1.

When we speak of gender divisions, we usually refer to:

A) Biological difference between men and women
B) Unequal roles assigned by the society to men and women
C) Unequal child sex ratio
D) Absence of voting rights for women in democracies.
2. What is patriarchal society?
Ans: Literally, rule by father, this concept is used to refer to a system that values men
more and gives them power over women.
3. Which of the following statements are true?
A) Every social difference does not lead to social division.
B) Social differences divide similar people from one another, but they
also unite very different people
C) People belonging to different social groups share differences and
similarities cutting across boundaries of their groups.
D) All of the above statements are true.
4. Assertion: Sex-selective abortion led to decline of sex ratio in India.
Reason: Desire for a male child makes Indian families abort girl.
a) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the
correct explanation of Assertion (A).
b) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is
not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
c) Assertion (A) is true but Reason (R) is false.
d) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are false.
5. "Gender division is not based on Biology but on social expectations and
stereotypes”. Support the statement.
 In gender division, unequal roles are assigned by the society to men and women.
Sexual division of labour is seen in most families. For example, women do all
work inside home such as cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, tailoring, looking
after children etc., while men do all the work outside home.
 It is not that men cannot do housework but it is their mindset that women have
to attend all these works. When these jobs are paid for, men are ready to accept
it as profession. Most of the good cooks in hotels and tailors are men.
 On the other hand, women also work outside their home like women working in
fields, offices, etc. Women do paid work in addition to domestic labour which is
not valued and recognized
6. What is sexual division of labour? What is its result?
 Sexual division of labour is a system in which all work inside the home is either
done by the women of the family, or organized by them through the domestic
helpers.
 The result of this division of labour is that although women constitute half of the
humanity, their role in public life, especially politics, is minimal in most societies.
7. What are Feminist Movements? Explain the political demands of the Feminist
Movement in India.
 Earlier, only men were allowed to participate in public affairs, vote and contest
for public offices. Gradually the gender issue was raised in politics. Women in
different parts of the world organized and agitated for equal rights. There were
agitations in different countries for the extension of voting rights to women
  These agitations demanded enhancing the political and legal status of women
and improving their educational and career opportunities.
 More radical women’s movements aimed at equality in personal and family life
as well. These movements are called feminist movements.
8. What are the problems faced by Indian women which affect their social status?
Explain any five.
 In our country, women still lag much behind men despite some improvement
since Independence. Ours is still a male-dominated, patriarchal society. Women
face disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various way
 The literacy rate among women is only 54 per cent compared with 76 per cent
among men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girl students go for higher studies.
When we look at school results, girls perform as well as boys, if not better in
some places. But they drop out because parents prefer to spend their resources
for their boys’ education rather than spending equally on their sons and
daughters.
 No wonder the proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs, is
still very small. On an average, an Indian woman works one hour more than an
average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid and therefore, often
not valued.
 The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 provides that equal wages should be paid to
equal work. However, in almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema, to
factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly
the same work
 In many parts of India, parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl
child aborted before she is born. Such sex-selective abortion led to a decline in
child sex ratio (number of girl children per thousand boys) in the country to
merely 919. This ratio has fallen below 850 or even 800 in some States.
9. How is gender division understood in Indian society? To what extent does political
mobilization on gender basis help to improve women's role in public life.
 In Indian society, the work of women is only expected to be restricted till
household. Even if women tend to work, they do not get the same wages as their
male counterparts get
 . however, political mobilization on gender discrimination has helped to improve
the role of women in public life. Now more women are seen doing work other
than the domestic one.
 This development can be attributed to the Feminist movements all over the
world which promote equality among the gender.
10. The participation of women in public life is very high in Scandinavian countries
11. 'In India women political representation is very low'. Justify.
 the percentage of elected women members in Lok Sabha has touched 14.36 per
cent of its total strength for the first time in 2019. Their share in the state
assemblies is less than 5 per cent.
 In this respect, India is among the bottom group of nations in the world. India is
behind the averages for several developing countries of Africa and Latin
America. I
 In the government, cabinets are largely all-male even when a woman becomes
the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister
12. Suggest ways to solve the problem of low representation of women in national
and state legislative bodies in India.
  One way to solve this problem is to make it legally binding to have a fair
proportion of women in the elected bodies. This is what the Panchayati Raj has
done in India.
