UPESSC PGT Sociology – Study Material
Part 2: Units 9–15 (Indian Society) + General Studies

Unit 9 – Hindu Social Organisation

9.1 Varna System

• The earliest reference is the Purusha Sukta, 10th Mandala of the Rig Veda. Brahmins came from the mouth of the Purusha (cosmic being), Kshatriyas from the arms, Vaishyas from the thighs, and Shudras from the feet.
• Duties (varna dharma): Brahmin – learning, teaching, rituals; Kshatriya – protection, administration; Vaishya – trade, agriculture, cattle-rearing; Shudra – service to the other three.
• The Bhagavad Gita says varna is based on guna (qualities) and karma (actions): "chaturvarnyam maya srishtam guna-karma-vibhagashah".
• Varna vs Caste (jati): there are 4 varnas but thousands of jatis. Varna is a theoretical, all-India framework; jati is the actual local, endogamous group based on birth.

9.2 Ashrama System (stages of life, total 100 years)

Purushartha–Ashrama link: Brahmacharya → Dharma; Grihastha → Artha & Kama (guided by Dharma); Vanaprastha & Sannyasa → Moksha.

9.3 Dharma

• Dharma comes from the root "dhri" (to hold or sustain). It is what holds society together: duty, righteousness, moral law.
• Types: Samanya (Sadharana) dharma – universal duties for all, such as truth, non-violence and non-stealing; Vishesha dharma – special duties: varna dharma, ashrama dharma, kula dharma, raja dharma, yuga dharma, apad dharma (dharma in emergencies), swadharma.

9.4 Purusharthas (four aims of life)

Dharma → Artha → Kama → Moksha. Dharma (righteousness) is the foundation. Artha (wealth) and Kama (desire, pleasure) must be pursued within Dharma. Moksha (liberation) is the final goal.

9.5 Rinas (debts) & Pancha Mahayajnas

Five great sacrifices (Pancha Mahayajnas) of the householder: Brahma yajna (study), Deva yajna (offering to gods), Pitri yajna (tarpan to ancestors), Bhuta yajna (feeding animals and birds), Nri / Manushya yajna (hospitality to guests).

9.6 Samskaras (sacraments)

• Purificatory rites through life. The popular number is 16 (Shodasha Samskaras). Gautama Dharmasutra lists 40; Manu lists 13.
• The 16 samskaras: (1) Garbhadhana (conception), (2) Pumsavana, (3) Simantonnayana, (4) Jatakarma (birth), (5) Namakarana (naming), (6) Nishkramana (first outing), (7) Annaprashana (first solid food), (8) Chudakarana / Mundan (tonsure), (9) Karnavedha (ear piercing), (10) Vidyarambha, (11) Upanayana (sacred thread – "second birth", hence "dvija"), (12) Vedarambha, (13) Keshanta / Godana, (14) Samavartana (completion of education), (15) Vivaha (marriage – the most important), (16) Antyeshti (last rites).

9.7 Doctrine of Karma & Rebirth

• Every action (karma) produces results. A person's present birth, including caste status, is the result of past karma. Good karma leads to a better rebirth.
• Sociological significance: it gave legitimacy to the caste hierarchy and acted as social control and a source of motivation for moral conduct. Weber noted that karma made the caste order stable.
• Three kinds of karma: Sanchita (accumulated), Prarabdha (bearing fruit now), Kriyamana (being done now).

9.8 Hindu Marriage

• Hindu marriage is a sacrament (samskara), not a contract. It is considered indissoluble, a lifelong union, and continues even after death (traditionally).
• Aims: Dharma (highest), Praja (progeny), Rati (pleasure, lowest).
• Eight forms of marriage (Manu):

  Form	Feature	Status
  1. Brahma	Daughter given with ornaments to a learned man of good character – the best form	Approved (Prashasta)
  2. Daiva	Daughter given to the priest officiating at a sacrifice
  3. Arsha	Groom gives a cow and bull pair to the bride's father
  4. Prajapatya	Father gives his daughter with the blessing "may you both perform dharma together"
  5. Asura	Marriage by purchase (bride price)	Unapproved (Aprashasta)
  6. Gandharva	Love marriage by mutual consent
  7. Rakshasa	Marriage by capture (abduction)
  8. Paishacha	Seducing a sleeping, intoxicated or mentally ill girl – the worst form

