CHAPTER IX

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Data based on empirical investigation have been examined, analysed and interpreted in the preceding five chapters. The present chapter seeks to summarize the major findings in the context of the objectives as set forth in the beginning of this dissertation. Although it may not be possible with the present development of our knowledge to arrive at universal generalizations, it would still be useful to draw a few tentative conclusions in the light of these findings.

Power resources of elites Several earlier investigations (e.g., Dhillon 1955; lewis 1958; Bachmbeihner 1960) have shown that the rural elites are drawn from the high strata of social, economic and political pyramids. This has also been reflected in more recent studies (e.g., Sirsikar 1970; Iqbal Narain et al. 1976; Jha 1979). Pantham (1976) has observed, "Compared to the general population, they are relatively older, better educated, richer, of high SES, of upper castes, and engaged in upper status occupations" (p.75). In his New Haven project Dahl C1961) found that even "subleaders stand somewhat above their fellow citizens in

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influential position, educational attainments and social status. Subleaders tend to live in better than average residential areas" (p. 169).

In the above context our findings are revealing. While only one-quarter of the total population in Bangladesh is literate, almost hundred per cent of the rural elites are found to have at least primary school education. As Goel 11974) has asserted, "One of the most widely documented research findings is that women all over the world parti-cipate less in politics than men do" (p.89). In their respective studies Pantham (1976) and Mishra (1981) have observed the same reality. Our data corroborate their findings: only a few women are elite members; rural politics and development appear to have been fully dominated by men.

Traditionally, rural elites used to be drawn from older age groups, joint families, and often from among those who have family titles. Our findings reveal somewhat different pictures. Most elites are younger in age, more than half of them do not belong to joint families, and only a few have larger family size. Similarly, almost half of them do not come from the larger lineage groups, nor do they have traditional family titles. Also, compared with the higher levels these situations have broadened in the lower levels of operation of the rural

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elites. More number of persons endowed with even less amount of these traditional resources are coming to occupy elite positions at the village level. This is clearly an optimistic trend in relation to development and democracy in rural Bangladesh.

More than four-fifths of the rural elites have come from agricultural families. Band and income still remain their stronger resources of power. This situation, of course, has started changing especially at the lower levels of their operation. I'he lower level elite, positions are now available to persons even with low economic resources of power. However, the economic elites are predominantly the landed gentry; their level of income is highly consi-stent with possession of land.

Compared with economic and social ones, politics is the stronger power resources for the rural elites. But it is shocking to note that though most of them are positional elites, yet they are seeming to either consciously keep themselves away from politics or somewhat apolitical in nature. This finding closely corroborates that of Rahman (1980) who found that the incidence of political conscious-ness score was very low among the rural elites in Rajshahi district (p. 158-). Mishra U981) believes, "the village level leaders usually think of themselves as public workers rather than as political leaders" (p.172). Our data also

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"bear out the fact that compared with the lower level ones, more elites in the higher levels of operation are found to have higher political affiliation, longer experience and have controlled important positions at the higher levels of party offices.

However, elites of the different levels of operation do not equally possess high social, economic ana political resources of power. The higher the level of their opera-tion the greater is the likelihood of these three resources of power converging together. Thus apparently it suggests the conclusion that though the lower level power structures have broadened the higher level ones still continue to be dominated by a small group who have triple monopoly in the possession of social, economic and political resources of power in rural communities. Therefore, as far as higher level of rural power structure is concerned, it clearly portrays a situation of "cumulative inequalities". This is somewhat opposed to New Haven's findings in which Dahl (1961) has shown a trend from "cumulative" to "dispersed" inequalities (pp.85-86).

Optimistically, for two reasons the above situation does not appear to be so dismal. In the first place, as we noticed in Chapter 4» only a few of the higher level elites possess equally higher amount of social, economic and political resources. Persons endowed with even low c

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economic resources are coming to occupy higher level of elite positions. Secondly, it also shows a shift in importance of power resources as some of the economic elites have acquired the social and political resources of power. The latter two resources might have facilitated them more to occupy higher level of elite positions. They might "be more modern too. However, a thorough treatment of these situation calls for further investigations.

