The Military as a Modernizing Agent in India

Abstract

During the past two decades there has been a rapid increase in the politicosociological literature on the relationship between the armed forces and society in the emerging nations. A good number of these deal with the military as a political modernizing agent, and only very few deal with the role of the military as an agent of social and economic modernization. One of the studies which examine such problems in detail is the recent work of Janowitz on the role of the military in the sociopolitical development of new nations.1 In one place he discusses broadly the role of the military in the economic and social modernization of new nations after the Second World War. Here, the author, while analyzing the successes and failures of the contribution that the military makes to the social and economic modernization of new nations, points out that several classes of activities of the military are primarily involved, for example: (1) The military serves as a training ground for technical and administrative skills and organization of discipline. (2) The military manages economic enterprises to meet its own requirements or for the need of the civilian society, and also contributes to developing public works. (3) It works as an agency of socialization. And (4) it serves as an agent of social change. Shils, while speaking on the political implications of a modern army in a new state, points out the role of the army in forming young men and women of heterogeneous ethnic and cultural backgrounds from traditional societies into citizens of a modern political society. Pye and Daalder2 also discuss some of the problems involved in the military as a modernizing agent of emerging nations and speak of the ways the armies in countries where social, economic, and cultural gaps among various groups of people are found step in to take political power into their hands. Lipset and