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1.(a) Analyse the contributions of G.S.Ghurye to Indian Sociology.

 
 Ghurye - pioneer - book view - pioneer of Indological view
 Studied various subject matter
 In colonial times, admins used to interpret ancient texts to understand.
 Talks more of static nature and less on social change
 Religious consciousness 1965 book--
o Fundamental to man; Mould his behaviour & action
 On Caste -
o Static view, found SIX attributes
o For him, Indian society is Hinduised society; Unique culture
 National unity and integration -
o Three books - Social tensions in India, Whither India, India recreates
democracy
 His works were a reflection of the struggle of the new discipline in the Indian
context
 Gave historical phenomenon of those things he studied
 No grand theory, only descriptive
 Reluctant to take western frame work as not suitable grand theory, only
descriptive
 Institution builder
 
1.(b) Though the social reforms movements attracted lot of followers, they failed to
make a dent on caste hierarchy. Comment
 
 Social reform movements
o Started form colonial times
o Leadership: Western educated Indians
o Objective: To reform Indian society, eradicate social evils
o Membership: Middle-class
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 AR Desai - On Social-reform movements -

o Mainly by upper caste members
o Represent bourgeoisie interests
 On Caste
o Gandhi - wants change of heart by upper-castes to get rid of untouchability
o Did not attack the underlying social structure
o Most of reformers did that
o Dalit movements - gave alternate ideology, change toward Buddhism
 
1.(c) How has Indian sociology as a discipline, contributed to nation-building?
 
 Nation-building -
 Sociologist post-independence - came up with
 Sociologist like Ghurye, MN Srinivas - pioneer to Indian sociology
 MN Srinivas
o Field view - changed lot of perceptions existed earlier
o Concepts like Dominant caste, Sanskritisation, westernisation - brought lot
of inputs to policy making
 Village studies and relevance
o Various studies help policy makers to understand social institutions
o MN Srinivas - Rampura - Dominant castes
 Helps in identifying various social evils
 
1.(d) Role of middle class in changing Indian political scenario.
 
 Middle class- A composite intermediary class consist of wide range of occupational
interests
though diverse by occupation.
 Middle class heterogenous – their priorities, ideological base, their relationship
with the state, and their politics differs.
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 Role in elections and policy-making

o Middle class huge role in political dialogue, articulation of collective
interests.
o Big part of NGOs – instrumental factor for both social change and
continuity
o Part in local self-governance elections - such as Advanced Locality
Management groups (ALMs), or Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) –
factor in managing cities.
o As Pressure groups - anti corruption protests in 2011.
o Elections – as pressure group middle class influence is observable.
o Policy making – as bureaucrats – Weber highlighted that its enlightened
self-interests be manifested.
o Freedom of expression – upheld largely by vocal middle class – esp. in
digital media platforms.
 
1.(e) Write a short note on the diverse forms of Modes of Production in rural India.
 
 Mode of production - the way the production is organised and it refers to both
FoP and RoP (Relations of production)
 Particular manner in which people produce and distribute the means that sustain
life
 In Rural India, all modes of production existed
 Ancient -
o Master - Slave relation
o Forced labour, bonded labour in plantations etc
o Not legal. Forced because of poverty, deprivation etc
 Feudal -
o No property rights & give the surplus above subsistence to landlords
o Freely to give services to landlord family
o Landless labourers in villages
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o Peasants
 Capitalist
o owners of means of production, capitalists, extract surplus labour from the
proletariats in the form of profits
o Farmers as category esp. big farmers
 
2.(a) According to A.R.Desai, what are the trends of social change observed in India
since independence?
 
 Marxist perspective - AR Desai
 Commercialisation of Indian agriculture
 Social changes
o Rise of agrarian proletariat
o New agrarian capitalist class
 Rural India in Transition (1979)
o Analysed how the path of development and planning followed in India
 India's Path of Development (1984)
o Showed how the role of the Indian government proved to be miserable and
coercive.
 Land reform occurred to an extent, yet its benefit limited to few peasants
 Post-Green revolution - various classes emerge and protests and differences in
political ideology
 
2.(b) What are the impacts on the village micro-structure due to colonial rule?
 
