UPSC Mains 2022 Anthropology Optional Question Papers with Model Answers
All 56 questions of the 2022 Civil Services Main Examination, Anthropology Paper I and Anthropology Paper II, with marks and a suggested time per part. Solve each part on paper first, then open the model answer, or send it to answer-writing practice for evaluation.
UPSC Mains 2022 Anthropology Paper I
Question 1 (50 marks)
Q1(a) · Economic Organisation · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Economic Anthropology and the Formalist–Substantivist Debate
Debate between formalist and substantivist approaches
हिंदी में प्रश्न
औपचारिकतावादी और मूलवादी दृष्टिकोणों के बीच वाद-विवाद
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(a)
Approach: A short note: define the debate, give each side with scholars and one ethnographic example, add criticisms and end with the present synthesis.
The formalist–substantivist debate (1950s to 1970s) asked whether the concepts of Western economics, such as scarcity, choice and maximisation, can explain the economies of tribal and peasant societies.
Formalists such as Raymond Firth and Robbins Burling (1962) drew on Lionel Robbins's definition of economics as the allocation of scarce means among alternative ends, holding that people everywhere economise, whether for wealth, prestige or leisure; Pospisil's Kapauku Papuans, who used shell money and lent at interest, were their favourite case.
Substantivists led by Karl Polanyi, with George Dalton, Paul Bohannan and Marshall Sahlins, argued that in pre-industrial societies the economy is embedded in kinship, religion and politics and integrated by reciprocity and redistribution, not price-making markets, as Bohannan's Tiv spheres of exchange and the kula show.
Critics found formalism circular, since any behaviour can be called maximising, and substantivism romantic, ignoring calculation such as gimwali haggling.
The debate faded by the late 1970s; Marxist and cultural approaches followed, and most scholars now combine individual strategy with social embeddedness.Q1(b) · Prehistoric Archaeology · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Cultures
Mesolithic rock art in Indian subcontinent
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप में मध्यपाषाण शैल कला
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(b)
Approach: A short note on discovery, main sites, themes, style and colours, dating and the ethnographic link of Mesolithic rock art.
Rock art (paintings and engravings on rock shelters) is one of the richest records of Mesolithic life in India. Archibald Carlleyle first noticed such paintings in the Kaimur hills in the 1860s, and V.S. Wakankar discovered Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh) in 1957; it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.
Other centres include Adamgarh and Pachmarhi (Madhya Pradesh) and Lekhahia and other Mirzapur–Kaimur shelters (Uttar Pradesh).
Themes: hunting of deer, boar and wild cattle with bows and spears, fishing, honey collection, dancing, childbirth and burial, mostly as lively stick-like human figures and animals, some in an X-ray style showing internal parts.
Colours: red and ochre from haematite, white from kaolin or lime, and occasionally green and yellow, mixed with fat or plant gum. Yashodhar Mathpal's study of Bhimbetka and Wakankar's phases place many scenes in the Mesolithic, though direct dating is difficult.
The art records subsistence, social life and belief, and parallels with the wall paintings of the Saora and Warli suggest long cultural continuity.Q1(c) · Anthropological Theories · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Functionalism, Structural-Functionalism and Structuralism
Radcliffe-Brown's ideas on status, role and institution
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सामाजिक प्रस्थिति, भूमिका और संस्था पर रैडक्लीफ-ब्राउन के विचार
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(c)
Approach: Explain the three terms as Radcliffe-Brown used them within his concept of social structure, with an example, and add a line of evaluation.
A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, in “On Social Structure” (1940) and Structure and Function in Primitive Society (1952), defined social structure as the network of actually existing relations between persons, and distinguished it from structural form, the general pattern that persists while individuals come and go.
Status: in his usage a person is not a biological individual but a complex of social positions, such as father, chief or clan member. Each position (status) places the person in the structure.
Role: the expected behaviour attached to a position, governed by rights and duties; among the Andaman Islanders he showed how kin and age positions fix conduct in ceremonies. The status-role pair was later formalised by Ralph Linton (1936), who added ascribed and achieved status.
Institution: an established, socially recognised norm or pattern of conduct regulating relations between persons in given positions, such as marriage, joking relationships or the mother’s brother’s privileges among the BaThonga. Institutions keep the structure stable.
His scheme gave a clear vocabulary, but critics (Leach, Firth) felt it ignored choice and change.Q1(d) · Human Genetics: Methods, Inheritance and Chromosomes · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Methods of Studying Human Genetics
Pedigree analysis in genetic counselling
हिंदी में प्रश्न
आनुवंशिक परामर्श में वंशवृक्ष विश्लेषण
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(d)
Approach: Explain what pedigree analysis is, how it is used in each step of genetic counselling with an example of risk estimation, and its limits.
Pedigree analysis is the construction and study of a family tree, using standard symbols, to trace how a trait or disorder passes through generations. It is the first and most basic tool of genetic counselling.
Uses in counselling: (i) diagnosis of the mode of inheritance, autosomal dominant, recessive, X-linked or mitochondrial, from the pattern of affected members; (ii) identification of carriers and at-risk relatives.
(iii) risk estimation: for example, if a couple has a child with beta-thalassaemia major, both are carriers and each further pregnancy has a 1 in 4 risk; the sister of a haemophilic boy has a half chance of being a carrier; (iv) guiding which family members should be tested and whether prenatal diagnosis is advisable; (v) detecting consanguinity, which is common in parts of South India.
Limits: small families, incomplete information, non-paternity, variable penetrance and new mutations can mislead, so pedigrees are combined with clinical and molecular tests. Used sensitively and non-directively, pedigree analysis helps families make informed reproductive decisions.Q1(e) · Culture, Communication and Research Methods · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Tools of Data Collection and Analysis
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Participatory Learning and Action (PLA)
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सहभागी ग्रामीण मूल्यांकन (पी.आर.ए.) और सहभागी अधिगम एवं कार्य (पी.एल.ए.)
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(e)
Approach: Define PRA and PLA with their originators, list the tools and principles, give Indian applications and a brief critique.
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), popularised by Robert Chambers in the late 1980s and 1990s, is a family of approaches that enable rural people to share, analyse and act on their own knowledge of their conditions. It grew out of Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), in which outsiders extracted information quickly. Participatory Learning and Action (PLA), a term adopted in the mid-1990s (notably by the International Institute for Environment and Development), widens PRA beyond rural settings and stresses learning leading to action.
Tools: social and resource maps drawn on the ground, transect walks, seasonal calendars, Venn diagrams of institutions, wealth ranking, timelines and matrix scoring.
Principles: handing over the stick to local people, optimal ignorance, triangulation and self-critical awareness by facilitators.
In India, NGOs such as MYRADA in Karnataka and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Gujarat pioneered it, and it is used in watershed projects and village microplanning. Critics (Cooke and Kothari, 2001) warn of tokenism and elite capture.
Question 2 (50 marks)
Q2(a) · Foundations of Anthropology · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Meaning, Scope and Development of Anthropology
"Anthropology is the systematic, objective and holistic study of human kind in all times and places". Elaborate the argument.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"नृविज्ञान हर देश-काल में मानवजाति का व्यवस्थित, वस्तुनिष्ठ एवं समग्र अध्ययन है" । तर्क का विस्तार कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: Elaborate each of the four adjectives in the statement (systematic, objective, holistic, all times and places) with definitions and examples, then note the limits of objectivity and conclude.
Anthropology, from the Greek anthropos (human) and logos (study), is defined by Ember and Ember as the study of human beings in all places and all times; A.L. Kroeber saw it as both a natural and a social science. The statement captures four hallmarks of the discipline.
Systematic: anthropology collects data by tested methods: participant observation, genealogies (W.H.R. Rivers), case studies, surveys, excavation and laboratory analysis of bones and genes. Malinowski's fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands (1915–18) set the standard of long, methodical residence in the field.
Objective: it aims to describe cultures in their own terms through cultural relativism (Boas) and the emic-etic distinction (Kenneth Pike), avoiding ethnocentric judgement. Cross-cultural comparison, such as Murdock's Human Relations Area Files, tests generalisations against evidence.
Holistic: it studies the human being as a whole, linking biology, ecology, economy, kinship, politics, religion and language. The four fields (social-cultural, biological, archaeological and linguistic) together explain a problem such as sickle-cell anaemia, which joins genetics, malaria ecology and farming practices.
All times and places: its time depth runs from primate ancestors about 7 million years ago through prehistoric cultures to today, and its spatial range from the Jarawa and the !Kung San to Indian villages, cities and online communities.
Yet complete objectivity is debated. Evans-Pritchard (1950) held that social anthropology interprets like history; Clifford Geertz called ethnography an interpretation of meanings; Writing Culture (Clifford and Marcus, 1986) showed that the observer's position shapes the account. Reflexivity and team research are the responses.
Thus anthropology is best seen as a systematic and holistic science of humankind that strives for objectivity while remaining aware of the observer, and its comparative breadth across time and space is its distinctive strength.Q2(b) · Primates · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Primate Adaptation, Behaviour and Fossil Primates
Discuss different forms of primate social organisation.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्राइमेट सामाजिक संगठन के विभिन्न स्वरूपों की चर्चा कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: Define primate social organisation, then describe each form (solitary, monogamous pair, polyandrous group, one-male, multi-male multi-female, fission-fusion, multilevel) with named species and the ecological reasons, and conclude on its relevance for human evolution.
Primate social organisation is the size, composition and mating pattern of groups. It is shaped by food distribution, predation risk and reproductive strategies.
Solitary foragers: orangutans and many lorises and galagos forage alone; a male's range overlaps those of several females, since scattered fruit or insects cannot feed a group.
Monogamous pairs: gibbons and siamangs, including India's hoolock gibbon, live as a pair with offspring and defend territories with duet songs. Polyandrous groups: marmosets and tamarins often have one breeding female with two males who help carry twins.
One-male units: gorillas (a silverback with several females), Hanuman langurs and hamadryas baboons; males compete to take over groups, and Sarah Hrdy's study of langurs at Mount Abu (1977) explained infanticide after takeovers as a male reproductive strategy.
Multi-male, multi-female groups: rhesus and bonnet macaques and savanna baboons live in large troops with dominance hierarchies; in macaques female rank is inherited from the mother, and grooming builds alliances.
Fission-fusion and multilevel societies: chimpanzees and bonobos form communities that split into changing parties; chimpanzee males stay and are related, and Goodall recorded inter-community killing at Gombe. Hamadryas baboons and geladas form one-male units nested in bands and herds.
These forms show that primate sociality is flexible and adaptive. Washburn and DeVore used baboons, and later scholars chimpanzees, as models of early hominin society, though living primates are not ancestors.Q2(c) · Prehistoric Archaeology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Cultures
Discuss with suitable examples the typo-technological problems in Indian palaeolithic industry with reference to environmental hypotheses.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पर्यावरणीय परिकल्पना के संदर्भ में उपयुक्त उदाहरणों के साथ भारतीय पुरापाषाण उद्योग में टाइपो-तकनीकी समस्याओं की चर्चा कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Explain what the typo-technological problems are and examine each environmental hypothesis offered to explain Indian industries (glacial, pluvial, ecological and raw-material), with examples and their critique.
Indian Palaeolithic studies face typo-technological problems: tools lie in reworked gravels or on the surface, absolute dates are few, terminology varies (Series I–III, Nevasian), and industries do not form neat stages. Environmental hypotheses were offered to explain them.
Glacial hypothesis: De Terra and Paterson (1935) tied Soanian pebble tools and peninsular Acheulian handaxes to Himalayan glacial–interglacial terraces, producing the two-culture idea of a Soanian north and a Madras south; Hallam Movius (1948) placed India at the handaxe–chopper boundary. Later work found both together, and glacial correlation fails in the peninsula.
Pluvial–interpluvial hypothesis: F.E. Zeuner and H.D. Sankalia read coarse Series I gravels (with Acheulian) as wet phases and finer Series II gravels (with Nevasian flakes) as drier ones. River deposits depend on local tectonics, so the scheme was abandoned.