One more point is revealed in our observation of the field situation. Power structure tends to be more amorphous at the lower levels and the more one goes up the more it becomes pyramidal in nature. This may be due to the fact that since during the last decade more orga-nizations have been consciously created at the village level, the areas of activities of rural elites controlling these organizations are also likely to be different from one to another. For example, the members of the gram sarkar are not always the managers of village cooperatives, the former have little to do with the latter and vice-versa. On the other hand, though this diffusion of power structure is less prevalent at the union and thana levels, no top boss could be singled out who does everything in his village community. The union parishad chairman is the most important power wielder but he could hardly pass anything without consulting members of the parishad.

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However, looked into a broad perspective, the exercise of power at the higher level of rural power structure too, appears to be somewhat dispersed since no single or, a very small group of power wielders could solely determine everything calling for action. In all levels, therefore, this dispersion of power favours democracy, development and change in rural communities.

Most rural elites of the higher levels of operation in their late forties with moderate education and consi-derable political backgrounds belong to the landed aristo-cracy. Because of their advantageous social, economic and political positions they can afford to spend more time and energy in public activities. They have stronger organizational affiliation and some of them have been elected by universal adult franchise to the local govern-ment offices for more than one term. Thus they have legitimized their power among the rural masses, and by and large, they are interested in development activities.

Elites in society are generally perceived from two points of view. "One relates to the structure of elite group and the other to the orientations of its members, in terms of values and cognitive perspectives" (Iqbal Narain et al. 1976^224). The focus of our inquiry has been somewhat on the latter aspect. With the process of development,

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politicization and. democratization, the communities demand a new group of elites having modern beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. As Iqbal Narain et al. (1976.) put, "used to non-cooperative and coercive practices, the traditional leadership found itself incapable of withstanding the compulsions of democratic politics and courting popular support" (p.245). Their study in Rajasthan reveals the fact, "on account of the tremendous pressure for change, members of the elite group just can-not ignore their role as agents of modernization" (p.244). Inkeles and his colleagues' works (e.g., see 1969, 1974) have borne out the intimate relation between attitudes and action of modern men. From his study of three Punjab villages, Mehta (1972) has confirmed, "the development of these villages is related to the extent of modern oriented leadership operating in each of these villages..." (p.122). Thus first of all,^it is important to examine the modernity profile of the rural elites, and subsequently to see how their modernity orientation affects development activities in rural communities.

Our findings reveal that nearly two-thirds of the rural elites are highly modern in their beliefs, attitudes and action. But there is a difference between their modernity orientation and levels of operation; the higher the levels of their operation, the higher is their modernity

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orientation. Elites' each of social, economic and political resources of power have clear association with modernity orientation; the latter increases with their higher possession of power resources. However, compared with the economic ones, the social and political resources of power are strongly correlated with their modernity orientation.

The study shows that the predominantly economic elites need not be always the modern elites. The incidence of modernity is higher among those who have higher social and political resources of power. Thus, it is their modern (political and partly social) resources of power which have greater influence toward attainment of modernity than those of the traditional ones"( economic and partly social), In other words, it could be plausibly argued that elites' possession of modern resources of power and their attainment of sociopsychological modernity mostly go together in rural communities.

IgJlgrgystemic parligiEajjjo.n This dissertation has dealt with three intersystemic participation variables of the rural elites, namely the mass media exposure and urban connection, contact with extension agents and government officials, and linkage with local notables and political leaders. These have been examined in terms of elites' levels of operation,

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Power resources and modernity orientation. The findings are revealing .

It is inreresting* to note that almost three-quarters of the rural elites have at least medium level of parti-cipation through these intersystemic processes. Of course, there are differences between elites' levels of operation and each of these variables. The study suggests that the higher the level of operation of elites the wider the dimension of their participation through these processes, albeit in each case the association does not appear to be significantly high. One more trend emerges from the finding: the higher the power resources of elites, the broader the scope of their participation through these intersystemic processes. But compared with the"social and political ones, the economic resources are found to have a lower level of association with all these intersys-temic variables. This clearly signifies the shift in importance of power resources of the rural elites. Compared with the economic ones, the social and political elites are making more efforts to participate through the intersystemic processes which is favourable to moderni-zation and development of rural communities.

The study further shows that the higher the modernity orientation of rural elites, the greater the scope of their participation through the intersystemic

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processes. Moreover, compared with elites' levels of operation and any of the power resources their modernity orientation rather correlates strongly with their intersystemic participation. This finding lends support to Inkeles' C 1969J hypothesis in regard to the corres-pondence between modernity of attitude and modernity of behaviour.

