Change and Development in Industrial Society

2.1 Core concepts

• Bollywood/Mumbai is the opening example: like any industry, workers there are part of unions (dancers, stunt artists and extras form a junior artistes association demanding 8-hour shifts, proper wages and safe working conditions); residents are divided by where they live (Juhu vs Girangaon), what they eat (sushi vs vada pav) but united by the city's common provision — same films, cricket matches, air pollution, aspirations for children (NCERT §intro, p. 60).
• How and where people work, and what kind of jobs they have, is an important part of who they are; technology and the kind of work available change social relations, while caste, kinship networks, gender and region simultaneously influence how work is organised — a major area of sociological research (NCERT §intro, p. 60).
• Sociologists like Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim linked industry with urbanisation and the loss of face-to-face village relationships (where people worked on their own farms or for a landlord they knew), replaced by anonymous professional ties in modern factories and workplaces (NCERT §5.1, pp. 60–61).
• Industrialisation involves a detailed division of labour where people often do not see the end result of their work because they produce only one small part of a product; work is repetitive and exhausting, but better than no work at all. Marx called this situation alienation — when people do not enjoy work and see it as something they have to do only in order to survive, and even survival depends on whether the technology has room for any human labour (NCERT §5.1, p. 61).
• Industrialisation leads to greater equality in some spheres — caste distinctions do not matter on trains, buses or in cyber cafes — but older forms of discrimination may persist in new factory/workplace settings; even as social inequalities are reducing, economic/income inequality is growing worldwide. Social and income inequality often overlap — upper-caste men dominate well-paying professions like medicine, law, journalism; women are paid less than men for similar work (NCERT §5.1, p. 61).
• Convergence thesis (Clark Kerr): industrial India of the 21st century shares more features with 21st-century China or USA than with 19th-century India — industrialism produces a common pattern regardless of cultural starting point (NCERT Activity 5.1, p. 61).
• Specificity of Indian industrialisation: in developed countries, the majority work in services, followed by industry, with less than 10% in agriculture (ILO figures). In India in 2018–19, nearly 43% were employed in the primary sector (agriculture and mining), 17% in the secondary sector (manufacturing, construction and utilities), and 32% in the tertiary sector (trade, transport, financial services). The contribution of sectors to economic growth is the opposite — agriculture's share has declined sharply and services contribute approximately more than half. This is "a very serious situation" because the sector employing the maximum people is not able to generate much income for them (NCERT §5.2, p. 61).
• Detailed 2018–19 employment shares: agriculture 42.5%, mining & quarrying 0.4%, manufacturing 12.1%, trade/hotel/restaurant 12.6%, transport/storage/communication 5.9%, community/social/personal services 13.8% (NCERT §5.2, p. 61).
• Another major difference: in developed countries the majority are in regular salaried employment; in India over 52% are self-employed, only about 24% are in regular salaried employment, and approximately 24% are in casual labour — and the share of self-employed has fallen from 61.4% in 1972–73 to 52.1% in 2018–19 (chart on p. 62).
• Organised vs unorganised sector: according to one definition, the organised/formal sector consists of all units employing 10 or more people throughout the year, registered with the government to ensure proper salaries, wages, pension and other benefits. Over 90% of work in India — whether in agriculture, industry or services — is in the unorganised/informal sector (NCERT §5.2, p. 62).
• Three social implications of the small organised sector: (i) very few people experience employment in large firms with diverse colleagues and well-defined rules; for most Indians work is in small-scale workplaces where personal relationships determine raises and dismissals; (ii) very few have access to secure jobs with benefits — and of those who do, two-thirds work for the government (which is why people strive hard to get government jobs); (iii) since very few are union members (a feature of the organised sector), informal workers lack the experience of collectively fighting for proper wages and safe conditions (NCERT §5.2, p. 62).
• Government employment in India has played a major role in overcoming caste, religion and region boundaries — one sociologist has argued that the absence of communal riots in Bhilai is because the public sector Bhilai Steel Plant employs people from all over India who work together (NCERT §5.2, p. 62).
