The importance of this conservatism is two-fold. First, it slows down directly the acceptance of most, but not all, technical improvements such as hygienic habits, improved agricultural techniques, and so on. Secondly, in so far as people's ideas about the behaviour appropriate to the various roles in village society is reinforced, the traditional social structure is prevented from adapting itself to changes in the larger world of which it is a part. Traditional relationships persist in social situations to which they are no longer appropriate.
But the forces for change are stronger still. The very great increase in communications with the outside world is at the root of the changes. Increase in law and order makes it possible for anyone to go to town for political or economic purposes with no danger of physical attack. Lorries and buses make possible much cheaper and more rapid transport between town and village not only of people but also of goods in quantity. The vast new market for casual labour draws a constant stream of men out of the rural area sending them back armed with much information and some new ideas. At the same time the national government is concerned for national reasons with village productivity and welfare, and sends an increasing stream of officials to the village to impose unfamiliar rules of conduct for a host of different purposes.
The villages I visited were tightly knit communities. But once they must have been a great deal tighter. Not long ago, individual villagers only approached officialdom with the special protection of their village superiors, or in the company of the headman. The village rulers ruled largely by a monopoly of contact with State sources of power, which both conferred and depended on a dominant position inside the village. Almost every man in those days was dependent on his father's land for his daily food, and if people did leave the village to seek their fortunes, they did not write, nor send money through the post office, nor turn up in person at frequent intervals. It was possible for the village to lead a much more isolated and