ABSTRACT
T HERE is a tendency among some Western writers to regardthe rural societies of the East, particularly of India, asalmost static and unchanging. For over a century 'the timeless and changeless Indian village' has been the ideal of the romanticist. However, a micro-sociological study of a village like Shamirpet, which was insulated in feudal surroundings and was thus kept almost unaffected by the currents of social, economic and political changes that were sweeping the countryside in British India, shows certain unmistakable trends in the direction of cultural and institutional variation.