 One-third of seats in local government bodies – in panchayats and
municipalities – are now reserved for women. Now there are more than 10 lakh
elected women representatives in rural and urban local bodies.
 Women’s organizations and activists had been demanding a similar reservation
of at least one-third of seats in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women. A bill
with this proposal was pending before the Parliament for many decades.
 In 2023, Nari shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (Women’s’ Reservation Act, 2023) has
been passed which will give 33 percent reservation of seats for women in Lok
Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies and also Delhi Assembly.
13. Gandhi said, religion can never be separated from politics.
14. What are family laws?
 Those laws that deal with family related matters such as marriage, divorce,
adoption, inheritance, etc.
 In our country, different family laws apply to followers of different religions.
15. Why did Gandhiji said that religion can never be separated from politics?
 What he meant by religion was not any particular religion like Hinduism or
Islam but moral values that inform all religions.
 He believed that politics must be guided by ethics drawn from religion.
16. How can the relationship between politics and religion be beneficial and
problematic at the same time? Explain.
Beneficial:
i Influence of religion can make politics value based.
ii religious communities can politically express their needs and interests.
iii Political authorities can monitor and control religious discrimination and
oppression.
Problematic:
i Religion can become the base for the development of nationalist sentiments which
can lead to conflicts.
ii Political parties will try to make political gains by pitting one group against the
other.
iii State power may be used to establish the domination of one religious group over
another.
17. Communal politics based on the idea that Religion is the principal basis of social
community
18. What is the ugliest form of communalism?
Ans) Sometimes communalism takes its most ugly form of communal violence, riots
and massacre
19. Which of the following statements are true regarding communal politics?
a) State Power is used to establish the domination of one religious group over
the rest.
b) Beliefs of one religion are presented as superior to those of other religions.
c) Communal politics is based on the idea that religion is the principal
basis of a social community.
d) All of the above.
20. "The problem becomes more acute when religion is expressed in politics in
exclusive and partisan terms." Support the statement with relevant points.
  The problem of communalism becomes more acute when religion is expressed in
politics in exclusive and partisan terms, when one religion and its followers are
pitted against another.
 This happens when beliefs of one religion are presented as superior to those of
other religions, when the demands of one religious group are formed in
opposition to another and when state power is used to establish domination of
one religious group over the rest.
21. What does the term communalism mean? Explain any four forms which
communalism takes in politics.
 Communalism is the idea that Religion is the principal basis of social community
 The most common expression of communalism is in everyday beliefs. These
routinely involve religious prejudices, stereotypes of religious communities and
belief in the superiority of one’s religion over other religions. This is so common
that we often fail to notice it, even when we believe in it.
 A communal mind often leads to a quest for political dominance of one’s own
religious community. For those belonging to majority community, this takes the
form of majoritarian dominance. For those belonging to the minority
community, it can take the form of a desire to form a separate political unit.
 Political mobilization on religious lines is another frequent form of
communalism. This involves the use of sacred symbols, religious leaders,
emotional appeal and plain fear in order to bring the followers of one religion
together in the political arena. In electoral politics, this often involves special
appeal to the interests or emotions of voters of one religion in preference to
others.
 Sometimes communalism takes its most ugly form of communal violence, riots
and massacre. India and Pakistan suffered some of the worst communal riots at
the time of the Partition. The post-Independence period has also seen
22. What are the features of communalism?
 Communal politics is based on the idea that religion is the principal basis of
social community. Communalism involves thinking along the following lines
 The followers of a particular religion must belong to one community. Their
fundamental interests are the same. Any difference that they may have is
irrelevant or trivial for community life.
 It also follows that people who follow different religions cannot belong to the
same social community. If the followers of different religions have some
commonalities these are superficial and immaterial, their interests are bound to
be different and involve a conflict.
 In its extreme form, communalism leads to the belief that people belonging to
different religions cannot live as equal citizens within one nation. Either, one of
them has to dominate the rest or they have to form different nations
23. Why is Communalism fundamentally flawed?
 This belief is fundamentally flawed. People of one religion do not have the same
interests and aspirations in every context. Everyone has several other roles,
positions and identities.
 There are many voices inside every community. All these voices have a right to
be heard.
 Therefore, any attempt to bring all followers of one religion together in context
other than religion is bound to suppress many voices within that community.
24. Which among the following statements about India's Constitution is wrong?
a) It prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
 b) It gives official status to one religion.
c) It provides to all individuals freedom to profess any religion.
d) It ensures equality of citizens within religious communities.