As shown in Chapter 5, the social and political elites are more modern than the economic ones. Bext, we also notice that compared with the economic elites, the social and political ones have more mass media exposure, official contacts and linkage with notables. Therefore, it is heartening to find that the modernity oriented social and political elites have highly participated through the intersystemic process. This clearly shows that the power resources of the rural elites have begun to shift from the traditional to modern.

However, the participation of the rural elites through the intersystemic process could affect attitudes, behaviour and action. Jetley C1977) has found that such inter-systemic variables are significantly correlated with innovativeness of the villagers. Therefore, those rural elites with higher levels of mass media exposure, official contacts ana linkage with notables are likely to be more development oriented than others. These findings are

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highly relevant especially while process of democrati-zation and development has been consciously directed to bring the rural communities into closer participation in the social and political lives.

Barticipation and radicalism This study has examined the aspects of elites' interest in development issues, support for radical measures, participation in training programmes, engagement in village development projects and their involvement in projects for the rural underprivileged. Each of these aspects has been examined in terms of the levels of opera-tion, power resources and modernity orientation of the rural elites.

It is satisfying to note that the bulk of rural elites have expressed their interest in village develop-ment issues, espoused radical measures, participated in some or other training programmes, engaged themselves at least in one development project. But only a little more than half of them involved themselves in projects for the underprivileged. Elites' interest in development issues, participation in development projects and involvement in programmes for the underprivileged significantly differ with their levels of operation . However, apparently there have not been any differences between their levels of operation and support for radical measures, and

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participation in training programmes.

On similar lines, power resources of the rural elites closely correlate with their interest in development issues and participation in village development projects. Of course, their power resources do not portray clear association with their support for radical measures and participation in training programmes. Instead, elites' economic resources show a negative association with their support for radical measures and participation in training programmes, however, the modernity orientation of elites has still higher association with their interest in development issues, support for radical measures, parti-cipation in training programmes and involvement in project implementation.

The study further reveals, compared with economic ones the social and political resources of power of the rural elites correlate strongly with their interest in village development issues and participation in rural development projects. Therefore, the modernity oriented social and political elites participate more in all such development activities in rural communities. Comparatively speaking, since the rural elites can acquire the social and political resources of power in their life time, and attain modernity orientation, this finding is highly augurs well for development programmes in rural Bangladesh.

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Probieafi_a£ rural elites Problems of nonparticipation of rural elites in develop-ment activities can be generally viewed from two perspe-ctives. The first directly deals with the actors themselves — their backgrounds, commitments, enthusiasm, and other factors of this sort; and secondly, the external factors which are largely responsible for thwarting and limiting their participation in development programmes. This chapter has dealt with the latter. Our inquiries are delimited to three issues* first, problems encountered by elites while engaging themselves in village development projects; secondly, extent of cooperation they receive from the officials; thirdly, extent of power as developed to the local organizations.

Most of the rural elites encounter some or other problems in rural communities. According to them the problems of village conflicts and factions, lack of local cooperation and leadership, and poverty and ignorance of the rural masses are largely responsible for impeding the translation of goals of development programme in the countryside. Elites of the higher levels of operation are found to have experienced more problems than those of the lower level. So also the more modernity oriented elites seem to have come across more of such problems than those possessing lesser modernity orientation.

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V The study further reveals the fact that an overwhelm-ing majority of rural elites are not satisfied with cooperation of the government officials. More of them at the higher levels of operation as well as those with higher modernity orientation appear to be least satisfied with such cooperation. Most elites perceive the officials as corrupt elements in Bangladesh societies.

As regards the question of power, a sizeable number of rural elites do not consider that sufficient power has been devolved to the local organizations so as to enable them to engage themselves effectively to rural development activities. This perception is still deeper among the higher level elites and among those with higher modernity orientation. A close examination of the local self-government situations in Bangladesh brings out the fact that even the democratically elected elites enjoy very little power sufficient to engage themselves effectively in a variety of rural development projects.

The Emerging Trend As mentioned in Chapter 4, the present research has been essentially delimited to a thana to examine the power resources of rural elites at three different hierarchical levels of operation, namely village, union and thana. There is conclusive evidence that even in a relatively

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small geographical area like thana, there are variations in power resources of the rural elites among these three levels. Those having higher resources of power are found to have increasingly controlled the higher level of rural organizations and therefore dominating the upper level of rural power structures. As the elites' levels of operation rise, their power resources tend to converge together. At the village level, only a very small number of elites are found to have possessed equally high amount of social, economic and political resources of power. This signifies that the "dispersion of inequalities" (Dah 1961) of pox\Ter resources is clearly visible at the lower level of operation of rural elites rather than the higher ones. In view of this fact, if power is devolved to the village level organizations there is less likely chance that it gets concentrated into a few hands. Admittedly, it favours democratization and development of rural communities.