• Restrictions: endogamy (within caste or sub-caste) and exogamy (outside the gotra, the pravara, and sapinda relatives). Traditional sapinda rule: 7 generations on the father's side and 5 on the mother's side. Hindu Marriage Act 1955: 5 generations through the father, 3 through the mother.
• Anuloma (hypergamy) was accepted; Pratiloma (hypogamy) was disapproved.
• Laws: Hindu Widow Remarriage Act 1856 (Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar); Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 (Sharda Act); Special Marriage Act 1954; Hindu Marriage Act 1955 (monogamy compulsory, divorce allowed); Hindu Succession Act 1956 (amended 2005 to give daughters equal coparcenary rights); Dowry Prohibition Act 1961; Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 (girl 18, boy 21).
• Changes: rise of divorce and remarriage, love and inter-caste marriages, later age at marriage, decline in the religious character of marriage, and the persistence of dowry.

9.9 Hindu Joint Family

• Irawati Karve: "A joint family is a group of people who generally live under one roof, who eat food cooked at one hearth, who hold property in common and who participate in common family worship and are related to each other as some particular type of kindred."
• Features: large size; common residence, kitchen, property and worship; authority of the eldest male (Karta); co-operative economy; three or more generations; a sense of mutual obligation.
• Two schools of Hindu law:

  Mitakshara	Dayabhaga
  Author: Vijnaneshwara	Author: Jimutavahana
  Throughout India except Bengal and Assam	Bengal & Assam
  Sons get a right in ancestral property by birth	Sons get rights only after the father's death

• Functions: economic security, social insurance (for the old, widows, orphans), socialisation, recreation, preservation of culture.
• Causes of change or disintegration: industrialisation, urbanisation, migration, modern education, new legislation (inheritance, marriage), individualism, women's employment, the money economy.
• Sociologists such as Kapadia, I.P. Desai and A.M. Shah found that while the joint household declines, "jointness" (functional ties and obligations) continues.

Unit 10 – Muslim Marriage & Family

• Muslim marriage (Nikah) is a civil contract (not a sacrament). Its purposes are legalising sexual relations, procreation, and the regulation of social life.
• Essentials of a valid Nikah:
  1. Ijab (proposal) and Qubul (acceptance) in the same meeting
  2. Competence: sound mind and puberty
  3. Free consent of both parties
  4. Witnesses: Sunni – two adult males, or one male and two females; Shia – witnesses not required
  5. Mahr (dower) – money or property the husband must give the wife; it is her exclusive right
  6. No prohibited relationship (consanguinity, affinity, fosterage)
• Types of marriage:

  Type	Meaning
  Sahih	Valid – fulfils all conditions
  Batil	Void – has a permanent prohibition (e.g. marrying a close blood relative)
  Fasid	Irregular – has a temporary defect (e.g. no witnesses, a fifth wife, during iddat); can be corrected
  Muta	Temporary marriage for a fixed period and fixed mahr – recognised only by Ithna Ashari Shias

• Mahr: Prompt (Muajjal) – payable on demand; Deferred (Muwajjal) – payable on divorce or death. Specified (mahr-ul-musamma) vs Proper (mahr-ul-misl) – fixed by custom.
• Polygyny: a Muslim man may have up to 4 wives at a time, provided he treats them equally. Polyandry is not allowed.
• Iddat (waiting period for a woman before remarriage): 3 menstrual cycles (about 3 months) after divorce; 4 months and 10 days after the husband's death; until delivery if pregnant.
• Preferred marriage: parallel cousin marriage (father's brother's daughter) is common.

10.1 Dissolution of Muslim marriage

• Shayara Bano v. Union of India (22 Aug 2017): the Supreme Court declared instant triple talaq (talaq-ul-biddat) unconstitutional. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 made it void and a punishable offence (up to 3 years' imprisonment).
• Shah Bano case (1985) on maintenance led to the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986.
• Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937.
• Muslim family: traditionally patriarchal and patrilineal, with an extended family structure. Women get a share in inheritance (generally half of a son's share). Changes: education, women's rights, legal reform.

