Year 2013

Be the change you want to see in others - Gandhiji.

Though not very useful from the point of view of a connected political history of South India, the Sangam Literature portrays the social and economic conditions of its time with remarkable vividness. Comment. (10 marks, 200 words)

The role of individual MPs (Members of Parliament) has diminished over the years and as a result healthy constructive debates on policy issues are not usually witnessed. How far can this be attributed to the anti-defection law which was legislated but with a different intention?

With a consideration towards the strategy of inclusive growth, the new Companies Bill, 2013 has indirectly made CSR a mandatory obligation. Discuss the challenges expected in its implementation in right earnest. Also discuss other provisions in the Bill and their implications.

What do you understand by ‘Values’ and ‘Ethics’? In what way is it important to be ethical along with being professionally competent?

Write notes on the following in about 150 words each :

(a) How do you situate Anthropology in Social Sciences ? (10 marks, about 150 words)

(b) Various types of descent (10 marks, about 150 words)

(c) Totemism (10 marks, about 150 words)

(d) Linguistic Anthropology (10 marks, about 150 words)

(e) Carbon-14 method of dating (10 marks, about 150 words)

Write short notes on the following:

(a) Sufi tradition of Islam. (10 marks, 150 words)

(b) Threat to tribal languages in India. (10 marks, 150 words)

(c) Examine the debates related to Ramapithecus. (10 marks, 150 words)

(d) Discuss how Louis Dumont explained caste system. (10 marks, 150 words)

(e) Discuss salient features of Mesolithic culture in India with special reference to western India. (10 marks, 150 words)

Write short notes on the following in about 150 words each :

(a) Differences between Normal cycle and Arid cycle of Davis. (10 marks, 150 words)

(b) Differentiate Storm Surges and Seiches. (10 marks, 150 words)

(c) Uniqueness of fauna in the Notogean realm. (10 marks, 150 words)

(d) Impact of Pleistocene Ice Age on the crust of the Earth. (10 marks, 150 words)

(e) Types of endemic plants and their degree of vulnerability to extinction. (10 marks, 150 words)

(a) On the outline map of India provided to you, mark the location of all of the following. Write in your QCA Booklet the significance of these locations, whether physical/commercial/economic/ecological/environmental/cultural, in not more than 30 words for each entry: (10 marks, 30 words for each entry)

(i) Mishmi Hills

(ii) Lipulekh Pass

(iii) Beas River

(iv) Rihand Dam

(v) Amarnath

(b) Explain the topographical and structural characteristics of the Siwalik Range. (150 words) (10 marks)

(c) Discuss the mechanism of Indian Monsoon. (150 words) (10 marks)

(d) Identify the main industrial clusters of India and account for their development. (150 words) (10 marks)

(e) Explain the method of delineating crop-association regions with reference to India. (150 words) (10 marks)

Identify the following places marked on the outline map in the Question-cum-Answer Booklet supplied to you and write short notes of about 30 words on each of them in the space provided in the Booklet. Locational hints for each of the places marked on the map are given below seriatim :- (2½ marks, 30 words for each of the 20 subparts, total 50 marks)

(i) A Palaeolithic and Mesolithic site.

(ii) A Mesolithic site.

(iii) An important halting place.

(iv) A Pre-Harappan site.

(v) An important Harappan site.

(vi) Site of important fossils.

(vii) A Sea-port.

(viii) A Palaeolithic site.

(ix) A Neolithic, Megalithic and Chalcolithic site.

(x) A Harappan site.

(xi) A Palaeolithic site.

(xii) A Neolithic site.

(xiii) A Chalcolithic site.

(xiv) A Chalcolithic site.

(xv) A site of Buddhist Monastery.

(xvi) Painted Grey Ware site.

(xvii) Site related to a famous Indian Philosopher.

(xviii) Historical Rock-cut caves.

(xix) Famous Fort.

(xx) Capital of famous Kingdom.

Critically examine the following statements in about 150 words each (10x5=50 marks, 150 words each).

(a) Dupleix made a cardinal blunder in looking for the key of India in Madras : Clive sought and found it in Bengal.

(b) Swami Vivekananda opined that “We should give our ancient spirituality and culture and get in return Western science, technology, methods of raising the standard of life, business integrity and technique of collective effort.”

(c) “Ryotwari falls into three stages—early, middle and late, and the only description common to all is that it is a mode of settlement with small farmers, so small, indeed, that their average holding is, on recent figures, only about 6½ acres.”

(d) “Many of us who worked for the Congress programme lived in a kind of intoxication during the year 1921. We were full of excitement and optimism .... We had a sense of freedom and a pride in that freedom.”

(e) “Gandhi’s body is in jail but his soul is with you, India’s prestige is in your hands, you must not use any violence under any circumstances. You will be beaten but you must not resist; you must not raise a hand to ward off blows.”

Write short answers to the following in about 150 words each:

(a) Explain and evaluate Strawson's arguments for his conception of the nature of a person. (10 marks, 150 words)

(b) Explain Wittgenstein's arguments against the possibility of private language. (10 marks, 150 words)

(c) Distinguish necessary from empirical propositions. How is a necessary proposition justified? Explain. (10 marks, 150 words)

(d) Discuss how by refuting the different concepts of substances Aristotle establishes his own theory of substance. (10 marks, 150 words)

(e) What is an antinomy? Describe the major antinomies discussed by Kant. (10 marks, 150 words)

Answer all the five parts below critically in not more than 150 words each : (10 marks, 150 words)

(a) Does corruption have not only a moral dimension but also an economic dimension?

