Transcript Welcome to Lecture- 04

Lecture- 3
BD Society and Social Classes
& economy system
Md. MAHBUBUR RAHMAN
Lecturer
Center for General Education (CGED)
Northern University Bangladesh (NUB)
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Introduction
We all know that Bangladesh is a nation, a
country, a society which has a great history and
distinctiveness. Rabindra Nath’s Sonar Bangla,
Nazrul’s Bangladesh and Jibon Ananda Das’s
Ruposhi Bangla all these are the designations of
the country. Many poets, singers and authors,
since the very beginning, have been voicing the
separate entity of the land as reflected in their
poems, songs and their writings. For its
distinctiveness,
Bangladeshi
sociologists
anthropologists and economists are puzzled to
identify its societal nature and the pattern of
economy. Again, rural society of Bangladesh is
distinct from its urban territory. Accordingly,
there are distinct social classes in rural and urban
areas of the country.
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Society and economy of BD:
• The nationality of Bangladesh has emerged from
different ethnic groups like, Mongoloid,
Caucasoid, Aryans, Dravidian, Persian, Mughol
and from many others. We have also more than
33 ethnic groups, they are actually Bangladeshi
but not Bengali. And they have also different
and obviously distinctive societal and cultural
pattern. So, Our sociologists and anthropologists
became confused to draw back the unique
picture of this culture and society.
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Nature of economy in BD
• Our nature of economy is also combined and
mixed up from different economic basis. We
have different economic institutions on the basis
of varieties economic forms . We have many
economic institutions, based on socialist features
of economy, such as many banking sectors,
universities, insurance companies that are
directed by the Government. There are many
private sectors in our society like, Private
universities, private banking sectors, private
transportations, insurance companies and many
other institutions accelerated by privately. These4
Nature of economy in Bangladesh:
• Along with many economic institutions in
Bangladesh that are executed by the
following of Islamic rules and regulations.
Like many banking sectors that are
following to the Islamic sariah law. As well
as many insurance companies, universities
also directed by the Islamic rules .So we
can say we have mixed economy.
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Bangladeshi Type of
Society
• So, What type of society does exist in
Bangladesh? This is quite a burning
question. There is a great debate to answer
to the question. To analyze critically, we can
do this from different perspectives: 1)
Sociological
/
Anthropological
view
(measured by mode of production); 2)
Macro level (Measured by labor force); and
3) Micro Level (measured by the features of
peasant household). The above both are the
examples of economic point of view.
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1. Sociological & Anthropological analyses
Since the very beginning, Bangladesh is called peasant
society. However, sociologists and anthropologists
give different opinions of its mode of production as
follows:
1. Feudal, capital and peasant mode of
production (Abu Abdullah)
2. Semi-Feudal (M. Alamgir)
3. Semi –feudal and semi-colonial
(Anwarullah Chawdhury )
4. Feudal and colonial (Westergaard )
5. Pre-capital (Van Schendel )
6. Capital (Jahangir, Akhlakur Rahaman and
Atiur Rahman)
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2. Macro level Analysis (Measured by labor force)
From the view of Macro level, the amount of labor
force may be only the indicator of a country to
identify if she is an industrial or peasant society.
Accordingly, in above 80% of the labor forces in
Bangladesh is related to agriculture in accordance
with the statistics of 19th century. In the present
time more than 55% labour forces are being used in
this sectors. Moreover, those who are related to nonagricultural services can't be designated as nonagricultural.
For example, though a rickshaw puller lives on his
occupation; his children are strongly linked with
agricultural activities. Even, those who are govt. and
non-govt. employees and live in urban areas such as
Dhaka, Chittagong etc. depend partially on the
agricultural products provided by their village family
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Micro Level (measured by the
features of peasant household)
From the view of micro level, we can
consider Bangladesh as a peasant society
based on the primary & secondary features
of peasant households:
Primary Features:
a) Small amount of land
b) Family labor in production process is
supplied by children, spouse etc.
c) The basic objective is subsistence
production
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Secondary Features:
a) Peasants are not agreed to welcome change
b) Less surplus they tend to make.
The above features of peasant households of
Bangladesh truly prove that the existence of
peasantry is more obvious in our country. But, who
believe that Bangladesh is a semi- capitalist, semifeudal society etc. in terms of mode of production, are
not agreed to consider Bangladesh as a peasant
society. Thus, the above features have created a
problem of identifying BD society. Despite the above
controversies, we can conclude that Bangladesh is a
peasant society whether it may be partially or
absolutely. However, recent changes in BD indicate to
the emergence of capitalism, no doubt.
