CBSE Class 12 Sociology Solved Question Paper 2016

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The term 'Sanskritisation' was coined by M.N. Srinivas. It refers to a process whereby members of a middle or lower caste try to raise their own social status by adopting the ritual, domestic and social practices of a caste or castes or higher status.

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Community identity is based on birth and ‘belonging’ rather than on some form of acquired qualifications or ‘accomplishment’. It is what we ‘are’ rather than what we have ‘become’. We don’t have to do anything to be born into a community – in fact, no one has any choice about which family or community
or country they are born into.

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Two factors that encourage regionalism are as under:
(i) Regionalism is encouraged by the geographical concentration of these identity markers in special parts and fuelled by a sense of regional deprivation. 
(ii) Regionalism is deeply rooted in India because of the diversity of languages, cultures, tribes and religions. It cannot be gainsaid that language plays a sentimental role in the sphere of regionalism. 

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(i) The ‘demographic dividend’ results from an increase in the proportion of workers relative to non-workers in the population. In terms of age, the working population is roughly that between 15 and 64 years of age.
(ii) This working age group must support itself as well as those outside this age group (i.e., children and elderly people) who are unable to work and are therefore dependents.
(iii) The actual problem is in defining the dependency ratio as the ratio of the non-working age to working-age population, rather than the ratio of non-workers to workers.
(iv) India is really facing a window of opportunity generated by the demographic dividend.

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It is a measure comparing the portion of a population which is composed of dependents (elderly people who are too old to work and children who are too young to work) with the portion i.e. in the working age group (15-64 years).

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(i) Farmers in our country for centuries have periodically faced lots of distress due to crop failures, drought and debt, the event of farmers' suicides appears to be new.
(ii) Sociologists have tried to analyze this event by looking at the structural and social changes that have been taking place in agrarian society. Such suicides have become 'Matrix Events'.

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The three forms of capital on which social inequality is based are:
(i)  Economic Capital: It can be divided in the form of material assets and income.
(ii) Cultural Capital: It consists of educational qualifications and status.
(iii) Social Capital: It is in the form of networks of contacts and social associations.

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Major issues of Adivasi struggles after Independence:

1. The Independence of India in 1947 should have made life easier for Adivasis but this was not the case. One, the government monopoly over forests continued. However, the exploitation of forests accelerated.
2. The policy of capital-intensive industrialisation adopted by the Indian government required mineral resources and power-generation capacities which were concentrated in Adivasi areas.
3. Adivasi lands were rapidly acquired for new mining and dam projects. In the process, millions of Adivasis were displaced without any appropriate compensation or rehabilitation.
4. Adivasi shared a common hatred of outsiders ('dikus') who had settled in the region. They grabbed its wealth which impoverished the original residents. Maximum benefits from the mining and industrial projects in themineral rich regions had gone todikus. Adivasis were concentrated in contiguous areas and could demand states of their own.

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It refers to a process of gradual devolution or transfer of functions, resources and decision- making powers to the lower level democratically elected bodies. It is a system in which the members of a community or group participate collectively in the taking of major decisions.

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Communalism as a challenge to our unity and harmony:
(i) The word ‘communalism’ refers to aggressive chauvinism based on religious identity. Chauvinism itself is an attitude that sees one’s own group as the only valid group, the remaining group are considered as inferior, illegitimate and opposed.
(ii) In this way, Communalism is an aggressive political ideology linked to religion. In this sense the meaning of the world communalism is altogether different from the sense of the ordinary English world. In the English language 'Communal' means something related to community where as the Indian or the South Asian meaning is strongly charged.
(iii) In this regard we can say that communalism is about politics, not about religion. Though communalists are totally involved with religion yet there is no necessary relationship between personal faith and communalism.
(iv) All communalists intensely believe in a political identity based on religion. Basically, communalists have an aggressive political identity. At the some time, they are always read to condemn, criticise or attack everyone who does not share their identity or ideology.