IGNOU SOLVED ASSIGNMENT Sociology of India (BSOC-132) Assignment code: Asst/TMA/2021-22

 IGNOU SOLVED ASSIGNMENT
Sociology of India (BSOC-132)   Assignment code: Asst/TMA/2021-22

Assignment One

Answer the following Descriptive Category questions in about 500 words each. Each question carries 20 marks.

1. Describe how society in India is a unity in diversity with suitable illustrations.

Ans:  Society in India is a unity in diversity. Unity means integration that may or may not be based on uniformity, a sense of oneness arising from the bonds that hold the members together or that bind the diverse groups with one another. It means collective differences, that is, differences which mark off one group of people from another. These differences may be of any sort: biological, religious, linguistic etc. Diversity means variety. For all practical purposes it means variety of groups and cultures. We have such a variety in abundance in India. Some of its illustrations are;

             Diversity in race: A race is a gathering with a bunch of particular actual highlights, for example, skin tone, sort of nose, type of hair, and so on Herbert Risley had grouped individuals of India into seven racial sorts. These are (I) Turko-Iranian, (ii) Indo-Aryan, (iii) Scytho-Dravidian, (iv) Aryo-Dravidian, (v) Mongolo-Dravidian, (vi) Mongoloid, and (vii) Dravidian. These seven racial sorts can be diminished to three fundamental sorts the Indo-Aryan, the Mongolian and the Dravidian. Negritos are individuals who have a place with the dark racial stock as found in Africa. They have dark skin tone, frizzle hair, thick lips, and so forth In India a portion of the clans in South India, for example, the Kadar, the Irula and the Paniyan have unmistakable Negrito strain. In India the clans of Middle India have a place with Proto-Australoid. The Mongoloids are a significant racial stock local to Asia, including the people groups ofbnorthern and eastern Asia. For instance, Chinese, Japanese, Burmese, Eskimos, and regularly American Indians additionally have a place with this race. In India, the North Eastern locales have clans of brachycephalic Mongoloid strain. A marginally unique sort of Mongoloid racial stock is found in the Brahmputra Valley. The Mikir-Bodo gathering of clans and the Angami Nagas address the best instances of Mongoloid racial creation in India. At last, the Nordic races have a place with the actual sort described by tall height, long head, fair complexion and hair, and blue eyes. They are found in Scandinavian nations, Europe. In India, they are found in various pieces of north of the country, particularly in Punjab and Rajputana.

            Diversity in language: The 1971 census reported 1652 languages in India which are spoken as mother tongue. Not all these languages are, however, equally widespread. Many of them are tribal speeches and these are spoken by less than one percent of the total population. Only 18 languages are listed in Schedule VIII of the Indian Constitution. These are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Out of these 18 languages, Hindi is spoken by 39.85 per cent of the total population; Bengali, Telugu and Marathi by around 8 per cent each; Tamil and Urdu by 6.26 and 5.22 per cent, respectively; and the rest by less than 5 per cent each as per 1991 census report (India 2003). The above constitutionally recognised languages belong to two linguistic families: Indo-Aryan and Dravidian. Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu are the four major Dravidian languages. The languages of Indo-Aryan family are spoken by 75 per cent of India’s total population while the languages of Dravidian family are spoken by 20 per cent.

            Diversity in Reigion: India is a land of multiple religions. We find here followers of various faiths, particularly of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, among others. You know it that Hinduism is the dominant religion of India. According to the census of 1981 it is professed by 82.64 per cent of the total population. Next comes Islam, which is practised by 11.35 per cent. This is followed by Christianity having a following of 2.43 per cent, Sikhism reported by 1.96 per cent, Buddhism by 0.71 per cent and Jainism by 0.48 per cent. The religions with lesser following are Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Bahaism.

            Diversity in Caste: India is a country of caste. The term caste is generally used in two senses: sometimes in the sense of Varna and sometimes in the sense of Jati. (i) Varna refers to a segment of the four-fold division of Hindu society based on functional criterion. The four Varna are Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra with their specialised functions as learning, defence, trade and manual service. The Varna hierarchy is accepted all over India. (ii) Jati refers to a hereditary endogamous status group practising a specific traditional occupation. You may be surprised to know that there are more than 3,000 jati in India. These are hierarchically graded in different ways in different regions.

 

OR

Discuss the nature and types of diversities found in India.

