No excuse to violate Pakistan sovereignty: Russia
MOSCOW: Russia’s foreign minister, commenting on the Nato cross-border air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, said on Monday that a nation’s sovereignty should always be upheld, even when hunting “terrorists”.
“The Russian Foreign Minister… emphasised the unacceptability of violating the sovereignty of states, including during the planning and carrying out of counter-terrorist operations,” the ministry said in a statement.
Pakistan, Russia agree to promote trade, investment
MOSCOW: Pakistan and Russia on Thursday agreed to promote trade, investment and pursue joint projects particularly in energy, infrastructure development, metal industry and agriculture.
In a joint communiqué issued after the meeting of President Asif Ali Zardari and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Kremlin, both leaders agreed that this enhanced cooperation would help develop a strong bilateral relationship based on mutual respect and mutual interests.
President Asif Ali Zardari is on his first three-day official visit to Russia at the invitation of his Russian counterpart. In the last 37 years, President Zardari is the first Pakistani President, who is visiting Russia officially.
Earlier, in 1974, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, paid an official visit to the then Soviet Union.
Both the Presidents emphasized the importance they attach to promoting stability and peace in the broader region and, in this regard, to continue to enhance contacts, consultations, cooperation and coordination between the two countries.
The two sides welcomed the signing of the agreement between Pakistan and Russia on Air Transport as well as the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources of Pakistan and the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation in energy cooperation and cooperation in agriculture sector.
Earlier, President Zardari and President Medvedev held a one-on-one meeting followed by delegations level talks. Both leaders discussed bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern.
President Zardari and his Russian counterpart emphasized the importance of developing mutually beneficial economic cooperation between the two countries, which is to be promoted by the Pakistani Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation that held its first meeting in Moscow in September 2010.
Discussing regional issues, the Presidents underscored the importance of stability and peace in Afghanistan and reaffirmed their support for Afghan-led and Afghan owned efforts towards promoting national reconciliation in Afghanistan.
The Presidents expressed their deep concern about the threat of terrorism and drug related crimes persisting in the region.
Both Pakistan and Russia underlined the importance of joint efforts to fight terrorism and narco related crimes, posing a serious challenge to the international peace and stability – along the whole chain of illegal production and distribution of drugs. The two sides welcomed the signing in October 2010 of the agreement between the Ministry of Narcotics Control of Pakistan and the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia on cooperation on combating illicit trafficking of drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors.
The Presidents recognized the need for promoting trans-regional economic and trade cooperation. Regional development projects would ensure prosperity for the people of the region and it was important to optimally utilize national economic complementarities. They agreed to coordinate their efforts bilaterally as well as through regional multilateral cooperative mechanisms.
In this regard, the two sides expressed keen interest in the implementation of projects related to the creation of a system to transmit electric power from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan (CASA-1000) and to the building of a gas pipeline between Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI).
President Zardari supported Russia’s offer to participate in the projects and underscored the need for their early realization.
The Russian side welcomed Pakistan’s involvement in the activities of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Russia’s support for Pakistan’s joining the SCO alongwith other candidates was reaffirmed subject to the consent of all its members.
President Zardari and Dmitry Devedeve reiterated the importance that the two countries attach to the quadrilateral process (Russian Federation, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan) and reaffirmed their commitment to further interaction in this format in close cooperation with the SCO.
The Presidents commended the considerable progress made in the political and security dialogues between Pakistan and Russia, including at the top level. There has been a notable intensification of contacts on wide range of topics between ministries and departments of two countries, the joint communiqué said.
They commended the Russian business community’s interest in participating together with the Pakistani government and businesses in a number of economic, infrastructure and banking projects. The Russian side reaffirmed the willingness of Russian companies to cooperate with Pakistan.
Pakistan, Russia in talks on militancy, nuclear proliferation
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Russia were looking for ways to tackle militancy and nuclear proliferation at talks on Monday aimed at overcoming decades of distrust between the two countries on opposite sides of the Cold War.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov is leading the Russian side for the two-day dialogue that is also expected to touch on Afghanistan, where both nations have concerns as the United States prepares to withdraw.
“There has been a lot of mistrust between the two countries which has actually ruined their relationship in the past,” said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistan army general and a security analyst.
“They are trying to get over their past and start a new beginning.”
During the Cold War, Pakistan was allied with the United States and the Soviet Union backed India.
The two were bitter enemies in the 1980s when Pakistan supported mujahideen guerrillas battling Soviet troops in Afghanistan and also during the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Pakistan backed Taliban while Russia, along with Iran and India, supported the Northern Alliance opposition.
But ties have warmed since a 2003 visit by Pakistan’s then military president, Pervez Musharraf — the first by a Pakistani leader in 30 years.
“The main issues to be discussed at the talks will be non-proliferation, counter-terrorism as well as regional and global security,” a Pakistani foreign ministry official said.
Threat of militancy, extremism and drug trafficking emanating from the Afghan-Pakistan border region are the main Russian concerns.
Moscow suspects that extremists in Pakistani sanctuaries have links with militants from the North Caucasus and other Muslim Russian regions.
Officials said that Pakistan and Russia could cooperate in tracking down militants from Central Asia living in Pakistan’s tribal areas on the Afghan border.
The two sides may also share ideas on how to tighten command and control of nuclear weapons.
Pakistan’s top concern is to revive an ailing economy that has compounded the civilian government’s problems as it battles a deadly militancy that has spread from the northwest region to the heartland province of Punjab.
Islamabad is interested in Russian investment in its oil and gas sectors as well as in heavy industries, officials said.
“These are preliminary and exploratory talks and we will see how we can move forward from here,” he said.
Economic ties have been sporadic over the decades, with the one major project being the construction of a major steel mill in Karachi in the 1970s with the help of the Soviets.
The events are unfolding so swiftly that it has become difficult to keep track of who will be whose friend after Americans pack up from Kabul and leave. One thing is for sure; foes of yesterday will be compelled by the realities of realist politics of today to switch sides and embrace each other.
Russia of today is the successor of Soviet empire of yesteryears, though reduced to much smaller in size. Russia, and then the USSR, which played for centuries the Great Game for gaining influence and foothold in Central Asia and get a direct access to Kabul finally lost the Game to the West in the battlefields of Afghanistan. Along with this defeat, it also lost its imperial glory by ceding a sizeable portion of its territory to independent Central Asian States. It, however, seems that it never gave up its ambitions on Afghanistan; it has been watching with amused interest the plight of NATO forces in Afghanistan. It had read the writing on the wall and was confident that NATO would not meet a fate different from what it itself encountered after a decade-long war of 1980s.
Russia under Putin has revived its hope in Afghanistan and is moving to deepen its geo-economic ties with South Asia as a whole, with Pakistan serving as a gateway for energy trade to the entire subcontinent in advance of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2014. Badly bruised by harsh treatment meted out by the Americans, Pakistan feels compelled to look towards not only its old friend China but also its longtime adversary, Russia. If India after having been in the cold during Cold War can warm up to the US, why can’t Pakistan hope to be friends with Russia? This is what the realist politics is all about. For Pakistan, Russia can not only help the civilian government in Islamabad to shore up its economic record, it can also offer an alternative source of military hardware to the country’s armed forces. Diversifying its sources of military supplies has taken on newfound importance for Islamabad given Washington’s increasing reluctance to supply the full spectrum of arms and China’s continued inability to meet all of Pakistan’s requirements.
To understand the potentials of Pak-Russia friendship, we will have to make an assessment of the present state of US-Russia relations. This subject has dominated the foreign policy debates of both the major contenders of power in next presidential elections of the US which are just round the corner. The Obama administration is being harshly criticized by the opponents for its increased focus on its Pacific Century and allocation of future military and political resources to contain China. In their view, Russia under president Putin is a much greater threat to American ambitions than China. According to Foreign Policy, Russia is the major counterweight to American power and influence. A huge country that straddles what the great geographer Halford Mackinder called the Eurasian "heartland" is sure to operate with substantial effect in the world. A country with thousands of nuclear weapons, still-substantial armed services, and a cornucopia of natural resources will have its innings in high politics. Republican presidential candidate, Romney's assertions about Russia should be seen less as stale strategic thinking and more as a critique of Barack Obama's looming "Pacific shift," which implies that China has moved into position as our top geopolitical foe. Yet Beijing, in the throes of modernization and heavily weighed down by a massive population, increasingly urgent energy needs, and a troubled political transition can hardly be seen as new No. 1 geopolitical foe of the US.
According to this analysis, China's military is still decades away from having any kind of ability to project force over meaningful distances. The 100-mile width of the Taiwan Strait could just as easily be a thousand miles, given China's lack of force-projection capability. Even the quite large People's Liberation Army is full of question marks, with few substantive changes evident since it got such a bloody nose during the 1979 war with Vietnam. To be sure, the Chinese navy is very innovative, with its emerging swarms of small, short-ranging missile boats. And Chinese hackers are among the best in the world. But these capabilities hardly form the leading edge of a global military power.
This, by implication, suggests that with Russia's greater capabilities, and intentions so clearly and so often inimical to American interests, the smart geopolitical move now would be for Washington to embrace Beijing more closely, giving Moscow a lot more to think about on its eastern flank. This was a strategic shift that worked well for President Richard Nixon 40 years ago, when he first played "the China card"; it might do nicely again today.
The present US-China relations do not suggest any potential conflict given the fact that U.S. trade with China amounts to more than half a trillion dollars annually -- more than ten times the level of Russo-American economic interaction. And Beijing also serves as a major creditor. It simply makes little sense to provoke China, as Obama's announced Pacific shift already has. If Romney is right about the return of post-Soviet Russia as the world's bête noire, then any American Pacific shift should be more about alliance with, rather than alienation of, Beijing.
The Russian stance on the issues of US intervention in Syria for regime-change clearly suggest the divergence of interests of both the countries. With reinstallation of president Putin in Moscow, hopes that Russia will support any American initiative are fading away. According to a report by Brookings, the US has a list of demands which Russia may not accept. These include further reductions of nuclear arms, including non-strategic nuclear weapons; a cooperative NATO-Russia missile defense arrangement; joint efforts to deal with the proliferation challenges posed by North Korea and Iran; and consultation on steps to bolster security and stability in Central Asia as the NATO coalition prepares to withdraw its military forces from Afghanistan. The United States is trying to explore ways to increase trade and investment relations with Russia, which could help build a foundation for a more sustainable relationship.
President Putin’s re-election is considered a major challenge to smooth-sailing from the American point of view. Mr. Putin spent his formative years in the 1980s as a KGB officer. As his rhetoric during the election campaign made clear, he holds a wary skepticism about U.S. goals and policies. For example, his comments suggest he does not see the upheavals that swept countries such as Georgia, Ukraine, Tunisia or Egypt as manifestations of popular discontent but instead believes they were inspired, funded and directed by Washington. This may seem like a paranoiac view, but Mr. Putin has made so many allusions to it that it is hard to conclude that he does not believe it. That is a complicating factor for the bilateral relationship.
According to Brookings, Mr. Putin’s experience as president dealing with the Bush administration was not a happy one. In 2001-02, he supported U.S. military action against the Taliban, including overruling his advisors to support the deployment of U.S. military units into Central Asia; shut down the Russian signals intelligence facility in Lourdes, Cuba; agreed to deepen relations with NATO; calmly accepted the administration’s decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; and agreed to a minimalist arms control agreement that fell far short of Moscow’s desires. In his view, he received little in return. His perception is that Washington made no effort to accommodate Moscow’s concerns on issues such as the future of strategic arms limits, missile defense deployments in Europe, NATO enlargement, relations with Russia’s neighbors in the post-Soviet space or graduating Russia from the Jackson-Vanik amendment.
As against yesterday, Mr. Putin faces a tougher opposition at home. Soviet and Russian leaders in the past resorted to the image of a foreign adversary—all too often the United States—to rally domestic support, and one can see aspects of that in Mr. Putin’s campaign rhetoric. But the constituency to whom that appeals is already largely on Mr. Putin’s side. He may conclude that he can focus better on his domestic challenges if his foreign policy results in more positive relations with countries such as the United States. The upshot is that Mr. Putin’s return can and probably will mean more bumpiness in the U.S.-Russia relationship. He will pursue his view of Russian interests. On certain issues, those will conflict with U.S. interests, and Washington and Moscow will disagree, perhaps heatedly.
In this state of US-Russia relationship, Pakistan sees its opportunity in warming up to Russia after 2014. The much-awaited visit of president Putin to Pakistan, the first after becoming president and two significant visits of Pakistan’s army and air chiefs to Russia give some indications of the future Pakistan-Russia relations. It would be the first visit by a Russian head of state to Pakistan which stood on the other side of the Cold War, peaking in its emergence as the staging ground for the U.S. campaign to defeat the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan. It’s now again the frontline state in America’s war against Islamist militants in Afghanistan, but it is a far more conflicted partner than those days of war against the godless communists. So fraught and uncertain is the nature of the relationship with the United States that Pakistan has sought to deepen ties with long-time ally China, but also Russia, the other great power in a dangerously unstable neighborhood.
According to an assessment of warming up Pakistan-Russia relations, Reuters, bilateral visits alone don’t transform ties, and especially ones with a troubled history behind them. And then there is India to be factored in, both for Russia and Pakistan. Moscow has long stood in India’s corner from the days of the Cold War to its role as a top weapons supplier to the Indian military, still ahead of the Israelis fast clawing their way into one of the world’s most lucrative arms markets. A nuclear-powered submarine has just sailed from Russia to be inducted into the Indian navy - a force-multiplier in the military with the sub’s ability to stay beneath waters long and deep and far from home. But the stepped up Russia-Pakistan diplomacy suggests a thawing of ties at the very least. And at another level, by raising the quality and quantity of these exchanges, is Russia signaling it will pursue a multi-vectored policy in a fast changing South Asia? Tanvir Ahmad Khan, a former Pakistani foreign secretary who was also once the country’s ambassador to Moscow, says the two countries are on the verge of ending a “long history of estrangement” and that two factors have led to this landmark development. One is that there is now a national consensus in Pakistan to engage Russia earnestly, and two, “Vladimir Putin’s Russia has read the regional and global scene afresh and recognized Pakistan’s role as a factor of peace and stability.”
Pakistan’s compulsion to diversify its foreign partners is its present ties with the United States which have soured so much that it can longer be considered be an ally, ready to do its bidding as in the proxy war against the Red Army in Afghanistan. And India’s ties with the United States, on the other hand, have been transformed, with Washington virtually legitimizing it as the world’s sixth nuclear weapon state, something that even Russia never went as far to support during all the years as close allies. And if India and the United States are holding ever so advanced joint military exercises (there is one going on now in the Rajasthan desert which has a border with Pakistan) and considering multi-billion dollar defense deals as part of a new booming strategic relationship, Russia and Pakistan are also looking at launching military exchanges. Last year the commander of the Russian ground forces, Col-Gen Alexander Postinov, was in Pakistan and according to Pakistani newspapers discussed with Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani the possibility of expanding defense ties by holding joint military exercises, exchanging trainees and trainers and selling and buying weapons, although it seems these were to be confined to counter-terrorism equipment.
It may be interesting to know that the 50 JF-17 Thunder fighter planes that China is supplying to Pakistan use a Russian engine, and it’s likely that Russia gave the green signal for China to go ahead. New Delhi was probably not impressed, but it has kept its silence. Russia is also reported to have indicated its willingness to get involved in the 1,640 km TAPI project bringing piped gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and into energy-starved Pakistan and India, a project that has been hanging fire for years. Russian investors were also interested in the Thar coal project which involves developing a large energy complex in Sindh province to produce 6,000 MW of coal-based power and introduce to the country the concept of gasification and production of liquid fuel from coal.
Kiyani’s Visit to Russia And The New Great Game
PKKH Exclusive Report: By Atiq Durrani
General Kiani’s visit to Russia has raised the brows of many in the region. We want to aware the nation, for once, of the Post Afghan War scenario that awaits the fate of the region: The weak position of the US/Allies inRussia in Indian Ocean along with China at the straits of Hurmuz. As this alliance strongly surrounds Afghanistan, the anti-US/NATO/ISAF forces will be getting help from the new alliance to throw out the old alliance and wipe its footprints from the region for good. On the Economic End, a regional scenario is thinkable where; Russia will be keen to take human resource for its untapped rich resources from the allied countries and on the other hand will be investing in infrastructure for the rich untapped resources in the countries like Pakistan. Russia benefits from Gawadar, the warm waters and the Middle Eastern Market with an approach of strategic edge in the region by keeping any eye on the routes. Previously Russia has shown its strength by the presence of a strong fleet the Abkhazia region, in the Black Sea, making missile defense shield useless. Now if, as planned, Washington is going to pull out its two divisions of combat forces from the Red Sea, the shield will be totally vulnerable, meaning EU will be on its own. Think of all that and imagine, while one alliance is going into a mess (US-EU), another alliance (Pak-Russia-China) is in the making. Think of all that, and then the visits of Russian officials to Pakistan and Pakistani officials to Russia and derive the results. Dehli and Washington surely need to make some plans to save their face (more like their a$$e$ ) in the coming days.
With the United States and NATO set to leave Afghanistan over the next two years, foreign policies of Pakistan and other neighbors of Afghanistan are also changing. Power in the region is shifting, with the US influence on decline in the region, regional powers are once again gaining in the region and are active to score maximum benefits from the post US/NATO pull out scenario. In this new scenario Pakistan once again became center of the regional politics because of its geographical importance and influence in Afghanistan.
Improving Pak-Russia relations are one of the examples of change in the regional politics. Russia and Pakistan both are changing their foreign policies to seek strong relations with the regional powers. At one end regional powers like Russia and China are encouraging Pakistan in this shift of policies because it’s not only in the favor of Pakistan but it’s also in favor of the region and at the other side US and India are losing their grip on this region and don’t want this to happen. When Mr. Puttin postponed his visit to Pakistan, Western and Indian media started their propaganda against Pak-Russia relations but the recent Chief of Army Staff’s visit to Russia once again closed all doors for this negative propaganda and proved that Russia and Pakistan are determined to take forward their mutual relationship.
In some reports it was mentioned that Mr. Puttin was pressurized by the US through India and the Indian lobby in Russia to cancel his visit to Pakistan. If that’s true and the US-India had managed to postpone Mr. Puttin’s visit to Pakistan then COAS visit to Russia at this time is a nice move by military strategists.
Russia and Pakistan both are concerned with the likely US strategy to manage the post 2014 stability in Afghanistan which has definite implications for both the countries. US came in this region to gain influence and to stop strategic partnership of Central Asian Powers with the South Asian Powers because they knew it will make a powerful block in the region against their vested interests. But their stay in the region since 2001 and their poor strategic policies in the war against terror acted as a catalyst for the initiative of strong strategic relations between Central Asian Powers and the South Asian Powers.
A decade long US war against terror not only made Afghanistan a graveyard for their soldiers and dragged the neighboring countries of Afghanistan in war but it also deeply affected their economy. Now as it is obvious from the situation in Afghanistan and the statements of US Military and Government representatives that US/NATO may leave before their proposed date of exit from Afghanistan, regional powers like Russia and China are back in action once again.
Pakistan enjoys a great strategic edge, serving as a bridge and corridor to different regions. This also gives Russia an attractive spot to materialize on its strategic depth. In the present scenario when US is all set to leave Afghanistan and decline in the US influence in the region, Russia is reaching out to Pakistan and Afghanistan to improve economic ties, secure their borders and to gain influence in the region. Russia eyes a role in Afghanistan and for that they need Pakistan because they know that after the exit of US /NATO from Afghanistan, Kabul will be likely to fall in the hands of elements which will share strong ties with Pakistan at least. Russia cannot achieve its goals in Afghanistan without the help of future Afghan Government; at the same time Russia also want to protect its borders from the militant groups, already active in the region. Russia needs a partner in the region, which may secure its interests and which may not become a threat for its future plans and economics structures to be implemented. For this purpose they don’t have any better option than Pakistan. Only by strong bilateral relation with Pakistan they can achieve their goals in the region.
China the other regional power and key member of SCO (Shanghai Cooperative Organization), an important anti-American regional initiative to bring peace and stability in the region, is also a close ally of Pakistan. Pakistan has strong strategic and economic relations with China. China and Russia are also allies and the SCO is led by both. Pak-China relation also made Russia to improve its relations with Pakistan and Russia’s interests in the region compelled it to join the Afghanistan, China and Pakistan Club.
Reaching warm-water ports through land route and trade with Middle East is another dream of Russia and Pakistan is best suited to meet this demand that will open up new opportunities for the landlocked Central Asian Republics. Gawadar port can play a vital role in the improvement of their trade with Middle East. In this regard President Zardari already announced to provide southern warm water access to Russia during his visit.
As a neighboring country, though there is a cold rift between Pakistan’s and Iran’s policies, both these countries share some regional interests. Iran, who is right now in the Indian block, will have to join the block of Pakistan, Russia and China. Iran and Russia were already sharing strong ties with India, but due to India’s old habit of going down with the sinking ship, probably Iran will re-consider its Middle Eastern policies to make strong and normal ties with Pakistan.
Therefore, ongoing developments between Moscow and Islamabad, high-level visits, and Pakistan’s possible role in the SCO, signs for a greater South and East Asian alliance in the form of the SCO, and an axis of a China-Russia-Pakistan partnership can bring positive omens not only to the region but also to the Asian continent as a whole.
This alliance will play a vital role in the future in both cases, if US/NATO leaves Afghanistan, this will be the end of their influence in this region but if they stay in the region which obviously they can’t afford, it will be the end of US itself because if they stay and the anti US forces already sitting on the gates of Kabul get help from both sides of Afghanistan, that will be the last nail on the coffin of US.
The most important thing in this scenario is the isolation of India in the region. India’s relations with Russia are not as strong as it was before because of their recent military agreements with US. Dehli never had as strong relations with Beijing as Pakistan has. Exit of US from Afghanistan will automatically announce pack-up of India from Afghanistan. Pakistan also never had good relations with India although “Aman ki Asha” tried its best but the comments on Kashmir in recent UN summit by both countries once again proved that without resolution of Kashmir issue it will be only “Aman ka Tamasha”. This will leave India alone in the region and can be pressurize by the regional powers for the resolution of its disputes and normalization of its relations with the neighboring countries.
In this era of the new great game, Pakistan is clearly coming out of the US shadow but Pakistan also needs to have its proper role and share to achieve its strategic and economic objectives in the region. Unlike the western powers, particularly the United States, the Russian federation will not only provide military assistance to Pakistan but it will also provide assistance for strengthening the industrial infrastructure of Pakistan. Since 1950’s when Pakistan joined the anti-communist alliance, Pakistan was close ally of United States. Several billion dollars of economic and military aid was provided by United States and many western powers to Pakistan, but they never assisted Pakistan to uplift the socio-economic conditions and to achieve self-reliance in industrial-technological area. In these 60 years of relationship with western powers they were not able to provide a landmark like Pakistan Steel Mills that was provided by the Russian Federation. Pakistan Steel Mills is the greatest landmark in the history of Pakistan-Russia relations which reflects the base for a longstanding relationship.
Pakistan, in spite of being an active member of the world community in combating terrorism, making all its efforts and sacrifices, always gathered only negative publicity from the western media. Pakistan’s efforts in combating terrorism were never appreciated by the west and Pakistan is always pressurized to do more. In such situation it will be more useful for Pakistan to expand cooperation with the SCO states, especially Russia and China. Pakistan can develop long-term economic cooperation with Russia. Moscow has expressed interest in participating in the construction of the TAPI (the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India, Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline), CASA-1000 (Central Asia South Asia Regional Energy and Trade) energy project and the Pakistan Steel Mill.
Delay in Mr. Puttin’s visit is not the end of Pak-Russia relation but the visit of Chief of Army Staff’s visit to Russia is definitely a new beginning of the Pak-Russia relations. In the present scenario Russia is in needs of Pakistan to achieve its strategic and economic objectives in the region after US exit from Afghanistan. But Pakistan should not compromise its national interests in these new relations. Pakistan in its re-visit and re-formed policy should have an even handed approach to all great powers, near and distant, to fulfill their national security objectives.
Russia’s Growing Engagement with Pakistan
Smita Purushottam
Asif Ali Zardari’s first official visit to Russia, which, according to his website, was also the first time that a Pakistani President had been officially invited to Russia since 1974, took place on May 11-13, 2011. The bilateral Summit yielded agreements on air services, energy and agriculture. The two sides agreed to maintain regional peace and reiterated support for the joint fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, and expansion of coordination on these and other issues. They also agreed to cooperate in bilateral trade, investment, the financial sector including barter and swap schemes, and business and joint projects including the modernization of a metallurgical plant in Karachi, construction of power generation facilities and the development of gas fields in Pakistan.
Since Russia had announced its interest in participating in the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, the Joint Statement issued at the Summit mentioned the interest of both sides in TAPI and the Tajikistan- Afghanistan-Pakistan CASA-1000 (Central Asia-South Asia) electricity transmission project. Russian energy companies such as Gazprom are backing the initiative. Interestingly, Gazprom is also seeking a role in Bangladesh.
The two main themes at the Summit were therefore energy, business and economic cooperation on the one hand and combating drug trafficking and terrorism to stabilise the security situation in the region on the other. Russia and Pakistan had earlier discussed transit issues and opening a route to the “warm waters”. So it was not surprising that on the eve of the Summit President Zardari reiterated the invitation to Russia to take advantage of Pakistan’s access to the southern seas.
ASSESSMENTS
The timing of the Summit - just 10 days after the killing of Osama bin Laden - inevitably gave rise to some speculation as to whether it was calculated to send a signal to the US. This needs to be laid to rest. Such high-level visits are planned well in advance. Thus, this visit had been planned after President Zardari told President Medvedev - on the sidelines of the second Pakistan-Afghanistan-Russia-Tajikistan (hereinafter referred to as the PART) Summit at Sochi in August 20101 - that he wished to visit Moscow.
Moreover, President Medvedev and other Russian leaders left no one in doubt about their reactions to the killing of Osama bin Laden.2 The Kremlin welcomed the operation and the Russian Foreign Ministry publicly appreciated the US informing Russia about the operation before President Obama’s official announcement. Dmitry Rogozin, Russian envoy to NATO, reportedly called the liquidation of Osama “a great political success”. Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, justified it by referring to the Security Council resolution adopted after 9/11 “recognizing the US’ right of self-defense under Article 51… The right of self-defense envisages no restrictions. Those who carried out the operation, had a sound legal basis” as per “the right of self-defense under the UN Charter, confirmed moreover in the resolution of the Security Council.” Thus Article 51 allowed “a country against which an attack was made to take all necessary measures to prevent any future such attacks and punish those responsible.”3
A high-level security meeting on terrorist attacks on Russian targets abroad was held a day before President Zardari’s arrival in Russia, inadvertently serving as the backdrop to his visit.
Post American Withdrawal Scenario
Clearly, therefore, the Summit was not timed to exploit Pakistan’s emerging rift with the United States. Instead, it was part of Russia’s ongoing initiatives to play a greater role in stabilising the region before the expected withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan presented the region with “a whole range of potential worst-case scenarios,” with the only hope being “they will not all come true at once”.4
Thus, Pakistan, already suffering from multiple crises, had accelerated its tactical nuclear weapons programme. China is moreover readying itself to take advantage of the American withdrawal. Pakistan immediately rushed to China to find succor, and reportedly weighed in on Afghan President Karzai to throw in his lot with Pakistan and China.5 In fact, the tone of the American Administration seemed to change once the China card was played by Pakistan. The China factor may even be a reason for the Americans to reconsider their withdrawal plans after 2014.
Significantly, the CSTO’s Russian Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha stated that foreign troops needed to stay in Afghanistan.6 Fyodor Lukyanov, the reputed Editor in Chief of Russia in Global Affairs also opined that Russia and neighboring countries were not interested in a quick US withdrawal.
Russia’s Concerns
Like all affected countries, Russia is deeply concerned at the accentuation of instability in the region and its spillover effects into its southern periphery, increase in drug trafficking and terrorism, etc. Russia may also be uneasy at the erosion of its influence in Eurasia, while China increases its stranglehold over the region’s resources, transportation and energy networks. Thus the massive copper deposits at Aynak – discovered by Soviet experts – are now being exploited by China.
Russia has accordingly tried to re-engage constructively in the region over the past few years. Apart from its activism in SCO and CSTO, Russia has intensified its involvement in Afghanistan, through the Russia-Afghan forum, the SCO-Afghan contact group and the CTSO7-Afghan working group. Despite severe funding constraints, Russia has also explored the possibilities of greater engagement in Afghanistan’s development programmes, such as restoring Soviet-era pipelines and hydroelectric stations, and investing in Afghanistan’s mineral, oil and gas deposits – many of which were discovered by the Soviets.
Russia has moreover facilitated the transit of military supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan through its territory, in addition to making available helicopters and other facilities. It is to be hoped that the stand-off regarding stationing of ballistic missile defences in the European theatre does not derail the developing understanding between the US, NATO and Russia for stabilising the region.
Russia may have also concluded that isolating Pakistan from any dialogue to stabilise the region would be counter-productive, and hence intensified its outreach to Pakistan. This explains the PART initiative in 2009 and why Russia publicly supported Pakistan’s membership in the SCO at the Moscow Summit of May 2011, with India also formally applying for SCO membership around this time.8 The bilateral Summit was a logical extension of this strategy.
Implications for India
A perennial question is whether a rapprochement between Russia and Pakistan will adversely impact Indo-Russian relations, particularly whether Russia will sell arms to Pakistan. The Russian Secretary of the Security Council and Pakistan’s Defence Minister were reportedly present at the talks at the recent Summit. India’s relationship with Russia is however too well entrenched to be easily disturbed, while the possibility of major Russian arms sales to Pakistan in the near future is remote. Russia’s outreach to Pakistan is a part of its efforts to stabilise this volatile region, and also part of its multi-vector diplomacy and desire to play a more meaningful role in Asia. Russia probably means to resurrect the role of “honest broker” it played at Tashkent, and India may thus expect a little more even-handedness from Russia. Other than that, India and Russia should not perceive each other’s relationships with other countries as a zero sum game.
Of far greater urgency, especially for India, is the need to address the worsening regional security situation. The Indian PM’s visit to Afghanistan to forge a strategic partnership was a good move. But the effort to shape the agenda for regional cooperation and the contours of a peaceful Eurasia has to extend beyond Afghanistan by proactively reaching out to Russia, the Central Asian countries, the United States and other constructive partners like the EU, UN and the ADB, and even China - to build connectivity and spheres for mutual engagement and cooperation.
The Summit has underlined the necessity for skilful regional diplomacy to manage the complex dynamics and fresh security challenges emerging in the region, which India would do well to factor into its own security strategy.
Russia Endorses Full SCO Membership For Pakistan
Submitted by Aurangzeb on November 9, 2011 – 1:48 am4 Comments
ST. PETERSBURG: Russia on Monday, for the first time, publicly endorsed Pakistan’s bid to get full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made this announcement in response to Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani’s address at the 10th Heads of Government meeting of SCO, at the Constantine Palace.
The Russian Premier also supported Prime Minister Gilani’s proposals for implementing trade and energy projects.
He announced financing 0.5 billion US dollars for the CASA- 1000 that would ensure power transmission from Turkmenistan Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Putin said in practical and tangible terms, Russia wants materialization of projects including TAPI (Turkmenistan- Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline project and the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Trade and Transmission Project (CASA 1000).
Later, the two leaders held bilateral meeting and discussed several important issues including fight against terrorism and extremism, besides calling for the need to adopt regional approach towards dealing with major challenges.
