Village communities have been self-sufficient and isolated entities. This feature of village communities was further sharpened due to the sheer territorial vastness of the country. Villages are placed at a greater distance from one another for centuries, the Indian villages existed unaltered in the constitution and nature is unaware of the outside world. Unless a new civilization forced them to feel its impact, the new civilization was the companion of foreign political powers which penetrated this country and conquered and ruled. The new civilization that followed the political invasion was a product of the industrialization of the scientific mode of production and it breed a culture that was mostly an outcome of economic relations in the society. These factors proved to be the main reasons for the integration of the Indian village community.
A. Industrialization and Extension of Trade
For many centuries agriculture was the main source which supplied the demands of both rural as well as urban communities all over the world. Cities of the past were more the centers of political power and administration than the centers of industry and trade with the increase of the economic complexities of economic activities of men, especially with the advent of industrial methods of production, cities began to assume the role of industrial and business centers. By industrial method of production, we mean the mechanized way as contrasted to what we may call the cottage industries system of production which implies production by tools.
Until the introduction of the industrial method of production in Indian or to be more precisely until the introduction of industrial commodities by the British all commodities of consumption in our villages were either agricultural in origin or were produced by village artisans. The mode of production of the village carpenter o the blacksmith or the weaver cannot be placed even in the category of cottage industries. Thus we can sum up that the entire mode of production in our villages both agricultural and non-agricultural fell under the category of production by tools. This was true of cities but not in the same limited sense.
The prevalent mode of production at that time was reflected in the nature and characteristics of the then-Indian village commodities and in the lives of the people who lived there. The villages were self-contained, self-supporting, and isolated centers, and the general way of life there was marked for its simplicity, contentment, and closeness to nature. Our farmer was a retiring contemplative fellow unaware of the ways and mods of the rulers and unfamiliar with the political changes. His standard of living was very low if we apply the ones. His wants were limited and few and above all his attitude toward his lot were totally fatalistic.
Disintegration or otherwise is a relative term or process. Contact with the industrial civilization proved harmful to the life of our people in the villages and disintegrated for its solidarity, or was it just the opposite. It is a question of preferences whether we think and like to assume that the old forms of our village communities were more in harmony with the lives of the farmers and the new changes have disturbed that harmony and hence the disintegrating whether we think that the new changes are for the upliftment of the material standards of Indian villages life and are in better harmony with the changed temper of our rural life and hence are good and strengthening instead of being disintegrating. However, there is one more aspect of the problem that is more important from the sociological viewpoint. This aspect refers to the way in which industrial civilization was introduced irrespective of the fundamental virtues of that civilization, it is important to examine whether that civilization was introduced in a way in which the village communities could digest it and could their mode of life to the changed circumstances. Industrial productions imply production by power machines, production on a mass scale, and then the distribution of production on a wider scale. Modern industries do not cater to a few individuals. They cater to whole masses, the people at large. Industrial production also pools the labor in ever-increasing dimensions and utilizes it to the best advantage, that is to say, it tries to produce maximum with minimum labor. In this case, the lesser cost of production of industrial commodities when these industrial products reached Indian villages, the villages level producer of non-agricultural goods found himself thrown out of his community role. His products could not compete with industrial products both in quality and cost. The villagers began to prefer the goods coming from cities. The natural result of all this was that on the one hand, the self-sufficiency of villages was broken and on the other, the physical pattern of the economic life was disturbed. Village leave production of non-agricultural commodities began to wither away. This was of great significance because by losing self-sufficiency in economic matters our farmers come in a competitive position with the city dwellers. He had to bargain with the city for secure tools, implements, etc., and in payment, he had given the far product's wealth of the village began to prick painfully.
It was not enough. The industrial civilization was satisfied by the replacement of essential village-level non-agricultural commodities. It, at the same time, poured new things and commodities into village commodities. These did not cater to the basic requirements of life in rural areas but stood as symbols of a new culture and as demands of a new civilization. The wants of rural life began to grow.
Industrial civilization not only invaded our villages at the material level. It also caused major changes in the thought and outlooks of the farmers. The awareness of nationalism which itself was a product of new contact with the new civilization and culture being to agitate our farmers. He became conscious of the sociopolitical happenings in the outside world in which his interest gradually grew. Thus the cumulative effect of industrial civilization was in nature opposed to the self-sufficient, self-contained, and self-centered lives of our village people. In this sense, our village life is integrating. This was further enhanced by the mutually comparative position in which our rural communities were placed by the prevalent economic system of bargaining which was still far away from being cooperative and hence was contradictory with the spirit hither to prevailing in our village life. Our farmer felt cheated by the city dwellers and this feeling became the central theme of a villager’s attitude towards a city dweller. Such was then the impact of industrial civilization.
B. Urbanization of Rural Communities
The localization of the industries in the urban area tends to attract men from the villages. Villagers not only supply the demand for unskilled labor in industries but also contribute to the other manual requirements of the city. Importance of money as a medium of transaction between the villages and the city grew. Along with these happening came the problem of urban housing, overcrowding, and sanitation, etc. Planned development of cities began to push towards villages. New localities began to appear at the periphery of big cities which were both urban and rural in characteristics.
C. Social Causes
Social causes refer to the spread of modern education and with that the spread of modern ideas regarding marriage, politics, traditions, etc. For many centuries, education in the villages was not considered to be a subject of any importance or concern. Hindu organizations permitted education only to children of higher castes. Modern education was introduced in India by the efforts of Macaulay. It gradually penetrated our villages.
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