Unit 11 – Caste System, Caste & Class, Rural Power Structure

11.1 Definitions of caste

11.2 Theories of the origin of caste

J.H. Hutton was Census Commissioner for the 1931 Census, the last Census to count all castes until the 2011 SECC.

11.3 Jajmani System

• William H. Wiser, The Hindu Jajmani System (1936), studied Karimpur village, Mainpuri district (UP).
• A hereditary exchange of services between castes in a village. Jajman = the patron (landowning caste) who receives services; Kamin / Purjan / Praja = the service castes (barber, washerman, potter, carpenter), paid in kind (grain) at harvest.
• Features: hereditary, permanent, barter-based. It created a functional interdependence but also exploitation. It declined because of the money economy, the market, migration and education.

11.4 Dominant Caste (M.N. Srinivas)

• A caste is dominant when it has: (1) numerical strength, (2) economic power (land ownership), (3) political power, (4) high ritual status, (5) western education and jobs.
• Examples: Jats (western UP, Haryana), Yadavs, Kurmis, Lingayats and Vokkaligas (Karnataka), Marathas (Maharashtra), Reddys and Kammas (Andhra Pradesh).

11.5 Changes in the caste system

• Decline of commensality and ritual pollution rules; occupational mobility; the weakening of jajmani and the caste panchayat.
• Rise of caste associations and the use of caste in politics – Rajni Kothari, Caste in Indian Politics (1970); Rudolph & Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition (1967).
• Sanskritisation, westernisation, reservation, legal equality (Articles 14–17), urbanisation.
• Caste remains strong in marriage (endogamy) and politics ("vote bank").

11.6 Caste vs Class

Today caste and class overlap. There is a trend from "caste to class", but there is also class within castes (the "creamy layer").

11.7 Rural Power Structure & Emerging Leadership

• Traditional power structure: based on caste (ritual rank), land ownership and age. Institutions: the caste panchayat, village elders, landlords (zamindars), and the dominant caste.
• Changes after Independence: zamindari abolition, adult franchise, Panchayati Raj (the 73rd Amendment), reservation for SC/ST/OBC and women in panchayats, political parties, co-operatives and education.
• Emerging leadership: younger, educated and politically connected leaders, often from middle and lower castes. Leadership is now based on achievement rather than ascription. The rise of SC and women leaders (including "Pradhan Pati" proxies, which is a challenge), and of farmers' leaders (e.g. Mahendra Singh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, western UP).
• Studies: Andre Béteille (caste, class and power – Sripuram), Yogendra Singh, the Rudolphs, Oommen, and F.G. Bailey (Caste and the Economic Frontier, Orissa).

Unit 12 – Rural Change & Development

12.1 Early rural reconstruction experiments

12.2 Community Development Programme (CDP)

• Launched on 2 October 1952 with 55 projects, with help from the Ford Foundation. The aim was the all-round development of villages through people's participation.
• The Block (about 100 villages) was the unit of development, headed by the Block Development Officer (BDO). The Village Level Worker (VLW / Gram Sevak) was the link between the government and villagers.
• The National Extension Service (NES) began in 1953.
• Evaluation: it was largely a government programme with little people's participation, and it benefited richer farmers (as S.C. Dube and A.R. Desai pointed out).
• The Balwantrai Mehta Committee (1957) reviewed the CDP and recommended "democratic decentralisation", which led to Panchayati Raj.

12.3 Panchayati Raj

Key provisions of the 73rd Amendment: a Gram Sabha in every village (243A); a three-tier structure (for states with a population over 20 lakh); direct elections; reservation of seats for SC/ST in proportion to their population (243D); at least one-third of seats for women (many states now give 50%); a 5-year term, with elections within 6 months of dissolution; a State Election Commission (243K); a State Finance Commission (243-I) every 5 years; minimum age 21 years.