Ans: Nature and types of diversities found in India

            i) Racial Diversity: A race is a group of people with a set of distinctive physical features such as skin colour, type of nose, form of hair, etc. Herbert Risley had classified the people of India into seven racial types. These are (i) Turko-Iranian, (ii) Indo-Aryan, (iii) Scytho-Dravidian, (iv) Aryo-Dravidian, (v) Mongolo-Dravidian, (vi) Mongoloid, and (vii) Dravidian. These seven racial types can be reduced to three basic types–the Indo-Aryan, the Mongolian and the Dravidian. Negritos are the people who belong to the black racial stock as found in Africa. They have black skin colour, frizzle hair, thick lips, etc. In India some of the tribes in South India, such as the Kadar, the Irula and the Paniyan have distinct Negrito strain. In India the tribes of Middle India belong to Proto-Australoid. The Mongoloids are a major racial stock native to Asia, including the peoples ofbnorthern and eastern Asia. For example, Chinese, Japanese, Burmese, Eskimos, and often American Indians also belong to this race. In India, the North Eastern regions have tribes of brachycephalic Mongoloid strain. A slightly different kind of Mongoloid racial stock is found in the Brahmputra Valley. The Mikir-Bodo group of tribes and the Angami Nagas represent the best examples of Mongoloid racial composition in India. Finally, the Nordic races belong to the physical type characterised by tall stature, long head, light skin and hair, and blue eyes. They are found in Scandinavian countries, Europe. In India, they are found in different parts of north of the country, especially in Punjab and Rajputana.

            ii) Linguistic Diversity: The 1971 enumeration announced 1652 dialects in India which are spoken as primary language. Not this multitude of dialects are, be that as it may, similarly far and wide. A significant number of them are ancestral talks and these are spoken by short of what one percent of the absolute populace. Just 18 dialects are recorded in Schedule VIII of the Indian Constitution. These are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Out of these 18 dialects, Hindi is spoken by 39.85 percent of the all out populace; Bengali, Telugu and Marathi by around 8% every; Tamil and Urdu by 6.26 and 5.22 percent, individually; and the rest by under 5% each according to 1991 enumeration report (India 2003). The above naturally perceived dialects have a place with two semantic families: Indo-Aryan and Dravidian. Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu are the four significant Dravidian dialects. The dialects of Indo-Aryan family are spoken by 75% of India's all out populace while the dialects of Dravidian family are spoken by 20%.

            iii) Religious Diversity: India is a land of multiple religions. We find here followers of various faiths, particularly of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, among others. You know it that Hinduism is the dominant religion of India. According to the census of 1981 it is professed by 82.64 per cent of the total population. Next comes Islam, which is practised by 11.35 per cent. This is followed by Christianity having a following of 2.43 per cent, Sikhism reported by 1.96 per cent, Buddhism by 0.71 per cent and Jainism by 0.48 per cent. The religions with lesser following are Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Bahaism.

            iv) Caste Diversity: India is a country of caste. The term caste is generally used in two senses: sometimes in the sense of Varna and sometimes in the sense of Jati. (i) Varna refers to a segment of the four-fold division of Hindu society based on functional criterion. The four Varna are Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra with their specialised functions as learning, defence, trade and manual service. The Varna hierarchy is accepted all over India. (ii) Jati refers to a hereditary endogamous status group practising a specific traditional occupation. You may be surprised to know that there are more than 3,000 jati in India. These are hierarchically graded in different ways in different regions.

 

2. In what ways did society in India change in terms of its economy and society after 1990’s?

Ans: The process of liberalisation, privatisation and globalsation popularly known as LPG are inherent in the logic and processes of economic growth and reform in India.  It was carried out in India to resolve the economic crisis that country was facing in 1990s.  The new economic phase in India began with Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation.

            Liberalisation: Liberalisation is the shift in the whole range of economic policies of a country, resulting into privatisation and Globalisation. The state opens up its economy to the world market by reducing control over the economic activities to improve the efficiency and growth of the economy.

            Privatisation: The opening of the markets to private players, especially foreign companies and investment in the areas where mostly government invested like, education, power, civil aviation, etc., came to be known as Privatisation. Essentially it is transfer of control from public to private sector.

            Globalisation: Globalisation is free flow of goods and services, ideas, information, technology and people across the globe. At present this flow of goods is mostly from the first world to third world countries when they open up their market for global trade. According to Albrow, “Globalisation refers to all those processes by which people of the world are incorporated into a single world society.” It is to develop interdependence amongst societies, culture, economies, nations and people. It means to go beyond the boundaries of nation state and to develop global interconnectedness. Giddens says, “Globalisation is the intensification of world-wide social relation which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring miles away and vice versa.”Globalisation has economic, cultural and political dimension. Economic and financial dimension includes Liberalisation and Privatisation. The process involves rise in multinational and trans-national companies that seek global profit. It is a process of transformation that is still unfolding differently in different parts of the world.

