Trends in Community

Why this chapter matters for UPSC: UPSC GS1 tests "the role of communities, social institutions, movements in modern Indian society." Understanding how community is changing — from traditional rural communities to modern urban, online, and diasporic communities — is essential. The Tönnies framework (Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft) and the impact of urbanisation on traditional communities appear in Mains answers on social change.

Contemporary hook: WhatsApp groups have become the primary community space for millions of Indians — caste groups, neighbourhood groups, alumni groups, political groups. This is a new form of community operating on a very old technology (kinship, shared identity). Yet these online communities can also spread misinformation and deepen social divisions. The chapter's question — what holds communities together and what pulls them apart — is live in 2026.

PART 1 — Quick Reference Tables

Gemeinschaft vs Gesellschaft (Tönnies, 1887)

Types of Community

Urbanisation in India

PART 2 — Detailed Notes

What is Community?

Community involves three elements:

1. Shared identity: Members recognise themselves as belonging to the group ("we")
2. Shared space (or network): Geographic, cultural, or digital space
3. Social bonds: Relationships, obligations, reciprocity among members

Community is not the same as society: Society is a broader, more abstract grouping. Community implies a smaller, more intimate "we" with stronger emotional bonds.

Tönnies and the Transformation of Community

Ferdinand Tönnies (1887) developed the most influential framework for understanding how community changes with modernisation:

Tönnies in Indian context:

• Traditional Indian village: Classic Gemeinschaft — ties of caste, kinship, shared agricultural cycle, common religious practice, hereditary occupational jajmani relationships
• Urban India today: Gesellschaft tendencies — anonymous neighbours, contractual employment, impersonal services, formal legal institutions
• BUT: India retains strong Gemeinschaft elements even in cities — caste networks, extended family support, regional diaspora communities in metros

Urbanisation and Community Change

India's rapid urbanisation since 1991 has transformed community in multiple ways:

Migration and community:

• Migrants from rural areas initially maintain strong ties with their home community (sending remittances, returning for festivals, marriages)
• Over time, urban communities form: regional associations (Marwari Chamber of Commerce, Tamil Sangams), caste-based societies, religious organisations
• "Village in the city" phenomenon: Migrants recreate semi-rural community in urban slums and chawls

Slum communities:

• India's 65 million slum dwellers form distinct urban communities
• Internal solidarity is often high — mutual help networks, rotating credit groups (chit funds)
• But communities are fragile — demolition, eviction, displacement disrupt community bonds
• Dharavi (Mumbai): Often cited as a vibrant community despite physical poverty; densely organised informal economy

Gated communities:

• Upper-middle-class urban phenomenon: Private residential enclaves with walls, guards, shared amenities
• Creates homogeneous enclaves by income/class (and often caste and religion)
• Withdraws affluent residents from shared urban public space
• Sociological concern: Reduced contact between classes; parallel private infrastructure (private security, private parks, private roads) reduces investment in public goods

Caste as Community in India

Caste is India's most persistent and politically significant community form:

Caste community in rural India:

• Jajmani system: Traditional occupational interdependence between castes (Brahmin priests, Kumhar potters, Chamar leatherworkers) — created a community of interdependence
• But also: Hierarchy, untouchability, exploitation — not an equal community
• Caste panchayats: Internal governance; resolved disputes; enforced caste norms

Caste community in modern India:

• Political mobilisation: OBC politics (Mandal Commission), SC/ST movement, Dalit Panthers — castes mobilise as political communities for rights
• Associations: Caste-based trusts run schools, hospitals, hostels for caste members
• Marriage: Endogamy (intra-caste marriage) remains dominant even in urban educated classes — caste as marriage community persists
• New media: WhatsApp caste groups, Matrimonial websites filtering by caste — digitisation of caste community

Tribe as Community

India's 700+ Scheduled Tribe communities (8.6% of population) are distinctive community types:

• Defined by: Primitive traits, geographical isolation, distinct culture, shyness of contact, economic backwardness (Lokur Committee definition)
• Community structure: Based on kinship, clan, totem (symbolic identity object), community councils
• Challenged by: Forest Act restrictions, displacement, land alienation, cultural assimilation pressure
• Forest Rights Act 2006: Recognises community forest rights — treating tribal communities as rights-bearing communities, not just "primitive" groups to be "developed"

