NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Sociology CBSE SAMPLE PAPER-2016 

Time: 3 Hours

General Instructions

1.There are 25 questions in all.
2.All questions are compulsory.
3.Questions No. 1-14 are very short answer type questions carrying 2 marks each. Answer to each question should not exceed 30 words.
4.Questions No. 15-21 are short answer type questions carrying 4 marks each. Answer to each question should not exceed 80 words.
5.Questions No. 22-25 are of long answer type questions carrying 6 marks each. Answer to each question should not exceed 200 words each. Questions no 25 is to be answered with the help of the passage given.

1.Emergence of demography can be attributed to two different processes that happened to take place roughly at the same time in Europe during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Name these two processes.2
Ans. •Formation of nation-states as the principle form of political organisation.
•Beginning of modem science of statistics.

2.State any two policies made by the Indian state in favour of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. 2
Ans. • Reservations, i.e. the setting aside of some places or seats for members of the Scheduled Castes or Tribes in different spheres of public life such as education, jobs in government service.
•Caste Disabilities Removal Act of 1850 which disallowed the curtailment of rights of citizens due solely to change of religion or caste.
•Constitution Amendment (Ninety Third Amendment) Act of 2005 for introducing reservation for the Other Backward Classes in institutions of higher education.

3.Explain the sociological sense of minority. 2
Ans. The sociological sense of minority implies that the members of the minority form a collectivity, i.e. they have a sense of group solidarity, a feeling of togetherness and belonging. This is linked to disadvantage because the experience of being subjected to prejudice and discrimination usually heightens feelings of intra-group loyalty and interests.

4.Name any two features of social movements. 2
Ans. • A social movement requires sustained collective action over time. Such action is directed against the state and takes the form of demanding changes in state policy or practice. Spontaneous, disorganised protest cannot be called a social movement.
•Collective action must be marked by some degree of organisation.
•This organisation may include a leadership.
•This organised protest also needs a structure that defines how members relate to each other, make decisions and carry them out.
•Those participating in a social movement also have shared ideologies and objectives.
•A social movement has a general orientation or way of approaching to bring about (or to prevent) change.

5. The principal of nationalism assumes that…….. 2
Ans. The principle of nationalism assumes that any set of people have a right to be free and exercise sovereign power.

6. Name any two features of community identity. 2
Ans. • Community identity is based on birth and belonging rather than on some form of acquired qualifications or accomplishment.
•These kinds of identities are called ascriptive, i.e. they are determined by birth and individuals choice is not involved.
•People feel a deep sense of security and satisfaction in belonging to communities.
•Ascriptive identities such as community identities are difficult to shake off; even if we choose to disown them, others may continue to identify us by those very markers of belonging.

7.”There is a vital difference between the empire building of pre-capitalist times and that of capitalist times”. Which was applicable in case of India and why? Give one reason. 2
Ans. Capitalist Empire Building was applicable in the case of India. British colonialism which was based on capitalism directly interfered to ensure greatest profit and benefit to British capitalism. Every policy was geared towards the strengthening and expansion of British capitalism. It changed the^law of the land. It changed not just land ownership laws but decided even what crops would be grown and what ought not to be. It altered the way production and distribution of goods took place. It meddled with the manufacturing sector. It entered forests and cleared trees and started plantations. It brought the forests acts that changed the lives of pastoralists.

8. Name and define the three types of social movements. 2
Ans. Redemptive—This type of social movement aims to bring about a change in the personal consciousness and actions of its individual members. For instance, people in the Ezhava community in Kerala were led by Narayan Guru to change their social practices.
Reformist—This type of social movement strives to change the existing social and political arrangements through gradual, incremental steps. The 1960s movement for the reorganisation of Indian states on the basis language and the recent Right to Information campaign are examples of reformist movements.
Revolutionary—This type of social movement attempts to radically transform social relations, often by capturing state power. The Bolshevik revolution in Russia that deposed the Tsar to create a communist state and the Naxalite movement in India that
seeks to remove oppressive landlords and state officials can be described as revolutionary movements.

