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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.

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1.What is meant by the phrase ‘invisible hand’?
Answer. According to Adam Smith, every person looks for his own self-interest and in pursuit of this in-tum works for the self-interest of all . In this sense, there seems to be an unseen force at work that converts what is good for each individual into what is good for the society. This unseen force was called the “invisible hand’

Q2. How does a sociological perspective on markets differ from an economic one?
Answer. Adam Smith and other thinkers developed the ideas of modem economics. It is based on the idea that the economy can be studied as a separate part of society that operates according to its own laws, leaving out the larger social or political context in which market functions.
On the other hand, sociologists have tried to develop an alternative way of studying economic institutions and processes within the larger social frameworks. In this way, ; sociologists consider markets as social institution which are made in culturally specific ways. Sociologists maintain that economies are socially ‘embedded’.

Q3. In what ways is a market—such as a weekly village market—a social institution?
Answer. Though markets are places of economic interaction, since they are based on a particular social context and social environment, we can also regard them as social institutions where a specific kind of social interaction take place.
Periodic markets (or weekly markets) are a central feature of social and economic organization. They give a chance to surrounding villages to interact with each other while they sell their goods.
In villages, in tribal areas apart from regular markets, specialised markets are also organized where specific products are sold such as in the fair of Pushkar in Rajasthan. Thus, traders from outside come and also moneylenders, entertainers, astrologers and other specialists offering their services and product.
Therefore, these periodic markets just do not fulfil local needs, they link the villages with regional economies and sometimes national economies. Thus in tribal areas they help in maintaining interconnections, which makes these markets a social institution.

Q4. How do caste and kin networks contribute to the success of a business?
Answer. In the precolonial period on wards, India had an extensive trading connection, not only within the country but also outside.
These trading connections were made by merchant groups who did extensive internal and external trades and mostly they were organized as a community based on their same caste or kinship and they did business on the basis of trust, loyalty and understanding that prevailed within their community.
An interesting illustration of the use of traditional joint family structure and kinship and caste networks to build their business can be seen in banking and trading activities of Chettiars of Tamil Nadu. They controlled trade and banking all over south-east Asia and Ceylon (new Sri Lanka) in the 19th century and operate as joint family business. This is typical patriarchal structure of joint family but they used trust, unity and goodwill of kinship to build their connection. This gives its idea that Indians had their indigenous version of capitalism, when they ran business for profit, which was centres around caste and kinship.

Q5. In what ways did the Indian economy change after the coming of colonialism?
Answer. The advent of colonialism in India produced major upheavals in the economy, causing disruptions in production, trade and agriculture. Cheap manufactured textiles from England completely destroyed the handloom industry and made the weavers jobless. In the colonial era, India began to be more fully linked to the world capitalist economy. Before being colonised by the British, India was a major supplier of manufactured goods to the world market. After colonialism, India became a source of raw materials and agriculture products and a consumer of manufactured goods, both largely for the benefit of industrialising England.
But rather than completely overturning the existing economic institutions, the expansion of the market economy in India provided new opportunities to some merchant communities, which were able to improve their position by re-orienting themselves to changing economic circumstances.
In some cases, new communities emerged to take advantage of the economic . opportunities provided by colonialism.
A good example of this process is provided by Marwaris, probably the most widespread and best—known business community in India.

Q6. Explain the meaning of ‘commoditisation’ with the help of examples.
Answer. Commoditisation occurs when things that were earlier not traded in the market become commodities.
For example:
1. Labours or skills have become things that can be bought and sold.
2. Sale of human organs, such as kidneys by poor to cater to rich patients to earii money.
3. Traditionally, marriages were arranged by families but now professional marriage bureaus and websites help people to find brides and grooms and take a proper fees. Earlier rituals and ceremonies were planned out by elders in the family but now it is given as a contract to marriage planners to plan out the entire ceremony.
4. In earlier times, people could not have even thought that any one could sell drinking water or charge money for it. But today, we buy bottled water as a normal commodity i.e. a commodity we can buy and sell.