Traditionally, the economic resources of power of rural elites in Bangladesh have been more important than others. But this situation does no longer exist in its absolute form. The present study has vividly shown the shift in importance of power resources in rural communities. Compared with economic resources, the social and political ones have been gradually emerging as more important power

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resources of the rural elites. Though all the three resources of power tend to converge together with the rise of levels of operation of elites, nevertheless, a sizeable number of elites even with low economic resources are found operating at the higher level of rural power structures. These changes have been taking place for a variety of reasons; the conscious efforts toward creation of rural organizations for the purpose of development, and the emergence of young educated elites in the process of ruralization of politics in the country could be the principal ones. However, these changes clearly reveal an optimistic picture in relation to rural development in Bangladesh.

As regards the shift in importance of power resources, the findings attest to the fact that, while a man's economic position cannot be normally expected to change in his life time or from one generation to next, with the introduction of education, universal adult franchise, and with the process of development activities it is possible to change his social and political positions in the community. Thus, it is easier on his part to acquire social and political resources of power than the economic ones. Therefore, while planning rural development strategies in the country the top level decision-makers may take this emerging trend into consideration.

389 Another emerging trend is that of the modernity

orientation of the rural elites. A majority of them is found to be modern in their outlook, attitudes and action. The social and political elites are more modern than the economic ones. As noticed from the study that the modernity oriented social and political elites participate more through the intersystemic processes (e.g., mass media exposure and urban connection, etc.). Similarly, the trend .shows that the modernity oriented social and political elites express their higher interest in develop-ment issues and participate more in village development activities. Elites' modernity orientation has also higher association with their support for radical measures in Bangladesh. Therefore, there are many evidences in our study to suggest that the individual modernity orientation of the rural elites has a positive association with their action in regard to development and change.

The findings of this study and the emerging trends are highly illuminating in context of development in rural Bangladesh. For rural development to be effective under the existing social, political and economic relations, authority and responsibilities must be bestowed upon the rural elites. Then their levels of operation, power resources and modernity orientation should be kept in mind. This could be particularly important while the

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present government is seriously planning to decentralize development administration to rural areas and devolve tremendous power and responsibilities to the democratic elements in the countryside.

As stated elsewhere, the present research has not examined exactly the nature of rural power structures in the sense of collusion, cooperation and transactions among the rural power elites. Instead, it focuses on the power wielders of the rural communities - their power resources, modernity orientation and participation in rural development activities. Power structure phenomena could probably be examined by going into the genesis of decision-making process in rural communities. For this purpose its universe may be a smaller geographical area preferably a village community or, a small group of villages Initially case studies based on some anthropological approach to data collection will be of great advantage. However, this study could be a step forward in this direction to the extent that one focuses on the power wielders after delineating the nature of rural power structures.

Given the existing social, economic and political relations, no development programme will succeed in rural Bangladesh. Dispersion of power and more importantly power to the poor are the most urgent political necessity

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in the country. It is heartening to note that gradually this has been taking place mostly because of the conscious efforts of the national decision-makers. These efforts must be sustained and the newer ones must be consciously accelerated. There should be also consistency in government policies. The abolition of gram sarkar or, youth complex on one hand, and the proper rationale of evolving a "thana administration system" (Kamaluddin 1982:26) with huge financial implications on the other, must be justified on realistic grounds. Critical examinations of rural power structures, the power resources of the rural elites and their modernity orientation will be of great advantage in this perspective.

The present military ruler, General Ershad1 s concept of "thana democracy" vis-a-vis the decentraliza-tion of administration in rural areas is a promising step toward realization of development goals in Bangladesh. But in the absence of conscious efforts toward dispersion of power resources, the success of such an attempt will remain highly doubtful. This is because the rural tycoons highly endowed with economic resources are more likely to control the emerging non-official important power positions in rural communities.

Dispersing power resources in rural communities is a difficult process. Mass education, organizational

innovations and the introduction of elements of politi-cization may be slower but continuous process toward dispersion of power resources in rural communities. Among the most radical one is the land reform which has now become an urgent political necessity in Bangladesh. Of course, all will depend upon strong political will, and could only be worked out in a democratic system.