• Liberalisation since the 1990s: government policy encouraged private and foreign firms in telecom, civil aviation, power etc.; licenses are no longer required to open industries; foreign products are now easily available in Indian shops. Many Indian companies have been bought over by multinationals; some Indian companies are themselves becoming multinational. The first major instance was Parle drinks (annual turnover ₹250 crores) being bought by Coca-Cola (advertising budget alone ₹400 crores) — advertising at this scale increased coke consumption across India, replacing traditional drinks. Retail is the next major area of liberalisation (NCERT §5.2, p. 63).
• Disinvestment = the government selling its share in public sector companies. Workers are scared they will lose their jobs after disinvestment. 'Modern Foods', set up by the government to make healthy bread cheap, was the first company to be privatised — and 60% of its workers were forced to retire in the first five years (NCERT §5.2, p. 63).
• More and more companies are reducing the number of permanent employees and outsourcing work to smaller companies or even homes; for MNCs, outsourcing is done across the globe, with developing countries like India providing cheap labour. Small companies have to compete for orders, so wages are low and conditions poor; trade unions find it harder to organise in smaller firms. Almost all companies, including government ones, now practice some form of outsourcing/contracting, but the trend is especially visible in the private sector (NCERT §5.2, p. 63).
• Even as secure employment in large industry declines, the government is acquiring land for industry. These industries do not necessarily provide employment to surrounding people but cause major pollution. Many farmers, especially adivasis who constitute approximately 40% of those displaced, protest the low rates of compensation and the fact that they will be forced to become casual labour on the footpaths of India's big cities (NCERT §5.2, p. 64).
• How people find jobs (§5.3): only a small percentage get jobs through advertisements or the employment exchange. Self-employed (plumbers, electricians, carpenters, tuition teachers, architects, freelance photographers) rely on personal contacts — mobile phones now widen the circle. Factory recruitment has historically passed through contractors or jobbers — in **Kanpur textile mills, jobbers were called mistris; they were themselves workers from the same regions and communities, but because they had the owner's backing they bossed over the workers** and put community-related pressures on them (NCERT §5.3, pp. 64–65).
• Nowadays the importance of the jobber has come down; both management and unions play a role; many workers expect to pass jobs on to their children. **Many factories employ badli workers who substitute for permanent workers on leave; many of these badli workers have actually worked for many years for the same company but lack the same status and security — this is contract work in the organised sector** (NCERT §5.3, p. 65).
• Government schemes — MUDRA, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Make in India — aim to generate employment and self-employment, including for SC, ST and other backward classes; "positive signs for creating economic potential amongst the demographic dividend of India" (NCERT §5.3, p. 65).
• Contractor system in construction/brickyards: the contractor goes to villages, asks if people want work, and loans them some money including transport cost to the work site. The loaned money is treated as an advance wage and the worker works without wages until the loan is repaid. Unlike agrarian debt-bondage to landlords, while still in debt the worker is not bound by other social obligations to the contractor — they can break the contract and find another employer; sometimes whole families migrate and children help parents (NCERT §5.3, p. 65).
• How work is carried out (§5.4): the manager's basic task is to control workers and get more work — either by extending working hours or by increasing output per unit time. Machinery helps increase production but also creates the danger that machines will replace workers. Both Marx and Mahatma Gandhi saw mechanisation as a danger to employment (NCERT §5.4, p. 65).
• Gandhi (Hind Swaraj, 1924 and 1934) clarified: "What I object to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such. The craze is for what they call labour-saving machinery." He wanted to save time and labour not for the few but for all humanity — proposed the spinning-wheel to solve unemployment and end the exploitation of one nation by another (NCERT Activity 5.2, p. 66).
• Textile mill workers described themselves as extensions of the machine — Ramcharan, a Kanpur cotton mill weaver since the 1940s: "You need energy. The eyes move, the neck, the legs and the hands… When four machines run all four must move together, they must not stop for a second" (NCERT §5.4, p. 66).
• Maruti Udyog Ltd. example: two cars roll off the assembly line every minute; workers get only 45 minutes total rest in the day — two 7.5-minute tea breaks and one half-hour lunch. Most are exhausted by age 40 and take voluntary retirement. Permanent jobs have gone down; the firm outsources cleaning, security, manufacture of parts; part-suppliers are located around the factory and send parts every two hours or just-in-time. Just-in-time keeps costs low but workers are tense — if supplies fail, targets are delayed; when supplies arrive workers run to keep up (NCERT §5.4, p. 66).
