A quick revision cut of Class 12 Sociology Book 2, Chapter 1, Structural
Change. Every definition, every named example and the CBSE exam
status, with nothing in between. Read the full notes first; read this the
morning of the exam.
1 Where the Chapter Counts
| Board | This chapter |
|---|---|
| CBSE 2026-27 | 5 marks (Unit 8, Structural Change; paper: 80 theory + 20 project) |
Other boards: check your own board’s current syllabus and marking scheme.
2 All the Definitions
Every definition in one place
ColonialismThe establishment of rule by one country over another; capitalist colonialism directly interfered with the colonised economy, unlike pre-capitalist empires, which (apart from outright pillage) mainly took tribute and on the whole did not interfere with the economic base
CapitalismAn economic system where the means of production are privately owned, organised to accumulate profit within a market system; dynamic and global from the start
Nation-stateA government with sovereign power in a defined territory, whose people are citizens of a single nation; tied to the rise of nationalism
IndustrialisationThe emergence of machine production, based on inanimate power resources like steam or electricity
DeindustrialisationThe decline of existing industry: what happened to some sectors of India’s traditional manufacturing under British industrial competition
UrbanisationThe growth of towns and cities and the share of population living in them; often, but not always, linked to industrialisation
3 Named Examples and Figures At a Glance
| Fact / example | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Alavi and Shanin, 1982 | Pre-capitalist empires mainly extracted tribute (apart from outright pillage) and on the whole did not interfere with the economic base; British colonialism directly interfered with the economy |
| Box 1.1: ships to Mauritius, 1834-1920 | Labourers, recruited for many decades mainly from Bihar districts, shipped to work at least five years on Mauritius plantations |
| Giddens, 2001: Britain | Share living in towns of over 10,000: well under 20% (1800), 74% (1900); London about 1.1 million (1800), over 7 million (1900) |
| Surat, Masulipatnam / Thanjavur, Dhaka, Murshidabad | Cities that declined further / lost their courts, and so some of their artisans and court gentry, under British rule |
| Box 1.2 (Census, 1911) / Box 1.3 (Mukherjee, 1979) | Cheap imports more or less destroyed many village industries; land + education in English failed to build a genuine middle class |
| Bombay / Calcutta / Madras | Colonial port cities: over three-quarters of India’s raw cotton shipped through Bombay by 1900 / jute to Dundee / coffee, sugar, indigo, cotton to Britain |
| Job Charnock, 1690; Fort William, 1698; Box 1.4 (Dutt, 1993) | Charnock leased three villages by the Hugli for a trading post; the fort and Maidan became Kolkata’s core; European town with planned services vs native town where their use was ‘quite restricted’ |
| Tea industry, 1851; 1903 figures | 4,79,000 permanent + 93,000 temporary workers; recruited by fraud and coercion, mostly by contractors, under the Transport of Native Labourers Act (No. III) of 1863 |
| Bokaro, Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur | New industrial towns of independent India |
| M.S.A. Rao, 1974 / Box 1.7 Madhopur | Three types of urban impact on villages; Madhopur: 77/298 households have migrants, a little less than half of the migrants in Bombay/Calcutta |
| Population, 1951 & 2011 | 17.29% urban (62.44 million, 2,843 towns) → 31.16% urban (377.10 million, 7,935 towns) |
Exam Tip
Key contrast to state in full: Britain’s industrialisation went with urbanisation;
the SAME British industrialisation caused deindustrialisation in some sectors and, at first, MORE
people moving into agriculture in India. State both halves together.
Quick Revision: read this the night before the exam
- Colonialism = rule of one country over another; capitalist British colonialism directly interfered with land, crops, forests, production
- Capitalism = private ownership for profit, dynamic and global; nation-state = sovereign government over a defined territory and citizens; contradiction with nationalism gave “swaraj as a birthright”
- Britain: industrialisation AND urbanisation together; India: deindustrialisation in some sectors and, at first, MORE people into agriculture, a different pattern
- Colonial port cities (Bombay-cotton, Calcutta-jute, Madras-coffee/sugar/indigo/cotton) linked British core to Indian periphery; tea plantations show the same colonial-interest pattern in labour
- Independent India: Swadeshi-inspired heavy industry, public sector, cooperatives; new industrial towns (Bokaro, Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur)
- M.S.A. Rao’s three types of urban impact on villages; urban population 17.29% (1951) to 31.16% (2011), growth rate dipped 1981-2001
- CBSE 2026-27: Unit 8 Structural Change carries 5 marks; other boards, check your own syllabus
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