NCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS CLASS – 12 | SOCIOLOGY PART A IMPORTANT QUESTIONS | CHAPTER-6 | THE CHALLENGES OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY | EDUGROWN |

In This Post we are  providing  CHAPTER 6 THE CHALLENGES OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY NCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS for Class 12 SOCIOLOGY PART A 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 MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS ON THE CHALLENGES OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Question 1.
Give three features of ascribed identity and community feeling.
Answer:

1. People are very much associated with ascribed identities and community feelings. It provides reality to the world and gives us a sense of identity.
2. Ascribed identity and community feelings are universal. Every individual has a motherland, mother tongue, a family, and loyalty as well.
3. All of us are equally loyal towards our ascribed identities. Yet there are certain differences among ascribed identities of every individual and a sense of loyalty remains there in everyone.

Question 2.
‘India is a secular state.’How?
Answer:
It is true that India is a secular state. It has been declared in the Constitution that India will be a secular state but religion, language, and other factors are not completely discarded from all the public sectors. Actually, these groups are individually sanctioned. From the aspect of international criteria, minority religions are given strong constitutional protections. Constitution has given fundamental rights to everyone (including minorities) to protect and propagate their culture. Everyone is free to adopt any religion of their choice. It has been written in the Constitution that no discrimination shall be made on the basis of any religion. State and government will not have their own religion. In this way, we can say that India is a secular country.

Question 3.
How can secularism be understood in its two forms?
Answer:
Secularism in the Indian context:
(a) India is a State recognizing all religions to be equal.

• It does not favor any one particular religion over the others;
• Opposite of religious chauvinism
• Implies equal respect for all religions

For example – India as a secular State declares public holidays to mark the festivals of all religions.

(b) Secularism in the western context:

• The State has a particular religion
• It refers to the separation of Church and the State
• It means the distancing of religion and political authority.

Question 18.
Explain the politics of assimilation and integration used to establish a national identity. (C.B.S.E. 2017 (D))
Answer:
Assimilationist and integrationist strategies try to establish singular national identities through various interventions like:

1. Centralizing all powers to forums where the dominant group constitutes a majority and eliminating the autonomy of local or minority groups.
2. Imposing a unified legal and judicial system based on the dominant group’s traditions and abolishing alternative systems used by other groups.
3. Adopting the dominant group’s language as the only official national language and making its use mandatory in all public institutions.
4. Promotions of the dominant group’s language and culture through national institutions including state-controlled media and educational institutions.
5. Adoption of state symbols celebrating the dominant group’s history, heroes, and culture reflected in such things as choice of national holidays or naming of streets, etc.
6. Seizure of lands forests and fisheries from minority groups and indigenous people and declaring them national resources.

Question 4.
Which elements of Unity were there in ancient India?
Answer:
1. Rural Society. Ancient India was based upon rural society. The lifestyle of the people was also rural. The main occupation of the people was agriculture. Most of the people were engaged in agriculture or in occupations related to agriculture. Jajmani system was in existence. Washermen, cobblers, ironmen provided their services to the people. They were known as Kamins. Big landlords used to give a share to them from their produce. This Jajmani system was prevalent since the ages. This established unity in the rural society.

2. Institutions. Mobility was present in many traditional and cultural institutions of the society. Gurukuls of education as well as many other institutions became the basis of unity in India. These institutions were one of the reasons for unity in ancient India.

3. Language. Brahmi script is known as the mother of all the languages. All of our ancient religious scriptures like Vedas, Puranas, etc., are written in the Sanskrit language. The Sanskrit language is seen with great respect in the whole of India. It is also known as the language of gods because it has been said that different gods used to use this language.

4. Ashrama System. One of the main bases of unity in the Indian Society was some of its institutions like the Ashrama System. Four Ashramas are arranged for our life like Brahmacharya Ashram, Grihastha, Vana Prastha, and Sanyasa Ashrama. This system prevailed all over India because the ultimate aim of every person is to get salvation. That is why everyone used to obey this system.

5. Purusharthas. There are four main aims of life which were known as Purusharthas. These are Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. During earlier times, only Brahmins were there. But later on, other varnas like Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras came into existence. The most aim of their life was to get salvation. That is why everyone had to spend his life according to these Purusharthas. Everyone had to spend their lives by following the Dharma (duties), earning Artha (money), to continue their lineage (Kama), and ultimately to attain moksha (salvation). Everyone used to obey them. In this way, it was one of the elements of Indian unity.

6. Karmas or One’s Actions. The meaning of Karmas is the work or one’s actions. Karma is of great importance in Indian culture. The next life of the person depends upon one’s Karma of his previous life. If Karma is good then the next birth of that person will be at a good place and vice versa. It is also possible that the good deeds of the person may lead him to salvation from the cycle of birth and death. Karma was also one of the elements of unity in Indian society.