Ecological hypothesis: Acheulian sites cluster in semi-arid, open landscapes near water (Hunsgi, Didwana, Narmada) and are rare in the humid north-east and Western Ghats, which some attribute to forest cover, though fewer surveys there may also explain the gap.
Raw-material factor: Acheulian tools are mostly quartzite, while Middle Palaeolithic flakes use fine chert and jasper, so shape may reflect stone rather than cultural stage.
New dates break the assumed sequence: Attirampakkam has Acheulian at about 1.5 million years and Levallois flakes from about 385,000 years (2018). Environment influenced tool-making but did not determine it.
Question 3 (50 marks)
Q3(a) · Kinship · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Consanguinity, Affinity and Principles of Descent
Discuss how the rules of descent contradict the principles of residence in matrilineal society, mentioning suitable examples ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उपयुक्त उदाहरणों का उल्लेख करते हुए, चर्चा करें कि वंश के नियम मातृवंशीय समाज में निवास के सिद्धांतों का खंडन कैसे करते हैं ?
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: Explain the matrilineal puzzle (Richards) and show, society by society (Khasi, Garo, Nayar, Trobriand), how residence conflicts with matrilineal descent and how each resolves it; draw a matrilineal chart.
In a matrilineal society, membership and property pass through women, but authority usually rests with men as mother's brothers. A woman cannot live with both her husband and her brother, so residence clashes with descent; Audrey Richards (1950) called this the matrilineal puzzle.
With matrilocal residence the husband lives as an outsider in his wife's group while his authority lies in his own matrilineage; with patrilocal residence the men of a matrilineage are scattered and their heirs, their sisters' sons, grow up away from them.
Among the Khasi the youngest daughter (ka khadduh) keeps the ancestral house, yet the mother's brother (u kni) has authority in clan affairs, and the husband traditionally visited or moved in, his loyalty split between wife's and mother's houses.
Among the matrilocal Garo the husband (nokrom) of the heiress (nokna) manages property belonging to his wife's machong; the tension is eased by choosing him from the father's own clan, usually the father's sister's son.
The Nayar avoided the conflict by duolocal residence: husbands only visited, and the karanavar, the senior man of the matrilineage, managed the taravad (Gough).
Malinowski's Trobrianders practise avunculocal residence: a boy grows up in his father's village but moves as an adult to his mother's brother's village, where his lineage land lies, and urigubu harvest gifts from a woman's brother to her husband express the double tie.
Diagram: a three-generation matrilineal chart with ego's mother, her brother and her children shaded; draw ego's father outside the shaded group and an arrow showing the adult son moving to his mother's brother.
Schneider and Gough (Matrilineal Kinship, 1961) concluded that matrilineal groups must retain control over both sisters and brothers, which limits a husband's authority and makes marriage fragile. Each society resolves the contradiction differently, and neolocal residence is now reshaping it.Q3(b) · Prehistoric Archaeology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Cultures
Enumerate the evidence of animal domestication in Indian microlithic industry.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारतीय सूक्ष्म पाषाण उद्योग में पशुपालन के साक्ष्यों का उल्लेख कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: Enumerate the evidence site by site (faunal remains, rock art, settlement), state how domestication is recognised, and note the debates over each claim.
Late Mesolithic (microlithic) communities in India show the first signs of animal domestication, a step towards food production. It is recognised from bones by reduced body size, many young animals, and species absent from the local wild fauna.
Bagor (Rajasthan): V.N. Misra's excavation on the Kothari river found, in Phase I (about 5000 to 2800 BCE), microliths with abundant bones of sheep and goat, read as early herding by a semi-settled community; whether the earliest animals were fully domestic is debated.
Adamgarh (Madhya Pradesh): R.V. Joshi's excavation reported bones of dog, cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep and pig with microliths, with a radiocarbon date of about the sixth millennium BCE; both the identification and the date have been questioned.
Rock art: later Mesolithic and Chalcolithic paintings at Bhimbetka and other central Indian shelters show humped cattle, animals led by ropes and dogs accompanying hunters, suggesting contact with herding.
Ganga plain and Vindhyas: Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha and Damdama yielded mainly wild cattle, deer and pig, showing hunting rather than herding; nearby Neolithic Koldihwa and Mahagara have domestic cattle.
Thus the evidence is regional and partly contested: herding of sheep, goat and cattle emerged gradually among microlith users in western and central India, while foraging persisted elsewhere, supporting a gradual transition to the Neolithic.Q3(c) · Fossil Hominids · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Neanderthal Man, Rhodesian Man and Homo sapiens
Should we still distinguish between 'classic' and 'progressive' Neanderthals ? Discuss the controversy surrounding Neanderthal's position in human evolution.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या हमें अभी भी 'उत्कृष्ट' और 'प्रगतिशील' प्रकार के नियंडरथल के बीच अन्तर करना चाहिये ? मानव विकास में नियंडरथल के स्थान से संबंधित विवाद की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: Two parts: whether the classic-progressive distinction is still useful (describe both, then the modern reinterpretation of Mount Carmel), and the controversy over Neanderthal's place (side branch, ancestor or subspecies, with genetic evidence).
Classic Neanderthals of glacial Western Europe, typified by La Chapelle-aux-Saints (1908), had long low skulls of about 1,600 cc, massive brows, an occipital bun and no chin; progressive Neanderthals, typified by Mount Carmel (Tabun and Skhul, excavated by Dorothy Garrod, 1929–34), had higher vaults, smaller brows and a slight chin.
Older explanation: F. Clark Howell and others held that generalised early forms evolved towards modern humans in the Near East, while classic forms became specialised through isolation and cold in Europe.
Why the distinction has weakened: Skhul and Qafzeh (about 120,000 to 90,000 years) are now early modern H. sapiens, while Tabun C1 is a Neanderthal, so the progressive group mixed two species; the remaining differences reflect time and region (pre-Neanderthals such as Sima de los Huesos versus later classic forms), so the labels survive mainly as history.
Controversy over position: Hrdlička (1927) saw a Neanderthal phase in all human ancestry; Boule's stooping reconstruction made them a brutish side branch, corrected by Straus and Cave (1957); they are classed either as H. sapiens neanderthalensis or as H. neanderthalensis.
Genetics: their mtDNA (1997) lies outside modern variation, but the nuclear genome (2010, Pääbo's team) shows about 1 to 2 percent Neanderthal DNA in non-Africans; they were thus a distinct but interfertile sister lineage that vanished about 40,000 years ago and left some genes in us.
Question 4 (50 marks)
Q4(a) · Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Applications of Anthropology
Why Heath and Carter used anthropometric measurements instead of photographs of an individual to assess the somatotype ? Elaborate their method.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
हीथ और कार्टर ने कार्यप्ररूप का आकलन करने के लिए किसी व्यक्ति की तस्वीरों के बजाय मानवमितिय माप का उपयोग क्यों किया ? उनकी विधि का वर्णन कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: First give the reasons Heath and Carter preferred anthropometry to Sheldon's photographs, then elaborate their method: measurements, calculation of the three components and plotting on the somatochart.
Somatotyping describes body shape by three components, endomorphy, mesomorphy and ectomorphy. William Sheldon (1940) rated them from standardised nude photographs on a closed seven-point scale and treated the result as a fixed, inherited 'morphogenotype'.
Why anthropometry: photo rating was subjective and depended on expert judges, while measurements are objective and repeatable by trained field workers; nude photography raised ethical and practical problems, especially for women, children and field populations; photographs need costly standard set-ups, while callipers and tapes are cheap and portable; measurements yield a present phenotype that can change with diet and training, which is what sports and growth studies need; and they allow an open-ended scale and use for both sexes and all ages.
Method (Heath and Carter, 1967): ten measurements are taken: height, weight, triceps, subscapular, supraspinale and medial calf skinfolds, humerus and femur biepicondylar breadths, and flexed upper-arm and calf girths.
Endomorphy is computed from the sum of three trunk and arm skinfolds corrected for height; mesomorphy from the two bone breadths and the two girths, each girth corrected by subtracting the skinfold at that site, adjusted for height; ectomorphy from the height-weight ratio (height divided by the cube root of weight), with separate equations above and below set ratio values. Ratings are rounded to half units and written as endo-meso-ecto.
Diagram: a somatochart with X = ectomorphy minus endomorphy and Y = 2 × mesomorphy minus (endomorphy + ectomorphy), showing a weightlifter (2-7-1) in the upper middle and a marathon runner (1.5-4-4) toward the right.
The method also allows a combined anthropometric-plus-photoscopic rating. It is now the international standard in kinanthropometry, used for talent identification, growth, nutrition and health studies, while acknowledging that somatotype describes shape, not ability or temperament.Q4(b) · Culture and Society · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
Discuss the historical and cultural contexts that led to superseding ethnocentrism with cultural relativism in anthropology.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
ऐतिहासिक और सांस्कृतिक संदर्भों पर चर्चा करें, जिसके कारण नृविज्ञान में प्रजातिकेंद्रिकता से सांस्कृतिक सापेक्षवाद का अधिक्रमण हुआ ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Explain the historical and cultural contexts in sequence: colonial and evolutionist ethnocentrism, Boas and fieldwork, the world wars and racism, decolonisation and human rights debates; conclude with the present critical relativism.
Ethnocentrism, which W.G. Sumner (Folkways, 1906) described as viewing one's own group as the centre of everything and rating all others by it, dominated early anthropology; cultural relativism, understanding each culture in its own terms, replaced it through several contexts.
Colonial and evolutionist context: nineteenth-century evolutionists such as Morgan ranked societies from savagery to civilization with Victorian Europe at the top, and colonial rule used such rankings, as in India's Criminal Tribes Act of 1871.
Boas and fieldwork: Franz Boas, working among the Inuit and the Kwakiutl, argued that each culture is a product of its own history; his immigrant study showed head form changed with environment, undermining racial ranking; Malinowski's long fieldwork in the Trobriands (1915–18) made the native's point of view a method.
War and racism: the misuse of race science by the Nazis, opposed by Boas and Benedict, discredited hierarchy; Herskovits developed relativism and drafted the AAA statement of 1947; UNESCO's statements on race (1950) followed.
Decolonisation: newly independent nations such as India rejected the civilising mission; Nehru's Panchsheel and Verrier Elwin's work favoured development along tribal lines.
Today relativism is accepted as a method, but tempered as critical relativism by universal human rights, as in the AAA declaration of 1999.Q4(c) · Economic Organisation · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Production, Distribution and Exchange
Critically examine various anthropological interpretations about the Kula Ring.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
कूला मुद्रिका के बारे में विभिन्न मानवशास्त्रीय व्याख्याओं का समालोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: Critically examine the main readings of the kula, functional, gift-theory, substantivist and formalist, political, gender and value, judging the strengths and limits of each; draw the kula ring.
The kula ring of the Massim islands has been read in several ways since Malinowski first described it in 1922.
Functionalist (Malinowski): the kula is a non-utilitarian institution that builds lifelong bonds, prestige and cooperation, and it refuted the notion of a primitive economic man driven by gain. Critics find his picture too harmonious and male-centred.
Gift theory (Mauss, 1925): the kula shows the obligations to give, receive and return, making it a total social phenomenon; the delay between gifts sustains the relationship.
Substantivist and formalist readings: Polanyi and Dalton saw it as balanced reciprocity embedded in social relations, while formalists read the valuables as investments in prestige and the accompanying barter (gimwali) as evidence of calculation.
Political reading: J.P. Singh Uberoi (Politics of the Kula Ring, 1962) argued that the kula creates order and alliance among islands without a state, a functional substitute for political integration.
Gender and value: Annette Weiner (1976) showed that Malinowski ignored Trobriand women's mortuary exchanges of banana-leaf bundles and skirts and later proposed keeping-while-giving, while Nancy Munn (The Fame of Gawa, 1986) showed how the movement of valuables extends a person's fame across space and time.