 

OR

What is the meaning of forest and its produce in the lives of tribal in Madhya Pradesh? Discuss the loss of their livelihood with examples.

Ans: In the lives of tribal groups in Madhya Pradesh dependence on the forest serves variety of purposes. Most tribal groups derive their livelihood from agriculture and forest as compared to non-tribal agricultural communities. The dependency on forest and other natural resources is substantial. Their horticultural exercises are firmly interlinked with the timberland. The backwoods has been, and keeps on being, a significant wellspring of food, lumber for house development and farming carries out, fuel wood, medications, and different necessities of day to day existence. The leaves, natural products, blossoms, roots, tubers from the timberland comprise a significant enhancement to the generally pitiful eating routine of the tribals, particularly during the lean season and times of dry spell. Wild natural products, berries and honey are gathered and eaten. The bamboo and wood are essential for making rural and fishing devices. The spices fill in as fill in as medications for quite some time; The oil and cleanser are additionally assembled from the woodland. Around fifty to the vast majority of food necessities of the tribals may, truth be told, be given by the backwoods. The offer of timberland produce like bamboo, fuel wood, tendu (leaves culled from its bushes used to wrap bidi/cigarette) and assortment of nuts are significant types of revenue. The ancestral individuals have the conviction that divine beings and spirits live in the woods, trees and creatures. They are likewise their object of commitment. The backwoods assets are the significant wellsprings of material and otherworldly presence of ancestral networks.

            Loss of their livelihood: There are a few guidelines passed during the nineteenth century during the provincial rule; with the item to safeguard and recover woods for environmental reasons and to work with the development of lumber on a supportable premise, for both income and royal purposes. The regulations connecting with the administration of timberlands and backwoods produce were therefore combined in the Indian Forest Act of 1927. This brought about the huge scope limitation on the expulsion of fuel wood and bamboos and disallowance of moving development. In many occurrences, touching terrains were incorporated into 'open' and 'safeguarded' backwoods, consequently truly influencing the current brushing game plans. The making of an enormous size of 'saved' backwoods in India heavily influenced by the state, directed and oversaw by the timberland division brought about the limitation of the standard freedoms of the woods networks imperiling their actual endurance. These people group experienced extraordinary difficulties on account of timberland authorities who implemented the limitations with incredible seriousness and, surprisingly, a minor break of guideline was treated as a wrongdoing. There was loss of the wellspring of work since the tribals were avoided the moving development as it was viewed as inefficient and disastrous however the British government thought about it as a wellspring of normal income, and thusly, the tribals were urged to take up land for development yet on lower paces of evaluation. Notwithstanding, the absence of horticultural executes, low quality of soil, regular harvest disappointment and unbending income requests, frequently constrained the cultivators, both tribals and non-tribals, to go to cash banks to furnish them with cash at high paces important to purchase seeds, utilization things, and even cash to pay income to the public authority. in a few sections, the pattern of expanding obligation and move of land for development to the cash loaning classes expanded. Along these lines, a strong class arose which amassed a lot of land and abundance through joined exercises of cash loaning, exchanging and alcohol selling. This pattern diminished the tribals to the place of reinforced workers and occupants. Hence, from a low means, the tribals turned out to be absolutely reliant upon the landowner - cash banks, brokers, retailers, for their endurance. The abuse and mistreatment by the cash loaning class decreased them to outrageous destitution as well as eliminated their dignity.

Assignment Two

Answer the following Short Category questions in about 250 words each. Each question carries.   10 marks.                                                          3x10=30

3. Define the concept of class. Discuss the structure of class in urban India.

Ans: Social class is a kind of social group, which is neither legally defined nor religiously sanctioned. It has been defined as a stratum of people who share a similar position in society. They are relatively open and anyone who satisfies the basic criteria of wealth and associated style of life, etc. can become its member. Social classes in a society are ranked hierarchically on the basis of primarily wealth and income. Classes are the characteristic features of industrial societies. Social classes in urban India: In the urban areas social classes comprise principally (i) capitalists (commercial and industrial), (ii) corporate sector; (iii) professional classes, (iv) petty traders and shopkeepers and (v) working classes.

