ABSTRACT
Modernization and modernity have been core concepts in analysing and understanding societies of the developing world, especially ever since decolonization came to be the accepted norm around the globe. The indicators of modernization have been essentially Western. A degree of uniformity when it comes to social structures and values, institutionalization and a way of social and political life, came to be the desired ‘modern’ world across states. Modernization theory’s most inuential proponent, Karl Marx, claimed that economically developed societies show the future to less developed societies. Not only Marx but also Friedrich Nietzsche, and everyone from Lerner to Bell, predicted the decline of religion in the wake of modernization. However, religion and spiritual beliefs have not faded. Instead, social and political debates on religious and emotionally charged issues such as euthanasia have grown increasingly salient and a resurgence of fundamentalist Islam has established a major cleavage in international politics. The process of modernization is not simple. It means taking in the new but not always throwing out the old. Thus a coexistence of tradition and modernity in a completely new identity is often the end product in the process. Even though today the Western developed economies and societies are not held as superior models everywhere, a core concept of the modernization theory seems valid today. Industrialization produces pervasive social and cultural consequences, from rising educational levels to changing
gender roles. Industrialization is seen as the central element of modernization process that aects most other elements of society.