These readings are complementary: the kula is at once economic, political, ritual and symbolic, and its restudies show how new questions enrich one ethnography.
Diagram: a circle of islands (Trobriand, Dobu, Woodlark and others) with clockwise arrows labelled soulava and anticlockwise arrows labelled mwali.
Question 5 (50 marks)
Q5(a) · Population Genetics, Race and Human Variation · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Hardy–Weinberg Law, Genetic Polymorphism and Inbreeding
Balanced and transient genetic polymorphism.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
संतुलित और क्षणिक आनुवंशिक बहुरूपता ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Define both types of polymorphism, explain the mechanism of each, and give human examples.
Genetic polymorphism is the stable coexistence of two or more alleles at a locus with the rarer above about 1 per cent (E.B. Ford). Depending on whether frequencies are stable or changing, it is balanced or transient.
Balanced polymorphism: allele frequencies are held at equilibrium by opposing selective forces. The main mechanism is heterozygote advantage: HbAS carriers resist falciparum malaria (Allison, 1954), so HbS persists despite the lethality of HbSS, as among Bhil, Gond and other tribes of central and western India. Thalassaemia, G6PD deficiency and HbE in Assam behave similarly. Frequency-dependent selection, as for some immune genes, also balances alleles.
Transient polymorphism: two alleles coexist only temporarily while directional selection replaces one with the other. Examples are industrial melanism in the peppered moth, the spread of lactase persistence, and the falling HbS frequency among African Americans removed from malaria.
Balanced polymorphism is stable over many generations; transient polymorphism ends in fixation.Q5(b) · Human Genetics: Methods, Inheritance and Chromosomes · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Mendelian Genetics and Patterns of Inheritance in Man
Genetic imprinting in human diseases.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मानव रोगों में आनुवंशिक छाप ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: Define genomic imprinting and its mechanism, explain the paired disorders (Prader-Willi and Angelman) and others, and note significance.
Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon in which a gene is expressed from only one parental copy, the other being silenced, usually by DNA methylation laid down during egg or sperm formation. It violates Mendel’s assumption that maternal and paternal alleles act alike.
Diseases: the classic pair involves the imprinted region 15q11–q13. Loss of the paternal contribution, by a paternal deletion or uniparental disomy of two maternal copies, causes Prader-Willi syndrome: infant hypotonia, later overeating and obesity, short stature, small hands and mild intellectual disability. Loss of the maternal contribution, mainly of the UBE3A gene, causes Angelman syndrome: severe intellectual disability, absent speech, seizures, jerky movements and a happy demeanour.
Other examples: Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (overgrowth, 11p15), Silver-Russell syndrome (growth restriction) and the complete hydatidiform mole, which has only paternal genomes.
Imprinting explains parent-of-origin effects and requires molecular methylation tests for diagnosis.Q5(c) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Human Growth, Development and Ageing
Stages of human pre-natal development.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मानव जन्मपूर्व विकास के चरण ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: Describe the three stages of prenatal development (germinal, embryonic, foetal) with timings and key events, and note the critical period for teratogens.
Human prenatal development lasts about 38 weeks from fertilisation and is divided into three stages.
(i) Germinal stage (fertilisation to about week 2): the zygote divides by cleavage into a morula and then a blastocyst, which implants in the uterine wall around days 6 to 10. (ii) Embryonic stage (weeks 3 to 8): the three germ layers, ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm, form; the neural tube closes by about day 28, the heart begins beating around day 22, and all major organs and limbs are laid down (organogenesis). This is the critical period most sensitive to teratogens, as the thalidomide limb defects of the 1960s showed.
(iii) Foetal stage (week 9 to birth): rapid growth in size, ossification, sexual differentiation, movements felt by the mother (quickening) around weeks 18 to 20, possible survival with intensive care from about week 24, and fat deposition and lung maturation in the last trimester.
Maternal nutrition, infection, drugs and smoking influence each stage.Q5(d) · Religion · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Religion, Magic and Science; Magico-religious Functionaries
Shaman, sorcerer and medicine man.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भूतसाधक ओझा, जादूगरी ओझा, और रोगहारी ओझा ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: A short note: define each functionary (shaman, sorcerer, medicine man) with its source of power, method and social role, give Indian and world examples, and distinguish them briefly.
Shaman: from the Tungus word saman of Siberia, a part-time specialist who, in Mircea Eliade's phrase, is a master of ecstasy: called by spirits, often after illness, he or she enters trance by drumming or dance to journey to the spirit world or be possessed, to heal and divine. Elwin described Saora male and female shamans (kuranmaran and kuranboi) who speak for ancestors.
Sorcerer: a person who consciously uses learned spells, medicines and objects to harm others. Evans-Pritchard (1937) distinguished Azande sorcery, a learned technique, from witchcraft, an innate, unconscious power. Sorcerers are feared and condemned, and accusations act as social control.
Medicine man: a healer who diagnoses illness by divination and treats it with herbs, rituals and counter-magic, as the ojha among the Santal, Munda and Ho, and the Baiga gunia.
The roles overlap, since one person may be shaman and healer, but they differ in aim: the shaman and medicine man protect, the sorcerer harms. Medical pluralism today combines them with hospitals.Q5(e) · Family · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Definition, Universality and Functions of the Family
Household and domestic group.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
कुटुम्ब और घरेलू समूह ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: Distinguish household and domestic group from each other and from the family, citing Fortes, Bender and A.M. Shah with Indian examples; an overlap diagram helps.
The household is a residential and economic unit of people who live together and share a hearth or budget, and it may include servants or lodgers. The family is defined by kinship, and its members may live apart, like a migrant son.
The domestic group, in Meyer Fortes's essay in The Developmental Cycle in Domestic Groups (edited by Jack Goody, 1958), is the unit that manages the rearing of children and passes through phases of expansion, dispersion and replacement.
Donald Bender (1967) argued that family, co-residence and domestic functions are distinct. In India, A.M. Shah (1973) showed that a nuclear household at one phase of the cycle may belong to a joint family in another sense, and I.P. Desai (1964) found separately living kin in Mahuva meeting joint obligations.
The Nayar taravad was a matrilineal household whose husbands lived elsewhere, separating marriage from co-residence.
Diagram: two overlapping circles labelled family (kinship) and household (co-residence); the overlap is the co-resident family, a migrant son lies in the family circle only and a servant in the household circle only.
The distinction is essential before judging claims that the joint family is breaking down.
Question 6 (50 marks)
Q6(a) · Political Organisation and Social Control · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Social Control, Law and Justice in Simple Societies
Discuss the mechanism of social control in different kinds of political systems.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
विभिन्न प्रकार की राजनीतिक व्यवस्थाओं में सामाजिक नियंत्रण की क्रियाविधियों की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: Discuss how the means of social control differ in band, tribal (segmentary), chiefdom and state systems, using Radcliffe-Brown's sanctions as the frame and named ethnographies, and conclude with legal pluralism; draw a sanctions matrix.
Social control, a term introduced by E.A. Ross (1901), means the ways a society secures conformity to its norms. Radcliffe-Brown classed sanctions as positive or negative and as diffuse (public approval or disapproval) or organised (applied by recognised authority), adding ritual or supernatural sanctions; the mix changes with the political system.
Bands: control is diffuse and informal: gossip, ridicule, withdrawal of sharing and moving away. The Inuit settled quarrels by song duels judged by the audience, and among the !Kung and Birhor fear of shame keeps people generous.
Tribes and segmentary societies: control rests on kin groups. Among the Nuer, homicide could start a feud unless the leopard-skin chief arranged cattle compensation; among the Ifugao a go-between (monkalun) shuttled between parties (Barton, 1919); the Kpelle moot sought reconciliation (Gibbs, 1963). The Azande poison oracle identified witches (Evans-Pritchard, 1937), and the Santal council punishes breaches of clan exogamy by outcasting (bitlaha).
Chiefdoms and kingdoms: control becomes organised around the chief, who judges disputes and imposes fines, while sacred sanctions such as Polynesian tapu protect rank; among the Barotse, Gluckman (1955) showed judges using the standard of the reasonable man.
States: codified law, courts, police and prisons apply organised force, which the state monopolises (Weber); Durkheim saw a shift from repressive to restitutive law, and Foucault described disciplinary power spread through institutions.
Common elements: socialisation, religion and public opinion operate in all systems; even in modern India, caste and tribal councils work alongside courts.
So control shifts from diffuse, restorative and supernatural to organised, punitive and formal, yet these layers coexist, as legal pluralism under the Sixth Schedule, Article 371A and PESA (1996) shows.
Diagram: a two-by-two sanctions matrix, positive and negative across the top, diffuse and organised down the side, filled with praise, gossip, a title and a fine or outcasting.Q6(b) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Epidemiological Anthropology
What is meant by health ? Is the burden of life style diseases on the rise ? Justify your answer with suitable examples.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
स्वास्थ्य से क्या तात्पर्य है ? क्या जीवनशैली से जुड़ी बीमारियों का बोझ बढ़ रहा है ? उपयुक्त उदाहरणों के साथ अपने उत्तर की पुष्टि कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: Define health (WHO and anthropological views), then answer yes with evidence: global and Indian data, causes of the rise (transitions), examples including tribal groups, with a note on the debate and responses.
Health, in the WHO definition (1948), is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Anthropologists add that health is culturally defined and socially produced, depending on environment, livelihood and inequality.
Yes, the burden of lifestyle diseases is rising. Globally, non-communicable diseases now cause about three-quarters of deaths. In India, the share of NCDs in deaths rose from about 38 per cent in 1990 to over 60 per cent by 2016 (ICMR and partners, India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative, 2017), and the ICMR-INDIAB study (2023) found diabetes in 11.4 per cent and hypertension in 35.5 per cent of adults.
Causes: the epidemiological transition (Omran, 1971) from infections to degenerative diseases; the nutrition transition to refined, fatty and sugary foods; urbanisation and sedentary work; tobacco and alcohol; stress; and ageing populations.
Examples: Kerala, furthest along the transition, has among the highest diabetes and hypertension rates; obesity and diabetes are appearing among tribal communities shifting from millets and forest foods to rice and packaged food; Pima Indians and Pacific Islanders show the same pattern worldwide.
Some of the rise reflects better diagnosis and longer life, but the trend is clear. Prevention requires healthy food systems, physical activity and early screening under India’s NCD programme.Q6(c) · Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Menarche, Menopause and Fertility Patterns
Critically evaluate the reasons of reduction in age at menarche in human females over the successive generations.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उत्तरोत्तर पीढ़ियों में मानव महिलाओं में रजोधर्म आयु में गिरावट के कारणों का समालोचनात्मक मूल्यांकन कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: Critically evaluate the causes of the secular decline in age at menarche: give the evidence of the trend, then biological, nutritional, environmental and psychosocial explanations, marking which are well supported and which debated.
Menarche, the first menstruation, is a sensitive marker of population health. James Tanner's compilation shows mean age at menarche in Europe falling from about 16 to 17 years in the mid-nineteenth century to about 13 by the late twentieth; urban Indian girls now reach it at about 12.5 to 13 years.
Nutrition and body fat: the best supported cause. Frisch and Revelle (1970) proposed a critical weight of about 47 kg and Frisch and McArthur (1974) a critical fatness of about 17 percent; leptin from fat cells signals energy sufficiency to the hypothalamus. The threshold is not exact, but undernourished girls and athletes mature later, and childhood obesity pushes menarche earlier.
Health and living standards: fewer childhood infections, better sanitation and smaller families free energy for growth; the trend has levelled off in rich countries, supporting this view.
Urbanisation and environment: urban girls mature earlier and altitude delays menarche; endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as bisphenol A have been suggested, but the evidence is debated.
Psychosocial stress: Jay Belsky and colleagues (1991) argued from life-history theory that family stress and father absence speed maturation, but effects are small. Genetics explains individual differences (mother-daughter correlation) but not a change within a few generations.