Russian Premier Putin termed his meeting with Prime Minister Gilani “very pleasant” and expressed satisfaction over bilateral and trade ties between the two countries.
“Pakistan is important for us in trade and economy and it is an important partner in South Asia and in Islamic world,” he told Prime Minister Gilani.
Putin offered Russia’s assistance in expansion of Pakistan Steel Mills and provision of technical support for the Guddu and Muzaffargarh power plants.
He said Russia could facilitate Pakistan in the execution of Thar Coal Project.
Gilani said this was his fourth meeting with Prime Minister Putin. He mentioned that he joined other leaders at the SCO forum despite the occasion of Eid, because of the importance of the forum and also of Pakistan’s commitment to the regional issues.
He appreciated Russia’s support for mega projects including CASA 1000.
Putin supported Pakistan’s stance on war on terror and agreed to pursue the policy of counter-terrorism for ensuring regional peace.
The two Prime Ministers agreed that collective regional efforts were required to eliminate terrorism from the region to usher in peace and stability, and re-direct all energies towards economic interaction among the members of SCO.
No excuse to violate Pakistan sovereignty: Russia
MOSCOW: Russia’s foreign minister, commenting on the Nato cross-border air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, said on Monday that a nation’s sovereignty should always be upheld, even when hunting “terrorists”.
“The Russian Foreign Minister… emphasised the unacceptability of violating the sovereignty of states, including during the planning and carrying out of counter-terrorist operations,” the ministry said in a statement.
Pakistan, Russia agree to promote trade, investment
MOSCOW: Pakistan and Russia on Thursday agreed to promote trade, investment and pursue joint projects particularly in energy, infrastructure development, metal industry and agriculture.
In a joint communiqué issued after the meeting of President Asif Ali Zardari and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Kremlin, both leaders agreed that this enhanced cooperation would help develop a strong bilateral relationship based on mutual respect and mutual interests.
President Asif Ali Zardari is on his first three-day official visit to Russia at the invitation of his Russian counterpart. In the last 37 years, President Zardari is the first Pakistani President, who is visiting Russia officially.
Earlier, in 1974, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, paid an official visit to the then Soviet Union.
Both the Presidents emphasized the importance they attach to promoting stability and peace in the broader region and, in this regard, to continue to enhance contacts, consultations, cooperation and coordination between the two countries.
The two sides welcomed the signing of the agreement between Pakistan and Russia on Air Transport as well as the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources of Pakistan and the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation in energy cooperation and cooperation in agriculture sector.
Earlier, President Zardari and President Medvedev held a one-on-one meeting followed by delegations level talks. Both leaders discussed bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern.
President Zardari and his Russian counterpart emphasized the importance of developing mutually beneficial economic cooperation between the two countries, which is to be promoted by the Pakistani Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation that held its first meeting in Moscow in September 2010.
Discussing regional issues, the Presidents underscored the importance of stability and peace in Afghanistan and reaffirmed their support for Afghan-led and Afghan owned efforts towards promoting national reconciliation in Afghanistan.
The Presidents expressed their deep concern about the threat of terrorism and drug related crimes persisting in the region.
Both Pakistan and Russia underlined the importance of joint efforts to fight terrorism and narco related crimes, posing a serious challenge to the international peace and stability – along the whole chain of illegal production and distribution of drugs. The two sides welcomed the signing in October 2010 of the agreement between the Ministry of Narcotics Control of Pakistan and the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia on cooperation on combating illicit trafficking of drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors.
The Presidents recognized the need for promoting trans-regional economic and trade cooperation. Regional development projects would ensure prosperity for the people of the region and it was important to optimally utilize national economic complementarities. They agreed to coordinate their efforts bilaterally as well as through regional multilateral cooperative mechanisms.
In this regard, the two sides expressed keen interest in the implementation of projects related to the creation of a system to transmit electric power from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan (CASA-1000) and to the building of a gas pipeline between Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI).
President Zardari supported Russia’s offer to participate in the projects and underscored the need for their early realization.
The Russian side welcomed Pakistan’s involvement in the activities of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Russia’s support for Pakistan’s joining the SCO alongwith other candidates was reaffirmed subject to the consent of all its members.
President Zardari and Dmitry Devedeve reiterated the importance that the two countries attach to the quadrilateral process (Russian Federation, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan) and reaffirmed their commitment to further interaction in this format in close cooperation with the SCO.
The Presidents commended the considerable progress made in the political and security dialogues between Pakistan and Russia, including at the top level. There has been a notable intensification of contacts on wide range of topics between ministries and departments of two countries, the joint communiqué said.
They commended the Russian business community’s interest in participating together with the Pakistani government and businesses in a number of economic, infrastructure and banking projects. The Russian side reaffirmed the willingness of Russian companies to cooperate with Pakistan.
Pakistan, Russia in talks on militancy, nuclear proliferation
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Russia were looking for ways to tackle militancy and nuclear proliferation at talks on Monday aimed at overcoming decades of distrust between the two countries on opposite sides of the Cold War.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov is leading the Russian side for the two-day dialogue that is also expected to touch on Afghanistan, where both nations have concerns as the United States prepares to withdraw.
“There has been a lot of mistrust between the two countries which has actually ruined their relationship in the past,” said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistan army general and a security analyst.
“They are trying to get over their past and start a new beginning.”
During the Cold War, Pakistan was allied with the United States and the Soviet Union backed India.
The two were bitter enemies in the 1980s when Pakistan supported mujahideen guerrillas battling Soviet troops in Afghanistan and also during the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Pakistan backed Taliban while Russia, along with Iran and India, supported the Northern Alliance opposition.
But ties have warmed since a 2003 visit by Pakistan’s then military president, Pervez Musharraf — the first by a Pakistani leader in 30 years.
“The main issues to be discussed at the talks will be non-proliferation, counter-terrorism as well as regional and global security,” a Pakistani foreign ministry official said.
Threat of militancy, extremism and drug trafficking emanating from the Afghan-Pakistan border region are the main Russian concerns.
Moscow suspects that extremists in Pakistani sanctuaries have links with militants from the North Caucasus and other Muslim Russian regions.
Officials said that Pakistan and Russia could cooperate in tracking down militants from Central Asia living in Pakistan’s tribal areas on the Afghan border.
The two sides may also share ideas on how to tighten command and control of nuclear weapons.
Pakistan’s top concern is to revive an ailing economy that has compounded the civilian government’s problems as it battles a deadly militancy that has spread from the northwest region to the heartland province of Punjab.
Islamabad is interested in Russian investment in its oil and gas sectors as well as in heavy industries, officials said.
“These are preliminary and exploratory talks and we will see how we can move forward from here,” he said.
Economic ties have been sporadic over the decades, with the one major project being the construction of a major steel mill in Karachi in the 1970s with the help of the Soviets.
Pakistan can make Russia Queen of Asia
The relations between the U.S. and Pakistan, despite the numerous attempts to revive them, are falling apart. Therefore, establishing close cooperation with Pakistan will give Russia a real chance to gain a foothold in Central and South Asia. In addition, Russia will be able to access the Indian Ocean, and make the U.S. troops in Afghanistan directly dependent on its logistics.
The constant and rude attempts of the United States to interfere in the internal affairs of a nuclear power raise overt anger in this country at all levels. An opinion poll conducted by Pew Research Center (USA) in the beginning of this year showed that 74 percent of Pakistanis view the U.S. as an "enemy." Not that long ago, the whole country was discussing the scandal connected with the resignation of the Pakistani ambassador to the United States. Husain Haqqani wrote a secret letter, in which he asked for help in preventing a military coup, which was allegedly plotted in Pakistan, and promised certain concessions in return.
But even this pro-American official said last week that the goals and priorities of the two countries would not be the same in near future. That is why, he said, the USA and Pakistan should give up their attempts to build a partnership and pay attention to their own interests instead. "If in 65 years we haven't been able to find sufficient common reasons to live together ... It may be better to find friendship outside the family ties," Haqqani told Reuters.
The brazen drone bombings of the Pakistani territory, the uncoordinated military operation to destroy Osama bin Laden, the accusations of supplying materials for Iran's nuclear program have prompted Pakistan to seek cooperation with Russia. A special envoy of the President of Russia visited Pakistan in May 2012. Putin himself accepted the invitation to come to Pakistan for a bilateral meeting in Islamabad, prior to the IV quadrilateral meeting on Afghanistan. The meeting is to be held in Islamabad on 26-27 September 2012 with the participation of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Russia. A new strategic partnership is brewing in the region.
Pakistan was one of three countries that officially recognized the power of Taliban movement in Afghanistan. There is no logic in the decision of the USA to make Pakistan its ally after 9/11. Indeed, Afghanistan and Pakistan are two brotherly nations. Ten billion dollars that the States invested in Pakistan's economy during ten years are not enough to make the country "sell and destroy itself," as Minister of Science and Technology Azam Khan Swati said.
In case of partnership with Pakistan, Russia could take control of the logistics of the U.S. military bases in Afghanistan. Russia already controls the Northern Distribution Network in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that border on Afghanistan. If we add the southern routes from Karachi to Chaman and Torkham, then all deliveries will have to be coordinated through the Russian-Pakistani alliance.
If this scenario becomes reality, Russia will obtain enormous leverage over the United States. In one fell swoop, it will remove the Mideastern loop, which can not be tightened today just because of Iran. What is more, Russia will receive access to the Indian Ocean through the Arabian Sea and the ports of Gwadar or Karachi and then to the Strait of Hormuz, bypassing the alliance with Iran, which is not beneficial for Russia now.
In addition, Pakistan has been an observer at the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization - a regional international organization, founded in 2001 by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) since 2005. One could go further on the geopolitical level, and make the country a permanent member of the SCO. Given that Afghanistan, India and Iran also look for partnerships in the bloc, one should welcome them as members too. The U.S. would thus face a dilemma: either give away South Asia for the SCO (to Russia and China that is) or try to retain the region at all costs.
With Pakistan's help, Russia would be able to control terrorist activities in Central Asia. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is the largest Islamist political organization in Central Asia. It is present in Afghanistan on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border, and Pakistan's role could be crucial in the fight against this menace.
The Commander of Pakistan Air Force, Air Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, visited Russia in August. He toldThenews.com.pk portal that "it was a great visit with a positive result, and we can expect closer cooperation with Russia in the field of defense, particularly air defense." According to experts, Pakistan is interested in buying Mi-35 attack helicopters, Mi-17 transport helicopters, engines for JF-17 program, missile defense systems, submarines and so on.
Russia made another thoughtful decision as it offered Pakistan help in solving the country's energy crisis. Gazprom is ready to invest in Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline, rather than in the risky TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India), which has the support of the United States. In addition, Russia's Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Factory (MMK), with 75 percent of shares, will help expand the capabilities of Pakistan Steel Mills from 1 million to 3 million tons of production a year. Pakistan, in turn, can provide access to mineral resources in Balochistan and the Thar coal deposit.
It is important to remember that Pakistan sits on the crossroads of east to west and north to south trade corridors, including the new Silk Road Project in South Asia, which the Americans cherish. Russia needs to firmly define its economic priorities and defend them strongly. If the resources are not needed, then one should keep the transportation routes of those resources under control. A mega breakthrough is possible in the future: the "Persian Gulf - Bering Strait" railroad. The road will cross the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Turksib and the Trans-Asian Railway from China to Europe.
The constant and rude attempts of the United States to interfere in the internal affairs of a nuclear power raise overt anger in this country at all levels. An opinion poll conducted by Pew Research Center (USA) in the beginning of this year showed that 74 percent of Pakistanis view the U.S. as an "enemy." Not that long ago, the whole country was discussing the scandal connected with the resignation of the Pakistani ambassador to the United States. Husain Haqqani wrote a secret letter, in which he asked for help in preventing a military coup, which was allegedly plotted in Pakistan, and promised certain concessions in return.
But even this pro-American official said last week that the goals and priorities of the two countries would not be the same in near future. That is why, he said, the USA and Pakistan should give up their attempts to build a partnership and pay attention to their own interests instead. "If in 65 years we haven't been able to find sufficient common reasons to live together ... It may be better to find friendship outside the family ties," Haqqani told Reuters.
The brazen drone bombings of the Pakistani territory, the uncoordinated military operation to destroy Osama bin Laden, the accusations of supplying materials for Iran's nuclear program have prompted Pakistan to seek cooperation with Russia. A special envoy of the President of Russia visited Pakistan in May 2012. Putin himself accepted the invitation to come to Pakistan for a bilateral meeting in Islamabad, prior to the IV quadrilateral meeting on Afghanistan. The meeting is to be held in Islamabad on 26-27 September 2012 with the participation of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Russia. A new strategic partnership is brewing in the region.
Pakistan was one of three countries that officially recognized the power of Taliban movement in Afghanistan. There is no logic in the decision of the USA to make Pakistan its ally after 9/11. Indeed, Afghanistan and Pakistan are two brotherly nations. Ten billion dollars that the States invested in Pakistan's economy during ten years are not enough to make the country "sell and destroy itself," as Minister of Science and Technology Azam Khan Swati said.
In case of partnership with Pakistan, Russia could take control of the logistics of the U.S. military bases in Afghanistan. Russia already controls the Northern Distribution Network in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that border on Afghanistan. If we add the southern routes from Karachi to Chaman and Torkham, then all deliveries will have to be coordinated through the Russian-Pakistani alliance.
If this scenario becomes reality, Russia will obtain enormous leverage over the United States. In one fell swoop, it will remove the Mideastern loop, which can not be tightened today just because of Iran. What is more, Russia will receive access to the Indian Ocean through the Arabian Sea and the ports of Gwadar or Karachi and then to the Strait of Hormuz, bypassing the alliance with Iran, which is not beneficial for Russia now.
In addition, Pakistan has been an observer at the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization - a regional international organization, founded in 2001 by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) since 2005. One could go further on the geopolitical level, and make the country a permanent member of the SCO. Given that Afghanistan, India and Iran also look for partnerships in the bloc, one should welcome them as members too. The U.S. would thus face a dilemma: either give away South Asia for the SCO (to Russia and China that is) or try to retain the region at all costs.
With Pakistan's help, Russia would be able to control terrorist activities in Central Asia. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is the largest Islamist political organization in Central Asia. It is present in Afghanistan on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border, and Pakistan's role could be crucial in the fight against this menace.
The Commander of Pakistan Air Force, Air Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, visited Russia in August. He toldThenews.com.pk portal that "it was a great visit with a positive result, and we can expect closer cooperation with Russia in the field of defense, particularly air defense." According to experts, Pakistan is interested in buying Mi-35 attack helicopters, Mi-17 transport helicopters, engines for JF-17 program, missile defense systems, submarines and so on.
Russia made another thoughtful decision as it offered Pakistan help in solving the country's energy crisis. Gazprom is ready to invest in Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline, rather than in the risky TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India), which has the support of the United States. In addition, Russia's Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Factory (MMK), with 75 percent of shares, will help expand the capabilities of Pakistan Steel Mills from 1 million to 3 million tons of production a year. Pakistan, in turn, can provide access to mineral resources in Balochistan and the Thar coal deposit.
It is important to remember that Pakistan sits on the crossroads of east to west and north to south trade corridors, including the new Silk Road Project in South Asia, which the Americans cherish. Russia needs to firmly define its economic priorities and defend them strongly. If the resources are not needed, then one should keep the transportation routes of those resources under control. A mega breakthrough is possible in the future: the "Persian Gulf - Bering Strait" railroad. The road will cross the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Turksib and the Trans-Asian Railway from China to Europe.
THE Putin project to restore Russia to great power status advanced on March 5 when Vladimir Putin won 64 per cent of the vote to win the presidential election for a third term
The margin of victory frustrated a lingering hope of his opponents and of some western circles that Putin would be forced into a run-off election that would diminish his moral authority and substantiate the thesis that he had won a Pyrrhic victory and would not be able to rule effectively.
Putin has dominated the corridors of power for 12 years. He became prime minister in August 1999 under president Yeltsin and, upon Yeltsin’s sudden resignation on Dec 31, 1999, his successor.
Faced with a constitutional bar to a consecutive third term in 2008, Putin shifted back to the office of prime minister under President Dmitry Medvedev. As expected, he is now returning to the Kremlin as elected president. An attempt to trigger off mass protests by questioning the legitimacy of the decisive vote for him has fizzled out.
From a Pakistani viewpoint, Putin’s triumph ensures continuity of the process by which Islamabad and Moscow are overcoming decades of distrust. It is a work in progress that would greatly benefit from Moscow’s quick acceptance of a prompt Pakistani invitation to Putin to visit Islamabad in September. Musharraf went to Moscow in February 2003 and President Zardari was there in May 2011. These visits from Pakistan have distinguished precedents but Putin would make history when he comes to Islamabad.
The Russian election and the forward movement in Pakistan-Russia relations take me back to the autumn of 1996 when, in Moscow, I observed the political and economic decline of Russia. Unlike Putin in 2012, Yeltsin got elected president in August that year only in the run-off; the first round gave Yeltsin 35 per cent of the vote with 32 per cent going to the communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, who had campaigned in the name of the lost glory of the Soviet Union.
As Pakistan’s ambassador, I also had to contend with the darkening shadow on bilateral relations of the Taliban’s capture of Jalalabad and Kabul and, much worse, their northward push.
Yeltsin had gained in stature during the crisis that led to the break-up of the Soviet Union but had faltered in steering the democratisation of the state and the liberalisation of the economy. In his camp, battles of turf raged continuously; privatisation was a struggle between those who wanted a much larger middle class to rise from it and the emerging oligarchs pursuing extreme concentration of new wealth. William Safire wrote in New York Times that lights were going out all over Russia.
In the midst of increasing chaos, our despatches foreshadowed economic disarray though hardly anyone visualised the staggering scale of the financial crisis that overwhelmed Russia on Aug 17, 1998, warranting massive devaluation of the rouble.
Bailout packages from the West were suspect in the public eye because of Nato’s eastward march despite sanctimonious treaties with Moscow and the reckless greed of western firms invading the Russian economy.
Vladimir Putin’s authoritarianism may be rooted in his long association with the KGB but it gets easily validated by the need for stabilising the ship of the state. The latest onslaught of the western media does not cut deep because in the 12 years of Putin’s ascendancy, per capita income rose from a little over $6,000 to well over $19,000; the ‘oligarchs’ were contained and a large middle class emerged for the first time in Russian history.
This self-conscious class, predictably, demands greater participation in governance and the rule of law, human rights and individual freedoms. As the main architect of this basic restructuring of Russian society, Vladimir Putin should be ready to engage constructively with its legitimate expectations in his third, and possibly fourth term, as president.
The effort to transform Pakistan-Russian relations is marked by two important features: one, there is, at long last, a consensus in Pakistan to establish meaningful cooperation with Moscow; two, Moscow is outgrowing the assumption that Pakistan was, deep down, an implacable ideological foe.
Pakistan tried to dispel this entrenched perception in 1996 as well but the initiative failed to gather critical mass as the much-needed visit of prime minister Benazir Bhutto to Moscow kept getting delayed. The military ambitions of the Taliban were the principal hurdle; the presumed Pakistani assistance to the Chechen insurgents added fuel to the fire.
When I met the affable commander of the Russian Border Forces Gen Nikolaev in August 1996, he and, more particularly, his associate Col Gen Koveshnikov additionally alleged that the Islamist insurgents destabilising Tajikistan were trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A self-proclaimed bulwark against the rising tide of Islamic jihadist forces, Yeltsin’s Russia viewed Pakistan as a threat to Russian interests in what we call a ‘common region’ today even though Russia had retreated from Afghanistan. Bhutto’s visit tentatively slated for December 1996 was aborted by her dismissal; I was precipitately recalled from Moscow and Pakistan’s embassy there remained, rather disdainfully, without an ambassador for six months.
Pakistan’s relations with the Soviet Union took a nosedive after Nikolay Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev took adversarial positions on Pakistan’s issues with Kabul and New Delhi during their visits to these two capitals in 1955. Relations deteriorated even more sharply during the Bangladesh crisis and the decade in which Afghan leftists seized power and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to prevent the collapse of the Marxist regime.
History cannot be erased but the momentum of bilateral contacts between Islamabad and Moscow since 2003, of which president-elect Putin’s visit would be the high water mark, will enable the two capitals to put it in the perspective of a receding past and initiate a new phase of cooperation. Future prospects would obviously need to be assessed in a separate article. Suffice it to say that the wind is fair and that it is possible to sail forth towards new horizons.
Putin has dominated the corridors of power for 12 years. He became prime minister in August 1999 under president Yeltsin and, upon Yeltsin’s sudden resignation on Dec 31, 1999, his successor.
Faced with a constitutional bar to a consecutive third term in 2008, Putin shifted back to the office of prime minister under President Dmitry Medvedev. As expected, he is now returning to the Kremlin as elected president. An attempt to trigger off mass protests by questioning the legitimacy of the decisive vote for him has fizzled out.
From a Pakistani viewpoint, Putin’s triumph ensures continuity of the process by which Islamabad and Moscow are overcoming decades of distrust. It is a work in progress that would greatly benefit from Moscow’s quick acceptance of a prompt Pakistani invitation to Putin to visit Islamabad in September. Musharraf went to Moscow in February 2003 and President Zardari was there in May 2011. These visits from Pakistan have distinguished precedents but Putin would make history when he comes to Islamabad.
The Russian election and the forward movement in Pakistan-Russia relations take me back to the autumn of 1996 when, in Moscow, I observed the political and economic decline of Russia. Unlike Putin in 2012, Yeltsin got elected president in August that year only in the run-off; the first round gave Yeltsin 35 per cent of the vote with 32 per cent going to the communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, who had campaigned in the name of the lost glory of the Soviet Union.
As Pakistan’s ambassador, I also had to contend with the darkening shadow on bilateral relations of the Taliban’s capture of Jalalabad and Kabul and, much worse, their northward push.
Yeltsin had gained in stature during the crisis that led to the break-up of the Soviet Union but had faltered in steering the democratisation of the state and the liberalisation of the economy. In his camp, battles of turf raged continuously; privatisation was a struggle between those who wanted a much larger middle class to rise from it and the emerging oligarchs pursuing extreme concentration of new wealth. William Safire wrote in New York Times that lights were going out all over Russia.
In the midst of increasing chaos, our despatches foreshadowed economic disarray though hardly anyone visualised the staggering scale of the financial crisis that overwhelmed Russia on Aug 17, 1998, warranting massive devaluation of the rouble.
Bailout packages from the West were suspect in the public eye because of Nato’s eastward march despite sanctimonious treaties with Moscow and the reckless greed of western firms invading the Russian economy.
Vladimir Putin’s authoritarianism may be rooted in his long association with the KGB but it gets easily validated by the need for stabilising the ship of the state. The latest onslaught of the western media does not cut deep because in the 12 years of Putin’s ascendancy, per capita income rose from a little over $6,000 to well over $19,000; the ‘oligarchs’ were contained and a large middle class emerged for the first time in Russian history.
This self-conscious class, predictably, demands greater participation in governance and the rule of law, human rights and individual freedoms. As the main architect of this basic restructuring of Russian society, Vladimir Putin should be ready to engage constructively with its legitimate expectations in his third, and possibly fourth term, as president.
The effort to transform Pakistan-Russian relations is marked by two important features: one, there is, at long last, a consensus in Pakistan to establish meaningful cooperation with Moscow; two, Moscow is outgrowing the assumption that Pakistan was, deep down, an implacable ideological foe.
Pakistan tried to dispel this entrenched perception in 1996 as well but the initiative failed to gather critical mass as the much-needed visit of prime minister Benazir Bhutto to Moscow kept getting delayed. The military ambitions of the Taliban were the principal hurdle; the presumed Pakistani assistance to the Chechen insurgents added fuel to the fire.
When I met the affable commander of the Russian Border Forces Gen Nikolaev in August 1996, he and, more particularly, his associate Col Gen Koveshnikov additionally alleged that the Islamist insurgents destabilising Tajikistan were trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A self-proclaimed bulwark against the rising tide of Islamic jihadist forces, Yeltsin’s Russia viewed Pakistan as a threat to Russian interests in what we call a ‘common region’ today even though Russia had retreated from Afghanistan. Bhutto’s visit tentatively slated for December 1996 was aborted by her dismissal; I was precipitately recalled from Moscow and Pakistan’s embassy there remained, rather disdainfully, without an ambassador for six months.
Pakistan’s relations with the Soviet Union took a nosedive after Nikolay Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev took adversarial positions on Pakistan’s issues with Kabul and New Delhi during their visits to these two capitals in 1955. Relations deteriorated even more sharply during the Bangladesh crisis and the decade in which Afghan leftists seized power and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to prevent the collapse of the Marxist regime.
History cannot be erased but the momentum of bilateral contacts between Islamabad and Moscow since 2003, of which president-elect Putin’s visit would be the high water mark, will enable the two capitals to put it in the perspective of a receding past and initiate a new phase of cooperation. Future prospects would obviously need to be assessed in a separate article. Suffice it to say that the wind is fair and that it is possible to sail forth towards new horizons.
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Russia to great power status
THE Putin project to restore Russia to great power status advanced on March 5 when Vladimir Putin won 64 per cent of the vote to win the presidential election for a third term.
The margin of victory frustrated a lingering hope of his opponents and of some western circles that Putin would be forced into a run-off election that would diminish his moral authority and substantiate the thesis that he had won a Pyrrhic victory and would not be able to rule effectively.
Putin has dominated the corridors of power for 12 years. He became prime minister in August 1999 under president Yeltsin and, upon Yeltsin’s sudden resignation on Dec 31, 1999, his successor.
Faced with a constitutional bar to a consecutive third term in 2008, Putin shifted back to the office of prime minister under President Dmitry Medvedev. As expected, he is now returning to the Kremlin as elected president. An attempt to trigger off mass protests by questioning the legitimacy of the decisive vote for him has fizzled out.
From a Pakistani viewpoint, Putin’s triumph ensures continuity of the process by which Islamabad and Moscow are overcoming decades of distrust. It is a work in progress that would greatly benefit from Moscow’s quick acceptance of a prompt Pakistani invitation to Putin to visit Islamabad in September. Musharraf went to Moscow in February 2003 and President Zardari was there in May 2011. These visits from Pakistan have distinguished precedents but Putin would make history when he comes to Islamabad.
The Russian election and the forward movement in Pakistan-Russia relations take me back to the autumn of 1996 when, in Moscow, I observed the political and economic decline of Russia. Unlike Putin in 2012, Yeltsin got elected president in August that year only in the run-off; the first round gave Yeltsin 35 per cent of the vote with 32 per cent going to the communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, who had campaigned in the name of the lost glory of the Soviet Union.
As Pakistan’s ambassador, I also had to contend with the darkening shadow on bilateral relations of the Taliban’s capture of Jalalabad and Kabul and, much worse, their northward push.
Yeltsin had gained in stature during the crisis that led to the break-up of the Soviet Union but had faltered in steering the democratisation of the state and the liberalisation of the economy. In his camp, battles of turf raged continuously; privatisation was a struggle between those who wanted a much larger middle class to rise from it and the emerging oligarchs pursuing extreme concentration of new wealth. William Safire wrote in New York Times that lights were going out all over Russia.
In the midst of increasing chaos, our despatches foreshadowed economic disarray though hardly anyone visualised the staggering scale of the financial crisis that overwhelmed Russia on Aug 17, 1998, warranting massive devaluation of the rouble.
Bailout packages from the West were suspect in the public eye because of Nato’s eastward march despite sanctimonious treaties with Moscow and the reckless greed of western firms invading the Russian economy.
Vladimir Putin’s authoritarianism may be rooted in his long association with the KGB but it gets easily validated by the need for stabilising the ship of the state. The latest onslaught of the western media does not cut deep because in the 12 years of Putin’s ascendancy, per capita income rose from a little over $6,000 to well over $19,000; the ‘oligarchs’ were contained and a large middle class emerged for the first time in Russian history.
This self-conscious class, predictably, demands greater participation in governance and the rule of law, human rights and individual freedoms. As the main architect of this basic restructuring of Russian society, Vladimir Putin should be ready to engage constructively with its legitimate expectations in his third, and possibly fourth term, as president.
The effort to transform Pakistan-Russian relations is marked by two important features: one, there is, at long last, a consensus in Pakistan to establish meaningful cooperation with Moscow; two, Moscow is outgrowing the assumption that Pakistan was, deep down, an implacable ideological foe.
Pakistan tried to dispel this entrenched perception in 1996 as well but the initiative failed to gather critical mass as the much-needed visit of prime minister Benazir Bhutto to Moscow kept getting delayed. The military ambitions of the Taliban were the principal hurdle; the presumed Pakistani assistance to the Chechen insurgents added fuel to the fire.
When I met the affable commander of the Russian Border Forces Gen Nikolaev in August 1996, he and, more particularly, his associate Col Gen Koveshnikov additionally alleged that the Islamist insurgents destabilising Tajikistan were trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A self-proclaimed bulwark against the rising tide of Islamic jihadist forces, Yeltsin’s Russia viewed Pakistan as a threat to Russian interests in what we call a ‘common region’ today even though Russia had retreated from Afghanistan. Bhutto’s visit tentatively slated for December 1996 was aborted by her dismissal; I was precipitately recalled from Moscow and Pakistan’s embassy there remained, rather disdainfully, without an ambassador for six months.
Pakistan’s relations with the Soviet Union took a nosedive after Nikolay Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev took adversarial positions on Pakistan’s issues with Kabul and New Delhi during their visits to these two capitals in 1955. Relations deteriorated even more sharply during the Bangladesh crisis and the decade in which Afghan leftists seized power and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to prevent the collapse of the Marxist regime.
History cannot be erased but the momentum of bilateral contacts between Islamabad and Moscow since 2003, of which president-elect Putin’s visit would be the high water mark, will enable the two capitals to put it in the perspective of a receding past and initiate a new phase of cooperation. Future prospects would obviously need to be assessed in a separate article. Suffice it to say that the wind is fair and that it is possible to sail forth towards new horizons.
Thursday, 3 March 2016
Wednesday, 2 March 2016
Fully describe Career Guide and understand through social ideas
- Social change takes
place when there is a structural change in societies
The idea of human society presupposes social order. The
interactions among persons and groups in the society are reciprocal and
interdependent. When those interactions are repeated and persist in our period
of time, there is obviously an order in the social relations, The term social
order refers to the existence of restraint, the inhibition of impulse, control
of violence in social life and maintenance of peace and tranquility.
Social order also refers to an element of reciprocity and
mutuality in social life. Thus, it can be said that there is an element of
predictability in social life. Fulfillment of expectations of persons in roles
is possible when there is some consistency in their interactions, Social order
implies persistence. Meanings of social order are logically and empirically
related, therefore, a society is an organisation of the human relationships
which constitute social structure.
The ordering of human lives in terms a matrix of social
expectations comprises all of the distinctively human qualities of social
behaviour. Social order is based on learning i.e. individuals learn to
internalise their restraints during the process of enculturation in early
childhood. Behaviour of the people in a society is custom - bound and custom is
that phenomenon which restrains behaviours. This implies the existence of
behavioural rules and norms in a society which holds together persons and
groups.
It is obvious that without norms, social relations would be half
hazard, chaotic and dangerous. It is the norms which render order and stability
to social life. Norms are the basis of social structure. As Durkheim has
pointed out a situation of complete normlessness or anomie would be
intolerable. No normless society would endure, Thus, norms constitute one
source and locus of the order that the society exhibits.
According to Durkheim, that social solidarity of mankind in
the past was nearly mechanical one i.e. based on kinship, friendship where
division of labour was age and gender - based. There is no much divergence in
role-performance excepting those based on age and sex. In the modern world
social solidarity is increasingly organic which is based on greater division of
labour and differentiation. He showed that division of labour sometimes creates
very negation of solidarity. It is because the relations of an organism are not
regulated since they are in a state of anomie.
