Social groups and religious values as factors in economic development, a South Asian example

Writings on economic development published since 1950 often state that social groups and religious values are prime factors in the modernization of village societies. Most of these writings depict social groups and religious values as aspects of traditional village culture which hinder and obstruct economic reform. But a growing number of recent analyses indicate that social groups and religious values can also be positive forces for the implementation of economic innovations. These two sociocultural factors are reported as being highly significant to community development whenever they coexist in the form of religiously distinguished social groups.