9.Evaluate the social implications of the small size of the organised sector compared to the presence of a large organised sector. 2
Ans. • It means that very few people have the experience of employment in large firms where they get to meet people from other regions and backgrounds. Urban settings do provide a corrective to this i.e. neighbours in the city could be from different regions; but by and large, work for most Indians is still in small scale workplaces.
•In small workplaces, personal relationships help determine many aspects of work. If the employer likes you, you may get a salary hike and if you have a fight with him/her, you may lose your job. This is different from large scale organisations where there are well-defined rules, where recruitment is more transparent and there are mechanisms for complaints and redressal if you disagree with your immediate superior.
•Very few IndiansTiave access to secure jobs with benefits. Of those who do, two thirds work for the government. This is why government jobs are so popular. The rest are forced to depend on their children in tivir old age.
Very few people in India are members of trade unions, a feature of the organised sector. Thus, they don’t have the experience of collectively fighting for proper wages and safe working conditions. The government has laws to monitor the working conditions of unorganised sector, but in practice they are left to the whims and fancies of the employer or contractor.

10. Exemplify the difference between Social Change and Social Movement.2
Ans. Social change is continuous and ongoing. The broad historical processes of social change are the sum total of countless individual and collective actions gathered across time and space. Social movement are directed towards some specific goals.
It involves long and continuous social effort and action by people.
Example of social change—Sanskritisation and Westernisation and; example of social movement- 19th century social reformers’ efforts to change society.

11. Analyse the relation between rituals and secular goals.2
Ans. Secularisation has usually meant a process of decline in the influence of religion. With the advent of modernisation attitude have changed to religion and to the celebration of festivals. As a result of the mushrooming of urban areas and lifestyles, celebration of festivals and following rituals has become a necessary part of one’s identity. Thus, the emphasis on rituals is to attain the secular goal of asserting one’s cultural identity. Rituals also provide men and women with occasions for socialising with their peers and for showing family wealth. Thus, apart from one’s identity, the status, political and economic dimensions of rituals has become increasingly important.

12.”Constitution has the capacity to help people because it is based on basic norms of social justice.” Explain how using an example. 2
Ans. Constitution has the capacity to help people because it is based on basic norms of social justice. It has the potential for the meaning of social justice to be extended. Social movements have also aided the Courts and authorities to interpret the contents of rights and principles in keeping with the contemporary understanding social justice. For instance, the Directive Principle on village panchayats was moved as an amendment in the Constituent Assembly. After forty years it became a Constitutional imperative after 73rd Amendment in 1992.

13. How did colonial laws favour the owners and managers of the tea industry? 2
Ans. • The labour system in Assam was essentially that of indenture by which the labourers went to Assam under contract for a number of years. The government helped the planters by providing for penal sanction in case of non-fulfilment of the contract by the labourers.
•To bring thousands of people every year from their far-off homes into strange lands, possessing an unhealthy climate and infected with strange fevers, required the provision of financial and other incentives, which the tea-planters of Assam were unwilling to offer. Instead, they had recourse to fraud and coercion.

14.Point out one way in which caste has weakened in one sphere and remained strong in another. 2
Ans. Development activity of the state and growth of private industry affected caste indirectly through the speeding up of and intensification of economic change. Modem industry created various kinds of jobs for which there were no caste rules. Modem individuals attracted to the liberal ideas of individualism and meritocracy began to abandon the extreme caste practices.
In the cultural and domestft sphere, caste remained strong. Endogamy remained unaffected by the modernisation. Similarly, mles regarding food-sharing haven’t been relaxed totally.
In the political arena, caste remains central. In elections, caste solidarities are decisive.