12.4 Land Reforms

• Aims: remove intermediaries, give land to the tiller, reduce inequality, increase productivity.
• Components:
  1. Abolition of intermediaries (zamindari): U.P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950 (implemented 1 July 1952) – a landmark law.
  2. Tenancy reforms – regulation of rent, security of tenure, ownership rights for tenants. Operation Barga (West Bengal, 1978) registered sharecroppers.
  3. Ceiling on land holdings – U.P. Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1960; surplus land distributed to the landless.
  4. Consolidation of holdings (chakbandi) – U.P. Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953.
• Bhoodan Movement – Acharya Vinoba Bhave, started 18 April 1951 at Pochampalli (Telangana); later Gramdan.
• Limitations: benami transfers, loopholes, poor implementation, rich-peasant influence.

12.5 Green Revolution

• Term coined by William Gaud (USAID) in 1968. The global father is Norman Borlaug (Nobel Peace Prize 1970); the father in India is M.S. Swaminathan. C. Subramaniam was the Agriculture Minister.
• It began in the mid-1960s (1966–67), with the High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds programme, especially for wheat (and later rice).
• Package: HYV seeds + chemical fertilisers + irrigation + pesticides + mechanisation + credit + minimum support price.
• Main areas: Punjab, Haryana, western UP.
• Positive effects: food self-sufficiency, higher production and farm incomes, end of famine dependence (PL-480).
• Social effects (frequently asked):
  • Increased regional inequality (only irrigated areas benefited) and class inequality (rich farmers benefited more)
  • Rise of capitalist farmers and "bullock capitalists" (Rudolph); the displacement of tenants
  • Decline of the jajmani system; cash wages; labour migration (e.g. from Bihar and eastern UP to Punjab)
  • Rise of farmers' movements – Bharatiya Kisan Union (Mahendra Singh Tikait, western UP), Shetkari Sanghatana (Sharad Joshi, Maharashtra)
  • Environmental problems: soil degradation, a falling water table, pesticide residues

12.6 Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)

• Introduced in 1978–79 in 2,300 blocks; extended to all blocks on 2 October 1980.
• Aim: to help rural below-poverty-line (BPL) families cross the poverty line through self-employment, by providing productive assets with a subsidy + bank credit.
• Target groups: small and marginal farmers, agricultural labourers, rural artisans. At least 50% SC/ST, 40% women, and 3% persons with disabilities.
• Sub-programmes: TRYSEM (Training Rural Youth for Self-Employment, 1979) and DWCRA (Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas, 1982).
• Merged into the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) on 1 April 1999 → which became the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM – Aajeevika), 2011 → DAY-NRLM.
• Other rural schemes: MGNREGA (Act 2005; launched 2 Feb 2006 – 100 days of wage employment), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (2000), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin (2016), Swachh Bharat Mission (2 Oct 2014), Jal Jeevan Mission (2019).

Unit 13 – Changes in Indian Society

13.1 Sanskritisation

• Concept given by M.N. Srinivas in Religion and Society Among the Coorgs of South India (1952). He first called it "Brahmanisation".
• Definition (1966): "Sanskritisation is the process by which a 'low' Hindu caste, or tribal or other group, changes its customs, ritual, ideology and way of life in the direction of a high, and frequently, 'twice-born' caste."
• Models: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and the local dominant caste.
• Examples: giving up meat and alcohol, wearing the sacred thread, banning widow remarriage, adopting Sanskritic rituals and deities.
• It leads to positional change, not structural change. The caste system itself does not change.
• De-Sanskritisation means moving away from Sanskritic norms (for example, in the anti-Brahmin movement in Tamil Nadu).

13.2 Westernisation

• Srinivas (Social Change in Modern India, 1966): "the changes brought about in Indian society and culture as a result of over 150 years of British rule, the term subsuming changes occurring at different levels – technology, institutions, ideology and values."
• Examples: English education, the legal system, the railways, the press, dress, food habits, humanitarianism, egalitarianism and reform.
• Westernisation is ethically neutral (Srinivas), whereas modernisation implies something "good" or "rational".