 Micro-structure - refers to
 Underwent many changes
 Social practices changes
o Like female infanticide, Sati, polygamy etc
o With education - lot of social evils were questioned
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 Brought new social values to Indian psyche

o Liberty, equality, freedom, human rights from the renaissance
o Ideas led to social reform movements also
 Hitherto power dynamics changed
o New classes emerged, traditional upper castes lose some power
 Gender ratio skewed due to migration patterns
 Women
o Role, status changed
 
2.(c) How has the reform of non-agriculture sector, impacted the agriculture sector?
 
 Agriculture - constitute majority of workforce, key to rural India
 Economic reforms organically linked with agriculture
o Reduction in Commercial Bank credit led to fall in farm investment and
impaired agricultural growth
o LPG reform - commercialisation, contract farmers rise, MNC into Indian
agriculture
 Social changes and agriculture
o Migrants into urban - rural labour less - more women farmers
 Technology and agriculture
o Geo-informatics, IT -- Precision farming, resource mapping,
o Inputs combination
o Dissemination of information to farmers - key role in cropping decisions
 
3.(a) According to S.C Dube, what are the factors that decides authority in a village?
Critically comment.
 
 Indian village 1955 - Shamirpet
o Holistic study
o Not only to study also to develop the village
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o Member not only belongs to village community;

o also belongs to caste and religious group as well.
 Identified 6 factors for status differentiation or leadership in village
o Land ownership
o Wealth
o Religion and caste
o Position in govt service & village organisation
o Age
o Distinct personality traits
o Cohesion developed through ceremonies
 Evaluated CDP & pointed out - importance of human element in community
development
 Also described the traditions and their functions in the public life
 
3.(b) “It is not politics that gets caste-ridden, it is caste that gets politicized”. Analyse
 
 Refers to casteisation of politics and politicisation of caste
 Caste that gets politicised
o Each caste group - getting bigger - incorporate with sub-castes
o Negotiations between castes
o New caste groups like ‘backward’ and ‘forward’ have come up in the
political arena.
o Solidarity of caste - for access to power and sharing it
o Mobilising people - to end discrimination.
o Political parties - appeal to caste sentiments
o Vote bank politics
 Use Rajni Kothari studies - analyse the dynamics between caste and politics
 

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3.(c) What are the marriage rules and patterns of marriage prevalent across India.
 
 Marriage - important institution in Indian society.
 Patterns
 Endogamy
o Followed by every social community
o Only 5% inter-caste marriages
 Spouse numbers -
o Monogamous primarily
o Polygamous in some, Polyandrous in certain tribals
 Rituals
o Simple, unique, followed for generations
o Non-tribe: Complex, changing tribals
 Dowry
o Exist in one way or other in all societies
 Rules of marriage
o North Vs south: In south the rules less followed
o Muslims - Like a contract document - Nikah Nama
o Giving Mehr -- Guarantee of some security in name of bride
 Present - Mate selection rules - changing
o Flout of Khap & Gotra exogamy
o Rise of Romantic marriages, Inter-caste marriage
o Love-cum-arranged marriage (Hybrid)
o Less ritual aspect
 
4.(a) How has globalization impacted religious pluralism in India. Discuss with reference
to the position of religious minorities.
 
 Globalisation - led to increased interaction between people, cultures and make
world a global village.
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 Religious tolerance is the foundation of Indian secularism

 Globalisation and Religious pluralism in India
o Rise of common values because of similar lifestyle espoused by
globalisation
o Urban India - festivals commonly celebrated, catholic or ritual aspects high
o Religion tries to be ecumenical -- tries to bring together diff group beliefs
 Instead of diffs, emphasis on common values
 E.g. - Human rights as value
o Globalization doesn’t demise religion; reduced the influence
 Samuel Huntington - Class of civilisations
o With world shrinking with globalization, Civilizations gets closer -> Higher
interactions -> More chance of frictions
 Globalisation w.r.t religious minorities
o Pilgrimage and tourism vis-à-vis globalization both deal with a massive
movement of people, capital, and ideas across borders
o Intensification of religious conflicts
o Mixing up of values
 
4.(b) Analyse Andre Beteille' s study on the interplay of caste, class and power and its
impact on the stratification system.
 