15. There are wide regional variations in the age structure in India. Elaborate on the reasons for the said phenomena. 4
Ans. There are wide-regional variations in the age-structure in India for the following reasons-
•Literacy is not equally distributed in all the states of our country. Thus, there are some states that are more aware and educated compared to others. Hence, in such states, the fertility levels are low. They, thus, experience a favourable age-structure.
•Certain states have a strong belief in social preference for a male child. These people thus raise the fertility levels in the desire for a male child.
•Since development level in all states is not equal, if the death rate is high for lack of infrastructure, the birth rates tend to be high to compensate for the high death rates. This also creates for an unfavourable age structure.
•Thus, we have states like Kerala which exhibits age-structure similar to a developed nation compared with Uttar Pradesh which has very high proportions of younger age groups.

16. Using the isolation-integration debate, give your opinion on whether tribes should be treated as fundamentally different from the caste peasant society or as a part of it. 4
Ans. Isolation:
•The isolationist side argued that tribals needed protection from traders, moneylenders and Hindu and Christain missionaries, all of whom were intent on reducing tribals to detribalised landless labour.
Integration:
•This side argued that tribes were essentially backward Hindus and their problems had to be addressed within the same framework as other backward classes.
•This led to debates and deliberations which resulted in various welfare schemes for the tribes such asTribal welfare blocks, five year plans, tribal sub-plans, tribal welfare blocks, special multipurpose area schemes.
Thus, tribes needed to be looked at in the same framework as the Hindus. This is because there have been various instances where tribes, since times immemorial, have been in contact with the mainstream.
•Gond kingdoms in central India such as that of Garha Mandia or Chanda.
•Many of the Rajput kingdoms of central and western India emerged through a process of stratification among adivasi communities themselves.
•Adivasis often exercised dominance over the plains people through their capacity to raid them and through their services as local militias.
•They also occupied a special trade niche, trading forest produce, salts and elephants.
•The capitalist economy’s drive to exploit forest resources and minerals and to recruit cheap labour has brought tribal societies in contact with mainstream society a long time ago.
But integration in this manner neglects the desires and wishes of the tribes and puts the agenda of development ahead of their needs.
Thus, this kind of integration happens at the cost of the interest of the tribes.

17. “The very term ‘disabled’ is significant because it draws attention to the fact that public perception of the ‘disabled’ needs to be questioned”. State the common features central to the public perception of ‘disability’ all over the world. 4
Ans. Common features of the public perceptions of disability are
•Disability is understood as a biological given.
•Whenever a disabled person is confronted with problems, it is taken for granted that the problems originate from his/her impairment.
•The disabled person is seen as a victim.
•Disability is supposed to be linked with the disabled individual’s self perception.
•The very idea of disability suggests that they are in need of help.

18. “After independence, the government took over the commanding heights of the economy”. State the reasons for this decision. 4
OR
Describe the working and division of labour in the brickyards of South Gujarat.
Ans. After independence, the government took over the commanding heights of the economy’. This involved defence, transport, and communication, power, mining, and other projects which only government had the power to do, and which was also necessary for private industry to flourish.
•In India’s mixed economy policy, some sectors were reserved for government, while others were open to private sector. But within that, the government tried to ensure, through its licensing policy, that industries were spread over different regions. This was because before independence, industries were located mainly in the port cities like Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. But since then, due to government efforts, we see that places like Baroda, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Pune, Faridabad and Rajkot have become industrial centres.
•Government also tried to encourage small scale sectors through special incentives and
assistance. Many items like paper and wood products, stationery, glass and ceramics were reserved for the small scale sector. ‘
•The Government did not open up the Indian economy to the world because immediately after independence, the economy was in a very vulnerable position and needed to get back on its feet before it could compete in the world market.
OR
•The brickyards are owned by upper castes like Parsis or Desais.
•Members of the potter caste are also acquiring brickyards as an extension of their traditional mud work.
•The workers are usually local or migrant Dalits. They are employed by contractors and work in gangs of nine to eleven members.
•While the men knead the mud and mould the brick, the little children carry each brick to the place where they are dried.
•A gang of women and girls then carry the bricks to the kiln where they are fired by men, and from there again to the trucks where the bricks are loaded.
•From the age of six, children are woken during the night to carry the fresh bricks made their father. When they turn nine, they are promoted to carry two bricks.
•Thus division of labour is based on age and sex.