Q7.What is ‘status symbol’?
Answer. Max Weber, coined the term Status symbol’ to describe the relationship between the goods that people buy as per their social status, i.e., the goods they buy and use are closely related to their status in the society.
For example—Brand of cell phones or model of cars are important markers of socio¬economic status. .

Q8.What are some of the processes included under the label ‘globalisation’?
Answer. In the era of globalisation the world is becoming increasingly interconnected. Their interconnections are not only economic but also cultural and political.
The process of globalisation involves a number of trends, especially the increase in international movement of commodities money, information, people and development in technology.
The main feature of globalisation is the increasing extension and integrations of markets around the globe. It means that changes in a market in one part of the globe may have a profound impact somewhere else far away.
For example—India’s booming software industry may face a slump if the U.S. economy does badly as happened after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York leading to a loss of business and jobs there.

9.What is meant by ‘liberalisation’?
Answer. Liberalisation is the process whereby state control over economic activities are minimised and left to the market forces to decide. In general, it is process of making laws more liberal and loosening of government rules and regulation on capital labour and trade; privatisation of public sector enterprises selling government around companies to private companies, a reduction in tariffs and import duties so that foreign goods can be imported more easily.
•It includes privatisation of public sector enterprises.
•It allows easier access for foreign companies to set up industries in India.
•This is also known as marketisation or market based process to solve economic, social or political problems.

Q10. In your opinion, will the long term benefits of liberalisation exceed its costs? Give reasons for your answers.
Answer. The changes that have been made under the liberalisation programme have stimulated economic growth and opened up Indian markets to foreign companies. Increasing foreign investment is supposed to help economic growth and employment. The privatisation of public companies is supposed to increase their efficiency and reduce the governments burden of running these companies.
However, the impact ef liberalisation has been mixed. Many people argue that liberalisation have had or will have, a negative net impact on India.
As I think, the costs and disadvantages will be more than the advantages and benefits, so as some sectors of Indian industry like software and information technology or agriculture like fish or fruit may benefit from access to a global market, but other sectors like automobiles, electronics or oilseeds will lose because they cannot compete with foreign products and producers.

Q1. What is the role of the ideas of separation and hierarchy in the caste system?
Answer. The caste system can be understood as the combination of two sets of principles, one based on difference and separation and the other on wholism and hierarchy.
Each caste is different and strictly separated from every other caste on the basis of restrictions. These restrictions are related to marriage, food sharing and social interaction to occupation.
Different and separated castes do not have an individual existence. They exist in relation to a larger whole. This societal whole or system is a hierarchical rather than egalitarian system.
Each individual caste follows an ordered rank—a particular position in a ladder like arrangement going from highest to lowest.
The hierarchical ordering of castes is based on the distinction between purity and pollution.
Castes that are considered ritually pure have high status, while those considered less pure or impure have low status.
Historians believe that those who were defeated in wars were often assigned low caste status.
Castes are not only unequal in ritual terms. They are complementary and non competing groups. It means each caste has its own place in the system which cannot be taken by any other caste.
Caste is also linked with occupation, the system functions as a social division of labour. It allows no mobility.This idea of separation and hierarchy has inculcated discrimination, inequality and prejudices in Indian society.

Q2. What are some of the rules that the caste system imposes?
Answer. The most commonly cited rules that the caste system has imposed are as follows:
•Caste is determined by birth-a child inherits the “bom information” the caste of its parents. One can never change one’s caste, leave it, or choose not to join it. Caste is never a matter of choice.
•Membership in a caste involves strict rules about marriage. Caste groups are “endogamous” i.e. marriage is restricted to members of the group.
•Members of a particular caste have to follow rules about food and food sharing.
•An individual bom into a caste could only practice the occupation associated with that caste, so that occupations were hereditary.
•Caste involves hierarchy of rank and status. Every person has a caste. Every caste has a caste. Every caste has a specified place in the hierarchy of all castes.
•Castes involve sub-division within themselves. Sometimes sub-castes may also have sub-caste i.e. segmental organisation.