(b) What is the significance of including duties of citizens in the Indian Constitution?

(c) Does the idea of equal respect to all religions provide a consistent and viable state policy?

(d) Does the combination of democracy and socialism lead to a more equitable society?

(e) Is there any impact of caste discrimination on democracy in Indian context?

Comment on the following in approximately 150 words each: (50 marks, 150 words)

(a) “Personal is political” (10 marks, 150 words)

(b) “Original position” (10 marks, 150 words)

(c) “Covenants without swords are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all” (Hobbes) (10 marks, 150 words)

(d) Sri Aurobindo’s “idea of freedom” (10 marks, 150 words)

(e) Syed Ahmed Khan as a modernizer (10 marks, 150 words)

Answer the following questions in about 150 words each:

(a) Identify the elements of change in India's foreign policy. (10 marks, 150 words)

(b) Sketch the leadership role of India in WTO negotiations. (10 marks, 150 words)

(c) Examine the recent developments in India-Japan relationship. (10 marks, 150 words)

(d) Bring out the objectives of India seeking permanent seat in Security Council. (10 marks, 150 words)

(e) Is India's Nuclear doctrine a viable one ? (10 marks, 150 words)

Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words each:

(a) How did traditional public administration "resolve a fundamentally irresolvable problem — creating an administration strong enough to be effective but not so strong enough to endanger accountability"? (10 marks, 150 words)

(b) The theory of 'organizational incompetence' has two separate and distinct faces. Examine Chris Argyris' views on this. (10 marks, 150 words)

(c) "In the globalized public administration, hierarchy creates more ethical problems than it solves . . ."Comment. (10 marks, 150 words)

(d) Public Administration in the neo-liberal era is governed less by instruments of internal accountability and more by those of external accountability. Elaborate. (10 marks, 150 words)

(e) Discuss the view that "tribunals should have the same degree of independence from the executive as that enjoyed by the Supreme Court and the High Courts, especially for those tribunals that look over the functions of High Courts." (10 marks, 150 words)

Attempt the following in about 150 words each: (10×5=50)

(a) "The Charter Act of 1853 marked the beginning of parliamentary system in India." Explain.

(b) "Civil service neutrality is founded on the application of the principles of Rule of Law." Comment.

(c) "The second generation reforms in the Panchayati Raj institutions have changed Panchayats from an agency of development at local level into a political institution." Discuss.

(d) "Finance Commission in India performs the job of statistics aggregation." Comment.

(e) "Planning enables comprehensive and scientific understanding of problems." Examine the statement in the context of planning methodology.

Write short notes on the following:

(a) "Sociology emerged in Europe and flourished to begin with on social reformist orientation in the U.S.A.” — Comment. (10 marks, 150 words)

(b) Compare and contrast Sociology with Anthropology. (10 marks, 150 words)

(c) Critically examine positivistic approach in sociological studies. (10 marks, 150 words)

(d) Examine science and technology as agents of social change. (10 marks, 150 words)

(e) Analyse the contemporary trends in family with examples. (10 marks, 150 words)

Write short notes with sociological perspective on the following in not more than 150 words each :- (10x5=50 marks, 150 words)

(a) André Béteille’s definition of class. (10 marks)

(b) M.N. Srinivas’s concept of westernisation. (10 marks)

(c) Satya Sodhak movement of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. (10 marks)

(d) Classes in agrarian society in India. (10 marks)

(e) Other Backward Classes. (10 marks)

The subject of democracy has become severely muddled because of the way the rhetoric surrounding it has been used in recent years. There is, increasingly, an oddly confused dichotomy between those who want to ‘impose’ democracy on countries in the non-Western world (in these countries ‘own interest’, of course) and those who are opposed to such imposition’ (because of respect for the countries’ ‘own ways’). But the entire language of ‘imposition’, used by both sides, is extraordinarily inappropriate since it makes the implicit assumption that democracy belongs exclusively to the West, taking it to be a quintessentially ‘Western’ idea that has originated and flourished only in the West.

But the thesis and the pessimism it generates about the possibility of democratic practice in the world is extremely hard to justify. There were several experiments in local democracy in ancient India. Indeed, in understanding the roots of democracy in the world, we have to take an interest in the history of people’s participation and public reasoning in different parts of the world. We have to look beyond thinking of democracy only in terms of European and American evolution. We would fail to understand the pervasive demands for participatory living, on which Aristotle spoke with far-reaching insight if we take democracy to be a kind of specialised cultural product of the West.

It cannot, of course, be doubted that the institutional structure of the contemporary practice of democracy is largely the product of European and American experience over the last few centuries. This is extremely important to recognize since these developments in institutional formats were immensely innovative and ultimately effective. There can be little doubt that there is a major ‘Western’ achievement here.

Which of the following is closest to the view of democracy as mentioned in the above passage?

(A) The subject of democracy is a muddle due to a desire to portray it as a Western concept, ‘alien’ to non-Western countries.

(B) The language of imposition of democracy is inappropriate. There is, however, a need to consider this concept in the backdrop of the culture of ‘own ways’ of non-Western society.

(C) While democracy is not essentially a Western idea belonging exclusively to the West, the institutional structure of current democratic practices has been their contribution.

(D) None of the statements A, B, and C given is correct.

What will follow if a Money Bill is substantially amended by the Rajya Sabha?

(A) The Lok Sabha may still proceed with the Bill, accepting or not accepting the recommendations of the Rajya Sabha

(B) The Lok Sabha cannot consider the Bill further

(C) The Lok Sabha may send the Bill to the Rajya Sabha for reconsideration

(D) The President may call a joint sitting for passing the Bill