13.3 Universalisation & Parochialisation

• McKim Marriott, based on a study of Kishan Garhi village (Aligarh, UP), in the essay "Little Communities in an Indigenous Civilization" in Village India (1955).
• He used Robert Redfield's idea of Great Tradition (classical, textual, elite, Sanskritic) vs Little Tradition (folk, local, oral) – Peasant Society and Culture (1956). Milton Singer applied this in his study of Madras.
• Universalisation: elements of the little tradition move upward into the great tradition. Parochialisation: elements of the great tradition move downward and become localised.
• Example of parochialisation: Sanskrit deities such as Lakshmi are worshipped in a local form. Example of universalisation: local festivals or deities get Sanskritic names and texts.

13.4 Modernisation

• A shift from traditional to rational, scientific, secular, industrial and democratic values and institutions. Daniel Lerner wrote The Passing of Traditional Society (1958).
• Yogendra Singh, Modernization of Indian Tradition (1973): change at the micro and macro levels, in both structure and culture. Modernity and tradition can coexist.
• Rudolph & Rudolph: The Modernity of Tradition (1967). Caste associations became modern tools.

13.5 Industrialisation & Urbanisation

• Industrialisation: a shift from agriculture and handicrafts to machine-based factory production. Effects: the factory system, migration, the nuclear family, a working class, trade unions, urban slums, the decline of caste occupations, secularisation.
• Urbanisation: the increase in the share of the population living in urban areas.
  • Census 2011: urban population 31.16% of India (377 million). UP: 22.27%.
  • Census Town criteria: population of at least 5,000; at least 75% of the male working population in non-agricultural work; density of at least 400 per sq km.
  • Louis Wirth, "Urbanism as a Way of Life" (1938): size, density, heterogeneity. Redfield: the folk–urban continuum.
  • Problems: slums, housing, pollution, crime, traffic, water, waste. Schemes: Smart Cities Mission and AMRUT (2015).

13.6 Secularisation

• Srinivas: "the term secularisation implies that what was previously regarded as religious is now ceasing to be such, and it also implies a process of differentiation..." Its two elements are rationalism and differentiation.
• Causes: modern education, urbanisation, transport and communication, reform movements, the legal system.
• The words "Socialist" and "Secular" were added to the Preamble by the 42nd Amendment, 1976. Indian secularism means equal respect for all religions (sarva dharma sambhava), not a strict separation of religion and state.

13.7 Globalisation

• The increasing interconnection of the world through trade, capital, technology, the media and migration.
• Anthony Giddens: "the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away" (The Consequences of Modernity, 1990).
• "Global village" – Marshall McLuhan. Glocalisation – Roland Robertson. The term "globalisation of markets" was popularised by Theodore Levitt (1983). George Ritzer – "McDonaldisation of Society" (1993).
• India: the LPG reforms (Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation) of July 1991 (P.V. Narasimha Rao as PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister). India joined the WTO on 1 January 1995.
• Effects: IT and service-sector growth, the middle class, consumerism, cultural homogenisation, the informal sector, farmer distress, migration, changes in the family and gender roles, and the digital divide.

Unit 14 – Social Disorganisation, Crime & Delinquency

14.1 Social disorganisation

• W.I. Thomas & F. Znaniecki (The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, 1918–20): "a decrease of the influence of existing social rules of behaviour upon individual members of the group."
• Elliott & Merrill (Social Disorganization, 1934): a process in which the relationships between members of a group break down.
• Faris: a disturbance in the patterns and mechanisms of human relations.
• Symptoms / causes: conflict of mores, institutional dysfunction, transfer of functions from one institution to another, individualism, role conflict, rapid social change, cultural lag (Ogburn), and anomie (Durkheim).
• Types:
  • Personal disorganisation – deviation from accepted norms: crime, suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, prostitution.
  • Family disorganisation – divorce, desertion, separation, domestic violence, conflict between generations. Elliott and Merrill listed its forms.
  • Community disorganisation – communal riots, slums, poverty.
  • Cultural disorganisation – conflict between old and new values, cultural lag, culture conflict.