According Robert Merton, conformity represents the
adaptation in which both the cultural goals and the normative institutional
means are accepted by most people in a given society occupying any position are
conformists. He says that because behaviours is typically oriented towards
basic values of society that we may speak of the human aggregates as comprising
a society.
Mutualism is a mode of adaptation by which the cultural
goals are rejected while the institutional norms are accepted. He looks upon
such deviation as a private escape from the dangers and frustrations which seem
to be inherent in the competition for major cultural goals by abandoning these
goals and clinging closely to the safe routines and institutionalised norms.
The ritualist slavishly follows the rules not because of over identification
with them but from a lack of security in important social relationships in the
organisation.
Rebellion is the rejection of the prevailing goals and
substituting them with new goals and also the rejection of prevailing norms and
substituting in their place new norms. This presupposes alienation from the
generally accepted goals and standards and an attempt to bring about a new
social structure. The rebelion involves genuine transvaluation where the direct
or vicarious experience of frustration leads to full denunciation of previous
deprived values. There are two factors, which contribute adaptation by rebellion
one is the pressure for achievement coupled with realisation of the existing
restriction of opportunity. The other is ambivalent or conflicting norms
resulting from an admittance of open class and casteless norms in a society.
Innovation, mutualism, retreatism and rebelion are
individual valuations of various aspects of goal norms complex. Merton looks
upon them as typical to the society as while though occurring with sufficient frequency
in significant number of individuals. This categorization and analysis help to
understand the phenomena of anomie as discussed by Durkheim. He further notes
that those non-conforming adaptations are not rationally calculated and
utilitarian; and on the contrary, since they were out of pressure and frustration,
a degree of irrationality might be expected.
The terms, namely social order, social stability and
persistence are in vogue in the study of social change. It is true that the
opposite of social order and social stability is social disorder and social in
stability. Therefore, all societies are, at the outset, again innovation and
rebellion because they envisage such movements which may lead to social
disorder and social instability and the society may face the consequence of
normlessness and violence associated with them.
Social change takes place when there is a structural change
in societies. With technological and institutional innovations there are
changes in economy and aspiration of people. When cultural changes and changes
in social norms take place in response to new situations, social change may
take place smoothly.
Talcott Parsons has said that social systems have to be
conceived as open systems engaged in complicated processes of interchanges with
the environing systems. Parsons conceptualize social system as dynamic. In
other words, dynamism is inherent in social system. He says that internally the
social system has to be conceived as differentiated and segmented with a
plurality of subsistence, each of which must be treated analytically as an open
system interchanging with the environing subsistence within the larger system.
Thus, there is a 'strain' within the system. If the strain
becomes too intense, the mechanisms of control and restraint will not be able
to ensure conformity, as a result there may be the break-down of the structure.
He defines structural change as alteration in the normative culture defining
the expectation governing that relation. As regards the problem of identity of
the changing social systems he asserts that the crucial forms of the problem of
change lies in the stability of value system. A change in structure of a social
system is a change in its normative culture. The most important factors favoring
structural change are adequate mechanism to overcome institutionalised
structural patterns.
2. Factors Responsible for Gradual Disappearance of the
Joint Family System.
A few important factors responsible for the disintegration
of the joint family system are
i)
Development of industries and mechanization of
agriculture Due to mechanization only a few people are required to work in the
fields. As a result, people take jobs in industries and factories in distant
places, leading to the disintegration of joint families.
ii)
Developed means of transport and communication
People can easily migrate from villages to towns in search of occupation. If
at all they live in the same village, they follow a different trade from that
of the family and establish a new home.
iii)
Decline of village trade and handicrafts this
has forced the village craftsmen to close down and the workers have been
compelled to move towards the towns and cities.
iv)
Westernization People like the western
lifestyle of living independently.
v)
Social awareness among women Spread of education
has increased the social awareness among women. Women have become conscious of
their rights and have started asserting their viewpoints. No longer do they
want to be subordinated and relegated to a secondary role. This feeling too
disintegrated the joint family.
vi)
The ills of the joint family system the
non-congenial atmosphere, denial of privacy, litigation and quarrels all led to
the breakdown of the joint family system.
3. Why man is considered as social animal?
The Greek philosopher Aristotle said that "Man is a
social animal". He also asserted that he who does not need a society or is
above society is either a beast or a god.
Man cannot live all alone, in isolation. It is a social fact
that we live with others, or have to live with others. Man's
development-biological, social, intellectual and moral-depends on the help he
seeks from others, and that is precisely what makes man a social animal.
Numerous factors are responsible for our living in society. Some of them are:
(a)
Human nature Man cannot lead a solitary life.
Even if he is forced to live, it proves to be the greatest punishment for him.
(b)
Human instincts they only find expression in a
society. They are demonstrated only in a group. Love, anger, sympathy, hatred
and the like are our instincts which require association or presence of others.
(c)
For the satisfaction of his basic needs, man has
to live in a group. Basic requirements of food, clothing and shelter are
fulfilled with mutual cooperation and help. A solitary person cannot satisfy
his needs.
(d)
For reasons of security, preservation and
protection, human beings live together. Man requires security from animals,
robbers, bad weather and natural calamities.
(e)
Our moral
development largely depends on others. We learn moral qualities only in
company of other individuals. The desire to help, share and cooperate can only
be instilled in a group.
(f)
For the growth of civilization and culture, it
is essential that human beings constantly live together.
4. Short note on
join family system. What are essential characteristics of family?
It is an extended family system consisting of a group of
people (i.e., grandparents, children, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.) generally
living under a single roof, worshipping a common deity and holding common
property. The two advantages of a joint family system are:
(a)
Conservation of economic resources Joint family
system secures economy of expenditure, since things are purchased at wholesale
prices. Also, duplication of household articles and commodities is not there.
(b)
Fosters social virtues in children Virtues like
sacrifice, affection, cooperation, spirit of social service and sharing
responsibilities are cultivated amongst children because they live in a group.
Also, elders can check the undesirable and anti-social tendencies of the young
children.
Essential
characteristics of family
The characteristics of the family may be considered from the
general point of view and specific point of view, From the general point of
view the characteristics of the family are as follows :-
1) A mating relationship:
A mating relationship is the precondition to establish the
family, without it family cannot be formed. The mating relationship or marital
relationship may be permanent or temporary, it is immaterial but family cannot
be thought of without it.
2) A form of marriage:
Marriage is the base of family. Marriage may be monogamous
or polygamous or polyandrous and in any form. It is the social institution
which helps to establish mating relationship and thereby family is formed.
3) A system of nomenclature and reckoning descent:
Each family is identified by a distinct nomenclature of its
own. The members of the family are known by the nomenclature or by a
distinctive name. The system of nomenclature involves a mode of reckoning
descent. In different societies the descent is traced differently. In
matrilineal society it is traced from mother and in patrilineal society it is
from father. In some societies it may be traced from both father and mother.
4) An Economic Provision:
Every family has an economic provision to satisfy the
economic needs of its members. All the members of the family more or less share
with each other. Usually, it is the look out of the head of the family who
tries to make all possible arrangement to provide economic comfort to his
family members.
5) A common habitation:
Each family has a common home in which all the members can
live together. A living or dwelling place is necessary to bear child and care
child. Otherwise, child bearing and child rearing cannot be adequately
performed in its absence.
Besides the general characteristics, a family possesses the
following distinctive features which distinguish it from all other groups or
association.
6) Universality:
Family is the most universal of all the groups, associations
and institutions in the human society. It has existed in every society ancient,
medieval and modern and is found in all parts of the world. Even the animal
society is not free from it. In this connection, MacIver has rightly pointed
out that, "It is found in all societies, at all stages of social
development, and exists far below the human level among a myriad species of
animals. Almost every human being is or has been a member of some family".
7) Emotional basis:
Family is based on emotional ties. All the members of the
family are emotionally interwoven with one another. The emotions and sentiments
of love, affection, sympathy, cooperation, friendship etc. find their
expressions in the family particularly in mating, procreation and parental
care.
8) Formative influence:
Each family has distinctive customs, traditions, mores,
norms and culture. This family culture has a great influence on its members.
All the members of the family are bound to observe the family rules and
regulations. Family also teaches the social qualities like obedience,
tolerance, sympathy, love, affection, and sacrifice. Above all, the family
socializes the child, which helps in the development of human personality.
Thus, family exercises most profound influence on its members.
9) Limited size:
Family is a primary group; as such its size is quite
limited. Generally, family includes only those persons who are born in it and
are closely related by blood relationship and adoption. In this way it includes
father, mother and their children, so its size is small. Although there are
groups smaller than family, but they are not so because of the biological
conditions. Hence, biological conditions demand that the family should be
limited in size.
10) Nuclear Position:
Family occupies a nuclear position in the social organisation.
Different parts of the social organisation find its origin from the family. It
is the center of all human activities. The social structure is built around it.
11) Responsibilities of the members:
In the family each members has unlimited responsibility. In
other words, they have a deep sense of obligation to the family as a whole.
They share the pleasure and pain, burdens and difficulties together and
discharge their duties and responsibilities with a united spirit. MacIver has
rightly pointed out that, 'In times of crisis men may work and fight and die
for the country, but they toil for their families all their lives". In
fact the members of a family have unlimited responsibilities and they make
sacrifices for their families throughout their lives.
12) Social regulations:
Every family has its own customs, traditions rules and
regulations. As an important agent of socialization the family teaches the
norms and family culture to its members. The members are socialized in such a
manner that they never dare to violate the family rules and regulations. That
is why it is said that it is easy to establish a family but it is difficult to
break or dissolve it.
13) Permanent and Temporary in Nature:
Family is both an institution and an association. As an
institution family is permanent. In the family after marriage some members say
son or daughter may leave the family of origin, with this the family never
totally dissolves rather it continues to exist in some form or other as an
institution On the other hand, as an association it is temporary. It is because
family is the most changeable of all important organisaions. The family
undergoes variations in its structures and functions from time to time.
5. Brief note on scientific nature of Rural Sociology
Nature of Rural Sociology is concerned with the scientific
status of the discipline. In other words, we have to discuss whether Rural
Sociology is a science or not. This sort of inquiry of truth is based on
certain fundamental assumptions which are often called as essential elements of
science. These are as follows:-
1) Objectivity:-
Anybody of knowledge, to be regarded as science must have
objectivity. When any particular investigation is carried out without being
influenced by the researcher’s personal feelings, bias or attitude, that
investigation becomes objective. This objectivity helps different researchers
to reach at the same conclusion. So the primary duty of a researcher to reach
at the same conclusion.
So the primary duty of a researcher is to strive at self
eliminatory in his judgments and provide an argument which is true for each
individual mind as his own. This is attended under two conditions. The repeated
investigation of one phenomenon by the same observer yield constant data; And
the repeated observation of constant phenomena by different observers yield
constant data.
2) Generality:
The scientific theories or laws always try to discover under
the surface level of diversity the thread of uniformity. Science is not
interested in individual objects or individual groups
of objects as such. Its primary aim is to trace order in nature, to this end;
science seeks to as certain the common characteristics of types of objects and
general laws or conditions of events. The conclusions arrived at a scientific method
have general applicability.
3) Verifiability:
The scientific findings are based on the empirical evidence.
The speculation and imaginations have no place in science. The scientist
believes that the rule source of knowledge is experience (i.e. data of senses)
and that there are no universal and necessary truths from which valid
existential inferences can be drawn. This sort of reliance on reality makes the
scientific generalizations verifiable. Any knowledge or information which
cannot be verified or tested cannot be science they can at best be belief or
philosophies.
4) Rationality:
Science is not only based on empirical evidences, but also
on rational arguments only the help of data collected from reality will yield
no knowledge. They should be properly organized and rational thinking be
applied to arrive at general truth.
The scientist does not accept uncritically whatever sense
datum offers itself before him. To this sense-datum, he applies the screws of
reason so as to comprehend its true character. In other words the man of
science regards rational ideas as the guiding principle on making prediction
that are then to be tested by observation.
5) Predictability:
By logical reasoning and inferences science establishes the
cause and effect relationship among different phenomena. It also believes on
the principles of law of uniformity of nature. Which states that the nature
will before similarly under similar conditions? Given the similar situation the
same cause must produce the same effect. On the basis of these two principles
i.e. (law of concession and law of uniformity of nature). Since predicts about
future state of things with certain degree of accuracy.
6) System:
Science deals with empirical truths. But the most important
thing is that while analyzing the true nature of these empirical objects, it
follows a formal or rigorous method. This systematic method of analysis and generalization
enables the scientists to variety the findings again and again in different
occasions. Generally two prevalent methods are found in realm of science i.e.
deductive and inductive. In deductive methods the conclusion is drawn from a
set of self-evident propositions.
Without questioning the truth of the propositions
themselves. On the other hand in inductive method, the particular truths in
empirical situation are gathered continually and gradually till the most
general truth is established. Thus deduction proceeds from general to
particular were as induction proceeds from particular to general often a
scientist is confused as to which method is scientific.
A valid scientific generation combines the both. It borrows
the element of formal truth from deduction and material truth from induction
and established its own truth by application of logical reasoning.
It is difficult to establish any uniform law applicable to
all the individuals and societies in variably.
6. What are demerits of caste system.
Before defining
demerits, it is essential to discus caste system in the first instance:
Actually, Caste is derived from a Portuguese word ‘caste
which means breed, race or class. The Portuguese's used this word first to
identify small social groups in Hindu Society. In India the word ‘caste’
corresponds with ‘jat’ or Jati’ which means ‘Birth”.
On the other hand, the word ‘jati’ has been derived from the
Sanskrit root ‘Jana’ which means ‘to take birth’. Therefore, caste refers to a
particular group of people, the social membership of which is based upon birth
and they create division of labor by their hereditary occupation.
Definition of caste:
Caste is defined in a number of ways. Some of the important
definitions are given below.
Herbert Rishley defines “Caste as a collection
of families bearing a common name, claiming a common descent from a mythical
ancestor, human or divine, professing to follow the same hereditary calling and
regarded by those who are competent to give an opinion as forming a single homogenous
community.
According to Ketkar, “a caste is social
group having two characteristics: i) Membership is confined to those who are
born of the members and includes all persons so born ii) the members are
forbidden by an inexorable social law not marry outside the group.
C.H.Cooley, says, “When a class is strictly
hereditary, we may call it a caste.
Caste System discharges many dysfunctions. These are known
as demerits of disadvantages of Caste system. These are discussed below.
1) Denies of Mobility of Labor:
Caste System opposes mobility of labor. The individual under
Caste System cannot accept any occupation according to his sweet will. But the
individual is bound to follow, the occupation determined by Caste System. As a
result, many people carry the burden of unsuccessfulness and pass life
unhappily being incapable of accomplishing the determined occupation.
Therefore, idleness takes place among individuals.
2) Untouchability:
Caste System has created an ugly social evil which is known
as untouchability. Due to the caste stratification the members of untouchable
caste remain, in the lower place of social hierarchy and are oppressed and
depressed. Indian Mahatma Gandhi, says “untouchability is the hatefulness
expression of Caste System and it is a crime against God and Man. The
untouchables remaining under the grips of Caste System are deprived of all
social, religious, economic, cultural and political rights and privileges.
3) Retards Social Solidarity:
Another dysfunction of Caste System is that it retards
social solidarity. He imposes certain restrictions on food, drink, intercourse,
occupation and selection of mates and thereby spoils social unity, integrity
and feelings of brotherliness. There are senses like hatred, jealousy, envy and
so on existing between higher and lower castes. As a result, the Hindu Society
is disintegrated.
4) Obstacle to social unity:
Caste System creates obstacles to the unity of the country.
The lower caste people in the society cannot express their dissatisfaction as
they are deprived of all privileges of the society. As a result of this social
unity is disintegrated. According to Prof. G.S. Ghurye, Caste System creates an
unhealthy atmosphere for the growth of national unit E. Schmidt opines that one
of the tragic results of Caste System is that it opposes national
consciousness.
5) Obstacle to social progress:
Another demerit of Caste System is that creates obstacles in
the path of social and economic growth to the country. The members of the caste
gradually become conservative because they believe on the theory of karma. As a
result of conservatism, they neither give up old customs and traditions nor
accept easily any new ideals, values and scientific inventions. Therefore,
impediments are created in social progress.
6) Oppose to Democracy:
Caste System opposes democracy, liberty, equality and
fraternity which are the fundamental themes of a successful democracy.
Democracy ensures equal right to all irrespective of caste, religion and color.
But Caste System does not give equal rights to all members in the society. In
caste ridden society the rights of the members are determined on the basis of
social stratification. For example, while the members of higher caste enjoy all
kinds of privileges, the lower caste people are oppressed. As a result the
fundamental principle of democracy is spoiled.
7) Hindrance to the Development of personality:
Caste System hinders the developments of human personality.
It is because individuals follow the occupation, which is determined by the Caste
System compulsorily. The individual cannot accept any occupation according to
his choice. But Caste System does not determine occupation on the basis of
efficiency of the individual. For example, though a Shudra possesses required
ability and efficiency for fighting he cannot take part in war with the
Kshatriyas. As a result many talented persons cannot develop their personality
living under the shadow of caste system.
8) Social Inequality:
Social inequality is a vital demerit of caste system. As a
result of social stratification, every caste differs from each other and
thereby creates social inequality in the society. Therefore, a sense of
superiorities and inferiority is created in social, economic, religious and
political spheres. The distribution of various essential commodities is also on
the basis of superiority and inferiority in the society.
The members of the higher caste gradually become rich
enjoying all kinds of privileges where as the lower caste people become poor
being deprived of all privileges. As a result, Caste System creates a backward
class who depends upon the people of rich community and led a life almost
similar to domestic animals.
9) Bad conditions of Women:
Caste System is an obstacle to the freedom of woman in a
male-dominated society. The condition of women is very miserable under this
system. It is because Caste System deprives women of their educational right.
The women lead an agonizing life living in between the four walls of
conservatism. Caste System encourages child marriage and prohibits widow
remarriage. There by, it sends them to the hell of suffering.
10) Social Problems:
Lastly, caste system creates many social problems and
disintegrates the society. These problems and child marriage, custom of dowry,
casteism, poverty, suicide, family disorganization and so on. These problems
cannot be removed from India, unless Caste System is abolished.
most features of caste
Under Caste System society is divided into several small
social groups called castes. Each of these castes is a well developed social
group, the membership which is based on birth.
According to Prof. Ghurye, the following are the main
characteristics of caste.
1) Segmental division of society:
Under Caste System society is divided into several small
social groups called castes. Each of these castes is a well developed social
group, the membership which is based on birth. Since membership is based on
birth, mobility from one caste to another is impossible. Each caste has its own
traditional social status, occupations, customs rules and regulations.
2) Hierarchy:
According to Prof Ghurye each of the linguistics areas,
there are about 200 castes which can be graded and arranged into a hierarchy on
the basis of their social precedence. At the top of this hierarchy is the
touchable caste.
3) Restriction of commensurability and social
intercourse:
Every caste imposes restrictions on its members with regard
to food drink and social inter-course. The general rule is that the member of
caste should accept ‘Kachcha food’ the food in the preparation of which waster
is added only from either their own caste of caste ritually higher that their
own. They are also required to observe certain restrictions while accepting
water from members of other castes.
4) Differential civil and religious privileges and
disabilities:
In a caste society, there is an un-equal distribution of
privileges and disabilities among its members. While the higher caste people
enjoy all the privilege, the lower caste people suffer from all kinds of
disabilities.
5) Lack of unrestricted choice of occupation:
Choice of occupation is not free under Caste System. Each
caste or a group of allied castes is traditionally associated with a particular
occupation. Occupations are hereditary and the members of a caste are expected
to follow their traditional occupation without fail.
6) Restriction of marriage:
Castes are divided into sub-castes and each sub-caste is an
endogamous group. Endogamy, according to some thinkers is the essence of Caste
System. Every caste or sub-caste insists that its members should marry within
the group.
7. What are
advantages and disadvantages of Joint Family ?
Disadvantages
Joint Family has its disadvantages. The main defects of
joint family are as follows:
1) Home for Idler:
Joint family rests on collective responsibility. This
sometimes accounts for laziness among some members. No doubt the active members
do hard work. But when they get equal share in the food cooked at the common
hearth, some members may become lazy and may not feel the necessity of doing
any productive work. They spend their time in eating, sleeping and begetting
children.
2) Hindrance in the development of personality:
Joint family hinders the development of personality. Under
the joint family system the head of the family or Karta is all in all. He is
the sole authority to take any decision in family affairs. Other members,
especially the juniors do not get a chance to think independently to take any
independent decision. Thus development of personality is arrested.
3) Favors uncontrolled reproduction:
Joint family is said to be associated with higher birth
rate. Member does not feel the need of birth control because the children rest
on the family as a whole.
4) Hot bed of quarrel:
Joint family is the hotbed of quarrels and bickering.
Quarrels are common among the female members of the family. Quarrels between
the wives of brother, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is very common.
5) Source of litigation:
Sometimes joint-family system encourages, litigation. At the
time of the partition of movable or immovable property in the family dispute
assumes serious proportion and most of the time these are not settled without
the interference of the court of law.
6) Loss of privacy:
Over crowdedness in joint family kills one’s privacy. The
newly married man and his wife hardly get the time to meet and talk rarely in
joint family.
7) Low position of women:
Under the joint family system the woman is relegated to low
status. Her condition in the family is worse. Particularly the condition of a
daughter-in-law is very miserable. She is often ill-treated by her
mother-in-law. Her life is no way better than that of a slave. In many cases,
the ill treatment by the elderly women becomes so unbearable that they seek a
permanent relief in committing suicide.
Advantages
Following is the merits or advantages joint family.
1) Cradle of social virtues:
Joint family is like a nursery to teach social virtues. It
helps to develop social virtues like co-operation, sympathy, sacrifice,
affection, spirit of selfless service, obedience and broadminded.
2) Insurance against olds:
Joint Family Acts as insurance for the members of the family
at the time of crisis. It provides social security to its members especially to
the old, the infirm, the unemployed persons, the orphans, the widowed daughters
and sisters as well as the physical and mentally handicapped among them. For
all such persons the joint family acts as an insurance company.
3) Division of labor:
In a joint family each member is given work according to his
or her capacity. The men, women and children all have to work. For example, in
a peasant joint family all the members work actively according to their
ability. The old persons and children of the family watch the crops in the
field. During the harvest season, the women in some families help in
harvesting. This there is no need of procuring labor from outside the family.
4) Socialism in Wealth:
According to Sir Henry Maine joint family is like a co-operative
society with the father as the trustee. Every member in the joint family works
conforming to the well established socialist formula; each works according to
his or her ability and gets according to his or her needs.
5) Avoids fragmentation of land:
Joint family avoids the evils or fragmentation of land by
holding the property in common. Joint family is almost like a joint-stock
company.
6) An agency of social control:
Another advantage of joint family is that it acts as an
agency of social control. In joint family there is a close supervision over the
anti-social and unsocial activities of the young member.
7) Opportunity for leisure:
Joint family affords ample leisure to its members. Both the
male and female members divide the household works and finish it in a short
time spending the rest of the day in leisure. They never feel over burdened.
8) Money saving device:
Joint family is advantageous from the economic viewpoint.
This system helps in securing economy in expenditure. Since things are consumed
in a large quantity they can be obtained at cheap rate. A large family can be
maintained within a small means if it lives jointly.
8. What do you mean by joint family
Joint Family is recognized as a social institution from time
immemorial. It is a large social group in which the father, mother, their
mature and immature children, their brother and parents live together. In
general, a family is called a joint family where the members in a house, taking
food in a common cookery enjoy undivided landed property, participate in a
common worship and united in blood relationship.
The senior member of the family is known as Karta. Joint
Family is mostly helpful in developing good qualities of the individual. C.H.
Cooley, the famous American sociologist, describes joint family as the primary
social institution of Indian Social System. K.M. Panikar opines that joint
family is the backbone of Hindu Society. Joint Family, therefore, is an
indispensable part of Indian Social Organisation. It is a classical and unique
form of family in India.
Definition of Joint Family: Following are the
importance definitions of joint family.
According to Iravati Karve, “Joint Family is a
group of people who generally live under one roof, who eat food cooked at one
hearth, who held property in common and who participate in common family
worship and are related to each other as some type of kindred”.
According to K.M.Kapadia, “Joint Family is a
group formed not only of a couple and their children, but also other relations
either from father’s side of from mother’s side depending on whether the joint
family is patrilineal or matrilineal.”
According to E.A.Rose, traditional joint
family was a kind of entity of those related to each other as some type of
kindred. Co-residence, common property and commensality, co-worship as well as
the observance of certain rights and obligations are some of the essential
features of the joint family”.
9. What are principles of cooperation?
The ideals or principles of co operation have developed over
a number of years. They have been the result of practical experience and
success as against other system of reforms like syndicalism, communism etc.
Whose theories were first formulated by master minds before put up into
practice and adopted. These principles are as follows.
1) A voluntary Association:
In the first place it is purely a voluntary association.
Admission to a co operative society is purely voluntary. Any person who feels
the need of joining a co operative society and enjoying its benefits becomes
its member whenever he like. On the other hand, he may also quite membership on
his own accord.
2) Democratic spirit:
The co operative Society is managed by the members
themselves either directly or through their own elected representatives. Decisions
are take in a meeting in which every member has the right to express himself.
3) Equality:
The co-operative Society is guided by the principle of
equality. Every member has one vote irrespective of his of her share in the
business of the society.
4) Self help:
The basis of co-operation is self-help. It is based on the
recognition that man develop only through his own efforts. Therefore he must
stand on this own leg. It accepts outside help only as an aid to his own
efforts.
5) Justice for all:
While co-operation stands for the benefits of its members,
it believes in justice to all. It does not believe in exploitation or benefits
at the cost of others. It aims to ensure every one his due.
6) Service above profit:
The Primary Aim of co-operation is to give service to its
members. It aims at profit any to the extent that is necessary as a business
organisation. Any extra profit is redistributed to its members in the form of
dividend, bonus and rebate.
7) To meet the economic Requirement of its members:
A co-operative Society is a business institution with
objective of meeting the economic requirements of its members. It, therefore
works on business principles. It is thus neither a charitable organisation nor
a mere service institution.
8) To obtain the Material Advantage:
Elucidating the principles of co-operation the Maclagon
committee has observed that the principles of co-operation in short is that a
single and powerless persons with the help of the other persons, may reap those
material advantages that are available to the rich and powerful persons. Unity,
Economic Development, Equity, Freedom, Sympathy, Service, Economy and Reliance
are the main principles of co-operating.
10. What do you mean by competition and what are
different forms of competition found in social life ?
Competition is a dissociate process of Social interaction.
It is the most fundamental form of social struggle. It is based on
non-cooperation. It is a natural result of the universal struggle for
existence. It is a struggle between two or more individuals or groups to get
some mutually desired objects. Competition is a contest among the persons or
groups to obtain some things which are insufficient in quantity and not easily
available to meet the demands of every one. It is caused by things which are in
short supply. Ogburn and Nimkoff say that competition occurs when demand out
turns supply.
There is no competition for sunshine and air which are
unlimited. But, competition occurs only for those things which are not easily
available and people cannot get according to their own desire. In our society,
competition takes place for getting job. Similarly, Political parties compete
for acquiring power; students compete each other for obtaining highest mark in
examination. In this way; people compete for power, social position, money,
luxury, status, popularity and all other things which are not easily available.
The aim of competition is not to banish or destroy the opponent. It is not
coercion. The competitors observe rules of competition which eliminates force
and fraud. When these rules are broken it becomes conflict.
Definitions:
Park and Burgess: "Competition is an interaction
without social contact".
E. S. Bogardus: "Competition is a contest to
obtain something which does not exist in a quantity sufficient to meet the
demand".
Biesanz and Biesanz: "Competition is the
striving between two or more persons for the same goal which is limited so that
all cannot share it".
Suther land, Woodward and Maxwell: "Competition
is an impersonal, unconscious, continuous struggle between individuals or
groups for satisfaction which, because of their limited supply, all may not
have".
Different forms of
competition :
Competition can be divided into many categories. They are
discussed below:
1. Social Competition:
People always compete to achieve higher status and position.
This kind of competition i am known as social competition which is mostly
observed in open societies.
2. Economic Competition:
This type of competition is found in the process of
production, consumption and distribution of goods. People always struggle for
higher standard of living. Economic competition can be observed at the
individual as well as group level. This type of competition is on the i
increase in modern times.
3. Political Competition:
Political competition takes place in the political field.
Such type of competition is very much pronounced in the modern world. Political
parties are always engaged in competition to I capture power. Even, on the
international level there is keen competition between nations.
4. Cultural Competition:
Cultural competition takes place between two or more
cultural groups. It occurs when one cultural groups tries to establish
supremacy over the other. This kind of competition depends upon cultural
differences. Competition between the Aryans and the Dravidians, the Indians and
the British can be cited as examples.
5. Racial competition:
Racial competition is found among the different races of the
world. These races try to establish their supremacy over the others. Owing to
this reason, the entire human society is I based on racial divisions. The
competition between the white and Black in South Africa provides a very bright
example of racial competition.
11. What do you mean by term “Accommodation” ? What are
characteristics of accommodation. What are methods and forms of accommodation ?
After conflict comes to an end, the conflicting parties
reach an agreement and understanding which gives rise to a social process
called “Accommodation". It is essentially a process of temporary
adjustment. The question of accommodation arises because people are certain
that a conflict cannot continue for an indefinite period and if they will
involve in the conflict they cannot lead their life happily and peacefully.
Therefore, they find the means to reconcile the conflicting situation in spite
of their differences. That is the reason for which Sumner termed accommodation
as 'antagonistic co-operation".
The term Accommodation as an associative social process is
synonymous to 'adjustment' or 'adaptation'. Generally adjustment may be
physical or social. Physical adjustment takes place through organic or
structural modification transmitted by heredity. Similarly, social adjustment
takes place through the acquisition of behavior patterns transmitted socially.
On the other hand, adaptation is a biological process by which animals lower
than men adjust with the physical environment. Thus, adjustment to physical
environment is termed as adaptation and adjustment to social environment by
social animal is termed as 'accommodation'. Likewise adaptation is a biological
process and accommodation is asocial process.
Definitions:
Sociologists define accommodation as follows:
Ougburn'and Nimkoff, "Accommodation is a term
used by sociologists to describe the adjustment of hostile individuals or
groups".
Park and Burgess, "Accommodation is a process by
which individuals and groups establish harmony in the social circumstances that
come up as a result of competition and conflict".
Gillin and Gilin, "Accommodation is the process
by which competing and conflicting individuals and groups adjust their
relationship to each other in order to overcome the difficulties which arise in
competition, Contravention or conflict".
Characteristics:
The following characteristics of accommodation can be
pointed out:
1) Accommodation is the end result of conflict.
2) It may be a conscious or an unconscious activity or
process.
3) It is a universal activity.
4) It is a continues process.
5) It is a mixture of love and hate.
6) It is a changing process.
7) It is a selfish process.
8) It is an associative social process.
Methods and forms of
accommodation
Accommodation is a social adaptation. It takes place in
various adaptations. It takes place in various ways. According to Young and
Mark there are five methods of accommodation. They are:-
(1) Pressure (2) Compromise (3) Mediation (4) Consensus and
(5) Tolerance. Gillin and Gillin have mentioned seven methods of accommodation.
They are:
(1) Yielding to coercion (2) Compromise, (3) Arbitration and
conciliation (4) Toleration (5) Conversion (6) Sublimation and (7) Rationalization.