• IT/services sector example — Box 5.1 (Carol Upadhya, 2005): software professionals' work is subject to Taylorist labour processes. Long working hours are central — "night-outs" when faced with project deadlines, due to the time difference with US clients (conference calls in Indian evenings). Overwork is built into project structures (mandays underestimated), and 'flexi-time' legitimises extended hours; in practice it means working as long as necessary to finish the task, and even without real pressure people stay late due to peer pressure or to impress the boss — sometimes called 'time slavery' (NCERT Box 5.1, p. 67).
• IT firm hours and night work have transformed Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurugram — shops and restaurants stay open late, both spouses working forces children into crèches; the joint family which was supposed to disappear with industrialisation has re-emerged, with grandparents roped in to help with children (NCERT §5.4, p. 67).
• Harry Braverman's argument: use of machinery actually deskills workers — e.g., earlier architects/engineers had to be skilled draughtsmen, now the computer does a lot of the work. The "knowledge economy" claim is debated; how do you compare a farmer's knowledge of weather, soil and seeds with a software professional's — both are skilled but in different ways (NCERT §5.4, p. 67).
• Working conditions (§5.5): coal mines alone employ 5.5 lakh workers. The Mines Act 1952 (now included under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Condition Code, 2020) specifies maximum hours per week, overtime pay and safety rules; these are followed in big companies but not in smaller mines/quarries. Sub-contracting is widespread — contractors do not maintain proper registers, avoiding responsibility for accidents and benefits. After mining the company is supposed to cover open holes and restore the area but does not (NCERT §5.5, p. 68).
• Underground mining hazards: flooding, fire, roof/side collapse, gas emissions, ventilation failure; workers develop breathing problems including tuberculosis and silicosis. Overground miners face heat, rain and injuries from mine blasting and falling objects. India's mining accident rate is very high compared to other countries (NCERT §5.5, p. 68).
• Migrant workforce: fish processing plants along the coastline employ mostly single young women from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, ten-twelve per room, sometimes hot-bunking shifts. Young women are seen as "submissive workers". Many men also migrate singly, leaving families in the village; migrants have little time to socialise and spend their little money with other migrant workers. Globalised work takes Indians "from a nation of interfering joint families… in the direction of loneliness and vulnerability", though for many young women it also represents some independence and economic autonomy (NCERT §5.5, p. 68).
• Home-based work (§5.6): includes manufacture of lace, zari/brocade, carpets, bidis, agarbattis — mostly done by women and children. An agent provides raw materials and picks up finished products; workers are paid on piece-rate (NCERT §5.6, p. 69).
• Bidi industry chain: villagers in forested areas pluck tendu leaves and sell to the forest department or a private contractor (who resells to the department). On average a person can collect 100 bundles (of 50 leaves each) a day. The government then auctions the leaves to bidi factory owners, who give them to contractors. The contractor supplies tobacco and leaves to home-based women workers, who first dampen the leaves, then cut them, fill in tobacco evenly, and tie with thread. The contractor picks up the bidis and sells them to the manufacturer, who roasts and puts on a brand label; then sells to a distributor, who distributes to wholesalers, who sell to neighbourhood pan shops (NCERT §5.6, p. 69).
• Strikes and unions (§5.7): in response to harsh working conditions, workers sometimes go on strike. In a strike workers do not go to work; in a lockout management shuts the gate and prevents workers from coming. Calling a strike is difficult — managers may use substitute labour, workers find it hard to sustain themselves without wages (NCERT §5.7, p. 69).
• Bombay Textile Strike of 1982, led by trade union leader Dr. Datta Samant, affected nearly a quarter of a million workers and their families. The strike lasted nearly two years. Workers wanted better wages and the right to form their own union. People returned to work after two years out of desperation. About one lakh workers lost their jobs and went back to villages, or took up casual labour; others moved to powerloom centres like Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Icchalkaranji. Mill owners did not invest in machinery or modernisation; today they are trying to sell off mill land to real estate dealers for luxury apartments — leading to "a battle over who will define the future of Mumbai — the workers who built it or the mill owners and real estate agents" (NCERT §5.7, p. 69).

