Author Archives: Swati

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1.Write short notes on:
Answer. (i) Women’s Movement: Early 20th Century saw the growth of women’s organisations
such as ‘Women’s India Association (WLA) (1917)’ All India Women’s Conference (AIWC) (1926), ‘National Council for Women in India (NEWI) (1925)’. While many of them began with a limited focus, their scope extended overtime.
It is often assumed that only middle class educated women were involved in social movements.
But part of the struggle is to remember the forgotten history of women’s participation. Women participated alongwith men in struggles and revolt originated in tribal and rural areas in colonial period. Thus, not only urban women but also rural and tribal women participated in political agitations struggles, gradually empowering themselves. The mid 1970s saw the second phase of Indian women’s movement. There was growth of autonomous women’s movement, i.e., < They were independent from political parties as well as women’s organisations that had links with political parties.
Educated women took radical active politics. Simultaneously promoted an analysis of women’s movement. New issues were now being focused upon such as violence against women, application for schools forms had both father’s and mother’s name: legal changes such as land rights, employment, rights against sexual harassment and dowry. Mathura rape case (1978), Maya Tyagi rape case (1980) Both were custodial rape.
Hence, it was also recognised that in women’s movements, there is bound to be disparity because women belong to different classes and thus their needs and concerns are bound to be different.
(ii) Tribal Movements: Most of the tribal movements have been largely located in the so called “tribal belt” in middle India, such as the Santhals, Hos Oraons, Mundas in Chota Nagpur and the Santhal Parganas.
The social movement of Jharkhand had a charismatic leader in Birsa Munda, an adivasi who led a major uprising against the British.
His memory has still been kept alive has continued to be a source of inspiration for generation.
An educated middle class among the tribals was created by the Western education given by Christian missionaries. This education class developed the ethnic consciousness – awareness of their identity culture and customs. A sense of marginalisation brought together the tribal population of South Bihar. They identified their common enemies – dikus—migrant traders, money lenders. The adivasis in senior government jobs provided organisational intellectual leadership to the movement and negotiated and labbied for the creation of their own state on the following issues—acquisition of land for large irrigation projects; survey and settlement operations, which were held up, camps closed, etc; collection of loans, rent and cooperative dues; nationalisation of forest produce.
As far as the NE tribes were concerned, main issue taken up were – ascertain distinct tribal identity of the region; demanding of the traditional autonomy of tribes; misunderstanding & lack of communication in Indian mainstream society which needs to be bridged;
•Rights of the tribes to maintain their own social cultural institutions along with a connection with the rest of the India;
•Anger oFtribes because of the loss of their forest lands.
Thus, tribal movements are good examples of social movements, which incorporates many issues – economic, cultural, ecological.
Earlier many tribal regions of NE, showed tendencies of separating from India but today they have adopted a balanced approach of asking for autonomy with the framework of Indian institution.

Q2.In India, it is difficult to make a .clear distinction between the old and new social movements. Discuss.
Answer. Old Social Movements
•Class based – united to fight for rights.
•Anti-colonial movements.
• Nationalist movement united people into national e.g., liberation struggle.
•Movement against colonialism.
•Nationalist movement mobilied against rule of foreign power and dominance of foreign capital.
•Mainly concerned with struggles between haves and havenots. Key issue is reorganisation of power relations, i.e. capturing power & transferring it from powerful to powerless, e.g. Workers were mobilised towards capitalists; Women’s struggle against male domination.
•Worked under guidance & organisational framework of political parties, eg. Indian National Congress led the Indian National movement; Communist Party of China led the Chinese Revolution.
•Role of political parties was central and poor people had no other effective means to get their voices heard.
•Concerned about social inequality and unequal distribution of resources -important elements.
New Social Movements
•Decades after Second World War- 1960s and early 1970s
•Take up not just narrow class issues but broad, universal themes, which involved a broad social group irrespective of their class.
•Vietnam were forces led by US bloody conflict.
•Paris – Vibrant student’s movement joined worker’s parties in a series of strikes
protesting against the war.
•USA was experiencing a sure of social protests. Civil rights movement was led by Martin Luther King.
•Black powers movement led by Malcolm X.
•Women’s movement, environmental movement.
•No longer focus on redistribution of power rather are more concerned with improving the quality of life. eg. Right to education, clean environment.
•No longer confine themselves within political parties. Instead started joining civil society movements and forming NGOs because they are supposed to be more efficient, less corrupt and less autocratic
•Globalization – reshaping people’s lines, culture, media Firms – transnational. Legal arrangements – international.
Therefore, many new social movements are international in scope.
•Essential elements – Identity politics, cultural anxieties and aspirations.

Q3.Environmental movements often also contain economic and identity issues. Discuss.
Answer. The Chipko movement is a suitable example of an ecological or environmental movements. It is an appropriate example of intermingled interests and ideologies. Ramchandra Guha says in his book Unquiet Woods that villagers came together to save the oak and rhododendron forests near their villages. The government forest contractors came to fell the trees but the villagers, including large number of women, came forward to hug the trees to check their being felled. The villagers relied on the forest to get firewood, fodder and other daily requirements. It was a conflict between livelihood needs of poor villagers and government’s desire to make revenue from selling timber.
Chipko movement raised the issue of ecological sustainability. Felling down natural forests was a form of environmental destruction which resulted in demonstrating floods and landslides in the area. Therefore, concerns about economy, ecology and political representation underlay the Chipko movement.

Q4.Distinguish between Feasant and New Farmer’s Movements.
Answer. (i) Peasant movements have taken place from pre-colonial days. The movement took place between 1858 and 1914 remained localised, disjointed and confined to particular grievances. The well known movement are:
•Bengal Revolt of 1859 – 62 against the indigo plantation system.
•Deccan Riots of 1857 against money lenders.
•The Bardoli Satyagraha – 1928 was a non tax campaign started by Gandhi.
•Champaran Satyagraha 1917-18. It was directed against indigo plantations.
•Tebhaga movement (1946-47)
•Telangana movement (1946-51)
(ii) New farmer’s movement started in 1970s in Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Main Characteristics:
•Movements were regionally organised.
•Movements were non-party.
•Movements involved farmers rather than peasants.
•Main ideology- Strongly anti-state and anti-urban
•Focus of demand – Price related issues.

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1.Trace out the changes that have been occurring in the newspaper industry? What is your opinion on these changes?
Answer. It is often believed that with the growth of the Television and the internet the print media would be sidelined. However, in India we have seen the circulation of newspapers grow. New technologies have helped boost the production and circulation of newspapers. A large number of glossy magazines have also made their entry into the market.
The reasons for the growth in Indian newspapers are many.
1.There is a rise in the number of literate people who are migrating to cities. The Hindi daily ‘Hindustan’ in 2003 printed 64,000 copies of their Delhi’s edition, which jumped drastically in 2005, to 425,000. The reason was that of Delhi’s population of one crore and fprty seven lakh, 52% had come from the Hindi belt of the two states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Of this, 47% have come from a rural background and 60% of them were less than 40 years of age.
2. The need of the readers in the small towns and villages are different from that of the cities and the Indian language newspapers cater to those needs. Dominant Indian language newspapers such as Malayala Manorama and the Eenadu launched the concept of local news in a significant manner by introducing district and whenever necessary, block editions. Dina Thanthi-, another leading Tamil newspaper, had always used simplified and colloquial language.
3.The Indian language newspapers have adopted advanced printing technologies and also attempted supplements, pull outs, and literary and nice booklets.
4.Marketing strategies have also marked the Dainik Bhaskar group’s growth as they carry out consumer contact programmes, door- to-door surveys, and research. Thus, modem mass media has to have a formal structural organisaiton.
•While English newspapers, often called National Dailies’, circulate across regions, vernacular newspapers have vastly increased their circulation in the states and the mral interland. In order to compete with the electronic media, newspapers, especially English language newspapers have on the one hand reduced prices and on the other hand brought out editions from multiple centres.
•Change in the role of newspaper production-role of technology.
•Many feared that the rise in electronic media would lead to a decline in the circulation of print media. This has not happened. Indeed it has expanded. This process has often involved cuts in prices and increasing dependence on the sponsors of advertisements who in turn have a larger say in the content of newspapers.
•Newspapers have become a consumer product and as long as numbers are big, everything is up for sale.

