Shubham: OPTIONAL answer copy

(i) Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze says the Indian Government have failed to remove unfreedom and improve capabilities of poor, which led to a situation of poverty trap.

(ii) Also, as per Ashish Bose (Demographer) high level of birth rate leads to higher level of property into breakdown while inheritance, leading to poverty.

(iii) Sachar Committee said poverty in muslim is due to high fertility, absence of middle class to modernize the outlook of committee.

(iv) Also it is perpetuated, as per Oscar Lewis, low poor class lacks the educational culture, so they stay perpetual poor.

(v) Even our reservation is faulty, as the large share of benefit are taken by one or two caste or tribes. eg. Meena.

(vi) There is also class-caste nexus in both rural and urban areas. As per Naulakha study, 90% of manual scavengers were SC/ST and 60% Grade A employee were Baniya Brahmin.

(vii) Lack of infrastructural facility to education, healthcare and opportunity to social mobility.

So it can be said poverty in India is socially generated and perpetuated.

"Slum is the lifeline of Urbanity". Comment.

A slum as per T.D. Santos, are the area of immense potential, full of energy, who have been tamed by faulty urbanization.

These are the areas with crowded housing, less health and education facility.

As per functionalist, slum are lifeline for urbanity as they provide for cheap labour, help in menial jobs and even act as a satisfying device for middle class who sees their condition is better.

As per Jan Breman, slums form the footloose labourer, and is the main part of the urban informal sector.

M.S.A Rao saw slums as a necessary evil, as they provide unskilled labourers in a plenty with a low cost. Marxist also says that slum as act as a Reserve Army of labour for the capitalist and keeps the wages low and eventually keep inflation low.

Dipankar Gupta even saw slum as better than decardant village as they are full of hope.

Slum also add to cultural diversity of the city, as they create their own sub-culture, eg. Rap culture, and their little tradition is universalized in greater tradition of city.

So, slum are a important part of city, and as per Human Right activist, it is the job of government to provide good education, healthcare and other basic necessity to the slums.

Highlight the difference between secularism and secularisation, discuss the nature of secularism in Indian context.

Secularism refers to a political ideology which a state follows when religion is separated from the state structure, and state do not follow any particular religion and is against it (Negative form) or respect all religions (Positive form).

On the other hand, as per Steve Bruce, secularisation is a process to where the impact of religion from public or private life is reduced. Religion takes less important in the social life, and rather than being an ideology, it is a continuous process, modernity have led to a boost.

Nature of Secularism in Indian Context

Indian secularism connotes the that, Indian state will not follow any particular religion but protect each religion equally. Article 25-28, explain the true form of Indian secularism.

As per Christophe Jefferelot, the pillar on which Indian secularism stands, is one of toleration and mutual existence. A culture of Unity in Diversity is maintained.

Due to ill effects of electoral politics, as per Paul Brass, sometimes political parties for vote bank subscribe to a religion, leading to generation of minority-majority consciousness which harm Indian secularism.

Overall, Indian secularism respect the belief of every religion.

Analyse M.S.A Rao's views on factors relating to the origins of social movements.

M.S.A Rao on in his work on social movement, saw social movement as a necessary element for social change.

Factors relating to origin of social movement.

(i) Ideology: According to him generation of ideology is a must for a collective action to become social movement as it will give a path of action, and even a goal to the participant of the social movement.

(ii) Leadership: As per him leadership is necessary for a social movement to gain legitimacy and concentrated effort. It can be collective leadership (SKM Kisan movement) or Charismatic leadership (Anna Hazare Movement).

(iii) Relative deprivation is also needed to create a sense of injustice amongst the participant.

(iv) He also said various resources such as human resource, capital resources, organisational resources are necessary for generation.

He also gave 3 types of social movements based on their orientation and level of social change they intend to bring.

(i) Reformative social movement.

(ii) Transformative social movement.

(iii) Revolutionary social movement.

So, these various condition are necessary to develop social movement, and a sustained action is necessary for success. Eg. Kisan Movement.

Critically examine the approaches to understand the concept of ethnicity.

"Ethnicity" as per David McCrone refers to the feeling of belongingness to a particular group based upon racial, linguistic and religious and regional factor.

Perspective to Approach to understand 'ethnicity':

(i) Racial Approach :- In this racial differences brings differences in groups, and a feeling of having separate interest. eg. North-eastern develop a ethnicity in the New Delhi, as they feel they are of different race than local.

(ii) Culture approach :- This creates helps in study different culture of different ethnic groups.

(iii) Also extreme ethnic-nationalism can also lead to secessionist movement, eg. Khalistan.