14.2 Crime – theories

14.3 White-collar crime

• Term coined by Edwin H. Sutherland in 1939 (presidential address to the American Sociological Society); book White Collar Crime (1949).
• Definition: "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation."
• Examples: tax evasion, bribery, adulteration, fraudulent accounts, insider trading, bank fraud, medical negligence for profit, black marketing.
• Features: committed by high-status people, linked to their occupation, non-violent, hard to detect, rarely punished, causes great financial loss to society. Indian studies: the Santhanam Committee (1964) on corruption, which led to the Central Vigilance Commission.

14.4 Juvenile delinquency

• A child (below 18 years) who commits an offence. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015: a juvenile is a person below 18 years. Children aged 16–18 who commit heinous offences (7+ years' punishment) can be tried as adults after assessment by the Juvenile Justice Board.
• Causes: broken families, poverty, slums, bad company, lack of supervision, media influence, school failure, drug abuse.
• Institutions: Observation Homes, Special Homes, Children's Homes, Juvenile Justice Boards, Child Welfare Committees, probation.
• Prevention: family counselling, school programmes, recreation, the Childline (1098) helpline.

Unit 15 – Social Problems

15.1 Unemployment

• Types: structural (lack of capital or industry), frictional (between jobs), seasonal (agriculture), disguised (more workers than needed, mainly in agriculture; marginal productivity is zero), cyclical, technological, educated unemployment, underemployment.
• Measurement: the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), conducted by NSO under MoSPI, since 2017.
• Causes: population growth, slow industrial growth, an education system out of line with jobs, dependence on agriculture, lack of skills.
• Schemes: MGNREGA (2005/06), PMEGP (2008), Skill India and PMKVY (2015), Start-up India (2016), Stand-Up India (2016 – bank loans of ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore for SC/ST and women entrepreneurs), PM Mudra Yojana (2015), DAY-NRLM.

15.2 Poverty

• Absolute poverty (below the minimum needed for subsistence) vs relative poverty (compared with others in society).
• The first estimate of the poverty line in India was by Dadabhai Naoroji in Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901), with the "drain theory".
• Committees: Lakdawala (1993); Tendulkar (2009) – 21.9% poor in 2011–12; Rangarajan (2014) – 29.5% in 2011–12.
• Multidimensional Poverty Index (NITI Aayog, based on the Oxford/UNDP method: health, education, standard of living). The NITI discussion paper (2024) estimated that multidimensional poverty fell from 29.17% (2013–14) to 11.28% (2022–23), with about 24.82 crore people moving out. UP recorded the largest decline, about 5.94 crore people.
• Oscar Lewis – "culture of poverty" (Five Families, 1959; La Vida, 1966). The poor develop values such as fatalism and present-orientation, which pass from generation to generation.
• "Garibi Hatao" was the slogan of 1971 (Indira Gandhi). Schemes: MGNREGA, PDS and NFSA 2013, PM-Kisan (2019), PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, PM Jan Dhan Yojana (2014).

15.3 Alcoholism & Drug Addiction

• Effects: health damage, family breakdown, domestic violence, poverty, crime, road accidents, loss of work.
• Causes: peer pressure, stress, unemployment, family problems, easy availability, curiosity, media.
• Article 47 (DPSP): the state shall try to bring about prohibition of intoxicating drinks and drugs that are injurious to health.
• Laws and programmes: the NDPS Act, 1985 (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances); Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (2020); the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction; de-addiction centres.
• States with total prohibition: Gujarat, Bihar (since 2016), Nagaland, Mizoram, and the UT of Lakshadweep.

15.4 Beggary

• Types: able-bodied beggars, disabled, children (often forced), religious mendicants, and those begging due to old age or disease.
• Causes: poverty, unemployment, disability, family breakdown, organised begging rackets, religious tradition (alms-giving), migration.
• Laws: the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 (adopted by many states). In 2018 the Delhi High Court decriminalised begging in Delhi (Harsh Mander v. Union of India).
• SMILE scheme (2022) – Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise – rehabilitation of persons engaged in begging and of transgender persons.