Q2.Is radio as a medium of mass communication dying out? Discuss the potential that FM stations have in post-liberalisation India?
Answer. 1.With the advent of TV, internet and other audio visual forms of entertainment, people started believing that radio will bean outdated form of mass communication but this thinking proved wrong.
2.In 2000, AIR’s programmes could be heard in two-third of Indian household in 24 languages and 146 dialects, over some 120 million radio sets. The advent of privately owned FM radio stations in 2002 provided a boost to entertainment over radio. –
3.In order to attract audiences, these privately run radio stations sought to provide entertainment to its listeners.
4.As privately rim FM channels are not permitted to broadcast any political news bulletins, many of these channels specialize in ‘particular kinds’ of popular music to retain their audiences. One such FM channel claims that it broadcasts ‘All hits all day’.
5.Most FM channels which are popular among young urban professional and students often belong to media conglomerates. Like ‘Radio Mirchi’ belongs to the Times of India group, Red FM is owned by Living Media and Radio City by the Star Network. But independent radio stations engaged in public broadcasting like National Public Radio (USA) or BBC (UK) are missing from our broadcasting landscape.
6.The use of radio m movies—In the two films ‘Rang de Basanti’ and ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’ the radio is used as an active medium of communication although both the movies are set in the contemporary period. In ‘Rang de Basanti’ die conscientious, angry college youth, inspired by the Legend of Bhagat Singh assassinates a minister and then captures All India Radio to reach out to die people and disseminate their message.
7.The potential for using FM channels is enormous. Further privatization of radio stations and the emergence of community owned radio stations would lead to the growth of radio stations. The demand for local news is growing. The number of homes listening to FM in India has also reinforced the worldwide trend of networks getting replaced by local radio.

Q3.Trace the changes that have been happening in the medium of television. Discuss.
Answer. •TV programming was introduced experimentally in India to promote rural development as early as 1959. Later, the Satellite Instructional Television
Experiment (SITE) broadcasted directly to community viewers in the rural areas of 6 states between August 1975 and July 1976.
•These instructional broadcasts were broadcasted to 2400 TV sets directiy for 4 hours daily.
•In 1991, there was one state controlled TV channel Doordarshan in India. By 1998, there were almost 70 channels. Privately run satellite channels have multiplied rapidly since mid-1990s, while Doordarshan broadcasts over 20 channels there were some 40 private television networks broadcasting in 2000. The staggering growth of private satellite television has been one of the defining developments of contemporary India.
•The Gulf War of 1991 (which popularized CNN), and the launching of star-TV in the same year by the Whampoa Hutchinson Group signalled the arrival of satellite channels in India. In 1992, Zee TV, a Hindi based satellite entertainment channel, also began beaming programs to cable TV viewers in India. By 2000, 40 private cable and satellite channels were available including several that focused exclusively on regional-language broadcasting like Sun-TV, Udaya-TV, Raj-TV, and Asianet.
•While Doordarshan was expanding rapidly in the 1980s, the cable television industry was mushrooming in major Indian cities. The VCR greatly multiplied entertainmentoptions for Indian audiences, providing alternatives to Doordarshan’s single channel programming. Video viewing at home and in community-based parlours increased rapidly. The video fare consisted mostly of film-based entertainment, both domestic begun wiring apartment buildings to transmit several films a day. The number of cable operators also increased significantly.
•The coming in of transnational television companies like Star TV, MTV, Channel V, Sony and others, worried some people on the likely impact on Indian youth and on the Indian cultural identity. But most transnational television channels have through research realized that the use of the familiar is more effective in procuring the diverse groups that constitute Indian audience. The early strategy of Sony .International was to broadcast 10 Hindi films a week, gradually decreasing the number as the station produced its own Hindi language content. The majority of foreign networks have now introduced either a segment of Hindi language programming (MTV India) or an entire new Hindi language channel (Star Plus). Star Sports and ESPN have dual commentary or an audio soundtrack in Hindi. The larger players have launched specific regional channels in languages such as Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi and Gujarati.
•Localisation of STAR TV- in October 1996, STAR Plus initially an all English general entertainment channel originating from Hong Kong, began producing a Hindi language belt of programming between 7 and 9 PM. By February 1999, the channel was converted to a solely Hindi channel and all English serials shifted to STAR World, the network’s English language international channel. Advertising to promote the Hindi channel included the Hindi slogan: ‘Aapki Boli, Aapka Plus Point).
•Both STAR and Sony continued to dub US programming for younger audience as children appeared to be able to adjust to the peculiarities that arise when the language is one and the setting another.

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1.Choose any topic that is of interest to you and discuss how you think globalisation has affected it. You could choose cinema, work, marriage or any other topic.
Answer. 1. The effect of globalization on cinema is far reaching. It affects us, on culture, our modes of behaviour, mode of thinking, etc. but affects us differently while for , some it may mean new pattern and opportunities of culture, music, dance, etc. but for others the challenge for their own style of music for identity of culture, for own dance, etc.
2. Advancement in IT (Information Technology), photography, musical instrument, cameras etc. had definitely positive effects on cinema due to globalization. It has opened more wider and larger markets for film producers and even for people to enjoy more films of their own choices and likings.
3. Sociology studies the social or cultural consequences of globalization. With the opening up of the market and removal of restrictions to the import of many products we have many more products from different comers of the world in our neighbourhood shops. The dramatic changes in the media (including cinema) are perhaps the most visible effect of globalization. Some of the Indian film producers, directors, actors and so on are being welcome in other countries and regions or film industries of the world. Similarly several foreign film-makers, directors, heroes and heroines are being called and welcomed by different countries and film industries.
4. Children films, cartoon films, comedies, social and love films are produced in several languages side by side. Film festivals and film promotion shows are being screened in different countries.
5.Music, dance forms, styles of presentations, natural and other scenes, filmy sets are mutually exchanged and are impressing minds of the concerned people of the film industry on universal level.

Q2. What are the distinctive features of a globalised economy ? Discuss.
Answer The distinctive features of a Global Economy are:
1. Globalisation refers to the growing interdependence between different peoples, regions and countries in the world as social and economic relationships come to stretch world-wide.
2.Although economic forces are an integral part of globalization, it would be wrong to suggest that they alone produce it. Globalisation involves a stretching of social and economic relationship throughout the world. This stretching is pushed by certain economic policies very broadly. This process in India is termed liberalization. The term liberalization refers to a range of policy decisions that the Indian state took since 1991 to open up the Indian economy to the world market. This marked a break with an earlier stated policy of the government to have a greater control over the economy.
3.Among the many economic factors during globalization, the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) is particularly important.
4.Since July 1991, the Indian economy has witnessed a series of reforms in all major sectors of the economy (agriculture, industry, trade, foreign investment and technology, public sector, financial institutions, etc). The basic assumption was that greater integration into the global market would be beneficial to Indian economy.
5. Hie process of liberalization also involved the taking of loans from international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These loans are given on certain conditions. The government makes commitments to pursue certain kind of economic measures that involve a policy of structural adjustments. These adjustments usually mean cuts in state expenditure on the social sector such as health, education and social security. There is also a greater say by international institutions such as the World Trade Organisaiton (WTO).

Q3.Briefly discuss the impact of globalisation on culture.
Answer. The Impact of Globalisation on Culture.
1.Globalisation in the last decade (1999-2000) has seen major cultural changes leading to fears that our local cultures would be overtaken.
2.From time to time we listen about heated debates (or discussion) in our society (or on mass media) not just about political and economic issues but also about changes in clothes, styles, music, dance, films, languages, body-languages.
3.The 19th century socio-religious reformers and early nationalists (moderates also debated on culture and tradition. The issues today are in some ways the same ways different. What is perhaps different is the scale and intensity of change.
4.Some of the scholars declares that India’s cultural traditional has been wary of the Kupamanduka, the frog that lives its whole life within a well, knows nothing else,and is suspicious of everything outside it. It talks to no one, and argues with no
one on anything. It merely harbours the deepest suspicion of the outside world. Fortunately for us we retain our ‘traditional’ open-minded attitude to this day.
5.All cultures are homogeneous. There is an increasing tendency towards globalization of culture. Globalization refers to the mixing of the global with the local. It is not entirely delinked from the commercial interests of globalization.
6. It is a strategy often adopted by foreign firms while dealing with local traditions in order to enhance their marketability. In India, we find that all the foreign television channels like Star, MTV, Channel V and Cartoon Network use Indian languages, even McDonald sells only vegetarian and chicken products in India and not its beef products, which are popular abroad. McDonald’s goes vegetarian during the Navaratri Festival.
7.The strength of Indian culture has been its open-minded approach. Culture cannot be seen as an unchanging fixed entity that can either collapse or remain the same when faced with social change.

