Sociology (331) | Set A1 • Code 71/SS/331/A1

Definition: Social work is a professional service based on scientific knowledge and skills to help individuals, groups and communities to enhance their social functioning and create favorable conditions.

• Unlike charity, it uses methods: Case work, Group work, Community organization, Social Action, Social Research.
• Aims at 3 goals: Adjustment (help person adjust), Development (personality growth), Change (social change).
• In India emerged to deal with beggary, prostitution, delinquency, tribal welfare, poverty.
• It is based on values of human dignity, equality, social justice. Professional training required - TISS Mumbai pioneered.

Hypergamy (Anuloma): Form of marriage where woman marries man of higher varna/caste/class/status. Permitted by Dharmashastras. Example: Brahmin boy marrying Kshatriya girl tolerated. Mechanism of upward mobility for girl's family but leads to dowry, difficulty finding grooms for higher caste girls, lower status of women.

Hypogamy (Pratiloma): Opposite - high caste woman marries low caste man. Condemned, prohibited in ancient India. Children called Chandala, impure, considered as violation of purity. Lowers status of family. Both are forms of inter-caste marriage but with hierarchical direction.

Kibbutz is a collective community settlement in Israel based on principles of collective ownership and equality. Example of intentional community and communal family.

• All property collectively owned, work done collectively, income shared equally.
• Children brought up communally in children's houses, not just by parents.
• Shows alternative to nuclear family and private property.
• Sociologically studied as experiment in community living, proving family can take different forms beyond biological, based on ideology not blood.

Fluctuating change is change that is not continuous in one direction but goes up and down, showing waves, ups and downs. It is irregular, unpredictable, short-term variation.

Characteristics:

• Not linear or evolutionary.
• Example: fashion cycles, economic boom-depression cycles, popularity of political leaders, stock market.
• Shows social change is not always progressive - can be regressive temporarily.
• Contrasted with evolutionary change which is slow and linear. Fluctuating change is like ECG - ups and downs.

Concept given by Louis Dumont in Homo Hierarchicus to explain caste hierarchy.

• Purity: Ritual cleanliness, holiness associated with upper castes - vegetarianism, avoidance of impure occupations, daily bath, teetotalism.
• Pollution: Impurity associated with birth, death, menstruation, leather, scavenging, meat eating, linked to lower castes.
• Principle creates social distance and hierarchy - upper castes maintain purity by avoiding contact with polluting groups.
• Leads to untouchability, restrictions on commensality (who can eat together) and inter-marriage.

(a) Untouchability (Offences) Act 1955, now Protection of Civil Rights Act 1976:

• Based on Article 17 of Constitution which abolishes untouchability.
• Punishes enforcement of any disability arising out of untouchability - refusing entry to temples, hotels, shops, public wells, bathing ghats; refusing to sell goods or render services; discrimination in hospitals, schools.
• Punishment: imprisonment up to 6 months + fine. All offences cognizable.
• Later strengthened as PCR Act 1976 and SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 provides more severe punishment.

(b) Street children problems: Homelessness, exposure, malnutrition, ill health, no education, exploitation - child labour, begging mafia, sexual abuse, trafficking, drug addiction, used as pickpockets, police harassment, no legal identity, psychological trauma. UN estimates 20 million street children in India.

Both are social sciences but approach differs. History studies past events in chronological order, particularistic, concerned with unique events - wars, kings, dynasties. Sociology studies present, general, looks for patterns, laws of society.

Relationship:

• History provides data to sociology. Sociology borrows historical facts to study social change, evolution of institutions. E.g., study of family from ancient to modern needs history.
• History also needs sociology to understand social background of historical events. Historians now use sociological concepts like class, caste.
• Difference: Historian is descriptive, sociologist is analytical. Historian focuses on exceptional, sociologist on typical.
• Both complement each other. As Howard Becker said, sociology without history is rootless, history without sociology is fruitless.

Group is formed, institution provides rules. Institution controls group. E.g., school as institution has rules, school class as group of students.

• Biological: Sexual regulation and reproduction, continuity of race.
• Economic: Division of labour, inheritance, property, care of dependents.
• Socialization: Primary socialization - teaches language, norms, values, culture. Parsons calls it primary and most important.
• Protective: Physical, emotional security to children, aged, sick.
• Educational: First school, informal education.
• Religious: Transmits religious beliefs, rituals, sanskars.
• Recreational: Companionship, love, entertainment.
• Status ascription: Gives ascribed status by caste, class, family name.
• Social control: Regulates behaviour through norms, taboos.

