All Political Science and International Relations optional papers

UPSC Mains 2014 Political Science and International Relations Optional Question Papers with Model Answers

All 56 questions of the 2014 Civil Services Main Examination, PSIR Paper I and PSIR 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 2014 Political Science and International Relations PSIR Paper I

Question 1 (50 marks)

Q1(a) · Political Theory and Theories of the State · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Decline and Resurgence of Political Theory
“... political theory is not an escape mechanism but an arduous calling.” (John Plamenatz)
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“... राजनीतिक थियोरी एक पलायन तंत्र नहीं है, अपितु एक कठिन आह्वान है।” (जॉन प्लैमेनेट्ज़)
Practise this question Political Theory and Theories of the State notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(a)
Approach: Explain the context of Plamenatz’s statement (his defence against the decline thesis), what he meant by an ‘arduous calling’, and why the claim is valid today.
John Plamenatz defended political theory against positivists and behaviouralists who called it meaningless or dead, a case he made in his essay ‘The Use of Political Theory’ (1960). Critics saw theory as an escape from the hard world of facts into speculation.
Not an escape: Plamenatz argued that political theory is a practical activity. People need a coherent philosophy of life to make choices, and theory supplies the criteria for judging governments, laws and policies. Science can tell us how institutions work, but not which ends are worth pursuing.
An arduous calling: it demands rigorous conceptual analysis, careful reading of the classics in their context, and honest weighing of competing values such as liberty and equality. It is harder than empirical work because there is no easy test of truth.
Relevance: Rawls’s theory of justice and Sen’s capability approach shaped welfare policy, and Indian debates on reservation, secularism or privacy depend on such reasoning.
Plamenatz’s view anticipated the resurgence of political theory and remains its best defence.
Q1(b) · Western Political Thought · 10 marks≈ 7 min
John Stuart Mill
“All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.” (J. S. Mill)
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“वाद-विवाद का सभी चुप करना अमोघता (इन्फैलिबिलिटी) का अभिगृहीत करना है।” (जे० एस० मिल)
Practise this question Western Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(b)
Approach: Explain the statement from chapter 2 of On Liberty and Mill's arguments for free discussion (fallibility, partial truth, dead dogma), with a brief critique.
The statement is from chapter 2 of J.S. Mill's On Liberty (1859), his defence of freedom of thought and discussion. Silencing an opinion assumes that those who silence it cannot be wrong, but no person or authority is infallible.
Mill gives four arguments. First, the silenced opinion may be true, and history, from Socrates to Jesus, shows authorities suppressing truths. Second, even if false, it may contain a part of the truth, since prevailing opinion is rarely the whole truth. Third, even a true opinion, if never challenged, is held as a prejudice. Fourth, its meaning becomes a dead dogma that no longer shapes conduct.
Hence even if all mankind minus one held an opinion, they would have no more right to silence that one than he would to silence mankind.
Critics say Mill underestimated hate speech and incitement, though he accepted limits where speech causes harm, as with an angry mob. Article 19(1)(a) and 19(2) mirror this balance.
Q1(c) · Indian Political Thought · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Sri Aurobindo
“Nationalism is not a mere political programme but a way of life like religion.” (Aurobindo Ghose)
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“राष्ट्रवाद केवल एक राजनीतिक प्रोग्राम नहीं है, अपितु धर्म की तरह जीवन का एक मार्ग है।” (अरविन्द घोष)
Practise this question Indian Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(c)
Approach: Explain the meaning of the statement within Aurobindo's spiritual nationalism, its context and implications, and add a brief critique.
The statement captures Sri Aurobindo's spiritual nationalism, developed during the Swadeshi movement (1905 to 1910) in his writings in Bande Mataram and his speeches, notably at Bombay in 1908.
