Modernization process involves which of the following?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Individual as primary unit of society
Option (1) Individual as primary unit of society — Correct. Modernity assumes that local ties give way to universal commitments and that the individual rather than the group be the primary unit of society and politics. A modern person is seen first as an individual with rights and choices, not as a member of a caste or clan.
Option (2) Group as primary unit of society — Incorrect. This is the traditional view that modernisation moves away from: the group gives way to the individual.
Option (3) Association based on birth — Incorrect. Under modernity the associations in which people live and work are based on choice, not birth. Membership by birth, as in a caste, marks a traditional society.
Option (4) Identity is ascribed — Incorrect. An ascribed identity is one a person gets by birth. Modernity expects identity to be chosen and achieved, not ascribed.
NCERT (2025-26): “Modernisation and Secularisation … Here we look into the two processes of modernisation and secularisation together for they are linked. They are both part of a set of modern ideas. Sociologists have tried to define what exactly constitutes the modernisation process.” “‘[M]odernity’ assumes that local ties and parochial perspectives give way to universal commitments and cosmopolitan attitudes; that the truths of utility, calculation, and science take precedence over those of the emotions, the sacred, and the non-rational; that the individual rather than the group be the primary unit of society and politics; that the associations in which men live and work be based on choice not birth; that mastery rather than fatalism orient their attitude toward the material and human environment; that identity be chosen and achieved, not ascribed and affirmed; that work be separated from family, residence, and community in bureaucratic organisation….(Rudolph and Rudolph, 1967)…” |