If you are looking for BSOC-132 IGNOU Solved Assignment solution for the subject Sociology of India, you have come to the right place. BSOC-132 solution on this page applies to 2022-23 session students studying in BAG courses of IGNOU.
BSOC-132 Solved Assignment Solution by Gyaniversity
Assignment Code: BSOC-132/ASST/TMA/2022-23
Course Code: BSOC-132
Assignment Name: Sociology of India
Year: 2022-2023
Verification Status: Verified by Professor
There are three Sections in the Assignment. You have to answer all questions in the Sections.
Assignment One
Answer the following Descriptive Category questions in about 500 words each.
1. Discuss the bonds of unity in India with suitable examples.
Ans) We highlighted India's variety in the section before. However, that is not the entire tale. Underlying all of this diversity are bonds of togetherness. These ties of unity may be seen in both specific integration mechanisms and an underlying regularity of life. Herbert Risley, the census commissioner in 1911, was correct when he said: "From the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, there can still be discerned. a certain underlying uniformity of life beneath the manifold diversity of physical and social type, language, custom, and religion which strikes the observer in India." In this section, we'll talk about India's national ties. Geopolitical unification, the institution of pilgrimage, the custom of accommodating guests, and the custom of interdependence are these. Now, we'll go over each of them in turn.
Geo-political Unity
India's geopolitical integration is the country's primary source of unification. India is renowned for its geographic cohesion, which is defined by the Himalayas at its northernmost point and the oceans on its other two borders. India is now a sovereign state in terms of politics. Every area is governed by the same constitution and parliament. We both adhere to the same political culture, which is characterised by democratic, secular, and socialist values. Our seers and rulers have always seen India as one geopolitical entity, despite the fact that this has only recently been acknowledged. This awareness of the geopolitical unity of India is expressed in the Rig-Veda, Sanskrit literature, Asoka's edicts, Buddhist monuments, and several other sources.
The Institution of Pilgrimage
Another factor contributing to India's unity is its temple culture, which is seen in its extensive network of shrines and holy sites. Religious sites and sacred rivers may be found all throughout the nation, from Badrinath and Kedarnath in the north to Rameshwaram in the south, Jagannath Puri in the east to Dwaraka in the west. The long-standing tradition of pilgrimage, which has always brought people to different regions of the country and created in them a sense of geo-cultural unity, is closely tied to them. Pilgrimage is a way for people to demonstrate their religious beliefs as well as their love for their motherland. It can be thought of as a form of national devotion. It has significantly contributed to encouraging engagement and cultural affinities among those residing in various regions of India. Therefore, it is appropriate to consider pilgrimage as a vehicle of geo-cultural unification.
Tradition of Accommodation
The flexibility of Hinduism, the country of India's dominant religion, is the first indication of this. It is well known that Hinduism is not a monotheistic faith with just one God, one Book, and one temple. In actuality, a federation of faiths is the best way to define it. It has a polytheistic nature and accommodates both tribal beliefs and village-level deities. For the same reason, sociologists have separated popular and sanskritic Hinduism into two main categories. Sanskrit is the language used in texts and is widely used in the everyday lives of the vast majority of people.
Tradition of Interdependence
We have a tremendous history of interdependence that has kept us united for many years. The Jajmani system, which is a system of functional caste dependency, is one example of this. The word "jajman" is used to describe anyone who uses or receives specialised services. Traditionally, there was a relationship between a family who produced food and the households that provided them with commodities and services.
2. Define the concept of ethnic and discuss one of the tribal ethnic movements in India.
Ans) While ‘ethnicity’ is one of the most intensely discussed concepts in the social sciences, there is no general consensus on the exact meaning of the term. This article starts with an overview of its etymology and present usage. It then proposes a formal definition of ethnicity as a specific form of social differentiation whereby actors use cultural or phenotypic markers to distinguish themselves from others. It is argued that ethnic communities are not a ubiquitous form of social organization. A distinction is suggested between ‘nation,’ ‘ethnie,’ and ‘ethnic group’ to account for the huge difference in the social bases and political potential of individual ethnic communities.
Bodo Movement in Assam
The Bodos are one among the important plain tribes of Assam. They speak Tibeto-Burman language, and the group belongs to the Indo-Mangoloid stock. This group of people is mainly the inhabitants of the North Bank of the river Brahmaputra and some of them are scattered in different parts of Assam. In the late 80s, the Bodos started a mass movement with a demand for separate state for Bodos and also demanded that their Bodo language should be included in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution. There are different causes that have contributed to the rise of Bodo Movement in Assam.
Causes of Bodo Movement: The Bodo Movement has been one of the most prominent tribal movements in Assam. The root of this movement though found in the colonial past, but it has come with the intension of radical, political, extremist and cultural assertion from the 1980s onwards. The root cause of this movement can be traced back to the feelings of injustice, deprivation and discrimination that have experienced by the Bodo community in Assam. The leaders of Bodo movement have stated that the Bodos are ethnically different from the rest of people of contemporary Assam and therefore they should be given a separate political entitlement by forming a separate statehood for them.