Q3.What changes did colonialism bring about in the caste system?
Answer. The institution of caste underwent major changes during the colonial period.
Present status of caste in India is more a product of colonialism than of ancient Indian tradition.
The British administrators tried to understand the complexities of caste in an effort to leam how to govern the country efficiently.
The most important official effort to collect information on caste was through census. It began in 1860s.
The 1901 census under the direction of Herbert Risley was particularly important as it sought to collect information on the social hierarchy of caste i.e. the social order of precedence in particular regions, as to the position of each caste in the rank order.
The counting of caste and to officially recording of caste made this institution of caste identity became more rigid in India.
The land revenue settlements and laws gave legal recognition to the caste based rights of the upper caste.
Large scale irrigation schemes were accompanied by efforts to settle population there, and these also had caste dimension.
So colonialism brought about major changes in the institution of caste. In short the Britishers took initiative in following areas:
(i) Census-to make sure of number and sizes of the castes and sub-castes.
(ii) To understand the values, beliefs and customs of different sections of society.
(iii) Land settlement.

Q4.In what sense has caste become relatively ‘invisible’ for the urban upper castes?
Answer. The changes in the caste system benefited the most were urban middle and upper class. Caste status ensured these groups the necessary economic and educational resources and they took full advantage of the opportunities offered by rapid development. Particularly the upper caste elite were able to benefit from subsidised public education, specially professional education in science, technology, medicine and management. They were also able to take advantages of the expansion of state sector jobs in the early decades after independence. Because of this earlier load over the rest of the society in terms of education ensured a privileged status.
For the so called SC and ST and backward castes this change became detrimental. For these the caste became all too visible. They had not inherited educational and social capital and they had to compete with already established upper caste group.They cannot afford to abandon their caste identity.They continue to suffer from discrimination of various kinds.

Q5. How have tribes been classified in India?
Answer. Tribes have been classified according to their permanent and acquired traits. Classification of Tribal societies: • Permanent traits • Acquired traits

Classification on the basis of size:
In terms of size, tribals range between seven million to less than 100 person (In Andaman Nicobar Islands). The biggest tribes are the Gonds, Bhils, Santhals, Oraons, Minas, Bodos, and Mundas each at least a million people. The tribals in India shared 8.2% of total population i.e. 85 million people according to 2001 census.

Q6.What evidence would you offer against the view that ‘tribes are primitive communities living isolated lives untouched by civilisation?
Answer. There is no reason to believe that tribes are out of contact with the rest of world or have always been the oppressed section of the society. This can be said because of the following reasons:
1.Gond Kingdoms in central India such as that of Garha Mandla or Chanda.
2.Many of the Rajput Kingdoms of central and western India emerged through a process of stratification among adivasi communities themselves.
3.Adivasi often exercised dominance over the plains people through their capacity to raid them and through their services as local militias.
4.They also occupied a special trade niche, trading forest produce, salts and elephants.
Evidences substantiating tribes as primitive communities:
1.Tribes have not a state or political form of the normal kind.
2.They have no written rules on religion.
3.They are neither Hindus nor peasants.
4.Primarily they are engaged in activities like food gathering, fishing, hunting, agriculture etc.
5.The habitat of tribes is in dense forests and mountainous regions.

Q7. What are the factors behind the assertion of tribal identities today?
Answer. • Forced incorporation or tribal communities has had a negative impact on tribal cultures and,sodety as much as its economy.
•Tribal identities are today formed by interactional process.
•Because this interactional process has not been in favour of the tribes, many tribal identities are based on ideas of resistance and opposition to the overwhelming force of the non-tribal world.
•The positive impact of success such as the achievement of statehood for Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, is marred by continuous problems. Many citizens of the north¬eastern states have been living under special laws that limit their civil liberties. The vicious circle of armed rebellions provoking state repression which in turn fuels further rebellions has taken a heavy toll on the culture, economy, and society of these north-eastern states.
•Gradual emergence of an educated middle class in conjunction with the policy of reservation is creating an urbanised professional dass. As tribal societies get more and more differentiated i.e. developed dass and other division within themselves, current bases grow for the assertion of tribal identity.
•These issues are categorised to control over vital economic resources like land and specially forests, and issues relating to matters of ethnic-cultural identity.
•Due to vision within the tribes, the reason for asserting tribal identity may be different for different group of tribals.