Question 5.
Explain the reasons for Unity in Diversity in Indian Society.
Answer:
1. Geographical Factors. India is a country full of diversities from the geographical point of view. The world’s highest mountain, Himalayas is in Northern India. Rivers like Sindhu, Ganga, Yamuna, and Brahmaputra form the largest plain of India. India has certain places where a lot of rainfalls and has the driest area as well i.e., Thar desert. It has both fertile as well as barren land. Some of its areas are covered with ice throughout the year whereas others are deserts. It has many densely populated states like Uttar Pradesh and has certain places, like Sikkim, where there is very less density of population.

2. Social Factors. In social diversity, we can see different forms of marriage, which is one of the basic institutions of society. Some castes have the custom of fraternal polyandry and some groups like Muslims have the custom of polygamy. Joint family and Nuclear family express social diversity. People, in urban areas hardly know their neighbors even if they lived in one place for years but people in rural areas know everything about everyone in their society.

3. Religious Factors. People following different religions such as Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, etc., have been living in India since the ages. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the British came to India and from then onwards Christianity also became an indispensable part of Indian society. There are 3000 castes in Hindus and 94 castes in Muslims. In the same way, Christians are divided into Protestants and Catholics, Buddhists in Hinayana and Mahayana and Jains are divided into Digambars and Shwetambars.

But many times religious riots occur in different parts of the country like at Godhra in Gujarat in 2002. But internal unity still prevails even in the presence of religious diversity. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Sikhism are different religions propagated in India. They follow their respective beliefs, values, and ideals to establish harmony among all religions. The Indians celebrate their festivals like Hob, Diwali, Dussehra, Eid, Gurupurab, Christmas, Good Friday, etc.

4. Caste Factors. Generally, the followers of all religions are divided into many castes and subcastes. Four varnas, which were started in the Vedic age on the basis of action and trait, were changed into thousands of castes due to intra-varna marriage. Three thousand castes exist in today’s India. Every caste has its own beliefs, values, etc. After independence, the Government of India has classified these caste groups into four categories i.e., scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, and general category. Caste stratification has been reduced due to reservation for backward and lower classes. Caste restrictions have been reduced to a great extent because of education, common means of transport, common workplace, etc.

5. Linguistic Factors. India is a multilingual society where 22 languages were sanctioned by the Indian Constitution. Hindi became the national language and English was sanctioned as the official language. Indian society has been divided on the linguistic basis to such an extent that in 1953 Andhra Pradesh state was formed by separating it from Tamil Nadu due to the Telugu language. In the same way, Punjab and Haryana were also formed. South Indian people are unable to adopt the Hindi language. In spite of this, linguistic unity still exists in India even in the presence of diversity. Most of the Indians speak, understand, write and read the Hindi language. South Indian people generally use the Dravidian language and North Indian people use the Indo-Aryan language. The spread of education has made it possible that all the Indians communicate with each other either in Hindi or English language.

Question 6.
What are the factors of religious diversity in India? Explain.
Answer:
Diversity in religion is of two types:

1. Intra-religious diversity
2. Inter-religious diversity.

1. Intra-Religious Diversity. Many reasons for diversity are there in different religions (Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism) of India. People of Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, Shaiv, Shakti, Vaishnav, Vaam-party, followers of Krishna and Hanuman, worshippers of trees, plants, animals, etc., are there in the Hindu religion.

People of higher castes of the Hindu religion are known as sacred people and people of lower castes are known as non-sacred. People of lower castes are restricted to perform religious functions.
Shiyas and Sunnis in Islam and Protestant and Catholic groups exist among Christian. In the same way, Namdharis, Akalis, Nirankaris, etc., exist in the Sikh religion. Hinayana and Mahayana of Buddhism and Shwetambar and Digambar are the main groups of Jainism.

2. Inter-Religious Diversity. Followers of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Parsi religions live in India. This unity in diversity in these religions is based on the following factors:

1. Different gods. Every religion has its own god, for example, Hindus have Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, etc., Muslims have Prophet Muhammad, Christians have Jesus Christ, Ten Gurus among Sikhs, Mahatma Buddha of Buddhism, Parsis have Zoroaster, and so on. So all the religions have different Gods. ‘

2. Religious books. Different religions have different religious books. For example, Vedas, Puranas, Upnishads, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Geeta are religious books of Hindus. Christians have Bible, Muslims have Quran, Shri Guru Granth Sahib of Sikhs and Zend Avesta is the religious book of Parsis.

3. Monotheism and Polytheism. On the basis of the numbers of gods Hindus worship Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Rama, Krishan, Shakti, etc., Sikhs worship ten Gurus. But Christians, Muslims, and Parsis believe in one God. People following Buddhism never comment on the existence of God but followers of Jainism do not believe in the existence of God.

