Business Culture's Role in India's Social Transformation

This essay examines the social transformation process in India, focusing on the transition from traditional to modern society and the influence of business culture. It discusses key concepts like Sanskritization, Westernization, and Modernization, highlighting their impact on Indian society. The essay also addresses the historical context, including the British rule and post-independence strategies for national development. Furthermore, it explores the economic disparities between the rich and poor, technological changes, and the shifting balance between labor and capital, providing a comprehensive overview of the cultural and societal shifts in India.

Running head: BUSINESS CULTURE
Business Culture
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Social Change in Indian Society......................................................................................................2
Features of Indian Society...............................................................................................................6
Initial Condition of Social Change..................................................................................................7
The Social Transformation Strategy after Independence................................................................9
Cultural Development in India........................................................................................................9
Cultural Changes in India..............................................................................................................11
Economic Disparities between the rich and poor in Indian Society..............................................12
Reasons for rising inequality.........................................................................................................18
Impact of technological change in India........................................................................................19
Shifting Balance between the labour and Capital..........................................................................20
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
References......................................................................................................................................22

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Introduction
The social transformation process in India has been noticed through the transition phase
of different societal aspects, such as structure institution ideology and culture. According to
Hopkins (2017), the main objective of such social transformation observed in India is ideological
envisage, which could be characterized as ‘evolutionary’ in strategy and ‘revolutionary’ in
content. During the freedom movement, The Indian leader in researched how the history, social
structure, and tradition that formulated the societal condition, set the limited strategies, methods,
and goals for future social transformation (Cohn 2017). It was recognised that the revolutionary
changes brought to the social structure, institution, and societal values were quite necessary in
terms of developing the democratic participation.
It can be indicated that the traditional culture sometimes is compared to the modern
culture. Sorokin (2017) define that any culture is a process of learning and sharing meanings.
Similarly, the Indian culture also has transformed from a traditional country to a more than one.
The Indus Valley Civilization changed the name to India and later suggested many eventual
transformations. The study will develop a critical understanding of such transformation of India
from the traditional passed to modernity. Furthermore, the study will also discuss the socio-
cultural factors that have been highly influenced through the historical background. In addition to
this, the study will concentrate on identifying the economic disparity between the rich and the
poor population that has the significant influential aspects in society culture of India.
Social Change in Indian Society
Historical background of India reflects the varied heritage, which is deep rooted in
traditional structure of the society. The current Indian society is characterized by the caste-ridden

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perspective, inward looking, and worn-out the social system completely. However, Hutchins
(2015) implied that in today's world, India has become much perceptible strides to become
immortalized Nation. It is noticed that, after independence, the strategy of developing the
modernized India became the integral part of the initiatives formulated for the national
development. Chen, Chittoor and Vissa (2015) observed that there is the sustained and conscious
efforts are made to improve the economy, politics, culture, and social framework of India. On the
other hand, Heimsath (2015) observed that the transition of India towards modernization has
been a continuous yet a slow process. During the initial time of 19th century, the changes in the
social structure of India were clearly observable. There were significant attempts made to
describe such initial changes in the societal aspects by developing the concepts like
westernization and Sanskritization.
 Sanskritization
Kidambi (2016) explained that Sanskritization is one of the cultural mobility processes
that is associated with the Indian social structure in the traditional field. It is conceptualized as a
process by which the tribal or low caste group changes the rituals, cast, and ideology into the
higher caste. In this process, the mobility results the changes only in positional system. It does
not lead to any particular structural atmosphere of the society. Therefore, the concept does not
the huge purpose of defining the contemporary and societal changes in India.
 Westernization
The impact of the western philosophy and science started during the British rule in India.
This impact of the Western atmosphere is generally referred to and westernization that
introduced the transformation of daily habits. The Indians realised the ineffectiveness of some

