Question 1(a) · 10 marks · 324 words written
Write a short note on each of the following in not more than 150 words.
Opening · a definition
None written.
Body · points
- (a) Westernization
Westernization, as per M.N. Srinivas, refers to the ideological, institutional and technological changes in the Indian society owing to 150 years of British rule.
Western ideas such as liberty, equality, fraternity so on, reached India through modern education. A new middle class emerged which was educated with these values and which introspected upon the obscurantism and stagnation which had enveloped the Indian psyche.
Western institutions like modern law courts, civil services, Police, so on brought about equality before law and rationalisation of our institutional set up such as kin relations.
Western technology such as railways and telegraph were employed to improve administration by the British but they indirectly helped in increasing the moral density and spreading ideas as people more freely interacted across the nation.
Westernization also gave a pace to Sanskritization. However, the concept is contested as Yogendra Singh says that the term is 'value-loaded' and should be replaced by 'Modernization'. Besides, Indian society was also affected equally by Irish, Russian and French revolutions.
- (a) Feminist Environmentalism
Close
Women have traditionally been considered closer to 'Nature' and men closer to 'Culture'. So, any form of environmentalism without women is not possible, specially when our Nature is herself considered as a 'Mother'.
In 1970s, when Chipko Movement unfolded, women were seen spearheading the concern for environment. Ramchandra Guha points out in "Unquiet woods" that Chipko was an expression of eco-feminism because women are most intimately connected with their environment right from fulfilling their domestic needs of water and fuel wood to their religious needs like worshipping a river or a rock.
Later, in 1980s and 1990s, the tribal movements against development-induced-displacement were also strongly backed by tribal women who had to suffer the most due to alienation from their land and forest.
Today, a woman needs to be equated with a man while starting any campaign for environment because even our Earth is our 'Mother', as discussed in Paris Climate Deal.