            i) Commercial and Industrial Classes: Under the British rule, production in India became production for market. As a result of this, internal market expanded and the class of traders engaged in internal trading grew. Simultaneously, India was also linked up with the world market. This led to the growth of a class of merchants engaged in export-import business. Thus, there came into being a commercial middle class in the country.

            ii) The Corporate Sector: Any organisation that is under government ownership and control is called as public sector units and any organisation, which does not belong to public sector can be taken to be a part of private sector. The firms and organisation which are owned, controlled and managed exclusively by private individuals and entities are included in private sector.

            iii) The professional classes: The professional classes comprise modern lawyers, doctors, teachers, managers and others working in the modern commercial and other enterprises, officials functioning in state administrative machinery, engineers, technologists; agriculture scientists, journalists and so on. The role of this class in the National Movement was decisive. They were, in fact, pioneers, and pace-setters. They were also the force behind progressive social and religious reform movements in the country.

            iv) Petty Traders, Shopkeepers and Unorganised Workers: In addition to the new classes discussed above, there has also been in existence in urban areas a class of petty traders and shopkeepers. Like all other classes, this class also has grown in scale in post-independent India. The unprecedented growth of cities in the process of urbanisation, which the post-independent India has been witness to, has stimulated the growth of this class.

            v) Working Classes: Origin of the working class could be traced back to the British rule. This was the modern working class which was the direct result of modern industries, railways, and plantations established in India during the British period. This class grew in proportion as plantations, factories, mining, industry, transport, railways and other industrial sectors developed and expanded in India.

OR

How far does the concept of caste determines the village social structure? Discuss.

Ans: Caste is a system of social stratificationIt lies at the foundations of Indian social construction. It includes positioning as indicated by birth and decides one's occupation, marriage and social connections. There is an endorsed set of standards, values and authorizes which oversee social conduct inside station. It is basic to make a differentiation between the hypothetical detailing of standing framework and its existential reality. Hypothetically, rank delineation of the Indian culture has its starting point in the Varna framework. This framework in a real sense implies shading which was common during the Vedic time frame. As per this doctrineof shading, the Hindu society was isolated into fourmain Varnas : Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. A fifth class of untouchables lie outside the overlay of the varna plot. This was principally founded on division of work and occupation. Individuals from every varna filling various roles like the religious capacity rulers, contenders, brokers and subservient. The varna framework is significant in light of the fact that it gives an all-India large scale underlying plan inside which multitudinous varieties of stations are found. A varna might incorporate various standings which might be separated into various sub-ranks. Rank framework has a particular plan of social inclination where they are organized in a social and custom pecking order. A feeling of high and low, prevalence and mediocrity is related with this degree or positioning. The Brahmins are put at the highest point of the progressive system and are viewed as customarily unadulterated or preeminent.

 

4. What is a family? How many types of family are found in India? Discuss.

Ans: The word ‘family’ has been taken from the Roman word, ‘famulus’, which means a servant and the Latin word ‘familia’ meaning ‘household’. The family is one of the most primary groups in society. The family is a universal and the oldest among the other social institutions. The family is an institution in this sense that it gives the framework of relationship which is guided by certain rules and procedures which are at the root of the family. Family is one of the most important social institutions. Most of the world’s population lives in family units. The specific form and behavior patterns found within a family have shown variations through time across countries of the world and even within a country.

            Nuclear and Joint Family:  In the Indian context, there are two types of families. A classification of families into joint and nuclear types is usually based on the way in which families are organised. For instance, the most popular definition of a nuclear family is to refer to it as a group consisting of a man, his wife and their unmarried, children. The joint family is commonly defined as the nuclear family plus all kin belonging to the side of husband, and/or wife living in one homestead. The structure of a family changes over a time period in terms of size, composition, role and status of persons, the family and societal norms and sanctions. There probably is rarely a family in India, which remains perpetually nuclear in composition. Often additional members like an aged parent or unmarried brothers and sisters may come to live with a man, his wife and unmarried children. The nuclear family then, is a stage in a cycle with other structural types of families. Even when  certain forces have enjoined the establishment of nuclear household, for a relatively long period of time, the ritual, economic and sentimental link with

relatives who compose a joint family are often maintained.

Nature of Joint Family in India: There are two aspects of joint family system in India based on what constitutes jointness and Who constitutes a joint family? Their jointness is reflected in the factors of commensality, common residence, joint ownership of property, cooperation and sentiment of jointness, ritual bonds like worship of common deity.  Joint Family constitutes a kin relationship between the members, the number of generations in one unit,  the sharing of common property.