15.5 Population Problems

• T.R. Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798): population grows geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8...) while food grows arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4...). Checks: positive (famine, disease, war) and preventive (late marriage, moral restraint).
• Demographic Transition Theory (Warren Thompson 1929, Frank Notestein 1945): high birth and death rates → falling death rate → falling birth rate → low birth and death rates.
• India started the world's first national family planning programme in 1952. National Population Policy 2000; NFHS-5 (2019–21): TFR 2.0 (below the replacement level of 2.1), sex ratio of 1,020 women per 1,000 men. UP TFR is about 2.4. UP Population Policy 2021–30.
• In 2023, India became the most populous country in the world (UN estimate).
• Problems: unemployment, poverty, pressure on resources, housing, health, education, environmental damage. The demographic dividend is an opportunity.

15.6 Sex Inequality & Status of Women

• Sex vs gender: sex is biological; gender is social or cultural – Ann Oakley (1972).
• Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949): "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman." Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963). Kate Millett, Sexual Politics (1970) – patriarchy.
• Status of women in India: a relatively high status in the Vedic period (Gargi, Maitreyi) declined in the later Vedic, Smriti and medieval periods (child marriage, sati, purdah, no widow remarriage). Reformers: Raja Ram Mohan Roy (sati abolished in 1829 under Lord Bentinck), Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (Widow Remarriage Act 1856), Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule (first girls' school, Pune, 1848), Pandita Ramabai, D.K. Karve.
• Towards Equality report (1974) – Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI), which showed a decline in women's status after Independence.
• Problems: female foeticide and the declining child sex ratio, dowry, domestic violence, sexual harassment, low workforce participation, the double burden, low political representation, the gender pay gap, trafficking.
• Laws: Dowry Prohibition Act 1961; PCPNDT Act 1994 (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act – against sex-selection); Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005; Vishaka guidelines (1997) → POSH Act 2013 (Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace); Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017 (26 weeks); the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013 after the Nirbhaya case.
• Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam – 106th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2023: one-third of seats reserved for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. It takes effect after the next census and delimitation.
• Schemes: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (22 January 2015, Panipat), Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, Ujjwala (2016), Mission Shakti. National Commission for Women (1992, under the Act of 1990).

15.7 Problems of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes & OBCs

Historical background

• The term "Scheduled Castes" was first used officially in the Government of India Act 1935 (the Simon Commission had used "depressed classes"). Gandhi used the term "Harijan"; "Dalit" is the self-chosen name, popularised by the Dalit Panthers (1972).
• Communal Award (Ramsay MacDonald, 16 August 1932) gave separate electorates to the depressed classes → Gandhi fasted in Yerawada jail → Poona Pact, 24 September 1932, between Gandhi and Ambedkar: reserved seats (148) in a joint electorate instead of separate electorates.
• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (1891–1956): newspaper Mook Nayak (1920), Bahishkrit Bharat (1927); Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha (1924); Mahad Satyagraha (1927, Chavdar tank); burning of the Manusmriti (25 Dec 1927); Kalaram Temple entry (Nashik, 1930); attended all three Round Table Conferences; Independent Labour Party (1936); Scheduled Castes Federation (1942); Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution; first Law Minister; embraced Buddhism on 14 October 1956 at Nagpur (Deekshabhoomi); died 6 December 1956 (Mahaparinirvan Diwas); Bharat Ratna 1990.
• Other reformers: Jyotiba Phule (Satyashodhak Samaj, 1873; Gulamgiri, 1873), Sree Narayana Guru (SNDP, 1903), E.V. Ramasamy "Periyar" (Self-Respect Movement, 1925), Ayyankali (Kerala), Swami Achhutanand (Adi Hindu movement in UP, 1920s), Kanshi Ram (BAMCEF 1978, DS-4 1981, BSP 14 April 1984).

Constitutional safeguards (very important)

Laws & landmark cases

• Untouchability (Offences) Act 1955 → renamed the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1976.
• SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 – special courts; amended in 2015 and 2018 (the 2018 amendment restored the strict provisions after Subhash Kashinath Mahajan).
• Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013; Forest Rights Act, 2006; PESA, 1996.
• OBCs: Kaka Kalelkar Commission (1953, the first Backward Classes Commission); Mandal Commission (B.P. Mandal, 1979; report 1980) – 27% reservation for OBCs, implemented in 1990 (V.P. Singh). Indra Sawhney case (1992) – upheld 27% OBC reservation, a 50% ceiling on reservation, and the creamy layer exclusion.
• EWS: 10% reservation (103rd Amendment, 2019), upheld in Janhit Abhiyan (2022).
• State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh (1 August 2024): a 7-judge bench (6:1) allowed states to sub-classify Scheduled Castes for reservation (overruling E.V. Chinnaiah, 2004).

