The Concepts and Goals of Development

Special Articles / Shankar Pathak / Social Policy, Social Welfare and Social Development

Evolutionary theorists of the nineteenth century believed in the inevitability of social progress. They thought that social change was governed by laws comparable to the laws of nature which ensured the movement of societies in the predetermined direction. In our own country social reformers like Rammohun Roy and M.G. Ranade subscribed to this evolutionary view of social progress. The social reform movements which were initiated by them were to facilitate and hasten this process. In other words, the spontaneous social actions were to be influenced by purposive actions. Like the concept of social progress, the currently popular term social development is also an evaluational concept. Unlike the evolutionists of the last century, the modern advocates of social development do not generally believe in the inevitability of social development. Social development, according to them, has to be accomplished through purposive and deliberate social planning (including economic planning).

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