 

OR

Discuss the role played by Kinship in India with specific focus on the village.

Ans: Kinship is universal and represents one of the basic social institutions. Kinship is a method which provides the framework of social relationship. Kinship means relationship of the individual with the other members based either on marriage or blood-ties. Kinship bonds are very strong and such ties are of fundamental importance in every society all over the world. The husband, wife, son, daughter, brother and sister relationships due to either a bond of marriage or through blood are known as kinship relations. Kinship is that part of culture through which relations are socially recognized through birth and through marriage or adoption. Murdock says that it is a structured system of relationship in which individuals are bound to one another by complex interlocking and ramifying ties. As indicated by Radcliff-Brown, "Family relationship framework is a piece of social design and demands the investigation of connection as a field of freedoms and commitments". Robin Fox says that connection is basically the relations between 'kinfolk' that is people related by genuine, putative or invented affiliation. The connection framework alludes to a bunch of people perceived as family members, either by prudence of a blood relationship in fact called affiliation, or by temperance of a marriage, that through is called proclivity. The greater part of us will quite often respect the connection framework into which we are conceived and in which we are raised as normal. It will appear to be regular and right to us that specific direct relations ought to be forbidden as marriage and sexual accomplices, and we feel very sure that sad outcomes would follow any encroachment of the restrictions. We may comparatively think it normal that specific classes of people be liked as marriage accomplices, or we may in actuality think it extremely unnatural that any people be so assigned.

 

5. Describe the relationship between religion and society mentioned by Marx and Weber.

Ans: Both Karl Marx and weber explain the relationship between religion and society. Their intellectual engagement with religion and society offers multifaceted aspect of religion as a social institution.

            Karl Marx, a German philosopher has developed the critical theory of religion unlike Durkheim and Weber. Marx was more concerned with how religion generate a false consciousness of the existing social reality thereby normalizing and justifying the unequal social structure and giving people an illusory happiness. Marx was not only theorising the relationship between religion and society and how does religion affects human behaviour, but he was also addressing how to change the unequal structure of society which is disguised in religion. In this way, Marx was primarily dealing with the political aspects of religion rather than the functionality as Durkheim was. In his materialist conception of history, Marx argued that religion is actually a reflection of the material conditions of society.  Religion cannot exist in an isolated fashion from the socio-economic structure. In this way Marx’s thesis on religion is opposite to Weber’s understanding.

            Max Weber, a German sociologist, is known to have developed a theory of religion in which the economic relevance of religion is demonstrated. In his book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, he assessed the contribution of Protestant ethics in the development of modern economic system of capitalism. For him Protestant ethics played a decisive role in the development of capitalism in the West, whereas it could not develop in Asian countries such as India. It is considered that the religious ethics of Hinduism, with regard to caste, hinders development of capitalism according to Weber. He considered Hinduisms, as another worldly religion. Caste imposed structural restraints on economic development. He argues that there is a fundamental difference between Protestants and Catholics in terms of their inclination towards industrial and commercial actions. Protestants could acquire industrial skills and explored modern occupations and avenues of administrative positions whereas Catholics remained in traditional occupations. According to him, Protestants have methodical and ascetic norms of conduct which is the essential spirit of capitalism.

 

OR

Distinguish between race and ethnicity and discuss their major characteristics.

Ans:  Race and ethnicity are two different concepts used in social science discourse. Many a times both the terms are used interchangeably but there are some clear distinctions found between them. Although, both are considered as a social construction in understanding of race the biological or the physical features are important, in understanding ethnicity the cultural markers are important. Race is based on physical features where as ethnicity is based on cultural traits. Ethnicity is defined by the shared culture, history, ancestry, etc. of the members of a group. Race on the other hand can be defined as the shared physical traits.

            A racial group is described as a group having similar physical traits. It is a condition where a group sees similar characteristics between themselves and sees others as different. Such kinds of divisions were made basically by the physical anthropologists during 18th century and considered as scientific classifications of human beings. The diversity of people many a times are influenced by the geographical locations. So, there is no biological base of classifying people. There is a social basis of their classification. It has its own history and politics of classifying people. The creation of racial identities is a process of creation of hierarchies between people, thereby, some groups enjoy power and privileges. The idea of race hence has no scientific basis. The skin colour of people varies due to the presence of pigment and melanin in the skin.

