Papers in the Sociology of Education in India

381 Pages·1967·3.855 MB·English

by  M. S. Gore, I. P. Desai, Suma Chitnis (eds.)

PAPERS
IN
THE SOCIOLOGY OF
EDUCATION IN INDIA
PAPERS
IN
THE SOCIOLOGY OF
EDUCATION IN INDIA
Papers prepared as part of a project in the Sociology of Education
in India, sponsored by the Education Commission and the National
Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi
EDITED BY
' M. S. GORE, I. P. DESAI AND SUMA CHITNIS
on behalf of
The Coordinating Committee for Studies
in the Sociology of Education in India
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATIONAL
RESEARCH AND TRAINING
July 1967
Vaisakha 1889
© National Council of Educational Research and Training, 1967 .
COORDINATING COMMITTEE
for
STUDIES IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Convener
M. S. GORE
Members
I. P. DESAI S. N. MUKERJEE
S. C. DuBE R. K. MUKERJEE
SHIB MITRA NARMADESHWAR PRASAD
V. E. MORE LESLIE PALMIER
A. N. PANDEYA
Rs. 8.75
Published by P. N. Natu, Secretary, National Council of Educational
Research and Training, 16, Ring Road, New Delhi 1 and printed
by V. P. Bhagwat, at Mouj Printing Bureau, Girgaum, Bombay 4
F O R E W O RD
It is now a truism that Education is the most effective
instrument of social and economic change. In this, the popular
conception and the scientific belief do not differ. However, the
need for a scientific and systematic analysis of the role and
furictions of education in society remains.
This collection oi thematic papers by a group of social
scientists from all over India seeks to define the role of educa­
tion in the life of the government and the society to which
the educational system belongs. The papers were undertaken
for a Seminar, sponsored by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences,
Bombay, and financed by the National Council of Educational
Research and Training on behalf of the Education Commission,
that was concerned to have this matter studied at close quarters
by informed persons.
The change in the political status of India in 1947 and
the decision to transform an agrarian into an industrial eco­
nomy have made it necessary to re-examine our educational
system. The social and economic objectives stated in the Indian
Constitution, and the goals visualised in our successive Five-
Year Plans, indicate that, as a nation, we want and need to
accelerate the place of change from tradition to modernity.
This cannot be done merely by legal enactment. It requires
the making of a new generation with a new set of skills, values
and attitudes, and the cultivation of a new set of norms. In
short, it implies that Education shall be used in a large scale
to bring about this change.
This Research Project that the National Council has
financed consists of two parts, the first of which is the present
set of 14 Thematic Papers based on library research. The
papers analyse conceptually the chief issues involved, make out
trend reports on the basis of data available and postulate
hypotheses for further research. The second part of this pro­
ject consists of field research that has been carried out in eight
vi FOREWORD
States, Andhra, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Mysore,
Orissa, Punjab and Rajasthan, a report on which will be avail­
able in the course of 1967.
The National Council hopes that these papers, which are
valuable in analysing the implications of the Indian tradition
and the direction in which those traditions should move to
achieve a modern society, will be made available to educationists
and social scientists in India and other parts of the world.
L. S. CHANDRAKANT,
Joint Director,
National Council of Educational
Research and Training
P R E F A CE
The social and economic objectives stated in our constitution
and the goals as visualized in the successive Five-Year Plans
suggest that as a nation we have accepted the need to transform
the Indian society from its present traditional and agrarian
pattern to a modern and industrial one. Independence has
changed the status of Indians from that of subjects of a colony
to citizens of a democracy, making for new rights and respons­
ibilities. It is obvious that such changes involve not merely
the enactment of a new set of legal norms but also, and more
importantly, the generation of a new set of attitudes, skills and
values among the people. The system of education that we
adopt can be one of the instruments of ushering in this change.
What role does education play in initiating change in a
society, or in maintaining its stability or status quo? What
exactly is modernization and how does it depart from tradition ?
