UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination
Optional Subject: Sociology Paper: Paper II — Indian Society: Structure and Change Year: 2026 Time: 3 Hours Maximum Marks: 250
Instructions: Answer all questions. Section A questions carry 10 marks each (~150 words). Section B questions carry 15 marks each (~250 words).
Section A (10 × 10 Marks = 100 Marks)
Q1. Discuss G.S. Ghurye’s Indological approach to the study of Indian society. In what ways does it differ from purely textual Indology?
Answer Approach Hint: Outline Ghurye’s use of comparative ethnology and Sanskritic texts; note his engagement with race, caste origins, and cultural unity as an analytical lens.
Q2. Elucidate M.N. Srinivas’s structural-functional approach and its contribution to understanding the dynamics of Indian social organisation.
Answer Approach Hint: Cover his field-view emphasis, book-view critique, and concepts like dominant caste and sanskritisation as tools of functional analysis.
Q3. Explain A.R. Desai’s Marxist critique of Indian society and its departure from indological and functionalist frameworks.
Answer Approach Hint: Focus on class analysis, colonial capitalism, and how Desai locates social structure within political economy rather than tradition.
Q4. Examine the social background of Indian nationalism as it emerged during the colonial period.
Answer Approach Hint: Address the role of the emergent middle class, education, print culture, and regional/caste dimensions shaping early nationalist consciousness.
Q5. Trace the major protest movements of the colonial period and assess their contribution to shaping modern Indian society.
Answer Approach Hint: Consider peasant, tribal, and anti-caste protests; link them to colonial agrarian policy and emerging social consciousness.
Q6. Comment on the idea of the Indian village as a self-sufficient “little republic,” drawing on the findings of village studies.
Answer Approach Hint: Critically weigh colonial administrative constructions against empirical village studies by Srinivas, Dube, and others revealing internal stratification.
Q7. Analyse the evolution of the land tenure system in colonial India and its bearing on post-independence land reforms.
Answer Approach Hint: Trace zamindari, ryotwari, and mahalwari systems; connect to land reform objectives—tenancy reform, ceiling laws, and their uneven implementation.
Q8. Discuss the forms of untouchability in India and the major sociological perspectives used to explain its persistence.
Answer Approach Hint: Distinguish ritual, social, and economic dimensions; engage Ambedkarite, Marxist, and cultural perspectives on caste-based exclusion.
Q9. Explain the definitional problems associated with identifying tribal communities in India, and outline their geographical spread.
Answer Approach Hint: Discuss criteria used by the Constitution and anthropologists—isolation, distinct culture, economic backwardness—and regional clustering patterns.
Q10. Assess the major components and trends of population growth in India, highlighting emerging demographic concerns.
Answer Approach Hint: Cover fertility-mortality transition, migration trends, and link to concerns like ageing and skewed sex ratios without overlapping Q20.
Section B (10 × 15 Marks = 150 Marks)
Q11. Compare and contrast Louis Dumont’s holistic hierarchical model of caste with Andre Beteille’s approach emphasising power, status, and class.
Answer Approach Hint: Present Dumont’s purity-pollution hierarchy versus Beteille’s multi-dimensional stratification; discuss critiques of the homo hierarchicus thesis.
Q12. Critically analyse the tension between integration and autonomy in state policy towards tribal communities since independence.
Answer Approach Hint: Examine assimilationist versus protectionist approaches, Fifth/Sixth Schedule provisions, and contemporary debates on displacement and self-governance (PESA).
Q13. Analyse the transformation of agrarian, industrial, and middle-class structures in India in the context of economic liberalisation.
Answer Approach Hint: Trace class differentiation among peasantry, organised/unorganised industrial labour, and the diversifying “new middle class” post-1991 reforms.
Q14. Examine the changing patterns of kinship, family, and marriage in India, with reference to patriarchy and the sexual division of labour.
Answer Approach Hint: Discuss lineage/descent variations across regions, nuclearisation trends, and feminist critiques of household entitlements and unpaid labour.
Q15. Evaluate the problems faced by religious minorities in India and the role of secularisation in addressing them.
Answer Approach Hint: Balance constitutional secularism, communal relations, and sociological debates on whether secularisation is advancing or receding in Indian society.
Q16. Assess the role of the Constitution, law, and education as instruments of planned social change in India.
Answer Approach Hint: Link directive principles, affirmative action jurisprudence, and educational expansion to theories of law-induced social transformation.
Q17. Critically examine the impact of the Green Revolution on Indian agrarian society, with reference to rural labour, bondage, and migration.
Answer Approach Hint: Discuss regional disparities, capitalist farming emergence, agrarian class polarisation, and distress-driven labour migration patterns.
Q18. Discuss the processes of industrialisation and urbanisation in India, focusing on the informal sector, child labour, and urban slums.
Answer Approach Hint: Connect evolution of modern industry to informal-sector growth, precarious urban employment, and deprivation theories of slum formation.
Q19. Justify the claim that democratic decentralisation has reshaped the relationship between nation, citizenship, and regional identity in India.
Answer Approach Hint: Address Panchayati Raj, regionalism, pressure groups, and political elite formation as reconfiguring citizenship and power-sharing.
Q20. Evaluate the interconnection between social movements (peasant, women’s, Dalit, environmental, identity-based) and contemporary challenges of social transformation such as displacement and communal conflict.
Answer Approach Hint: Link movement mobilisation strategies to structural challenges—inequality, displacement, violence against women—showing movements as both response and driver of change.
END OF QUESTION PAPER