Diagram: a graph with years 1850 to 2000 on the horizontal axis and age at menarche on the vertical axis, showing falling lines for Norway, Britain and the USA that flatten after about 1960.
The decline is thus mainly environmental, driven by nutrition and health, with genes setting the range; for India, the longer gap between menarche and marriage calls for adolescent health education.
Question 7 (50 marks)
Q7(a) · Population Genetics, Race and Human Variation · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Hardy–Weinberg Law, Genetic Polymorphism and Inbreeding
Discuss the role of evolutionary forces in creating human diversity.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मानव विविधता के निर्माण में उद्विकासवादी शक्तियों की भूमिका की चर्चा कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Introduce human diversity as the product of evolutionary forces acting on gene frequencies, then take mutation, natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow and non-random mating in turn with human and Indian examples, and conclude on their interaction.
Human diversity, visible in skin colour, stature and blood groups and hidden in DNA, results from evolutionary forces that disturb Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and change gene frequencies across populations and time.
Mutation: the ultimate source of new variation, arising from errors in DNA replication or from radiation and chemicals. The sickle-cell mutation (a single base change in the beta-globin gene) and the lactase persistence mutations are examples; mutation alone changes frequencies slowly.
Natural selection: differential survival and reproduction shapes adaptive diversity. Skin pigmentation tracks ultraviolet radiation, balancing protection of folate against vitamin D synthesis (Jablonski and Chaplin, 2000); HbS, thalassaemia and G6PD deficiency persist in malarial zones; EPAS1 variants help Tibetans at high altitude; lactase persistence spread among herders.
Genetic drift: random change in small populations. In the founder effect, a few founders carry unusual alleles, as with Ellis-van Creveld syndrome among the Old Order Amish; in a bottleneck, survivors of a disaster pass on a skewed gene pool, as with achromatopsia on Pingelap atoll after a typhoon. Small isolated groups such as the Andamanese, and many endogamous Indian communities with strong founder events (Reich and colleagues, 2009), show the effects of drift.
Gene flow: migration and intermarriage reduce differences between populations, as in the African ancestry of the Siddis of Gujarat and Karnataka, or the gradual clines of ABO frequencies across Eurasia.
Non-random mating: caste and tribal endogamy subdivide the gene pool, and consanguineous marriages common in parts of South India raise homozygosity and recessive disorders without changing allele frequencies directly.
These forces act together: mutation supplies variation, drift and endogamy create local differences, selection fits populations to environments and gene flow connects them, producing the clinal and largely continuous diversity of humankind.Q7(b) · Culture, Communication and Research Methods · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Fieldwork Tradition, Technique, Method and Methodology
Write the historical development of field work tradition in anthropology till recent times.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
हाल के समय तक नृविज्ञान में क्षेत्रीय कार्य परंपरा के ऐतिहासिक विकास की चर्चा कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: Trace the fieldwork tradition chronologically from armchair anthropology through survey expeditions, Boas and Malinowski, the British and Indian schools, to reflexive, multi-sited, digital and collaborative fieldwork today.
Fieldwork, first-hand study of people in their own setting, is anthropology’s distinctive method. Its history falls into five phases.
Armchair phase (nineteenth century): Tylor, Morgan and Frazer relied on reports of missionaries, travellers and officials, though Morgan did visit the Iroquois. Notes and Queries on Anthropology (1874) guided amateurs. Survey phase: the Cambridge Torres Strait expedition (1898) led by Haddon with Rivers and Seligman made trained observation the norm; Rivers devised the genealogical method and studied the Todas (1906).
Classical phase: Boas’s long stays among the Kwakiutl, with native-language texts, and above all Malinowski’s Trobriand fieldwork (1915–1918) established participant observation, living with the people for over a year and learning their language. Radcliffe-Brown, Evans-Pritchard (Nuer, 1940) and Firth (Tikopia) followed.
Indian and village studies phase: S.C. Roy on the Mundas and Oraons, Verrier Elwin on the Baiga, and from the 1950s village studies by Srinivas, Dube and Mayer, with team projects and restudies.
Recent phase: after the 1967 Malinowski diary and Writing Culture (1986), fieldwork became reflexive, feminist and collaborative; George Marcus’s multi-sited ethnography (1995), digital ethnography, multispecies work, mixed methods and strict ethics codes now coexist with long-term participant observation.Q7(c) · Anthropological Theories · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Culture and Personality, Neo-evolutionism and Later Theories
Discuss the approaches of Leslie White, Julian Steward and Marshall Sahlins in the light of cultural evolution.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सांस्कृतिक उद्विकास के आलोक में लेज़ली व्हाइट, जूलियन स्टीवर्ड और मार्शल सहलिन्स के दृष्टिकोणों पर चर्चा कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Introduce neo-evolutionism as a revival of evolution, then set out White (universal), Steward (multilinear) and Sahlins (general and specific, with Service), compare them briefly and evaluate.
After Boas, evolution was revived in the 1940s and 1950s in a materialist, testable form known as neo-evolutionism. Its three main approaches differ in scale.
Leslie White (universal evolution): in The Evolution of Culture (1959) culture as a whole evolves as energy harnessed per capita increases or technological efficiency improves (E × T = C). Technology determines social organisation and ideology. He studied culture in general, not particular societies.
Julian Steward (multilinear evolution): in Theory of Culture Change (1955) he rejected one universal line and looked for parallel sequences in similar environments, such as the rise of irrigation civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Peru and Mesoamerica. Through cultural ecology he identified a culture core of subsistence-related traits, as among the Western Shoshone, whose scattered seeds and game produced family-level bands.
Marshall Sahlins with Elman Service (Evolution and Culture, 1960) reconciled the two: general evolution is the overall progress of culture to higher energy capture and complexity (White’s concern); specific evolution is the adaptive diversification of particular cultures to their environments (Steward’s concern). Service’s band-tribe-chiefdom-state sequence and Sahlins’s Polynesian chiefdoms applied this.
Neo-evolutionism restored causal explanation and fed into cultural materialism and archaeology, but critics found it technologically determinist and neglectful of history and meaning; Sahlins himself later turned to cultural interpretation.
Question 8 (50 marks)
Q8(a) · Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Demographic Theories and Factors of Fertility and Mortality
Discuss the contemporary population problems in the light of various socio-cultural demographic theories.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
विभिन्न सामाजिक-सांस्कृतिक जनसांख्यिकीय सिद्धांतों के आलोक में समसामयिक जनसंख्या समस्या की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: Identify today's population problems (in India and the world), then interpret them through socio-cultural theories: Malthus as contrast, Dumont, demographic transition, Davis, Caldwell, Coale and the second demographic transition. End with policy.
Contemporary population problems are diverse: India became the most populous country in 2023 (UN estimates) though its TFR has fallen to 2.0 (NFHS-5, 2019–21); Bihar keeps high fertility while southern states are below replacement; the child sex ratio was 918 in Census 2011; ageing, youth unemployment and the decline of some PVTGs add to the picture.
Malthus (1798) predicted that population would outrun food; the Green Revolution and falling fertility contradict him, and socio-cultural theories explain the present better.
Demographic transition theory (Thompson 1929, Notestein 1945) explains why India's population grew rapidly after 1921: deaths fell before births. Arsène Dumont's social capillarity (1890) explains why educated, mobile urban families have fewer children, and Kingsley Davis's multiphasic response (1963) explains the many routes, later marriage, sterilisation, migration, by which Indian families limited size.
John Caldwell's wealth flows theory (1976) explains persistent high fertility in poor agrarian and tribal households where children work, and its fall where schooling reverses the flow; Mahmood Mamdani's Khanna restudy (1972) made the same point that the poor have large families because children are assets. Ansley Coale's diffusion findings explain the spread of small-family norms through media and women's networks across language regions.
Son preference rooted in patriliny, dowry and the ritual role of sons explains the skewed sex ratio, a cultural problem that technology (sex-selective abortion) worsened. The second demographic transition (Lesthaeghe and van de Kaa, 1986), linked to individualism, explains very low fertility and ageing in Kerala, Delhi and parts of Europe and East Asia.
Diagram: the demographic transition model with birth and death rate lines across five stages, marking India's position in the late expanding stage.
Population problems are thus rooted in social structure and culture, not numbers alone; as the rights-based Cairo programme (1994) urged, the answer lies in women's education, health, old-age security and region-specific strategies.Q8(b) · Population Genetics, Race and Human Variation · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Genetic Markers and Physiological Variation
What do you understand by blood group systems ? How is HLA system different from those based on red cell antigens ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
रक्त समूह प्रणाली से आप क्या समझते हैं ? एच एल ए प्रणाली, लाल कोशिका प्रतिजनों पर आधारित प्रणाली से कैसे भिन्न है ?
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(b)
Approach: Define a blood group system with examples of red cell systems, then explain the HLA system and contrast it with red cell antigen systems point by point (location, genetics, polymorphism, antibodies, function, clinical use, disease association).
A blood group system is a set of red cell surface antigens controlled by alleles at a single locus or closely linked loci, inherited in a Mendelian manner. Over 40 systems are now recognised, the best known being ABO (Landsteiner, 1900), Rh (1940), MN, Duffy, Kell and Diego.
The HLA system (human leucocyte antigens), first identified by Jean Dausset in the 1950s, is the human major histocompatibility complex on chromosome 6p21. Class I antigens (HLA-A, B, C) occur on almost all nucleated cells and present peptides to cytotoxic T cells; class II antigens (DR, DQ, DP) occur on antigen-presenting cells.
Differences: (i) location: red cell antigens are on erythrocytes, HLA on white cells and most tissues; (ii) polymorphism: ABO has three main alleles, while HLA is the most polymorphic system in humans, with thousands of alleles; (iii) inheritance: HLA genes are tightly linked and inherited as a haplotype from each parent; (iv) antibodies: anti-A and anti-B occur naturally, whereas HLA antibodies arise only after sensitisation; (v) clinical use: red cell typing guides transfusion, HLA matching guides organ and bone-marrow transplantation; (vi) disease association is far stronger for HLA, as with HLA-B27 and ankylosing spondylitis, and DR3 and DR4 with type 1 diabetes.
Both serve as population markers, but HLA is the more powerful tool for population and disease studies.Q8(c) · Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Applications of Anthropology
Discuss how anthropological knowledge of the human body may be used in designing equipments and articles of human use.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
चर्चा करें कि मानव शरीर के मानवशास्त्रीय ज्ञान का उपयोग मानव उपयोग के उपकरणों और वस्तुओं को डिज़ाइन करने में कैसे किया जा सकता है ।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: Explain the principle of fitting design to body dimensions, then show applications in defence, transport, industry, agriculture, furniture, clothing and inclusive design, with Indian examples.
Anthropology contributes to design through anthropometry, the measurement of body size, shape and strength, and through ergonomics, which matches products to users. Since bodies vary by population, sex, age and over time (secular trend), designs must rest on data from the actual user population.
Design principles: design for extremes (door height for the 95th percentile, control reach for the 5th), design for an adjustable range (car seats) and, rarely, design for the average (shop counters). Static measurements fix dimensions; dynamic measurements fix reach, clearance and force.
Applications: defence helmets, body armour, cockpits and tank interiors (the US ANSUR surveys; Indian aircrew surveys used by the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Bengaluru); vehicle seats and bus steps; workstations and tools to prevent musculoskeletal disorders; farm implements sized from the CIAE Bhopal database of Indian agricultural workers; school desks matched to children's growth; clothing and shoe size standards such as NIFT's national sizing survey; and hospital beds, wheelchairs and ramps for the elderly and disabled.
Cultural anthropology adds how people actually use objects, for example squatting postures, sitting on the floor and sari or turban wear, which product designers in India must consider.
Using Indian rather than imported data improves comfort, safety and productivity, so regularly updated national anthropometric surveys are a design necessity.
