UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination
Optional Subject: Sociology Paper: Paper II — Indian Society: Structure and Change Year: 2026 Time: 3 Hours Maximum Marks: 250
Section A (10 × 10 Marks = 100 Marks)
Answer in approximately 150 words each
Q1. Compare the Indological and structural-functionalist perspectives on the study of Indian society.
Answer Approach Hint: Contrast Ghurye’s textual-historical approach with Srinivas’s fieldview method; note their differing units of analysis and treatment of tradition versus lived social structure.
Q2. Examine the social background of Indian nationalism during the colonial period.
Answer Approach Hint: Link emergence of middle class, English education, print media and social reform movements to nationalist consciousness; avoid pure political-history narration, keep sociological framing.
Q3. Discuss the idea of the Indian village as portrayed in early village studies.
Answer Approach Hint: Address the “little republic” myth versus empirical village studies revealing factionalism, inequality and external linkages; reference Srinivas and later critiques.
Q4. Elucidate Andre Beteille’s contribution to the study of the caste system.
Answer Approach Hint: Focus on his triadic framework of class, status and power, and his Sripuram study showing shifts from ritual to secular stratification.
Q5. Explain the definitional problems associated with identifying tribal communities in India.
Answer Approach Hint: Cover criteria like isolation, primitive traits, animism, and administrative versus anthropological definitions; note contested and overlapping boundaries with caste society.
Q6. Analyse the emergence and characteristics of the middle class in India.
Answer Approach Hint: Trace colonial-era professional/service origins, post-liberalization expansion, consumption patterns, and internal differentiation; connect to broader agrarian-industrial class structure debates.
Q7. Discuss the changing dimensions of household structure within the Indian family system.
Answer Approach Hint: Distinguish household from family conceptually; discuss nuclearization trends, joint family myths, and regional/class variations using empirical family studies.
Q8. Examine the problems faced by religious minorities in India.
Answer Approach Hint: Cover socio-economic marginalization, identity politics, communal tension and constitutional safeguards; ground discussion in sociological rather than purely legal terms.
Q9. Discuss the role of education as an agent of social change in India.
Answer Approach Hint: Address literacy expansion, mobility function, reproduction of inequality via access disparities, and policy interventions; balance functionalist and critical perspectives.
Q10. Explain the concept of secularization in the Indian context.
Answer Approach Hint: Differentiate Western secularization theory from the Indian experience of religious revivalism coexisting with state secularism; reference debates on principled distance.
Section B (10 × 15 Marks = 150 Marks)
Answer in approximately 250 words each
Q11. Critically evaluate A. R. Desai’s Marxist approach to the study of Indian society and assess its relevance to contemporary agrarian class relations.
Answer Approach Hint: Examine his historical-materialist reading of colonialism and capitalism’s penetration into agriculture; assess applicability amid neoliberal changes and new agrarian classes.
Q12. Discuss the evolution of the land tenure system in colonial and post-colonial India and evaluate the outcomes of land reform measures.
Answer Approach Hint: Trace zamindari/ryotwari/mahalwari systems, then tenancy reform, ceiling laws and land consolidation; assess implementation gaps and regional variation in outcomes.
Q13. Examine the multiple perspectives on untouchability and assess how far constitutional and legal measures have addressed its persistence.
Answer Approach Hint: Present ritual-purity, structural and Dalit-assertion perspectives; link to Article 17, PoA Act, and continuing everyday practice versus formal-legal abolition.
Q14. Analyse the impact of colonial policies on tribal communities and the resulting debates on integration versus autonomy.
Answer Approach Hint: Cover forest laws, land alienation, isolationist versus assimilationist colonial approaches; connect to post-independence Fifth/Sixth Schedule debates and Verrier Elwin’s positions.
Q15. Discuss the significance of the Community Development Programme and subsequent poverty alleviation schemes in transforming rural India.
Answer Approach Hint: Trace CDP’s institutional design and shortcomings, evolution toward targeted poverty schemes, and sociological critique of top-down versus participatory rural development models.
Q16. Examine the social consequences of the Green Revolution on Indian agrarian structure.
Answer Approach Hint: Address regional disparities, differentiation among peasantry, mechanization’s effect on labour, and emergence of capitalist farming; reference debates on mode-of-production controversy.
Q17. Analyse the growth and structure of the working class in India in the context of industrialization and the expanding informal sector.
Answer Approach Hint: Discuss formal-informal duality, casualization trends, class mobilization challenges, and child labour concerns; connect to urban deprivation and slum formation.
Q18. Discuss the trajectory of the women’s movement in India and its intersection with caste and class-based social movements.
Answer Approach Hint: Trace pre- and post-independence phases, key issues like dowry and violence, and points of convergence/tension with Dalit and backward-class movements.
Q19. Examine the major components of population growth in India and critically assess the evolution of India’s population policy.
Answer Approach Hint: Cover fertility-mortality-migration trends, demographic transition stage, shift from coercive family planning to rights-based approaches; link to emerging ageing and sex-ratio concerns.
Q20. “Development-induced displacement represents a major challenge to social transformation in India.” Critically examine this statement with reference to environmental sustainability concerns.
Answer Approach Hint: Discuss dam/mining/industrial displacement, rehabilitation policy gaps, and environmental movement critiques; connect to broader crisis-of-development and sustainability debates.
End of Paper