25. What is a secular state? How does the Constitution of India ensure that India
remains a secular state?
 A secular state is a state which doesn’t have an official state religion and
allows for constituents to follow any religion
 There is no official religion for the Indian state. Unlike the status of Buddhism
in Sri Lanka, that of Islam in Pakistan and that of Christianity in England, our
Constitution does not give a special status to any religion.
 The Constitution provides to all individuals and communities freedom to
profess, practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any.
 The Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
 At the same time, the Constitution allows the state to intervene in the matters
of religion in order to ensure equality within religious communities. For
example, it bans untouchability
26. What is Casteism?
Ans) Casteism is a form of social discrimination on the basis of one’s caste
27. Discuss any five features of caste system prevailed in India.
 Unlike gender and religion, caste division is special to India. All societies have
some kind of social inequality and some form of division of labour
 In most societies, occupations are passed on from one generation to another.
Caste system is an extreme form of this.
 What makes it different from other societies is that in this system, hereditary
occupational division was sanctioned by rituals.
 Members of the same caste group were supposed to form a social community
that practiced the same or similar occupation, married within the caste group
and did not eat with members from other caste groups.
 Caste system was based on exclusion of and discrimination against the ‘outcaste’
groups. They were subjected to the inhuman practice of untouchability
28. Explain socio - economic changes responsible for breaking down old notion of
caste hierarchy in India.
 Partly due to their efforts and partly due to other socio-economic changes, castes
and caste system in modern India have undergone great changes.
 With economic development, largescale urbanization, growth of literacy and
education, occupational mobility and the weakening of the position of landlords
in the villages, the old notions of caste hierarchy are breaking down.
 Now, most of the times, in urban areas it does not matter much who is walking
along next to us on a street or eating at the next table in a restaurant.
 The Constitution of India prohibited any caste-based discrimination and laid the
foundations of policies to reverse the injustices of the caste system.
 If a person who lived a century ago were to return to India, she would be greatly
surprised at the change that has come about in the country
29. "Caste has not still disappeared from contemporary India." Justify your answer
with suitable arguments
 Some of the older aspects of caste have persisted.
 Even now most people marry within their own caste or tribe. Untouchability has
not ended completely, despite constitutional prohibition.
 Effects of centuries of advantages and disadvantages continue to be felt today.
The caste groups that had access to education under the old system have done
 very well in acquiring modern education as well.
 Those groups that did not have access to education or were prohibited from
acquiring it have naturally lagged behind. That is why there is a
disproportionately large presence of ‘upper caste’ among the urban middle
classes in our country
 Caste continues to be closely linked to economic status.
30. Which aspects compel political leaders to gear up to the task of mobilizing and
securing political support.
Ans) Universal adult franchise
31. Mention the positive and negative aspects of relationship between caste and
politics.
Positives;
 No parliamentary constituency in the country has a clear majority of one single
caste. So, every candidate and party need to win the confidence of more than one
caste and community to win elections.
 No party wins the votes of all the voters of a caste or community. When people
say that a caste is a ‘vote bank’ of one party, it usually means that a large
proportion of the voters from that caste vote for that party.
 Many political parties may put up candidates from the same caste (if that caste is
believed to dominate the electorate in a particular constituency). Some voters
have more than one candidate from their caste while many voters have no
candidate from their caste.
 The ruling party and the sitting MP or MLA frequently lose elections in our
country. That could not have happened if all castes and communities were
frozen in their political preferences.
 Universal adult franchise and the principle of one-person-one-vote compelled
political leaders to gear up to the task of mobilizing and securing political
support. It also brought new consciousness among the people of castes that were
hitherto treated as inferior and low.
Negatives:
 When parties choose candidates in elections, they keep in mind the caste
composition of the electorate and nominate candidates from different castes so
as to muster necessary support to win elections.
 When governments are formed, political parties usually take care that
representatives of different castes and tribes find a place in it.
 Political parties and candidates in elections make appeals to caste sentiment to
muster support. Some political parties are known to favor some castes and are
seen as their representatives.
32. In what ways does politics influence caste system?
 Each caste group tries to become bigger by incorporating within its neighboring
castes or sub-castes which were earlier excluded from it.
 Various caste groups are required to enter into a coalition with other castes or
communities and thus enter into a dialogue and negotiation.
 New kinds of caste groups have come up in the political arena like ‘backward’
and ‘forward’ caste groups