UPSC Mains 2022 Anthropology Paper II
Question 1 (50 marks)
Q1(a) · Evolution of Indian Culture and Civilization · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Prehistoric Cultures of India
Pit-dwellers of Kashmir
हिंदी में प्रश्न
कश्मीर के गर्तवासी
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q1(a)
Approach: A short note on the Neolithic pit-dwellers of Kashmir: sites, dates, pit houses, material culture, burials and affinities.
The Northern Neolithic of Kashmir is known for pit dwellings at Burzahom near Srinagar (found by de Terra and Paterson in 1935 and excavated by the Archaeological Survey under T.N. Khazanchi, 1960–71) and Gufkral (A.K. Sharma, 1981), from about 3000 BCE; Gufkral has an aceramic early phase.
Houses: circular or oval pits, narrow at the top and wider at the base, some about four metres deep, entered by steps, with post-holes on the rim for a roof and hearths inside, suited to the cold winter; later, mud-brick houses were built above ground.
Material culture: polished stone axes, rectangular perforated harvesters, many bone tools (awls, needles, harpoons), coarse grey pottery; wheat, barley and lentil with hunting. Burials include dogs and wolves buried with humans, trephined skulls, and a stone slab engraved with a hunting scene.
Pit houses, harvesters and dog burials resemble Neolithic cultures of northern China and Central Asia, while carnelian beads and a pot with a horned figure show contact with early Harappan groups, making Kashmir a meeting point of traditions.Q1(b) · Caste System and Religions in Indian Society · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Sacred Complex, Nature-Man-Spirit Complex and the Impact of Religions
Varna and Buddhism
हिंदी में प्रश्न
वर्ण एवं बुद्धधर्म
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q1(b)
Approach: Explain the Buddha's view of varna (critique of birth-based superiority, open sangha) with textual examples, then note its limits and Ambedkar's reinterpretation.
The Buddha accepted that the four varnas existed in society but rejected the Brahmin claim that birth determined purity and spiritual worth.
In the Vasettha Sutta he taught that a person is a Brahmin by conduct, not by birth, and in the Assalayana Sutta he questioned Brahmin superiority. Buddhist texts often list the Khattiya before the Brahmin, reflecting the ruling elite's patronage.
The sangha admitted members of all varnas; Upali, a barber, became an authority on monastic discipline. Merchants and artisans gained dignity as lay patrons.
Yet the Buddha did not seek to abolish varna in lay society, and caste-like divisions later appeared in Buddhist societies such as Sri Lanka. In 1956 B.R. Ambedkar reinterpreted Buddhism as a religion of equality and led lakhs of Dalits to convert at Nagpur, turning the Buddhist critique of varna into a movement for dignity.Q1(c) · Demographic Profile and the Traditional Indian Social System · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Varnashrama, Purushartha, Karma, Rina and Rebirth
Dharma versus Religion
हिंदी में प्रश्न
धर्म बनाम रिलिजन
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q1(c)
Approach: A short note distinguishing dharma from the Western concept of religion on meaning, scope, basis and plurality, with scholarly views.
Dharma, from the root dhri, 'to hold or sustain', means the order that upholds the cosmos and society, and the duties, law and morality that follow from it; P.V. Kane's History of Dharmashastra traces its many senses. Religion, in the Western sense, usually means belief in God or the sacred, organised as creed, worship and church.
Differences: dharma is about right conduct more than belief; it is context-bound, varying by varna, ashrama and situation (svadharma, apad dharma), while also including universal duties (sadharana dharma) such as truth and non-violence; it covers law, family, economy and ritual, not a separate sacred sphere; and it has no single founder, book or church.
Religion in the sense of sampradaya or faith tradition, Shaiva, Vaishnava, Buddhist, is narrower; thus a person's dharma can include duties to family and society regardless of sect. S. Radhakrishnan (The Hindu View of Life, 1927) presented Hinduism as a way of life rather than a creed.
Translating dharma as 'religion' therefore distorts it, as anthropologists of Indian society stress.Q1(d) · Indian Village, Minorities and Social Change · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Linguistic and Religious Minorities
Safeguards for linguistic minorities in India
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में भाषाई अल्पसंख्यकों हेतु परिरक्षण
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q1(d)
Approach: A short note listing constitutional safeguards (Articles 29, 30, 347, 350, 350A, 350B), the institutional and policy measures, and a comment on gaps.
Linguistic minorities, determined state by state, are protected by several constitutional safeguards.
Article 29 protects the right of any section of citizens to conserve its distinct language, script or culture; Article 30 lets linguistic minorities establish and administer educational institutions; Article 347 allows the President to recognise a language spoken by a substantial section of a state; Article 350 permits representations in any language used in the Union or states; Article 350A directs states to provide primary education in the mother tongue; and Article 350B, added by the Seventh Amendment (1956), created the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities.
Policy supports these through the Eighth Schedule (22 languages), the three-language formula (1968) and the National Education Policy 2020's emphasis on mother-tongue teaching up to class 5.
Implementation is weak, especially for tribal languages, whose speakers often start school in a language they do not understand.Q1(e) · Indian Village, Minorities and Social Change · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Processes of Socio-cultural Change
Westernisation and Modernisation
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पश्चिमीकरण एवं आधुनिकीकरण
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q1(e)
Approach: A short note: define each (Srinivas on Westernization; Lerner, Yogendra Singh on modernization), distinguish them, and give Indian examples.
M.N. Srinivas (Social Change in Modern India, 1966) defined Westernization as the changes in Indian society and culture produced by over 150 years of British rule, in technology, institutions, ideology and values, such as English education, the legal system, the press, railways and new dress and food habits.
Modernization is a broader, value-neutral process of moving toward rationality, scientific temper, industrialisation, urbanisation, universalism and democratic institutions (Daniel Lerner, 1958). It need not imitate the West; Japan modernised in its own way.
Westernization is thus historically specific and tied to one source, while modernization is a general process. Yogendra Singh (1973) argued that Indian modernization is selective and adaptive, and the Rudolphs showed tradition being used for modern ends, as with caste associations.
In India, both coexist with Sanskritization: a family may use the internet and hold Vedic rituals at once.
Question 2 (50 marks)
Q2(a) · Anthropology in India · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Indian Anthropologists and Tribal and Caste Studies
Illustrate the contribution of Irawati Karve to Indian Anthropology. Make a special mention of her literary contribution.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारतीय मानवशास्त्र में इरावती कर्वे के योगदान का उल्लेख कीजिए। उनके साहित्यिक योगदान का विशेष उल्लेख कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q2(a)
Approach: Cover Karve's academic contributions (kinship zones, caste and physical anthropology, Hindu society) and then her literary work in Marathi and English, especially Yuganta, ending with her place in Indian anthropology.
Iravati Karve (1905–1970), trained in Bombay under G.S. Ghurye and in Berlin, taught at Deccan College, Pune, and is regarded as India's first woman anthropologist. She worked across social and physical anthropology and wrote widely as a Marathi essayist.
Kinship: Kinship Organization in India (1953) mapped four zones. The northern zone has strict exogamy and avoids marriage with close kin; the southern zone (Dravidian) prefers cross-cousin and uncle–niece marriage; the central zone mixes the two; and the eastern zone has Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman patterns. She linked kinship terms and marriage rules to language families.
Caste and race: her anthropometric and blood-group studies of Maharashtra castes, partly with Y.M. Dandekar, showed that castes, even those of one varna, were biologically distinct endogamous populations. She argued that jatis grew out of separate local groups and were later fitted into the varna frame, rejecting Risley's racial theory. Hindu Society: An Interpretation (1961) and Maharashtra: Land and its People (1968) developed these ideas.
Literary contribution: Yuganta (1967), written in Marathi and later translated into English, reread the Mahabharata characters such as Bhishma, Kunti, Draupadi and Karna as real people in a kin-based, tribal-to-state society; it won the Sahitya Akademi Award (1968). Her Marathi essay collections, such as Paripurti and Bhovara, blended anthropology, travel and reflections on women's lives.
Her work brought kinship, caste and epic together, linked anthropology to the public through literature, and gave a feminist and humanistic voice to Indian anthropology. Critics note that her zonal scheme is generalised and her racial measurements are outdated, but her kinship map remains a standard reference.Q2(b) · Evolution of Indian Culture and Civilization · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Palaeo-anthropological Evidence and Ethno-archaeology in India
What are the arguments for excluding Narmada Man from Homo erectus category?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
नर्मदा मानव को होमो इरेक्टस संवर्ग से हटाने के तर्क क्या हैं?
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q2(b)
Approach: Set out the arguments, morphological, metric, chronological and comparative, for not classifying Narmada Man as Homo erectus, and note the alternative placements.
The Hathnora calvaria (Arun Sonakia, 1982) was first named Homo erectus narmadensis because of its thick cranial vault, prominent supraorbital torus and low, long skull, features typical of Asian Homo erectus such as Zhoukoudian.
Cranial capacity: Kenneth Kennedy and colleagues (1991) estimated about 1,155 to 1,421 cc, above the usual Homo erectus range (roughly 750 to 1,250 cc) and within that of archaic and modern Homo sapiens.
Vault shape: the parietals are expanded and the vault is higher and more rounded, the maximum breadth is placed higher on the skull, and erectus traits such as a strong sagittal keel and angular torus are weak or absent; the brow ridge, though large, is less shelf-like than in classic erectus.
Comparative and chronological arguments: Cameron, Patnaik and Sahni (2004) and Sheela Athreya (2007) found closest resemblance to Middle Pleistocene hominins such as Petralona, Arago and Kabwe, often grouped as Homo heidelbergensis; the associated fauna and late Acheulian context suggest a later Middle Pleistocene age, when archaic sapiens forms existed elsewhere; and A.R. Sankhyan's clavicles (1997) suggest a short, stocky population unlike tall African erectus.
Diagram: side views of a Homo erectus skull and the Narmada calvaria, labelling vault height, parietal expansion and brow ridge.
Because the specimen is a single, partly distorted calvaria with uncertain date, it is best described as an archaic Homo with mosaic features, closer to Homo heidelbergensis or archaic Homo sapiens than to classic Homo erectus.Q2(c) · Caste System and Religions in Indian Society · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Caste: Structure, Varna and Theories of Origin
Critically describe Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's argument on the origin of Indian caste system.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारतीय जाति व्यवस्था के उद्भव पर डॉ० बी० आर० अम्बेडकर के तार्किक विचारों का समालोचनात्मक विवरण प्रस्तुत कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q2(c)
Approach: 'Critically describe' needs a clear statement of Ambedkar's 1916 thesis (mechanism, genesis, spread) followed by its strengths and weaknesses.
B.R. Ambedkar set out his theory in 'Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development' (Columbia University, 1916). He rejected racial and occupational explanations and located caste in marriage rules.
Mechanism: Indian society was once made up of exogamous clans. Caste appears when endogamy is superimposed on exogamy, so that a group forbids its members to marry outside it while still keeping clan exogamy inside it.
A closed group must balance marriageable men and women. Ambedkar argued that sati, enforced widowhood and girl-child marriage arose to manage 'surplus' women, and celibacy or marriage to very young girls to manage surplus men.
Genesis and spread: the Brahmins enclosed themselves first; others followed by imitation or had the door closed on them. Caste thus spread through imitation, not through one law-giver, and Ambedkar denied that Manu created it.
Assessment: the theory rightly makes endogamy the defining feature, as Ketkar also held, and links caste to control over women, a theme later developed by Uma Chakravarti. But it rests on texts rather than fieldwork, its idea of imitation underplays economic and political coercion, it cannot explain the ranking of thousands of jatis, and the surplus-women argument is speculative.
Despite these limits, the thesis remains central because it identifies endogamy as the mechanism that reproduces caste, which is why Ambedkar later saw inter-caste marriage as the real solvent.
Question 3 (50 marks)
Q3(a) · Evolution of Indian Culture and Civilization · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Prehistoric Cultures of India
Make a critical appraisal of Megalithic tradition in India with special reference to North-East India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उत्तर-पूर्व भारत के विशेष संदर्भ में भारतीय महापाषाण परम्परा का आलोचनात्मक मूल्यांकन कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q3(a)
Approach: Critically appraise the megalithic tradition: define and classify megaliths, outline the Indian (especially south Indian Iron Age) pattern, then focus on North-East India as a living tradition, with theories of origin and function and an assessment.