What kind of education do we need to foster the growth of
a modern community—one in which the new goals of freedom,
equality and justice can be attained ? Is the present system of
education adequately equipped for the task ? Are the courses
and modes of instruction, the procedures and norms governing
the organization of education, and the different types of insti­
tutional managements, suited to the new purposes and values ?
What are the changes that need to be introduced in the educa­
tion system of the country to enable it to fulfil its functions
in the changing Indian society ? These are some of the ques­
tions tviiJcix lacod to be- answered in order to make it easier for
those charged with the responsibility Of forging "a national
system of education" to outline a definite course of action.
Though the problem is of equal concern to sociology and
to education, sociologists in India have not paid much attention
to the social problems related to education. Except for a pioneer­
ing study by I. P. Desai and five other studies by his students
there have been few in this field. Shri J. P. Naik, Member-
vii
viii PREFACE
Secretary of tfie Education Commission, tliought that it would
be useful to call together a group of sociologists to discuss the
scope of the sociology of education and the immediate con­
tribution sociologists could make in the foundation of educa-
cational policy. Sociologists were enthusiastic about the idea,
and agreed to join in a seminar. The Education Commission
and the University Grants Commission between them helped
the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to meet the organisational
costs. . . ; :.
This Seminar on "The Sociology of Education in a Modern­
izing Society" was organised by the Tata Institute in December
1964. A distinguished group of sociologists from all over the
country, along with some members of the Education Commission,
took part in the Seminar. The exchange of ideas between the
sociologists and _ education experts was fruitful. The Seminar
drew up plans for a systematic study of various problems con­
cerning education in the context of a modernizing Indian
Society.
It was decided that the study would be in two parts, one
a set of thematic papers on some of the issues involved, and
the other an all India field survey, to obtain empirical data
concerning the social and economic background of students,
teachers and parents, their values, attitudes and aspirations and
the general conditions obtaining in educational institutions, of
difEerent kinds, in the country. The Seminar group suggested
topics for the papers, and a broad research design for field work,
and appointed a Coordinating Committee to work out the ^
details of the scheme. It was decided that the office of the
Coordinating Committee would be located at the Tata Institute
of Social Sciences, Bombay, where a small coordinating unit
would assist the Convener of the Coordinating Committee with
work on the project. Finally the Seminar planned on a second
Seminar to be held when the-woiJiing- drafrs 'OriTIernM^
were expected f8 Be ready. The purpose of this second meeting
was mainly to discuss the papers and to give the scholars invited
to write on the various themes an opportunity to exchange
ideas, thus enabling them to incorporate the results of the dis­
cussions in the final versions of their papers. Moreover, it was
felt that the meeting would simultaneously give those in charge
P R E F A CE ix
of the field studies a chance to compare notes and review the
progress of their work.
The Coordinating Committee appointed by the Seminar
approached the National Council of Educational Research and
Training, Delhi with a request to finance the scheme. In March
1965 the Council very kindly sanctioned the first part of the
project, viz., the writing of thematic papers, and shortly after­
wards, in July 1965, the sanction for the field study followed.
This publication presents the results of the first part of the
project, the thematic papers. The initial drafts of these papers
were discussed at the "follow-up" Seminar held in October
1965, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay. The
authors have incorporated the results of the discussions, the new
angles and points of view that emerged at the meeting in the
final version of their papers. Since empirical data in the field
are meagre the papers are hardly in a position to answer the
questions raised with the precision required. But, on the basis
of the available material, the authors have tried to present
trend reports and postulate hypotheses for further research.
Moreover, they have analysed conceptually some of the issues
involved. Thus, though the scope of these papers is necessarily
limited, it is believed that they provide the important con­
ceptual and theoretical preliminary to the reports on the field
survey that comprise the second part of this project. Besides,
since some of the educational problems of the country, dealt
with here, are being analysed in a sociological framework for
the first time, the editors consider this publication a first step
towards the development of the Sociology of Education in
India.
The particular aspect from which each of the papers in this
collection discusses Education in a Modernizing Indian Society
is explained in the brief introduction to the papers given below.
