SOCIOLOGY

2015

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 1

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 2

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 3 Sept 07

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 4 Sept 08

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 5 : Sept 09

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 6: Sept 10

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 7: Sept 11

Mains-2015: Challenge – 8: Sept 14

Mains-2015: Challenge – 9: Sept 15

Mains-2015: Challenge – 10: Sept 16

Mains-2015: Challenge – 11: Sept 17

Mains-2015: Challenge – 12: Sept 18

Mains-2015: Challenge – 13: Sept 21

Mains-2015: Challenge – 14: Sept 22

Mains-2015: Challenge – 15: Sept 23

Mains-2015: Challenge – 16: Sept 26

Mains-2015: Challenge – 17: Sept 28

Mains-2015: Challenge – 18: Sept 29

Mains-2015: Challenge – 19: Sept 30

Mains-2015: Challenge – 20: Oct 06

Mains-2015: Challenge – 21: Oct 07

Mains-2015: Challenge – 22: Oct 08

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 23: Oct 09

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 24: Oct 12

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 25: Oct 14

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 26: Oct 19

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 27: Oct 20

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 28: Oct 21

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 29: Oct 22

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 30: Oct 26

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 31: Oct 27

Mains – 2015: Challenge – 32: Oct 29

2013

CHALLENGES – 2013 (ARCHIVES)

2014

 

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 1

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 2

Mains -2014 Challenge – 3

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 4

Mains -2014 Challenge – 5

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 6

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 7

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 8

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 9

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 10

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 11

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 12

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 13

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 14

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 15

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 16

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 17

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 18

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 19

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 20

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 21

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 22

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 23

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 24

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 25

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 26

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 27

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 28

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 29

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 30

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 31

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 32

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 33

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 34

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 35

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 36

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 37

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 38

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 39

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 40

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 41

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 42

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 43 

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 44

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 45

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 46

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 47

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 48

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 49

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 50

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 51

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 52

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 53

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 54

Mains – 2014 Challenge – 55

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JANUARY

Challenge 1

ANSWERS

Challenge 2

Question 1

What are social phenomena? Distinguish them from psychological phenomena.( 200 words)

Question 2

Discuss the impact of industrialization and urbanization on family in India.( 300 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 3

Question 1

Discuss the emerging forms of marriage and family with examples from the West and the East.Can there be family without marriage? Examine  (300 words)

Question 2

Comment on the sociological impact of globalization on people working in the Informal sector.  (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 4

Question 1

Comment on the critics’ charge that Immanuel Wallerstein’s dependency theory is simplistic and wrong. (200 words)

Question 2

Write a short note on Indological perspective of G.S. Ghurye. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 5

Question 1

Write a note on comparison between Sociology and Economics. (200 words)

Question 2

Comment on the influence of social and cultural factors on family planning in India. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 6

Question 1

 Critically examine Weber’s theory of Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (300 words)

Question 2

Mahatma Gandhi is often described as revolutionary. Examine this characterization in the light of the theory of social movements. (300 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 7

Question 1

 Write Short note on Quasi-groups. (200 words)

Question 2

Write in not more than 200 words about Acculturation and integration of tribal communities. (200 words)

ANSWERS

FEBRUARY

Challenge 8

Question 1

 Write a short note on C. Wright Mills’ Power Elite. (200 words)

Question 2

Comment on the changes that the Agrarian Social Structure in India is undergoing. (300 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 9

Question 1

Write about Social mobility in open and closed systems. [IAS 2008][200 words]

Question 2

In the context of the caste system, critically examine Louis Dumont’s concept of purity and pollution.[IAS 2009][300 words]

ANSWERS

Challenge 10

Question 1

Write a note on Objectivity and Value Neutrality in Social Research.  (200 words/ IAS 2004)

Question 2

Write a note on S.N.D.P. Movement. (200 words/ IAS 2008)

ANSWERS

Challenge 11

Question 1

 Bring out a comparative analysis of Marxian and Parsonian views of social change and examine the relevance of each view for social development in the contemporary India.(600 words/ IAS 2004/ 60 marks)

Question 2

Mention the Impact of Muslims on Indian Society.(200 words/ IAS 2004)

ANSWERS

Challenge 12

Question 1

 Distinguish between Sex and Gender. Discuss the gender issues with suitable examples (300 words/IAS 2002)

Question 2

Describe the socio-economic factors responsible for communal tensions in India. What suggestions will you give to control them?(300 words/IAS 2003)

ANSWERS

Challenge 13

Question 1

 Discuss the important factors involved in the making of a criminal. (300 words)

Question 2

Evaluate the changing frontiers of caste system in contemporary India. (300 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 14