Q8. What are some of the different forms that the family can take?
Answer. Family is a very important sodal institution. In either form i.e. nudear or extended, it has post to perform. Lately, a lot of changes have come about in the structure for example, those people employed in the software industry have odd working to this, grandparents have shifted in as caregivers to young.
A family could be headed by a male or female; descent could be traced from the mother or the father. This structure and composition of the family is based on various fadors ‘ such as economy, polity, culture and education.
The changes in the structure of family that we see today could be
(i)Same sex marriage
(ii)Love marriage
But history and contemporary times suggest that such changes are met with violent reactions.
Nuclear Family: It consists of one set of parents and their children.
Extended Family: It consisted of more than one couple and, often, more than two generations live together. The extended family is symptomatic of India.
Diverse forms of family (i) Matrilocal-patrilocal (based on residence)
(ii) Matrilineal and patrilineal (based on rules of inheritance)
(iii) Matriarchal and patriarchal (based on authority)

Q9. In what ways can changes in social structure lead to changes in the family structure?
Answer. The structure of family can be seen as social institution and also in its relationship to other social institution of society.
•The internal structure of the family is usually related to other structure of society i.e. political, economic, cultural, etc. Therefore any significant change in behaviour pattern of members of family may change the nature of society for example working schedules of young parents in the software industry in India may lead to increasing number of grandparents moving in as caregivers to the young grand children.
•The composition of the family and its structure thereby changes. And these changes can be understood in relation to other changes in society.
•The family (the private sphere) is linked to the economic, political, cultural and educational (the public) spheres.
•Sometimes the changes in the families and corresponding changes in the society occur accidently e.g. due to war or riots people migrate in search of work or for security reasons.
•Sometimes these changes are purposefully brought about, e.g. due to independence and openness of ideas, people choosing their jobs, life partner and life style and such changes are very frequent in the Indian society.

Q10. Explain the difference between matriliny and matriarchy.
Answer. Matriliny.
•Societies of Meghalaya Khasi, Jaintia, Garo tribes and societies of Kerala, Nayyar family property inheritance goes from mother to daughter whereas control passes from maternal uncle to Nephew.
•It means a women inherits property from mother and passes on to her daughter while a man controls his sister’s property and passes on control to his sister’s son.
•This matriliny generates intense role conflict for men because they are in conflict between their responsibilities to their own house on the one hand and to their wife and children on the other-“Should I pay more attention to my family or my sister’s family.”
This role conflict is for woman also.
She possesses only token authority, men are the defacto powerholders. Despite matriliny men are the powerholders.
Matriarchy
•In such societies the women exercise authority and play dominant role.
•Practically it is only a theoretical concept as it never allows the women to have real power of dominance.
•Realistically it is not existed even in matrilineal families.

Textbook Question And Answer:

Q1.Explain the basic argument of the theory of the demographic transition. Why is the transition period associated with a ‘population explosion’?
Answer. Theory of demographic transition suggests that population growth in linked to overall levels of economic development and that every society follows a typical pattern of development related population growth.
There are three basic phases of population growth:
Stage I: Primitive Stage [Underdeveloped countries]
•Low population growth in a society that is underdeveloped and technologically backward.
•In such societies like Africa birth rate is high since people are unaware of the advantages of having small families, they are not educated.
•Death rate is also high since health and medical facilities are not available, therefore population is low.
Stage II: [Developing countries]. The birth rate and death rate rank very high, the net growth rate remains low.
Birth rate is high as in this society people live in a patriarchal society in which men decide how many children must be bom and male child is preferred. People are illiterate and ignorant.
Death rate is also high since health and medical facilities are not available.
Stage III: [Developed countries]. Birth rate in low because people are educated and aware and use contraceptives, birth control is popularised. Death rate is also low because of availability of health and medical facilities, therefore population is low.
Transitional Stage: The stage between backwardness and skilled people]: In this stage growth rate of population is very high whereas death rates are brought down due to better medical facilities, nutrition and better medical and technological advancement therefore this transition period is associated with a population explosion.