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ancient customs and prejudices that changed their views towards the society. According to Desai
and Desai (2016), westernization is one of the ways of changing the life patterns and establishing
new values among the Indians. The closed unconfined vision of average Indian transformed into
liberalized and enlarged to some extent. Exposure to history, English literature, and political
institution make them to promote the active concerns regarding the human welfare and outlook
the humanitarian values (Beteille 2018). Suggestively, it brought recognizable changes in the
Indian society ranging from the loading speech and food habits to the values of equalitarianism,
humanitarianism, and secularism. Westernization discusses the contribution to the growth of
diverse forms of cultural structures that are extending over the entire country. In fact, it has cards
across even the regional boundaries as well (Hettne 2017). This type of cultural structure is the
evident of industrialization, urban urbanization, legal system, new politicization, science and
technology, educational system, and. Hence, it can be implied that the Western influence was
one of the significant source of observable social change in India.
In spite of bringing such changes in the Indian society, it is noticeable that the process failed
to bring changes among the masses. Chandra (2015) identified that the process did not develop
any considerable changes in the attitudes and value orientation of the broader societal Strata.
Therefore, the significant changes of the institute by westernization had failed to touch the
people route levels of the people and created the biasness. Moreover, the changes suggested as
the result of westernization had severe limitation between the technical fields and the
administrative aspects (Verma 2017). This was against of the cultural sphere and deeper social
atmosphere of life. This signifies that the westernization concept is narrow and it generally
stands for Complex modernization process in the developing countries.
 Modernization

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Unlike the above concepts of Sanskritization and westernization, modernization is signifying
more comprehensive and commendable explanatory power associated with well composed
diagnostic insight into the contemporary societal changes taking place in the Indian society. The
modernization process describes profound quantitative and qualitative changes that are taking
place in the contemporary world of human. A series of interdependent and interpenetrating
transformation are quite inherent in the modernization segment. This modernization process
works both internally and externally. According to Binoy et al. (2016), modernization process
does not only involve the various institution building in the economic, political, social, and
others societal spheres, but it brings basic changes in the personality of the individual. It is
important to state that the two changes are but complementary and rightly remarkable. It ensures
that the nation and institution building need to collaborate with the capacities and attitudes of the
people buy concentrating on the other developmental forms (Kaviraj 2017). Hence,
modernization defines the positive and global attitudes as well as a value orientation of the
individuals. It also defines the achievers in the society in terms of maintaining roles and
relationships, rational outlook, secularism, and efficacy of the human efforts towards achieving
goals.
Jodhka (2017) observed that modernization movement signifies the transformation from the
traditional values to modern rationalist values. On the other hand, Cohn (2017) explained that
modernization has its roots in positivist and rationalist spirit. Hence, modernization can be
considered as a growth of secularism as well as the rationality whereas it is also conceptualized
as the means by which people broke away from diverse constraints of tyrannical regimes as well
as the constant associated with the superstitious values. Banik, Gupta and Bhaumik (2016)
explained it as a process of bringing the deep rooted, fundamental, and widespread changes in

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values, attitudes, behaviours, and motivations of people. In fact, it is leading the people towards
leaving in a better condition (Komarova and Velthuis 2018). The principles of inequality based
on birth, cast, sex, and religion that were considered as the normative sense. The policy of
change started showing immediate results in some of the cases. For example, in the industrial,
electoral politics, and economic expansion, these changes became much prominent. Even in the
urban centers, the societal changes were observed.
On the contrary, Bendix (2017) argued that even though the modernization process is quite
pervasive, desirable, and transformative, it sometimes feel to reach each societal section due to
the various structural obstructions. The caste stratification as well as the negative elements of
tradition is the major obstruction of developing modernization process. These obstructions are
influencing the individuals in the society. However, in order to make it more effective, this
process should be reached to a larger population of the society. There are many denotation
observed in the terms like modernity, modern, and modernization. The space this specific three
terms are both different and similar to each other. According to Khan (2016), modernity cannot
be conceptualized as a process, but as an end state. However, it is noticed that both the process
and end are analytically diverse concepts. The inequality of becoming modern is clearly denoted
by the modernity where process is denoted by modernization.
Features of Indian Society
Considering the earliest human group, it was noticed that and the main source of food
Wars to be gathered together. Eventually, people acquired skills and knowledge in agricultural
process. The development of the agriculture helped people to live a better life and make the
human communities more stationery (Ranade, Londhe and Mishra 2015). The villages started