Question 1

 Highlight the problem of objectivity and value-neutrality in Social Research. Elaborate, with suitable examples, the limitations associated with the tools of measurements in Social Science Researches. (200 words/ CSM 2003)

Question 2

Examine the conceptual distinction between social inequality and social stratification. How do the nature and forms of the social stratification system determine the patterns of social mobility? (200 words/ CSM 2003)

ANSWERS

Challenge 15

Question 1

What are micro-sociology and macro-sociology? How could the two be related?(200 words/ IAS ’74)

Question 2

What is a “tribe”? Examine the view that the tribes in India are tribes in transition.(200 words/ IAS ’77)

ANSWERS

Challenge 16

Question 1

 Write short note on ‘Relative Deprivation’ (200 words/ IAS 1999)

Question 2

Describe the distinctive features of tribal communities in India. Discuss the factors affecting tribal identity.(300 words/ IAS 2006)

ANSWERS

Challenge 17

Question 1

Discuss the Class struggle as conceived by Karl Marx(200 words/ IAS 2005)

Question 2

Describe the process of emergence of the middle class in India. What role has the middle class  played in national development?(300 words/ IAS 2005)

ANSWERS

Challenge 18

Question 1

 Analyse the sociological ideas of Pareto. (300 words/ IAS 1964)

Question 2

Discuss the metaphysical and ethical basis of Hindu social organisation. (300 words/ IAS 2002)

ANSWERS

Challenge 19

Question 1

 Bring out Tonnies’ differentiation between ‘Community’ (Gemeinschaft) and ‘society’ (Gesselschaft) and show how this paved the path for Cooley to develop his theory of primary group.(200 words/IAS1965).

Question 2

Write short note on- The share-croppers’ movement in India. (200 words/IAS1991).

 ANSWERS

Challenge 20

Question 1

 Bring out the role of Culture in the development  of  human  personality. (200 words)

Question 2

Sociologists would not have objected to proselytization but for its harmful effects on Indian culture’. Discuss critically. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 21

 Question

What is Merton’s view of relationship between social structure and deviance? In what sense is a deviant also a conformist? (500 words/ IAS 2008)

ANSWERS

Challenge 22

Question

Critically evaluate the child welfare programmes in India. Have they benefitted all sections of children in India? (500 words/IAS 2000)

ANSWERS

Challenge 23

Question

State the meaning and characteristics of an ideal type. What, according to Max Weber, is the use and significance of the ‘ideal type’ in social science research. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 24

 Question

Elaborate the concept of political elite. Explain how social structural origins of political elites influence their political orientations.(500 words/IAS 2001)

ANSWERS

Challenge 25

Question 

What are the structural conditions under which movements emerge? Discuss with reference to any one theory of genesis of social movements. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 26

 Question

Elaborate on the social necessity of religion. Discuss the relationship between religion and science. (500 words/ IAS 1999)

ANSWERS

Challenge 27

 Question

In the context of the caste system, critically examine Louis Dumont’s concept of purity and pollution. (300 words/ IAS 2009)

ANSWERS

Challenge 28

 Question

Comment on the reasons why neo-idealists and symbolic interactionists are critical of ‘positivism’ in Sociology. (300 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 29

 Question

What is the impact of Globalization on the structure and mobilization of the working class in India? (500 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 30

 Question 

Distinguish between probability and non-probability sampling methods. How many types of sampling designs are there? (300 words/ IAS 2009)

ANSWERS

Challenge 31

 Question 

Emile Durkheim’s conception of Social Fact was essentially an endeavor by him to create a separate niche and scientific status for sociology. Explain.(200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 32

 Question

Critically Examine Emile Durkheim’s  Concept of Sacred and Profane and how it can be viewed for Indian Society (250 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 33

Question 

Examine Emile Durkheim’s Concept of The  Division of Labor and how it can be viewed for modern Societies (250 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 34

 Question

Critically Examine the Concept of Suicide and how is it viewed in Modern Societies especially in india.  (250 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 35

Question

How Marx understood Sociology through Process of Dialectics and how a common man can understand contemporary Society by Dialectics? Explain with examples.(300words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 36

Question

Explain Karl Marx”s theory of class struggle. Evaluate the theory in terms of its relevance in explaining contemporary reality. ( 250 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 37

Question

Forces of Production changes in Evolutionary manner and Relations of Production changes  in evolutionary manner .Explain with Karl Marxs view and use present day examples.(200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 38

Question

Critically Examine Karl Marx’s theory of Alienation. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 39

Question 

Compare Karl Marx with ED with reference to the framework of DOL.(200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 40

Question

Write Short note on : Social System and Pattern Variables. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 41

