Social and Psychological Barriers of Rural Social Change: A Field Study of Dhari Block in Kumaun Hills of Uttarakhand

‘Social’ means pattern of living as an infield community under the established conventions, traditions and widely practises faith on common values. ‘Social Change’ connotes eroding faith on traditional organisation, practices and norms of life and thereby emergence of a new order.

Social change in India is very vast and complex. There are various aspects of Indian life which have undergone changes during past few decades. Change is an evitable phenomenon of life being on earth. Every human being experiences some change in society because by nature human being is dynamic. Certain sociological and psychological factors influence the ‘change acceptance’ of the people. For our purposes of study; change implies rural change, which in turn, is a part of ‘social change’. Social change is environmental. It must take place within a geographical or physical and cultural context. Both these contexts have an impact on human behaviour and in turn man changes them. The present study was started to find the extent to which the social and psychological factors act as a barrier of rural social change in Dhari block's villages of Nainital district. To pursue the objectives of the study, a sample of 300 respondents was selected from the different age groups representing various levels of family status and education. It deals with sociological variables such as ‘caste’, ‘education’, ‘religion’ and ‘family’ and psychological factors as ‘attitudes’ and ‘beliefs’, ‘motivation’, ‘perception’ and ‘communication’. Many obstacles to rural change are found in the setup itself but others are found in human element in its psychological makeup. These psychological factors vary from non- psychological. These non- psychological barriers are defeated by various social institutions like caste, family, traditions and social values. Though the non- psychological barriers standout firmly in comparison to psychological barriers, yet the psychological barriers seem to overlap with the non- psychological. It is held that in the new environs of development action and social awaking generally unleash forces for social change. There are some socio-psycho barriers on the road to social change is rural areas.