Modernization is a process of change in the way of life of a person in which he uses available resources and learned techniques to achieve material happiness. Data collected in 1967 and 1972 in the rural communities of India reveal certain characteristics that distinguish the modern person: a keen awareness of his own modernity, highly motivated to try innovations professionally and in his own domestic life, quick to use available information media. Thus the modern man acts as a change agent, stimulating growth and the utilization of the tools of modernization. The government of developing nations, to promote social change, should locate modern persons in rural communities and develop an effective means of communication at the grass roots. (SK)