Considering the views of the above sociologists we discussed some of the method
of accommodation as follows:-
1. Coercion or pressure:
Coercion means the use of force. Coercion or pressure
presupposes the existence of parties of unequal strength and powerful and the
other weak. In this method of accommodation the weaker of the two conflicting
parties submits to the stronger one out of fear. For example, the vanquished
accepts the decision or will of the victor. In the wars, the victorious country
imposes its will on the vanquished.
2. Compromise:
When the conflicting parties are of equal strength or power
want to replace quarrel through accommodation that method of accommodation is
known as 'compromise'. This process is based on the principle of give and take.
The parties involved scarifies voluntarily for each other because they realize
that the continuation conflict would cause loss of their energy and resources.
That is why, compromise is a conscious effort. Management-labor agreement on
wages, hours of work, promotion etc., involves accommodation of this kind. This
method is similar to consensus.
3. Tolerance:
The method of accommodation in which there is no settlement
of difference but there is only the avoidance of overt conflict is known as
'tolerance'. In this method, each group bears with each other. It is based on
the principle of 'Live and let live'. It is a form of accommodation without any
formal agreement. Here no concession is made by any of the parties and there is
no change in basic policy. It is the best method of accommodation. The
existence of Hindus, Muslims and Christians in India is the bright instance of
tolerance.
4. Conversion:
This process takes place when one of the contending parties
tries to convert his appoints to his viewpoint by proving that he is right and
they are wrong. Generally, the term conversion is used in the religious context
to refer to conversion into some other religion. But, is may also occur in
political, economic and other fields.
5. Sublimation:
This method involves the substitution of non-aggressive
attitudes and activities for aggressive ones. To conquer violence and hatred by
love and compassion is the example of sublimation.
6. Rationalization:
The justification for action or conduct based on imaginary
premises is called rationalization. It is that method of accommodation in which
the contending parties tries to justify their action or conduct on purely
imaginary grounds. Thus, rationalization involves plausible excuses or
explanations for one's behavior instead of acknowledging one's own fault. For
example, a student who fails in the examination for his own negligence blames
the teacher or the examination system or the valuation system.
7. Accommodation through third party:
When the contending parties are of equal strength and are
not able to resolve their conflict or differences, they may have compromise
with the help of a third party. With the attempts of the third party
accommodation is achieved by means of arbitration, mediation and conciliation.
a) Arbitration:
When the decision of the third party is binding on both the
parties the method of accommodation is known as arbitration.
b) Mediation:
It is the technique of bringing conflicting individuals
together and creating in them the willingness to consider the possible
settlement of their differences. In other words, in this method of
accommodation, the mediator has no power to settle the conflict as his
decisions are not binding on the parties. He simply acts as an advisory agent.
The acceptance of the advice or suggestions is up to the contending parties.
c) Conciliation:
It is closely related to compromise. In this method of accommodation
an attempt is made by the third party to persuade the conflicting parties to
develop friendship. Thus, in case of the conciliation the conciliator offers
only suggestions in order to terminate a conflict.
Generally the labour- management disputes, political
disputes, family disputes etc. are resolved through the intervention of a third
party.
12. What do you
mean by social process?
Human being by nature and necessity a social animal. As a
social animal he meets with other human beings, interacts with them and
establishes social relationship. Thus, when individuals and groups meet and
establish social relationships they interact with each other. Such interaction
is known as social interaction. Dawson and Getly say that "Social
interaction is the process whereby I inter-penetrate the minds of each other.
This interaction can take place between two or more individuals or groups.
Interaction occurs in the form of social processes. The social processes are
the fundamental in which people interact and establish social relationships.
Definitions:
Gillin and Gillin: "By social process we mean
those ways of interacting which we can observe when individuals and groups meet
and establish system of relationships or what happens when changes disturb
already existing modes of life."
Ginsberg: "Social processes mean the
various modes of interaction between individuals or groups including
co-operation and conflict, social differentiation and integration, development,
arrest and decay".
Horton and Hunt: "The term Social process
refers to the repetitive form of behavior which is commonly found in social
Life".
Thus, Social Process consists of sequence of events,
repetition of events, relationships between the events, continuity of events
and special result.
There is lack of unanimity among the Sociologists regarding
the types or forms of social processes. In 1905, Ross had listed thirty eight
Social Process. Gillin divided social processes into six categories. Park and
Burgess reduced the list to four fundamental types. However, social processes
can broadly be categories into two types i.e. Associative and Dissociative. The
German Sociologist George Simmel was the first thinker for the first discussed
theoretically the associative and dissociative processes. Associative processes
always work for the integration and benefit of society. Therefore, they are
called as integrative social processes; these social processes bring progress
and stability in the society. Cooperation, accommodation, assimilation etc.
are the examples of associative social processes.
Dissociative social processes are just apposite of
associative social processes. These social processes always work for the
disintegration of society and hinder the progress and development of society.
These types of social processes are also known as disintegrative social
processes. Competition and conflict are the examples of dissociative social
processes.
13. What do you
mean by secondary group?
Secondary groups may be defined as those associations which
are characterized by impersonal or secondary relations. In every respect, they
are opposite of primary groups. The relations among the members of the
Secondary groups are indirect, short, temporary, casual and impersonal.
Sometimes they are called "Special Interest Groups". They do not
necessarily depend on face-to-face contact. The examples of secondary groups
include a nation, a factory, a political party, a trade union, a corporation,
etc. These groups are born and developed in the industrial society. They are
the representatives of a cold world. In fact, the warmth of the relations in
primary groups cannot be found in the indirect relations in secondary groups.
The relations in the secondary group are formal. This type of cold behavior can
be seen among the members of an office. The secondary groups are controlled by
formal rules. Here, the members are too many and too scattered to conduct their
business through face-to-face relationship.
Ogburn:
“The groups which provide experience lacking in intimacy are
called secondary groups”.
H.T.Mazumdar:
When face-to-face contacts are not present in the relations
of members, we have secondary group:
Kingsley Davis:
"Secondary groups can be roughly defined as the
opposite of everything already said about primary groups".
14. What is importance of primary group ? difference
between primary and secondary group.
Before discussing importance of primary group is necessary
to understand who coined the term primary group. The concept of primary group
was first introduced by Charles Horten Cooley in his book 'Social
Organisation'. The primary group is the most universal group found in all the
societies. It is a small group in which a few persons come into direct contact
with each other. It is characterized by intimate, face-to-face relations. The
people meet "face-to-face" for mutual help, friendship and discussion
of common problems.
The primary group is the nucleus of all social organizations.
It is the nursery of human nature and from it originates the human virtues of
love, sympathy, co-operation, justice and fairly -play. It gives "creative
expression to our social impulses".
Cooley writes- "By Primary groups I mean those characterized
by intimate face-to-face association and co-operation". They are primary
in several senses, but chiefly in that they are fundamental in forming the
social nature and ideas of the individuals. The result of intimate association
is a certain fusion of individualities in a common whole, so that one's very
self, for many purposes at least, is the common life and purpose of the group.
Perhaps, the simplest way of describing the wholeness is by saying that it is a
'we', it involves the sort of sympathy and mutual identification of which 'we'
is the natural expression".
Primary group is a "face-to-face association" with
the relationship of "sympathy and mutual identification". It plays a
very important role in forming the social nature and ideals of the individuals.
The 'self' is developed by primary group relations. The best examples of
primary groups are family, play group, neighborhood groups of village, tribe,
clan etc.
The primary groups are considered to be equally important
for the individual and society. They are the medium through which we learn our
culture. They prepare the individuals to lead a successful social life. The
primary groups perform the following functions:
1) Development of Personality:
The primary group plays a vital role in the development of
human personality. It is fundamental, in forming the social nature and ideas of
the individual. The primary group’s s as the family, the play-group and the
neighborhood play an important role in socialising child. The development of
"self' depends on close, intimate and personal contact among members in
the primary groups. Primary groups teach the child the social norms, standard
morals, beliefs, values and ideas of the society. The child acquires all his
fundamental habits and attitudes of love and affection, sympathy, co-operation,
sacrifice, disobedience, right and wrong etc. in the primary groups like
family. In the play-group, the child learns to give a take with other children.
The play-group affords him early training in meeting his equals. Learning to
co-operate and to compete and struggling to express his own will. Primary
groups make their member to learn and use culture and help the transmission of
culture to succeeding generations. Upon the development of personality depends,
in most cases, upon primary groups.
2) Satisfaction of Psychological Needs:
Primary groups satisfy many Psychology needs of the
individuals. Individual’s mental peace, contentment and security from the
primary groups. They get the advantage comparison ship, sympathy and exchange
of throughout and feeling. They reduce mental ten and emotional stresses and
strains.
3) Provision of Stimulus:
The Primary group not only provides satisfaction to the
individuals, but also pro stimulus to each of its members in the pursuit of
interest. In primary groups member get inspiration and co-operation from the
others. So, with confidence and courage they work and strive to achieve goals.
Primary groups promote efficiency. In a family, a person efficiency for his
children that he can never work with such efficiency for himself.-
4) Strengthens the Democratic Spirit:
The democratic spirit is developed in primary groups.
Primary groups help the individual to acquire basic attitudes towards people
and social institutions. The attitudes of kill sympathy, tolerance, co-operation,
mutual help and sacrifice etc., are developed in the groups which provide
cementing force to social structure.
5) Agency of social control:
The primary groups acts as an informal agency of social
control. It controls the behavior of its member and regulates their relations
in informal ways. For example, family, neighborhood, peer-group control much of
the activities of their members.
difference between primary and secondary group
Both Primary group and Secondary group differ from each
other in certain respects. The chief points of differences between the primary
group and secondary group are as follows.
1. Difference in Physical Proximity:
Primary group is characterized by close physical proximity.
Members of primary group must be physically close to one another and personally
known to each other. On the other hand, physical distance is characteristics
feature of the secondary group. Members of the secondary group are scattered
over a large place and therefore, they cannot live in close proximity.
2. Difference: in Size:
The size of the primary group is very small because it
includes a small number of people. Small size of a primary group helps its
members to develop personal relations among themselves. Secondary group on the
other hand, is large in size. It may contain a large number of people and they
are scattered all over the country. Due to its long size, the members do not
have personal relations among themselves.
3. Difference in Relationship:
Primary group and secondary group differ from each other
regarding the nature of relationship. The relations among the members of a
primary group are face-to-face, direct, close, intimate, personal and
permanent. But the relations among the members of a secondary group are touch
and go type, indirect, less intimate, short, formal and impersonal.
4. Difference in Goals:
The aims and proposes of the members of primary groups are
same and the persons take others interest as their own. But in secondary
groups, the aims and purposes of the members are not same. The members of the
secondary groups have different aims and they are always busy in their own
business.
5. Difference in type of co-operation:
In the primary groups, the co-operation among the members is
always direct and intimate. The members directly co-operate with each other,
participate in same discussions, and take common decisions. But in secondary
groups there is only indirect type of co-operation among the members because
their functions are based on the principle of division of labor and specialization
of work.
6. Difference in structure:
The structure of primary groups is very simple and rigid;
the primary relations are guided by some rigid and informal means of customs,
traditions, modes and norms. But the structure of secondary group is very complex
and flexible.
7. Difference in means and ends:
Primary group is characterized by the primary relationship
and this is not as a means to an end but an end itself. This relationship is
voluntary and spontaneous. On the other hand, the secondary relationship is
considered not as an end in itself but as a means to an end.
8. Difference in membership:
The membership of the primary groups is permanent and
compulsory, because man lives, grows and dies within it. No one can deny the
primary groups
membership. But the membership of the secondary groups is temporary and voluntary.
membership. But the membership of the secondary groups is temporary and voluntary.
9. Difference in nature of control:
Primary groups control the behavior of the members through
informal means such as customs, traditions, folkways, modes, norms, beliefs,
suggestions, religion, art, literature, praise, reward, humor and satire etc.
Secondary groups, on the other hand, control the behavior of its members by
some formal means of social control such as law, police, court, jail, army and
the like.
10. Difference in-position:
In primary groups, the position or status of a person is
fixed according to his birth, age and sex. But in secondary groups the position
of a person is determined by his roles.
11. Difference in the development of personality:
Primary group is concerned with the total personality of a
person and it develops his whole personality. Secondary group on the other hand
is concerned with a particular aspect of personality and it develops only that
aspect.
12. Difference in personal activity:
Lastly, the members of primary groups are personally active
and help each other whenever the need arises. But the members of secondary
groups are mostly inactive members of the group.
16. What do you mean by social group? What are
characteristics of social group ?
Man is a social animal. He does not live in isolation. His
daily life is made up largely of participating in groups. So, men everywhere
live in groups, such as family, clan, tribe, community etc. Besides it, people
form group consciously to satisfy various needs. So they live in group, natural
and artificial. In short, a social group in an aggregation of individuals in
which:
a) Definite relations exist between individuals composing it
and
b) Each individual is conscious of the group itself and its
symbols. Viewed in this way, family, village, school, nation, political party
or trade union etc. are some of examples of groups.
Definitions:
Maclver and page:
"A group is any collection of human beings who are
brought into social relationships with one another".
A.W.Green:
"A group is an aggregate of individuals which persists
in time, which has one or more interests, and activities in common and which is
organised".
Ogburn and Nimkoff:
"Whenever two or more individuals come together and
influence one another, they may be said to constitute social group
E.S. Bogardus:
"A group is a number of persons, two or more, who have
common objects of attention, who are stimulating to each other, who have common
loyalty and participate in similar activities."
Horton and Hunt:
“Groups are aggregates or categories of people who have a
consciousness of membership and of interaction".
Characteristics of social group
1) Reciprocal Relations:
The members of a group are inter-related to each other.
Simply, a gathering of persons cannot form a group. Mutual relations are
considered essential for the formation of a social group.
2) Sense of Unity:
A sense of unity is essential for every group. Group members
are tied by a sense of unity. By virtue of such a sense, members of a group
develop loyalty or a feeling of sympathy among themselves.
3) We-feeling:
The members of a social group develop a sense of
"we" feeling among them. "We-feeling" fosters co-operation
among members and helps to defend their interests collectively. They treat
others as outsides and try to make their group prosperous and self- sufficient.
4) Common interests:
The interests and ideals of a group are common. In fact,
people from the group for the fulfillment of their common objectives or
interests.
5) Group Norms:
Every group has its own rules and norms, which the members
are supposed to follow. The group exercises control over its members through
the norms.
6) Similarity of Behavior:
As the interests, ideals and values of the persons of a
group are common; they behave in more or less similar way for the achievement
of common interests.
7) Stability:
Groups are permanent or temporary in nature, some groups
like the crowd, mob etc. are temporary and unstable. But group like family is
relatively permanent and stable in nature.
8) Groups are Dynamic:
Social groups are not static. They are dynamic. The rate of
change may be slow or rapid. Due to internal or external pressures, groups
undergo changes.
17. what do you mean by institution ? What are important
characteristics of social institutions?
Institutions are usually defined as certain enduring and
accepted forms of procedure governing the relations between individuals and
groups. Every organisation depends upon certain recongnised and established set
of rules, traditions and usages. These usages and rules are the institutions.
They are the forms of procedures which are accepted and recognised by society
and govern the relations between individuals and groups.
People form an association to satisfy their needs. But these
needs are also satisfied through institutions. So every association has its own
institutions. Without these, no association can regulate the members. For
example, family in association has its own institutions like marriage, the
system of property and inheritance. A state as an association has its own
institutions like government, legislative procedure, constitutions etc.
Similarly, church is a religious association, but worship
and the administration of the sacraments are its institutions, According to
Lowie, sociologically the most important institutions are marriage, kinship,
law, property, religion and education. In short, associations denote
membership, institutions are modes and ways. We are born in a group and live in
it, but we act through institutions.
Institutions are the characteristic agencies of any
permanent human associations they are the wheels on which human society marches
on, the machinery through which human society carries on its activities.
Definitions:
Maclver and Page:
"Institutions are the established forms or conditions
of procedure characteristic of group activity".
Woodward and Maxwell:
"An institution is a set or web of interrelated
folkways, mores and laws which enter in some function or functions".
A. W. Green:
"An institution is the organisation of several folkways
and mores into a unit which serves a number of social functions".
Bogards:
"A social institution is a structure of society that is
organised to meet the needs of people chiefly through well established
procedures".
Kimball Young:
"An association is a set of folkways and mores
integrated round a principal function of the society".
E. A. Ross:
"Institutions are sets of organised relationships
established or sanctioned by common
Will".
Horton and Hunt:
"An institution is an orgnised system of relationships
which embodies certain common rules and procedures and meets certain basic
needs of the society".
Important characteristics of institutions
The following characteristics of institution may be
described here:
1) Institutions are the means of controlling individuals. It
regulates the conduct of people in society.
2) Institutions depend upon the collective activities of the
people.
3) Every institution has got a symbol, which may be material
or non-material.
4) Every institution has some rules which must be compulsory
obeyed by individuals. Institutions like religion, law, legislation etc.,
control the behavior of people.
5) The institution has definite procedures, which are formed
on the basis of customs and dogmas. They prescribe the way of doing things. A
marriage as an institution governs the relations between the husband and wife.
6) Institutions are more stable than other means of social
control. They do not undergo rapid changes. Many institutions are rigid. So, institutions
are relatively permanent. It
Lasts a generation or more.
7) Institutions are formed to satisfy the primary needs of
men. They have one or more clear-cut aim and objectives.
8) Institutions are abstract. They are not external, visible
or tangible things.
9) Institutions are universal; they exist in all societies
and existed at all the stages of social development.
Positive and negative functions of institutions
Functions:
The function that the institutions perform may be divided
into two categories:-
1) Positive functions.
2) Negative functions.
Positive Functions:
1) In society, moral ideas, knowledge and modes of behavior
are transferred from one generation to another through the medium of
institution. This helps younger generation in the solution of the problems
confronting it.
2) Institutions control human behavior. The unexpected,
irregular behavior of people is replaced by expected, systematic and regular
behavior through the institutions.
3) Institutions act as instrument of social control. For
example, the institution of marriage controls the sexual relations of the
individuals in society. Institution indicates the right path to man and imposes
control upon activities.
4) Institutions contribute to the fulfillment of the
fundamental human needs such as the provision of food, clothing, shelter and
sexual needs.
5) Institutions provide definite role and status for the
individuals. Institutions such as family, marriage, property etc. provide some
social standing for the individual concerned.
6) Institutions contribute to unity and uniformity of
society. They regulate relations among people who have largely been responsible
for unity and uniformity that are found in a society.
7) Institutions like family and school play very important
role in the process of socialization.
8) Institutions give stability to the social group. The
efficiency of a social group largely depends upon the effectiveness of its
institutional arrangements.
Negative Functions:
The institutions do not undergo changes easily and quickly.
Because of this reason
They retard social progress. They even hamper the growth of
personalities of the people.
Religion and caste may be mentioned here as examples to show
how they often discourage
People to go for achievements or adventures.
18. What do you mean by association? Define essential
characteristics of association.
Men have diverse needs, desires and interests. All these
needs cannot be fulfilled by man himself. So people from different groups and
association to cater various needs. When a Coma group of people organize itself
expressly for the pursuit of some common interests or interests, an association
is born. A mere group of people without having common end does not form an
association.
A collection of individual or a crowd without having a
definite aim cannot form an association. A family, a club, a political party, a
college, a trade Union, a municipality etc. some of the examples of
associations. In all these cases, these social groups have a specific goal to
attain. As the interests of men are manifold, there are various associations to
fulfillment economic, social political and other interests of people. Hence, an
association is an organised group formed for the specific purpose of fulfilling
the common needs of a number of people!
Definitions
Maclver:
"An association is an organisation deliberately formed
for the collective pursuit of some interest, or a set of interests which its
members share".
Morris Ginsberg:
"An Association is a group of social beings.”Elated to
one another by the fact that they posses or have instituted in common an
organisation with a view to securing a specified end or specific ends".
E. ST Bogardus:
"Association is usually a working together of people to
achieve some purposes”.
Giilin and Gillin
"An Association is a group of individuals united for a
specific purpose or purpose and held together by recognised or sanctioned modes
of procedure or behavior".
Important characteristics of association
The essential characteristics/elements of association
are as follows:
1) A group of people:
An association is created or formed for the attainment of
the objectives. Without people there can be no association. Hence, a group of
people is an essential condition of an association.
2) Common interests:
An association is not a mere collection of human beings. It
consists of those individuals who have some interests in common.
3) Co-operative Spirit:
An association is based on co-operative spirit of its
members. People work together to achieve some common purposes. It gives
opportunities to its members to work together to achieve some common purposes.
4) Organisation:
An association is formed of those individuals who are
organised in order to fulfill some specific interests. So, an association is
known as an organised group.
5) Some Rules and Regulations:
The organisation of an association rests upon a particular
set of laws. These laws are necessary for regulating the conduct of members
belonging to an association. The members of an association follow these rules
and regulations.
6) Voluntary membership:
The membership of an association is voluntary. It is not
compulsory. People voluntarily join in an association for the achievement of
their desired objectives. They can also withdraw their membership according to
their own wishes.
7) Durability
An association may be permanent or temporary in nature. Some
associations like the state, family, etc. are permanent. Some associations are
organised for a very temporary period. For example, the Flood Relief
Association is a temporary association.
19. what do you mean by community and what are characteristics
of community ?
Man cannot live alone. He is related in many ways to his
fellows to form a group. But it is not possible for man to become the member of
all groups. He establishes relations only with those people who reside near him
in a definite locality. It is natural that people who reside in a particular
area for a considerable length of time develop social likeness among
themselves. They develop common social ideas, common traditions and customs,
sense of belonging together. This fact of social living and common specific
area gives birth to community.
Definition of Community:
E. S. Bogardus:
Community is "a social group with some degree of
"we-feeling" and living in a given area".
2) Lundberg:
Community is a "human population living within a limited
geographical area and carrying on a common interdependent life".
3) K. Davis:
Community is "the smallest territorial group that can
embrace all aspects of social
4) Ogburn and Nimkoff:
Community is "the total organisation of social life
with a limited area ".
5) Talcott Parsons:
"A community is that collectivity the members of which
share a common territorial area as their base of operation for daily
activities".
6) Maclver and Page:
“Whenever the member of any group small or large live
together in such a way that they share, not this or that particular interest
but the conditions of a common life, we call that group a community.
So, Community is a group of people living together and
leading a common life in a definite geographical area. It is marked by some
degree of social coherence. A village, a tribal, and a city, are some examples
of community.
Elements of community
The, essential elements of community are described below:
i) Group of people:
Community is a group of human beings. It is not possible to
form a community without a group of men and women.
ii) Definite locality:
A community always occupies a definite geographical area.
Locality is the physical .basis of community. Without a definite locality,
social relations between human beings cannot be established and the 'we'
feeling cannot evolve.
iii) Community Sentiment:
Community sentiment means a feeling of belonging together.
It is "we feeling" among the members. The members of a community
speak the same language, conform to the same mores, posses the same sentiment,
and have the same attitudes.
iv) Like ness:
The people in a community share a common way of life. Their
customs, traditions, mores, language etc. are similar.
v) Permanency:
A community is not temporary like a crowd or a mob. It is
relatively stable. It includes a permanent life in a definite place.
vi) Neutrality:
Communities are not deliberately created. They are not made
by planned efforts. An individual is born in a community. It has a natural
growth of its own.
vii) A particular Name:
Every community has some particular name. In the words of
Lumley, "It points identity, it indicates reality, it points out
individuality, it often describes personality and each community is something
of a personality ".
viii) Size:
A community may be big or small. A small community may be
included in a wider community. For example, a city and a village may be
included in a district. District may enclose small communities-like villages,
towns, tribes etc.
ix) Wider ends:
People in community share several common interests. They
associate not for the fulfillment of a particular end. The ends of a community
are wider. People work together to fulfill some common interests.
x) Regulation of Relations:
Every Community in course of time develops a system of
traditions, customs, and morals.
Practices, some rules and regulations to regulate the
relations of its members. People in a community come together to meet the
primary needs through a common set of institutions and organisations.
20. What do you mean by society and what are elements of
society ?
Every science has its own terms and concepts, which carry
some precise meaning these terms, help a student of science to understand it
more clearly. The students of sociology also should have a clear understanding
of its basic concepts. In this chapter we shall try to explain some basic
concepts used in sociology.
Meaning of Society:
The term Society is the most fundamental one in sociology.
It is used in very wide sense. In common parlance, the society is to refer to
members of specific groups. For example, we speak of Harijan Society, Teacher's
Society, and Students society and the like. Similarly, the word is used to
refer to some specific institution like, Brahma Samaj, Arya Samaj, etc. Bui in
sociology, the term "Society" refers not to group of people but to
the complex pattern of the norms of interaction that arise among them. People
are only the agents of social relationship, they are regarded as things. A
society is intangible; it is a process rather than a thing, motion rather than
structure". Society is a web of social relationships, the pattern of norms
of interaction by which the members of the society maintain themselves.
Some scholars are of the opinion that society exists only
when the members know each other and possess common interests or objects. For
instance, two persons travelling in the same train, in the same compartment, at
the same seat, do not form society, because they are not socially related and
do not have mutual recognition. But as soon as they come to know each other,
the element of society is created.
Definition of society:
Some definitions of the term "society" are given
below:
Maclver and Page:
"Society is a system of usages and procedures,
authority and mutual aid, of many groupings and divisions, of human behavior
and of liberties"
Cooley:
“Society is a complex of forms or processes each of which is
living and growing by interaction with the other, the whole being so unified
that what takes place in one part affects all the rest".
Giddings:
"Society is the union itself, the organization, the sum
of formal relations in which associating individuals are bound together".
Ginsberg:
"A Society is a collection of individuals united by
certain relations or modes of behavior which mark them off from others who do
not enter into these relations or who differ from them in behavior".
Lapiere:
"The term Society refers not to group of people, hut to
the complex pattern of the norms of interaction, which arise among and between them".
G.D.H. Cole:
"Society is the complex of organised associations and
institutions within the community" If we analyse these definitions it will
appear that all these fall under two types:
(i) The functional definition which views a society as a
process and
(ii) The structural definition which views Society as a
structure.
From the functional point of view, Society is defined as a
complex of groups in reciprocal relationship, interacting upon one another,
enabling human organism to carry on their life -activities structural point of
view, society is the total social heritage of folkways, mores and institutions,
of habits, sentiments and ideals. Maclver, Cooley and Lapiere have given
functional definition of society while Ginsberg Giddings and Cole take a
structural view of Society.
Elements of society:
(i) A
System of social relationship
According to Maclver Society is "a web of social
relationship". Social relationship is the basis of Society. The family
alone is said to have as many as fifteen relationships based on age, sex and
generation. Outside the family there is no limit to the number of possible
relationships. Reutor says" Just as life is not a things but a process of
living, so society is not a thing but a process of associating". The
meaning of social relationship shall be clearer if we draw a distinction
between physical and social relation. The relationship between pen and ink,
earth and sun, a book and bookshelf, fire and wood is physical relationship
because these physical objects do not have any reciprocal awareness what so
ever. On the other hand, the social relations exist between the mother and the
child, the teacher and the thought are determined by reciprocal awareness.
Without this awareness, there can be no social relationship, and therefore no
society.
(ii) Likeness
Likeness is an essential prerequisite of society. Maclver
Says," Society means likeness". It exists among the like beings,
like-bodied and like-minded". It is likeness or similarity, which provides
for understanding each by the other. An understanding of this sort lies at the
root of our friendship, intimacy, association, institution and any such other
type of social relationship. In the primitive society, the sense of likeness
was focused on kinship that is real or supposed blood relationships. But the scope
of likeness has broadened in modern societies. People establish similar social
relationships in a society on account of similar traditions, folkways, mores
etc. Thus, similarity or likeness is the basis of society.
(iii) Difference:
Society also implies difference. If individuals are exactly
alike, their social relationship would be very much limited. There would be
little reciprocity, little give and take Family, for example, rests on
biological difference of sexes. People differ from one another in their
attitude ability, talent; personality etc. people peruse different activities
because of these differences.
(iv) Inter-dependence:
Interdependence is another essential element of society.
Family, for example, is based on the biological interdependence of sexes. One
depends upon the other for the satisfaction of one's needs. Today not only
countries but also continents depend upon one another.
(v) Co-Operation and Conflict:
Society is based on co-operation. It is the very basis of
social life. Unless people cooperate with each other they cannot lead a happy
and comfortable life. No society can be healthy and prosperous without
co-operation. Family rests on co-operation with one another to live happily. In
the words of P.Gisbert “co-operation is the most elementary process of social
life without which society is impossible”. Co-operation avoids mutual
destructiveness and results in economy.
Along with co-operation, there is conflict in society. It is
the cause of evolution. It makes us think of the process of struggle through
which all things have come into existence. Maclver says that "Society is
co-operation crossed by conflict".
(iv) Culture
Every Society is unique because it has its own culture.
Culture is a thing which only human beings possess. It refers to the social
heritage of man. It includes our attitude, moral values beliefs, ideas,
ideologies, our institutions, political, legal economic, our sciences and
philosophies. The member of a society shares a common culture.
(vii) Society is abstract
Society is an organization marked by division of labour of
some kind or other. It consists of social relations, customs, laws and mores
etc. These social relations are abstract and intangible. It cannot be seen or
touched. It can only be realized. In this way, abstractness is an element of
society.
21. Why man is called social animal ?
Aristotle, the Greek philosopher writes "Man is a
social animal. He who lives without society is either a beast or God".
Thus, man is by nature a social animal. He is born in society lives in society
and dies in society. Society is indispensable for man. Man cannot live as man,
without society. Isolation from society is regarded as a punishment. Solitary
life is unbearable for him. Social life is necessary for man. The instinct for
some form of social life is innate in human being. Professor Park says, "Man
is not born human but to be made human". Man can be called social animal
for the following reasons:
1) Man is social by nature:
Human nature is such that it cannot but live in society.
Man's nature impels him to live in society. The human child is endowed with
some latent capacities. Human qualities like capacity to learn language,
enquire and think, play and work ,help or harm others, etc. are developed in
human society only. These capacities grow through social interaction with
others. One cannot develop into a normal person in isolation. There are eminent
sociologist like Maciver and others who have cited a number of cases. Studies.
These case studies show the fact that man develops human qualities only in
society.
(i) The case of Kasper Houser:
Kasper Hauser, a young German boy, was isolated from all
kinds of human contact when he was a small child. He lived in isolation in the
forest of Nuremberg till he reached the age of seventeen. He was brought out
form the forest in 1928 and was taken to the city of Nuremberg. It was found
that he could neither walk nor talk properly. He simply muttered a
few-meaningless phrase. He could not distinguish between inanimate and animate
objects after his death, the post-mortem. Report revealed that his mental
development was not normal In spite of his subsequent education be could never
become a normal man.
ii) The case of Amala and Kamala
Two Hindu children Amala and Kamala were discovered in a
Wolf den in 1928. By then Amala was two years old and Kamala was nearly eight
at the time, when they were discovered from the den. Amala died soon after
discovery. Kamala continued to live until 1929. It was found that she behaved
like a beast and walked like a four-footed animal. She could not speak and
growled like a wolf. She was shy of human contact. It was only after careful
and sympathetic training that she could learn some social habits like simple
speech, eating, dressing and the like.
iii) The case of Anna.
Recently the case of Anna, an elegits mint American child
was studied by some sociologists and psychologists. Anna at the age of six
months was placed in a room in complete isolation for nearly five years. She
was discovered in 1938. On the discovery, it was found that, she could not walk
or speak and was indifferent to people around her. She was given careful
training after which she rapidly developed human qualities. She died in 1942.