(iv) Symbolic Interactionism approach can also help in understanding how and why various groups creates a separate ethnic identity for themselves.

(v) Primordial approach looks at pre-mordial ties of kinship, family etc to understand ethnicity.

Ethnicity is an exclusionary grouping which creates a reguestal groups having a different culture, origin, etc, and it's virulent form can lead to ethnic tension in a society.

It is argued that industrialisation and urbanisation has diminished caste distinction and made class dimensions more powerful in India. How far do you agree with this view?

Marxist saw the rise of urbanisation and industrialisation will lead to the destruction of caste and development of class in India, which is necessary for development of proletarian consciousness.

Diminishing of caste and Rise of class

i) Lack of caste identity in urban workfaces due to anonymity, interdependence.

ii) Institution of endogamy is also reducing in urban work space society.

iii) Also caste as a system is not present in urban society.

(iv) Also even the caste identity are only instrumental and caste consciousness is low.

(v) As per Pew Research centre, there is more acceptance of inter-caste friendship and high level of interaction.

(vi) As per Harold Gould's study of Rickshaw Puller, urban workforce leave caste at home at work.

Even with Rise of Class - Caste is still a dominant factor.

(i) There is a caste-class nexus in urban society, as per Naulakha, 60% of Grade-IV employee are Brahmin and Baniya and 90% of manual scavenger are SC/ST.

(ii) As per Ghanshyam Shah, SC/ST are disproportionately represented in slums.

(iii) Also there is caste-based segregation of locality.

(iv) As per study by Sukhdeo Thorat there is latent untouchability in urban area.

(v) Jan Breman said, labour recruitment in informal sector is based upon caste identity.

(vi) Harold Gould study also showed, caste is still important in personal life sphere.

(vii) Also the percentage of urban poor are mostly represented by lower caste like SC.

(viii) There is also caste based organization in urban area.

So, it can be said that urbanization and industrialization have'nt been able to change the core of caste and caste successfully moulded itself to adopt to class.

Elite accomodation has often been a features of modern political societies. Critically discuss in context of India.

Elite accomodation refers to accomodating the intersts of various elites in the social, political and economic spheres. Essen elites are always able to preserve their relation of interest.

Elite Accomodation in case of India.

(i) Political Elites.

Parini said, after the green revolution and land reforms the AJGAR castes acted as political elite in North India, and always punched above its weight in tichet distribution, members selection and power.

Also, family dynastic elites are also accomodated, as most parties are run on the based of dynasty - as per Christophe Jaffrelot.

(ii) Social and Educational Elite:-

These elites are also provided with various government post, made head of various committees and are always kept in the loop for various government initiatives.

According to Avijit Pathak, most of the V-C in university, are based upon the government relation and not capabilities.

(iii) Business Elites:-

A.R. Desai said, the path to development which India took after independence was based upon capitalist accomodation, and due care was taken to secure their various rights, such as right to property, mixed economy with Private Participation.

Also, various example of corporate tax cuts and raise in indirect taxes shows buisness elite accomodation.

(iv) Regional elite / Tribal elites

Regional and Tribal elites are also accomodated by the government by various programme. S.C. Dube said, the CDP Community Development Programme helped the influential caste, and on the other hand Tribal Sub Plan or other policy have helped a small section of tribes like meena.

Though Neo-Marxist like Antonio Gramsci say, sometimes State have to give concession to the masses, and sometimes policy which are against elite interest have to be made to continue the legitimacy and hegemony a state enjoy.

So it can be said elite accomodation is a social fact in India, like other society, and small example of people-centric policy are only ideological conditioning device.

Research suggests that it is not just economics, but also social norms and behaviour that determine fertility choices. Comment in the context of population dynamics in India.

Davis and Moore gave the concept of "Intermediate Variable" which are based upon the social culture in a society, which determine fertility rate, these variables are i) Intercourse variable, ii) Conception variable and iii) Gestation variable.

Along with social variable, economic variables also effect fertility, Leibenstein said, if the return of having a baby is more than the opportunity cost of baby, then fertility will increase.

In the context of Indian population dynamics social norms and behaviour matter:-

(i) Due to patriarchal relation in North India, BEMARU states fertility is high, while, in southern state, due to better women empowerment it is low.

(ii) Soralde Desai; age difference in marriage also increase fertility rate, and want of boy child, as women want boy to support her in oldage in case of widowhood.

(iii) Also want of boy, will increase fertility rate; if there are

(iv) Also, since women in south India go to maternal home for a long time after birth of the child, then the gap between the next child increases, reducing fertility.

(v) Age of marriage is also an important determinant.

(vi) Also, educational attainment, and health of women effect the fertility rate.