Functions have changed due to industrialization - economic and educational functions taken over by other agencies, but emotional function remains irreplaceable.

(a) Demographic factors: Population size, composition, distribution, density affect change.

• Population growth leads to poverty, unemployment, pressure on resources, housing, food crisis, need for new laws.
• Decline leads to labour shortage, ageing.
• Age composition - youthful population leads to demand for education, jobs, change.
• Sex ratio affects marriage, family.
• Migration - rural-urban migration changes urbanization, slums, culture contact, diffusion.
• Birth and death rates affect age structure. Malthus theory and Demographic transition theory explain shift from high birth-high death to low birth-low death causing social transformation.

(b) Technology as factor: Technology = tools, techniques, inventions. Ogburn's theory: technology is prime mover. Industrial tech changed production from household to factory, urbanization, capitalism. Communication tech - printing press spread knowledge, internet created global village. Transport - mobility, cultural diffusion. Medical tech - fall in death rate, population explosion. Green Revolution changed rural stratification. Technology creates cultural lag - material changes faster than non-material. Both liberating and alienating.

(a) Relationship: Socialization is process by which individual learns culture of own group, internalizes norms to become member of society. Lifelong, makes man social animal. Assimilation is process by which different cultures merge, person/group absorbs culture of another and becomes like them, differences disappear. E.g., immigrants assimilating in USA. Socialization is first step, prepares for assimilation. Through socialization, child learns own culture, then through assimilation learns other culture when in contact. Both are learning, adjustment processes. Socialization is within one society, assimilation is between two cultures.

(b) Agents: Family - primary, mother first teacher; Peer group - equal age, cooperation, competition; School - formal, discipline, citizenship; Neighbourhood, community; Religion - moral values; Mass media - TV, social media powerful; Workplace - secondary socialization; State, law.

• Heterogeneity - diverse caste, religion, language, occupation.
• Anonymity, impersonality - secondary relations, lack of personal touch.
• Nuclear family, individualism, loss of we-feeling.
• Occupational specialization, division of labour.
• High social mobility - achievement based, not ascribed.
• Secular outlook, rationalism, formal education.
• Formal social control - police, law, not informal panchayat.
• High density, overcrowding, slums, pollution, crime.
• Class system more dominant than caste, but caste persists in marriage.
• Consumerism, materialism, voluntary associations, NGOs.

(a) Reasons for cultural contact:

• Forest policy - British took forest, tribals displaced.
• Christian missionaries - education, health but conversion.
• Hinduization, Sanskritization, de-tribalization.
• Industrialization - mines, dams in tribal areas - Jamshedpur, Bhilai, Rourkela.
• Administration - land settlement, laws, revenue.
• Migration of non-tribals for business, moneylending, trading.
• Development programs - roads, communication, schools.
• Contact leads to assimilation, acculturation, loss of tribal identity, culture shock.

(b) Problems: Land alienation, poverty, indebtedness, bonded labour, low literacy, health issues - malnutrition, lack of medical facilities, exploitation by contractors, traders, displacement due to dams/mining - no proper rehabilitation, cultural disintegration - loss of language, customs, political marginalization, Naxalism in tribal belts.

Caste is unique Indian stratification system. G.S. Ghurye gave 6 classical features:

Additional features: Hereditary status by birth, common name, common deity, common culture, caste Panchayat which controls members and punishes violation, closed mobility - difficult to move up, but Sanskritization (M.N. Srinivas) allows lower caste to imitate lifestyle of upper twice-born to claim upward mobility. Modern changes: industrialization, urbanization, Constitution, reservation, education are changing caste, but still influences politics - casteism, vote bank, dominant caste.

(a) Indebtedness among OBCs: OBCs are Other Backward Classes, socially and educationally backward, identified by Mandal Commission - 52% of population, 3743 castes. Artisans, small peasants, service castes.

• Poverty & low income from traditional low-paying occupations.
• Small uneconomic landholdings, lack of irrigation, dependence on monsoon, low productivity.
• Lack of institutional credit - banks require collateral, so depend on moneylenders charging 36-60% interest.
• Social obligations - expenses on marriage, dowry, death rituals, festivals - borrow for prestige, not productive purpose.
• Illiteracy, lack of awareness about government schemes, KCC, subsidies.
• Cycle of poverty: Poverty → borrowing → high interest → mortgage of land → bonded labour → more poverty.
• Exploitation: Moneylender cum trader buys produce at low price, sells inputs at high price.