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Social Classes in Bangladeshi Peasant
Society:
From the very beginning, like the pre British
period, British period, Pakistani period, and
after the liberation of Bangladesh, the
feature of rural society that it is and was
divided into many classes on the basis of
specially status, power, and wealth. Rural
society in Bangladesh has also its own class
formation in terms of the following events,
1. Amount of land, cultivation & water control
2. Economic Strength & Occupation
3. Authority, Coerce & Politics
4. Religion, Status, Caste etc.
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5. Education, Information and Knowledge
1. Social Classes in terms of Amount
of land, cultivation & water control
Prominent economists and sociologists Arens &
Beurden (1980) conducted a study in “Jhagrapur”
through an empirical work and showed lands as the
principal differentiation of classes. They are as
follows:
I. Landless and poor peasants (55%): Less than 2
acres of land
II.Middle peasants (24 %): on an average 4 acres of
land
III.Rich peasants (21 %): on an average 10 acres of
land
IV.Landlords (.05 %): on an average 50 acres of
land”.
[Source: Quoted by Anwarullah Chowdhury et. al, Changing
Agrarian Communities in Bangladesh, 2002: xviii]
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• Anwarullah Chowdhury mentioned 5 classes
as evident from the table:
Amount of Land Type of Farmer %
No
land
Cultivable Landless
38.85
0-1
Marginal
40.76
1.1-2 Acres
Small
11.15
2.1-7 Acres
Middle
7.64
Above 7 Acres
Rich
1.59
Total
100
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2. Social Classes in terms of Economic Strength &
Occupation
Wilem Ven Schendell mentioned 4 social classes:
Category
Goborgari
(Rangpur)
Ghorshal
(Bogra)
Dhoneshor
(Comilla)
A
B
C
D
Total
Period
16% 32%
32% 20% 100%(N=31 1893-1977
)
33% 60%
7%
8%
21% 48% 100%(N=61 1894-1978
)
23%
-
100%(N=15 1922-1978
)
Here, A= Semi proletarian/small peasants B= Middle peasants
C= Small Surplus Rich peasants D= Large Surplus Rich Peasants
Ramkrishna Mukherjee (1971), in his “Six Villages of Bengal”
mentioned three broad social classes as follows:
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Class-1:
* Jotdar (Big
rentier)
* Zamindar
* Rich Farmer
Class-2:
* Rayot (Self Cultivating
peasant)
* Artisan & small Trader
* Non-cultivating
Owner
Class-3:
* Rayot Borgadar
*Agricultural Laborer &
borgadar
* Beggar
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Social Classes in terms of Authority,
Coerce & Politics
S. Aminul Islam et. al., mentioned different
social classes in terms of power through 4
models on which the following classes are
found in rural society of BD:
1. Union Parishad Chairman and
Members
2. Village Headman
3. Leader of Gushti
4. Active and conscious village people
of leadership.
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Social Classes in terms of Religion, Status & Caste
Karim in his Bangladesh Village sketched some social
classes as follows:
Muslims
Baddis
surgeons)
Khulu
Hindus
(eye- Upper: Brahmin, Kaisthas
Jhola(Weavers)
Lower:
Potters,
laundrymen
Scheduled:
Fishermen.
weavers,
Carpenters,
Karim also described the following classes:
i) Chowdhuries ii) Khundaker iii) Muhuries
iv) Bhuyans v) Agriculturists vi) Landless
vii) Agricultural laborers viii) Wage earners
ix) Wood cutters x) Slaves or Ghulams
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Social Classes in terms of Religion, Status &
Caste: Continued
Anwarullah Chowdhury, in his “A
Bangladesh Village”, shows the
following classes:
i) Khandans (Upper caste)
[powerful class]
ii) Girhasta (Lower caste)
iii) Scheduled Caste
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•
Social Classes in terms of Education,
Information and Knowledge
Anwarullah Chowdhury, in his
Agrarian
Communities
in
mentioned the following classes:
Education Level
Illiterate
Can read & write
1-V class
VI- S.S.C.
H.S.C
Graduate +
Rest
Total
“Changing
Bangladesh”,
Baripara (Noakhali)
Mokam (Comilla)
6.62
6.47
26.53
29.59
4.53
2.29
23.27
100
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Conclusion:
• In the concluding words, we can say that
society and social class in Bangladesh
have become more complicated. There are
many criterias that are playing an
important role to form different social
classes. But in the recent past specially
education and politics are playing
significant role to categorize social classes
in Bangladesh.
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