Q4.What is globalisation? Is it simply a market strategy adopted by multinational companies or is genuine cultural synthesis taking place ? Discuss.
Answer. I. Meaning of globalisation:
•There is no one meaning or definition of the term (or of the word) ‘globalisation’. Indeed we find different that different subjects focus on different aspects of globalization for instance, economics may be dealing more with the economic dimensions such as capital flows, Political Science may focus on the changing role of governments.
•The very process of globalisation is so far-reaching that disciplines have to increasingly borrow from each other to understand both are causes and consequences of globalization.
•The scope of sociological study is extremely wide. It can focus its analysis of interactions between individuals such as that of a shopkeeper with a customer, between teachers and students, between two friends or family members.
•It can likewise focus on national issue such as unemployment or caste conflict or the effect of state policies on forest rights of the tribal population or rural indebtedness.
•Global social processes such as the impact of new flexible labour regulations on the working class, or that of the electronic media on the young, or the entry of foreign universities on the education system of the country.
•What defines the discipline of sociology is, therefore, not just what it studies (i.e., family or trade unions or villages) but how it studies a chosen field.
•Sociology is not defined by what it studies but how it studies. It would be not quite right to state that sociology only studies the social or cultural consequences of globalization. What it does is the use of sociological imagination to make sense of the connections between the individual and society, the micro and the macro, the local and the global.
II.International companies, their adopted strategy and cultural synthesis in India
•Since April 1, 2001, all types of quantitative restrictions (QR) on imports were withdrawn. It is no surprise now to find a Chinese pear, an Australian apple vying for attention in the local fruit stall. The neighbourhood store also has Australian orange juice and ready to fry chips in frozen packets.
•What we eat and drink at home with our family and friends slowly changes.
The same set of policy changes affects consumers and producers differently.
•They are obviously also linked to public policies adopted by the government and its agreement with the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Likewise macro policy changes have meant that instead of one television channel we have literally scores today.
•Sociological imagination enables to make this connects between the micro and the macro, between the personal and public.
•Among the many economic factors driving globalization, the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) is particularly important.

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1.Choose any occupation you see around you – and describe it along the following lines (a) social composition of the work force – caste, gender, age, region (b) labour process – how the work takes place, (c) wages and other benefits, (d) working conditions – safety, rest times, working hours, etc.
Answer. 1. Since 1990’s, the government has followed policy of liberalization. Private companies, especially foreign firms encouraged investment in sector which was earlier reserved for the government.
2.Generally people get jobs through advertisement or through employment exchange in industrial sector. Man and women both work in industrial sector. The persons engaged in industry get salary or wages along with certain benefits like HRA (House Rent Allowance) and Medical facilities.
3.Job recruitment as a factory worker takes a different pattern. In the past, many workers got their jobs through contractors or jobbers. In the Kanpur textile mills, these jobbers were known as mistris, and were themselves workers. They came from the same regions and communities as the workers, but because they had the owner’s backing they bossed over the workers.
4.The mistri also put community related pressures on the workers. Nowadays, the importance of the jobber has come down, and both management and unions play a role in recruiting their own people.
5.Workers also expect that they can pass on their jobs to their children. Many factories employ badli workers who substitute for regular permanent workers who are on leave. Many of these badli workers have actually worked for many years for the same company but are not given the same status and security. This is what is called contract work in the organized sector.
6.The contractor system is most visible in the hiring of casual labour for work on construction sites, brickyards and so on. The contractor goes to villages and asks if people want work. He will loan them some money. This loan includes the cost of transport of the work side.
7.The loaned money is treated as an advance wages and the worker works without wages until the loan is repaid. In the past, agricultural  labourers were tied to their landlord by debt. Now, however, by moving to casual industrial work, while they are still in debt, they are not bound by other social obligations to the contractor. In that sense, they are more free in an industrial society. They can break the contract and find another employer. Sometimes, whole families migrate and the children help their parents.
8.Presently social composition of the work force in industry is concerned, people from all caste and both gender from the age group of fifteen to sixty work. Some regions of the country are having more industry than the other.
9.Different workers have different working period in different industries according to their qualification, experience, age and risk of the job. The contract  labourers get fixed amount as per the terms and conditions of contract. In organized sector, pay and allowances are better than the unorganized sector.
10.The government has passed number of rules to regulate working conditions. The Mines Act 1952 specifies the maximum number of hours a person can be made to work in a week, they need to pay overtime for any extra hours worked and safety rules. These rules may be followed in the big companies, but not in smaller mines ‘ and quarries. Moreover, sub-contracting is widespread.
11.Workers in underground mines face very dangerous conditions, due to flooding, fire, the collapse of roofs and sides, the emission of gases and ventilation failures. Many workers develop breathing problems and diseases like tuberculosis and silicosis.

Q2.In the account of brick making, bidi rolling, software engineers or mines that are described in the boxes, describe the social composition of the workers. What are the working conditions and facilities available? How do girls like Madhu feel about their work?
Answer. Social institution like caste, kinship, networks, gender and regions also influence the way the work is organized or the way in which products are marketed.
•In certain jobs and departments we find more women working than the men. For example, they are working more in numbers in nursing or teaching jobs than in other sectors like engineering.
•In India, over 90% of the work, whether it is in agriculture, industry or services is in the unorganized or informal sector.
•Very few people have the experience of employment in large firms where they get to meet people from other regions and backgrounds.
•Urban settings do provide some corrective to this your neighbours in a city may be from a different place – by and large, work for most Indians is still in small-scale workplaces.
•Nearly 60% were employed in the primary sector (agriculture and mining), 17% in the secondary sector (manufacturing, construction and utilities), and 23% in the tertiary sector (trade, transport, financial services, etc.).
•The share of agriculture has declined sharply, and services contribute approximately half. This is a very serious situation because it means that the sector where the maximum people are employed is not able to generate much income for them.
•India is still largely an agricultural country. The service sector – shops, banks, the IT industry, hotels and other services are employing more people and the urban middle class is growing, along with urban middle class values like those we see in television serials and films.
•But we also see that very few people in India have access to secure jobs, with even the small number in regular salaried employment becoming more insecure due to the rise in contract labour.
•Employment by the government was a major avenue for increasing the well-being of the population, but now even that is coming  down.
•Girls like Madhu enjoy their work of rolling of  bidis and filling of tobacco rolled tendu leaves.
•They get opportunity to sit close to their family members and other women and listen to their chat. They spend most of their time in  work in factory of bidis.
•Due to long hours of sitting in the same posture daily, they suffer from backache. Madhu wants to restart her schooling.

Q3.How has liberalisation attacked employment patterns in India?
Answer. Due to liberalization foreign products are now easily available in Indian markets and shops. Due to this some of the labour have to loose their employment and jobs.
•Many Indian companies have been taken over by multinationals. At the same time some Indian companies are becoming multinational companies. An instance of the first is when, Parle drinks was bought by Coca Cola. ‘
•The next major area of liberalization may be in retail. Due to coming of foreign companies and big business. Indian houses very small traders, shopkeepers, handicraft sellers. And hawkers have lost their jobs of employment or their small business is adversely affected by big mall, showroom or Reliance, Subhiksha, etc.
•The world’s largest chains, including Wal-Mart Stores, Carrefour and TESCO, are seeking the best way to enter the country, despite a government ban on foreign direct investment in  the market.
•Wal-Mart, Carrefour and TESCO to set up a retailing joint venture …India’s retail sector is attractive not only because of its fast growth, but because family-run street comer stores have 97% of the nation’s business. But this industry trait is precisely why the government makes it hard for foreigners to enter the market.
•The government is trying to sell its share in several public sector companies, a process which is known as disinvestment. Many government workers are scared that after disinvestment, they will lose their jobs.
•Companies are reducing the number of permanent employees and outsourcing their work to smaller companies or even to homes. For multinational companies, this outsourcing is done across the globe, with developing countries like India providing cheap labour. It is more difficult for trade unions to organize in smaller firms.

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1.Read the passage given and answer the questions:
The harsh working conditions suffered by laboureres in Aghanbigha were an outcome of the combined effect ofthe economic power of the maliks as a class and their overwhelming power as members of a dominant caste. A significant aspect of the social power of the maliks was their ability to secure the intervention of various arms of the state to advance their interests. Thus, political factors decissively contributed to widening the gulf between the dominant class and the underclass.
(i)Why do you think the maliks were able to use the power of the state to advance their own interests?
(ii) Why did labourers have harsh working conditions?
Answer. (i) (a) The maliks being dominant caste were very powerful politically, economically and socially.
(b)Because of power they were able to use the power of state for their vested interests.
(c)They were successfully able to secure the intervention of various arms of the state for their own benefit.
(ii)The labour have been working under harsh conditions because being dalits, they were not allowed to own land and compelled to work in the lands of dominant caste people as a labourer.

