SOCIAL CHANGE AND LAW – SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY ON DHANKUT

SOCIAL CHANGE AND LAW – SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY ON DHANKUT
OF DISTRICT BAHRAICH OF U.P.
Dr. Alok Chantia
It is inevitable for homo sapiens to be a member of any cultural group. Culture is an
image of man to distinguish between human being and animal, but due to influence of
environment culture always goes under change which is commonly known as social
change. Social change is a continuous process which searches alternatives to stable man's
culture and their lives too. It is another thing its pace varies from age to age, culture to
culture and from one area of culture to that of another. Social change leads to a new
social structure within a group. Social change on one hand produces new traits and on the
other hand it ends the traditional customs. Thus social changes may come through
education, acculturation and sanskritisation. It has also been observed that many factors
such as natural, geographical, biological, demographic, technological, economic,
psychological, political, military, cultural, ideological and role of great man etc. too
effect social change. But for a variety of reasons the pace of social change has been rather
slow in some cultures. It is well known that every cultural group is a part of nation/state
which is governed by some law and legislature. There is a reciprocal relationship between
law and social change. Law is both an effect and cause of social change and provides
strategy for social change.
Present study has been done on a group called Dhankut to analyse whether law is a means
of social change.