Meaning: for Aurobindo the nation was a living mother and a divine shakti, not a mere territory. Nationalism therefore demanded faith, devotion and self-sacrifice, as religion does. It was to shape the whole life of the individual, his education, economy and culture, not only his political demands. The Moderates' petitions treated nationalism as a programme of reforms; Aurobindo treated it as a calling.
Implications: this view justified complete independence, boycott, swadeshi and national education, and it inspired sacrifice among young revolutionaries in Bengal. In the Uttarpara speech (1909) he went further and identified nationalism with Sanatana Dharma.
Critique: making the nation sacred could exclude those who did not share Hindu imagery, and Tagore warned against nation-worship. Yet Aurobindo's universalism in later works shows that he saw nationalism as a stage towards human unity.
Q1(d) · The Constitution and the Organs of Government · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Supreme Court: Envisaged Role and Actual Working
“India has thrown up a form of judicial democracy that has no parallel anywhere else, and has nurtured a kind of civil society that is uniquely its own.” (Bhikhu Parekh)
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“भारत ने एक तरह के न्यायिक लोकतंत्र को ऊपर उठाया है जिसका अन्यत्र कोई समरूप नहीं है, तथा एक तरह के नागरिक समाज का पोषण किया है जो कि अनन्य रूप से इसका अपना है।” (भीखू पारेख)
Practise this question The Constitution and the Organs of Government notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(d)
Approach: The question asks for comment on Bhikhu Parekh's statement, so the answer explains the two parts of the claim, the uniquely Indian features of each, and adds a critical note.
Bhikhu Parekh argues that India has developed two distinctive institutions: a judiciary that acts as a participant in democratic life, and a civil society shaped by its own traditions rather than Western models.
Judicial democracy: the Indian Supreme Court reviews constitutional amendments through the basic structure doctrine, accepts letters as petitions, relaxes standing through public interest litigation and supervises policy through continuing mandamus. Upendra Baxi called PIL social action litigation, as courts responded to the claims of bonded labourers, prisoners and the poor (Bandhua Mukti Morcha, 1984).
Unique civil society: It includes caste associations, religious bodies, Gandhian voluntary organisations, and social movements such as the Narmada Bachao Andolan and the MKSS-led right-to-information campaign. Many of these groups use courts to advance rights, as women's groups did in Vishaka (1997) and right-to-food activists in PUCL (2001).
Critique: judicial democracy may weaken representative politics, as people turn to courts rather than legislatures.
Parekh captures a real Indian innovation: courts and civil society have deepened democracy, but they cannot replace elected institutions.
Q1(e) · Western Political Thought · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Hannah Arendt
“Power is never the property of an individual; it belongs to a group and remains in existence only so long as the group keeps together.” (Hannah Arendt)
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“शक्ति कभी भी एक व्यक्ति की सम्पत्ति नहीं होती है; यह एक समूह के पास होती है और तभी तक अस्तित्व में रहती है जब तक समूह एकसाथ बना रहता है।” (हन्ना आरेन्ट)
Practise this question Western Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(e)
Approach: Explain the statement from On Violence: Arendt's definition of power as acting in concert, its distinction from strength, force, authority and violence, and its implications, with an example.
The statement is from Hannah Arendt's On Violence (1970). Unlike Weber, who defined power as the ability to impose one's will despite resistance, Arendt defined power as the human ability not just to act but to act in concert.
Power is therefore relational: it belongs to a group and lasts only as long as the group holds together. A leader is 'in power' only because a number of people empower him to act in their name.
Arendt distinguished power from strength (an individual property), force (energy of nature or circumstance), authority (unquestioned recognition) and violence, which is instrumental and relies on implements. Power and violence are opposites: violence can destroy power but can never create it, and rulers turn to violence when they are losing power.
Gandhi's non-violent mass movements and the collapse of communist regimes in 1989 illustrate her point: when people withdraw support, even well-armed governments fall.