Question

Bring out a Comparative analysis of Marxian and Parsonian views of Social change and Examine the relevance of each view for Social Development in the Contemporary India.  (200 words/CSM 2004)

ANSWERS

Challenge 42

Question

Write Short note on Cybernetic Hierarchy of Control (200 words/CSM 2010)

ANSWERS

Challenge 43

Question

To Robert Merton,deviant behaviour is a result of Anomie. Analyse his Sociological theory of deviant behaviour, with a special reference to his formulation of types of Deviance.  (250words/ CSM2009)

ANSWERS

Challenge 44

Question

Write short note on : Robert Merton’s views on latent & Manifest functions.  (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 45

Question

Write short note on: Primary and Reference Groups. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 46

Question 

What are the reactions of Robert Merton to the functionalism pioneered by social Anthropologists ?Indicate the limitations of his ides of latent functions. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 47

Question

Power and authority go together . Examine . Also explain the various types of Authority.  (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 48

Question 

Define Ideal type and explain Weber’s concept of Verstehen for understanding Social Phenomenon? (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 49

Question

Critically examine Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism?  (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 50

Question 

Critically analyze the contributions of G.H Mead to Symbolic Interactionism? (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 51

 Question

Describe the importance of lineage and descent in kinship and family. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 52

Question

What you mean by marriage and family? Discuss the Structural and functional changes in family in modern society. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 53

Question

Discuss the meanings and significance of culture in Human society. Critically bring out the role of culture in the development of Personality. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 54

Question

Write short note on: Social Consequences of increase in the rate of Divorce. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 55

Question 

In our society Hierarchical relations are influenced by Social Mobility . Explain How? (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 56

Question

Explain how open and closed systems of stratification are undergoing transformation in the emergence of new hierarchical social order in societies. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 57

Question

Socialization and social control are complimentary to each other in maintaining Social Order – Elucidate your answer with appropriate illustrations. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 58

Question

How do formal and informal organization of work influence labors mobility ?  Explain with  examples. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 59

Question 

Write short note on feminization of labor in informal sector. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 60

Question

Write short note  on Social Determinants of Economic Development. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 61

Question

Write short note on Self Help Group as an informal organization from a sociological perspective. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 62

Question

Write short note  on the following from a sociological perspective : Citizenship and Civil Society. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 63

Question

Collective action in politics can bring integration and disintegration in society “ . Comment. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 64

Question

Write short note  on bureaucracy in New capitalist economy. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 65

Question

Are social Movements always influenced by ideologies ? Discuss.   (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 66

Question 

Write short note  on the following from a sociological perspective :Millenarian Movements. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 67

Question

What are the Structural elements of a social Movement ? state how a social movement comes to its end . illustrate your answer with example. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 68

Question

Write short note  on : ideology and strategy of Social Movement. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 69

Question

Write short note  on : Protest Movements. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 70

Question

Discuss in detail the Mass Media and education on Indian Society. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 71

Question

Write short note  on : Privatization of Education and Equality of Opportunity? (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 72

Question

“Education is induction into learners culture”. Examine the statement in Society today? (200 words)

 ANSWERS

Challenge 73

Question

Write  short note on : Youth Culture. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 74

Question

Write short note  on” Positive Religion. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 75

Question 

Define Sect, Cult and Religion . In what way do Weber’s views on religion differ from those of Durkheim. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 76

Question 

“Science has empirical means to logical  ends and Religion has non empirical means to logical ends .” Comment. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 77

Question

Critically examine functional and dysfunctional aspects of Religion. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 78

Question 

Write  short note on: Science and social Responsibility. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 79

Question

Write  short note on: Social Impacts of New Technologies in India. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 80

Question

Write short note  on the following from a sociological perspective: Theory of cultural lag –Ogburn and Nimkoff. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 81

Question

Revolutionary changes have some specific characteristics “. Discuss with examples. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 82

Question

Social Support Mechanism needs to be strengthened for effective implementation of development programmes” .Comment (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 83

Question

Define Social Policy. Evaluate the performance of social policy in modernization of developing Societies. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 84

Question

Write short note  on the following from a sociological perspective : Reliability and Validity. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 85

Question

Write short note  on the following from a sociological perspective : Utility and Reliability in Social Research. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 86

Write short note  on the following from a sociological perspective : Comparative method. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 87

Question

Write short note  on the following from a sociological perspective: Fact, value and Objectivity. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 88

Question

Comment on the reasons why neo idealists and symbolic interactionists are critical of Positivism in Sociology. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 89

Question

Write short note  on “ problem of Objectivity in Research. (200 words)

ANSWERS

Challenge 90

Question

What can Sociology show about our Action ? Discuss the Practical significance of Sociology. (200 words)

ANSWERS