Measures: Co-operative banks, Kisan Credit Card, SHGs, MGNREGA, OBC reservation in education/jobs.

(b) Scheduled Castes: Castes listed in Schedule of Constitution under Article 341, formerly Untouchables, Harijans, now Dalits - 201 castes like Chamar, Bhangi, Mahar, Mala, Madiga. 16.6% as per 2011 census. Suffer historical discrimination, untouchability.

Five poverty-related problems:

1. Landlessness: Majority are landless agri labourers, depend on upper caste landlords for low wages.
2. Low wage & unemployment: Illiteracy, lack of skills, get only menial jobs - scavenging, leather work - low paid, irregular.
3. Indebtedness: Borrow for survival and ceremonies at high interest, fall into bonded labour.
4. Illiteracy: Poverty prevents education, education needed to escape poverty - vicious circle. Dropout high due to cost and discrimination.
5. Health & housing: Live in segregated bastis outside village, poor housing, no sanitation, malnutrition, high morbidity, high IMR.

Government measures: Reservation in education, jobs, Panchayats, SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989, scholarships, housing schemes like PMAY, Stand-up India.

Ans. (B) 1829 - Bengal Sati Regulation by Governor-General Lord William Bentinck, on efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Made Sati illegal and punishable as culpable homicide.

Ans. (A) 1950 - Adopted on 26 Nov 1949, came into force on 26 Jan 1950 - Republic Day. Drafted by Drafting Committee chaired by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

Ans. Vedas / Indus Valley Archaeological Remains - Earliest literary source is Rigveda (1500 BCE). Earliest archaeological source is Harappan civilization remains. For NIOS, answer is Vedas.

Ans. Raja Ram Mohan Roy - Called Father of Indian Renaissance, founder of Brahmo Samaj, fought against Sati, child marriage, caste.

Ans. (B) Women's education - Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar promoted girls' schools, widow remarriage, and got Widow Remarriage Act 1856 passed. Also worked for women's education broadly.

Ans. Dalits / Girls / Women - Jyotiba Phule and wife Savitribai Phule founded first girls' school in Pune 1848, and Satya Shodhak Samaj for lower castes, Dalits, Shudras. NIOS expects Dalits and girls education. Both correct, but most associated with Dalits upliftment and women's education.

Ans. False - Buddhism was relatively liberal. Gautama Buddha allowed women into Sangha as Bhikkhunis after request by Ananda and Mahaprajapati Gautami. First nun was Mahaprajapati Gautami. Women could participate in religious discourses.

(a) Gender equality achieved through:

• Constitutional: Art 14 equality, Art 15 prohibition of discrimination on sex, Art 15(3) special provisions for women, Art 16 equal opportunity, Art 39 equal pay for equal work, Art 42 maternity relief, 73rd/74th Amendment 33% reservation in Panchayats (now 50% in many states).
• Legislations: Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, Equal Remuneration Act 1976, Domestic Violence Act 2005, Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act 2013, Maternity Benefit Act 1961 amended 2017.
• Programs: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Mahila Samakhya, SHGs, ICDS, reservation in local bodies.
• Education & economic empowerment key to equality.

(b) Feminism: Ideology and movement demanding equality of sexes, equal rights for women in social, political, economic sphere, ending patriarchy. Waves: First wave - suffrage right to vote (19th century); Second wave - 1960s equality in work, sexuality, reproductive rights; Third wave - diversity, intersectionality, post-modern. Types: Liberal feminism demands legal equality, Radical feminism says patriarchy is root cause of oppression, Socialist feminism links capitalism and patriarchy, Black feminism intersection of race and gender. Feminism questions gender roles as socially constructed, not natural. Seeks liberation from oppression.

(a) Gender discrimination operates from womb to tomb:

• Family: Son preference, female foeticide, female infanticide, less nutrition to girls, less education, early marriage, dowry.
• Economic: Wage gap (women paid less), concentration in informal sector, glass ceiling, unpaid domestic work not counted in GDP, limited property rights though law gives equal rights.
• Social: Patriarchy, purdah, restrictions on mobility, eve-teasing, honour killing, control over sexuality.
• Political: Less representation in Parliament (less than 15% though 50% population), though reservation in local bodies improved participation.
• Violence: Domestic violence (NFHS says 30% women face), dowry deaths, sexual assault, trafficking.
• Health: Maternal mortality high, anaemia, neglect of women's health.

Patriarchal ideology legitimizes it, socialization teaches boys dominance and girls subordination.