Q2. What measures do you think the government has taken, or should take, to protect the rights of landless agricultural labourers and migrant workers?
Answer. Measures to protect the right of Landless:
•Abolition of bonded labour legally:
Bandhua mazdoor (bonded labourers) practice in U.P and Bihar, Halpati System in Gujarat and Jeeta System in Karnataka has been legally abolished by Government of India.
•Abolition of Zamindari System: The intermediaries between the peasants and the state were the Zamindars. The state very effectively and intensively passed legislation and this system was abolished.
• Abolition and regulation act for Tenancy:
These laws discouraged tenancy or ‘Batai’ system. In West Bengal and Kerala, where CPI systems government was in power the tenants got the land rights.
•Imposition of Land Ceiling Act:
According to this act the upper limit of land for an owner is being fixed. Because of this act to identify surplus land and redistribute among the landless became programme of the state. Binoba Bhave’s Bhoodan yojna instructed this legislation but there are many shortcomings in this act and should be taken care of.
•To improve the condition of landless people living in villages the state should take appropriate measures and this whole sector should be organised.
•The economic conditions of villages should be improved by the state. Villages should be well connected to the ties, job opportunities should be creaked in the villages. Education and health facilities as well as entertainment facilities should be developed in the villages to discourage migration. MANREGA is an effective measure in this duration.
•Consolidation of Land: Landowner farmers are given one or two bigger piece of land in lieu of their several scattered small fields. It may be done as voluntary consolidation or as compulsory consolidation. This can bring about lot of efficiencies in agriculture process as a farmer.

Q3. There are direct linkages between the situation of agricultural workers and then- lack of upward socio-economic mobility. Name some of them.
Answer. • Indian rural society is totally dependent on agriculture. It is the only source of their livelihood. Unfortunately it is unevenly distributed, not organised and many people of ruralSociety are landless.
•Indian rural society has patrilineal kinship system. According to legal system women are supposed to have an equal right of family property but actually it is simply on papers. Because of male dominance, they are deprived of their rights.
•Most of the people in villages are landless and for their livelihood they become agriculture workers. They are paid below the statutory minimum wages. Their job is not regular and employment is insecure. Mostly these agriculture workers work on daily wages.
•The tenants also have lower income because they have to pay a large amount of production to the landowner.
•The ownership of land or its total area determines the position of the farmers upward or downward mobility in his socio-economic system. Therefore the agrarian society can be understood in terms of its class structure which is structured through Caste system.
Although this is not always true. In rural society Brahmins are the dominant caste but they are not main landowners so they are part of rural society but fall outside the agrarian structure.These questions are based on Self-Study. Students should do them solves.

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1.Interest groups are part and parcel of a functioning democracy. Discuss.
Answer.

• Interest groups are organised to pursue specific interest in the political arena,
  operating primarily by lobbying the members of the legislative bodies.
• When certain groups feel that their interests are not being taken up, they may move to form an alternative party.
• Democracy is a form of government for the people, by the people and of the people. In this system interest groups are formed for specific interest.
• Interest groups are private organisation. They are formed to influence public policy.
• These are non political systems and their main goal are to take care of their own interest.
• Political parties are established organisations with the aim of achieving governmental power and using that power to pursue a specific programme. Different interest groups will work towards influencing political parties.
• These organisations are regarded as movements until they achieve recognition.
• The interest groups play a significant role in Indian democracy and they perform various important functions such as:

(a)Formation of Public Opinion: Using various forms of propaganda and communication, they mould public opinion. To get goodwill of public opinion and change in administrative system in their own favour they use T.V., radio, Email and various forms of social media, twitter and face book.
(b)Function at the time of Natural Disaster: These interest groups provide help during natural calamity like Himalayans Tsunami at Kedamath or earthquakes etc. By doing such social activities they get public attention and favour and they influence the government.

Q2. Read the snippets from the debates held in the Constituent Assembly. Identify the interest groups. Discuss what kind of interest groups exist in contemporary India. How do they function?
Answer. Snippets from the debates
•K.T. Shah said that the right to use full employment could and should be made real by a categoric obligation on the part of the state to provide useful work to every citizen who was able and qualified.
•B. Das spoke against classifying the functions of the government as justiciable and non-justiciable. “I think it is the primary duty of Government to remove hunger and render social justice to every citizen and to secure social security…”. The teeming millions do not find any hope that the Union Constitution… will ensure them freedom from hunger, will secure them social justice, will ensure them a minimum standard of living and a minimum standard of public health”.
Ambedkar’s answer was as follows:
•“The Draft Constitution as framed only provides a machinery for the government of the country. It is not a controversy to install any particular party in power as has done in some countries. Who should be in power is left to be determined by the
people, as it must be, if the system is to satisfy the tests of democracy.
•On land reform Nehru said, that social forces were such that law could not stand in the way of reforms, interesting reflection on the dynamic between the two. “If law and Parliament do not fit themselves into the changing picture, they cannot control the situation”.
On the protection of the tribal people and their interests, leaders like Jaipal Singh
were assured by Nehru in the following words during the Constituent Assembly „ debates: “It is our intention and our fixed desire to help them as possible; in as
efficient a way as possible to protect them from possibly their rapacious neighbours occasionally and to make them advance”.
•Even as the Constituent Assembly adopted the title Directive Principles of State Policy to the rights that courts could not enforce, additional principles were added with unanimous acceptance. These included K. Santhanam’s clause that the state shall organise village punchayats and endow them with the powers and authority to be effective units of local self government.
•T.A. Ramalingam Chettiar added the clause for promotion of cottage industries on co-operative lines in rural areas. Veteran parlimentarian Thakurdas Bhargava added that the state should organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modem
•lines.
• Interest groups are people outside the government who support the political parties to gain favours from them when they are in power. These are private organisation formed to influence public policy. They are non political groups whose main aim is to uphold their own interest.Political parties are not political parties. In India interest groups adopt two methods i.e. to influence the legislative committees and to help people at the time of natural calamity.
•In contemporary India ASSOCHAM, FICCI, Labour Unions, Student’s union,Farmers union, women’s organisations are example of pressure group and interest groups.

Q3. Create a ‘phad’ or a scroll with your own mandate when standing for school election.(This could be done in small group of 5, like a panchayat).
Answer. Being member of school Panchayat we will focus on following areas:
•Panchayat members will try to inculcate self discipline among students. Being students we will function as a role model for rest of the students.
•Being co-educational school, we will create an environment where girls get respect
and security so that indirectly we will provide a solid base for a healthy society.
•We will take care of developing a system, through which students develop habit of self study and special coaching for professional courses may be arranged in the school.
•Panchayat will take care of special children and remedial teaching for them.
•Panchayat will coordinate with the Principal and may function as a pressure group to take care of proper student-teacher ratio, admission policy of the school, proper uniform, distribution of mid-day- meal etc.
•Panchayat will also coordinate with the Principal and Managing staff to take care
of games, sports, co-curricular activities and use of technology in school education.

Q4. Have you heard of Bal Panchayats and Mazdoor Kissan Sanghathan? If not, find out and write a note about them in about 200 words.
Answer. Bal Panchayat: My school follows a prefectoral system. The school has four houses. ,From each house, the house masters and the house children elect five prefects on the basis of their academic performances, leadership traits and their antecedents regarding .contribution for the curricular and co-curricular activities of the house. The principal,teachers and 20 prefects elect head boy of the school.
The head boy functions as a prototype of the school. He/she is responsible for discipline, school environment, curricular and co-curricular activities, social interaction particularly with the other schools and is accountable for student’s activities in the school.
The head boy particularly coordinates with the principal, headmasters, and house masters with the help of 20 prefects and helps in proper functioning of school buses, maintenance of assets, school fields, taking care of school property and by and large school discipline.
Mazdoor Sanghathan: In 1920, first All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was established.
•It was initiated by the congress but in 1929 hijacked by the communists.
•Indian Trade Union Congress (INTUC) untraced by the congress, Hind Mazdoor Sabha organised by the socialists and Bhartiya Mazdoor Sabha linked with Bhartiya Janta Party earlier Jan Sangh.
These trade unions played a very significant role in the recruitment, wage policy, functioning, living conditions, hire and fire policy and by and large developing a political and social awareness among the workers.
Kissan Sanghthan: India is a country of villages. Even today 75% of Indian population is living in villages and depends on agriculture
Earlier this population was not politically aware with their rights. They were very much traditional and attached to their customs and rituals but due to congress and communists now the kissans of India are politically very mature, are aware with their strength and providing strong base to Indian democracy. This is very much proved in 2014 election when these peasants voted for a stable government breaking the caste, class and region bondings.
Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel took initiates in 1936 congress session at Lucknow and All India Kissan Sabha was established but due to caste and class conflict it could not function. Later CPI activists took command of Kissan Sabha. Many Kissan organisations emerged in India after independence. The socialists established Hind Kissan Panchayat and instead the Kissan Sabha by Marxist. The communist party of India (Marxists) established revolutionary peasants convention in 1967. This organisation gave lead to Naxalbari movement in West Bengal.
•Due to the motivative of Shri Raj Narain and Choudhary Char an Singh in 1978 formed the All India Kissan Kamgar Sammelan. Many politicians and farmers like Shri Mahinder Singh Tikkait tried to organise the Kissans of India but even now this peasant group of India is not a well organised pressure group.