 Andre Beteille - Sripuram Village, Thanjavur dist.
 Field view - contributed to policy making
 Caste, Class and Power: Changing Patterns of Stratification.
 Sripuram Findings
 Lot of changes in Adi-Dravidar - got Education, white-collar jobs
 Selling of land by Brahmin, others buy - thus end of productive organisation based
on caste
 Non-Brahmins:

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o Works as clerks in office at Thiruvaiaru, and work with Brahmins at Tanjore

office
 Land comes into market, product structures changes - caste diluted
 No more traditional hierarchy alone. Mix of them
 Reflected the basic values of Indian civilisation
 Never fully self-sufficient in the economic sphere.
 Not only caste conscious. Also, class and gender conscious
 Caste & class - Cross cut relation - determine Commensality
 Along with caste, poverty too become source for social exclusion.
 Beteille village study is still relevant as its dynamic and shows several
stratifications works in tandem.
 
4.(c) The de-notified tribes are the ones dishonoured by history and branded by law.
Discuss.
 
 Over 160 communities, mostly nomadic, which were notified as ``criminal tribes''
under the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA), 1871
 DNT: Kuravars, Dommars, Dobba Koravars, Pardhis, Sansis, Kanjars, Gujjars and
Bawarias.
 Repealed the act post-independence, yet stigma remains; torture and humiliation
by State agencies and social groups
 Habitual Offenders Act, 1959 - under this, branding of criminals continue; as
frequent offenders
 Functional to society
o fortune-tellers and entertainers
o Mats and baskets
o Nomads
 Victimised and discriminated
o Process of modernisation and urbanisation
o Rigid rules under Forest act
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o Transport - cut down scale of the trade operations

 Need
o Repeal of Habitual offenders act
o Recent creation of Children’s Resource Centre (CRC) for DNT
o Identity creation and census of DNT
o Removing stigma. To be seen as victim of systemic discrimination.
 
5.(a) Discuss the various forms of environmental movements waged in India.
 
 The environmental movements are conceived as broad networks of people and
organizations engaged in collective action in the pursuit of environmental benefits.
 Three levels of movement
o Local grassroots
o As social movement
o Protests of cycle
 Stopping an environmental destruction
o Bishnoi movement
o Chipko movement - 1973 - Peasants stopped loggers from felling stand of
trees
o Opposing the development projects - which impacts a certain group
disproportionately.
 Narmada Bachao Andolan against Narmada Dam;
 Save the Bhagirati and Stop Tehri project
 Opposition to Kaiga nuclear plant
 Control over natural resources
 Socio-economic reasons
 Urban based movements -
o CnG use in Delhi via enabling ruling by judiciary
o Against Tree felling - Mumbai Parle
 Environment movements are Part of NEW social movement
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5.(b) Use of Lineage to determine citizenship rights for NRC.
 
 Lineage definition
 NRC - National Register of Citizens
o NRC is an official record of those who are legal Indian citizens. It includes
demographic information about all those individuals who qualify as citizens
of India as per the Citizenship Act, 1955
o 1st prepared - 1951; Latest by 2019
o state-specific exercise to keep its ethnic uniqueness unaltered
 Process of ascertaining citizenship through lineage can never be inclusive of
people who are outside the norms of heterosexual familial structure.
o Exclusion of Muslim women - as NRC not applicable if its child marriage
(Less than 18)
o 20000 Transgender applied for NRC, yet without final status.
o Trafficking of persons bill 2018 makes sex workers and their families face
brutal treatment and infantilization during the raid and rescue operation.
o Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016 - only close relatives surrogates, not others
o Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 which denies self-
determination of gender identity
 Idea of citizenship must include all of the identities, must be gender-blind,
inclusive.
 
5.(c) What are the reasons for the continuing scourge of hunger and malnutrition in our
country?
 
 Global hunger Index - still placed in "Serious" level of hunger category
 Hunger mainly affects socially vulnerable and marginalised
o Women
o Depressed sections
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o Tribes
o Children
 Affected by child Stunting, wasting, anaemia among women,
 Reasons
o Inter-regional ad Intra-state disparities
o Lack of proper diet
o State distribution mechanism - impediments
o Women status inside families - low
o Lack of proper sanitation
o Ecological factors
 Steps - PM Matru Vandana yojana, Nutrition Mission - focus on eradicating
malnutrition.
 