Impact of Bodo Movement: Every autonomy movement has an objective of bringing change in the existing set-up. These movements have left powerful affects in the society and influenced the socio-political life of the inhabitants of that area. The Bodo movement also has an adverse effect on the socio-political life of the people of Assam. Most of the phases of this movement were marked by number of bandhs, disruption of transportation connectivity specially rail and road connectivity within Assam or rest of Northeastern region. Though the leaders claimed that it was a peaceful movement but there are number of data and lots of information about the loss of life due to police action or bomb explosion. This has also resulted the loss of property of worth millions of rupees both individual and government property and has also affected the normal life of the local inhabitants.
The movement also had led the formation of a rebel insurgent group namely Bodo Security Force which has involved in various violent tactics. Apart from these impacts, the movement had affected seriously the economy of Assam in particular and the entire Northeast at large. Thus, a large number of people suffered due to this movement. This movement not only affected the lives of non-Bodo community but also have negative impact upon the people of Bodo community. The authority considered this movement as threat to law and order situation and as a result several draconian Acts have come into effect that severely violate the human rights.
Assignment Two
Answer the following Short Category questions in about 250 words each.
3. How does Grierson, the famous linguist describe different languages in India?
Ans) The eminent linguist Grierson recorded 179 languages and 544 dialects, but the 1971 census revealed that 1652 languages are spoken as a mother tongue throughout India. However, not all of these languages are equally common. Less than 1% of the population speaks many of them, which are mostly tribal speeches. You can see from this that there is a significant amount of linguistic diversity in India.
The Indian Constitution's Schedule VIII only includes a list of 18 languages. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu are among them. According to the India 2003 report on the 1991 census, out of these 18 languages, Hindi is spoken by 39.85% of the country's population, followed by Bengali, Telugu, and Marathi at about 8% each, Tamil, and Urdu, at 6.26 and 5.22 percent, respectively, and the remaining languages at less than 5% each.
The two linguistic families of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian are home to the aforementioned legally recognised languages. The four main Dravidian languages are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam. 75% of India's population speaks a language from the Indo-Aryan family, compared to 20% who speak a language from the Dravidian family. Despite this linguistic diversity, we have always had a shared language, even though it has changed over time. Sanskrit was the official language in the past, Arabic or Persian throughout the Middle Ages, and Hindi and English today.
4. Discuss the new types of protest movements amongst some tribes in India. Give a suitable example.
Ans) Vanta Varpu: The tribal people of five villages in Raavikamatam mandal staged a ‘vanta varpu’ cooking in the open protest in 2021 outside the Raavikamatam Mandal Revenue Office at Raavikamatam in the district on Monday demanding issuance of Recognition of Forest Rights (ROFR) pattas for the lands on which they were cultivating cashew atop Somalammakonda. Earlier, the tribal people under the aegis of Girijana Sangam 5th Schedule Sadhana Committee came in a rally from the RTC Complex to the MRO office.
Dongria Kondh: The Dongria Kondh tribe inspired millions when they won a ‘David and Goliath’ battle against mining giant Vedanta Resources. The tribe vowed to save their Niyamgiri Hills and their self-sufficient way of life. Now their lands and lives are under threat again. Their leaders are being harassed by police and imprisoned under false charges. The Dongria feel the government is trying to destroy their community in order to allow mining. The Niyamgiri hill range in Odisha state, eastern India, is home to the Dongria Kondh tribe. Niyamgiri is an area of densely forested hills, deep gorges and cascading streams. To be a Dongria Kondh is to farm the hills’ fertile slopes, harvest their produce, and worship the mountain god Niyam Raja and the hills he presides over, including the 4,000 metre Mountain of the Law, Niyam Dongar.Yet for a decade, the 8,000-plus Dongria Kondh lived under the threat of mining by Vedanta Resources, which hoped to extract the estimated $2billion-worth of bauxite that lies under the surface of the hills.
5. Why did the colonial rule change the agrarian class formation in India?
Ans) Since independence, rural India has witnessed a number of changes. The Indian government sought to advance both development and agrarian reform. Reforms led to the abolition of bonded labour, the switch from kind to cash payment, and the increase in free wage and agricultural labourers, which, in Breman's words, "induced a transition from patronage to exploitation." Under the heavy influence of urbanisation and globalisation, villages are rapidly becoming towns and are no longer considered "Little Communities." Traditional occupations are declining, and greater commercialization has produced newer ties between the rural and urban economies. This urban-rural continuum has given rise to a variety of occupations, seasonal work, and labour mobility.
The large traditions of the literate elites appear to rule the small traditions of rural people, while in certain places there is ongoing connection between the two traditions. Agriculture is no longer the exclusive occupation of individuals living in rural areas. Significant changes have occurred in the midst of all of this, as the state's support for agriculture has decreased and agricultural issues are no longer grabbing the attention of the media and the general public. Since India is now less reliant on agriculture and more service-oriented thanks to LPG, farmers are no longer glorified in the country's national culture. After the 1990s, the service sector now accounts for more than 70% of GDP, displacing the agricultural sector.
