Change and Development in Industrial Society
How changes in technology and work transform social relations in India — even as caste, kinship, gender and region keep shaping how work is organised — against the backdrop of a 90% informal, liberalising economy.
This chapter is core to GS-I Indian Society: how industrialisation and the nature of work reshape caste, gender, kinship and regional ties, plus the social effects of globalisation and liberalisation. Prelims loves its static hooks — the organised-sector definition, sectoral employment vs GDP shares, thinker–concept pairs (Marx–alienation, Clark Kerr–convergence) and schemes like MUDRA. It also feeds GS-III economy debates on employment, informalisation, disinvestment and land acquisition.
Understand the chapter
Images of Industrial Society
Classical sociologists Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim studied industry when machinery was new, linking it to urbanisation and the replacement of personal, face-to-face village relationships with anonymous, professional workplace ties. Industrialisation rests on a detailed division of labour, so workers make only one small part of a product and never see the end result, making work repetitive and exhausting. Marx termed this alienation — work done merely to survive, with even that survival depending on whether technology still needs human labour. Industry brings some equality (caste is irrelevant on trains, buses or cyber cafes), yet income inequality grows and old discriminations persist.
- Alienation (Marx): workers neither enjoy work nor see its final product; labour becomes mere survival.
- Division of labour: each worker makes one fragment — repetitive, exhausting, anonymous.
- Social inequality may fall in public spaces, but economic/income inequality rises and often overlaps with caste.
- Women are paid less than men for similar work; upper-caste men dominate medicine, law, journalism.
The Specificity of Indian Industrialisation
There is no single model of industrial capitalism, and India's path differs from the West. In developed countries most people work in services and under 10% in agriculture (ILO), whereas in India (2018-19) about 43% were still in the primary sector, 17% in secondary and 32% in tertiary. The grim paradox is that agriculture employs the most people but contributes least to growth, while services contribute more than half — so the largest workforce earns the least. Clark Kerr's convergence thesis argues a 21st-century industrial India resembles today's China or USA more than 19th-century India.
- India 2018-19 employment: ~43% primary, ~17% secondary, ~32% tertiary.
- Detailed shares: agriculture 42.5%, mining 0.4%, manufacturing 12.1%, trade/hotel 12.6%, transport/comm 5.9%, services 13.8%.
- Employment status: 52%+ self-employed, ~24% regular salaried, ~24% casual labour.
- Convergence thesis (Clark Kerr, modernisation theorist): industrialisation makes societies resemble each other.
Organised vs Unorganised Sector
The organised (formal) sector consists of units employing ten or more people throughout the year, registered with the government so workers get proper wages, pension and benefits. Over 90% of all Indian work — in agriculture, industry and services — is in the unorganised/informal sector. This tiny formal sector has deep consequences for social mobility, job security and collective bargaining.
- Organised sector: 10+ workers year-round, registered, with wages/pension/benefits.
- Implication 1: most work in small-scale settings where personal ties (not rules) decide raises and sackings.
- Implication 2: secure jobs are rare; two-thirds of them are government jobs, which dissolved caste/religion/region barriers (e.g., Bhilai Steel Plant).
- Implication 3: few belong to unions, so informal workers lack experience of collective bargaining.
Liberalisation, Globalisation and Disinvestment
Since the 1990s, liberalisation has scrapped industrial licensing and opened sectors once reserved for government — telecom, civil aviation, power — to private and foreign firms. Multinationals have bought Indian companies (Coca Cola acquired Parle), while disinvestment sells the government's stake in PSUs and outsourcing/contracting erodes permanent jobs. Liberalisation and privatisation are widely associated with rising income inequality, and state-led land acquisition for industry displaces farmers — adivasis form about 40% of the displaced.
- Liberalisation (1990s): licensing abolished; private/foreign entry into telecom, civil aviation, power.
- Disinvestment = selling government's share in PSUs; privatisation goes further (Modern Foods, first privatised — 60% retired in 5 years).
- Outsourcing/contracting replaces permanent staff; small firms keep wages low and unions weak.
- Land acquisition displaces farmers; adivasis ~40% of those displaced, protesting low compensation.
How People Find Jobs
Few Indians find work through advertisements or employment exchanges; the self-employed rely on personal contacts and reputation, with mobile phones widening their reach. Factory recruitment once ran through jobbers — called mistris in the Kanpur textile mills — who shared the workers' region and community but, backed by owners, dominated them. Today management and unions recruit their own, jobs are often passed to children, and badli (substitute) workers do contract work in the organised sector without equal status.
- Jobber/mistri (Kanpur mills): worker-intermediary with owner's backing; influence now declined.
- Badli workers substitute for permanent staff on leave — long service but no security (contract work).
- Two employment routes: (i) wage/salaried job in an organisation, (ii) self-employment.
- Schemes — MUDRA, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Make in India — target jobs/self-employment for SC, ST, OBC and the demographic dividend.
How Work is Carried Out
A manager's basic job is to control workers and extract more output, achieved either by lengthening working hours or by raising output per unit of time, often through machinery. But mechanisation threatens to replace workers — a danger both Marx and Mahatma Gandhi recognised. Textile-mill workers, in one of India's oldest industries, described themselves as extensions of the machine, weaving under a continuous, unbroken gaze.
- Two ways to raise output: extend working hours, or intensify work within fixed time.
- Marx and Gandhi both saw mechanisation as a threat to employment.
- Gandhi (Hind Swaraj, 1924): objects to the 'craze' for labour-saving machinery that throws thousands out of work.