The case of Anna proves that human nature develops only when he is one of many
people sharing a common life.
These cases prove that human being is social by nature.
Human nature develops in man only when he lives in society.
2) Development of self.
The human infant, at his birth, is not fully aware of his
own "self'. He develops the idea of self through the interaction with
others. Charles H.Cooley says that the very idea of "self' or
"I" can arise only in relationship with other people. G.H.Mead says
that at first the child performs the role of others with his parents and other
persons at home. Then, gradually he takes the role of other persons such as
playmates, friends etc. In this way self develops.
3) Social heritage determines Human personality
Man is social because he depends on social heritage which is
a mixture of customs beliefs and ideals etc. Society preserves social heritage
and transmits it from one generation to another. Social heritage molds man's
attitudes, beliefs, morals and ideals. It is said that "Man only becomes
man among Men". Man is born with some inborn potentialities. It is the
social heritage, which determines the manner in which his innate potentialities
express themselves in society. Emotional development, intellectual maturity is
not possible without society. Therefore, society determines our mental
equipment's. It shapes our identity, our thought and our emotions.
4) Necessity makes a man social.
Necessity compels man to live in society. Man has a variety
of needs. If he leads a cooperative life with his fellow beings in society he
can easily get his needs fulfilled. Many of his needs will remain unsatisfied
if he does not lead a cooperative life with his fellow beings. The human child
is born helpless. Without proper care he cannot develop himself. During infancy
he must be provided with nutrition, shelter and affection. It is society, which
extends protection, attention and opportunities necessary for his survival and
growth.
The society protects the child against all sorts of danger
and difficulty. Apart from fulfilling the basic needs of a man, the society
satisfies his desires and aspirations. The society fulfills various needs like
educational, protection, nurture, opportunity and equipment's etc. The need for
self- preservation which is felt by everyone is fulfilled by society. So the
prolonged dependence of human child compels him to live in society.
There are mainly two theories of the relationship of man and
society. One of them is Social Contract Theory and the other is Organismic
Theory.
Social contract Theory was originated by three eminent
philosophers namely, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke (1632-1778) and Jean
Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). The exponents of this theory believed that people
lived in the 'State of Nature' before the society came in to existence. At this
primitive stage, people had no idea about society. But, the exponents expressed
different views on the prevailing conditions of the 'State of Nature'. The
society was the result of the contract among individuals for their collective
as well as personal benefit.
Organism Theory is divided into two kinds namely, the
organic theory and the Group-mind theory.
The organic Theory was propounded by Herbert Spencer,
Novico, Spengler, Bluntschli and others in the nineteenth century. This theory
states that society is a kind of living organism. Its structure and functions
resemble the structure and functions of the living human body. The human body
goes through different stages of development such as birth, youth, maturity,
old age and death. Society also passes through similar stages. The organs of
human of human body like the ears, eyes, hands, head, legs etc. are all
inter-dependent and they form an organic whole, although each of them has
distinct functions of its own. In the same way, society is composed of
associations and institutions with specific functions.
The circulatory system of the human body corresponds to the
communication and transport system of the society, the nervous system
corresponds to the system of the government in the society. The biological
being is composed of cells. Similarly, society is composed of individuals who
are regarded as its cells. In this way, organic theory shows that the relation
between the individual and society are intimate,
The group mind Theory states that society has a collective
or group mind. A number of philosophers have subscribed to this view, but for
the first time, it was Plato who mentioned the social mind in his Republic.
Plato regarded civil society as a mind "writ large". The idealistic
philosophers hold the view that society is a super-individual entity. It has a
mind of its own. It is more than the minds of the individuals.
William Mc Dougall accepts the concept of the social mind
or, what is the otherwise known as group-mind. According to him, "The
Society has a mental life or its own which is not the mere sum of the mental
lives of its units existing as independent units.
Emile Durkheim also believes in the social mind. According
to him, social mind is distinct from the mind of the individuals and is
superior to it. The social mind or collective consciousness is the higher form
of psychic life.
22. Note on
contributions of fathers of sociology ?
Auguste Comte, the father of sociology was born in the year
1798. He coined die term Sociology in 1839. His major works are positive
philosophy, systems of positive polity and religion of Humanity. His important
contributions to sociology are classification and ordering of social sciences.
The nature method and scope of sociology, the law of three stages, the plan for
social reconstruction and the positivism.
One of the most important contributions of Comte is Law of
Three stages. The law states that human thought has undergone three successive
stages of development. Technological stage, the primary stage in which man sees
and judges everything in terms of supernatural beings. It is divided into again
three stages i.e. Fetishism - worshipping inanimate objects, polytheism -
worshipping many Gods and Monotheism - worshipping one God. Second stage is the
Metaphysical stage which is guided by some abstract principles and the most
developed stage is the last stage i.e. the Positive stage which is guided by
scientific knowledge emphasing on scientific data and facts establishing cause
and effect relationship.
Herbert Spencer is known as the second founding father of
sociology. In fact, it was he who popularized the term "Sociology" by
way of using it in the title of his book "Principle of Sociology".
Herbert Spencer was born on April 27, 1820, in Derby in England. He was a man
of original and independent thinking. Spencer wrote a number of books. They are
as follows (I) Social Statics (1850) 2) First principles (1862) 3) the study of
sociology (1873) 4). The principles of Sociology in three volumes (1876-96) 5).
The man versus the state (1884)
Spencer's sociology is built around two main concepts. In an
organism the parts form a concrete whole, but in a society the parts are free
and more or less dispersed. In an organism consciousness is concentrated in a
small part of the whole, in society it is diffused. The part - exist for the
benefit of the whole in an organism but in a society the whole exists for the
benefit of the individuals.
His organic analogy suffers from certain criticisms such as
the death of the society does not come with organic inevitableness. But whether
we accept or reject Spencer's comparison between the human society and the
organism, we are bound to acknowledge the fact that he popularised organic
analogy and the idea of social evolution. In fact, the doctrine laid the foundation
of Spencer's theory of organic analogy. He established the hypothesis that
society is like a biological organism and then went out to give certain
similarities and dissimilarities between the society and the some of the
similarities are that both society and organisms are distinguished from
inorganic matter by visible growth. Both grow in size. In organism and in
society there is an interdependence of parts.
Just as Spencer emphasized the similarities between society
and organism, he also spelled out the different between them the concept of
system in our sociological discussion.
Emile Durkheim, the French Philosopher, was the first modern
thinker who emphasized on the reality of society. He laid stress on the
comparative method of sociology. He gave top priority to the society and not
the individual. So if Comte is rightly called the father of sociology, then
Durkheim is the grandfather of sociology.
Durkheim's contribution to sociology is enormous. Being a
functionalist to the core, he talked of the functions of the society, so he
always talked of the social order. His major writings are "The Division of
Labour". The Rules of sociological method". "Suicide" a
"The Elementary forms of religious life".
Durkheim's study of suicide rejected all the usual explanations
about suicide due personal, hereditary or due to financial and geographical
factors. Rather he stated that suicide has a social cause.
He stated about four types of suicide namely egoistic,
altruistic, and anomic and fatalist: suicide. Egoistic suicide occurs due to
lack of integration of the individual into his study social group. It is very
much seen in the modern society. Egoistic suicide is the index of social
disorganization in modern society. This type of suicide is found among the
divorced persons.
Altruistic suicide occurs due to excess of social
integration of the individual to group. This type of suicide mostly occurs in
traditional and primitive societies. There three types of altruistic suicide
such as obligatory, optional and acute altruistic suicide.
Anomic suicide occurs when there is lack of regulation in
the society. The breakdown of social norms and sudden social changes that are
characteristics of modern times encourage anemic suicide. In analyzing the
consequences of anomie, Durkheim showed that there was a high rate of anomic
suicide among those who are wealthy as well as divorced persons. Fatalistic
suicide occurs due to excess of social regulation .The opposite of altruistic
suicide is fatalist which arises as a result of increased control over the
individual by the group.
Durkheim's theory of suicide has been subjected to searching
criticisms. Durkheim has given importance to the social factors in suicide and
has reduced the importance of other factors.
23. What
are contributions of August Comte’?
Thinkers occupy a prime position in the development of any
discipline, especially so in the social sciences. Sociology 'is no exception to
this rule, and in its emergence and develop a plethora of social thinkers have
made their contributions. Systematic study of sociology a science,
particularly, as a separate discipline, originated with Insider Auguste
Francois M Xavier Comte during nineteenth century. It is during this period
modern sociology emerged the places like France, Germany and England. Since
then, galaxies of thinkers and writ have contributed to the development of
sociological thought. Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer Emile Durkheim and Max
Weber are the four men who are regarded as the central figures founding fathers
and the great masters of sociological thought in the. Development of mod
sociology.'
Auguste Comte, a volatile Frenchman, philosopher, moralist
and sociologist, traditionally regarded as the father of sociology. He coined
the term sociology and bee father of sociology. He tried to create a new
science of society, which would not only explain the past of mankind but also
predict its future course. Auguste Comate was born in France the year 1798. He
invented a new discipline which he called at first social physics and changed
it to sociology thereafter. "Auguste Comte may be considered as first and
foremost, sociologist of human and social unity" so writes the French
sociologist Raymond Aron. Important works are:
(1) Positive Philosophy (1830-42).
(2) Systems of positive polity (1851 -54)
(3) Religion of Humanity (1856).
His contribution to sociology can be divided into four
categories. They are namely:-
(1) Classification and ordering of social sciences.
(2) The nature, method and scope of sociology.
(3) The law of three stages.
(4) The plan for social reconstruction.
(5) Positivism.
LAW OF THREE STAGES:
Auguste Comte was the first person to proclaim Law of Three
stages, which became the corner stone of his thought. Of course, this famous
law had been borrowed from R. J. Turgot, Y. B.Vico and Saint-Simon. The law
states that human thought has undergone three separate stages in its evolution
and development. According to him human thought as well as social progress pass
through three important stages. These three stages are the universal law of
human progress. These three stages are common in case of the development of
human knowledge as well as social evolution. Human individual is a staunch
believer during childhood, then becomes a critical metaphysician in adolescence
and becomes a natural Philosopher during manhood. A similar case of development
takes place in case of human society. Law of Three Stages not only talks about
the progressive transformation of society but also explain the transformation
in minds of the people. The evolution of human mind goes hand in hand with a
typical form of organisation of society. The period of growth and development
in society is known as:
(1) Theological or Fictitious stage.
(2) Metaphysical' or Abstract stage.
(3) Positive or Scientific stage.
Comte stated that each succeeding stage is superior to the
earlier stage.
Theological or Fictitious Stage:
During the primitive stage, the early man believed that all
phenomena of nature are the creation of the divine or supernatural. The
primitive man and children do not have the scientific outlook, therefore it is
characterised by unscientific outlook. They failed to discover the natural
causes of various phenomena and hence attributed them to supernatural or divine
power. For example, primitive men saw God everywhere in nature. They supposed
that excess or deficiency of rain due to Godly wrath; such a casual explanation
would be in terms of theological or fictitious explanation. The theological
stage of thinking may be divided into three sub-stages such as
a) Fetishism.
b) Polytheism.
c) Monotheism.
a) Fetishism was the primary stage of theological stage of
thinking. During this period primitive people believed that there is a living
spirit in the nonliving objects. This is otherwise known as animism. People
worshipped inanimate objects like tress, stones, a piece of wood, etc. These
objects are considered as Fetish.
b) Polytheism means believing in many Gods. Primitive people
believed that different Gods control different natural forces. Each God had
some definite function and his scope and area of action was determined. For
example, God of water, God of rain and God of fire, God of air, etc.
c) Monotheism is the last and the most developed form of
theological thinking. Monotheism means believing in one God or God in one.
Metaphysical or Abstract stage: -
Metaphysical stage is an extension of theological stage.
During this period, reason and rationality was growing. Reason replaced
imagination. People tried to believe that God is an abstract being. Soul is the
spark of divine power i.e. inform of abstract forces. It is believed that an
abstract power or force guides and determines the events in the world.
Metaphysical thinking discards belief in concrete God. The nature of enquiry
was legal and rational in nature. For example; Classical Hindu Indian society
where the principle of transmigration of soul, the conception of rebirth,
notions of pursuant has were largely governed by metaphysical uphill.
Positive or Scientific Stage:
This positive stage is also known a scientific stage. The
dawn of 19th century marked the beginning of this stage. It is characterised by
scientific knowledge. In this stage, human mind gave up the taken for granted
approach. At this stage, human mind tried to establish cause and affect
relationship. Scientific knowledge is based on facts. Facts are collected by
observation and classification of phenomena.
Positivism is a purely intellectual way of looking at the
world. Positivism emphasises on observation and classification of data and
facts. One can observe uniformities or laws about natural as well as social
phenomena. Positivistic thinking is best suited to the need of industrial
society.
Criticisms:
The concept rational doesn't have universal meanings, what
is rational to one society may not be to society another.
Max Weber advocates that the nature of progress of society
should not be studied by the preconceived philosophical outlines rather they
should be studied form objective and empirical stand point.
24. What are contributions of Herbert Spencer in
Sociology?
Herbert Spencer was a theorist whose valuable insights have
often been drowned in a sea of irrelevance and spacious reasoning. He is
popularly known as the British Aristotle and often called the second founding
father of sociology. Spencer's ideas have left an indelible impression on the
succeeding writers. Spencer's name was associated with the birth of sociology
in England. Herbert Spencer was born an April 27, 1820, in Derby in England. He
was a man of original and independent thinking. He has contributed to various
fields of knowledge like philosophy, biology, psychology, anthropology and
sociology. Spencer wrote a number of books. They are as follows.
1) Social Statics (1850)
2) First Principles (1862).
3) The study of Sociology (1873)
4) The Principles of Sociology in three volumes (1876-96)
5) The Man verses the State (1884) Organic Analogy:
Spencer is popularly known for his treatment of evolution.
The evolutionary doctrine was no doubt the foundation of Spencer's sociological
theory. He, however, presented the organic analogy, a secondary doctrine which
also played a vital role in his thought system. He identified society with a
biological organism. But this comparison of the society with the biological
organism was not originally propounded by Herbert Spencer. Several other
philosophers had given the concept previously. He established the hypothesis
that society is like a biological organism and then proceeded to defend it
against all objectives with great logical force. Indeed, he regarded the
recognition of the similarity between society and organism as the first step
towards a general theory of evaluation. In his "Principles of Sociology
Spencer observed some similarities between biological and social organism:-
Society is thus viewed as being essentially analogous to an
organism, with its interdependent parts or organs making up the body of
society.
Spencer observed some similarities between biological and
social organism:-
1) Both society and organisms are distinguished from
inorganic matter by visible growth, a child grows up to a man, a small
community becomes a great city, a small state an empire.
2) Both grow in size and this growth is accomplished by
increasing complexity of structure,
3) In the organism and in society there is an
interdependence of parts. The progressive differentiation of structure in both
is accompanied by progressive differentiation of functions.
In both, the differentiation of structure is followed by a
similar differentiation of function. 5) The life of society, like the life of
an organism is far larger than the life of any of the units of parts.
Differences:-
Having out lined these similarities, Spencer points out the
ways in which societies and organism differ from each other. The differences
are as follows,
1) The organism is a concrete, integrated whole whereas
society is a whole composed of discrete and dispersed elements.
2) In an organism consciousness is concentrated in a small
part of the aggregate, while in society consciousness is diffused.
3) Unlike organisms, societies have no specific external
form, such as a physical body with limbs or face.
4) In an organism, the parts are fixed and bound together in
close contact while, in a society parts are separated and dispersed.
5) In an organism the parts exist for the benefit of the
whole. In a society, the whole exists merely for the benefit of the individual.
However, in spite of such elaborate description, Spencer
points out that his analogy mainly serves the purpose of scaffolding which is
removed when the building is completed and that the scaffolding itself has no
value. Spencer has given much importance to the term organism that the
scaffolding is usually mistaken for the real structure.
Criticisms:
Spencer's theory suffers from certain drawbacks. Spencer
used his organic analogies in a ridiculous manner. For example, he compared the
king's council to the medulla oblongata, the House of Lords to the cerebellum,
and the House of commons to the cerebrum. The organic analogy was used by
thinkers in their discussions even prior to Spencer. If a society is an
organism, it undergoes a cycle of birth, maturity and death. But the death of a
society does not come with organic inevitableness. A society need not die also.
Timasheff is of the view that merely on the ground of systematic similarity,
society cannot be considered an organism.
But in spite of all these criticisms, his organism theory
highly influenced the later sociologists like Paulvan, Ward, Sumner and
Giddings.
25. What are
contributions of Emile Durkheim?
The writings of another French Writer, Emile Durkheim have
had a more lasting impact on modern sociology than those of Comte. Indeed, he
became the pioneer in giving sociology the status of a science and it’s our
method of study. Durkheim was born in Lorraine of France in 1858. He was the
only founding father who could occupy the part of Professor of Sociology.
Although he drew an aspect of Comte's work, Durkheim thought that many of his
predecessor's ideas were too speculative and vague. To become scientific,
according to Durkheim, sociology must study social facts, i.e. aspects of
social life that shape our actions as individuals.
Like the other major founders of sociology, Durkheim was
preoccupied with the changes transforming society in his own lifetime. His
major writings are 'The Division of Labour', 'the rules of sociological
method', 'Suicide' and 'The Elementary forms of religious life'.
Suicide:
One of Durkheim's most famous studies was concerned with the
analysis of suicide (Durkheim 1952, originally published in 1897). In his book,
he has given a fine sociological analysis of suicide which is based as the
theory of sociology or collective mind. The book is praised as a research
classic.
Suicide seems to be a purely personal act, the outcome of
extreme person unhappiness. But Durkheim showed that social factors exert a
fundamental influence on suicidal behavior. Durkheim defined suicide as
"every case of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or
negative act performed by the victim himself, which he knows will produce this
result". A positive act would be to shoot one or to hang one. In this
case, death comes as a direct result of the action. A negative act would be to
remain in a burning house or to refuse to take food to the point of starvation.
Death in this case comes to an individual indirectly.
In his classic study of suicide, he demonstrated that
neither psychopathic factors, nor hereditary, nor climate, nor imitation, nor
poverty, nor unhappy love and other personal factors are responsible for
suicide. Suicide is a social fact and is due to social forces. Individuals are
compelled to commit suicide whenever the condition of society departs from a
state of balance. Society maintains balance by "integration” and
"regulation". Integration refers to the extent to which individuals
experience a sense of belonging to the group or collective and
"regulation" refers to the extent to which the actions and desires of
individuals are restrained by moral values. A society, which passes too much
integration and regulation, will create four types of suicide such as egoistic,
altruistic, anomic and fatalistic. Egoistic Suicide:
Egoistic suicide occurs when an individual feels him too
much isolated from the social group. It results from the lack of integration of
the individual into his study of social group. It is very much seen in modern
society. Our modern society which is characterised by impersonal self centered
and secondary associations leaves the individual socially isolated and
extremely cut off from the normal contacts. Therefore, a good number of
individuals commit suicide. This led Durkheim to say that egoistic suicide is
the index of social disorganisation in modern society. By analysing suicide
statistics, Durkheim found that the suicide rate was more in case of the
unmarried, widowed, divorced those without children, and those with no strong
attachments to religious, social or community groups.
Altruistic suicide:
Altruistic suicide occurs when the integration of the
individual and the group is too close and intimate so much so that he is
completely controlled by the group without any regard for his personality.
Psychologically, it is based on the individual sense of duty to sacrifice
himself for the sake of larger social unity. Briefly speaking, self-destruction
is caused under pressure of the social need. This type of suicide mostly occurs
is traditional and primitive societies. According to Durham altruistic suicide is
of three types.
(I) Obligatory altruistic suicidal refers to a type of
suicidal in which honour is involved For example, the Hindu practice of sati
that kills her by placing on the funeral pyre of her dead husband.
(II) Optional altruistic suicide is praise worthy act. For
example, in the case of hara-kiri, the individual is so strongly attached to
the demands of his society, that he is willing to take his life when the norms
so demand. Self-killing by army suicide squads and self destruction by human bombs
of militant groups are some of the examples of optional suicide.
(III) Acute altruistic suicide occurs when the individual
kills himself for the purpose of joy of sacrifice and self renunciation. Self
killing of Buddhist monk can be cited as an example in this connection
Men and women who are old and invalid, women whose husbands
are deed, men and women who disgrace the group through the utter violation of
sudden group morals are socially designated for altruistic type of suicide.
Anomic Suicide
Anome is a French word which means normlessness or a state
without rules or regulations. The society fixes up norms, which prescribe the
attainable goal. Anomie describes the situation when this is framework breaks
down and there is chaos and confusion in the society.
Anomic suicide occurs when there is lack of regulation in
the society. This type of suicide is dell to a sudden breakdown of the social
equilibrium such as sudden business depression, inflation etc. Suicides occur
after bankruptcies-insolvency or even after winning a lottery are many commit
suicide. It follows, therefore, that such suicides are not only conditioned by
some sudden disastrous change in the life of an individual, but it can also be
governed by some sudden change for the better in an individual's life. The
increasing poverty is not an adequate explanation of such suicides because the
suicide rate increases not only in case of poverty, but also due to prosperity.
The important fact to be noted in this connection is that many persons are unable
to adjust themselves to such sudden violent changes in their life's
organisation, whether the change is towards a happy or unhappy direction. Under
such circumstances anomic suicide moreover solves their personal dilemma.
In analysing the consequences of anomie, Durkheim showed
that there was a high rate of anomic suicide among those who are wealthy as
well as divorced persons. Sudden changes in the standard of living or the
breakdown of a marriage throws life out of gear and puts norms in a flux. Like economic
anomie, domestic anomie resulting from the death of husband or wife is also the
result of a destruction that upsets the scale of life.
Fatalistic Suicide:
This occurs due to excess of social regulation. The opposite
of altruistic suicide is fatalist which arises as a result of increased control
over the individual by the group. When there was an excess or strict
regulation, which become un-tolerable then the individual commits this type of
suicide. It was committed by subjects whose futures were doomed and whose
passions were choked by an oppressive discipline.
Durkheim's theory of suicide has been subjected to searching
criticisms. Durkheim has given importance to the social factors in suicide and
has reduced the importance of other factors. Durkheim's theory of suicide is
said to be more supported by argument than by fact.
This theory is based upon incomplete statistics dealing with
only small numbers many objections are raised to Durkheim's study of Suicide,
but still it remains a classics work whose relevance to sociology is by no
means exhausted today.
26. Note on
Endogamous & Exogamous marriage.
Endogamous Marriage
In this marriage the individuals marry within their own
tribe, Varna, caste, sub-caste class, race religion etc. The probable causes of
the prevalence of this type of marriage are preserving and maintain the group
secrets of sacrament and skills, the desire to live separate! From others, to
maintain the purity of blood etc. No doubt, endogamous marriage strength the
unity within the group but at long run is harmful to national integration. It
leads to groupism and other social problems like marital maladjustment dowry,
bride price etc.
Exogamous marriage:
Exogamous marriage is just opposite to endogamous marriage.
In this marriage individual has to marry outside his our group like gotra,
pravar, sapinda or village.
Both the endogamous and exogamous type of marriage exist is
some societies. For example, in India the member of a caste is expected to
select his or her life partner from within his/her cast/tribe and outside one's
own gotra or totem.
c) On the basis of preference:
Most of the societies put some restrictions on marriage
between the kins. However, in some other society’s marriage is socially
approved between a limited number of kins, in the said societies marriage is
sanctioned between them on the basis of priority or preference! Hence when
marriage between kins is socially sanctioned the said type of marriage is known
as preferential marriage.
2) Levirate:
It is a type of preferential marriage in which a man marries
the window of his deceased
Brother.
3) Sororate:
It is another system of preferential marriage in which man
marries his wife's sister. It is two types -junior sororate and senior
sororate. When a man marries his wife's younger sister, it is called junior
sororate. On the other hand if the marriage is with the elder sister of his
wife then it called as senior sororate.
27. What are the
merits and demerits of Polyandry?
Merits of polyandry:
The merits of polyandry are as follow:-
1) Firstly, Polyandry controls the growth of population in
the society.
2) Secondly, it avoids the division of family property,
common houses and maintains unity and integrity of the family.
3) Thirdly, it fosters us feeling among the members of the
family.
4) Fourthly, it may strengthen economic status of the
family.
Demerits of polyandry:
Following are the demerits of polyandry:
1) Firstly, polyandry may lead to extra-marital relation, as
all the husbands will not be satisfied by a wife.
2) Secondly, a woman has to satisfy the sexual urge of
several husbands that may have serious effect on her health.
3) Thirdly, the woman may suffer several general diseases.
4) Fourthly, Polyandry sometimes leads to the problem of
sterility or barrenness.
5) Fifthly, it causes harm to married life and gives rise to
several psychological problems.
28. How human development is essential of social
development ?
1. It was observed that despite economic achievements, the
living standard of the masses remained largely unchanged.
2. It was realised that the economic development alone
cannot promote human development.
3. Consequently the concept of human development got
expended beyond economic development.
4. Human development is the process of both quantitative
change and qualitative growth.
5. As a result the concept of Gross Domestic Product was
enlarged to encompass the elements of human happiness.
6. The concept of human development was taken into a broader
perspective while touching upon social, economic, political and cultural
aspects of human life with special emphasis on reduction in poverty and
narrowing down the gap of inequality and unemployment. It galvanised the
socio-economic structure for people's development.
7. The concept of human development embraces all aspects of
human life and not just the economic aspect. Here the utilisation effect of
income is important and not the income itself.
8. Human development is the end whereas social development
and economic growth are the means to it.
9. But the importance of economic growth among all
contributory factors of development is paramount. It enlarges human skills,
widens their choices and develops humans as resources which in turn again
influences economic development.
29. What is the importance of cooperation in the processes
of social interaction?
Cooperation is an associative and basic process of social
life. Society cannot exist without this. It is the very basis of social
existence. It is one of the continuous social processes. The term
'Co-operation' is derived from the two Latin words 'Co' meaning together and
'Operari' meaning to work. Literally, Cooperation means 'joint work' or
'working' together' for a common goal'.
Merrill and Hdredge says, 'Co-operation is a form of social interaction
wherein two or more persons work together to gain a common end.'
According to Fairchild "Co-operation is the process by
which the individuals or groups combine their effort, in a more or less
organized way for the attainment of common 'objective'.
From the above definitions, two characteristics of
co-operation become clear. They are:
1. Organised effort.
2. Common end
There are difference of opinion among the sociologists
regarding the types of co-operation. Mac Iver and Page speak of two types of
co-operation. They are -
1. Direct co-operation.
2. Indirect co-operation.
1. Direct Co-operation:
Direct co-operation implies direct relationship among the
individuals. In this type of co-operation, people do like things together. In
other words, when people directly co-operate with each other for the
achievement of a common goal it is called direct co-operation. Playing
together, working together, worshiping together, ploughing the field together,
traveling together and so on are some of the examples of direct co-operation.
2. Indirect Co-operation:
Indirect co-operation is just, the opposite of direct
co-operation. In indirect co-operation people do different tasks towards a
similar end. In other words, in this type of co-operation people work individually
for the attainment of a common goal and this is based on the principle of
division of labor and specialization of functions. For example, in a college
the principal, lecturers, office assistants, accountant, typist, librarian and
dispatcher perform different functions but they make co-operative effort
towards a common goal.
A.W. Green has divided co-operation into three types such as
1. Primary, Co-operation.
2. Secondary Co-operation.
3. Tertiary Co-operation.
1. Primary Co-operation:
Primary co-operation is generally found in the primary
group, children's play group and so on. Primary co-operation is that type of
co-operation in which there is no selfish interest. Every member works for the
betterment of all. Thus primary relation leads to primary co-operation,
2. Secondary Co-operation:
Secondary co-operation is that type of co-operation in which
an individual co-operates with others for the achievement of some selfish
interests. Secondary cooperation is the characteristic of modern industrial
society, which is mostly found in secondary groups such as social, economic,
religious and political group where work is based on division of labor and
specialization of functions. Secondary co-operation does not provide equal
benefit to all the members. Each may work in co-operation with others for his
own status, power and prestige.
3. Tertiary Co-operation:
In tertiary co-operation, different groups make mutual
adjustment with each other under certain compelling circumstances. Tertiary
co-operation is purely voluntary in nature. People or groups co-operate with
each other according to their sweet will. The attitudes of the co-operating
parties or groups in the field of tertiary co-operation are very opportunistic
and selfish. For instance, when two political parties of different ideologies
are co-operative together to defeat their rival party in an election, it is
known as tertiary co-operation.
4. Role of Co-operation
Co-operation is so important in human life that it is
difficult for man to survive without it. Cooperation is the foundation on
which our social life is built up. Without active co-operation of fellow
beings, a man cannot lead a happy and comfortable life. In a family without
active co-operation of wife, a man cannot lead a happy conjugal life; Man
cannot fulfill his basic needs like food, clothing and shelter without
co-operation. Progress in science, technology, art, literature depends upon cooperation.
Co-operation brings all round development of individual as well as of society.
Without this, the very existence of human society is impossible.
30. Brief note on the meaning of social power. What are
factors that determine social process in society ?
Social power is a universal aspect of social interaction. It
plays an important role in shaping relations among the members of a group. In
groups some members are more powerful than others and this fact has important
consequences for a group functioning. Further all forms of social interaction
involve differences in the relative power of the participants to influence one
another. Thus power differences enter into determining the relations between
father and child, employer and employee, politician and voter teacher and
student.
Meaning and definition of power
Kingsley Davis defines power as "the determination of
behavior of others in accordance with one's own ends." According to
Sheriff :power denotes the relative weights of behavior by member in a group
structure."
Weber has defined power as the probability that one actor.
(individual or group) within a social relationship in a position to carry out
his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this
probability rests. He goes on to say "All conceivable qualities of a
person and all combination of circumstances may put him in a position to impose
his will in a given situation. These definitions show that power is a broad
concept.
In general it means the ability to influence the behavior of
the other person. But power need not be considered equivalent which influence
without any regard to the situation in which it occurs. A new born infant can
influence the behavior of his parents. A stranger on the street can inference
the action of others by calling out "Look out for the bus". But this
influence is not equivalent with power in group functioning. The important
element in the definitions of power is group functioning. The important element
in the definitions of power is the ability to determine the behavior of others
in accordance with one's own wishes despite opposition.
According to Green "Power is simply the extent of
capability to control others so that they will do what they are wanted to
do." Lundberg and others also say, By power we mean the extent to which
persons or groups can limit or regulate the alternative courses of action open
to other persons or groups with or without their consent."
Power may be exercised blutantly or subtly, legally or
illegally, justly or unjustly. It may be derived from many sources such as
wealth, status, prestige, numbers or organizational efficiency. Its ultimate
basis however is the ability to compel obedience if necessary through the
threat or use of force.
Social power has been identified in different ways with
prestige, influence, eminence, competence, dominance, rights, strength force
and authority.
(i) Power and prestige are closely linked, as Ross said, The
class that has the most prestige will leave the most power. It can be said that
the powerful groups tend to be prestigious and prestigious group powerful.
(ii) Knowledge, eminence, skill and competence all
contribute to prestige but they need not necessarily accompany power. If all
power is accompanied by these factors then the association is only incidental.
(iii) Power and dominance are also to be distinguished.
Power is a sociological and dominance a psychological phenomenon. The laws of
power is in both person and groups and in important cases it is in the latter.
But dominance is a function of personality or of temperament. It is a personal
trait. It is also possible to find dominant individuals playing roles in
powerless groups and submissive individuals playing roles in powerful ones.