Question 2 (50 marks)

Q2(a) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Socialism and Marxism
Comment on the view that socialism in the 21st century may be reborn as anti-capitalism.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
इस दृष्टिकोण की समीक्षा कीजिए कि हो सकता है कि इक्कीसवीं सदी में समाजवाद का पूँजीवाद-विरोध के रूप में पुनर्जन्म हो जाय।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: Comment by explaining socialism's crisis after 1989, showing how it has reappeared as anti-capitalist movements and thought in the 21st century, and then evaluating whether this amounts to a rebirth.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the turn of social democratic parties toward the market, such as the 'Third Way' of Tony Blair's Labour Party theorised by Anthony Giddens, seemed to mark the end of socialism as a project of state ownership.
In the 21st century, however, socialist ideas have revived less as a positive blueprint than as anti-capitalism, a critique of neo-liberal globalisation. The Seattle protests against the WTO (1999), the World Social Forum (from 2001) with its slogan that another world is possible, the Occupy Wall Street movement after the 2008 crisis with its slogan 'We are the 99 per cent', and anti-austerity protests in Europe all targeted corporate power and inequality.
Thinkers gave this an intellectual form: Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire (2000) on the multitude, David Harvey on accumulation by dispossession, and Thomas Piketty on inequality. Politically, Hugo Chávez proclaimed 'socialism of the 21st century' in Venezuela, and parties such as Syriza and Podemos and figures like Bernie Sanders revived the language of democratic socialism. Eco-socialism links capitalism to climate change.
The view needs qualification. Anti-capitalism unites diverse groups, anarchists, environmentalists and trade unions, but lacks a coherent alternative; Venezuela's economic collapse damaged the brand; and China combines Communist Party rule with markets.
In India, movements against forced land acquisition and for the rights of informal workers show this spirit. Socialism is being reborn as anti-capitalism, but it needs a constructive programme to become more than protest.
Q2(b) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Power, Hegemony, Ideology and Legitimacy
Examine the conditions that are required for the maintenance of legitimacy in modern societies.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
आधुनिक समाजों में वैधता (लिजिटिमेसी) को अनुरक्षित करने के लिए आवश्यक शर्तों का परीक्षण कीजिए।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: Examine the question by defining legitimacy and setting out the conditions that sustain it in modern societies, each linked to a thinker, then illustrate with India.
Legitimacy is the acceptance of a regime's right to rule. In modern societies, where traditional and religious justifications have weakened, it has to be continuously earned.
The conditions are: (i) legality: power acquired and exercised according to established rules, Weber's legal-rational authority; (ii) shared justifying beliefs: the rules must reflect values citizens hold, such as popular sovereignty and equality, as David Beetham argues; (iii) consent: expressed through free and fair elections and participation; (iv) performance: delivering security, welfare and growth, which S.M. Lipset in Political Man linked to the stability of democracies; (v) protection of rights and minorities, so that no group feels permanently excluded; (vi) accountability and transparency, through courts, a free press and the right to information; and (vii) rational public justification through open deliberation, as Habermas argues.
When these conditions fail, Habermas speaks of a legitimation crisis, of the kind seen in protests after the 2008 financial crisis.
In India, the Constitution, regular elections, an independent judiciary and welfare measures sustain legitimacy, while corruption, delays in justice and social exclusion weaken it. Legitimacy is thus maintained by a combination of procedure, values and results.
Q2(c) · Indian Political Thought · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Buddhist Tradition
Evaluate the contributions of Buddhist tradition to Indian political thought.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारतीय राजनीतिक चिन्तन में बुद्धवादी परम्परा के योगदानों का मूल्यांकन कीजिए।
Practise this question Indian Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Evaluate: list the main contributions (origin of the state, ethical kingship, republicanism, welfare, Ashokan dhamma, equality) and weigh them against limitations.
Buddhism arose in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE amid the growth of kingdoms and republics in the Gangetic plain. Its texts contain political ideas that broadened Indian thought beyond the Brahmanical tradition.
Origin of the state: the Agganna Sutta traces how greed and property ended a golden age, and people elected the Mahasammata to keep order in return for a share of their harvest. This is among the earliest contractual theories of the state, placing authority in human consent.
Ethical kingship: the chakravartin ideal and the ten royal virtues require the ruler to govern by dhamma, with generosity, honesty and non-violence. The Chakkavatti Sihanada Sutta links poverty with crime and holds the king responsible for relieving want, an early idea of the welfare state.
Republican practice: the Buddha's advice to the Vajjis in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (meet often, decide in concord, respect elders and customs) and the Sangha's rules on quorum, motion and ballot voting are an early model of deliberative self-government.
Social equality and tolerance: rejection of varna by birth, and Ashoka's dhamma of tolerance and non-violence, enriched Indian traditions of pluralism, later invoked by Ambedkar.
Limitations: Buddhism accepted monarchy, the Sangha's democracy was limited to monks, and its ideas were less systematic than Kautilya's.
Even so, its contribution of consent, ethics and welfare to Indian political thought is substantial.

Question 3 (50 marks)