            An ethnic group is best understood in terms of its ancestry; i.e. how the members of the group relate themselves to a particular mythical character or a myth about how it originated. It is thus a common belief among the members that they are descendents of a particular mythical character or of similar origin. As such, ethnic group is best understood in terms of a collectivity – being a member of the group. The collectivity may be through blood relation, language, culture, kinship ties, religion etc. The classical anthropologists have given some characteristics of an ethnic group; as given below: It is largely biologically self-perpetuating. Shares fundamental cultural values, realized in overt unity in cultural forms. It makes up a field of communication and interaction. It has a membership which identifies itself, and is identified by others, as a continuing category distinguishable from other categories of the same order.

 

Assignment Three

Answer the following Short Category questions in about 100 words each. Each question carries 6 marks.

 

6. What is a tribe?

Ans: The term tribe is derived from the Latin term tribus which means an inhabited place. It denotes a group of persons forming a community and claiming descent from a common ancestor. The term ‘tribe’ was used by the colonial government in India to categorize a large number of groups different from the term caste. The term tribe subsumes communities very different from one another in terms of demographic size, linguistic and cultural traits, ecological conditions and material conditions of living. The tribes are essentially ‘primitive’, and ‘backward’ in character. After independence, the term, ‘Scheduled Tribe’ (ST) came to be used to denote tribes who are scheduled as such under the Constitution of India. The tribal communities are distinguished from other communities by relative isolation, cultural distinctiveness and low level of production and subsistence. They are the native inhabitants. There are several terms used for them like ‘adivasi’ (first settler), ‘vanvasi’ (inhabitants of forests), ‘vanyajati’ (primitive people), ‘Janjati’ (folk people), and ‘anusuchit jati’ (ST).

 

 

7. How many languages are there in India?

Ans: The famous linguist Grierson noted 179 languages and 544 dialects, the 1971 census on the other hand, reported 1652 languages in India which are spoken as mother tongue. Not all these languages are, however, equally widespread. Many of them are tribal speeches and these are spoken by less than one percent of the total population. Only 18 languages are listed in Schedule VIII of the Indian Constitution. These are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Out of these 18 languages, Hindi is spoken by 39.85 per cent of the total population; Bengali, Telugu and Marathi by around 8 per cent each; Tamil and Urdu by 6.26 and 5.22 per cent, respectively; and the rest by less than 5 per cent each as per 1991 census report.

 

8. What is secularism? Give example.

Ans: The term secular is derived from the Latin word ‘secular’ which means the present age or generation. Secularism was an ideological goal of the new political philosophy and movement after the French Revolution. Still later in 1851 George Jacoab Holyoake coined the term secularism. He declared it as the only rational basis of political and  social organisation. Holyoake questioning the religious basis of civil society, recommended secularism as state ideology which promotes human welfare by material means and makes the service of others its duty. Secularism as a progressive ideology was a necessary qualification for a liberal, democratic, state of the post French Revolution. These connotations are applied even to a modern democratic state now. A modern state by its definition and liberal and democratic policy makes no distinction between groups, classes etc. within society, irrespective of religious affiliation. The political philosophy on the part of the state required that the state shall not impose any religion on people and did not prohibit practice of religion by a section of the people.

 

 

9. Define the concept of caste.

Ans: Caste is a system of social stratification. It lies at the roots of Indian social structure. It involves ranking according to birth and determines one’s occupation, marriage and social relationships. There is a prescribed set of norms, values and sanctions which govern social behaviour within caste. Sociologists have defined caste as ‘hereditary, endogamous group, which is usually localised. It has a traditional association with an occupation and a particular position in the local hierarchy of castes. Relations between castes are governed, among other things, by the concepts of pollution and purity, and general maximum commensality that occurs within the caste”. This is the definition of the ideal form of caste system. In reality, however, there are variations in the structure and functioning of caste system.

 

10. What is social change?

Ans:  Social Change is a very broad concept. Though change is all around us, we do not refer to all of it as social change. Thus, physical growth from year to year, or change of seasons do not fall under the concept of social change. In sociology, we look at social change as alterations that occur in the social structure and social relationship. Institutions, patterns of interaction, work, leisure activities, roles, norms and other aspects of society can be altered over time as a result of the process of social change.

            There are threeaspects of socialchange: i) Social change is essentially a process of alteration with no reference to the quality of change. ii) Changes in society are related/linked to changes in culture, so that it would be sometimes useful to talk about ‘socio-cultural change. iii) Social change can vary in its scope and in speed. Changes can take a cyclical pattern, e.g. whenthere is the recurrence of centralisation and decentralisation in administrative organisations.