Colonialism, modernisation and globalisation

The essentials

Colonialism is the control of one country by another, involving political rule and economic exploitation. British rule in India reshaped land ownership, forests, trade and administration, with deep effects on tribal and peasant communities. Later processes of modernisation and globalisation brought further social change.

Key points

• Colonial effects on tribes and peasants: new land revenue systems (e.g. Permanent Settlement, 1793, in Bengal) created landlord classes; tribal land passed to outsiders (often called dikus) such as moneylenders and traders; forest laws (Indian Forest Acts from 1865 onwards) restricted traditional access and shifting cultivation; this led to rebellions like the Santhal Hul and Birsa Munda's Ulgulan.
• Colonial rule also brought railways, Western education, the printing press, the census (which classified castes and tribes) and Christian missionary activity in tribal regions.
• Westernisation (M. N. Srinivas): changes brought about in Indian society by British rule, in technology, institutions, ideology and values (dress, food habits, education, new professions).
• Modernisation: a broader process of change towards rationality, science and technology, industrialisation, urbanisation, secularisation and democratic institutions; not tied to any one country.
• Secularisation: declining influence of religion in public life.
• Urbanisation: growth of towns and the proportion of people living in them.
• Globalisation: growing interconnection of the world through trade, capital, migration, media and technology. It creates new jobs and access to goods and ideas, but can threaten local crafts, languages and livelihoods. Glocalisation is the blending of global products with local culture (e.g. international food chains offering local dishes).

Exam tips

• Westernisation is specific to Western influence; modernisation is a general direction of change.

Common mistakes

• Treating colonial forest laws as conservation for local benefit; they mainly secured timber and revenue for the colonial state.