Power is one thing and dominance quite another.
(iv) Power and Rights - Rights are more closely associated
with privileges and with authority than they are with power. A right is one of
the prerequisites of power and not power itself. One may have right without the
power to exercise it. The man who has the power rarely waits for the right to
use it. A right always requires some support in the right to social structure.
No individual can successfully claim a right that is unrecognized in the law
and non existent in the modes. Right in general like privileges, duties,
obligation, responsibilities etc. are attached to the statuses whereas power
does not necessarily require the backing of the status.
(v) Power, Force and Authority- Power is not force and power
is not authority but it is related to both. As Robert Bierstedt said,
"Power is talent force. Power is the prior capacity that makes the use of
force, force is manifesto power and authority is institutionalized possible.
Only groups that have power can threaten to use "force and the threat the
itself is power. Power is the ability to use force not its actual employment.
Power is always successful when it is not successful it causes to be power.
Power thus symbolizes the force that may be applied in any social situation and
supports the authority that is applied. Power is thus neither force nor
authority but it makes both force and authority possible says Robert Bierstedt.
Factors that
determine social power in the society :
Social power is a universal aspect of social interaction. It
plays an important part in shaping relations among the members of a group.
Power differences enter into determining the relations between father and
child, employer and employee, politician and voter, teacher and student.
According to K. Davis power is the determination of the
behavior of others in accordance with one's own ends.
Sheriff and Sheriff say, "Power denotes the relative
weights of behavior by member in a group structure".
E.A. Ross says, "Power is a certain kinds of human
relationship."
From the above definitions, it is clear that power is a very
broad concept. In general, it means the ability to get one's wishes carried out
despite opposition, if any. It. is not necessary that a man who has power in
one situation will be powerful in all the situations. A father may have power
to impose his will on his children but he may have no power to influence the
behavior of his employer.
Thus a man is powerful in one situation may be powerless in
other situations.
There are some bases from which power originates. These are
called as bases of power:
(a) Wealth
Wealth plays an important role in creation of base for
power. In capitalistic society, power is determined through wealth. It is also
a fact that those people who have more wealth are more powerful in the society.
He gets more respect, high position in society.
(b) Power:
Power creates more power. A powerful person by exercising
his power becomes more powerful. Therefore, power acts as the base of power.
(c) Outstanding skill
Persons who have outstanding skill are different from a
common man. An artist through his art influences the behavior of others.
Therefore, outstanding skill acts as a base of social power.
Kinds or types of power - Lunberg and others have mentioned
three kinds of power.
1. Coercive power
2. Utilitarian power
3. Identitive power.
The coercive power is that power which uses or threatens the
use of physical means to obtain compliance. The utilitarian power uses material
rewards. The identitive power uses symbol that are not physical threats nor
material rewards but which influence people to identify with the organization,
viewing its interests their own.
On the basis of influence power can be classified in to
three types
(a) Force
(b) Domination
(c) Manipulation.
The person influences the behavior of others through
physical force is called force. When power is exercised through order or
advice, it is of domination type. For example, the power of teacher over the
students is domination power. When a person influences the behavior of others
without telling his own intentions is known as manipulation, e.g - propaganda
or advertisement.
From legal point of view power has been classified into two
types:
1. Legitimate power
2. Illegitimate power
Legitimate power may be of three kinds:
They are:
(a) Legal power
(b) Traditional power
(c) Charismatic power
Legal power is the power given by the law and the constitution
of the country, for example the power of the army or the police. Customs and
traditions of the society are called traditional power. For example, the power
of parents or the teachers is traditional power. The source of charismatic
power lies in some peculiar quality. For example, the power of ‘religious guru’
likes Sai Baba over his followers. Illegitimate power is one, which is not
recognized by the society. For example, the power of dacoits is an example of
illegitimate power.
A democratic social order is totally rests upon power
structure. There is submission to overall power in democratic as well as
authoritarian society. The majority submit to over all power because they have
no alternative. Throughout most of the, part a majority have submitted, obeyed
blindly and suffered a continual injury. Overthrow of the holders of power has
been rare. Once established every power structure tends to continue because of
habit and inertia as well as indoctrination.
31. What is Social control (formal and informal).
Agencies of social control. Importance of social control.
Different sociologists have given different opinions
regarding the means of social control. F.E. Lumley classified the means of
social control into major categories; based upon force and based upon symbols.
According to him, though physical force in indispensable in social control,
yet, it is not merely the force that can manage the individuals. Human
societies have to rely upon symbolic devices, which are more effective than
force. According to him, the means of social control are rewards, praise,
flattery, education, persuasion, gossip, satire, criticism, propaganda and so
on.
E.A. Ross has described a number of means of social control
that have been employed by social groups through out the human history to keep
individuals under control. The important among them are public opinion, law,
custom, religion, morality, folkways and modes.
E.C.Hayes distinguished between control by sanctions and
control by suggestion in imitation. By control, by sanctions he meant a system
of rewards and punishments. According to him, education is the most effective
means of social control.
Karl Mannheim distinguished between direct and indirect
means of social control. Kimhall Young classified the means of social control
into positive and negative means. According to him, reward is a positive means
while punishment is a negative means. L.L. Bernard distinguished between
conscious and unconscious means of social control. The most important
unconscious means are custom, tradition and convention. The conscious means of
social control are those, which have been consciously developed and employed by
leaders of all types. These are law, education, public opinion and coercion.
Bernard also distinguished between destructive and
constructive means of social control. Exploitive means are such as punishment,
reprisals, intimidation and repression. Among the constructive means are
included revolution, custom, law, education, social reform and non-violent
coercion.
But most of the sociologists have classified the means of
social control into types such as informal means and formal means. These are
traced out below:
1. Informal Means
The informal means of social control grow themselves in
society. No special agency is required to create them. The Brahmins do not take
meat. They take meals only after bath. The Jains do not take curd. They take
their dinner before sunset. The Hindu women do not smoke. One can marry only in
one's caste. The children should respect their parents. All this is due to
informal social control. It is exercised through customs, traditions, folkways,
modes, religion, ridicule etc. Informal control prevails over all the aspects
of man's life.
However, it is said that people are not afraid of informal
social control. Yet informal means of social control are very powerful
particularly in primary groups. No man wants to suffer loss of prestige. He
does not want to become the target of ridicule. He does not want to be laughed
at by the people. He does not want to be socially boycotted. On the other hand,
he wants praise, appreciation, honor and recognition by the society. Thus,
informal means, like praise, ridicule, boycott etc. effectively control his
behavior. Moreover, the child through the process of socialization learns to
conform to the norms of group. A person with socialized attitudes would not do
any work, which is socially harmful. Thus, socialization also exercises an
influence over him.
Now we may describe briefly the important means of informal
control.
(I) Belief- Belief is a conviction that a particular thing
is true. It is primarily of five kinds.
(a) The belief in the existence of an unseen power;
(b) The belief in the theory of Ye-incarnation,
(c) The belief in Nemesis, the Goddess of Vengeance,
(d) The belief in the existence of hell and heaven and,
(e) The belief in the immortality and soul.
All these different beliefs influence man's behavior in
society. The first belief in the existence of an unseen power leads a man to
right actions because he believes that his actions are being watched by an
unseen power. The second belief in the theory of reincarnation keeps the man
away from wrongful acts because he believes that in order to have a good birth
in next he must do good, acts in this life. The third belief in the Goddess of
Vengeance also regulates man's behavior because he believes that he will be
punished by the goddess of Vengeance for his sins. A sinner is punished here
and now. The Fourth belief in the existence of hell and heaven influences a man
to virtuous acts and avoid sins in order to go to heaven or avoid going to hell
after death. Heaven is place full of luxuries, fairies and romance. Hell is a
place of terror, miseries and tortures. The fifth belief in the immortality of
soullend man to avoid such actions as will cause pain to the soul of the
deceased ancestors.
In this way, beliefs are powerful influences on human
actions. They are vital for human relations. They define the purposes and
interests for the individual and control his choice of means so that the
purposes of the groups may be advanced of at least not hundred. No aspect of
social relationship escapes them. Beliefs may be false. They may be founded on
factual or faculty evidence. But the question of their validity does not
necessarily determine their effectiveness of social controls, we act with as
much determination from false beliefs as from factually second ones.
Social Suggestions:
Social suggestions are also powerful means of social
control. Suggestion is the indirect communication may be made through various
methods. The first method is putting the life examples of great men. We
celebrate the anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Sastri, We build
monument in the memory of great men. We place their ideals before the people
and exhort them to follow these ideas. The second method of making suggestion
is through literature Books, Journals, newspapers etc. may inspire people to
heroic deeds and develop in them national feeling. The literature may also make
people narrow minded conservative and superstitious. These types of literature
will indirectly influence his mind and consequently his behavior. The third
method is through education. The educational curriculum may communicate certain
ideas to the students and make them discipline citizens. The fourth method is
through advertisement. Many magazines carry beautiful advertisements depicting
the advantages of visiting certain places and suggesting the prestige attached
to traveling to these places. The advertisements from Radio. Ceylon may attract
the people to Binaca toothpaste. Many of our business enterprises employ
advertising to influence-attitudes and therefore, action. Suggestions may be
conscious or unconscious. It may also be intentional or unintentional.
Ideologies:
Ideology is a theory of social life, which interprets social
realities from the point of view of deals to prove the correctness of the
analysis and to justify these ideals. It is the projection of a certain ideal.
Leninism, Gandhism and Fascism are ideologies, which have analyzed social
realities and laid down an ideal before the people. Ideologies influence social
life to a very deep extent. Leninism-had influenced the social life of
Russians. Hitler's theory of socialism influenced the German to the extent that
they began to regard themselves as the supreme race of the world. Gandhism has
influenced social life in India. In the world we today, find a conflict of
ideologies. The conflict between U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. is a conflict of
capitalism and communism. The history of man has been one of struggle among
conflicting ideologies. Ideologies are powerful dynamic forces of contemporary
social life. They satisfy the need of all men to believe in a system of though
that is rigorous. They express the vital interests of social groups and satisfy
their desire for a scheme of social betterment. They stimulate action. They
provide a set of values. They are motivators of social action. They make life
meaningful. The success of any ideology, as an effective means of social
control depends on many factors. Some of these factors are its completeness and
coherence, its vision of the future is its ability to hold men's imaginations,
its consistency and its ability to meet criticism.
Folkways:
Folkways are the recognized modes of behavior, which arise
automatically with a group. They are the behavior patterns of every day life,
which arise spontaneously and unconsciously in a group. They are in general the
habits of the individual and are common to a group. They are socially approved.
They have some degree of traditional sanction. It is not easy for the members
of a group to violate the folkways. They are the foundation of group culture.
If an individual does not follow them he may be socially boycotted by his
group. A particular dress must be worn at a particular function. The Brahmins
shall not take meat. The Jains should not take curd. The Hindu women should not
smoke. Since folkways become a matter of habit, therefore, these are followed
unconsciously and exercise powerful influence over man's behaviour in society.
Modes:
Modes are those folkways, which are considered by the group
to be of great significance, rattier indispensable to its welfare. The modes
related to the fundamental needs of society more directly than do the folkways.
They express the group sense of what is right and conducive to social welfare.
They imply a value judgment about the folkways. Modes arc always molding human
behavior. They restrain an individual from doing acts considered as wrong by
his group. They are the instruments of control. In society, there are
innumerable modes like to monogamy, prohibition, endogamy, antislavery etc.
Conformity to modes is regarded necessary. It is essential for the members of
the group to conform to them. Behavior contrary to them is not permitted by
society. Certain modes may even be harmful for the physical well-being of an
individual, yet these must be obeyed. Thus, mode control man's behavior in
society to a very great extent.
Customs:
Customs are the long established habits and usages of the
people. They are those folkways and modes, which have persisted for a very long
time and have passed down from one generation to another. They arise
spontaneously and gradually. There is no constituted authority to declare them
to apply them or to safeguard them. They are accepted by society. They are
followed because they have been followed in the past. The importance of custom
as a means of social control cannot be minimized. They are so powerful that no
one can escape their range. They regulate social life to a great extent. They
bind men together. They control the purely selfish impulses. They compel the
individual to conform to the accepted standards. They are held so sacred that
any violation of them is regarded not only a crime but also a sacrilege. In
primitive customs are main agencies of social control but in modern times their
force has loosened.
Religion:
Religion also exercises a powerful influence upon man's
behavior in society. The term religion has numerous definitions. Religion is an
attitude towards super human powers. It is a belief in powers superior to man.
It expresses itself in several forms like superstition, animism, totemism,
magic ritualism and fetishism. Religion pervades practically in all the
societies, though there may be different forms of religious beliefs and
practices. The Hindu religion gives great importance to ceremonies. At the time
of birth, marriage arid death a number of ceremonies is performed. Mantras are
recited even if one does not understand their meaning. Religion is a powerful
agency in society. It influences man's behavior. Children should obey their
parents, should not tell a lie or cheat, women should be faithful to man,
people should be honest and virtuous and should limit one's desires, man should
renounce unsocial activities are some of the teaching of religion which
influence man's behavior. Men should do good acts is a common teaching of all
the religion. Religion makes people benevolent, charitable, forbearing and
truthful. It may also be noted that religion may easily be destroyed into
superstition and dogmatism instead of being an incentive to ethical idealism. Religion
may be, used to make people be used their lot obedience to their rules and
defenders of status quo. It may deny freedom of thought. It may favor poverty
exploitation and idleness and encourage practices like cannibalism, slavery,
untouchability, communalism and even incest.
Art and Literature
Art in its narrow sense includes painting, sculpture,
architecture, music and dance. Literature -includes poetry, dream and fiction.
Both art and literature influence the imagination and exert control on human behavior.
The marital music of the military band arouses feeling of determination and
strength. A classical dance creates in us an appreciation of our culture. The
statute of Mahatma Gandhi teaches us the virtue of simple living and high
thinking. A painting may arouse in us a feeling of sympathy, affection and
hatred. There is always a close relationship between the national lives. The
civilization of any specified time can be judged by an examination of its arts.
Artists have been called an agent of civilization.
Literature also influences human behavior in society. We
have 'good' literature and 'bad' literature. A good literature possesses an
indefinable quality which makes it live through the ages, Ramayana, Bhagvadgita
and Mahabharat are classical work of great social value. On the other hand,
detective literature may have its effect on crime. Romantic literature may make
the reader passionate while religious literature may make them virtuous or
superistituous. Rousseau1 in France has tended the French Revolution. Dickens
changed the entire school system in Britain by writing David Copperfield and
other of his books. In this way, both art and literature exert control through
their influence on the imagination.
Humor and Satire:
Humor is also a means of social control. It assumes various
forms depending upon the situation and purpose. It often serves to relieve a
tense situation. Sometimes it is used with a bad intention to deflate others
without a reason. It also used to gain a favorable response. Humor controls by
supporting the sanctioned values of the society. Through cartoons, comics and
reports it can support the values of the society in a form that is light in
spirit but effective in control.
Satire employs wit and scorn as indirect criticism of actions
felt to be vicious and socially harmful. It exposes by ridicule the falsity and
danger of behavior. There by it causes the people to give up their vicious and
harmful actions.
Public Opinion
The influence of public opinion as a means of social control
is greater in simple societies. In a village, the people are known to one
another personally. It is difficult for a villager to act contrary to the
public opinion of the village. Public opinion greatly influences our actions.
For fear of public ridicule and criticism, we do not indulge in immoral
antisocial activities. Every individual wants to win public praise and avoid
public ridicule or criticism. The desire for recognition is a natural desire.
We want count for something in the eyes of our fellowmen. Human praise is the
sweetest music. The greatest efforts of the human race are directly traceable
to the love of praise. Persons behave according to social norms to win public
recognition or at least to avoid public ridicule. Thus, public opinion is one
of the strongest forces influencing the behavior of people.
2. Formal Means
Among the formal means of social control, the importance
ones are law, education and coercion. A brief explanation of these means
follow,
Law:
Law is the most important formal means of social control.
Early societies depended upon informal means of social control but when
societies grew in size or in complexity, they were compelled to formulate rules
and regulations, which define the types of behavior and specify the penalties
to be imposed upon those who violate them. Law is a body of rules enacted by
legally authorized bodies and enforced by punishments for their violation. The
modem societies are large in size. Informal means of social control are longer,
sufficient to maintain social order and harmony. Therefore, modern societies
had to resort to formal means of social control.
Education:
Along with law, the importance of education as a means of
social control is being growingly realized. Education is a process of
socialization. It prepares the child, for a social living. It reforms the
attitudes wrongly formed by the children already. Thus, a family may make the
child superstitious, education will1 correct his beliefs and remove his
prejudices. It teaches him value of discipline, social co-operation, tolerance
and sacrifice. It instills in him the qualities of honesty, fair play and a
sense of right and wrong. The importance, of education for creating right
social attitudes among the youth cannot be minimized. It is to note that education
in India has miserably failed to create right social attitudes among the youth
of the country and act as an effective means, of social control.
Coercion:
Coercion is the use of force to achieve a desired end. It
may be physical or non-violent. It is the ultimate means of social control when
all other means failed. Physical coercion may take the form of bodily injury,
imprisonment and death penalty. Physical coercion is without doubt the lowest
form of the social control. Societies would least desire to use it. It may have
immediate effects upon the offender but it does not have enduring effects. If a
society has to depend on external force, it shows its weakness rather than
.strength in social control. Society's best protection lies in the development
of its citizens.
Non-violent coercion consists of the strike, the boycott
non-co-operation. A person, who threatens to withdraw his support to a friend
if he does not give up smoking, is using non-violent coercion to change his
action. The students may go on strike to force the principal withholding of
social or economic intercourse with others to express disapproval and to force
acceptance of demands. A student who teases the girls may be socially boycotted
by the other students of the college. Non co-operation is refusal to
co-operate. The teachers may refuse to co-operate with the principal for his
insulting behavior. Nonviolent coercion can be a successful way of effecting
social control. Mahatma Gandhi used it to force the British Government to grant
political independence to India.
Important agencies of social control .
There are several agencies of social control. Thai means
social control is exercised through various agencies. The important agencies of
social control are stated below:
1. Family:
Family is an important agency of social control. It is the
first place where an individual is socialized. He learns various methods of
living, behavior patterns, convention etc. from the family. He is taught to
behave and respect social laws and obey social controls. He learns customs,
folkways, traditions and modes from the family. Family influenced the
individual directly through suggestion, persuasion, praise, blame, ridicule,
criticism etc. Through these, mechanism family forces the individual to conform
the custom, folkways and modes of the group.
2. Neighborhood:
Neighborhood is a simple and specific part of a community.
It has a feeling or sentiment of local unit. There may be more than one
neighborhood in a community. The neighborhood is the first community with which
the individual comes into contact with. It exists, a deep influence on its
members as an agency of social control. The local neighborhood reinforces or
strengthens the individual family as an agency of social control. It comes only
after the family in social importance. The elder members of the neighborhood or
locality, who are very intimate to one another, keep group modes alive and
enforce them in the locality. The local neighborhood like the family, exercises
direct control over the behavior of the individuals through direct suggestions,
persuasion, praise, blame, ridicule, criticism etc.
3. Church:
Church is regarded as an institutionalized expression of
religion. It serves as an agency of social control. In the past church was a
powerful agency of social control for quite some time. The church and the
priests were held in high esteem. The authority of the church was recognized
and accepted by the people. As a result, no body could disobey its order. The
church had power to dethrone kings who did not accept its authority during this
period.
4. Religion:
Religion serves as an important agency of social control. It
is religion, which supports the folkways and modes of a society by playing
super natural sanctions behind them. It adopts negative as well as positive
means to regulate the behavior of the individuals in society.
5. The School:
The school is a very powerful agency: of social control. It
exercises social control through education. The child learns many things from
the school, which he cannot learn from other sources. The child is taught to
obey the discipline, which a student learns at school lasts with him throughout
his life. In the college, also the students are required to obey social
controls. The school and college or educational institutions are next to family
as agencies of social control. It is the class room the peer group and the
leaders who exercise influence on the child for his future role in society.
Education in modern times is a very powerful means of social control. It is
education, which makes all efforts to discipline the mind of the student in the
school so that he can realize the importance of social control.
6. Law:
Law is a powerful method of control. The state runs its
administration through the government. It enforces law within its territory
with the help of the police, the army, the prison and the court; it enacts laws
to regulate the lives of the people. The deviants or the violators of social
rules are punished as per law; the state carries out certain function by means
of law. E.A. Ross says that 'law is the most specialized and highly furnished
engine of social control employed by society. It is law, which prevents the
people from indulging in antisocial activities. The lawbreakers are punished by
the law of the state. It helps in governing our social conduct and behaviors.
Laws are essential in strengthening social control violation of law considered
a punishable offence. In short, law is an important formal means of Control to
regulate the individual behavior in society.
7. Administration:
Administration is very powerful and the most effective
instrument of social control. It forces the individual to obey social control.
The administrations punish the violators with the help of the police, the army
etc.
8. Force:
Physical force or coercion is an important means of social
control. It is ancient as society itself. It is essential for social progress.
Even these days some societies resort to it against the deviants or those who
disobey social norms. Every state has its own armed forces or police force. It
is an effective weapon to prevent people from indulging in anti-social
activities. It also makes people, obey social order. The state carries out its
functions by means of law, which is ultimately backed by physical force. As an
important agency of social, control the state exercises its force over its
people through various means such as the government law, administration, the
armed forces, the police and the like.
9. Public Opinion:
Public opinion is very powerful in the democratic age. It
not only controls the behavior of people but also controls the government.
People these days are more concerned with the opinion held by the public. Fear
of public opinion in general makes people control their conduct and behavior.
The state controls the behavior of the people through public opinion and mould
people in favor of its policies. It forms public opinion through various media
like the newspaper, cinema, radio, television etc.
10. Propaganda:
Propaganda is a systematic attempt by a individual or
individuals to control the attitudes of people through suggestions and
consequently, their actions. With the development of means of mass
communication, propaganda has become an effective means of social control. The
state controls the people through this powerful means of social control namely
propaganda.
Importance of social control.
Social control is very essential for every society. Without
social control, society as well as individual cannot exist. Therefore, the need
of social control is very essential. Social control is necessary for the
following reasons.
1. To maintain the old order:
It is necessary for every society or group to maintain its
social order and this is possible only when its members behave In accordance
with that social order. An important objective of social control is not to
maintain the old order. Family helps in the realization of this objective. The
aged members of the family enforce their ideas over the children.
2. To establish social unity:
Without social control, social unity would be a mere dream.
Social control regulates behavior in accordance with established norms, which
brings uniformity of behavior and leads to unity among the individuals. The
family maintains its unity because its members behave in similar manner in
accordance with family norms.
3. To regulate or control individual behavior:
No two men are alike in their attitudes, ideas, interests
and habits. Even the children of the same parents do not have the same
attitudes, habits and interests. Men believe in different religions, dress
differently, eat different food, marry in different ways and have different
ideologies. There are so much differences in the ways of living of the people
that at every movement there is the possibility of clash between them. In
modern times, this possibility has all the more increased because man has
become too self-centered. Social control is necessary to protect social
interests and satisfy common need. If social control is removed and individual
is left to behave freely, society would be reduced to state of jungle.
4. To provide social sanction:
Social control provides social sanction to the social ways
of behavior. There are numerous folkways, modes and customs prevalent in
society. Every individual has to follow them. If an individual violets the
social norms, he is compelled through social control to observe than. Thus,
social control provides sanction to social norms.
5. To check cultural mal-adjustment:
Society is subject to change. New invention, new discoveries
and new philosophies continue to take birth in society. The individual has to
adjust his behavior to the change-taking place in society. But all the
individuals cannot adjust themselves to the new conditions. Some become
progressive, others remain conservative. When a person from the village moves
into the city, he comes across new cultural standards and it is possible that
he may wrongly adjust himself to the new cultural environment. He may become a
save of passions, visit bar and pass nights in nightclubs. During this
transitional period in his social control, it is very necessary lest he should
become a deviant.
32. Brief note on the Associative Processes of Social
interaction
In social life, individuals continuously come in contact
with one another. They co-operate and compete with one another for their
respective interests. They also struggle with each other for their rights.
These are the fundamental processes through which men interact and establish
relationship with each other in society. Interaction refers to an action done
in response to another action. When this interaction repeats itself then it is
called as social process.
Society contains hundreds and perhaps thousands of socially
defined relationships. It is impossible to make a detailed study of each and
every social relationship. The various kinds of social relationships or
interaction on processes can broadly be divided into two main-categories: One
aspect of social interaction is associative.
The associative processes of social interaction are of
positive type of interaction. The associative process is always worked for the
integration and benefit of society. These processes bring progress and
stability in society. Associative processes are also called as conjunctive
processes. The associative processes include cooperation, accommodation,
adaptation, adjustment, integration and assimilation. Here we shall discuss
about two types of interaction. They are co-operation and accommodation.
1. Cooperation
Co-operation is the first fundamental and associative
process of social interaction. The work "Cooperation" has been
derived from the two Latin words. 'Co', means 'together' and 'Operate' means
'to work'. Hence, co-operation means working together for the achievement of a
common goal or goals.
According to Merril and Eldredge - Co-operation is the
continuous and common endeavor of two or more persons to perform a task that is
commonly characterized."
Characteristics of Co-operation:
1. Co-operation is one type of social interaction, which
takes, place between two or more individuals.
2. Co-operation is a conscious process.
3. Co-operation is an associative process.
4. Co-operation is a personal process.
5. Co-operation is a continuous process.
6. Co-operation is a universal process.
Role and Importance of Cooperation:
Cooperation is indispensable for both society and
individual. It creates direct relationship between individual and individual,
group and group and between group and individual. It controls the behavior of
individual. It brings all round development of society as well as individuals.
2. Accommodation
Accommodation is another associative process of social
interaction. Sometimes new conditions and circumstances arise in the society.
These new conditions lead to conflict. The resolution of these conflicts is
called accommodation. In other words, accommodation is social adjustment.
According to Mac Iver and Page: - "The term
accommodation refers particularly to the process in which one can attain a
sense of harmony with his environment.
Ogburn and Nirnkoff say, "Accommodation is a term used
by the sociologists to describe the adjustment of hostile individuals or
groups."
Characteristics of Accommodation:
1. Accommodation is a associative process of social
interaction.
2. It is a conscious activity.
3. Accommodation is a universal process.
4. Accommodation is a continuous process.
5. Accommodation is a mixture of love and hate.
Role and Importance of Accommodation:
1. Accommodation maintains peace and security in the society.
2. Accommodation checks conflict, competition and
contradiction.
3. Accommodation brings unity and integrity in the society.
4. Accommodation resolves conflict.
33. brief note on dissociative process of social
interaction.
The processes that make special contribution towards social
differentiation, antagonism and division are called dissociative processes. The
dissociative processes of social interaction are of negative type of
interaction.
These are also called disintegration of society. It hinders
the progress and development of society. Sociologists say that these processes
also strengthen the process of social solidarity. Adam Smith defined the role
of competition in the economic activities of production, distribution and
consumption. Similarly, the contribution of conflict in social structure has
been systematically discussed, by Karl Marx, Coser Dahrendrof, Park and
Burgess.
Competition, conflict and mutual opposition are included in
dissociative processes.
1. Competition:
Competition is the most fundamental form of social struggle.
It is caused by the thing which are in short supply or which is limited. It
makes two or more individuals of groups to struggle for some mutually designed
end. Competition is a contest among the people or groups to acquire something,
which are insufficient in quantity, and not easily available according to one's
won demand.
Sutherland, Woodward and Maxwell say that "competition
is an impersonal; unconscious, continuous struggle between individuals or
groups for satisfaction which because of their limited supply, all may not
have."
Biesanz and Biesanz say, "Competition is the striving
of two or more persons for the same goal which is limited so that all cannot
share it."
Characteristics of Competition:
1. Competition is an impersonal activity. It is not
directed, against any individual or group in particular.
2. Competition is an unconscious struggle. Competitors do
not know each other.
3. Competition is a continuous process. It never comes to an
end.
4. Competition is the most universal process. It is found in
every place and at all times.
5. Competition is a means of fulfilling ones desired ends,
aspirations.
6. Competition is different from rivalry.
Importance of Competition:
1. Competition assigns individual to proper place. The role
and status of the individual is determined by competition.
2. Competition brings economic prosperity in society.
3. Competition leads to technology and scientific process in
the society.
4. Competition provides better opportunities to people to
satisfy their desire for new experience and better recognition.
5. Competition among persons of equal strength prevents the
concentration of power in the hands of an individual or group.
2. Conflict:
Conflict is another dissociative process of social
interaction. It is a universal social process. It makes an individual or group
to frustrate the efforts of another individual or group of individuals who are
seeking the same object. It implies desire for violence and reverence.
According to A.W Green "Conflict in the deliberate
attempt to oppose; resist or coerce the will of another or other."
Kingsley Davis says, "Conflict is a modified form of
social struggle."
According to H.T. Mazumdar "Conflict is opposition or
struggle involving (a) an emotional attitude of hostility as well as (b)
violent interference with one's autonomous choice."
Gillin and Gillin say, "Conflict is the social process
in which individuals or groups keep their ends by directly challenging the
antagonists by violence or the threat of violence.
Characteristics of Conflict:
1. Conflict is a conscious process by which the conflicting
parties try to harm each other.
2. Conflict is a personal activity.
3. Conflict is an intermittent process.
4. Conflict is a universal process.
5. Conflict is an emotional process.
Importance of Conflict:
1. Conflict often brings about social unity and oneness
among the people.
2. Conflict defines issues.
3. Conflict institutes social change.
4. Conflict destroys the lives and properties of individual.
5. Conflict increases bitterness.
6. Conflict leads destruction and bloodshed.
7. Conflict may lead to outer group tension.
34. What is
the importance of primary group in the development of human personality?
Primary groups are of great individual as well as social
importance. They are medium through which we learn our culture. They prepare
the individuals to lead a successful social life. They socialize individuals
and give proper shape to their personality. Some of the primary groups may
secure certain external advantages such as better wages, production efficiency,
worker's morale, counseling and guidance and so on. Primary group performs a
number of vital functions for me growth and development of individuals in
society. Following are the important functions of primary group.
1. Acts as a great humanizing agent:
Primary group-enacts the role of a humanizing agency. Family
is the immediate primary group in which a child itself as soon as it is born in
the family, peer groups and the neighborhood play an important role in
socializing or humanizing the child, primary groups teach the child the social
norms, standards, morals, beliefs, values and ideas of the society. They
introduce to the child the culture of the society.
2. Development of personality:
C.H. Cooley is of the opinion that the primary group,
particularly the family, is the chief molder of the human personality. The
primary group is the source of our notions of love, freedom, justice and the
like. The qualities of behavior that child picks up during the early years in
primary groups find their expression in his adult life.
Fair play, equality, free expression, submission to the will
of the group and willingness to sacrifice for it are characteristics of family
groups. These have a great impact on the personality development of the
individuals. Primary groups mould our opinions, guide our affections, influence
our action, and in large measure determine our loyalties.
3. Satisfaction of Psychological needs:
Primary groups, satisfy many psychological needs of the
individuals. Individuals get; mental happiness, contentment and security from
the primary groups. They get the advantages of, Companionship, sympathy and
exchange of thoughts and feelings. They reduce mental tensions and emotional
stresses and strains.
4. Strengthens the democratic spirit:
The primary group serves the needs of society. Also primary
groups help the individual to acquire basic attitudes towards people, social
institutions and the world around him. The attitudes of kindness, sympathy,
love, tolerance, mutual help arid sacrifice that provide the cementing force to
social structure are developed in the primary groups.
