Sanskritization And Social Change

Social change refers to an alteration in social order of a society. Social change includes changes in social institutions, social behavior or relations. Social change may refer to the notion of social progress/socio-cultural evolution, i.e, the rational idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It can be a change in the socio-economic structure, social revolution etc. Social change maybe determined by cultural, religious, economic, scientific or technological forces.
There are, many theories of social change, like the Hegelian, Marxist, Kuhnian, Heraclitan and Daoist. But the study of social change in view of the nebulous nature of its theory is a difficult task, and is more tricky in the case of a society like India

M.N Srinivas. The term refers to a process where by people of lower catses collectively try to adopt upper caste practices and beliefs, as a preliminary step to acquire higher status. Thus, this indicates a process of cultural mobility that took place in the traditional social system of India.

MEANING OF SANSKRITIZATION
Sanskritization is not a new phenomenon. It has been the foremost process of cultural change in Indian history, and it has occured in every part of the Indian sub-continent. It indicates the process in which the lower castes try to imitate the lifestyles of upper catses in their attempt to raise their social status. The process is associated with the role of local “dominant caste.”

DEFINITION OF SANSKRITIZATION
The definition of sanskritization was given by M.N Srinivas in his “Social Change in Modern India” published in 1971. It means “a process by which a low caste or a tribe or other group changes its customs, rituals, beliefs and a way of life in the direction of a high and recurrently, twice born caste.”

ANALYSIS OF THE

They welcomed rationality and other good features of liberal and humanitarian ideas and thoughts.
Vedas have been conceived through intellectual contemplation and empirical observation and used upanishads for the creation of human imagination. Reformers and their organizations had purely an economic and social plunge. They aimed to establishing a social order based on vedic teachings and practices. They criticised the rituals and superstitions created by same selfish people to tangle the ignorant and poor people. They gave importance on understanding vedas in a rational and scientific way.
It reduced and removed the gap between the ritual and secular rankings. It also helped uplift the weaker people. The lower caste group which successfully got into the seat of secular power also tried to avail the serices of Brahmins, especially at the time of observing rituals, worshipping and offering things to the mighty