4. Idol Worship. Hindus have given a definite form to all of their gods on the basis of idol worship but Sikhs and Muslims strongly oppose idol worship.

5. Diversity in Religious Beliefs. Hindus believe in reincarnation, Karma and rebirth theory, spiritualism, sins, and fulfillment of religious sacraments. But Muslims hardly believe in reincarnation. In the same way, Sikhs also oppose religious sacraments.

Buddhist believe in reincarnation but Jains hardly believe in the existence of God. They say that the human body should be given hard suffering.

6. Mutually Opposing. Some of the elements of Indian religions oppose other religions or, are opposite to each other’s beliefs, According to Hindu religious beliefs, Brahmins are at the highest strata in all the castes. Hindus worship animals and give water to the sun, worships idols, and believe in reincarnation. Muslims and Christians oppose idol worship. Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains are against the highest status of Brahmins and they even oppose Hindu religious sacraments.

So from here, it is clear that there are a number of disagreements in different religions about their beliefs. One believes in one thing and other beliefs in the other thing.

Question 7.
Why diversity exists in India due to linguistic factors?
Answer:
Language is the best method to keep one’s side or to say anything. It was the first cultural invention and is the main carrier of culture. Language is a means to exchange ideas but it is a very complex system. French and American linguists say that around 2,796 languages are spoken in the world out of which 1,200 languages are spoken by American and Indian tribal people.

The Mandarin language is the first language in respect of speaking. The second most spoken language is English and the third is Hindi. People speak different languages at national, regional, and local levels in India. Around 1,652 languages are spoken in India. Only 22 languages are sanctioned by the Constitution out of all these languages. Out of a total of 826 languages of India, 723 are of Indian origin and 103 are of foreign origin.

Languages Recognised by the Constitution. A list of languages is being given in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution. First of all, 14 languages were recognized but after the amendment of the Constitution in 1992, they became 18 in number. Hindi language in Devanagiri script was adopted as the official language on 14 Sept. 1949. Four more languages were recognized in 2003 by making an amendment in the 8th schedule.

Non-constitutionally recognized Major languages. Apart from the recognized languages, thirteen more languages are spoken by more than 5 lakh people. Out of these, the Pahari language of Himachal Pradesh is more important. 673 other Indian languages and 103 non-Indian languages are spoken by a comparatively less few people.

Indian Language Families. All the languages of India can be divided mainly into six language families and these are:

1. Negroid
2. Austria
3. Sino-Tibetan
4. Dravidian
5. Indo-Aryan
6. Other language families

Two main language families are there in India which are given below:
1. Indo-Aryan Language Family. Indo-Aryan languages came to India after the advent of Aryan. It is that language family that has covered the three-fourth part of India. The main languages of this group are Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Assamese, Oriya, Urdu, Sanskrit, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Pahari, Rajasthani, and Bhojpuri. From this, it is clear that out of 22 recognized languages, except for the 4 languages of the south, all are related to the Indo-Aryan language family.

2. Dravid Language Family. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam are the main Dravid languages.
Position of Major Languages in India. Hindi is the language that is spoken by most of the people in India. It is spoken by around 30% of the people. Then comes Telugu, Bangla, and Marathi. Bhojpuri and Rajasthani are the languages that are spoken by more than 30 million people but are not recognized by our Constitution.

Position of different languages in the Indian States. Hindi is the official language of six states i.e. Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi. Except for Hindi, other states have official languages whose description is given below in the table:

Sr. No.  State	Official Language
1. Assam	Assamese
2. West Bengal	Bengali
3. Gujarat	Gujarati
4. Maharashtra	Marathi
5. Odisha	Oriya
6. Punjab	Punjabi
7. Jammu and Kashmir	Urdu
8. Tamilnadu	Tamil
9. Andhra Pradesh	Telugu
10. Karnataka	Kannada
11. Kerala	Malayalam

Except this, 57% people of Assam speak Assamese, 65% people of Karnataka speak Kannada, 55% people of Jammu and Kashmir speak Kashmiri but its official language is Urdu. English language is the link language but is not an official language. It is not recognized even by the Constitution. ‘

Question 8.
What is the meaning of Secularisation? Explain its different elements.
Answer:
Srinivas defined the term Secularisation in the following way: “The term secularisation implies that what was previously regarded as religious is now ceasing to be such, and it also implies a process of differentiation which results in the various aspects of society, economic, political, legal and moral becoming increasingly discrete in relation to each other.”