Q5.The 73rd amendment has been monumental in bringing a voice to the people in the Villages. Discuss.
Answer. The 73rd amendment has been monumental in bringing a voice to the people in the villages because this amendment is related to the directive principles of the state policy and panchayati raj.
The amendment is based on the principle of power of the people and provides . constitutional guarantee to the Panchayats.
Main features of the Act:
•Recognition to Panchayats, as institutions of self government.
•Panchayat’s power and responsibilities to prepare a plan for economic development and social justice.
•Establishment of uniform 3 tier system of strong Panchayats at village, block and district levels for all states having a population of over 20 lakhs.
•The Act provides guidelines for the structure powers and functions, finance and elections and reservation of seats for the weaker sections of the given area.
Importance of the Act:
•It was a revolutionary step towards establishing grassroot democracy.
•All the states have passed legislation on the basis of guidelines and provision of the amendments.
•Because of this act Panchayati Raj System at grassroot level became a reality.

Q6. Write an essay on the ways that the Indian Constitution touches peoples’ everyday life, drawing upon different examples.
Answer. • Indian constitution has given a democratic system to all of us.
•Democracy is a government for the people, of the people and by the people. It is not limited to political freedom or economic and social justice. It is also about equal rights to all respective of caste, creed, race and gender.
•Indian constitution has established Secularism. We have respect for all the religions and all the Indians have fundamental right to have faith in their own religion. Indian constitution provides equal rights to minority communities by extending friendly relationship and all sort of support system to them.
•India is a welfare state and a Sociologist patronise society. It is our duty to protect public and national property. We all have equal opportunities to make use of resources and put our best effort for economic development.
•Indian constitution provides social, political and economic justice and equality to all citizens of India. Therefore it is our duty to support the government to participate in activity of government programmes like population control, smallpox, Malaria or Pulse Polio Programmes. Food Security Bill, Right to Information (RTI), Right to Education (RTE) and efforts for women empowerment are few major efforts made by the government to strengthen Indian democracy.

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1.Write a critical essay on sanskritisation.
Answer. •The term ‘sanskritisation’ was coined by M.N. Srinivas. It may be defined as the process by which a low caste or tribe or other group takes over the customs, ritual, beliefs, ideology and style of life of a high and, in particular, a ‘twice-born(dwija) caste’.
•Its influence can be seen in language, literature, ideology, music, dance, drama, style of life and ritual.
•It is primarily a process that takes place in the Hindu space though Srinavas argued that it was visible even in sects and religious groups outside Hinduism.
•It operated differently in different regions. In those areas where a highly sanskritised caste was dominant, the entire region underwent a certain amount of Sanskritisation. In those areas, where non-sanskritic castes were dominant, it was their influence that was stronger, this can be termed as the process of ‘de- sanskritisation’.
•Srinivas argued that, ‘the sanskritisation of a group has usually the effect of improving its position in the local caste hierarchy. It normally presupposes either an improvement in the economic or political position of the group concerned or a higher group self-consciousness resulting from its contact with a source of the ‘Great Tradition’ of Hinduism such as a pilgrim centre or a monastery or a proselytizing sect.”
•But in India, there are many obstacles to any easy taking over of the customs of the higher caste by the lower. Traditionally, the dominant castes punished those low castes, which was audacious enough to attempt it.
•Sanskritisation refers to a process whereby people want to improve their status through adoption of names and customs of culturally high-placed groups. The “reference model’ is usually financially better off. In both, the aspiration to be like the higher placed group occurs only when people become wealthier.
CRITICISMS OF SANSKRITISATION
•It has been criticized for exaggerating social mobility or the scope of lower castes to move up the social ladder. For it leads to no structural change but only positional change of some individuals. Inequality continues to persist though some individuals may be able to improve their position within the unequal structure.
•The ideology of sanskritisation accepts the ways of the upper caste as superior and that of the lower caste as inferior. Thus, the desire to imitate the upper caste is seen as natural and desirable.
•Sanskritisation seems to justify a model that rests on inequality and exclusion. It appears to suggest that to believe in pollution and purity of groups of people is justifiable or all right. Therefore, to be able to look down on some groups of people just as the upper caste looked down on the lower castes, is a mark of privilege. It shows how such discriminatory ideas become a way of life. Instead of aspiring for an equal society, the exclusion and discrimination seek to give their own meaning to their excluded status. This gives rise to an undemocratic society.
•Since sanskritisation results in the adoption of upper caste rites and rituals it leads to practices of secluding girls and women, adopting dowry practices instead of bride-price and practising caste-discrimination against other groups.
•The effect of such a culture is that it erodes characteristics of dalit culture and society. For example, the very worth of labour which lower castes degraded and rendered shameful. Identities based on the basis of work, crafts, artisanal ability are regarded useless.

Q2. Westernisation is often just about adoption of western attire and life style. Are there other aspects to being westernised or Is that about modernisation? Discuss.
Answer. • M.N. Srinivas defines westernisation as “the changes brought about in Indian society and culture as a result of over 150 years of British rule, the term subsuming changes occurring at different levels…. technology, institutions, ideology and values.”
•There were different kinds of westernisation:
— One kind refers to the emergence of a westernised sub-cultural pattern through a minority section of Indian who first came in contact with the western culture. This included the sub-culture of Indian intellectuals who not only adopted many cognitive patterns or ways of thinking but also styles of life and supported its expansion,
— There has been a general spread of western cultural traits such as the use of new technology, dress, food and changes in general.
•Westernisation does involve the imitation of external forms of culture. It does not necessarily mean that people adopt modem values of democracy and equality.
•Apart from western ways of life and thinking, the west influenced Indian art and literature. The painting of Krishna Menon family in matrilineal community in Kerala but it reflects the very typical patrilineal nuclear family of the modern west consisting of the mother, father and children.
•Srinivas suggested that while lower castes’ sought to be sanskritised the “upper caste’ sought to be westernized. But this generalization is difficult to maintain. For example, the Thiyyas (by no means considered an upper caste) in Kerala show conscious efforts to westernize. Elite Thiyyas appropriated British culture as a move towards a more cosmopolitan life that criticised caste. Also, western education opens up new opportunities for different groups of people.
MODERNISATION
•Modernity assumes that local ties and parochial perspectives give way to universal commitments and cosmopolitan attitudes;
•That the truths of utility, calculation, and science takes precedence over those of the emotions, the sacred, and the non-rational;
•That the individual rather that the group be the primary unity of society and politics;
•That the associations in which men live and work be based on choice and not birth;
•That mastery rather than fatalism orient their attitude toward the material and human environment;
•That the identity be chosen and achieved, not ascribed and affirmed;
•That work be separated from family, residence, and community in bureaucratic organization.
It would be simplistic to state that complex combinations are just a mix of tradition and modernity as though tradition and modernity themselves are fixed entities. Or as though India has or had only one set of traditions. Modernity and tradition are constantly being modified and redefined.