Megaliths are monuments of large stones raised for burial or commemoration. Types include dolmens (table stones), menhirs (standing stones), cists, cairns, stone circles, urn burials and rock-cut chambers. In India they are most common in the south and in Vidarbha, mainly in the Iron Age, from about 1200 BCE to the early centuries CE (Brahmagiri, Junapani, Adichanallur, Hirebenakal), with iron tools and black-and-red ware.
North-East India is distinctive because megaliths are still erected. Among the Khasi and Jaintia of Meghalaya, upright menhirs (mawbynna, regarded as male) stand behind flat table stones (mawkynthei, female) to commemorate clan ancestors; the Nartiang monoliths of the Jaintia Hills include some of the tallest in India. Naga groups such as the Angami, Mao and Maram raise stones after feasts of merit, and Willong Khullen in Manipur has hundreds of standing stones; the Mizo, Kuki and Karbi also erect memorials.
Archaeological megaliths also exist, such as the stone jars of Dima Hasao in Assam, studied in 2020 and compared with the Plain of Jars in Laos.
Origin and function: Robert von Heine-Geldern linked north-eastern megaliths to South-East Asian Austro-Asiatic traditions, while Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf linked south Indian megaliths to Dravidian speakers; both migration theories are debated. Functions include secondary burial, ancestor memorials, status display in feasting systems, land and clan boundary markers, and possibly astronomical alignment (debated).
Diagram: sketches of a dolmen, a menhir, a cist and a Khasi menhir-and-table-stone group.
Appraisal: the north-eastern tradition is poorly dated and seldom excavated, and grouping all megaliths as one culture is misleading; yet its living practice offers rare ethno-archaeological insight into how and why ancient megaliths were raised, linking prehistory to present tribal society.Q3(b) · Indian Village, Minorities and Social Change · 15 marks≈ 11 min
The Indian Village
Assess the contributions of S. C. Dube in Indian village studies.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारतीय ग्रामों के अध्ययन में एस० सी० दूबे के योगदान का मूल्यांकन कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q3(b)
Approach: Present Dube's village work (Indian Village on Shamirpet, India's Changing Villages on community development), the concepts he offered, his method, and a short assessment.
S.C. Dube (1922–1996), who first studied the Kamar tribe of Chhattisgarh (1951), became a pioneer of Indian village studies and of the anthropology of development.
Indian Village (1955), on Shamirpet near Hyderabad, was the first full-length study of a village as a social system by an Indian anthropologist. Dube described its caste structure, economy, family, ritual and the village's links with towns and the state. He showed that the village had a sense of unity, yet was divided by caste, religion, land, wealth, official position, age and personal qualities, the factors that gave a person status.
India's Changing Villages (1958) evaluated the Community Development Programme (1952) in western Uttar Pradesh. Dube found a cultural gap between officials and villagers: officials did not understand villagers' felt needs, benefits went mostly to the dominant and better-off, and innovations failed when they ignored local values.
His approach combined holistic fieldwork with a concern for planned change, anticipating later critiques of top-down development, and he later wrote on modernisation and the Indian tradition.
Critics note that Shamirpet was presented as fairly harmonious and that conflict and class received less attention, but Dube's work established the village as a field for both theory and policy.Q3(c) · Demographic Profile and the Traditional Indian Social System · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Ethnic and Linguistic Elements in the Indian Population
Describe the methods adopted by Sir Herbert Hope Risley in classifying Indian populations. What are the criticisms against Risley's classification?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सर हर्बर्ट होप रिज़ले द्वारा भारतीय जनसंख्या के वर्गीकरण में चयनित प्रविधियों का वर्णन कीजिए। रिज़ले के वर्गीकरण के विरुद्ध समालोचनाएँ क्या हैं?
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q3(c)
Approach: Describe Risley's methods (anthropometric survey, indices, sampling, the seven types and his caste theory), then the criticisms (methodological, conceptual, political), ending with an assessment.
Sir Herbert Hope Risley, an ICS officer and Census Commissioner for 1901, wrote The Tribes and Castes of Bengal (1891) and The People of India (1908), the first attempt at an all-India racial classification.
Methods: anthropometric measurement, following the French anthropologist Paul Topinard's techniques, of several thousand individuals from castes and tribes, chiefly in Bengal, the North-Western Provinces and Punjab; he relied most on the nasal index, with the cephalic index, stature and somatoscopic observation; he arranged castes by average nasal index and grouped people into seven types: Turko-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Scytho-Dravidian, Aryo-Dravidian, Mongolo-Dravidian, Mongoloid and Dravidian. He concluded that a caste's social rank varied inversely with its nasal index, so that race explained the origin of caste.
Criticisms: samples were small and regionally limited, yet generalised to all India; nasal and cephalic indices are plastic and overlap widely; labels mixed language and race (Dravidian is a language family); the 'Scytho-Dravidian' type had no evidence of Scythian ancestry; G.S. Ghurye (Caste and Race in India, 1932) showed the race-caste link held at most in the north; and the scheme ignored serological evidence.
Critics also see political aims: ranking castes in the 1901 Census hardened caste identities, and the scheme fitted colonial ideas of race.
Risley's survey was pioneering data collection, but his racial theory of caste is rejected; Guha, Sarkar and modern genetics superseded it.
Question 4 (50 marks)
Q4(a) · Indian Village, Minorities and Social Change · 20 marks≈ 14 min
The Indian Village
"Globalisation, on one hand has provided opportunities and on the other hand thrown challenges to Indian villages." Elucidate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"वैश्वीकरण ने जहाँ एक तरफ अवसर प्रदान किया वहीं वह दूसरी तरफ भारतीय गाँवों के लिए चुनौती बन गया।" व्याख्या कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q4(a)
Approach: 'Elucidate' both sides: define globalisation, set out the opportunities (markets, technology, non-farm work, remittances, women's groups) and the challenges (distress, inequality, land loss, cultural change), with data and cases, and suggest a way forward.
Globalisation, the growing integration of economies and cultures through trade, capital, technology and media, reached Indian villages mainly after the economic reforms of 1991. Census 2011 counted 6,40,867 villages holding 68.8% of the population, so its effects are felt by most Indians.
Opportunities: farmers gained access to wider markets, export crops, new seeds and technology, such as Bt cotton (approved in 2002), and digital market platforms. Rural non-farm work in construction, transport and services grew, and remittances from migrants to cities and the Gulf, as in Kerala, raised incomes, education and housing. Self-help groups under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (2011) gave women credit and voice, and mobile phones and television widened horizons.
Challenges: with an average holding of 1.08 hectares (Agriculture Census 2015–16), small farmers face price volatility, costly inputs and debt; farmer suicides in the cotton belts of Vidarbha and Telangana became a symbol of agrarian distress. Inequality between commercial farmers and labourers widened, and land acquisition for industry and special economic zones displaced many.
Social and cultural effects include migration of men and the feminisation of agriculture, decline of crafts and jajmani ties, erosion of local knowledge and seed varieties, and a consumer culture that raises aspirations faster than incomes. Dipankar Gupta (2005) argued that villagers increasingly want to leave agriculture, so the village is shrinking as a site of livelihood.
Way forward: globalisation must be paired with support for small farmers (MSP, farmer producer organisations, crop insurance), rural infrastructure, skills for non-farm work, MGNREGA as a safety net, and protection of land and local institutions through panchayats.Q4(b) · Evolution of Indian Culture and Civilization · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Harappan Civilization and Tribal Contributions to Indian Civilization
Describe briefly the proto-history of Gujarat. Discuss the significance of Gujarat proto-history in international trade.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
गुजरात के आद्य-इतिहास का संक्षिप्त विवरण प्रस्तुत कीजिए। गुजरात आद्य-इतिहास के अन्तर्राष्ट्रीय व्यापार में महत्त्व की विवेचना कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q4(b)
Approach: Two parts: a brief account of Gujarat's protohistory (pre-Harappan, Harappan, late and post-Harappan, with regions and sites), then its role in international trade with evidence.
Gujarat has more Harappan sites than any other Indian state, spread over Kutch, Saurashtra and the north Gujarat plain, and its long coastline made it the civilization's maritime gateway.
Protohistory: pre-Harappan Anarta and Padri traditions in north Gujarat and Saurashtra (Nagwada, Loteshwar, Padri); mature Harappan cities and towns such as Dholavira in Kutch (R.S. Bisht; UNESCO World Heritage, 2021) with reservoirs and a ten-sign inscription, Lothal, Surkotada, Desalpur, Kuntasi, Bagasra (Gola Dhoro) and Shikarpur; the regional Sorath Harappan of Saurashtra (Gregory Possehl's term), with Rojdi; and late or post-Harappan Lustrous Red Ware of Rangpur and Prabhas Patan, leading into Chalcolithic villages.
International trade: ports and craft centres such as Lothal (dockyard, warehouse with sealings), Kuntasi and Bagasra; carnelian and agate from the Ratanpur mines near Rajpipla worked into long beads found in Mesopotamian royal tombs at Ur; shell bangles from the Gulf of Kutch; a Persian Gulf-type seal at Lothal; and Harappan pottery and weights in Oman and Bahrain (ancient Magan and Dilmun), the route to Mesopotamia's Meluhha trade.
Gujarat thus linked the Indus interior to the Arabian Sea, and its craft traditions, Khambhat bead-making and Kutch shell work, continue today, giving ethno-archaeologists such as Kenoyer living parallels.Q4(c) · Caste System and Religions in Indian Society · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Sacred Complex, Nature-Man-Spirit Complex and the Impact of Religions
Critically examine 'Indigenisation of Christianity' in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में 'ईसाइयत के स्वदेशीकरण' का समालोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q4(c)
Approach: Define indigenisation (inculturation), trace its forms from the St Thomas Christians and de Nobili to ashrams, liturgy and tribal churches, then critically examine its successes and limits, including caste.
Indigenisation (or inculturation) of Christianity means expressing Christian faith through local languages, symbols, customs and social forms, so that it is not seen as a foreign religion.
Historical forms: the St Thomas (Syrian) Christians of Kerala long followed local dress, food and inheritance customs and held high caste-like status. In the seventeenth century the Jesuit Roberto de Nobili lived as a sannyasi in Madurai to reach high castes. Protestant missions translated the Bible into Indian languages and wrote grammars and dictionaries.
Modern forms: after the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) the Catholic Church encouraged Indian music, lamps, bhajans and rangoli in worship. Christian ashrams such as Shantivanam in Tamil Nadu, founded in 1950 by Jules Monchanin and Henri Le Saux, adopted Indian monastic forms. Among the Nagas, Mizos and Khasis, churches use local languages and absorbed feasts and community institutions.
Critical view: indigenisation also meant that caste entered the church. Dalit Christians in Tamil Nadu faced separate seating and cemeteries, and Dalit theologians criticise inculturation for borrowing Brahminical symbols rather than Dalit culture. Hindu nationalist critics see it as a strategy of conversion, while some tribal groups such as Sarna followers see Christianity as eroding indigenous religion.
Indigenisation has made Christianity an Indian religion, but it has also reproduced Indian hierarchies within it.
Question 5 (50 marks)
Q5(a) · Tribal Administration and Applied Anthropology · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Anthropology and Regionalism, Communalism and Ethnic Movements
Regionalism as an opportunity and threat to national integration
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राष्ट्रीय एकीकरण में क्षेत्रवाद एक अवसर एवं जोखिम
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q5(a)
Approach: A short note presenting regionalism as an opportunity (federal deepening, development, cultural recognition) and as a threat (secession, nativism, conflict), with examples and a conclusion.
Regionalism, the assertion of a region's identity and interests, can either deepen or strain national integration.