New Forms of Community

Religious communities: Modern Indian religious communities are not simply traditional survivals — they have reorganised:

• Hindu nationalist organisations (RSS, VHP) create pan-Hindu community across caste lines
• Muslim civil society organisations (Jamaat-e-Islami, Barelvi, Deobandi) shape Muslim community practice
• Dalit Buddhism: B.R. Ambedkar's 1956 conversion created a new community identity for Dalits
• Religious communities can be internally diverse and contested

Diaspora communities: Indian diaspora (30+ million Non-Resident Indians globally) forms communities abroad:

• Little Indias in London, Toronto, Dubai, Singapore, New Jersey
• Maintain cultural ties: temples, cultural associations, language schools
• Politically active: NRI voting in Indian elections (2014 amendment); diaspora lobbying (Indian-American community in US politics)
• Economically important: $111 billion remittances to India in 2022 (world's largest remittance recipient)

Online communities:

• Social media has created new forms of community — Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups, Twitter/X communities
• These can reinforce traditional communities (caste WhatsApp groups) OR create new ones (professional networks, activist networks, fan communities)
• Risk: Algorithmic echo chambers; misinformation in closed groups; online mobs targeting individuals

Marginality and Excluded Communities

Some groups are excluded from mainstream community — they form communities at the margins:

• Transgender communities: Hijra community — historically organised networks of mutual support; now seeking formal recognition (NALSA judgment 2014; Transgender Persons Protection Act 2019)
• Nomadic/denotified tribes: Communities still stigmatised by colonial Criminal Tribes Act (repealed 1952, but social stigma persists); Renke Commission (2008) recommended rehabilitation
• Urban homeless: Estimated 1.77 million urban homeless (Census 2011) — transient communities with few formal bonds

PART 3 — Frameworks & Analysis

Community Change — Three Models

1. Loss model (Tönnies/traditional sociology): Modernisation destroys community — urbanisation, market, state replace Gemeinschaft bonds. Nostalgic; empirically partially wrong.

2. Survival model: Traditional communities adapt and survive. Caste in cities; joint family under stress but persisting; religious revival. Community is resilient.

3. Transformation model (most accurate): Community doesn't disappear but transforms. New forms (diasporic, online, associational) replace old; old forms (caste, religion) take new shapes (political parties, civil society organisations).

Community and Social Capital

India has high bonding social capital (strong family, caste, religious communities) but lower bridging social capital (fewer cross-cutting civic associations). This partly explains why communities mobilise effectively for their group interests but collective action for broader public goods is harder.

Exam Strategy

Prelims traps:

• Tönnies = Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft (1887); NOT to be confused with Durkheim's mechanical/organic solidarity
• Diaspora remittances: India consistently world's largest remittance recipient (~$111 billion 2022, $125 billion 2023)
• Tribal population: ~8.6% of India's population (Census 2011)
• Urban population: 31.1% (Census 2011) — not 40% (that's a projection)
• Hijra community: NALSA judgment 2014 recognised third gender (Supreme Court)

Mains frameworks:

• On urbanisation and community: Migration → hybrid communities → slum solidarity → gated enclave isolation → digital community → caste survival in cities
• On caste as community: Traditional jajmani → political mobilisation → endogamy persistence → digital caste → Ambedkar's critique
• On new communities: Diaspora + online + religious + associational — all evidence that community transforms rather than disappears

Previous Year Questions

Prelims:

1. The Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft concepts were developed by: (a) Émile Durkheim (b) Max Weber (c) Ferdinand Tönnies (d) Talcott Parsons

2. India receives the highest volume of remittances globally. The majority of these remittances come from: (a) The USA, UK, and Canada (b) Gulf countries, USA, UK (combined — Gulf dominates volume) (c) Only Gulf countries (d) Southeast Asia

Mains:

3. "Urbanisation in India has transformed but not destroyed community." Critically examine this statement with reference to caste, religion, and new forms of digital community. (GS1, 15 marks)

4. What is social capital? Distinguish between bonding and bridging social capital and discuss their significance for India's democratic functioning. (GS2, 10 marks)