Q2. Why did Malthus believe that catastrophic events like famines and epidemics that cause mass deaths were inevitable?
Answer. English political economist Thomas Robert Malthus argued that human population tend to grow at a much faster rates than the rate which the means of human subsistence (land, agriculture) can grow.
He said population rises in geometric progression whereas agricultural production can only grow in Arithmetic progression.
Malthus believed that positive checks to population growth in the form of famines and diseases, was inevitable. These are nature’s way of dealing with the balance between food supply and increasing population.
According to him, these natural checks are extremely painful and difficult. Although it helps to achieve a balance between population and subsistence by increasing the death rate.

Q3.What is meant by ‘birth rate’ and ‘death rate*? Explain why the birth rate in relatively slow to fall while the death rate declines much faster.
Answer. Birth rate and death rate are fundamental concepts in Demography.
Birth rate: It refers to the total number of births in a particular area, which can be the entire country, a state or any territorial unit during a specific period.
•Crude birth rate in expressed through the following method : B/p x 1000
B = Number of births P = Entire population
•It is crude birth rate because it does not include the ratio of bearing age.
•Birth rate can be defined as the number of live births per thousand persons in a years.
•Birth rate gets significantly affected by Age of marriage, infertility, climatic conditions, social condition, religious beliefs and education.
Death rate: It is the number of deaths per thousands persons in a year in a particular area, which can be the entire country, a state or any other territorial unit.
Causes of slow birth rate:
Birth rate is relatively slow while the death rate can be brought down at much faster rate for the following reasons:
•Public health measures and medical advancement can control the death rate immediately. Everybody wants good health and wants to live a long life. Because of the love for life everybody adopts all medical and technological measures with high level of motivation.
Birth rate continues to be high because it is related to attitude, beliefs and values of people. Birth rate is related to religious beliefs and by and large it is socio-cultural phenomena which is significantly slow to change.

Q4. Which states in India have reached or are very near the ‘replacement levels’ of population growth? Which ones still have very high rates of population growth? In your opinion, what could be some of the reasons for these regional differences?
Answer. Replacement level refers to the rate of growth required for new generations to replace the older ones that are dying out.
Replacement level refers to giving birth to two children that replacement completes. States at the replacement level of population growth: Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.
States very near to the replacement levels of population growth: Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and West Bengal.
States having very high rates of population growth: U.P., Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh.
Reasons of regional differences:
•Difference in Literacy Percentage in different states.
•Societal conditions vary in different states. Terrorism, war-like conditions and insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and North-East.
•Socio-Economic conditions vary in different states.
(i) Number of BPL people is highest among states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha.
(ii) Socio-cultural formation: A belief that more children means more hands to earn or religious beliefs.

Q5.What is meant by ‘the age structure’ of the population? Why is it relevant for economic development and growth?
Answer. •India has a very young population. The average age of an Indian is less than that for most other countries. Majority of Indians are between the age group of 15 and 64 years.
•Age structure of the population refers to the proportions of persons in different age groups relative to the total population.
•Population under the age of 15 has decreased from 42% in 1971 to 31% in 2011. During this period the ratio of age group 15 to 64 was gone up from 53% to 63.7%.
•Age structure in a country changes with development poor medical facilities, prevalence of disease reduce the life expectancy.
•Age structure of population can be put in following age groups:
0-14 years. [Children]
15-59 years. [Working population]
60 + Years. [Old people]
This age structure of the Indian population can be understood by following table.