(b) Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP): Part IV, Articles 36-51, non-justiciable but fundamental in governance, borrowed from Irish Constitution. Aim to establish welfare state, social and economic democracy. Gandhiji said economic independence needed.

• Gandhian: Village panchayats (Art 40), cottage industries, prohibition, cow protection.
• Socialist: Equal pay for equal work (39d), right to work, distribution of wealth to prevent concentration, free legal aid (39A).
• Liberal: Uniform civil code (44), free and compulsory education (now Fundamental Right), environment protection (48A), separation of judiciary.
• Related to women: Art 39(a) equal right to adequate livelihood, 39(d) equal pay, 39A equal justice, 42 maternity benefit, 44 uniform civil code.
• Importance: Guide for laws, moral ideals, though not enforceable, govt must apply them. Courts use them to interpret Fundamental Rights. Conflict between Fundamental Rights and DPSP resolved by doctrine of harmonious construction.

Ans. (C) music - Sadarang (Naimat Khan) and Adarang (Feroz Khan) were famous Hindustani classical musicians in court of Muhammad Shah Rangila (18th century), credited with development of Khayal singing.

Ans. (D) Rigveda - Composed around 1500-1200 BCE, 1028 hymns, 10 Mandalas, dedicated to gods like Indra, Agni, Varuna. Oldest scripture of world.

Ans. Aryabhata - 5th century CE, wrote Aryabhatiya, invented zero concept, decimal system, calculated value of pi, explained eclipses. Others: Brahmagupta (concept of zero as number), Bhaskara II (Lilavati), Varahamihira, Baudhayana (Pythagoras theorem).

Ans. C.V. Raman - 1930 for Raman Effect (scattering of light). First Indian scientist to get Nobel in Physics. Also S. Chandrasekhar 1983.

Ans. (C) culture - Culture is identity of nation, includes language, religion, art, architecture, values, heritage, way of life. India recognized through its composite culture.

Ans. Jagannath Temple - One of Char Dham, built by Eastern Ganga ruler Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva in 12th century, famous for annual Rath Yatra (Car Festival), Trinity - Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra.

Ans. True - Ajanta, Ellora, Bagh, Sittanavasal cave paintings, Mughal, Rajput, Pahari paintings are world famous for technique, natural colours, themes - Jataka stories, etc.

(a) Enculturation: Process by which individual learns and adopts values, norms, behaviour appropriate to his own culture. It is learning own culture through unconscious process from family, school, peers. Different from acculturation which is learning other culture. Example: child learns language, food habits, greetings of his community without formal teaching.

(b) Veda: Word means knowledge, derived from root 'vid'. Oldest scriptures of Hindus, considered Shruti (heard), Apaurusheya (not man-made). Four Vedas:

1. Rigveda: Oldest, 1028 hymns to gods - Indra, Agni, Varuna, 10 Mandalas.
2. Samaveda: Book of melodies, music, 1549 verses mostly from Rigveda set to music, basis of Indian music.
3. Yajurveda: Sacrificial formulas, prose, two parts - Shukla and Krishna, details of rituals.
4. Atharvaveda: Spells, charms, medicine, daily life, magic, 731 hymns.

Each Veda has 4 parts: Samhita (hymns), Brahmana (rituals), Aranyaka (forest), Upanishad (philosophy).

(a) Cultural Pluralism: Means coexistence of diverse cultures in one society without dominant culture eliminating others, mutual respect, tolerance, unity in diversity. India is best example - many religions (Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain), languages (22 official, 1600 dialects), cuisines, dresses coexist. Pluralism accepts diversity, promotes integration without assimilation. Unlike melting pot where all merge into one, pluralism is salad bowl - each retains identity but contributes to whole. Constitutional provisions Art 29-30 protect cultural and educational rights of minorities. Benefits: enriches society, fosters tolerance, creativity. Challenges: communalism if not managed.

(b) Importance of Norms and Values:

• Norms are rules of behaviour - folkways (eating manners), mores (prohibition of incest), laws (IPC). Values are beliefs about what is good, desirable - honesty, equality, non-violence.
• Social order: Norms maintain predictability, avoid chaos. If no traffic norms, accident.
• Social control: Regulate behaviour through sanctions - reward/punishment.
• Socialization: Teach correct behaviour to new generation.
• Integration: Common values bind society, create we-feeling, solidarity.
• Guide to decision making: Values guide what goals to pursue.
• Without norms, anomie (normlessness) leads to deviance, suicide as Durkheim said. Values give direction to norms, norms operationalize values.