Q3.Write short notes on:
(a)Rites and secularisation
(b)Caste and secularisation
(c)Gender and sanskritisation
Answer.(a) Rites and secularisation:
•It usually means a process of decline in the influence of religion.
•Indicators of secularisation have referred to levels of involvement with religious organisations (like church attendance), the social and material influence of religious organization, and the degree to which people hold religious beliefs.
•But the general assumption that modem societies are increasingly becoming secular may not entirely be hue.
•A considerable part of ritual in India has direct reference to the pursuit of secular ends.
•Rituals have secular dimensions i.e. they provide men and women occasions for socializing with their peers and superiors.
•They get an opportunity to show off family’s wealth, clothing and jewellery.
•During the last few decades in particular, the economic, political and status dimensions of ritual have become increasingly conspicuous.
(b)Caste and Secularisation:
•In traditional India, caste system operated within the religious framework.
•Belief systems of purity and pollution were centred to its practice. India has seen such formation of caste associations and caste based political parties. They seem to press upon the state their demands.
•Such a changed role of caste has been described as secularisation of caste.
•The traditional social system in India was organised around caste structures and caste identities. In dealing with the relationship between caste and politics, however the doctrinaire moderniser suffers from a serious xenophobia.
•Politicians mobilise caste groupings and identities in order to organise their power…. where there are other types of groups and other bases of association, politicians approach them as well. And as they everywhere change the form of such organizations, they change the form of caste as well.
(c)Gender and Sanskritisation:
•Sanskritisation supports traditional way of life for women and it is more liberal for modernization or westernization for men.
•Most of the supporters of Sanskritisation support the women life within the four walls of the houses. They support or prefer the role of women as a mother, a sister and a daughter.
•They like women to follow the traditional way of marriage with the consent of parents.
Kumud Pawade as a student could enable her to read in the original what the texts have to say about women and the Dalits. As she proceeds with her studies, she meets with varied reactions ranging from surprise to hostility, from guarded acceptance to brutal rejection. As she says “I remember an expression I heard somewhere: “What comes by birth, but can’t be cast off by dying—that is caste?”

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1. How has colonialism impacted our lives? You can either focus on one aspect like culture or politics or treat them together.
Answer. • British colonialism which was based on capitalism directly interfered to ensure greatest profit and benefit to British capitalism.
•Every policy was geared towards the strengthening and expansion of British capitalism.
•It changed the law of land as:
(a)It changed not just land ownership laws but decided even what crops would be grown and what ought not to be.
(b)It altered the way production and distribution of goods take place.
(c)It started interfering with the manufacturing sector.
(d)It started occupying forests and cleared trees and started plantation.
(e)Colonialism introduced the forest acts that changed the lives of tribals/ pastoralists.
(f) It also led to movements of people from one part to another in India which ultimately lead to the growth of nationalist and anti colonial awareness in the Indian masses.
The colonialism affected our lives culturally, politically and more or less combining the two.
Due to mobility and exposure to modem western thoughts people started thinking about freedom, liberty and human rights which provided basis for India freedom movement.
Colonialism also had significant social influences e.g. Indian society particularly the emerging middle class was gradually changed i.e. their life style, eating habits, languages and clothing.
Political impact of colonialism on Indian society was significant our national movement, the political system, the parliamentry and legal system, constitution, education system, the police traffic rules by and large the whole political structure changed due to the colonial impact.

Q2. Industrialisation and urbanisation are linked processes. Discuss.
Answer. • Industrialisation refers to the emergence of machine production, based on the use of inanimate power resources like steam or electricity.
•A prime feature of industrial societies is that a large number of people are employed in factories, offices or shops rather than agriculture.
•Over 90% people are living in cities and towns where most jobs are to be found and new job opportunities are created e.g. in Britain the first society to undergo industrialisation was also the earliest to move from being rural to an urban community.
•During British period industrialisation in some regions had led to decline of old urban centres.
•The process of urbanisation during the colonial period caused decline of earlier urban centres and the emergence of new colonial cities e.g. cities like Surat and Masulipatnam lost their charm and Bombay and Madras emerged as important cities.
•When manufacturing units boomed in Britain, traditional export of cotton and silk manufactures of India declined because they could not compete to Manchester.
•At the end of 19th century, with the development of mechanised factory industrialisation, few towns became heavily populated.
•Other than eastern India where British penetration was earliest and deepest, survived much more longer e.g. village crafts in the interior could survive. They were affected only with the spread of railways.
•The government of India after Independence played significant role in protecting and promoting industrialisation.
•Because of recent policies related to liberalisation and globalisation led to vast expansion of cities.

Q3.Identify any town or city with which you are familiar. Find out both the history of its growth and its contemporary status.
Answer. Do it yourself.

Q4. You may be living in a very small town, may be in a very big city, a semi urban settlement or a village.
•Describe the place where you live.
•What are the feature^ which make you think it is a town and not a city, a village and not a town, or a city and not a village?
•Is there any factory where you live?
•Is agriculture the main job that people do?
•Is it the occupational nature that has a ditermining influence?
•Is it the buildings?
•Is it the availability of educational opportunities?
•Is it the way people live and behave?
•Is if the way people talk and dress?
Answer. Do it yourself.

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1.What is meant by cultural diversity? Why is India considered to be a very diverse country?
Answer. • The term diversity implies differences rather than inequalities.
•When we say that India is a nation of great cultural diversity, we mean that there are many different types of social groups and communities living here.
•Different types of social groups and communities live here. There are communities with different cultural markers like language, religion, sect, race or caste.
•India is a pluralistic society. There is unity in diversity but its excessive diversity is becoming a challenge.
•When diverse communities (linguistic communities, religious communities, sects and so on) are, also, a part of a larger entity like a nation, then difficulties may be created by competition or conflict between them.
•Cultural diversity can present challenges which arise from the fact that cultural identities are very powerful-they can arouse intense passions and are often able to mobilize large numbers of people.
•Sometimes, cultural differences are accompanied by economic and social inequalities and this further complicates things.
•Measures to address the inequalities or injustices suffered by one community can provoke opposition from other communities.The situation gets worse when scarce resources like water, jobs or government
funds have to be shared.
•1632 different languages and dialects, different religions, diversity in climatic conditions and topography are causing serious challenges to the country.

Q2. What is community identity and how is it formed?
Answer. 1.Community identity is based on birth and belonging rather than on some forms of acquired qualifications or accomplishments.
2.These kind of identities are called ascriptive i.e. they are determined by birth and individual’s choice is not involved.
3.People feel a deep*sense of security and satisfaction in belonging to communities.
4.Ascriptive identities such as community identities are difficult to shake off; even if we choose to disown them, others may continue to identify us by those very markers of belonging.
5.Expanding and overlapping circles of community ties like family, kinship, ethnicity, language give meaning to our world and gives us a sense of identity.
6.Ascriptive identities and community feelings are universal. Everyone has a motherland, a mother tongue, a family, a faith. And we all are equally committed to our respective identities.
7.Our community provides us with our mother-tongue and the cultural values through which we comprehend the world. It, also, anchors our self-identity.
8. The process of socialization involves continuous dialogue with our significant surroundings such as parents, kin, family and community. Thus, community is a very important part of our identity.
9. Community conflicts are very hard to deal with since each side thinks of the other side as a hated enemy and there is a tendency to exaggerate the virtues of one’s own side as well as the vices of the other side.
10.It is very hard for people on either side to sec that they are constructing matching but reversed mirror images of each other.
11.At times, both sides are indeed equally wrong or right; at other times, history may judge one side to be the aggressor and the other to be the victim.
12.But this can happen long after the heat of the conflict has cooled down.
13.Some notion of a mutually agreeable truth is hard to arrive at in situations if identity conflict.

Q3. Why is it difficult to define the nation? How are nation and state related in modem society?
Answer. • A nation is a peculiar sort of community that is easy to describe but hard to define.
•We can describe many nations founded on the basis of common cultural, historical institutions like a shared religion, language, ethnicity, history or regional culture.
•But it is hard to come up with any defining features for nation.
•For every possible criterion there are exceptions and counter examples.
•For example-there are many nations that do not share a common language, religion, ethnicity and so on. On the other hand, there are many languages, religions or ethnicities that are shared across nations. But this does not lead to the transformation of a single unified nation.
Nation at the simplest level, is a community of communities. Members of a nation share the desire to be a part of the same political collectivity. Nations are communities that have a state of their own.
•In modem times, there has been a one-to-one bond between nation and state. But this development is new.
•It wasn’t true of the past that a single state could represent a single nation or every nation must have its own state.
•For example, Soviet Union explicitly recognized that the peoples it governed were of different nations.
•Also, people constituting a nation may actually be citizens or residents of different states. There are more Jamaicans living outside Jamaica than in Jamaica.
•Dual citizenship could, also, be a possibility. These laws allow citizens of a particular state to also simultaneously be citizens of another state. Example, Jewish AmericansMnay be citizens of Israel as well as the USA.
•Thus, nation is a community that has been able to acquire a state of its own. It‘s, also seen that states are finding it more and more necessary to claim that they represent a nation.
•A feature of the modem era is the establishment of democracy and nationalism as dominant sources of political legitimacy. This implies that nation is the most accepted or proper justification for a state, while people are the ultimate source of legitimacy of the nation.