This table indicates that the share of the under 15 age group in the total population has come down from higher level of 42% in 1971 to 34% in 2001 and it is perfected to be reduced to 23% in 2026. It means birth rate in India is gradually decreasing.
Relevance for economic development and growth:
•Due to the advancement in medical sciences, public health measures and nutrition the life expectancy is at rise. This is due to economic development and growth.
•Need of family planning in being understood. Decrease in 0-14 years age group reveals that National population policy is implemented properly.
•Because of socio-cultural changes in Indian society and economic growth Age structure of population is moving towards positive young India.
•Dependency ratio is decreasing and increase in working population is causing positive growth in Indian economy.
•Economic development and improvement in quality of life improve life expectancy and changes the structures of the population.
•High infant mortality rate and material mortality rate due to poor economic growth hence an adverse effect of age structure on the population.

Q6.What is meant by the ‘sex ratio’? What are some of the implications of a declining sex ratio? Do you feel that parents still prefer to have sons rather than daughters? What, in your opinion, could be some of the reasons for this preference?
Answer. Sex ratio refers to the number of females per thousand males in a given area at a specified period of time.
•This ratio is an important indicator of gender balance in population.
•Historically there were more females than males in most countries of the world. This phenomena occurred due to two reasons:
(i)Girl babies enjoy better immune system and resistant to diseases in comparison of male child.
(ii)Females live longer than males in most of the societies.
•The ratio between female babies and male babies is roughly 1050 female to 1000 male.
•In India sex ratio is declining significantly and continuously for more than a century. From 972 female per thousand males at the turn of 20th century the sex ratio declined to 933 at the turn of 21st century.
•The state level child sex ratio is alarming. As many as 6 states and union territories have a child sex ratio as low child sex ratio of 793. The highest child sex ratio of 986 is found in Sikkim.
Sex ratio seems to be declining in countries like India, China and South Korea.
In India, parents still prefer male child. This is basically due to social and cultural reasons. Being agricultural society the village population preferred male child to look after the land. The reason of preference of male child is definitely not linked with economic reasons. The states like Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh and Maharashtra are most prosperous states of India and should have highest child sex ratio, but things are just different.
The census of 2001 reveals that these are states with the lowest sex ratios i.e., 950 female babies per 1000 male babies. This data is a reliable evidence that selective abortion in these states is not due to poverty, ignorance or lack of resource. Predisposing factors for low child sex ratio in India:
•Religious or Cultural Beliefs: Belief that only son is entitled to perform funeral and related rituals of his parents. Only son is the waaris of family. In the absence of male child jthe.uansli will not continue.
•Economic Reasons: The main occupation of Indian society is agriculture. Villagers have a thinking that landed property cannot be given to girls because after marriage they will go to another village, town or city. Neither girl child can get her share of load nor she can take care of the land.
•Lack of Awareness: People in Indian society having ignorant conservation attitude are still not ready to give equal status to daughter because they think that during old age they will be dependent on the son. Only he will share food, house, customs and responsibilities.
Implications of child sex ratio: Low child sex ratio, if continues, will have serious implications on our social network, particularly the Institution of marriage. It will also cause severe law and order problem related to women.

In This Post we are  providing  CHAPTER 19 PLANNING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN INDIAN CONTEXT NCERT MCQ for Class 12 GEOGRAPHY INDIA- PEOPLE AND ECONOMY which will be beneficial for students. These solutions are updated according to 2021-22 syllabus. These MCQS  can be really helpful in the preparation of Board exams and will provide you with a brief knowledge of the chapter

NCERT MCQ ON PLANNING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN INDIAN CONTEXT