19. “What marked these 19th century social reform attempts was the modem context and mix of ideas.” Interpret the given statement. 4
OR
Discuss the various aspects of the phenomena of westernisation.
Ans. The mix of ideas—
•Ram Mohun Roy attacked the practice of sati on the basis of both appeals to humanitarian and natural rights doctrines as well as Hindu shastras.
•Ranade’s writings entitled The Texts of the Hindu Law on the Lawfulness of the Remarriage of Widows and Vedic Authorities for Widow Marriage elaborated the shastric sanction for remarriage of widows.
•The content of new education was modernising and liberal. The literary content of the courses in the humanities and social sciences was drawn from the literature of the European Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment. Its themes were humanistic, secular and liberal.
•Sir Sayed Ahmed Khan’s interpretation of Islam emphasised the validity of free enquiry (ijtihad) and the alleged similarities between Koranic revelations and the laws of nature discovered by modem science.
•Kandukiri Viresalingam’s The Sources of Knowledge reflected his familiarity with navya-nyaya logic. At the same time he translated Julius Huxley.
OR
•M.N.Srinivas defines westernization as ‘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.’
•There were different kinds of westernization—
>One kind refers to the emergence of a westernized sub-cultural pattern through a minority section of Indians who first came in contact with the western culture. This included the sub-culture of Indian intellectuals who not only adopted many cognitive patterns or ways of thinking but also styles of life and supported its expansion.
>There has been a general spread of western cultural traits such as the use of new technology, dress, food and changes in general.
Westernization does involve the imitation of external forms of culture. It does not necessarily mean that people adopt modem values of democracy and equality.

20. Would it be appropriate to say that democratic values and institutions are purely western? Comment in the context of the values of Indian democracy. 4
Ans. Democratic traditions, values and institutions are not purely western. Our ancient epics, our diverse folk tales from one comer of the country to another are full of dialogues, discussions and contrasting positions.
The dialogue in Mahabhrata between Bhrigu and Bharadvaja relating to caste division talks about how all humans get affected by emotions of the likes of sorrow, fear, anger and still divide ourselves on the basis of caste.
Thus, social change in modem India is not just about Indian or Western ideas. It is a combination as well as reinterpretation of western and Indian ideas. We have seen the
use of both modem ideas of equality and traditional ideas of justice. In colonial India the undemocratic and discriminatory administrative practice of British colonialism contrasted sharply with the vision of freedom which western theories espoused and which the western educated Indians read about. Thus, the scale of poverty and intensity of social discrimination led to deeper questioning of what is democracy.

21. “Encouraging or at least allowing cultural diversity is good policy from both the practical and the principled point of view.” Justify the statement using India’s case as a ‘state- nation’. 4
Ans. • An alternative to the nation-state, then, is the “state nation”, where various “nations” — be they ethnic, religious, linguistic or indigenous identities— can coexist peacefully and cooperatively in a single state polity.
•Case studies and analyses demonstrate that enduring democracies can be established in polities that are multicultural. Explicit efforts are required to end the cultural exclusion of diverse groups and to build multiple and complementary identities. Such responsive policies provide incentives to build a feeling of unity in diversity — a “we” feeling.
•Citizens can find the institutional and political space to identify with both their country and their other cultural identities, to build their trust in common institutions and to participate in and support democratic politics.
•All of these are key factors in consolidating and deepening democracies and building enduring “state-nations”. India’s constitution incorporates this notion. Although India is culturally diverse, comparative surveys of long-standing democracies including India show that it has been very cohesive, despite its diversity.
•Also important are efforts to build the loyalties of all groups in society through identification, trust and Support. National cohesion does not require the imposition of a single identity and the denunciation of diversity.
•Successful strategies to build “state-nations” can and do accommodate diversity constructively by crafting responsive policies of cultural recognition. They are effective solutions for ensuring the longer terms objectives of political stability and social harmony.