As an opportunity: linguistic reorganisation of states (1956) gave people government in their own language and defused unrest; new states such as Jharkhand (2000) and Telangana (2014) brought administration closer to neglected regions; Sixth Schedule councils and Article 371 accommodated tribal identities, turning insurgents into legislators, as in Mizoram after 1986; regional parties widened democratic participation.
As a threat: when regionalism turns secessionist (early Naga and Mizo movements), nativist (attacks on migrant workers under 'sons of the soil' slogans), or violently exclusive (Manipur, 2023), it endangers unity and minorities within regions; interstate disputes over water and boundaries also arise.
Anthropological view: identities are not inherently divisive; denial of recognition and uneven development turn them into threats.
Regionalism is therefore best managed through cooperative federalism, balanced development and protection of minorities within regions.Q5(b) · Tribal Situation and Problems in India · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Problems of Tribal Communities
Issues of tribal agricultural labourers
हिंदी में प्रश्न
जनजातीय खेतिहर मजदूरों के मुद्दे
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q5(b)
Approach: A short note: the shift of tribals from cultivators to agricultural labourers with Census data, their main problems, and remedies.
Land alienation, displacement and shrinking holdings have turned many tribal cultivators into agricultural labourers; Census 2011 showed that among ST workers labourers (about 44%) outnumbered cultivators (about 35%) for the first time.
Their problems include low and irregular wages, seasonal unemployment, distress migration to farms in Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra and to brick kilns, debt bondage through advances, lack of written contracts and social security, and exploitation of women workers.
As migrants they lose access to schooling, rations and health services at home, and their children often work alongside them.
Remedies include land restoration under tenancy laws and FRA titles, MGNREGA work, enforcement of minimum wages and the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act (1976), registration of migrant workers and portable rations under One Nation One Ration Card.Q5(c) · Tribal Situation and Problems in India · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Problems of Tribal Communities
Major problems of nomadic and semi-nomadic groups
हिंदी में प्रश्न
यायावर एवं अर्ध-यायावर समूहों की प्रमुख समस्याएँ
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q5(c)
Approach: A short note: who the nomadic and semi-nomadic groups are (with DNT legacy and examples), their main problems, and the policy responses.
Nomadic and semi-nomadic groups include pastoralists (Raika, Van Gujjar, Bakarwal), itinerant artisans and traders (Gadia Lohar, Banjara), performers (Nat, Kalbelia) and hunters; many were notified under the Criminal Tribes Act (1871) and became Denotified Tribes after 1952.
Their problems include lack of identity documents, land and permanent addresses, which excludes them from rations, voting and schemes; stigma and police harassment under habitual offender laws; loss of traditional occupations and grazing routes; very low literacy; and poor health access. Many are not listed as SC, ST or OBC.
The Renke Commission (2008) and the Idate Commission (report 2017) documented these conditions; the SEED scheme (2022), run through the Development and Welfare Board for DNTs, offers education, health insurance, housing and livelihood support.
Mobile schools, documentation drives and recognition of grazing rights under FRA are needed to include them.Q5(d) · Tribal Administration and Applied Anthropology · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Tribal Administration, Policies and PVTGs
Role of the Governor in the Fifth Schedule areas
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पाँचवीं अनुसूची क्षेत्रों में राज्यपाल की भूमिका
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q5(d)
Approach: A short note on the Governor's constitutional role in Fifth Schedule areas (laws, regulations, report, TAC) and how far it has been exercised.
Under the Fifth Schedule (Article 244(1)) the Governor is the special guardian of tribal interests in the Scheduled Areas of ten states.
Modifying laws: under paragraph 5(1), the Governor may direct that any Act of Parliament or the state legislature shall not apply to a Scheduled Area, or shall apply with exceptions and modifications.
Regulations: under paragraph 5(2), the Governor may make regulations for peace and good government, particularly to prohibit or restrict transfer of land by or among STs, regulate land allotment and regulate moneylending, after consulting the Tribes Advisory Council and with the President's assent.
Reporting: the Governor reports annually to the President on the administration of Scheduled Areas, and the Union can give directions to the state.
Practice: Governors have mostly acted on ministerial advice and rarely used these powers independently, a gap noted by the Bhuria Commission and the Xaxa Committee (2014); annual reports are often delayed. A proactive Governor could enforce PESA, stop illegal land transfers and review mining leases, making the Fifth Schedule a living protection.Q5(e) · Demographic Profile and the Traditional Indian Social System · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Ethnic and Linguistic Elements in the Indian Population
Austroasiatic languages
हिंदी में प्रश्न
ऑस्ट्रोएशियाटिक भाषाएँ
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q5(e)
Approach: A short note: the family, its branches in India with tribal speakers, numbers and distribution, and genetic or historical links.
Austro-Asiatic is a language family spread from India to Vietnam and Cambodia; in India it was spoken by 1.11 percent of the population in Census 2011, almost entirely by tribal communities.
Munda branch (central and eastern India): North Munda, Santali, Mundari, Ho, Bhumij, Birhor, Asur and Korku; and South Munda, Kharia, Juang, Sora (Savara), Gutob (Gadaba) and Remo (Bondo). Santali is the largest, with about 73 lakh speakers in 2011, and entered the Eighth Schedule in 2003; it uses the Ol Chiki script devised by Raghunath Murmu.
Khasian (Mon-Khmer) branch: Khasi, Pnar (Jaintia), War and Lyngngam in Meghalaya. Nicobarese in the Nicobar Islands.
Munda speakers share a paternal lineage (Y-haplogroup O2a) with South-East Asia but largely local maternal lineages, suggesting male-mediated migration; Kuiper (1948) and others traced Munda loanwords in Sanskrit. Many smaller Munda languages, such as Asur and Birhor, are endangered.
Question 6 (50 marks)
Q6(a) · Tribal Administration and Applied Anthropology · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Tribal Administration, Policies and PVTGs
Discuss the objectives of Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDPs). How far have these objectives been achieved?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
एकीकृत जनजातीय विकास परियोजनाओं (आइ० टी० डी० पी०) के उद्देश्यों की विवेचना कीजिए। इन उद्देश्यों को कहाँ तक प्राप्त किया जा चुका है?
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q6(a)
Approach: Discuss the origin and objectives of ITDPs under the Tribal Sub-Plan, then assess objective by objective how far they were achieved, with data and committee findings, and conclude with reforms.
Integrated Tribal Development Projects were created in the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1974 to 1975) as the main delivery units of the Tribal Sub-Plan, following the Shilu Ao Study Team (1969). Each covers a contiguous area, usually a block or tehsil where STs are at least half the population; there are about 194 ITDPs or ITDAs, alongside MADA pockets and clusters for smaller concentrations.
Objectives: (1) narrowing the development gap between tribal and other areas; (2) raising family incomes through agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and forest-based activities; (3) building infrastructure such as roads, irrigation and electricity; (4) developing human resources through education and health; and (5) protecting tribals against exploitation by moneylenders, traders and land-grabbers.
Achievements: roads, schools, health centres and electricity reached many remote areas; ST literacy rose from 11.3% (1971) to 58.96% (2011); LAMPS and TRIFED (1987) reduced trader exploitation; a tribal middle class emerged.
Shortfalls: the development gap persists: under the Tendulkar method in 2011 to 2012 about 45% of rural STs were poor, against about 26% of all rural people; family-oriented schemes often produced unviable assets; land alienation and displacement continued; and health and nutrition indicators remain the worst of any group.
Reasons: diversion and lapse of TSP funds, top-down planning by line departments, weak ITDA staff and authority, poor convergence, and little participation of gram sabhas, as the Xaxa Committee (2014) and Planning Commission evaluations noted.
Reforms: making ITDAs genuinely single-line administrations, planning through PESA gram sabhas, statutory backing for tribal funds (DAPST), and outcome-based monitoring.
ITDPs created a framework for area-based tribal development, but their objectives were only partly achieved because tribals were treated as beneficiaries rather than decision-makers.Q6(b) · Tribal Administration and Applied Anthropology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Tribal Administration, Policies and PVTGs
Compare the functioning of traditional 'Tribal Council' with that of 'Gram Sabha' under PESA.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पेसा (पी० ई० एस० ए०) के अन्तर्गत पारम्परिक 'जनजातीय परिषदों' के संचालन की तुलना 'ग्राम सभाओं' से कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q6(b)
Approach: Compare traditional tribal councils (with named examples) and PESA gram sabhas on composition, basis of authority, functions, procedure, gender and legitimacy, ideally as a comparison, and end with how they can work together.
Most tribes govern themselves through traditional councils: the Santal manjhi-parganait system, the Munda manki-munda and parha, the Ho manki-munda, the Gond and Bhil panch, the Adi kebang, and Khasi dorbars. PESA (1996) created statutory gram sabhas in Fifth Schedule areas.
Composition: traditional councils consist of hereditary or elder male heads and clan representatives; the gram sabha includes all adult voters of the village, men and women.
Basis of authority: customary law, ritual sanction and kinship for councils; the Constitution and state law for gram sabhas.
Functions: councils settle disputes over marriage, divorce, land and taboo violations, organise festivals and impose sanctions such as fines or outcasting; gram sabhas approve plans and beneficiaries, are consulted on land acquisition, and control minor forest produce, markets, moneylending and liquor.
Procedure: councils decide by consensus in open meetings; gram sabhas follow statutory rules on quorum, minutes and resolutions.
Gender and equity: councils usually exclude women; gram sabhas include them and are linked to panchayat reservation.
Legitimacy: councils enjoy deep cultural legitimacy but may be elitist; gram sabhas carry legal power but are often weak in practice.
PESA intends gram sabhas to build on customary institutions; recognising traditional heads as gram sabha conveners, as some state rules do, while ensuring women's participation, can join legitimacy with democracy.Q6(c) · Tribal Situation and Problems in India · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Development Projects, Displacement, Forest Policy and Tribals
Explain how British policies impacted the major resources of the tribals.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
ब्रिटिश नीतियों ने जनजातियों के प्रमुख संसाधनों को कैसे प्रभावित किया है? स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q6(c)
Approach: Explain the British policies affecting each major resource (land, forest, labour, minerals, culture and governance), give the resulting revolts, and conclude on their legacy.
British rule integrated tribal areas into a colonial economy, turning their land, forests and labour into sources of revenue and raw materials.
Land: the Permanent Settlement (1793) and other revenue systems converted communal land, such as the Munda khuntkatti villages, into private, taxable and saleable property; zamindars, moneylenders (dikus) and settlers acquired tribal land through debt and courts.
Forests: the Indian Forest Acts of 1865, 1878 and 1927 reserved forests for timber, especially railway sleepers, turned customary use into privileges, banned or restricted shifting cultivation and hunting, and imposed forest guards and fees.
Labour and minerals: forced labour (begar) for roads and officials, recruitment of Chotanagpur tribals for Assam tea gardens, and the opening of coal and iron mines in Jharkhand drew tribals into exploitative work. Excise laws on mahua liquor criminalised a customary drink.
Culture and governance: missionaries spread Christianity and schooling, the Criminal Tribes Act (1871) stigmatised mobile groups, while policies of separation such as the Inner Line (1873) and excluded areas (1935) isolated others.
These policies provoked the Santal Hul (1855), the Birsa ulgulan (1895–1900), the Bastar Bhumkal (1910) and the Rampa rebellion (1922–24). Their legacy of land loss and state control over forests shaped post-independence tribal problems and led eventually to PESA and FRA.
Question 7 (50 marks)
Q7(a) · Tribal Administration and Applied Anthropology · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Tribal Administration, Policies and PVTGs
Discuss the views of G. S. Ghurye and Verrier Elwin on the approach towards tribal populations. What are the policies of the Government of India towards Indian tribal populations?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
जनजातीय समाजों पर जी० एस० घुर्ये तथा वेरियर एल्विन के दृष्टिकोणों की विवेचना कीजिए। भारतीय जनजातीय समाजों के प्रति भारत सरकार की नीतियाँ क्या हैं?
