Revision summary
Little and great traditions already mixed at village and tirtha. Globalisation adds media, brands, and world prices. Sanskritisation still moves local custom toward the Sanskritic great. Westernisation and missions are rival greats. The village translates all three; it is not only a receiver.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Little and great traditions, in Redfield and Marriott, are local custom and civilisational text in traffic. Globalisation adds a third stream: brands, media, and NGOs.
Body
Classic interplay
- Village rite and Vidyarthi’s Gaya pandas already mixed little and great.
- Sanskritisation is little tradition reaching for the great.
What globalisation does
- Television epics and temple live-streams nationalise the great tradition faster than the old pilgrimage.
- English, Islam, and evangelical media offer rival great traditions. Caste WhatsApp keeps little tradition alive.
- Global markets price jhum, craft, and feast. FRA struggles are little-tradition land claims in a world commodity chain.
Nature of the new interplay
- It is not replacement of the pair by the West. It is a three-way mix: local, Sanskritic-civilisational, and global.
- Srinivas’s Westernisation names part of the third stream. Yoga brands show the great tradition going global the other way.
- The village still translates. It does not only receive.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD L[Little tradition] --> M[Marriott traffic] G[Great tradition] --> M GL[Global media market] --> M
Conclusion
Globalisation thickens the little–great traffic and adds a world circuit. Indian traditions now interplay as local, civilisational, and global at once.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Panchayati Raj Institutions and Social Change
Next question on this syllabus topic (2015 · Q1(d)). View answer →
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Does globalisation kill little tradition?
It can thin it. Phones also archive and sell it.
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Is Bollywood a great tradition?
It is a modern national-popular stream that now sits beside the Sanskritic great.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2025 · Q1(e) · Anthropology GS 2 · 10 marks
Characteristics and communication between Little and Great Traditions. -
2015 · Q6(b) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Discuss the impact of globalization on village economy in India
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