Q4.Why are states often suspicious of cultural diversity?
Answer • States try to establish their political legitimacy through nation-building strategies.
•They sought to secure the loyalty and obedience of their citizens through policies of assimilation or integration.
•This is because most states have generally been suspicious of cultural diversity and have tried to reduce or eliminate it. The states fear that the recognition of varied culturally diverse identities such as language, ethnicity, religion will lead to social fragmentation and prevent the creation of a harmonious society.
•Also, apart from the fear of fragmentation, accommodating these differences is politically challenging.
•Thus so many states have resorted to either suppressing these identities or ignoring them in the political domain.

Q5.What is regionalism? What factors is it usually based on?
Answer. • Regionalism in India is rooted in India’s diversity of languages, cultures, tribes and religions.
•It is encouraged by the geographical concentration of these identity markers in particular regions, and fuelled by a sense of regional deprivation.
•Indian federalism has been a means of accommodating these regional sentiments.
From Presidencies to States
•After Independence, initially the Indian state continued with the British-Indian arrangement dividing India into large provinces, called Presidencies. Madras, Bombay and Calcutta were the three major presidencies.
•Soon after Independence and the adoption of the constitution, all these units of the colonial era had to be reorganized into ethno-linguistic states within the Indian union in response to strong popular agitations.
•Language coupled with regional and tribal identity and not religion has provided the most powerful instrument for the formation of ethno-national identity in India.
•But this does not mean that all linguistic communities have got statehood. For example- Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand. In their formation, language did not play*any role. A combination of ethnicity based on tribal identity, language, regional deprivation and ecology provided the basis.

Q6. In your opinion, has the linguistic reorganisation of states helped or harmed India?
Answer. •Language coupled with regional and tribal identity-and not religion-has provided the most powerful instrument for the formation of ethno-national identity in India. Language ensures better communication and results in more effective administration.
•Madras presidency was divided into Madras State, Kerala and Mysore State. The Report of the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) which was implemented on November 1, 1956, has helped transform the political and institutional life of the nation.
•It has proved to be perfectly consistent to be Kannadiga and Indian, Bengali and ’ Indian, Tamil an4 Indian, Gujarati and Indian.
•In 1953, Potti Sriramulu, died seven weeks after beginning a fast unto death. His death provoked violent protests and led to the creation of the state of Andhra Pradesh. It also led to the formation of the SRC, which in 1956 put the formal, final seal of approval on the principle of linguistic states. These states based on language sometimes quarrel with each other. While these disputes are not pretty, they could in fact have been far worse.
Currently there are 29 states (federal units) and 7 Union territories (centrally administered) within the Indian nation-state.

Q7. What is a ‘minority’? Why do minorities need protection from the state?
Answer. • Minority usually involves some sense of relative disadvantage.
•Privileged minorities such as extremely wealthy people are not usually referred to as minorities; if they are, the term is qualified in some way, as in the phrase “privileged minority’.
•When minority is used without any qualification, it implies a relatively small and also, disadvantaged group.
•The sociological sense of minority implies that the members of the minority form a collectivity i.e. they have a sense of group solidarity, a feeling of togetherness and belonging.
•This is linked to disadvantage because the experience of being subjected to prejudice and discrimination usually heightens feelings of intra-group loyalty and interests.
•Groups may be a minority in statistical sense, such as people who are left-handed or people bom on 29th February, are not minorities in sociological sense because they do not form a collectivity.
•Religious or cultural minority groups need special protection because of the demographic dominance of majority.
•These groups are politically vulnerable. They must face the risk that the majority community will capture political power and use the state machinery to suppress their religious or cultural institutions, ultimately forcing them to abandon their identity.
Exceptions
•Religious minorities like Parsis or Sikhs may be relatively well off economically but they may still be disadvantaged in the cultural sense because of their small numbers compared to overwhelming majority Hindus.
•Another set of complications arise by the fact of India state’s simultaneous commitment to secularism as well as the protection of minorities.
•The protection of minorities requires that they be given special consideration in a context where the normal working of the political system places them at a disadvantage vis-s-vis the majority.
•This leads to the accusation of favouritism. But supporters would state that without this protection, secularism can turn into an excuse for imposing majority community’s values and norms on minorities.

Q8. What is Communalism?
Answer. • Communalism refers to aggressive chauvinism based on religious identity.
Chauvinism is itself an attitude that sees one’s own group as the only legitimate or worthy group, with other groups being seen as inferior, illegitimate and opposed.
•Communalism is an aggressive political ideology linked to religion.
•This is a peculiarly Indian or South Asian meaning which is different from the ordinary English word.
•In the English language, ‘communal’ means something related to a community or collectivity as different from an individual. The English meaning is neutral, whereas the South Asian meaning is strongly charged.
•Communalism is about politics not about religion. Although, communalists are intensely involved with religion, there is no necessary relationship between personal belief and communalism. A communalist may or may not be a devout person, and devout persons may or may not be communalists.
•Communalists cultivate an aggressive political identity and are prepared to condemn or attack everyone who does not share their identity.
•One of the most important features of communalism is that religious identity overrides everything else, it, also, constructs large and diverse groups as singular and homogenous.
•Examples of communal riots in our country- Anti Sikh riots of 1984; the Gujarat riots.
•But, India also has a long tradition of religious pluralism, ranging from peaceful co-existence to actual mixing or syncretism. This syncretic heritage is reflected in the devotional songs and poetry of the Bhakti and Sufi movements.

Q9. What are the different senses in which ‘secularism’ has been understood in India?
Answer. 1. The Indian meanings of secular and secularism imply that state does not favour any religion. This implies equal respect for all religions rather than separation or distancing.
2. In the western context, secularism implies separation of church and state. This implies the progressive retreat of religion from public life, as it was converted from a mandatory obligation to a voluntary personal practice.
3. Secularization was related to the arrival of modernity and the rise of science and rationality as alternatives to religious ways of understanding the world.
4. One difficult issue that arises from this is the tension between the western sense of state maintaining distance from religion and the Indian sense of the state giving equal respect to all religions.

Q10. What is the relevance of civil society organisations today?
Answer. • Civil society is the name given to the arena which lies beyond the private domain of the family, but outside the domain of both state and market.
•Civil society is a non-state and non-market part of the public domain in which individuals get together voluntarily to create institutions and organisations.
•It is a sphere of active citizenship: individuals take up social issues, try to influence the state or make demands on it, pursue their collective interests or seek support for a variety of causes.
•It consists of voluntary institutions formed by group of citizens. It includes political parties; media institutions, trade unions, NGOs, religious organisations and other kinds of collective entities.
•The main criteria for inclusion in civil society are that the organisation should not be state controlled, and it should not be purely profit making entity.
•Examples-Doordarshan is not a civil society entity though private television channels are. The Indian people had an encounter with authoritarian rule during ‘Emergency’ enforced between June 1975 and 1977. Forced sterilisation programmes; censorship on media and government officials; civil liberties revoked.
Civil Society Today
•Today the activists of civil society organizations have a wide range of issues including advocacy and lobbying activity with national and international agencies as well as active participation in various movements.
•The issues taken jip range from tribal struggles for land rights; devolution of urban governance; campaigns against rape and violence against women, primary education reform, etc.
•Media, also, has started to play an important role in the civil society initiatives.
•Example-the Right to Information. Beginning with an agitation in rural Rajasthan for the release of information on government funds spent on village development, this effort grew into a nation-wide campaign. Despite opposition from the bureaucracy. Government was forced to respond to the campaign and pass a new law formally acknowledging citizens’ right to information.

