Society is a complex whole comprising of many and varied layers. Hence, understanding society can be problematic as perceptions often tend to be lopsided and incomplete. Perhaps the only way to avoid this trap is through a critical and interdisciplinary approach as presented in this pioneering book.
Prof. Hetukar Jha has chosen to analyse the forbiddingly complex society of rural Bihar. He bases his study not only on survey data but on historical records, particularly the village notes' which were prepared at the beginning of the century.
Prof. Jha started by classifying the villages of rural Bihar into eleven categories on a simple -complex continuum by analysing the records of more than 5,000 villages. This exercise paved the way for a systematic sampling of the villages studied and provided empirical grounds for the concept of a rural urban continuum.
The author concentrates on the modal styles of relationships constituting the 'primary level structures' of villages. These structures are constituted by such institutions as family, sharecropping, moneylending, upper class and lower class relationships, and jajmani relationships. The expectations typifying the roles of each of these groups have been explored and analysed. Regional variations as well as variations in the nature of villages are significantly reflected in the styles of relation-ships studied.
An invaluable and informative study which uses ingenious sampling procedures and presents a fresh theoretical perspective drawn from role analysis, class analysis and phenomenology while presenting numerous pertinent features of the social structure of rural Bihar for the first time. The book will be of interest to anthropologists and sociologists as also those engaged in rural development.
Hetukar Jha is Professor of Sociology at Patna University. He has conducted research projects for the UGC, the ICSSR and has contributed numerous articles to scholarly journals. Among his previous publications are Colonial Context of Higher Education in India and Social Structures and Alignments: A Study of Rural Bihar (co-author).
Society is a complex whole; its layers are many and its shades varied. Understanding society is problematic as its perception tends to be lopsided. However, a critical and interdisciplinary approach might help an investigator to avoid the risk of falling into the proverbial situation of the 'seven blind men and the elephant'. In the case of Bihar, where both the dimensions and degree of societal heterogeneity are forbiddingly complex, the need for an interdisciplinary approach to social science studies has been acutely felt. It was with this idea in mind that in 1975, four of us-namely, Dr J.B.P. Sinha, Professor and Head of the Psychology division, A.N.S. Institute of Social Studies, Dr Surendra Gopal, Professor of History, Patna University, Dr K.M. Tiwary, Professor of English, Patna University and myself-decided to meet and discuss the various issues concerning our society. We began to hold informal discussions from the points of view of our respective disciplines.
Care, however, was taken to avoid discipline-specific jargon as far as possible in order to make the discussions understandable to all the participants. The plan worked and our discussion group, which later came to be known as the 'Friday Seminar Group, continued (and still continues) its mission fairly regularly.
In the course of our seminar sessions, we realised that there was an acute paucity of data on the socio-economic relations in the rural sector (which encompasses the overwhelming majority of the population of the state). Our individual experiences of rural lifecould not lead us far in critical evaluations. Under the circum-stances, we decided to go in for fresh explorations in the field and acquire a first-hand view of the society. A proposal was then prepared to investigate the typified or modal patterns of relations among the different roles, institution-wise, constituting the village structure. The Indian Council of Social Science Research was approached to grant the necessary funds required for the study. I am grateful to the authorities of the I.C.S.S.R. who accepted the proposal and provided the financial support. This work is the result of this venture.
The study is based not only on data collected through survey research but also on historical records. Village records, particularly 'village notes' prepared in the beginning of this century in the course of the cadastral survey of Bihar, proved to be immensely valuable for classifying the villages into eleven categories on a simple-complex continuum. This helped in sampling the villages for study. The work is based on the postulate that considers the social structure of a village or community to be made up of the primary level structure and the secondary level structure. The primary level structure of a village community is constituted by such institutions as family, mahajani (money-lending), bataidari (sharecropping), and so on, which are taken as given by the members of the community. This covers the core of every day life in the village. This study has been directed towards understanding the modal styles of relationship in the primary level structure of the village community.
Needless to say, I have depended on my colleagues of the 'Friday Seminar Group' throughout the study for advice, clarification of concepts and discussion of perspective. I owe them my deep gratitude. However, they are not responsible for the errors. if any. Dr Ganga Nath Thakur, Dr Rajeshwar Mishra, Prabhat Kumar Jha, Indra Jit Singh and Bhuvaneshwar Sharma worked as field investigators. Clarence Louis typed the manuscript. My debt to all of them is great. I am thankful to the authorities of the Bihar Archives who granted access to the historical records pre-served in the records' rooms of the different district headquarters. My thanks are due to Guneshwar Jha who spared valuable time as and when I required his help while preparing the report.
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