Indian Society: Diversity, Women, Population, Urbanisation and Social Issues

Features and diversity

India has great diversity:

• Race: Risley's classification and B. S. Guha's six racial elements;
• Languages: 22 in the Eighth Schedule, and 121 major languages and mother tongues in Census 2011;
• Religion: Hindus 79.8%, Muslims 14.2%, Christians 2.3%, Sikhs 1.7% (Census 2011);
• Caste and tribe;
• Region.

Unity comes from shared culture (pilgrimages, epics and festivals), the freedom struggle, the Constitution, a single citizenship and a common economy. Indian society is often described as unity in diversity, a "salad bowl" rather than a melting pot.

Caste and tribe

• Caste is a hereditary, endogamous group linked to an occupation, ranked by ideas of purity and pollution.
  • G. S. Ghurye listed six features of caste.
  • M. N. Srinivas coined Sanskritisation, dominant caste and westernisation.
• Changes in caste:
  • weakening of ritual rules in cities;
  • persistence in marriage (over 90% of marriages are within the caste);
  • politicisation of caste: caste associations, vote banks, the "Mandal" politics of the 1990s;
  • the Bihar caste survey (2023) found OBCs plus EBCs at about 63% of the state's population.
• Tribes:
  • 705 Scheduled Tribes are notified (Census 2011: 8.6% of the population).
  • Articles 342 (notification) and 244 (Fifth and Sixth Schedules).
  • There are 75 PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups). In Jharkhand: the Asur, Birhor, Birjia, Korwa, Mal Paharia, Parhaiya, Sauria Paharia and Savar.
  • Issues: land alienation, displacement by dams and mines, and loss of identity.
  • Approaches: isolation (Verrier Elwin), assimilation (Ghurye) and integration (Nehru's Panchsheel for tribals).

Women and women's organisations

• Key indicators:
  • sex ratio: 943 (Census 2011) and 1,020 (NFHS-5);
  • child sex ratio (0–6 years): 919 (Census 2011);
  • female literacy: 65.5% (2011);
  • female labour force participation: about 37–42% (PLFS 2023–24), up from about 23% in 2017–18;
  • maternal mortality ratio: 97 per lakh live births (2018–20).
• Issues:
  • violence and dowry;
  • unpaid care work;
  • the gender pay gap;
  • low representation: about 14% of Lok Sabha MPs in 2024.
  • The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (2023) will reserve one-third of seats after delimitation.
• Women's organisations:
  • early: Bharat Stree Mahamandal (1910) and the All India Women's Conference (1927);
  • later: SEWA (Ela Bhatt, 1972), the Chipko women, and SHG networks (JEEViKA, Kudumbashree);
  • the National Commission for Women (1992).
• Bihar's measures:
  • 50% reservation in panchayats (2006);
  • 35% in government jobs;
  • the bicycle scheme for schoolgirls (2006);
  • prohibition (2016), demanded by women's groups.

Population and related issues

• Census 2011: 121 crore people, decadal growth 17.7%, and density 382 per km². Bihar has the highest density at 1,106 per km².
• Fertility: the TFR is 2.0 (NFHS-5), below the replacement level of 2.1. Bihar's is about 3.0, the highest.
• Demographic dividend: two-thirds of Indians are aged 15–64. The challenges are jobs, skills and health. Ageing is happening faster in the southern states.
• National Population Policy (2000). India became the most populous country in 2023 (UN estimate).
• Next census: reference date 1 March 2027, and it will include caste enumeration.

Poverty and development

• Poverty lines: Tendulkar (21.9% poor in 2011–12) and Rangarajan.
• NITI Aayog's Multidimensional Poverty Index: 11.28% in 2022–23, down from 29.17% in 2013–14. Bihar has the highest headcount, then Jharkhand.
• The World Bank estimated extreme poverty ($3/day, 2021 PPP) at about 5.3% in 2022–23.
• Causes of poverty: low productivity in agriculture, informal jobs, regional imbalance, and gaps in health and education.

Urbanisation

• 31.1% of Indians lived in urban areas in 2011.
• Cities have problems with slums, water, waste, traffic and floods.
• Responses: the Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT, PMAY-Urban and Swachh Bharat (Urban).
• Bihar is among the least urbanised states (11.3%). Jharkhand is at 24%.

Globalisation and society

• Positive effects: jobs in IT and services, access to ideas, consumer choice, and women's mobility.
• Negative effects:
  • cultural homogenisation;
  • growing inequality;
  • pressure on informal workers;
  • the break-up of joint families and loneliness among the elderly;
  • the gig economy, where labour codes cover gig workers only partly.
• Glocalisation is the mixing of global and local, such as Indian versions of global brands.

Communalism, regionalism and secularism

• Communalism is the use of religious identity for political mobilisation, with hostility to other groups.
  • Bipan Chandra described three stages: liberal, moderate and extreme.
  • Examples: Partition, 1984, 1992–93, 2002.
  • Remedies: quick justice, secular education, and police reform.
• Regionalism:
  • Positive: it gives regional identity and demands for development, such as the Jharkhand and Telangana statehood movements.
  • Negative: "sons of the soil" agitations and inter-state river disputes.
• Secularism:
  • Indian secularism means equal respect for all religions (sarva dharma sambhava) and principled distance. The state may reform religious practice, as in temple-entry laws and the triple talaq ban (2019).
  • Western secularism is a strict wall of separation between church and state.
  • Secularism is part of the basic structure (S. R. Bommai, 1994).

Exam tip: In GS I society answers, use data (Census, NFHS-5, PLFS, MPI) and a sociologist's concept (Srinivas, Ghurye, Beteille). For BPSC and JPSC, add state examples: Bihar's caste survey and its women's quotas, and Jharkhand's tribal land and displacement issues.