5.(d) How has the covid pandemic altered the migration patterns in India.
 
 Covid impacted migration patterns
o Rise in emigrants increased to 281 million in 2020 from 272 million in 2019
 Mainly to Western developed countries - USA, Germany, Saudi etc
 Reverse migration of migrant workers - to escape starvation
 Service industries esp. IT workers
o Move from tier-1 to tier-2, tier-3 or native places
o Remote working enabled this
 Inter-state migrant workers - impacted by non-portability of entitlements and
identification issues
 
5.(e) Gendered division of labour in India’s digitizing economy
 
 Digitalisation - dubbed as IR 4.0 - because of its revolutionary potential
 Forms of it
o Increased implementation of smart technologies, automation, robotics,
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o Cyber-physical systems, and

o Digital labour (cloud- and crowd work)
 Since technology is a human creation, historically grown social inequalities
between genders, ethnicities, and classes are partly implied or transferred into
algorithm decision-making, big data sources, and many other areas.
 OECD report 2018 -
o Globally women have less access to the world wide web, that they face
cyber-bullying and -mobbing, and that their technical skills are disregarded
(OECD 2018).
 Double burden of work and care-work at home
 Social isolation and overwork which women already tend to experience in offline
workplaces
 Care-work websites, platforms - mainly run by women
 Women - given secondary treatment in terms of training and extending
promotions - since the break in their work flow is inevitable.
 
6.(a) How has the Dalit movements diversified? Evaluate the success of Dalit
movements in emancipation of Dalit women.
 
 History of Dalit movements
o Started in 19th CE, continuing to 21st CE
 19th CE - Ritual emancipation and eradicating
o South India - Ezhavas in Kerela, SNDP etc;
o Western India - Phule
 Post-Ambedkar
o Republican party and Mahar movement - Aimed at amelioration of socio-
economic conditions of Dalits through political power
o Rise of Dalit panthers
 Focussed on generating Dalit consciousness
o Rise of BSP - Bringing National voice to Dalit agenda
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 From 1990s - New Socio-religious movements - Not confine to Dalits, open to all
depressed / secular.
o Radhaswami Satsang Mvmt
o Dera Sachha Sauda
 Now debunking myths and counter-domination of upper castes in fields like
Journalism, Media, cinema etc
o Rise of Dalit literature
o Icon’s usurpation and celebration
 Evaluation
o Dalit women - political participation - though increase in absolute numbers
- still low
o Status inside homes - little change
 
6.(b) Explain the difference between lineage and descent using illustrations. What are
conceptual issues about lineage and descent in India.
 
 Descent - tracing of inter-generation relationships through
o Real (father-child) - culturally acceptable
o Putative (Acknowledged)
o Fictive (imaginative) ( parent-child) links
 Lineage –
o Lineage is a form of descent group.
o Known ancestors, No concept of God
o For passing on property purpose
 Types of lineages
o Patrilineal
o Matrilineal
o Ambilineal
o Bi-lineal
 Conceptual issues
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o Both living and mythological ancestors are used to trace the descent - to
which there is no consensus
o Through Descent, every human can be connected. But this is not accepted.
 
6.(c) What are the salient features of POSH Act?
 
 Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and
Redressal) Act, 2013 (also referred to as the “POSH Act”)
 A mechanism for dealing with sexual harassment complaints in the workplace
 Features of POSH act
o Widened definition of sexual harassment - physical, mental, psychological
o Implied threat/promise both been
o Must constitute IC - Internal committee
o Defined duties of employer
o Heavy punishment
o POSH Training and awareness
 POSH act - law prevents crimes; act as deterrent and enables social change.
 
7.(a) Ethnic conflicts in India are not primordial but are a creation of political necessity
and administrative convenience. Discuss.
 