22. Do you think that with the growth of TV and internet in India, the print media has been 6 sidelined? Give your comments.
OR
The beginning of the printing press led to the growth of the idea of a ‘Nation’ as an ‘imagined community’. Comment as suggested by Benedict Anderson. 6
Ans. It is often believed that with the growth of the Television and the internet the print media would be sidelined. However, in India we have seen the circulation of newspapers grow.
New technologies have helped boot the production and circulation of newspapers. A large number of glossy magazines have also made their entry into the market.
The reasons for the growth in Indian newspapers are many.
•There is a rise in the number of literate people who are migrating to cities. The Hindi daily Hindustan in 2003 printed 64,000 copies of their Delhi’s edition, which jumped drastically in 2005, to 425,000. The reason was that of Delhi’s population of one crore and forty seven lakh, 52% had come from the Hindi belt of the two states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Of this, 47% have come from a rural background and 60% of them are less than 40 years of age.
•The needs of the readers in the small towns and villages are different from that of the cities and the Indian languages newspapers cater to those needs. Dominant Indian language newspapers such as Malayala Manorama and the Eenadu launched the concept of local news in a significant manner by introducing district and whenever necessary, block editions. Dina Thanthi, another leading Tamil newspaper, has always used simplified and colloquial language.
•The Indian language newspapers have adopted advanced printing technologies and also attempted supplements, pull outs, and literary and niche booklets.
•Marketing strategies have also marked the Dainik Bhaskar group’s growth as they carry out consumer contact programmes, doo-to-door surveys, and research. Thus, modem mass media has to have a formal structural organisation.
While English newspapers, often called National Dailies’, circulate across regions, vernacular newspapers have vastly increased their circulation in the states and the rural hinterland. In order to compete with the electronic media, newspapers, especially English language newspapers have on the one hand reduced prices and on the other hand brought out editions from multiple centres.
OR
•The first modem mass media institution began with the development of the printing press.
•The fist attempts at printing books using modem technologies began in Europe. This technique was first developed by Johann Gutenberg in 1440. Initial attempts at printing were restricted to religious books.
•With the industrial revolution, the print industry also grew.
•The first products of the press were restricted to an audience of literate elites. It was only in the mid-19th century, with further development in technologies, transportation and literacy that newspapers began to reach out to a mass audience.
•People living in different comers of the country found themselves reading or hearing ; the same news. It has been suggested that this was in many ways responsible for people across a country to feel connected and develop a sense of belonging or ‘we feeling’. The well-known scholar Benedict Anderson has thus argued that this helped the growth of nationalism, the feeling that people who did not even know of each other’s existence feel like members of a family. It gave people who would never meet
each other a sense of togetherness. Anderson thus suggested that we could think of the nation as an ‘imagined community’.
In the 19th century, social reformers debated and wrote in newspapers and journals.
The growth of Indian nationalism was closely linked to its struggle against colonialism.
It emerged in the wake of the institutional changes brought about by British rule in India. Anti-colonial public opinion was nurtured and channelized by the nationalist press, which was vocal in its opposition to the oppressive measures of the colonial state. This led the colonial government to clamp down on the nationalist press and impose censorship, for instance during the Ilbert Bill agitation in 1883. Association with the national movement led some of the nationalist newspapers like Kesari (Marathi), Mathrubhumi (Malayalam), Amrita Bazar Patrika (English) to suffer the displeasure of the colonial state. But that did not prevent them from advocating the nationalist cause and demand an end to colonial rule.