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q7(a)
Approach: Present Ghurye's and Elwin's views and the debate between them, then outline the Government of India's tribal policies from Panchsheel to present programmes and laws, showing how they draw on the debate.
The question of how independent India should treat its tribes produced a famous debate between Verrier Elwin and G.S. Ghurye in the 1940s, which still frames tribal policy.
Elwin's view: after living among the Gond and Baiga, Elwin (The Baiga, 1939; The Aboriginals, 1943) argued that contact with traders, moneylenders, missionaries and officials had brought exploitation and cultural decay; he proposed protecting tribal areas, even a 'national park' for the Baiga, until tribes could face the outside world on their own terms.
Ghurye's view: in The Aborigines, So-Called, and Their Future (1943) Ghurye argued that tribes were 'backward Hindus', historically part of Hindu society through gradual absorption, and that isolation would keep them backward; he favoured assimilation through education and development.
Middle path: the Constituent Assembly and Nehru chose integration, protection with development.
Government policies: Nehru's tribal Panchsheel (1959) in the foreword to Elwin's A Philosophy for NEFA; the Fifth and Sixth Schedules and reservation; Special Multipurpose Tribal Blocks (1954); the Tribal Sub-Plan with ITDPs (1974 to 1975), now DAPST; identification of PTGs (1975), renamed PVTGs (2006); the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (1999).
Rights and recent programmes: PESA (1996) and the Forest Rights Act (2006) reflect Elwin's respect for institutions and land; Eklavya schools, Van Dhan (2018), PM-JANMAN (2023) and the Dharti Aaba Abhiyan (2024) reflect the developmental emphasis associated with Ghurye.
Assessment: Elwin is criticised for romanticism and Ghurye for ignoring tribal distinctiveness; India's policy combines both, but implementation has often leaned towards assimilation through development, provoking displacement and unrest.
A policy faithful to Panchsheel, giving tribes control over the pace and direction of change, remains the synthesis both sides could accept.Q7(b) · Weaker Sections, Ethnicity and Tribal Change · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Exploitation of SCs, STs and OBCs and Constitutional Safeguards
Discuss the issues and solutions related to the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribe populations in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में अनुसूचित जाति एवं अनुसूचित जनजातियों के मुद्दों एवं इनके समाधानों की विवेचना कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q7(b)
Approach: Discuss the main issues of SCs and STs separately (social, economic, educational, political, legal) with data, and then propose solutions linked to each issue.
Scheduled Castes (16.6%) and Scheduled Tribes (8.6%) together form a quarter of India's population (Census 2011). Their problems differ in origin: SCs suffer from the ritual stigma of untouchability within village society, while STs suffer from geographical isolation, land and forest loss and cultural marginalisation.
Issues of SCs: continuing untouchability and atrocities (about 57,800 crimes recorded by NCRB in 2023), landlessness and dependence on agricultural labour, manual scavenging despite the 2013 Act, discrimination in labour markets and in schools, and concentration of reservation benefits among a few castes.
Issues of STs: land alienation and displacement by dams and mines, restrictions on forest use, indebtedness to moneylenders, low literacy (58.96% in 2011), malnutrition, anaemia and sickle-cell disease, distress migration and weak PESA implementation.
Solutions for SCs: strict enforcement of the Prevention of Atrocities Act with exclusive special courts, land distribution and housing, mechanised sanitation under NAMASTE (2023), scholarships and coaching, and sub-classification after the 2024 Davinder Singh judgment.
Solutions for STs: faithful implementation of PESA (1996) and the Forest Rights Act (2006), free, prior and informed consent before acquisition, mother-tongue education and Eklavya schools, targeted health missions such as the sickle-cell mission (2023), and convergence schemes such as PM-JANMAN (2023) and the Dharti Aaba Abhiyan (2024).
Lasting change needs a combination of legal protection, economic empowerment and cultural respect, so that SCs and STs participate in development as equal citizens.Q7(c) · Weaker Sections, Ethnicity and Tribal Change · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Social Change in Contemporary Tribal Societies
Explain the social and religious consequences of contact between tribal and non-tribal populations.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
जनजातीय एवं गैर-जनजातीय समाजों में सम्पर्क द्वारा उत्पन्न सामाजिक एवं धार्मिक परिणामों को स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q7(c)
Approach: Explain the processes of contact, then discuss its social consequences (economy, kinship, stratification, women) and religious consequences (Hinduisation, Christianity, revival), with named tribes and scholars, ending with a balanced view.
Tribes in India were never fully isolated; contact with peasants, traders, kings, missionaries and the state produced acculturation, which Redfield, Linton and Herskovits (1936) defined as change resulting from continuous first-hand contact between groups with different cultures.
Economic consequences: moneylenders, traders and landlords (the dikus of Chotanagpur) brought debt and land alienation, which provoked the Santal Hul (1855); markets turned barter economies into cash economies.
Social structure: N.K. Bose's 'Hindu method of tribal absorption' (1941) showed the Juang being drawn into the caste order as a low caste; Surajit Sinha described the Bhumij claiming Rajput status, and F.G. Bailey placed such groups on a tribe-caste continuum. Dormitories declined, bride price gave way to dowry in some groups, and women lost some freedom in choosing partners.
Religious consequences, Hinduisation: tribes adopted Hindu deities, festivals and Brahmin priests, and reform movements such as the Tana Bhagat movement among the Oraon (1914) gave up meat, liquor and sacrifice.
Christianity: missions among the Munda, Oraon, Khasi, Mizo and Nagas brought literacy and Roman-script literatures, but also divisions between converts and non-converts, such as the Christian-Sarna divide in Jharkhand.
Reaction and revival: contact also produced retribalisation, with movements such as Sarna Dharam, Donyi-Polo and Seng Khasi asserting indigenous religion.
Contact therefore did not simply erase tribal culture; as Virginius Xaxa argues, tribes have transformed while keeping distinct identities.
Question 8 (50 marks)
Q8(a) · Weaker Sections, Ethnicity and Tribal Change · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Ethnicity, Tribal Unrest, Regionalism and Pseudo-tribalism
Compare the nature of tribal movements between North-East and Central India. Briefly mention the current status of existing tribal movements in these areas.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उत्तर-पूर्व एवं मध्य भारत में जनजातीय आन्दोलनों के स्वरूप की तुलना कीजिए। इन क्षेत्रों में निवर्तमान जनजातीय आन्दोलनों की वर्तमान स्थिति का संक्षिप्त उल्लेख कीजिए।
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q8(a)
Approach: Compare north-eastern and central Indian tribal movements on origin, goals, ideology, methods, leadership and outcomes (a comparison table helps), then briefly state the current status of movements in both regions.
In K.S. Singh's typology (1982 to 1983), north-eastern and central Indian movements fall into different types.
Historical setting: north-eastern hill tribes were kept apart under the Inner Line (1873) and excluded areas; central Indian tribes lived alongside peasants and were dispossessed by landlords, moneylenders and forest laws.
Goals and ideology: north-eastern movements were mainly ethno-nationalist, ranging from sovereignty (the Naga National Council, the Mizo National Front) to statehood and Sixth Schedule autonomy; central Indian movements were mainly agrarian and millenarian (Santal Hul 1855, Birsa's Ulgulan 1899 to 1900) or socio-religious (Tana Bhagat, 1914), and later sought a Jharkhand state within the Union.
Methods and leadership: the north-east saw prolonged armed insurgency led by mission-educated elites with Christianity as a unifying identity; central India saw mass agitation, electoral politics (Jharkhand Party, JMM) and, later, Left-Wing Extremism drawing on tribal grievances.
Outcomes: statehood for Nagaland (1963), Mizoram (1987) and Jharkhand (2000); Sixth Schedule councils and accords in Assam and Tripura.
Current status, north-east: the Naga Framework Agreement (2015) still awaits a final settlement; the Bodoland accord (2020) and Tripura's Tipra Motha agreement (2024) are being implemented; the ULFA pro-talks faction signed an accord in December 2023; Manipur's Meitei-Kuki conflict since 2023 remains unresolved.
Current status, central India: movements focus on land and forest rights and resistance to mining, such as Niyamgiri (2013) and Hasdeo Arand, the Pathalgadi assertion of PESA (2017 to 2018), and the demand for a Sarna religion code; Left-Wing Extremism has shrunk sharply, with the Union aiming to end it by March 2026.
Diagram: a two-column comparison table (north-east versus central India) with rows for setting, goals, methods, leadership, outcomes and current issues.
In short, north-eastern movements are about nationhood and territory, central Indian ones about land, forests and dignity, though both now converge on autonomy and control over resources.Q8(b) · Tribal Administration and Applied Anthropology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Role of Anthropology in Tribal and Rural Development
Briefly describe the anthropological perspective on development. How have anthropologists contributed in India's rural development?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
विकास पर मानवशास्त्रीय दृष्टिकोण का संक्षिप्त विवरण दीजिए। भारत के ग्रामीण विकास में मानवशास्त्रियों ने कैसे योगदान दिया है?
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q8(b)
Approach: Briefly describe the anthropological perspective on development (holistic, emic, participatory, critical), then show how Indian anthropologists contributed to rural development, with named studies and programmes.
Anthropological perspective on development: anthropology sees development not as a technical transfer of resources but as cultural change. It is holistic (economy, kinship, religion and power are linked), emic (people's own views and felt needs matter), relativist (local practices are judged in context) and participatory. The critical 'anthropology of development' of James Ferguson (1990) and Arturo Escobar (1995) warns that development can depoliticise poverty and extend state control.
Evaluation of Community Development: S.C. Dube's India's Changing Villages (1958) found a communication gap between officials and villagers, benefits captured by richer farmers and upper castes, and neglect of felt needs, lessons that reshaped extension work.
Village studies: M.N. Srinivas (dominant caste), Oscar Lewis, McKim Marriott and others revealed the caste, faction and kinship structures that determine who benefits from programmes.
Innovation and change: George Foster (1962) analysed cultural barriers and stimulants to accepting innovations, guiding health and agricultural programmes; studies of Green Revolution villages showed growing inequality.
Participation: Robert Chambers's participatory rural appraisal, drawing on anthropological fieldwork, is used in panchayat planning, watershed and MGNREGA social audits.
Health and sanitation: research on local ideas of illness and purity has informed nutrition and sanitation campaigns.
Anthropologists have thus made rural development more people-centred, though their advice is often sought too late.Q8(c) · Tribal Situation and Problems in India · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Development Projects, Displacement, Forest Policy and Tribals
How can a balance be struck between livelihood concern and environmental degradation in the context of shifting cultivation?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
झूम कृषि के संदर्भ में आजीविका प्रसंग एवं पर्यावरणीय अवक्रमण के मध्य कैसे संतुलन बनाया जा सकता है?
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper II, Q8(c)
Approach: Explain shifting cultivation and the two sides of the debate (livelihood and culture versus degradation), then propose balanced measures with examples from the north-east and central India.
Shifting cultivation (jhum in the north-east, podu in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, bewar among the Baiga) clears and burns forest patches, crops them for a few years and leaves them fallow; it sustains many hill tribes such as the Nagas, Mizos, Garos, Kondh and Maler.
Livelihood view: with long fallows of 15–20 years it was an ecologically adapted system on steep slopes where ploughing is impossible; it supports mixed crops and food security, is woven into clan land tenure, ritual and community labour, and is the only option for many.
Environmental concern: population growth, land loss and restrictions have shortened fallow cycles to a few years, causing soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, siltation of rivers and declining yields; foresters have long blamed jhum for deforestation, though this is debated.
Balance: (i) improve jhum rather than ban it, by lengthening fallows, planting nitrogen-fixing trees and alley cropping, as Nagaland's NEPED project did with farmers' participation; (ii) promote terrace and wet-rice farming where possible, learning from the Apatani; (iii) support horticulture, bamboo and agroforestry with market links; (iv) secure community land and forest rights under FRA so that communities manage their own fallows; and (v) pay for ecosystem services.
A participatory approach that respects traditional knowledge and clan institutions can reconcile livelihood with ecology.