2.2 Definitions to memorise

2.3 Diagrams / processes to remember

• Distribution of workers by employment status, 1972–2019 chart (p. 62): self-employed 61.4 → 52.1; regular salaried 15.4 → 23.8; casual 23.2 → 24.1.
• Employment in Organised Sectors (Lakh Persons vs Year) bar chart (p. 64) — public sector consistently ~175–180 lakh; private sector rose from ~88 (2006) to ~120 lakh (2012).
• Bidi-making production chain — tendu pluckers → forest department → auction → factory owner → contractor → home-based women workers → manufacturer (roasting & branding) → distributor → wholesaler → pan shop (p. 69).
• Maruti assembly-line example — 2 cars/minute; 45 minutes total rest; just-in-time parts every 2 hours; exhaustion + voluntary retirement by 40 (p. 66).
• Three social implications of small organised sector triad: no large-firm experience, few secure benefits (two-thirds in government), few union members (p. 62).
• Three liberalisation processes: deregulation/privatisation (Modern Foods, 60% retired), MNC takeover (Parle by Coca-Cola), outsourcing (especially private sector) (p. 63).
• Five sectoral employment shares (2018–19) — agriculture 42.5%, mining 0.4%, manufacturing 12.1%, trade/hotel 12.6%, transport/storage/comm 5.9%, community/personal services 13.8% (p. 61).

2.4 Common confusions / NTA trap points

• Marx vs Gandhi on machinery: both saw mechanisation as a danger to employment; Gandhi's solution was the spinning-wheel and a critique of "labour-saving" machinery — don't conflate Gandhi with rejection of all machinery.
• Strike vs Lockout: strike is initiated by workers; lockout is initiated by management. NTA distractors often swap these.
• Organised sector definition: the NCERT-specific cut-off is 10 or more workers throughout the year — not 20, not 100.
• Sectoral employment vs sectoral GDP contribution: ~43% of workers are in primary sector (2018–19), but services contribute more than half of economic growth — students often pick the same number for both.
• Jobbers (mistris) and badli workers are different: mistris recruited workers (Kanpur mills); badli workers are substitutes for permanent staff on leave.
• Adivasis and displacement: approximately 40% of those displaced by industrial land acquisition are adivasis — not "majority" or "most".
• Two-thirds in government: of those Indians with secure jobs/benefits, two-thirds are in the government, NOT in the private sector. NTA loves to swap this.
• First privatised PSU: Modern Foods (not Maruti or any other) — 60% retired in first five years.
• 'Time slavery' is Carol Upadhya (2005), NOT Harry Braverman. Braverman's term is 'deskilling'.
• Datta Samant led the 1982 Bombay Textile Strike (not Bombay Mill Owners' Association); affected ~250,000 workers; lasted 2 years.
• Maruti rest: 45 minutes total — two 7.5-minute tea + 30-min lunch (NOT one hour, NOT 90 minutes).
• Bhilai Steel Plant is cited for absence of communal riots — link is public-sector mixed workforce.

2.5 Thinkers & theories