Paper: IAS Mains Previous Year Paper Sociology (1983)

PAPER - I- Sociology-1983 (Mains)

SECTION A

1. Write short notes on any three of the following (each answer should not exceed 200 words):
(a) Participant observation and the problem of objectivity
(b) Functional prerequisites of society.
(c) Religious and scientific world views.
(d) Family in industrial societies.

2. Distinguish between social change and social development. How does the knowledge of Sociology help in the formulation of development policies?

3. Discuss suicide as a social fact. While explaining the typology of suicide according to Durkheim, bring out the destabilising role of anomic in modern societies.

4. Are caste and class merely different forms of qualitatively different types of social stratification? Elucidate your point of view.

SECTION B

5. Write short notes on any three of the following (each answer should not exceed 200 words):
(a) Bureaucracy and planned development
(b) Jajmani system as a form of exchange.
(c) "Vote Banks" and the democratic process.
(d) Secularization and social solidarity.

6. Analyze the social determinants of industrialization. Will industrialization per se lead to equality and balanced development in the society?

7. Do you agree with the view that legitimacy is a powerful instrument in the hands of the elite in the contemporary society? What are the different grounds on which ruling elite have tried to legitimize their authority in democratic and totalitarian societies?

8. Examine the concept of equality of educational opportunity. What are the social constraints and social consequences implicit in the pursuit of this goal?

PAPER - II- Sociology-1983 (Mains)

SECTION A

1. Write notes on any three of the following is not more than 200 words on each:
(a) Universalisation and parochialisation in Indian civilization.
(b) Bride and bridegroom price.
(c) The changing social composition of the political elite since. Independence.
(d) Unionisation and the agrarian classes.

2. What is the relative role of ritual and secular factors in the traditional caste system? Explain how their role is changing in the modern time.

3. Distinguish between the Indological and the Sociological views on the Hindu family and show how the former has influenced the latter.

4. Examine, with particular reference to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the view that education promotes social equality.

SECTION B

5. Write notes on any three of the following is not more than 200 word on each:
(a) Religious minorities and national integration.
(b) Distinction between tribe and caste.
(c) Socio-cultural dimensions of infant mortality in India.
(d) Women's role in economic development.

6. Discuss the efficacy of land reforms to transform India's agrarian social structure.

7. Examine the view that the traditional social institutions of India are a major impediment to its industrialization.

8. How far is it true to say that the urban social structure in India is only a replica of the rural social structure?