Question 1: Planning includes which of the following

a) process of thinking

b) formulation of schemes or programmes

c) implementation of set of actions to achieve goal

d) all of above 

Answer : D

Question 2: Sectoral planning does not include

a) Irrigation

b) Transport

c) Hill area

d) Infrastructure 

Answer : D

Question 3: Aim of regional planning is

a) develop agriculture

b) to improve roads

c) to reduce regional imbalance

d) to develop industry 

Answer : C

Question 4: Hill area development programme does not include

a) Horticulture

b) poultry

c) small scale industry

d) large scale industry 

Answer : D

Question 5:   ITDP means

a) integrated tribal development project

b) Indian tribal development project

c) Indian tribal development program

d) integrated tribal development programme 

Answer : A

Question 6:  Sustainable development does not include

a) Fast development

b) dynamic development

c) ecological development

d) present and future development 

Answer : A

Question 7: Indira Gandhi canal command area is in

a) Gujrat

b) Bihar

c) Rajasthan

d) Maharashtra 

Answer : A

Question 8 : Negative influence of Indira Gandhi Canal command area includes

a) wind erosion

b) water logging

c) siltation

d) afforestation 

Answer : A

Question 9: Promotion of sustainable development does not include

a) siltation of canals

b) lining of water resources

c) shelter belt

d) water management policy 

Answer : A

Question 10: Bharmaur ITDP includes

a) development of infrastructure

b) development of transport

c) development of agriculture

d) all 

Answer : D

Question 11. When did the Tenth Five Year Plan come to an end?
(A) 2005
(B) 2006
(C) 2007
(D) 2008

Answer: (C)

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Question 12.In which state in Bharmaur Tribal Region situated?
(A) Uttarakhand
(B) Jammu & Kashmir
(C) Himachal Pradesh
(D) Uttar Pradesh

Answer: (C)

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Question 13. On which factor does the economic development of a region depends?
(A) Relief
(B) Climate
(C) Population
(D) Resources

Answer: (D)

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Question 14. What should be the height of an area in the hill area development programme?
(A) 500 metres
(B) 600 metres
(C) 700 metres
(D) 800 metres

Answer: (B)

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Question 15. In how many districts, drought-prone area are identified:
(A) 47
(B) 57
(C) 67
(D) 77

Answer: (C)

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In This Post we are  providing  CHAPTER 19 MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES NCERT MCQ for Class 12 GEOGRAPHY INDIA- PEOPLE AND ECONOMY which will be beneficial for students. These solutions are updated according to 2021-22 syllabus. These MCQS  can be really helpful in the preparation of Board exams and will provide you with a brief knowledge of the chapter

NCERT MCQ ON MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

1. Which is not a factor of industrial location?
(A) Market
(B) Capital
(C) Population Density
(D) Power.

Ans. (C) Population Density

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2. The earliest Iron and Steel Company to be established in India was:
(A) IISCO
(B) TISCO
(C) Visvesvaralya Iron and Steel Works
(D) Mysore Iron and Steel Works.

Ans. (A) IISCO

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3. The first modern cotton mill was established in Mumbai because:
(A) Mumbai is a port
(B) It is located near cotton growing area
(C) Mumbai was the financial centre
(D) All of the above.

Ans. (D) All of the above.

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4. The nucleus of the Hugli Industrial Region is:
(A) Kolkata-Haora
(B) Kolkata-Rishra
(C) Kolkata-Medinipur
(D) Kolkata-Konnagar

Ans. (A) Kolkata-Haora

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5. On the basis of ownership industries are categorized as
(A) public sector
(B) private sector
(C) joint sector
(D) all of the above

Ans. (D) all of the above.

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6. Which of the following river provides water to TISCO?
(A) kharkai
(B) subarnarekha
(C) both A and B
(D) none of the above

Ans. (C) both A and B

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7. What is the full form of IISCO?
(A) Indian iron and Steel company
(B) Indian iron and Steel authority
(C) Tata iron and Steel corporation
(D) none of the above.

Ans. (B) Indian iron and Steel authority

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8. Which of the following statement is it true regarding the Steel plants set up during second year plant?
(A) Rourkela in Odisha
(B) Bhilai in Chhattisgarh
(C) Durgapur in West Bengal
(D) all of the above

Ans. (D) all of the above

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9. When was LPG policy announced?
(A) 1991
(B) 1985
(C) 1996
(D) 2002

Ans. (A) 1991

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10. Which of the following is called electric capital of India?
(A) Delhi
(B) Mumbai
(C) Chennai
(D) Bengaluru

Ans. (D) Bengaluru.

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11. Between which cities the nucleus of Gujarat industrial region lies?
(A) Ahmedabad and Vadodara
(B) Ahmedabad and Kandla
(C) Visakhapatnam and Kurnool
(D) Birlanagar and Medinipur.