5. Acts as an agent of social control:
From the point of view of society, the primary group acts as
an agency of social control. Primary, groups not only provide security to the
members but also control their behavior and regulate their relations. For
example: family, neighborhood, peers group or friends group control much of the
activities of the members.
35. Complete
information on the characteristics and classification of social systems
In simple words, system is an orderly arrangement. For
example in a human body ears, eyes, nose, legs, hands, lungs, heart, mind etc. have
their own fixed places and are arranged in a particular manner. Each part has
its own function to perform. On the basis of these functions they are
inter-related with each other and interact upon one another. This organic
structure is called organic system.
A social system is an orderly and systematic arrangement of
social inter-actions; it is a network of interactive relationships. The
constituent parts of social system are individuals. Each individual has a role
to play. Each individual influences and influenced by the behavior of others.
The behavior of individuals and groups in society is controlled by social
institutions. The various groups do not act in an independent and isolated
manner. They are the parts of independent whole. They act in accordance with
social norms. In the basis of their interactions and inter-relationship, they
create a pattern, which is called 'social-system'.
Characteristics of Social System
1. Social system is based on social interaction:
A number of individuals when act and interact, their
interactions produce a system, which is called social system. Therefore, social
system cannot be created by the action of one individual.
2. The interaction is meaningful:
Meaningless and aimless interactions do not produce social
system. Social system is an organization of meaningful interactions.
3. The parts of social system are related on the basis of
functional relationship:
Different parts of a system are united to each other on the
basis of functional relationship. It is a fact that social system is an
arrangement of interdependent and interactive parts.
4. Social system is a unity:
A social system implies order among the interacting units of
the system. Social system is a state or condition where the various parts are
arranged in an integrated manner.
5. Social system is related with cultural system:
Culture determines the nature and scope of inter-relations
and interactions of the members of society. It also maintains a balance and
harmonious relationship among different parts and reduces conflict among the
various parts. Therefore, social-system is closely related with cultural
system.
6. Social system related to time factor:
Social system is related to a particular age, a definite
territory and a particular society. Social system is, not same in all ages.
Social system changes with change, in times. It is dynamic not static. Change
in social system does not mean that social equilibrium is lost. Inspite of
social changes; social system continues to exists.
Classification of Social System
Morgan and other evolutionists have classified social
systems on the basis of, evolution. According to them social system has passed
through three-stages-
1. Savagery
2. Barbarian
3. Civilized
On the basis of means of livelihood they have also classified
social system into four categories. They are -
1. Hunting social system
2. Pastoral social system
3. Agricultural social system
4. Industrial social system
Durkheim has described two kinds of social systems. They
are:
1. Mechanical social system
2. Organic social system
Sorokin has classified the cultural system into three kinds.
They are:
1. Sensate
2. Ideational
3. Idealistic
Pre-requisites of a social system
A social-system functions effectively if there is harmony in
system. A tension ridden social system cannot function efficiently. Just an
organism works as a healthy body if there is no disorder in its parts,-
similarly a social system can function efficiently only if there is order among
its parts. The essential pre-requisites of a healthy social system are-
1. Biological Pre-requisites:
(a) Adequate number of people -
There should be adequate number of people in a social system
so that it may function efficiently. But over population is an evil. Therefore
the number of people should neither too less nor too, more.
(b) A definite system of procreation-
A social system should ensure-a definite system of
procreation to maintain its continuity.
2. Functional Pre-requisites:
(a) Obedience to social norms-
Every social system has some norms. Norms are the socially
approved ways of behavior which members of society are required to observe. It
these are violated social system cannot function efficiently.
(b) Social Control -
Social system has the mechanism of social control.
Conformity to social norms is very much essential for every social system.
Therefore, it is essential that requisite mechanisms be provided whereby the
individuals may be compelled to observe the norms.
(c) Interest towards positive action -
The actors in social system should willingly accept the
social system. They should not have resentment against it. Even they should
have keen interest towards it.
3. Cultural Pre-requisites:
(a) Language -
Without language no social system can operate. Therefore,
the members of a social system should possess a meaningful language to
communicate and express themselves.
(b) Symbols -
A symbol is an object representing an invisible abstract and
inaudible object. A symbol must not be arbitrary but must be natural. It must
convey as well as illuminate the idea.
(c) System of Communication -
Every social system should have a system of communication.
Interaction acts through communication. The means of communication may be
language, symbol, script, gesture, telephone etc.
36. Complete information on the meaning and characteristics
of social stratification
Differentiation is the law of nature. It is true in the case
of human society. Human society is not homogeneous but heterogeneous. Men
differ from one another in many respects. Human beings are equal as far as
their bodily structure is concerned. But the physical appearance of
individuals, their intellectual, moral, philosophical, mental, economic,
political and other aspects are different. No two individuals are exactly
alike. Diversity and inequality are inherent in society. Hence, human society
is everywhere stratified.
All societies arrange their members in terms of superiority,
inferiority and equality. The vertical scale of evaluation, this placing of
people in layers is called stratification. Those in the top stratum have more
power, privilege and prestige than those below. Thus, stratification is simply
a process of interaction of differentiation whereby some people come to rank
higher than others are.
Definition of Social Stratification:
According to Ogburn and Nimkoff ''The process by which
individuals and groups are ranked in a more or less enduring hierarchy of
status is known as stratification".
Gisbert says, "Social stratification is the division of
society into permanent groups of categories linked with each other by the
relationship of superiority and sub-ordination"
Melvin M. Tumin defines social stratification and refers to
arrangement of any social group or society into a hierarchy of positions that
are unequal with regard to power, property, and social evolution and of psychic
gratification".
According to Lundberg, "A stratified society is one
marked by inequality by differences among people that are evaluated by them is
being 'lower' and 'higher'.
According to Raymond W. Murry ''Social stratification is a
horizontal division of society into 'higher' and lower' social units".
Characteristics of Social Stratification:
According to M.M..Tumin the main attributes of
stratification are follows".
1. It is Social:
Stratification is social in the sense it does not represent
biologically caused inequalities. It is true that such factors as strength,
intelligence, age and sex can often serve as the basis of strata are
distinguished. But such differences by themselves are not sufficient to explain
why some statuses receive more power, property and prestige than others.
Biological traits do not determine social superiority and inferiority until
they are socially recognized and give importance. For example the manager of an
industry attains a dominant position not by his strength nor by his age but by
having the socially defined traits. His education, training skills,
experiences, personality, character etc. are found to be more important than
his biological qualities.
Further as Tumin has pointed out, the stratification system
(i) is governed by social norms and sanctions,
(ii) is likely to be unstable because it may be disturbed by
different factors and
(iii) is intimately connected with the other system of
society such as practical family, religious, economic, education and other
institutions.
2. It is Ancient:
The stratification system is quite old. According to
historical and archaeological records, stratification was present even in the
small wandering bands. Age and sex were the main criteria of stratification
then, women and children last was probably the dominant rule of order.
Difference between the rich and poor, powerful and humble, freemen and slaves
was there in almost all the ancient civilizations. Ever since the time of Plato
and Kautilya social philosophers have been deeply concerned with economic,
social and political inequalities.
3. It is Universal
The stratification system is a worldwide phenomena.
Difference between the rich and the poor or the 'haves' and the 'have nots' is
evident everywhere. Even in the non-literate societies stratification if very
much present. As Sorokin has said, all permanently organized groups are
stratified.
4. It is in Diverse Forms:
The stratification system has never been uniform in all the
societies. The ancient Roman society was stratified into two strata-the
partricians and the plebians. The ancient Aryan society into four Varnas the
Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Sudras, the ancient Greek society into
freemen and slaves, the ancient Chinese society into the mandarins, merchants,
farmers and the soldiers and so on. Class, caste and estate seem to be the
general forms of stratification to be found in the modern world. But
stratification system seems to be much more complex in the civilized societies.
5. It is Consequential:
The stratification system has its own consequences. The most
important, most desired, and often the scarcest things in human life are
distributed unequally because of stratification. The system leads to main kinds
of consequences.
(i) Life chances and
(ii) Life-style refers to such things as infant mortality,
longevity, physical and mental illness, childlessness, marital conflict,
separation and divorce. Life-styles include such matters as the mode of housing
residential area, ones education means or recreation relationship between the
parents and children, the kind of books, magazines and TV shows to which one is
exposed ones mode of conveyance and so on. Life chances are involuntary while
life-styles reflect differences in preferences tastes and values.
37. What are
factors responsible for socialization process?
Socialization as said above is the process of learning group
norms, habits and ideals. There are four factors of this process of learning.
These are imitation, suggestion, identification and language. A brief
description of these four factors is necessary.
Imitation:
Imitation is copying by an individual of the actions of
other Mead defines it as self-conscious assumption of another's acts or roles.
Thus when the child attempts to walk impressively like his father swinging a
stick and wearing spectacles he is imitating. Imitation may be conscious or
unconscious, spontaneous or deliberate, perceptual or ideational, imitation.
The person imitating performs exactly the some activity as the one being
performed before him.
Imitation is the main factor in the process of socialization
of the child. Through it he learns many social behavior patterns. The child is
compared to adult possesses the greatest capacity for imitation. Language and
pronunciation are acquired by the child only through imitation. It is because
of the tendency to imitate that children are so susceptible to the influence of
their parents and friends whose behavior they imitate indiscriminately.
Suggestion:
According to Mc. Dougall, suggestion is the process of
communication resulting in the acceptance with connections of the communicated
proposition in the absence of logically adequate grounds for its acceptance.
Suggestion is the process of communicating information, which has no logical or
self-evident basis. It is devoid of rational persuasion. It may be convoged
through language, pictures or some similar medium.
Suggestion influences not only behavior with others but also
one's own private and individual behavior. In trade, industry, politics,
education and every other field people acquainted with psychological facts make
use of suggestions to have, their ideas and notions accepted by other people
and to make the latter behave according to their wishes. Actually, propaganda
and advertising are based on the fundamental psychological principles of
suggestion.
The suggestibility of the child is greater than that of the
adult because in childhood he is devoid of maturity and reason. The suggestibility
of an individual decreases with an increase in his maturity and mental level.
It may be however necessary to keep in mind that there can be a difference in
the suggestibility of children belonging to different society and also the same
society.
There are several external and internal conditions, which
enhance suggestibility. Thus, temperament, intellectual ability, ignorance,
inhibition, dissociation, emotional excitement and fatigue are some of the
internal conditions of suggestibility. Among the external condition, mention
may be made of group situation, prestige of the suggested and public opinion.
3. Identification:
In his early age, the child cannot make distinction between
his organism and environment. Most of his actions are random. They are natural
reaction of which he is not conscious. As he grows in age, he comes to know of
the nature of things, which satisfy his needs. Such things become the object of
his identification. Thus, the toy with which he plays, the picture book, which
he enjoys or looking and the mother who feeds him become the object of his
identification. The speed and area of identification increases with the growth
in age. Through identification he becomes sociable.
4. Language:
Language is the medium of social intercourse. It is the
means of cultural transmission. At first the child utters some random syllables
which have no meaning, but gradually he comes to learn his mother-tongue.
38. Discuss the various theories of origin of social
stratification.
There are two main theories concerning the origin of social
stratification.
(i) Theory of economic determinism of Karl Marx, which is
often referred to as the conflict theory and
(ii) The functionalist theory. They are stated below.
1. Conflict Theory
According to Karl Marx economic factors are responsible for
the emergence of difference in social strata or social classes. Therefore
social stratification defined by their relation to the means of production i.e.
by their ownership or non-ownership. Thus, there are in every society two
mutually conflicting classes the class of the capitalists and the class of the
workers or the rich and the poor. Since these two classes have mutually
opposite interests, conflicts between the two are inevitable mark maintained.
Gumplocer, Oppenheimer and others have argued that the
origin of social stratification is to be found in the conquest of one group by
and the conquering group normally dominates the conquered. The conquered group
is forced to accept the lower state and class II. North also has expressed more
or less the same opinion.
2. Functionalist Theory
Kingsley Davis; P.A. Sorokin, Mac Iver and others have
rejected the conflict theory or Mark Sorokin maintained that conflict may
facilitate stratification but has never originated it. He attributed social
stratification mainly to inherited individual, differences in environmental
conditions.
Kingslay Davis has stated that the stratification system is
universal. According to him it has come into being due to the functional
necessity of the social system. The main functional necessity is the
requirement faced by any society of placing and motivating individuals in the
social structure. Social stratification is an unconsciously evolved device by
which societies ensure that the most important positions are consequently
filled by the most qualified persons.
The conflict theory of Max emphasizes conflict between large
and stable groups with strong community sentiments, while the Functional Theory
emphasizes the integrating function of social stratification based upon
individual merit and reward. Both have their own merits and demerits.
39. Define social
mobility and its types. Detailed answer.
Social stratification is a characteristic of all society. We
have also seen that classes and individuals are rated high or low on the basis
of characteristics possessed by them according to the social value scale. Any
change in the value scale or any change in the characteristics results in a
change in the status of different classes.
Thus, different occupations are held in different degrees of
esteem in different societies or within the society at different times. The
members of the priestly class were at one time rated higher than the members of
the other classes in India. But today it is not so. A doctor or engineer enjoys
greater-prestige than a priest. Likewise, if a person becomes a minister from
an ordinary shopkeeper, his status is also enhanced. On the other hand, if the
minister loses his job and comes to his old shop, the status enjoyed by him as
a minister is lost. Thus, it is seen that people in society continue to move up
and down in the status scale. This movement is called social mobility. Mobility
is to be distinguished from migration, which is a movement in geographical
space.
Mobility has been classified as 'Horizontal Mobility' and
'Vertical Mobility'. Horizontal Mobility refers to change of residence of job
without status change, such as a teacher's leaving one school to work in
another or even in a factory as a Welfare Officer. "Vertical
Mobility" refers to movement in any or all of the three areas of living
class, occupation and power. An individual's mobility, up or down is a
measurement of how is achieved status compares with his ascribed status.
Social change is natural phenomenon and the moment there is
also social mobility. Probably no society absolutely forbids social mobility
and no society is immobile. If, for example, we wished to have each caste
occupying the same status generation after generation on a uniform rate of population
replacement would be necessary in every caste. But as the law of nature is,
some castes expand in population while other contract. For those that expand,
some new occupations must be found while for those who contract; replacements
from other castes must be had. Thus, differences in population, increase or
decrease of various castes make social immobility impossible.
Likewise, geographical adaptations require social
adaptation. There is constant change in the physical setting of society. As
population grows, forests are depleted and fields eroded to provide more
housing accommodation. New calamities and disease appear. New economic and
political development takes place. Naturally, the social system must adjust
itself to the changing physical conditions and such adjustment inevitably
entails a certain amount of social mobility.
Further, every society allows, some scope for personal
ambition. Had it not been so there would have been no progress. In every
system, there are different awards for different achievements and man makes an
effort for that kind of achievement that is most rewarded. The belief that
individual can get a head legitimately by their own efforts is basis for social
progress. The social scale is related to and based on a scale of values. Any
group that improves its standards will also improve its social status. And
inevitably some groups will strive to improve themselves. Thus the very system
of different values for different characteristics itself induces people to move
up the side of social status.
Among the factors that make some amount of mobility
inevitable in any society. Henry M. Johnson lists the following ones as
important.
(i) Social prestige ultimately depends upon the accepted
value system. If certain qualities of achievements are socially valued, some
people will strive for them.
(ii) There is no constant tendency for intelligence and
other kinds of native capacity to be confined to upper classes. It has not been
uncommon for the sons of farmers and labourers to rise by highest position in
society.
(iii) At varying rates of speed changes are always occuring
in the demand for different kind of skill.
(iv) The birth rate of each class never exactly fills all
the positions in the class.
(v) Birth in upper classes sometimes fosters complacency in
many person.
Thus we may infer that despite the hindering factor of
inequality of opportunity occurs in every society, Sociogists study social
mobility in order to ascertain the relative "openness of a social
structure". The greater the amount of social mobility, the more opens the
class structure.
Amount of Mobility
It may be noted that mobility may be downward or upward.
Downward mobility is permitted in every society. If a member, of an upper class
fails to live upto the class he will fall below the class status. In India, by
marrying someone of another caste, especially a lower one. As regards upward
mobility, no society absolutely forbids it but the amount and case of upward
mobility will depend upon certain factors. Among these the following ones may
be noted.
1. Social change
In general the principal condition that favors or prevents
mobility is the rate of social change conditions of rapid social change such as
the Industrial Revolution or territorial expansion make for social nobility,
while a period is very little for the individual to rise out of the status which,
is ascribed to him. It may be; noted that political, economic, religious or
other revolutions may produce rapid social mobility so as to reduce the upper
class to the bottom of social scale and to elevate to the top classes formerly
at the bottom.
2. Communication
The system that limits communication between classes and
restricts knowledge of the conditions of life to one's own class will also tend
to discourage social mobility conversely a system through which members of all
classes become familiar with the conditions of life in other classes,
facilitates, mobility of course, the extend of mobility will be determined by
the opportunities and needs that exist. Indifferent classes and the traditions
against the meeting members of another class.
3. The Division of labor
Finally, the amount of social mobility is influenced by the
degree of division of labor that exists in a society. If the division of labor
is very highly developed and if the degree of specialization and skilled
training is very high it is correspondingly difficult for a person from one
class to pass readily into other classes, similarly the sharply defined castes
that have been assigned certain traditional functions may be related to social
mobility despite the fact that other condition are favorable for social
movement.
Here it may be emphasized that the economic progress is the
most important factor in determining the rate of mobility in any country.
Economic progress is associated with industrialization is associated with a
higher rate of mobility.
40. Define Sociology, its scope, why sociology as
science, and what are characteristics of sociology ?
Definition and scope:
The term, sociology has been derived from the Latin word,
'Societas' or 'Socius' meaning society or associate and the Greek word, 'Logos'
meaning theory or study or science. Etymologically, then, sociology human
society or of human association. The term, sociology is not very old. Its
origin can be traced to recent past. It was coined by Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
the French Philosopher and sociologist in 1833. He introduced it to designate
the science of human association. Now it has been regarded as a specialized
field of study.
For a clear understanding of what sociology deals with and
of its field of investigation, we would do well to examine some important
definitions of sociology given by eminent sociologists, out their opinion is
divided on its scope and subject matter. There are as many definitions of
sociology as there are sociologists. All of them have discussed sociology from
their own viewpoints. They have emphasized on one aspect or the other,
depending upon their understanding and interest and few important definitions
are given below.
Gillin and Gillin says that in its broadest sense sociology
may be described as the study of interaction arising from the association of
living beings.
Mac Iver and Page say that sociology is about social
relationships, the network of social relationship we call society.
M. Glinsberg thinks that sociology is the study of human interaction
and inter-relations, their conditions and consequences.
Ferdinand Tonnies holds the view that 'Sociology on the
whole is the theory of human living together'.
Kimball Young believes that "Sociology deals with the
behavior of man in groups."
J.F. Cuber is of the opinion that "Sociology is a body
of scientific knowledge about human relationship".
R.E. Park and F.W. Burgess feel that "Sociology is the
science of collective behavior".
A.W. Green defines sociology as "the synthesizing and
generalizing science of man in all his social relationship",
L.T. Hobhouse defines it as "the study of the
interaction of human mind".
There are many definitions of sociology in addition to the
ones already mentioned above. These definitions indicate that sociologists
differ from one another in their views on sociology. Some sociologists have
defined sociology as the science of society cut they do not agree on the
meaning of society. Some sociologists think that sociology is the scientific
study of social activities or relationship. Others believe that sociology is a
study of social life, action, behavior and incidents.
Overall, sociology is the systematic study of society and of
the social institutions; it studies them as they are. If is not concerned with
their origin and growth. It studies society from scientific point of view. It
makes a positive and secular approach to understand the working of the social
institutions. Sociology is regarded as a social science which studies society
as it is. It studies the group living of human beings. It takes society as an
organic whole, discusses the inter-relations of the institutions mat constitute
it. It studies society as a whole.
The essence of all the-definitions and viewpoints discussed
so far is that sociology is primarily concerned with human social relations,
society, its subject matter, but the individual occupies a position of very
great significance in its field of investigation. In other words, the
individual can by no means be ignored in the study of sociology.
Scope of Sociology:
In order to have a better understanding of the definitions
of sociology and its subject matter, it is essential to discuss its scope.
Opinion differs on the scope of sociology but there are mainly two important
schools of thought about it namely, formalistic school and synthetic school.
The first school is led by the German sociologist, George Simmel, Vierkandt,
Max Weber and others, where as the second is inspired by the French
sociologist, Emile Durkheim, the English sociologist, Hobhouse, P. Sorokin are
their followers.
(1) Formalistic or Specialistic School
The sociologists who belong to the formalistic of
Specialistics School believe that sociology deals with various forms of human
or social relations. They regard sociology as a pure and independent branch of
knowledge distinct from all social sciences.
George Simmel
George Simmel, a leading German sociologist considers social
science. He feels that it should describe, classify, analyze and explain the
several forms of social relationship. It should not be concerned with their
contents, which are dealt with by other social sciences. He makes a distinction
between the forms of social relationships and their contents and subject
matter. In his view, sociology should confine itself to the study of formal
behavior and avoid the examination of actual behavior.
It means that the different forms of social relationship and
not the relationships between themselves should be the subject of sociology.
This viewpoint turns sociology into a science dealing with the same topics as
other social sciences, but the topics are judged from a different angle namely,
the angle of different forms of social relationships. George Simmel has
referred to the several forms of -social relationships such as competition, domination,
subordination, division of labor etc. They have an important role to play in
different spheres of social life. The spheres being economic, political,
religious and the like. It is an important function of sociology to separate
these relationships from one another and study them in abstraction.
Vierkandt:
Vierkandt, another leading sociologist holds more or less
similar view-point about the scope of sociology. He maintains that sociology is
an independent social science or a special branch of knowledge. It should
concern itself with the ultimate forms of social or mental relationships, which
bind people to one another in society. Sociology should not study concrete
societies in detail like history. It should study the irreducible categories of
science, which are nothing but ultimate forms of social or mental psychic
relationships. These relationships consist in love and hate, attitude of
respect, submission, shame, co-operation, competition, the approval of others
etc. that bind individuals into groups.
Max Weber:
Max Weber an eminent German sociologist expresses his own
viewpoint on the scope of sociology. He says that the scope of sociology
consists in interpreting or "understanding" social, behavior. For him
social behavior does not refer to entire field of human relation.-He means by
social behavior what we call social activity or social action. It is related to
the behavior of others and is determined by them. For instance, a bicycle
accident is merely a natural phenomenon, the way in which the bicyclists behave
with each other after the accident in the form of avoiding or using the
language reflects their true social behavior. Sociology is thus concerned with
fundamental types of social behavior. In other words, sociology should aim at
analyzing and classifying the various types of social behavior or social
relationships.
Tonnies, Von Wiese and Small
There are sociologists like Ferdinand Tonnies, Von Wiese and
Small who have similar views on the scope of sociology. Tonnies agrees with
other sociologists when he says that sociology is an independent and pure
social science but he has distinguished society from community on the basis of
forms of relationships. Von Wiese is of the opinion that sociology should
confine itself to the study of the various forms of social relationships. He
has divided these social relationships into different kinds. Small says that
sociology should study all activities of society. It should study the genetic
forms of social relationship, behavior, activities etc.
Thus, we can safely conclude that the specialistic or
formalistic school demands that sociology should be social science dealing with
the different forms of social relationships. The sociologist who belongs to
this school what the scope of sociology should be delimited.
Criticisms of the formalistic school:
Attempts have been made by sociologists to define the scope
of sociology. These attempts are really praise worthy. All the same, the
formalistic school is subject to criticism on the following grounds.
(i) The formalistic school has extremely narrowed down the
scope of sociology. It states that sociology should study the forms of social
relationships. In fact sociology should study not only the forms but also the
contents of social life.
(ii) Abstract forms cannot be studied in isolation forms of
concrete relations. They should be studied together but the formalistic school
makes a distinction between the abstract forms and concrete contents. It states
that sociology should not go beyond the study of abstract forms. It should
always be bore in mind that abstract forms and concrete relations must be
studied together. In reality, social forms cannot be isolated at all from the
content, because social forms keep on changing like the contents. No social
"form" can exist independent of content. P. Sorokin says that it is
impossible to think of a social institution whose form remains unchanged when
its content has already changed. In other words, he emphasized on the points
that the forms and the contents change at the same time. We cannot say anything
without knowing their concrete contents. For instance, the study of competition
will he of little profit, if competition is not thoroughly-examined in concrete
form in relation to economic life.
(iii) The conception of sociology as a pure and independent
social science is to say the least not practicable at all. No sociologist has
so far succeeded in contracting sociology as a pure and independent social
science. It is not difficult to see that no social science is completely independent
of other social sciences. All social sciences are interdependent and
inter-related. Therefore, the conception of pure and independent sociology is
not practicable.
(iv) All social sciences study the forms of social
relationship, but the formalistic school contents that it is sociology, which
alone studies the forms of social relationships. This contention is wrong.
(2) Synthetic School:
The synthetic school of thought holds the view that
sociology is a synthesis of all social sciences. Sociology is the science of
science. It embraces all social sciences within its scope. In other words, it
synthesizes them all. There are some modern sociologists like Emile Durkheim,
Hobhouse, P. Sorokin and others who share this view.
Emile Durkheim
Emile Durkheim, an eminent French sociologist divides
sociology into three principal parts, namely social morphology, social
physiology and general sociology. Social morphology has direct reference to all
those objects, which are basically or fundamentally geographical or territorial
in nature. These objects are of many kinds such as the problems of population,
its size, density and local distribution and the like. Social morphology not
only analyses the size and quality of population but also examines how population
affects the quality, of social relationship and social groups. It also studies
the main forms of social groups, institutions and their classifications. Social
physiology is very complex and it covers all subjects studied by particular
social sciences like religion, economy, language, morals, laws, etc.
It is seen that social sciences like physiology has a number
of branches such as sociology of religion, sociology of economic life,
sociology of language, sociology of morals and sociology of law. All these
branches are regarded as special sociologies, these sociologists to have
subject of their own for example, the sociology of religion studies language
and so on and so forth. It should not be forgotten that each branch of social
physiology is related to a set of social facts, which is nothing but activities
of social groups. Emile Durkheim is of opinion that general sociology is the
philosophical part of sociology. The function of general sociology is to
discover the general character of these social facts. It should discover
general, social law of which the different law established by the special
social sciences is particular expressions''.
Hobhouse:
Hobhouse an English sociologist holds somewhat a similar
view on the scope of sociology. According to him, sociology should be a
synthesis of numerous social sciences. It should include other sciences in its
scope. In his opinion, all aspects of social life are inter-connected and
therefore, the study of one aspect of social life cannot be adequate for an understanding
of the entire social fact. Owing to this reason, sociology should study social
life as a whole in a very systematic way,
P. Sorokin
P.Sorokin has also expressed his view on the subject-matter
of sociology. According to him, sociology should aim at studying the
relationship that exists between the different aspects of social phenomena and
between the social and non-social phenomenas. It should study the general
features of social phenomena as well.
From the foregoing discussions on the scope of sociology, it
can be conveniently concluded that the range of this science is very wide.
Sociology is regarded as a general science as well as a special science. Like
all other sciences, the subject-matter of sociology is society. Each of these
sciences, as mentioned already, deals with only one particular aspects of
social life. But it is sociology which not only studies social relationships
but also studies society in its entirety. It aims at standing all aspects of
society. At this stage of its development, it is neither essential nor possible
to determine the scope of sociology. As sociology is a developing science, it
is not easy to delimit what exactly cannot be studied by sociological method,
Importance of sociology :
Of the various social sciences, sociology seems to be the
youngest. It is gradually developing. Still it has remarkable progress. Its
uses are recognized widely today. In modern times, there is a growing
realization of the importance of the scientific study of social phenomena and
the means of promoting what Prof. Giddings calls human adequacy (human
welfare).
The study of sociology has a great value especially in
modern complex society. Some of the uses of sociology are as follows.
1. Sociology studies society in a scientific way. Before the
emergence of sociology, there was no systematic and scientific attempt to study
human society with all its complexities. Sociology has made it possible to
study society in a scientific manner. This scientific knowledge about human
society is needed in order to achieve progress in various fields.
2. Sociology throws more light on the social nature of man.
Sociology evolves deep into the social nature of man. It tells us why man is a
social animal, why he lives in groups, communities and societies. It examines
the relationship between individual and society, the impact of society on man
and other matters.
3. Sociology improves our understanding of society and
increases the power of social action, capabilities, talents and limitations. It
enables him to adjust himself to the environment. Knowledge of society, social
groups, social institutions, associations, their functions etc. helps us to
lead an effective social life.
4. The study of sociology helps us to know not only our
society and man but also others, their motives, aspirations, status,
occupations, traditions, customs, institutions, cultures etc. In a huge
industrialized society, our experience is comparatively limited. We can hardly
have a comprehensive knowledge of our society and rarely have an idea regarding
other societies. But we must have some insight into an appreciation of the
motives by which others live and the conditions under which they exist. Such an
insight we derive from the study of sociology.
5. The contribution of sociology is not less significant in
enriching culture. Sociology has given training to us to have rational approach
to questions concerning ourselves, our religion, customs, mores, institutions,
values, ideologies etc. It has made us to become more objective, rational, critical
and dispassionate. The study of societies has made people to become more
broad-minded. It has impressed upon its students to overcome there
prejudices,-misconceptions, egoistic ambitions, and class and religious,
hatreds. It has made our life richer, fuller and meaningful.
6. Another aspect of the practical side of sociology is the
study of great social institutions and the relation's of individuals of each
one of them. The home and family, the school and education, the state and
government, industry and work, religion and morality, marriage and family, law
and legislation, property and government etc. are some of the main
institutions, through which our society functions. More than that, they
condition our life in countless ways. Knowledge of sociology may help to
strengthen them to serve man better.
7. Sociology is useful as a teaching subject too. Sociology
is a profession in which technical competence brings its own rewards.
Sociologists, especially those trained in research procedures, are in increasing
demand in business, Government, industry, city planning, race relations, social
work, social welfare, supervision, advertising, communications, administration,
and many other areas of community life. A few years ago, sociologists could
only teach sociology in schools and colleges. But sociology has now become
practical enough to be practiced outside of academic halls, areas of
application of sociology in schools and colleges. Careers apart from teaching
are now possible in sociology, which are coming more international levels.
8. The need for the study of sociology is greater especially
in underdeveloped countries. Sociologists have now drawn the attention of
economists regarding the social factors that have contributed to the economic
backwardness of a few countries. Economists have now realized the importance of
sociological knowledge in analyzing the economic affairs of country.
9. The study of society is of paramount importance in
solving social problems. The present world is best with several social problems
of great magnitude like poverty, beggary, unemployment, prostitution, over
population, family disorganization, community disorganization, racial problems,
crime, juvenile delinquency, gambling alcoholism, youth unrest, untouchability
etc. A careful analysis of these problems is necessary in order to solve them.
Sociology provides such an analysis.
10. Sociological knowledge is necessary for understanding
and planning of society. Social planning has been made easier by sociology.
Sociology is often considered a vehicle of social reform and social
reorganization. It plays an important role in the reconstruction of society.
11. Study of society has helped several governments to
promote the welfare of the tribal people. Not only the civilized-societies, but
even the tribal societies are faced with several socio-economic and
anthropologists regarding tribal societies and problems have helped many
governments in undertaking various social welfare measures to promote the
welfare of the tribal people. Efforts are now being made to treat the tribals
on par with the rest of the civilized people.
