Q6(b) · UPSC Civil Services Mains 2015 · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks · 1 min read

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Discuss the impact of globalization on village economy in India

Topic: Indian Village. Syllabus: 5.1 Indian Village—Significance of village study in India; Indian village as a social system; Traditional and changing patterns of settlement and inter-caste relations; Agrarian relations in Indian villages; Impact of globalization on Indian villages. Same official PYQ from year-wise 2015 and Indian Village.

Revision summary

Globalisation links villages to world prices, brands, and migrant wages. Cash crops and remittances reorganise households. Mining and corporate land hit tribal commons; FRA is a counter-file. Factory goods undercut artisans. Caste still filters who captures contracts and who only sells labour.

Model answer

Introduction

Globalisation plugs the Indian village into distant prices, brands, and labour markets. The impact is cash, risk, and a thinner local grain economy.

Body

Markets and labour

  • Cash crops, contract farming, and retail brands reach the mandi. Village grain self-sufficiency falls.
  • Remittances from Gulf and city work, already hinted in older circular migration, now organise many households.
  • Yogendra Singh’s modernisation frame fits: economy differentiates, caste still mediates who gets the contract.

Land and commons

  • Corporate land and mining, especially in Fifth Schedule belts, globalise dispossession. FRA claims fight that impact.
  • Cheap Chinese and factory goods undercut village artisans, a blow N. K. Bose would have read as a civilisational craft loss.

Social economy

  • Phones and television sell aspiration that Srinivas would class with Westernisation.
  • Self-help groups and MNREGA are state answers inside the same global fiscal world.
  • The village economy is not erased. It is re-priced and partly de-agrarianised.

Flow diagram

flowchart TD
  G[Globalisation] --> C[Cash crops remittance]
  G --> L[Land mining FRA]
  G --> A[Artisan loss aspiration]

Conclusion

Globalisation commercialises the village, raises remittances, and weakens local crafts and commons. Caste and land still decide who wins the new prices.

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