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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2024/Paper II/Village India, Urbanisation & Social Change
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper II 2024 10 Marks Model Answer Available

Digitisation of Rural Economy — 2024 Paper II

Question · 2024 · Paper II · 10 Marks

Digitisation of rural economy

Model Answer

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Introduction

In Anthropology, the "digitisation of the rural economy" is studied not merely as technological adoption, but as a profound agent of socio-cultural change transforming Indian peasant and tribal societies. It represents the integration of the "Little Tradition" of the village into the globalized digital economy, fundamentally altering traditional economic relations, power dynamics, and social organization.

Anthropological Dimensions of Digital Transformation

  • Shift in Economic Exchange (Disintermediation): Digitisation is accelerating the shift from traditional reciprocity and the remnants of the Jajmani system to formalized market exchange. Platforms like e-NAM and ITC’s e-Choupal bypass traditional caste-based middlemen (Baniyas), altering historically entrenched patron-client relationships and improving the bargaining power of the peasantry.
  • Reconfiguring State-Citizen Relations: The JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) and Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) have bypassed local feudal and bureaucratic gatekeepers. Anthropologically, this creates a direct economic interface between the State and the rural household, eroding the traditional authority of the village elite.
  • Transformation of Property and Kinship: Schemes like SVAMITVA (drone mapping of lands) replace fluid, customary, and oral land rights with rigid digital titles. While this reduces disputes and opens access to formal credit, it also accelerates the individualization of property, weakening joint-family and lineage-based corporate landholding.
  • Women and Economic Agency: Digital networks empower rural women through Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Digital platforms (like ONDC and e-Saras) allow female artisans to access national markets, slowly shifting patriarchal economic dependencies.

Critique:

The Digital Divide From a structural perspective, technology is not socially neutral. The digital divide in rural India often mirrors existing fault lines of caste, class, and gender:

  • Structural Inequality: Upper-caste, landowning classes (Dominant Castes, as termed by M.N. Srinivas) are earlier and more effective adopters of Agri-tech and digital finance, potentially widening the rural wealth gap.
  • Cultural Lag (W.F. Ogburn): While digital infrastructure advances rapidly, rural digital literacy lags. This mismatch makes the culturally rooted "peasant worldview" vulnerable to new forms of exploitation, such as cyber frauds and algorithmic biases.

Conclusion For anthropologists, digitisation is a modern process of acculturation. While it holds the potential to democratize the rural economy and break feudal monopolies, its success depends on adapting digital tools to the local cultural context (vernacular languages, community-controlled data) rather than merely imposing top-down technological determinism.

2026 Critically examine the salience of F. G. Bailey's study on Bisipara village of Odisha. 2025 "The village was not merely a place where people lived; it had a design in which were reflected the basic values of Indian civilization." Who said this? Elaborate. 2024 Compare and contrast the approaches of M.N. Srinivas and L.P. Vidyarthi to social change in village India. 2023 “Sanskritization is a culture-bound concept.” Critically comment to assess the strength and limitation of this concept in developing a theoretical framework to study social change.

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UPSC Anthropology Optional 2024 — Paper II

28 questions

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10 Marks150 words
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10 Marks150 words
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1(a) Digitisation of rural economy

10 Marks150 words
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2024Paper IIVillage India, Urbanisation & Social ChangeModel answer available

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10 Marks150 words
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10 Marks150 words
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2024Paper IITribal Development, Policy & SafeguardsModel answer available

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10 Marks150 words
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