12. Sociology has drawn our attention to the intrinsic worth
and dignity of man. Sociology has been greatly responsible in changing our
attitudes towards fellow human beings. It has helped people to become catholic
in outlook and broad-minded in spirit. It has made people to become too lenient
and patient towards others. It has minimized the mental distance and reduced
the gap between different peoples and communities.
13. Sociology is of great practical help in the sense; it
keeps us up-to date on modern social situations and developments. Sociology
makes us to become more alert towards the changes and developments that take
place around us. As a result, we come to know about our changed roles and
expectations and responsibilities.
Characteristics of Sociology:
Sociology as a branch of knowledge, has its own unique
characteristics, it is different from other sciences in certain respects. An
analysis of its internal logical characteristics helps one to understand what
kind of science it is. The following are the main characteristics of sociology.
1. Sociology is an independent science:
Sociology has now emerged into an independent science. It is
not treated and studied as a branch of any other science like philosophy or
political philosophy or history. As an independent science, it has its own
field of study, boundary and method.
2. Sociology is a social science and not a physical
science:
Sociology belongs to the family of social science and not to
the family of physical science. As a social science, it concentrates its
attention on man, his social behavior, social activities and social life. As a
member of the family of social sciences like history, political science,
economics, psychology, anthropology etc. The fact that sociology deals with the
social universe distinguishes it from astronomy, physics, chemistry, zoology,
mathematics and other physical sciences.
3. Sociology is a categorical and not a normative
discipline:
Sociology "confines itself to statements about what is
not what should be or ought to be". As science, sociology is necessarily
silent about questions of value. It does not make any kind of value judgments.
Its approach is neither moral nor immoral but amoral. It is ethically neutral.
It cannot decide the directions in which sociology ought to go. It makes no
recommendations on matters of social policy or legislation or programme. But it
does not mean that sociological knowledge is useless and serves no purpose, it
only means that sociology as a discipline cannot deal with problems of good and
evil, right and wrong and moral or immoral.
4. Sociology is a pure science and not an applied
science:
A distinction is often made between pure sciences and
applied sciences. The main aim of pure sciences is the acquisition of knowledge
and it is not bothered whether the acquired knowledge is useful or can be put
to use. On the other hand, the aim of applied science is to apply the acquired
knowledge into life and to put it to use. Each pure science may have its own
applied field. For example, physics is a pure science and engineering is its
applied field. Similarly, the pure sciences such as economics, political
science, history etc. have their applied fields like business, politics, and
journalism respectively. Sociology as a pure science has its applied fields
such as administration, diplomacy, social work, etc. Each pure science may have
more than one application.
Sociology is a pure science, because the immediate aim of
sociology is the acquisition of knowledge about human society, not the
utilization of that knowledge. Sociologists never determine questions of public
policy and do not recommend legislators what laws should be passed or repeated.
But the knowledge acquired by a sociologist is of great help to the
administrator, the legislator, the diplomat, the teacher, the foreman, the
supervisor, the social worker and the citizen. But sociologists themselves do
not apply the knowledge of life and use as a matter of their duty and
profession.
5. Sociology is relatively an abstract science and not a
concrete science:
This does not mean that sociology is an art and not a
science. Nor does it mean, it is un-necessarily complicated and unduly
difficult. It only means that sociology is not interested in concrete
manifestations of human events. It is more concerned with the form of human
events and their patterns. For example, sociology is not concerned with
particular wars and revolutions but with war and. revolution in general, as
social phenomena as type’s social conflict. Similarly, sociology does not
confine itself to the study of this society or that particular society or
social organization, or marriage or religion, or group and so on. In this
simple sense sociology is an abstract and not a concrete science.
6. Sociology is a generalizing and not a particularizing
or individualizing science:
Sociology tries to find out the general laws or principles
about human interaction and association, about the nature, form, content and
structure of human groups and societies. It does not study each and every event
that takes place in society. It is not possible also. It tries to make
generalizations on the basis of the study of some selected events. For example,
a sociologist makes generalizations about the nature of secondary groups. He
may conclude that secondary groups are comparatively bigger in size, less
stable, not necessarily spatially, limited, more specialized, and so on. This,
he does not by examining all the secondary groups but by observing and studying
a few.
7. Sociology is a general science and not a special
science:
The area of inquiry of sociology is general and not
specialized. It is concerned with human interaction and human life in general.
Other social sciences like political science, history, economics etc., also
study man and human intention on certain aspects of human interaction and
activities and specialize themselves, in these fields. Accordingly, economics
specializes itself in the study of economic activities. Political science
concentrates on political activities and so on. Sociology, of course, does not
investigate economic, religious, political, legal, and moral or any other
special kinds of phenomena in relation to human life and activities as such. It
only studies human activities in a general way. This does not, however, mean
that sociology is the basic social science nor does it simply is the general
social science. Anthropology and social psychology often claim themselves to be
general social sciences.
8. Finally, Sociology is both a rational and an empirical
science:
There are two broad ways of approach to scientific
knowledge. One known as empiricism is the approach that emphasizes experience
and the facts that result from observation and experimentation. The other known
as rationalism, reason and the theories that result from logical inference.
The empiricist collects facts, the rationalist co-ordinates
and arranges them. Theories and facts are required in the construction of
knowledge. In sociological inquiry, both are significant. A theory
unsubstantiated by hard facts is nothing more than an opinion. Pacts, by
themselves, in their isolated character, are meaningless and useless. As
Immanuel Hants said, "theories without facts are empty and facts without
theories are blind". All modern sciences, therefore, avail themselves of
both empirical and rational resources. Sociology is not an exception. It is
clear from the above that sociology is an independent, a social, a categorical,
a pure, an abstract, a generalizing both a rational and empirical social
science.
Why sociology as science :
Auguste Comte, the father of sociology, called sociology as
the "queen of sciences". Some sociologists have come to view
sociology in terms of natural sciences.
According to Emile Durkheirn, the business of the
sociologists is to establish causal connections and causal law.
Redcliffe-Brown argues that "a theoretical science of
human society is possible" and that "there can only be one such
science."
Sociology is a science. Before going to elaborate this
statement, it is necessary to know what science is Science is a method and way
of looking at things consisting of systematic steps like observation,
collection, classification, hypothesis, testing, theory and conclusion. Science
possesses several characteristics. Firstly, Science employs the scientific method.
Secondly, it is the study of facts. Thirdly, scientific principles are
universal. Fourthly, scientific laws are veridical. Its validity can be
examined at any time. It proves true in every case. Fifthly, science discovers
the cause-effect relationship in its subject matter and in this connection
provides universal and valid laws. Lastly, science can make predictions on the
basis of universal and valid laws relating to, the cause effect relationship in
any subject. The foundation of science is based upon a faith in causality.
By examining sociology on the basis of the six essential
points, it can be proved that sociology possesses all me characteristics of
science. Therefore, Sociology can be regarded as a science.
1. Sociology employs the Scientific method:
All the methods of sociology are scientific. These methods
are observation, interview, case study, schedule, questionnaire etc. In these
methods, the first step is collection of data through observation. Then the
data is classified and finally the results are brought out on the basis of
accepted data. The validity of these results are verified.
2. Sociology is factual:
Sociology studies social relationships and activities. Its
general problem is description of the social process. In this way, sociology
makes a scientific study of facts and the general principles involved in them.
Auguste Comte describes it as "Social physics".
3. The Principles of sociology are universal:
The law of sociology proves true at all times and at all
places. For example, the principles of family disorganization and social
disorganization depend upon each other, is true all times and all places.
4. The Principles of Sociology are veridical:
The law of sociology proves true at every verification and
re-verification. Their, validity can he examined by one. For example, one can
consider the law that increase in the number of divorces indicates acceleration
of family disorganization. This principle can be examined any where by any one.
5. Sociology discovers cause-effect relationships:
On the basis of the above example of divorces and family
disorganization, divorce is an effect and family disorganization is one of its
causes. Sociology has discovered a cause-effect relation between the phenomena
divorce and family disorganization. Similarly, suicide is an effect of the
present dowry system in society. Thus Sociology traces cause-effect
relationships in social disorganization and other incidents, activities and
relationships in society .and then formulates laws concerning them.
6. Sociology can make predictions:
Lastly, on the basis of cause-effect relationships,
Sociology can anticipate the future and make predictions concerning social
relationships, activities, incidents etc. If disorganization in the families
becomes pronounced, it can make predictions concerning the number of divorces
and many other things. Knowing the cause-effect relationships, sociology can
determine what will be on the basis of what is? Thus, it is evident from the
above discussion that sociology is a science. Sociology possesses all the
essential characteristics of science.
41. Define Culture.
Brief note on material and non material culture. What are essential roles of
culture in society ?
Definition: Culture consists
of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the
members of a particular group or society. Through culture, people and groups
define themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society.
Thus, culture includes many societal aspects: language, customs, values, norms,
mores, rules, tools, technologies, products, organizations, and institutions.
This latter term institution refers to clusters of rules and cultural
meanings associated with specific social activities. Common institutions are
the family, education, religion, work, and health care.
Culture is of two types, namely material and non-material.
1. Material Culture
Material culture consists of man-made objects such as tools,
implements, furniture, automobiles, buildings, dams, roads, bridges and in fact
the physical substance which has not been changed and used by man it is
concerned with the external, mechanical and utilitarian objects. It includes
technical and material equipments like a printing press, a locomotive, a
telephone, television, a tractor, a machine gun etc. It includes our banks,
parliaments, insurance, schemes, currency system, etc.
2. Non-Material Culture
The term culture when used in its ordinary sense means
non-material culture. It is something internal and intrinsically valuable,
reflects the, inward nature of man. Non-material culture consists of the words
the people use or the language they speak, the beliefs they hold, values and
virtues they cherish, habits they follow, rituals and practices that they do
and the currencies they observe. It also includes our customs and tastes,
attitudes and outlook, in brief the ways of acting, feeling and thinking.
Essential roles of culture in society.
Man is not only a social animal but also a cultured being.
Man's social life has been made possible because of culture. Culture is
something that has elevated him from the level of animal to the heights of man.
Man cannot survive as man without culture. It represents the entire achievements
of mankind. Culture has been fulfilling a number of function among which the
following may be noted.
1. Culture is the Treasury of Knowledge
Culture provides knowledge, which is essential for the
physical and intellectual existence of man. Birds and animals behave
instinctively with environment. But man has greater intelligence and learning
capacity. With the help of these, he has been able to adapt himself with
environment or modify it to suit his convenience. Culture has made such an
adaptation and modification possible and easier by providing man the necessary
skills and knowledge. Culture preserves knowledge and helps its transmission
from generation to generation through its means that is language helps not only
the transmission of knowledge but also its preservation, accumulation and
diffusion. On the contrary, animals do not have this advantage. Because culture
does not exist at such human level.
2. Culture Defines Situations
Culture defines social situations for us. It not only
defines but also conditions and determines what we eat and drink, we wear, when
to laugh, weep, sleep, love to like friends with, what work we do, what god we
worship, what knowledge we rely upon, what poetry we recite and so on.
3. Culture Defines Attitudes, Values and Goods
Attitudes refer to the tendency to feel and work out in
certain ways. Values are the measure of goodness or desirability. Goods refer
to the attainments, which our values define as worthy. It is the culture, which
conditions our attitude towards various issues such as religion, morality,
marriage, science, family planning, positions and so on. Our values concernsing
private etc. are influenced by our culture. Our goals of winning the race,
understanding others, attaining salvation, being obedient to elders and
teachers, being loyal to husband, being patriotic etc. are all set forth by our
culture. We are being socialized on these models.
4. Culture Decides Our Career
Whether we should become a politician or a social worker, a
doctor, an engineer, a soldier, a farmer, a professor, an industrialist; a
religious leader and so on is decided by our culture. What career we are likely
to pursue is largely decided by our culture. Culture sets limitations on our
choice to select different careers. Individuals may develop, modify or oppose
the trends of their culture but they always live within its framework. Only a
few can find outlet on the culture.
5. Culture Provides Behavior Pattern
Culture directs and confines the behavior of an individual.
Culture assigns goals and provides means for achieving them. It rewards noble
works and punishes the ignoble ones. It assigns him status. We see dream,
aspire, work, strive to marry, enjoy according to the cultural expectation.
Culture not only contains but also liberates human energy and activities; Man
indeed is a prisoner of his culture.
6. Culture Provides Personality
Culture exercises a great influence on the development of
personality. No child can get human qualities in the absence of a cultural
environment. Culture prepares man for group life and provides him the design of
living. It is the culture that provides opportunities for the development of
personality and sets limits on its growth. As Ruth Benedict has pointed out
every culture will provide its special type or types of personality.
7. Culture Makes Man a Human Being
It is culture that makes the human, a man, regulates his
conduct and prepares him for group life. It provides to him a complete design
for living. It teaches him what type of food he should take and in what
mariner, how he should cover himself and behave with his fellows, how he should
speak with the people and how he should co-operate or compete with others. An
individual abstained from culture is less than human; he is what we call feral,
man. The individual to be truly human must participate in cultural stream
without it he would have been forced to find his own way, which would mean a
loss of energy in satisfying his elementary needs.
8. Culture Provides Solution for Complicated Situation
Secondly, culture provides man with a set of behavior even
for complicated situation. It has so thoroughly influenced that often he does
not require any external force to keep himself in conformity with the social
requirements. His action becomes automatic. Forming queues when there is rush
at the booking window or driving left in the busy streets. In the absence of
culture, he should have been baffled even at the simplest situations. He need
not go through painful trial and error learning to know what food can be taken
without poisoning himself and fellow. His culture directs and confines his
behavior, limits his goals and measures his reward. His culture gets into his
mind and shutters vision so that he sees what is supposed to see in dream what
he is expected to dream and hunger for what he is trained to hunger.
9. Culture Provides Traditional Interpretations to
Certain Situation.
Through culture men gets traditional interpretation for many
situations according to which he determines his behavior. If a cat crosses his
way, he postpones his journey. It may however be noted that these traditional
interpretation differ from culture to culture. Among some culture owl is
regarded as a symbol of wisdom and not a symbol of idiocy.
10. Culture Keeps Social Relationship Intact
Culture has importance not only for man but also for the
group. Had there been no culture there would have been no group life. Culture
is the design and the prescription for guiding values and ideals. By regulating
the behavior of the people and satisfying, the primary drives pertaining to
hunger and sex it has been able to maintain group life. Culture has provided a
number of checks upon irrational conduct and suggestibility culture aids such
as in schooling or scientific training. Lessen the chances that a man will
behave irrationally or irresponsibility. The members of group characterized
though they be by consciousness of kind, at once competing. They are held in
line by constraints prescribed by culture.
11. Culture Broadens the Out Looks of the Individual
Culture has given a new vision to individual by providing
him a set of rules for co-operation of the individuals. He thinks not only his
own self but also of the others. Culture teaches him to think himself a part of
the larger whole, it provides him with the concept of family, state, nation and
class and make responsible the cooperation and division of labor.
12. Culture Creates New Needs
Culture also creates new needs and new drives, for example,
thirst for knowledge and arranges for the satisfaction.
42. How culture
differs from culture and civilization?
Civilization denotes utilitarian things used as apparatus.
To understand the term 'culture' clearly it would be desirable to distinguish
it from civilization. Writers have many different concepts of civilization.
Civilization is considered to have begun at the time of writing and the advent
of metals.
As history begins with writing, so does civilization. Ogburn
and Nimkoff conceived of civilization as the latter phase of the super organic
culture. Some based civilization on civil organization as contrasted to clan or
kinship organization. Since civil organization was found more commonly in large
towns, so people living in these towns were called civilized. A.A. Golden
Weiser used the word 'civilization' as synonymous to 'culture' and applied the
term to non-literate people.
Others reserve the word 'civilization' for some selected
part of a culture. Brooks Adam thinks his concept limp lies order maintained
over an area by government power. To Arnold Toynbee, a civilization is
essentially a religious and ethical system holding away over an area of the
larger than a state or nation. Such a system is unified by customs,
institutions and ideologies.
Some sociologists divide culture into two parts, the
material and non-material. By material is meant one can create objects. Like
dwellings pens, radio, articles of clothing, utensils, tools, books and
paintings, by non material is meant the abstract creations of man such as
language, literature, science, art, law and religion.
The sociologists Jhon Lewis Gillin and Johan 'Phiilip Gillin
explited the term 'culture' to designate the ideas and techniques behind the
concrete objects and cultural equipment to describe the objects themselves.
According to them civilization is a more complex and evolved form of culture.
Mac Iver uses the word 'civilization' to denote utilitarian things the whole
mechanism and social organism techniques and material instruments which have
been devised by man in his Endeavour to control the conditions of his life.
These things operate as means to ends. They are wanted because by using them as
means we can secure certain satisfactions. Civilization in this sense would
include the radio, the ballot box, the telephone, railroads, the schools, the
bank and the tractor, etc. All these belong to the realm of civilization.
A.W. Green Golds remarks that "A culture becomes
civilization only when it possesses written language, science, philosophy, a
specialized division of labour and a complex technology and political
system".
Following Mac Iver, the important points of difference
between culture and civilization may be described as follows:
1. Civilization has a precise standard of measurement but
not culture:
Civilization is susceptible of being quantitatively measured
on the grounds of efficiency. When comparing the products of civilization we
can prove which, is superior and which is inferior. Their efficiency can be
estimated and in fact be measured. A lorry runs faster than a bullock cart, an
aeroplane runs faster than a lorry; a power loom produces more plough. The
modern currency system is superior to the barter system. None can dispute these
facts. On the contrary, there is no measuring rod by which we can assess own
standards, the paintings of Picasso may appear to some an abomination while to
others they are invaluable models of art. To some Bernard Shaw is a better
dramatist than Shakespeare. Some like songs, others prefer film songs.
2. Civilization is always advancing, but not culture:
According to Mac Iver, Civilization not only marches, it
marches always, provided there is no catastrophic break of social continuity in
the same direction. Civilization shows a persistent upward trend. It is
unlinear and cumulative and tends to advance indefinitely.
Since man invented automobile, it has continuously improved.
Similar is the case with other means of transportation like railway, ship,
aeroplane which are constantly growing more swift, more efficient and better
designed. They are vastly superior to those employed by our ancestors. Culture
on the other hand, advances slowly and is often subject to progression. It does
not march assuredly to higher or improved standards: Our paintings are not as
good as or better than those of Ajanta caves. Can we say that our poetry, drama
and literature are superior to those of ancient times?
3. Civilization is passed on without effort, but not
culture.
Culture is transmitted on a different principle from that of
civilization. The former can only be assimilated by the like minded. It can be
had only those who are worthy of it. No one without the quality of the artist
can appreciate art, nor classical music can be judged, by those who do not have
an ear for it.
Civilization in general makes no such demand we can enjoy
its products without sharing the capacity, which creates them. Every one can
use the breeze from a ceiling fan whether he knows the mechanism of the fan or
not. A.J. Toynbee writes, ''It is the easiest thing in the world for commerce
to export a new Western technique. It is infinitely harder for a western poet
or saint to kindle in a non-Western soul the spiritual flame that is a light
in-his own.
4. The works of civilization can be improved by anybody
but that is not possible in the case of culture.
Lesser minds can improve the work of the great inventors,
but lesser artists instead of improving may rather spoil the poems of Milton or
Tagore. The accomplishments of culture can be perfected only by the persons who
produced them. Again, the product of the artist is more revelatory of his
personality than is that of the technician. Culture, being the immediate
expression of the human spirit, can advance only if that spirit is capable of
finer efforts, has itself something more to express.
5. Civilization is external and mechanical while culture
is internal and organic.
Civilization is inclusive of external things, culture is
related to internal thoughts, feelings, ideals, values etc. Mac Iver remarks
''Civilization is what we have culture is what we are", in Mathew Arnold's
words, culture, is the study of perfection and of harmonies perfection general,
rather than in having something, in an inward condition of the mind and spirit,
not in an outward set of circuit areas."
6. Civilization is borrowed without change or loss, but
not culture.
The transference, of civilization from one generation to
another is quick and easy. Given adequate means of communication things of
civilization quickly spread to the whole world. Radio, television, X-ray,
automobiles are no longer the monopoly of any one country. The corporate from
of industry has encroached everywhere in older forms. The factory has displaced
the domestic system of production. Even the savage is ready to give up bow and
spear and two adopt the gun, The new techniques of constructing buildings and
building roads, have everywhere been adopted.
Culture, on the other hand has an intrinsic quality and can
only be imbibed. It will have a limited appeal. In India, we have borrowed much
Western civilization "borrowings" but they are only a few aspects of
culture, which are borrowed and even in this act of borrowing, borrowed culture
are clear that expansion of a civilization follows different principle from
those, which determine cultural development. Civilization proceeds more
rapidly, more simply, less selectively always spreading outward from the face
of technological advance.
43. Complete
information on family, its characteristics and features.
Family is the important social institution of society. The
word 'Family' has been taken over from Latin word 'Famulus' which means the
servant. Thus originally family consisted of a man and woman with a child or
children and servants.
According to Burgess and Locke, "Family is a group of
persons united by ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, constituting a single
household, interacting and inter-communicating with each other in their
respective social roles of husband and wife, father and mother, son and
daughter, brother and sister, and creating a common culture."
General characteristics of family:
(1) A mating relationship
A family comes into existence when a man and woman establish
mating relation between them.
(2) Selection of mates
Wife or husband may be selected by parents or by the elders
or the choice may be left to the wishes of the individual concerns. Various
rules govern this selection.
(3) A form of marriage
A mating relationship is established through the institution
of marriage. Marriage is an institutional arrangement made by society according
to which the individuals establish marital relationships among themselves.
Marriage may assume any one of the forms - monogamy, polygyny, polyandry or
group marriage.
(4) A system of nomenclature
Every family is known or recognized by a distinctive name.
(5) A way of tracing the descent
Every family has its own mode of tracing the descent.
Descent refers to the social recognition of biological relationship between
individuals. Descent may be traced through the male line or through the female
line or through the both lines.
(6) A common residence
Family requires a home or a household to live in. After the
marriage the wife may reside in husband's parental home or she may stay in her
parental home to which the husband pays occasional visits or both of them may
establish a separate home of their own.
(7) An economic provision-
Family provides for the satisfaction of the economic needs
of its members.
Distinctive features of the family:
The family, unlike other institutions, enjoys a unique
position in society. Its distinctive features may be noted here.
(1) Universality
Family is a universal social institution. There is no human
society in which some form of the family does not appear nor has there ever
been such a society.
(2) Emotional basis
The family is grounded in emotions and sentiments. It is
based on our impulses of mating, procreation, maternal devotion, fraternal love
and paternal care. It is built upon sentiments of love, affection, sympathy,
co-operation and friendship.
(3) Limited size
The family is smaller in size. As a primary group its size
is necessarily limited. It seems to be the smallest social unit. The biological
conditions have also contributed to its small size.
(4) Formative influence
The family is the earliest social environment which
surrounds trains and educates the child. It shapes the personality and moulds
the character of its members. It emotionally conditions the child. It is the
'nursery of human nature' and the breeding ground of our mores and the nurse of
our loyalties.
(5) Nuclear position in the social structure
The family is the nucleus of all other social organizations.
The whole social structure is built of family units. It influences the whole
life of society.
(6) Responsibility of the members
The member of the family has certain responsibilities,
duties and obligations. The smooth running of family depends on how best the
members discharge their responsibilities in co-ordination with the other
individuals of the family. As Maclver points out, "In
times of crisis men may work and fight and die for their country, but they toil
for their families all their lives."
(7) Social regulation
The family is peculiarly guarded both by social taboos and
by legal regulations. The society takes precaution of safeguard this
organization from any possible breakdown, by divorce, desertion or separation.
(8) The permanent and temporary nature of the
family
The family as an institution is permanent. Since it is based
on the organic and emotional nature of man, it continues to exist. But family
as an association may be temporary in character. These characteristics indeed
reveal the sociological significance of the family.
44. What are types
of family and its types? Essential functions performed by family.
Family is a social institution organised to meet certain
essential societal needs. It is a group consisting of parents, with or without
children and relatives, united by bonds of love and affection and sharing
common social activities.
According to Maclver and Page, "Family
is a group defined by sex relationship sufficiently precise and enduring to
provide for the procreation and upbringing of children."
According to K. Davis, "Family is a
group of persons whose relations to one another are based upon consanguinity
and who are therefore kin to one another."
In the view of Elliot," Family is the
biological social unit composed of husband, wife and children."
Types of Family:
Sociologists have taken different factors as the
basis for the classification of family.
1. On the basis of marriage:
On the basis of marriage, family has been classified into
three major types:
(a) Monogamous family:
A monogamous family is composed of one man and one woman. In
this type of family a man cannot marry more than one wife at a time. It is
regarded as an ideal form of family. It minimises emotional and psychological
conflict.
(b) Polygynous family:
In this type of family one man marries more than one woman
at a time and lives with them in the same house. In this type of family various
arrangements are made to adjust the need of many wives.
(c) Polyandrous family:
Polyandrous family is composed of one woman and many men. In
this type of family one woman marries many men and lives with them and she is
shared by them by turns. The Pandava family is the example of polyandrous
family.
2. On the basis of residence:
On the basis of residence family can be classified into
following three type:
(a) Patrilocal family:
In this type of family after marriage, the wife goes and
lives in the family of her husband. Her husband occupies a central position and
plays a dominant role.
(b) Matrilocal family:
In the matrilocal family after marriage the husband goes and
lives in the family of his wife. It is also known as a wife dominated family.
(c) Bilocal:
In some societies the couple have a choice. They may live
with the parents of either the groom or the bride. This is known as bilocal
residence.
3. On the basis of ancestry or descent:
By which an individual's blood relatives are determined is
known as the rules of descent or ancestry. On the basis of ancestry or descent
family can be classified into two:
(a) Patrilineal family:
In this type of family the ancestry is determined on the
basis of male line or the father. In other words, the family where the father
is the centre of authority is considered as the patrilineal family, regarded as
the best type of family.
(b) Matrilineal family:
In this type of family mother is the centre of authority.
The rights and privileges are handed down by mother to her daughter.
4. On the basis of authority:
On the basis of authority family is classified into two:
(a) The patriarchal family:
Patriarchal family or a joint family is directly ruled by
the eldest married male member or the father. In this family father is regarded
as the head or authority and possesses all powers. The children are known by
the name of their father. This type of family was found among the Romans and
Aryans of India.
(b) Matriarchal family:
In this type of family the authority rests with the female
head. The mother is the owner of property and rules over the family. The female
members alone have the right to succeed to property in a matriarchal family.
5. On the basis of size:
On the basis of size, family is classified into two types-:
(a) Nuclear family:
The size of nuclear family is very small. It consists of
father, mother and their unmarried children. It is regarded as the ideal form
of family.
(b) Joint family:
The size of joint family is very large. It is formed by
large number of members. Joint family is composed of father, mother, their
sons, the son's wife, and so on. The members of joint family belong to several
generations. In this family the eldest male member is the head of family.
Essential functions performed by family.
The family, almost without question, is the most important
one of any of the groups that human experience offers. We join other groups for
long or short period of time for the satisfaction of some interests. But the
family is always with us or rather we are with it.
Really, family is a unique social institution for which
there is no substitute. It is the most permanent and most pervasive of all
social institutions. The word 'family' has come from Latin word 'famulus' which
means the servant. The family is a small group consisting of father, mother,
one or more children and some relatives.
Maclver defined family as "a group defined
by sex relationship sufficiently precise, and enduring to provide for the
procreation and upbringing of children.”
Eliot says" Family is the biological social
unit composed of husband, wife and children."
Nimkoff says "Family is a more or less
durable association of husband and wife with or without child, or of a man or
woman alone, with children."
Functions of the Family:
Family is the most important primary group in society. It is
an outstanding primary group, because the child develops its basic attitudes in
the family. Family, as a social institution performs several functions.
Maclver classifies its functions into two types:
(1) Essential or primary and (2) non-essential or secondary.
The essential functions of family are:
(1) Satisfaction of sex need:
Vatsayana, the author of Kamasutra, has stated that sexual
satisfaction is one of the main aims of family life. Satisfaction of sex desire
is the most essential function which the family performs. The satisfaction of
sex desire requires that the male and female should live together so that their
sex instinct can be easily and comfortably satisfied.
(2) Reproduction:
The result of satisfaction of sex need is reproduction,
which is an essential function of family. It is the desire of every man and
woman to have his or her own children. The desire is satisfied in the family.
(3) Production and care of children:
The family gives individual a life and a chance to survive.
The child at his birth is completely helpless and cannot survive without the help
of family. Family not only takes care of the newly born babies, it also takes
care of the unborn babies. Family also protects child from various types of
diseases.
(4) Provision of a home:
Family provides the home for its members. Children are born
and brought up in homes only. Though often children are born in hospitals, they
are nursed in the homes only. Even the parents who work outside are dependent
on home lor comfort, protection and peace.
The non-essential functions of family are:
(1) Economic function:
The family fulfils the economic needs of its members. This
has been traditional function of family. Family fulfils all the economic needs
of its members such as food, clothing, shelter etc. The goods required by its
members are produced at home.
(2) Educational function:
Mazzin says, "The first lesson of child is
learnt between mother's kiss and father's care". Family is regarded as the
first school of children. The family provides the basis for the child's formal
learning and gives the child his basic training in the social attitudes and
habits.
(3) Religious function:
The family is a centre for the religious training of the
children. The family used to teach the children the religious values, moral
precepts etc. It is through the family the religious inheritance is passed on
to the next generation.
(4) Recreational functions:
Family is the centre of recreation. It serves as a centre of
all recreational activities like singing, dancing, playing indoor games etc.
The small children are the source of recreation for the elders.
(5) Protective function:
Family always looks after the health of its members both
young and old. It takes up the responsibility of its members and maintains
sound and good health.
45. What is
importance of law of three stages by
August Comte’ ?
According to Comte, each branch of our knowledge passes
successively through the different theoretical conditions. It is known as law
of three stages. The main aim of this principle is that it provides the basis
of sociological thinking.
The three stages are:
1. Theological or fictitious stage:
According to Comte in this stage, "all
theoretical conceptions, whether general or special bear a supernatural
impress". Unable to discover the natural causes of the various happenings,
the primitive men attributed them to imaginary or divine forces. This stage is
also divided into three sub-stages as (a) Fetishism (b) Polytheism (c)
Monotheism.
(a) Fetishism -During this sub-stage, man
accepts the existence of the spirit or the soul. It did not admit priesthood.
(b) Polytheism - During this sub-stage, man
begins to believe in magic and allied activities. He then transplants or
imposes special god in every object. Thus they believed in several gods and
created the class of priests to get the goodwill and the blessings of these
gods.
(c) Monotheism - During this sub-stage of
the theological stage man believes that there is only one centre of power which
guides and controls all the activities of the world. Thus man believed in the
superhuman power of only one god.
2. Metaphysical or abstract stage:
This stage being an improvement upon the earlier stage, it
was believed that the abstract power or force guides and determines the events
in the world. Metaphysical thinking discards belief in concrete god.
3. Scientific or positive stage:
The observation and classification of facts are the
beginning of the scientific stage, where there is no place for any belief or
superstition. Everything concludes rationally.
Positivism:
Positivism means the philosophical system of Auguste Comte,
recognising only positive facts in observable phenomena, and rejecting
metaphysics and theism and religious system founded on this. Thus, Comte was
against all types of irrational elements in social thinking. Comte argued, "As
long as man believes that social events are always exposed to disturbances by
the accidental intervention of the legislators no human or divine no scientific
provisions of them would be possible".
Comte not only developed the concept of three stages in the
development of human intellect but also observed three stages in the
development of society or social organization.
THE
END
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