Essential Elements of Secularisation

M.N. Srinivas has given three essential elements of secularisation which are given below:
1. Lack of religiousness. The first and the important element of secularisation is the decline in the importance of religion. An increase in secularisation will automatically bring changes in religious beliefs. People started to feel that those religious beliefs or traditions which he believes are unable to fulfill any one of his needs. People started to create an atmosphere of pomp and show while performing religious activities. These days every person keeps a wish that while performing religious activities he/she should give a feast to others to keep them happy. Now humans do not have any internal religious feelings. Even then they are going to religious places only to enjoy the holidays. In this way, religious views started to decline. Now, every person wants to take advantage of every religious activity.

2. Rationality. Through rationality, humans started to examine every type of superstitions, beliefs, etc., on the basis of rationality. According to Srinivas, “In rationality, with other things traditional beliefs and views were changed into modern knowledge.” “In this way, rationality was increased in humans with the development of modern ideals and values.”

3. Process of differentiation. The process of differentiation is also related to the process of secularisation. Every sector of society i.e. social, moral, political, etc., are different from each other. Occupation to the person, in modern society, is not given on the basis of religion but is given on the basis of his ability. Now all the persons are treated equally in front of the law. The impact of religion has decreased in every sector of society. People started to get everything on the basis of their ability, not on the basis of religion.

Question 9.
Which factors greatly affected the process of secularisation?
Answer:
1. Modern Education. Now, anyone can take admission in any educational institution. Through educational institutions, every person gets the chance to achieve social status in society.

With modem education, traditional ideas started to decline. That is why people started to accept new values of society. Rationalism started to develop in society. Now modem education is given to both boys and girls collectively. In earlier times, females were confined to the four walls of the house and had to spend the whole of their life in the house. But with modem education, females have started to get an education and started to get jobs in every sphere. In this way, the discrimination of untouchability came to an end because everyone has started to receive an education.

2. Development in the means of transportation and communication. The British government started to develop means of transport and communication to develop mutual contacts in Indian states. With this development, people started to come in contact with each other. People of higher and lower castes started to travel with each other in buses and rails with which a feeling of sacred-non-sacredness and untouchability has started to decline. With the coming of means of communication and transport mobility in people, it has become easy for everyone to move from one place to another. They come out of their houses for work. With this, the control of the family declined. Humans are getting the social status of their own.

3. Westernisation. With the advent of the British in India, Indian people started to come in contact with a western culture which has encouraged the values like materialism, individualism, etc., Restrictions of the caste system have started to decline. The supremacy of Brahmins declined because the British started treating everyone on equal terms.

Western culture had developed the process of secularisation. In this way, the process of secularism was greatly affected by the factor of westernization.

4. Urbanisation and Industrialisation. The process of secularisation is also greatly affected by the process of urbanization and industrialization. People had to come out of their houses in search of jobs. Domestic production came to an end. The population of cities started to increase. People of every caste started to live in cities and work together in factories. In this way, at this type of place, it was very difficult to go according to the rules of the caste system. Occupation in cities is given not on the basis of caste but on the basis of ability.

5. Governmental Efforts. The Indian Constitution was implemented after Independence. The Indian government made a new legal system. The Constitution tried to remove the discriminations on the basis of religion, color, caste, creed, etc. New laws have been implemented, some of which are as follows:

1. Special Marriage Act—1954
2. Hindu Marriage and Divorce Act—1955
3. Hindu Succession Act—1956
4. Dowry Prohibition Act—1961
5. Widow Remarriage Act—1856.

In this way, many laws were passed to remove the social problems of society. Inter¬caste marriages were given sanctions. Now everyone is treated as equal in front of the law. In this way, the process of secularisation was encouraged by the policies of secularism.

Question 10.
What was the impact of casteism on Indian society? How casteism can be removed from society?
Answer:
Impact of casteism on Indian society:

1. Due to casteism, Indian society was divided into thousands of different castes and sub-castes who had their own different norms and values.
2. Stability has come in Indian society due to casteism and society remains integrated even after several attacks from foreign invaders.
3. Indian society was attacked several times by many invaders during the medieval age. Due to casteism, Indian society and culture not only remained secured but they assimilated foreign cultures in themselves.
4. The caste system imposed several restrictions on all the castes to save itself from outsider’s impact so that the society could be saved from the impact of their cultures.
5. During the modern age, casteism has encouraged hatred ness among various castes. Lower castes are given a number of facilities because of which jealousy comes in higher castes for lower castes.
6. Lower castes are given reservation facilities in every field because of casteism and it has raised their standard of living.
7. Leaders of different castes arose caste sentiments just for their leadership and to get votes. This has increased tension among various castes.

Ways to Remove Casteism from the Society:

1. All political parties should stop using casteism during elections to avert tension between various castes.
2. People should get a better education to elect the best leaders who could do something for their welfare and who care about the development of the country.
3. Laws should be properly implemented so that strict punishment could be given to those who encourage casteism.
4. The government should stop caste-based financial aid.
5. The public can also play a major part in it. They themselves can boycott those types of leaders who use casteism for their benefit.