23. Elaborate on the major land reforms introduced after independence. 6
Ans. Independent India:
•After independence, Nehru embarked on a policy of planned development that focussed on agrarian reforms as well as industrialisation.
•The agriculture scenario was very grim with low productivity, dependence on imported food grains and intense poverty of a large section of the rural people. They felt a major reform in the agrarian structure and especially in the landholding system and the distribution of land was necessary.
Land Reforms
•Abolition of zamindari system which removed the layer of intermediaries who stood between the cultivators, and the state. Of all the land reforms passed, this was the
most effective for in most areas it succeeded in taking away the superior rights of the zamindars over the land and weakening their economic and political power. This did not happen without struggle. Although, it did not totally remove landlordism or tenancy or sharecropping system but did away with the top layer of landlords in the multi-layered structure.
•Tenancy abolition and regulation acts: They attempted either to outlaw tenancy altogether or to regulate rents to give some security to the tenants. In most of the states these laws were not implemented effectively. In West Bengal and Kerala, radical restructuring of agrarian structure gave land rights to tenants.
•Land Ceiling Acts: These laws imposed an upper limit on the amount of land that can be owned by a particular family. The ceiling varies from region to region, depending on the kind of land, its productivity, and other such factors. Very productive land has a low ceiling while unproductive land has high ceiling limit. According to these acts, the state is supposed to identify and take possession of surplus land (above the ceiling limit) held by each household, and redistributes it to landless families and households in other specified categories such as SCs and STs.
But, in most states these acts proved to be toothless. There were many loopholes and other strategies through which most landowners were able to escape from having their surplus land taken over by the state. While some very large estates broke up, in most cases landowners managed to divide the land among relatives and others, including servants, in so-called ‘benami transfers’ – which allowed them to keep control over the land. In some families, some rich farmers actually divorced their wives (but continued to live with them) in order to avoid the provisions of land ceiling act, which allows a separate share for unmarried women but not wives.

24.Explain the stages of Indian economic history. 6
Ans. Following are the stages of Indian economic history
(a)Pre-colonial phase—India’s economy was extensively monetised in the late pre-colonial period. While various kinds of non-market exchange systems such as the jajmani system did exist in many villages and regions, even du ing the pre-colonial period villages were incorporated into wider networks of exchange through which agricultural products and other goods circulated. There existed extensive and sophisticated trading networks. India was a major manufacturer and exporter of handloom cloth as well as the source of many other goods such as spices that were in great demand in the global market, especially in Europe. These traditional trading communities such as the Nakarattars also had their own banking and credit system called the Hundi.
(b)Colonial phase—Under colonialism, there began penetration of commercial money into local agrarian economies and the incorporation into wider trading networks that brought about radical social and economic changes in rural and urban areas. Land revenue was to be paid in cash; India’s handloom industry declined; India became a supplier of raw material and a market for cheap manufactured goods. New groups entered into trade and business, sometimes in alliance with existing merchant communities and in some cases by forcing them out. The market expansion provided new opportunities to some merchant communities, which were able to improve their position by re-orienting themselves to changing economic circumstances. New communities emerged to take advantage of the economic opportunities provided by colonialism and continued to hold economic power after independence.
(c)Post-independence phase—Marwaris were one such community that took advantage of the opportunities and became a successful business community. They accumulated wealth and with their extensive social networks that created relations of trust, they were able to establish themselves as moneylenders and bankers.

25. The condition of our dombari community is very bad. Television and radio have snatched away our means of livelihood. We perform acrobatics but because of the circus and the television, which have reached even in remote comers and villages, nobody is interested in our performances. We do not get even a pittance, however hard we perform. People watch our shows but just for entertainment, they never pay us anything. They never bother about the fact that we are hungry. Our profession is dying. (More 1970)
(a)Define Globalisation.
(b)What is your opinion on the impact of globalization on tradition art forms? Does it
always have a negative impact on indigenous art forms? 6
Ans.(a)Globalisation, a period in which the world is becoming increasingly connected-not only economically but culturally and politically. The term globalisation includes many trends such as increase in international movement of commodities, money, information and people, as well as the development of technology and other infrastructure to allow this movement. A central feature of globalisation is the increasing extension and integration of markets around the world. This implies that changes in the market in one part of the world will lead to changes somewhere else far away. Example-India’s booming software industry may face if the US economy does badly.
(b)The child can give his/her personal opinion.