 Ethnicity - Cohen (1974) defines ethnicity as a process of “interaction between
culture groups operating within common social contexts”.
 Ethnic groups - on one hand shows commonality and on other shows how unique
or being distinguished from others.
 Ethnicity or commonality between people always exists. Naturally it need not
prompt violence unless it’s dictated by vested, sectarian, narrow interests.
 Primordia list view:
o Borris & Richmond - Ethnic groups are largely operative in pre-industrial
society
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o That society engages in common eco activities, keep kinship relations,

celebrate religious ceremonies and stay together
o Each group wants to maintain its exclusivity.
 But Modernist and Survivalist groups of ethnicity differs
 Modernist View:
o Parson, Wallerstein - Ethnic groups will lose out identities - where common
citizenship, equality of opportunity, individual mobility is glorified
 Survivalist:
o Clifford Geertz, Frank Parkin etc.
o Ethnic groups carry symbolic integration, it might reappear in time and
space
 Four contemporary factors for rise of ethnic conflicts
o Cultural revival
o Social mobiliser
o Against racial domination
o Resistance to modernity
 
7.(b) Analyse the impact of privatisation and monetisation of public assets on the socio-
economic profile of India.
 
 National Monetary pipeline - Monetisation of Infra assets as key means of
sustainable INFRA financing
 Via Public–private partnership concessions and capital market instruments like
infrastructure and real estate investment trusts
 Impacts
o Public assets - part of State resources - moved toward control of few
private individuals
o Wealth inequality will increase
o Will raise service fee
o Impact on informal sector
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o Negatively impact employment and income prospects of the poor

o Regressive - user-funded approach to funding public services
 On functional side, can improve resource utilisation, improve economic indicators,
avenues for development.
 
7.(c) Discuss the role of Science & Technology in strengthening grass-root institutions
and improving the capability of the poor.
 
 Science - one of the agents of social change
 How science play’s role in social change
o For Grass-root institutions
 Using digital devices - convenience
 Satellite education and digitalisation of services
o How S&T can improve capability
 Education
 Digitalisation of health
 L.H.Morgan - Technology led to change in Habit
 Social connectivity - FB, Twitter
 Elon Musk - Tesla - goal of No more petrol cars. Can have big
Economic, Ecological & social impacts
 Emancipation of women
 
8.(a) Discuss the role of pressure groups on India’s democracy and development.
Illustrate with examples.
 
 Rise of pressure groups in pluralist democracy due to
o Heterogenous society
o Multi-party system
o Government not satisfying the aspiration of all people
o Vacuum between people and government needs to get filled
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o Scope for check and balance mechanism

o Vote fragmentation in elections – no single representation
 To fill all the above gaps pressure groups step in as
 Institutional E.g.: trade unions
 Associational E.g.: iPac for election analysis
 Non associational E.g.: Ramakrishna math
 Anomic E.g.: Naxalism
 
8.(b) Elaborate the causes, consequences and other concerns of growth of urban
settlements in India.
 
 Louis Wirth -- Urbanism as way of life
 Rise of Urban settlements characterized by non-planning, adhoc settlements etc
 For long -- since from Harappan times -- India have cities
 Medieval period -- many urban centers as centres of trade
 Modern time
o The notion of city rises along with colonial rule
o Many urban hill stations as cities
o Old cities dies and new one emerges in line with British convenience and
Eco-policies
 31% of population in Urban as per 2011 census
 Can lead to
o Urban sprawl -
o Slums
 Causes
o Unplanned urbanisation
o Commercialisation of education, material aspects
o Industrialisation and migration (Pull factors)
o Rural-urban Transformation.
o Invisibility of caste
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 Consequences
o Rise of crimes, overcrowded and maladjustment
o Breeding ground of diseases, environmental pollution, demoralization, and
many social tensions.
o Crimes and Gambling
o Lack of housing
 Efforts to Curb - Urban Land ceiling act, Rent control act
o Anonymity on rise
 Trend of Over-Urbanisation and Under-Urbanisation
 
8.(c) Comment on the effectiveness of POCSO Act in protecting children from sexual
offences.
 
 POSCO act - was enacted to protect children from sexual offences.
 Features - Gender-neutral law, no time limit for reporting, Confidentiality of the
victim’s identity, Including death penalty, for sexual crimes against children
 Effectiveness
o Acts as deterrent
o Increased awareness
o Swift legal initiation of case
o Speedy justice
 Where the law can be more effective
o police face a lot of barriers in conducting a proper investigation
o Functioning of monitoring institutions still not transparent
o Poor awareness
o Socialisation yet to be effective from small age.

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