The paper by M. S. Gore and I. P. Desai distinguishes
between formal and informal education, defines the role of
education in Society and outlines the scope of a.Sopiology of
Education. The authors examine the relationship of Education
to the other aspects of the social system, particularly to kinship,
stratification, political organization, knowledge and the attitudes
to knowledge, point out the interdependence of these several
factors in the social system and emphasize their capacity to
X PREFACE
influence stability or change in each other. Finafly they briefly
analyse the internal organization of the education system in
India and suggest several vantage points from which the system
could be studied by the sociologists.
In the context of the country's demands as a developing
nation, Education in India is expected to serve as an instrument
for changing the "traditional" society into a "modern" one.
What modernization is and what it means in the context of a
traditional society is discussed by S. C. Dube. He enumerates
the various attributes of a modern society and suggests that
different combinations of these attributes create different patterns
of modernization. According to him the Indian society is still
largely a traditional society. He points out some of the attri­
butes of this society and states the difficulties of the Indian
situation of change. He argues that basic changes in the con­
temporary social structure are necessary. But, for Prof. Dube,
a change in the contemporary social structure does not neces­
sarily imply the lejection of the Indian tradition itself. He
argues that some of the elements of that tradition can be pre­
served with advantage and the society need not become rootless.
The attempt at providing the conceptual framework for
analysis is continued further by Yogendra Singh. He discusses
the socialization process. He clarifies the distinction between
socialization and education. He examines the relationship
between education and the type of society and social structure.
He distinguishes between authoritarian and democratic systems
of socialization and shows the relevance of the concept of
reference groups in the analysis of a situation of change. He
discusses the Indian situation in terms of the concepts he has
used for his general analysis.
The relationship through the ages between the stratificatory,.
economic and political aspects of the traditional social system
and its system of knowledge and the 'e^ducauoa ojatcrn' is~clealt
with by R. N. Sa^:sena. He fncTicafes some of the features of the
edUckdon system in the pre-Buddhistic and post-Buddhistic and
Muslim periods. He mentions the changes that took place in
the education system concurrently with the changes in the
economic and political systems. Along with the education
imparted in the traditional manner by the priestly class, educa­
tion was also given to the lower strata of society by non-priestly
P R E F A CE xi
groups. This development dictated largely by the exigencies
of commerce and trade introduced the secular element in
education.
The same question, viz., the relationship between the poli­
tical, economic and the stratificatory aspects of the social system
and the education system during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, i.e., during and after British rule, is discussed by
A. R. Desai. He argues that the process of modernization of
Indian Society set in during the British colonial period itself.
But educational policy was subordinated to the requirements
of the political and the administrative needs of a colonial power.
He states that in defining educational policy in terms of
administrative and political expediency the British made educa­
tion a restricted commodity. He describes the social, economic
and political changes, both before and since independence, and
argues that educational policy requires to be adjusted to the
changing economic, political and stratificatory aspects of the
social system if education is to serve a useful social purpose.
Particularly important to policy at this juncture, according to
him, is a frank desicsion on how limited or free a commodity
education is to be.
The traditional social structure was characterized by a rigid
and closed stratificatory system. During the British colonial
period a rival stratificatory order based on the principle o£
achievement was introduced. The new education became one
of the instruments of this change by introducing the processes
of differentiation and selection. M. S. A. Rao shows what
differentiation the modern educational system introduced in
the traditional social structure. He points out that since educa­
tional opportunities are not equally available to all, education
itself may become one of the factors leading to a stratification
not strictly based on achievement. Arguing on similar lines
with statistics pertaining to the spread of education and the
type of education provided in the whole of Southern Asia,
including India, Leslie Palmier concludes that the educational
systems of this region have not contributed strongly to the
replacement of traditional attitudes by modern ones. The tra­
ditional boundaries of communication have not weakened
substantially. Moreover the meagre spread of education tends
to confirm the existing status rather than promote ascent, and