Problems of SCs

Untouchability and discrimination (still practised in some areas), atrocities and violence, landlessness, poverty, low education levels and dropouts, manual scavenging, bonded labour, under-representation in higher positions, social exclusion in marriage, housing and temples, the "creamy layer" debate, and the problems of SC women (double discrimination).

Problems of STs

• Land alienation, indebtedness to moneylenders, displacement by dams, mines and projects, loss of forest rights, shifting cultivation (jhum), poor health and education, identity and culture crises, insurgency (Naxalism), exploitation by middlemen.
• Approaches: Isolation (Verrier Elwin), Assimilation (G.S. Ghurye – "backward Hindus"), Integration (Nehru's Tribal Panchsheel).
• The largest tribe in India is the Bhil, followed by the Gond (Census 2011).
• STs of UP: Tharu (Terai – Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Maharajganj), Buksa, Bhotia, Jaunsari, Raji, and in the south (Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Lalitpur): Gond, Kharwar, Saharia, Baiga, Pankha, Parahiya, Agariya, Patari, Chero, Bhuiya.

Problems of OBCs

Educational and economic backwardness of the lower OBCs, unequal distribution of reservation benefits within OBCs (the Rohini Commission, 2017, on sub-categorisation), agrarian distress, and a lack of representation in higher jobs.

General Studies – High-Yield Notes (30 questions)

Uttar Pradesh – General Knowledge

Indian Polity

• The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 (Constitution Day) and came into force on 26 January 1950. Originally it had 395 articles, 22 parts and 8 schedules; now it has 12 schedules.
• Fundamental Rights: Part III (Art. 12–35). DPSP: Part IV (Art. 36–51). Fundamental Duties: Part IV-A (Art. 51A), added by the 42nd Amendment (1976) on the Swaran Singh Committee's recommendation; there are now 11 (the 11th was added by the 86th Amendment, 2002).
• Article 21A (Right to Education, ages 6–14) was added by the 86th Amendment (2002); the RTE Act 2009 came into force on 1 April 2010.
• Ambedkar called Article 32 (constitutional remedies) the "heart and soul" of the Constitution.
• The Vice-President is the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The President is elected by an electoral college (Article 54).
• Emergencies: national (352), President's Rule (356), financial (360).
• Panchayati Raj: Part IX (73rd Amendment); municipalities: Part IX-A (74th Amendment).

Education (important for teachers)

• National Education Policy 2020 (approved 29 July 2020; chaired by Dr. K. Kasturirangan): 5+3+3+4 structure (ages 3–8, 8–11, 11–14, 14–18); mother tongue as the medium up to at least Grade 5; vocational education from Grade 6; a holistic progress card; a target GER of 50% in higher education by 2035; spending of 6% of GDP on education.
• Commissions: Radhakrishnan (University Education, 1948–49); Mudaliar (Secondary Education, 1952–53); Kothari Commission (1964–66, "the destiny of India is now being shaped in her classrooms"); National Policy on Education 1968, 1986 (revised 1992).
• Schemes: Samagra Shiksha (2018), PM-POSHAN (formerly Mid-Day Meal, 1995), DIKSHA (digital platform), PM SHRI schools (2022), NIPUN Bharat (2021).

Economy

• The Planning Commission (1950) was replaced by NITI Aayog on 1 January 2015.
• GST came into force on 1 July 2017 (101st Amendment).
• Reserve Bank of India: set up on 1 April 1935; nationalised in 1949.
• Bank nationalisation: 14 banks in 1969, 6 in 1980.
• Five-Year Plans: the First (1951–56) focused on agriculture; the Second (1956–61) on industry (Mahalanobis model). Plans ended with the Twelfth (2012–17).

General Science (basic)