Modernisation and secularisation

Modernisation at first meant improvements in technology and production. Later it came to mean the path of development taken by the West, which other countries supposedly 'should' follow.

The scholars Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph described modern society as one with:

• universal commitments: rules that apply to everyone, not just to one's own group;
• science and reason, rather than custom alone;
• the individual as the basic unit, not the caste or clan;
• choice, not birth, deciding one's job and place;
• achieved identity: what you are depends on what you achieve, not whom you were born to.

Secularisation in the West meant the declining influence of religion on public life. But this has not happened everywhere. In fact, religious consciousness has grown in many parts of the world.

In India, rituals have taken on secular purposes alongside religious ones:

• they are occasions for socialising: meeting relatives and making contacts;
• they are chances to show off wealth: lavish weddings, with rows of cars and VIP guests.

The secularisation of caste: caste has not disappeared; it has changed its form. Caste groups now work like political pressure groups, forming caste associations and backing parties to win benefits. The political scientist Rajni Kothari argued that where people are already grouped by caste, politics has to organise through caste: so caste is drawn into democratic politics.

So modern ways remake old forms rather than simply replace them.