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emerging to signify that man has passed from nomadic life to collective situation. India is
conceptualized as the land of villages. Majority of The villages include around five hundred
populations. Heimsath (2015) stated that the social life in villages has some different
characteristics. It is important to state that the social life in villages strengthens the hierarchical
and authoritarian administrative norms. The hierarchal exchange of relationships is highly visible
in the village social life. These relations are even influenced by the civil servants and public
organisations.
Many of the sociologists perceive that the Indian villages are characterized by the
population, modes of production, structure, and physical attributes. In usual cases, it has been
observed that the villages have less than five thousands individuals. India is considered as the
‘country of villages’, where agriculture is the main source of income (Migdal 2018). The
villagers help in strengthening the social bonds as well as bringing the stability to the societal
system in different ways. However, it has been observed that the rural society has undergone
some of the recognizable changes in the recent past. Especially, after independence, the land
Reform legislations have accelerated these identifiable changes (Mohapatra, Khadanga and
Majhi 2018). It was noticed that India has a rich cultural heritage and it is considered as a land of
diversity. It is reflected in the multilingual, multi-social, multi-cast, and multi religious society.
One of the most important features of Indian society is the predominant rural habitation,
multicast socialization, and my really attribute observed in the social life (Deshpande, Sen and
Vaidya 2017). Currently, several communal organisations have become much active due to
which the communal clashes between different parties have emerged significantly.
Initial Condition of Social Change

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At the initial stage of the restructure of the Indian society has been set into motion under
some of the historical context of national ideology and public policy. The historical sources
define the social conditions at the initial level. Parasuraman (2016) implied that the method of
social transformation we can in India from these conditions. One of the main features of the
social conditions is the internal structural autonomy underline the social system. On the other
hand, Zittoun and Gillespie (2015) describe that the major structures are generally concerned
with the social stratification, cultural ideology, and political system. It is noticeable that cast
comprises the central principle of observable social transformation and it experienced the great
deal of internal autonomy. The social change was influenced by the British rule that set into
motion cultural dynamics and social aspects. It brought changes to the social and structural
pattern of Indian society.
It is noticeable that the inter-structural autonomy associated with the social components
of Indian tradition has influenced the direction of social change in a significant manner. It
suggests the various stages of historical transformation (Jain 2016). The first stage was observed
at the beginning of Western contact to the development of British rule. it set the place for cultural
renaissance. Moreover the, it influenced the initial growth and industrialization of the new
political consciousness. It is quite observable that these forces brought huge changes in the
Indian society Carley and Christie (2017). Especially, in the modern education as well as the
judicial Administrative structure, these changes hold the most significance in such context. In
fact, it was conceptualized as the emergence of colonial autonomy associated with the
industrialization and modernization of the society. Such innovations influenced the traditional
social structure. It also led to downward mobility of the privilege classes Wheeler and Beatley
(2014). On the contrary these innovations led to some of the selective upward mobility of