Ans. (A) Ahmedabad and Vadodara

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12. Between which cities the nucleus of Hugli industrial region lies?
(A) Ahmedabad and Vadodara
(B) Ahmedabad and Kandla
(C) Visakhapatnam and Kurnool
(D) Birlanagar and Medinipur.

Ans. (D) Birlanagar and Medinipur.

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13. Where the first cotton mill was established ?
(A) Delhi
(B) Kolkata
(C) Mumbai
(D) Chennai

Ans. (C) Mumbai, 1854.

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14. Durgapur Steel plant was set up with the help of United Kingdom in which year?
(A) 1962
(B) 1959
(C) 1964
(D) 1992

Ans. (A) 1962.

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15. Which of the following is true regarding Steel plants and their partner country?
(A) Durgapur Steel plant – United Kingdom
(B) Bhilai Steel plant – Russia
(C) Rourkela Steel plant – Germany
(D) all of the above.

Ans. (D) all of the above.

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In This Post we are  providing  CHAPTER 17 MINERAL AND ENERGY RESOURCES NCERT MCQ for Class 12 GEOGRAPHY INDIA- PEOPLE AND ECONOMY which will be beneficial for students. These solutions are updated according to 2021-22 syllabus. These MCQS  can be really helpful in the preparation of Board exams and will provide you with a brief knowledge of the chapter

NCERT MCQ ON MINERAL AND ENERGY RESOURCES

Question 1.
Which is the hardest mineral?
(A) Diamond
(B) Granite
(C) Basalt
(D) Gabbro

Answer: (A) Diamond

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Question 2.
Which one of the following is a ferrous mineral?
(A) Bauxite
(B) Iron ore
(C) Mica
(D) Coal

Answer: (B) Iron ore

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Question 3.
The iron content in Hematite is:
(A) 20 – 30%
(B) 30 – 40%
(C) 40 – 50%
(D) 60 – 70%

Answer: (D) 60 – 70%

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Question 4.
Which one of the following is a famous Copper mine?
(A) Bastar
(B) Khetri
(C) Nellore
(D) Jharia

Answer: (B) Khetri

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Question 5.
Lignite coal is found in:
(A) Jharia
(B) Neyveli
(Q Bokaro
(D) Raniganj

Answer: (B) Neyveli

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Question 6.
Where is the largest solar plant located?
(A) Nasik
(B) Madhopur
(C) Kaiga
(D) Chandrapur

Answer: (B) Madhopur

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Question 7.
Which one of the following is a non-metallic mineral?
(A) Iron
(B) Limestone
(C) Manganese
(D) Copper

Answer: (B) Limestone

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Question 8.
For which mineral, is Hazaribagh Plateau famous?
(A) Iron ore
(B) Copper
(C) Mica
(D) Coal

Answer: (C) Mica

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Question 9.
Where is the largest coalfield of India?
(A) Jharia
(B) Raniganj
(C) Neyveli
(D) Singareni

Answer: (A) Jharia

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Question 10.
In which state is Kalpakkazn located?
(A) Kerala
(B) Karnataka
(C) Tamil Nadu
(D) Andhra Pradesh

Answer: (C) Tamil Nadu

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Question 11.
Which out of the following states has major oil fields?
(A) Assam
(B) Bihar
(C) Rajasthan
(D) Tamil Nadu

Answer: (A) Assam

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Question 12.
On which station out of the following, the first atomic station was set up?
(A) Kalpakkam
(B) Narora
(C) RanaPartapSagar
(D) Tarapur.

Answer: (D) Tarapur

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Question 13.
Out of the following, which mineral is called ‘Brown diamond’?
(A) Iron ore
(B) Lignite
(C) Manganese
(D) Mica

Answer: (B) Lignite

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Question 14.
Which is the non-renewable source of energy?
(A) Hydel
(B) Solar
(C) Thermal
(D) Wind

Answer: (C) Thermal

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Question 15:

Which is the best quality of iron ore?

(a) Hematite

(b) Siderite

(c) Magnetite

(d) Limonite 

Answer : C Magnetite