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1. How is social inequality different from the inequality of individual?
Answer. Individual inequality refers to destructiveness and variations among individuals in their psychological and physical characteristics.
Social inequality refers to a social system where some people are getting opportunity to make use of the resources and others are not. Some people are at a higher level in terms of wealth, education, health and status while others are at the lowest level. Social inequality gets manifested in following forms:
(i) Social stratification (ii) Prejudices
(iii) Stereotypes (iv) Discrimination

Q2.What are some of the features of social stratification?
Answer. The key features of social stratification are
(i) Social stratification is a characteristics of society, not simply a function of individual differences.
It is society-wide system that unequally distributes social resources among categories of people.
For example: In the most technologically primitive societies-hunting and gathering societies, little was produced, so only rudimentary social stratification could exist.
In more technologically advanced societies, where people produce a surplus over and above their basic needs, however, social resources are unequally distributed to various social categories regardless of people’s innate individual abilities.
(ii) Social stratification persists over generations:
It is closely linked to the family and to the inheritance of social resources from one generation to the next. A person’s social position is ascribed, i.e., a child assumes the social position of its parents. Births dictate occupation e.g. a Dalit is likely to ‘ be confined to traditional occupation such as agricultural labours, scavenging or
leather work, with little chance of being able to get high paying white-collar or professional work.
The ascribed aspect of social inequality is reinforced by the practice of endogamy,
i.e., marriage is usually restricted to members of the same caste, ruling out the potential for breaking caste line through intercaste marriages.
(iii) Social stratification is supported by patterns of beliefs and ideology:
No system of social stratification is likely to persist over generations unless it is widely viewed as being either fair or inevitable. For example, Caste system is justified in terms of the opposition of purity and pollution, with Brahmans designated as the most superior and Dalits as the most inferior by virtue of their birth and occupation.
Not everyone, thinks of a system of inequality as legitimate. Typically, people with the greatest social privileges express the strongest support, while those who have experienced exploitation and humiliation of being at the bottom of the hierarchy are most likely to challenge it.

Q3.How would you distinguish prejudice from other kinds of opinion or belief?
Answer. Prejudice refers to pre-judgement, i.e., an opinion made in advance. Prejudice refers to pre-thought opinions or attitudes held by members of one group towards another.
Prejudice may be either positive or negative. A prejudiced person’s pre-thought views r are .generally based on hearsay rather than on direct evidence. This word is generally used for negative pre-judgements.
On the other hand, an opinion is a judgment about someone or something, not necessarily based on fact and knowledge.

Q4. What is social exclusion?
Answer. Social exclusion is the combined result of deprivation and discrimination that presents individual or groups from participating completely in the economic, social and political life of the society in which they live.Social exclusion is structural i.e., the outcome of social processes and institutions rather than individual action.
In this process, the individuals may cut off from total improvement in the broader society.

Q5. What is the relationship between caste and economic inequality today?
Answer. In the hierarchy of caste system each caste has a specific place and social status. There has been a close correlation between social or caste status and economic status. The high’ castes were almost invariably of high economic status. On the other hand, the “low’ caste were almost always of low economic status.
However, in the 19th Century the link between caste and occupation had become less , rigid consequently, the link between caste and economic status is not as rigid today as it used to be.At the macro line things have not changed much. The difference between the privileged a high economic status sections of society and disadvantaged (a low economic status) sections still persists.

Q6. What is untouchability?
Answer. Untouchability is a social practice within the caste system in which members of the lowest castes are thought to be ritually impure to such a limit that they cause pollution by mere touch or even sight. Untouchable castes are at the bottom of the hierarchical system. These low castes are excluded from most social institutions.
It is an extreme and vicious aspect of the caste system. It uses stringent social and ritual sanctions against members of castes located at the bottom of the purity pollution scale. They are considered to be outside the caste hierarchy.

Q7. Describe some of the policies designed to address caste inequality.
Answer. At the state level, there are special programmes for scheduled tribes and scheduled castes.
Because of massive discrimination practised against them, special provisions have been made for them.
The OBCs have also been added to this special provisions.
The laws passed to end, prohibit and punish caste discrimination, especially untouchability are:
(i) Caste Disabilities Removal Act of 1850, disallowed the curtailment of rights of citizens due solely to change of religion or caste. It allowed entry of Dalit to government schools. .
(ii) Constitution Amendment (93rd Amendment) Act of 2005, for introducing reservation for OBCs in institutions of higher education.
(iii) Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989, to abolish untouchability (Article 17) and introduced reservation provisions.
(iv) 1989 Prevention of Atrocities Act revised and strengthened the legal provisions against Dalits and Adivasis.

Q8.How are the Other Backward Castes different from die Dalits (or Scheduled Castes)?
Answer. Untouchability was ttie most visible and discriminatory form of social inequality. Despite this, there was a large group of castes which were of low status and were also subjected to varying levels of discrimination. The ex-untouchability communities their leaders have coined, another term, Dalit’, which is now the generally accepted term for referring to these groups. The term Dalit literally means ‘downtrodden’ and conveys the sense of an oppressed people.
However, the constitution of India recognises the probability what there may be groups other than SCs and STs who suffer from social advantages. These groups were described as “socially and educationally” backward classes or other backward classes.” The OBCs are neither part of the formed castes at the upper end of the caste hierarchy, nor the Dalits at the lower end. The OBCs are a much more diverse groups than the Dalits.

Q9. What are the major issues of concern to adivasis today?
Answer. The tribes, were considered to be “people of the forest’ whose special habitat in the hilly of and forest regions made their economic, social and political attributes. At present, except the North-Eastern states, there are no areas of the country which are inhabited exclusively by tribal people.
The regions where tribal population are concentrated, their economic and social conditions are much more than those of non-tribals.
However, after independence Adivasi lands were acquired for new river and dam projects. Consequently, millions of Adivasis were displayed without any adequate compensation or rehabilitation.
The resources of Adivasis are being taken away in the name of *03110031 development’ and ‘economic growth’.
For example projects such as Sardar Sarovar Dam on the river Narmada and the Polavaram Dam on river Godavari would displace hundred of thousands of Adivasis. The policy of economic liberalisation is leaving Adivasis to greater destitution.

Q10. What are the major issues taken up by the women’s movement over its history?
Answer. Scholars and social reformers have shown that the inequalities between men and women are social rather than natural. The women’s question became prominent in the 19 th Century. Raja Rammohun Roy’s attempt to reform society, religion and status of women in Bengal. He undertook the campaign against “Sati” which was the first women’s issue to receive public attention.
Jyotiba Phule was from socially excluded caste and he attacked both caste and gender discrimination. He established the Satyashodhak Samaj with its primary emphasis on truth seeking. ”
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan made efforts to reform Muslim Society. He wanted girls to be educated, but within the precincts of their homes.
He stood for women’s education but sought for a curriculum that included instruction in religious principles, training in arts of housekeeping and handicrafts and rearing of children.
Tarabai Shinde a Maharashtrian housewife, wrote, Stree Purush Tulana as a protest against the double standards of a male dominated society.
Women’s issues emphatically surfaced in 1970s . The burning issues were rape of women in police custody, dowry murders and gender injustice, etc. The new challenges have come in the form of social bias against the girl child sex ratio which is falling very « sharply.

Q11. In what sense can one sly that ‘disability’ is as much a social as a physical thing?
Answer. • The disabled are struggling not because they are physically or mentally challenged but also because society is built in a manner that does not cater to their needs.
•In the Indian context, one of the leading scholars of disability, Anita Ghai, argues that the invisibility of the disabled can be compared to the Invisible Man of Ralph Ellison which is a famous indictment of racism against African Americans in the USA.
•Common features of the public perceptions of disability are:
1.Disability is understood as a biological factor.
2.Whenever a disabled person is confronted with problems, it is taken for granted that the problems originate from his/her impairment.
3.The disabled person is seen as a victim.
4.Disability is supposed to be linked with the disabled individual’s self perception.
5.The very idea of disability suggests that they are in need of help.
•In India, in a culture that looks up to “bodily perfection’, all deviations from the “perfect body’ signify abnormality, defect and distortion. Lables such as “bechara’ accentuate the victim status for the disabled person.
•The roots of such attitude lie in the cultural conception that views an impaired body as a result of fate. Destiny is seen as the culprit, and disabled people are the victims. The common perception views disability as retribution for the past karma (action) from which there can be no reprieve. The dominant cultural construction in India, therefore looks at disability as essentially a characteristic of the individual. The popular images in mythology portray the disabled in an extremely negative fashion.
•The very term ‘disabled’ challenges each of these assumptions. The disabled are rendered disabled not because of biology but because of society.
•The social construction of disability has yet another dimension. There is a close relationship between disability and poverty. Malnutrition, mothers weakened by frequent childbirth, inadequate immunization programmes, accidents in overcrowded homes, all contribute to an incidence of disability among the poor people that is higher among people living in easier circumstances.
•Disability creates and exacerbates poverty by increasing isolation and economic strain, not just for the individual but for the family.
•Recognition of disability is absent from the wider educational discourse. This is evident from the historical practices within the educational system that continues to marginalize the issue of disability by maintaining two separate streams—one for disabled students and one for everyone else.
•The concepts of inclusion is still an experimental concept in our educational system which is restricted to few public schools only.