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traditional business classes. The development of such mobility brought changes to the
educationist at administrative levels. These classes availed the opportunities available in the
initial phase of colonial transformation.
The Social Transformation Strategy after Independence
After independence, the Indian society had undergone some underwent fundamental
changes. The state took the responsibility of bringing social transformation by creating the
democratic political participation, cultural and religious pluralism, and social justice framework
of a secular state. It brought inter-structural autonomy in the Indian society (Solt 2016). The
principles of inequality based on birth, cast, sex, and religion that were considered as the
normative sense (Park and Mercado 2015). The policy of change started showing immediate
results in some of the cases. For example, in the industrial, electoral politics, and economic
expansion, these changes became much prominent. Even in the urban centers, the societal
changes were observed. India is the second most populous democracy in the world and it is
divided into thousands of socially exclusive religious and cars that introduced the cultural
diversification. It is a country where almost 70% of the people live in villages and remaining
30% leaves in urban areas (Dabla-Norris et al. 2015). The traditional Indian culture was quite
unique and prominent for defining the unity in diversity. The cultural and artistic tradition
suggests the rich cultural value.
Cultural Development in India
The linking of India with the Western culture creates the connection the pre-modern and
modernized cultural systems. It is noticeable that by the time, the western tradition created high
influences on the diverse aspects of the Indian society. Especially, social, political, and cultural

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lives of India has transformed from the traditional past to modernized values. According to
Jaikumar and Sarin (2015) the traditional holistic and hierarchal character had broken down
much recognizably. Therefore, the significant changes of the institute by westernization had
failed to touch the people route levels of the people and created the biasness. Moreover, the
changes suggested as the result of westernization had severe limitation between the technical
fields and the administrative aspects. The value structure was rendering more liberal, open,
humanistic, and equalitarian aspects. Moreover, the traditional aspects transformed into the
modernized effects with the development of technological worldview based on equality,
rationalism, and freedom. Mukhopadhaya (2017) argued that some of the western intellectuals
did not accept such changed values in a positive way. It was noticed that these intellectuals
perceive the negative orientation of the culture in India. However, the historical importance
created the stabilized era of transforming the Indian culture. Gornick and Jäntti (2014) implied
that the Indian traditional culture was highly influenced by the western cultures since the British
Rules. In the fifteenth and sixteenth century, Portuguese came to India that created marginal
impact die to the religious prejudices and pre-modern values (Piketty 2014). On the other hand,
in the 17th and 18th century, the French and Dutch also visited India that influenced the political
and commercial goals much respectively. The British wielded power in India during the initial
stage of seventeenth century consolidated the position towards the end of the 19th century.
Rani, Krishnakumar and Bigotta (2017) opined that the political power of the British
Empire was mainly based on the cultural tradition comprised of experimentation, rationality,
verification, codification, and rational-utilitarian. In a dispersed form, the oriental civilization of
China and India had some of these traits. However, these countries could not systematically
develop such specific cultural aspects due to the essential structural elements. Some of the

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fundamental differences were visible in the cultural pattern, ethos, and structure of Islam and
Hinduism as well as the west. By this time, the Indian tradition met the Western tradition that
had the form of legal rationalism in terms of understanding the contractual individualistic unity
between the society and the people. It was noticeable that the Western legal system repudiated
hierarchy and status and promoted to universalism as well as equality (Chauhan, et al. 2016).
The western culture introduced the achievement pattern, which was perceived as new criteria for
social stratification. This type of recognition and orientation of the individual achievement
attributed the holistic and hierarchical attributes.
Cultural Changes in India
The cultural changes in India can be explained by developing different views. First is the
western impact on Indian cultural tradition. According to Park and Mercado (2015), it was
designated as the primary westernization that shifted its focus to cultural modernization. The
primary westernization is segregated into two different types. First, was the emergence of
subcultures and the second suggested the process of general diffusion associated with the
western cultural traits (Park and Mercado 2015). It was noticeable that the primary
westernization formulated the sub cultural pattern, we with a minority of intellectual and
Scholars from India (Chen, Chittoor and Vissa 2015). Secondly the general diffusion process of
Western cultural traits suggests the adoption of new food habits, technology, and dress pattern.
Modernization is generally considered as a growth of secularism as well as the rationality
whereas it is also conceptualized as the means by which people broke away from diverse
constraints of tyrannical regimes as well as the constant associated with the superstitious values
(Hopkins 2017). It is important to state that the two changes are but complementary and rightly