Have you heard of the farmer suicides that began among Vidarbh's cotton farmers and later spread to some areas of Uttar Pradesh and then gradually to the rest of India? These suicides are a result of shifting economic priorities and rural India. Let's attempt to comprehend this phenomenon. There was a great deal of variance in India's agrarian structure because of the colonial land revenue system. Agrarian reforms in independent India experienced this throughout planned development. Reforms like the Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s led to uneven growth and a rise in farmer inequality. The World Trade Organization's rules were later developed through liberalisation and globalisation. Due to the need to compete on the global market, agricultural products were more commercialised as a result of the crops being grown for the commercial market.
Assignment Three
Answer the following Short Category questions in about 100 words each.
6. Explain one of the changes found in India after Independence
Ans)Integration process of India started. Out of all the states of India, the integration of 3 states became a major challenge for that particular time. The states contain:
Junagadh: This state had a Hindu majority with a Muslim nawab. In order to shoot the matter, a voting system occurred in the state. The voting system led to 99% success as 99% of Hindu gave the vote to get integrated with India. The Nawab, however, took a decision that was unfavourable to the people of the state and refused to integrate with India, even though the state was not in contact with Pakistan.
Hyderabad: The state included the majority of Hindus with a Muslim Nizam. In order to get the state integrated as the Hindus wanted, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel sent the Indian army to depose the government which was coded as operation Polo. After some unnecessary revolts, the negotiations failed. The revolt took place between 13 and 29 1948 September. Next year, the state incorporated with the country, finally adding it to the United Nation.
The Area of Kashmir: The part included a majority of Muslims and a Hindu king. This led to the very first Indo-Pakistan that started in 1947 and continued till 1949. After some discussion and a lot of effort, finally, the constitution of India was applied in Kashmir.
7. Distinguish between the terms change progress and social development.
Ans) “Progress” and “development” are often used interchangeably. For many people, both words mean the same thing and present the same goal. However, progress and development have few differences in the details. Familiar areas of both progress and development are: economics, science, business, land and geography, and history. The word “progress” can be a noun or an intransitive verb while the word “development” can function as a noun, an adjective, and an adverb. In terms of definition, progress and development are closely related. “Progress” is defined as “a movement towards a goal” and defines two things – forward movement and upward directionality. The linear pattern denotes steady improvement.
The economic side of progress and development are also different. Progress is upward growth in economic status; however, progress is still an on-going process. Development, meanwhile, is the aftermath and the effect of progress. In development, there is a human and social factor. It measures whether how much of society benefited from the economic growth or progress.
8. Define the concept of Caste and Class.
Ans) Caste: A caste is a social group determined at birth, and hence it is hereditary. A person born in a particular caste is expected to follow its rituals, customs, and traditions. The caste system is very deeply embedded in India as compared to any other part of the world. Caste is also referred to as 'Varna' according to the Vedic Indian texts.
The Indian caste system segregates Hindus, the majority religion in India, into four categories:
Brahmins
Kshatriyas
Vaishyas
Shudras
Class: An economic and social class is a category of people who have the same socio-economic status in relation to other groups in society. Unlike caste, class is not determined at birth but is determined much later in life through various aspects like wealth, education, social standing, etc. However, in a country like India, where caste and class walk in hand, it is very challenging for people to climb up the class ladder due to class discrimination.
9. Distinguish between nuclear and joint family in India.
Ans) A nuclear family is a family that includes two adult spouses and children whereas a joint family is a family extends beyond a nuclear family as it includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Size: A nuclear family is typically smaller than a joint family.
Members: Moreover, a nuclear family has two parents and their children, while a joint family usually has grandparents, parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins.
Income: In a nuclear family, one or both parents have the responsibility to earn an income. However, in a joint family, usually more than two adults work, and financial responsibilities are shouldered jointly.
Children: Children in a nuclear family may not spend a lot of time with adults at home, especially if both parents are working. In contrast, there are other adults to take care of the children, even if both parents are working.
10. What are the basic concepts of kinship?
Ans) We've already covered the broad point that kinship relationships result from how cultures interpret the relationships that nature provides, as well as some of the various perspectives that sociologists have taken on the kinship system. As a result, we have inadvertently introduced some of the fundamental terms and ideas in kinship studies, which we will now outline in a more organised manner. Despite the fact that this list of technical terminology can be very daunting, you should endeavour to understand the fundamental ideas and distinctions that these important terms aim to express.
The Principle of Descent: Any social group whose members share a common ancestor, whether genuine or imagined, is referred to as a descent group. Consequently, a lineage is a unilineal descent group whose members may be descended either matrilineally or patrilineally. By virtue of any combination of male or female links, all descendants of an ancestor or ancestress are members of a common descent group in a cognatic descent. However, the terms "bilateral descent" or "consanguine descent" are occasionally used interchangeably with cognatic descent.
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