Social Mobilization and Political Development in South India

I T MAY BE TAKEN for granted that social organization and traditions influence to some degree the process of political development, and that at least some political changes cause changes in social relations. In order that industrialization, literacy, and urbanization should result in the same sort of government in all countries, as seems to have been assumed by some scholars,1 it is obvious that forms of organization tending in other directions must be eliminated or rendered redundant. The usual assumption seems to have been that social forces leading to development, or political development itself, nullify traditional social organization. It seems equally plausible, however, that if political development affects social organization, it may just as well reinforce traditional aspects of society.2 The Rudolphs have argued, for example, that the introduction of Western styles of politics has helped to maintain the traditional caste organization of Indian society, albeit in its democratic incarnation. The application of Karl Deutsch's concept of social mobilization to the Indian context provides a convenient test of the possibility that political development may reinforce certain traditional forms of social behavior.4 As this article shows, most of the political features which Deutsch postulates

Development economics · Economics · Mobilization · Political economy · Political mobilization · Political science · Politics · Resource mobilization · Social mobilization · Social movement · Sociology · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Social and Economic Development in India