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This article throws light upon the nine main characteristics of a village community.
Characteristic # 1. Community Consciousness/Feeling:
The village is a community whose members have a sense of “we feeling”. Their relation is intimate.
Their customs, conventions and culture are common. They are having a strong community feeling.
Characteristic # 2. Role of Neighbourhood:
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The village people are generally in need of one another’s assistance. There is not enough of individuality disable one from paying attention to another. Hence neighbourers have intimate relations with each other.
Characteristic # 3. Joint Family:
In the village, the family has strict control and administrative powers over the individual. All the members of the family share the burden of the family occupation. Much attention Is directed towards the preservation of the family honor and utmost care is taken to observe and maintain the tradition of the family.
Characteristic # 4. Faith in Religion:
In villages, people have deep faith on religion. They tire mostly God-fearing. The villager depends on agriculture. I le acquires an attitude of fear and awe towards natural forces and starts worshipping them.
Characteristic # 5. Simplicity/Simple life:
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Villagers lead a very simple life. They want to live in peace and security. They are far away from the evils of modern civilization. They are sincere, co-operative, hard-working and hospitable.
Characteristic # 6. Small Size:
Village communities are small in size. The census In India designates a place with 5000 inhabitants as a village community. The populations of villages vary from place to place.
Characteristic # 7. Definite Locality:
A group of people forms village community only when it begins to reside in a definite locality. Locality is the physical basis of village community.
Characteristic # 8. Predominance of Primary Relations:
The village community is characterised by the predominance of personal and relatively durable relations. Kinship plays a very important role in the context of village community.
Characteristic # 9. Conservatism:
The village people are very conservative. They do not wish to introduce any radical changes. Sir Charles Metcalf once wrote about the conservatism of the Indian villages by saying, “Dynasties tumble down, revolutions succeed revolution, Hindu, pathan, Moghul, Maratha, Sikh, English all the masters change In turn, but the village communities remain the same.”