- Workers feel like 'extensions of the machine'; the spinning-wheel was Gandhi's 1934 answer to unemployment.
Key terms
- Alienation
- Marx's idea that under industrial division of labour workers neither enjoy work nor see its end product, labouring only to survive.
- Division of labour
- Breaking production into small specialised tasks so each worker makes only a fragment of the final product.
- Organised (formal) sector
- Registered units employing 10 or more workers year-round, providing regular wages, pension and benefits.
- Unorganised (informal) sector
- Unregistered, small-scale work with no job security or benefits — over 90% of India's workforce.
- Convergence thesis
- Clark Kerr's modernisation claim that industrialisation makes all societies increasingly resemble one another.
- Liberalisation
- Post-1990 policy of removing industrial licensing and opening reserved sectors to private and foreign investment.
- Disinvestment
- Government selling part of its shareholding in public sector companies.
- Outsourcing
- Contracting out work to smaller firms or homes, often to cheaper labour, reducing permanent employment.
- Jobber (mistri)
- A worker-intermediary who recruited and controlled mill labour with the owner's backing, e.g., in the Kanpur textile mills.
- Badli worker
- A substitute filling in for permanent staff on leave, doing contract work without equal status or security.
Must-know facts exam-ready
- India 2018-19 employment: ~43% primary (agriculture + mining), ~17% secondary, ~32% tertiary.
- Over 90% of India's workforce is in the unorganised/informal sector.
- Workforce by status: 52%+ self-employed, ~24% regular salaried, ~24% casual labour.
- Organised sector = units with 10+ workers throughout the year, registered with the government.
- Of the few secure jobs, two-thirds are in government.
- Liberalisation began in the 1990s; licensing abolished and telecom, civil aviation and power opened up.
- Modern Foods was the first public company privatised; 60% of its workers retired in the first five years.
- Coca Cola bought Parle (turnover ₹250 crore) — Coca Cola's ad budget alone was ₹400 crore.
- Adivasis form about 40% of those displaced by industrial land acquisition.
- Convergence thesis = Clark Kerr (modernisation theorist); alienation = Karl Marx.
- Gandhi's critique of labour-saving machinery is in Hind Swaraj (1924); the spinning-wheel as employment solution (1934).
- Static link: industrial land acquisition is now governed by the LARR Act, 2013; MUDRA = Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency.
Memory tricks remember it for good
Traps to avoid
- Employment share is not GDP share: agriculture employs ~43% but contributes little, while services employ ~32% yet contribute more than half.
- Social inequality and income inequality move in opposite directions here — industry can reduce caste barriers in public spaces while economic inequality rises.
- Disinvestment (selling the government's share) is not the same as privatisation; Modern Foods is the example of the first privatisation, not mere disinvestment.
- Organised sector is defined by size and registration (10+ workers, registered), not by being 'public sector' — and it covers only a small slice of the workforce.
- Convergence thesis belongs to Clark Kerr (modernisation theory), not to Marx, Weber or Durkheim.
- Badli workers (substitutes for permanent staff on leave) are distinct from contractor-hired casual labour at construction sites/brickyards.
Exam focus
🧠 Prelims angles
- Definition and threshold of the organised sector (10+ workers, registered) and the 90% informal share.
- Sector-wise employment vs GDP contribution (primary/secondary/tertiary, 2018-19 figures).
- Thinker–concept pairs: Marx–alienation, Clark Kerr–convergence thesis, Weber and Durkheim on industry.
- Government schemes — MUDRA, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Make in India — and their target groups (SC/ST/OBC, demographic dividend).
- Liberalisation features: abolition of licensing; sectors opened (telecom, civil aviation, power); disinvestment vs privatisation (Modern Foods).
✍️ Mains angles GS-I
- Has industrialisation reduced social inequality in India? Critically examine.Balance caste-blind public spaces and Bhilai-style integration against persistent caste in professions and rising income inequality.
- India faces jobless growth and rampant informalisation of labour. Discuss.Use 90% informal, 52% self-employed, rising contract/badli work, and agriculture employing most but earning least.
- Examine the social costs of liberalisation, disinvestment and land acquisition for industry.Cite Modern Foods retrenchment, outsourcing eroding permanent jobs, and adivasis as ~40% of the displaced.
- Mechanisation versus livelihoods — assess the Gandhi–Marx critique in today's economy.Link Gandhi's Hind Swaraj on labour-saving machinery with Marx's alienation; weigh productivity against employment.
Last-minute revision tick as you recall
- Marx = alienation; division of labour strips work of meaning and separates worker from the end-product.
- Three classical thinkers: Marx, Weber, Durkheim tied industry to urbanisation and anonymous ties.
- India 2018-19 jobs: 43% primary, 17% secondary, 32% tertiary; 90%+ informal.
- Workforce: 52% self-employed, 24% salaried, 24% casual.
- Organised sector = 10+ workers, registered; secure jobs few, two-thirds in government (Bhilai).
- Liberalisation (1990s): licensing gone; telecom, aviation, power opened; disinvestment of PSUs.
- Disinvestment is not privatisation; Modern Foods first privatised (60% out in 5 years).
- Adivasis ~40% of those displaced by land acquisition; Clark Kerr = convergence thesis.
- Gandhi (Hind Swaraj 1924) and Marx both feared mechanisation; mill workers = 'extensions of the machine'.
Distilled from NCERT Class 12 · Social Change and Development in India for UPSC. Always cross-check facts with the original NCERT.