Q3(a) · Justice, Equality and Rights · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Communitarian and Other Critiques of Rawls
Explicate the conception of justice in the critiques of communitarian theorists.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
समुदायवादी विचारकों की समीक्षाओं में न्याय की संकल्पना को स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Justice, Equality and Rights notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: Explicate means set out clearly: the answer gives the shared communitarian starting point, then each thinker's conception of justice with works, their common propositions, and a short evaluation.
Communitarian theorists, writing mainly against John Rawls' A Theory of Justice (1971), argue that justice cannot be derived from a neutral, ahistorical standpoint. It must be rooted in the shared meanings, traditions and goods of a community.
Michael Sandel (Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, 1982): Rawls' self is an unencumbered chooser, but persons are constituted by their ends and attachments. Justice is a remedial virtue needed when community breaks down; a good society is held together by solidarity, and politics should openly deliberate on the common good.
Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue, 1981): modern moral language is fragmented; Rawls and Nozick talk past each other because they lack a shared idea of the human good. Justice is a virtue, giving each their due according to desert within a practice and tradition, as in Aristotle.
Michael Walzer (Spheres of Justice, 1983): goods have social meanings, so there are separate spheres such as membership, security and welfare, money, office, education and political power, each with its own principle. Justice is complex equality, preventing money or power from dominating other spheres, rather than simple equality of holdings.
Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self, 1989): the atomist idea of self-sufficient individuals is false; since freedom depends on society, there is an obligation to belong and sustain it.
Common propositions: the social or embedded self; priority of the good over the right; justice as particular and contextual rather than universal; emphasis on duties, civic virtue and the common good.
Evaluation: the critique exposed the thin sociology of liberalism and influenced Rawls' Political Liberalism (1993). But it risks conservatism and relativism, since community traditions can justify caste or gender hierarchy. Ambedkar's critique of the Indian village shows this danger.
Q3(b) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Fascism, Gandhism and Feminism
Examine the conception of the State in the ideologies of Fascism and Marxism.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
फासीवादी तथा मार्क्सवादी विचारधाराओं में राज्य की संकल्पना का परीक्षण कीजिए।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: Examine both conceptions: the fascist state as an ethical end in itself and the Marxist state as an instrument of class rule that will wither away, then compare them and note the irony of their practice.
Fascism and Marxism both rejected the liberal state, but their conceptions of the state are opposite.
For fascism, the state is an end in itself, an ethical and organic entity that embodies the nation's will and destiny. Drawing on Hegel's idealisation of the state as interpreted by Giovanni Gentile, Mussolini made it totalitarian: everything within the state, nothing outside it. The state is permanent and must expand through war; individuals and classes are subordinate to it; and the economy is organised in corporations under state control.
For Marxism, the state is a product of class antagonism and an instrument of class rule. The Communist Manifesto (1848) describes the executive of the modern state as a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie. After the proletarian revolution, a transitional dictatorship of the proletariat will abolish classes, and then the state will wither away, as Engels argued in Anti-Dühring (1878).
Thus fascism glorifies the state as permanent, while Marxism treats it as temporary and repressive. Ironically, both produced powerful one-party states in practice, and the Soviet state under Stalin hardly withered, which is why Hannah Arendt, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), analysed Nazism and Stalinism together as totalitarian.
Q3(c) · Justice, Equality and Rights · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Equality: Social, Political and Economic; Equality and Freedom
How is liberty a precondition for equality? Explicate the relationship between equality and liberty.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
किस प्रकार स्वतंत्रता, समानता के लिए एक पूर्व-शर्त है? समानता और स्वतंत्रता के मध्य सम्बन्ध को स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Justice, Equality and Rights notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: Present the conflict view and the complementary view of liberty and equality, explain how liberty is a precondition of equality, and conclude with their mutual dependence in Indian constitutionalism.
Liberty and equality are the twin ideals of modern democracy, yet their relationship is contested.
Conflict view: Lord Acton and Alexis de Tocqueville feared that a passion for equality could destroy liberty; F.A. Hayek (The Constitution of Liberty, 1960) and Robert Nozick argue that pursuing economic equality requires coercion and violates freedom.
Liberty as precondition for equality: without civil and political liberty, the disadvantaged cannot claim equality. Freedom of speech, association and the vote allowed workers, women and Dalits to organise and demand equal rights, as in the Mahad Satyagraha of 1927 and the suffrage movements. Rawls gives equal basic liberties lexical priority because equal liberty is itself the first form of equality: equal citizenship.
Equality as precondition for liberty: the reverse is also true. R.H. Tawney and Harold Laski argued that without economic equality, liberty becomes a privilege of the rich. T.H. Green's positive liberty requires the state to equalise conditions.
Synthesis: the two are complementary when liberty is understood as real freedom and equality as equal concern, as in Dworkin and Sen. Ambedkar saw liberty, equality and fraternity as a trinity: separating any one defeats the others.
The Indian Constitution reflects this balance through Articles 14–19 together with the Directive Principles.

Question 4 (50 marks)

Q4(a) · Western Political Thought · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Machiavelli
Explain how Machiavelli’s application of empirical method to human affairs marks an important stage in the evolution of political science.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
स्पष्ट कीजिए कि किस प्रकार मैकियविली द्वारा मानव-मामलों में आनुभविक प्रणाली का अनुप्रयोग राजनीति विज्ञान के विकास में एक महत्त्वपूर्ण चरण को चिह्नित करता है।
Practise this question Western Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: Explain Machiavelli's empirical (realist, historical-inductive) method and how it differed from earlier normative and theological approaches, then show why it marks a stage in political science, with its limits.
Before Machiavelli, political thought was largely normative and theological: Plato sought the ideal state, and medieval writers judged rulers by Christian ethics and natural law. Machiavelli declared in chapter 15 of The Prince that he would follow the effectual truth of things rather than imagined republics, because there is so great a gap between how people live and how they ought to live.
Features of his empirical method: first, observation of human behaviour as it is; he found men ungrateful, fickle, self-seeking and moved by fear and interest. Second, the historical-comparative method: he drew lessons from Roman history in the Discourses on Livy and from contemporary rulers such as Cesare Borgia and Ferdinand of Aragon. Third, generalisation: from cases he derived maxims, for example that it is safer to be feared than loved, or that new princes must use force at once rather than gradually. Fourth, value-free analysis: he examined means in relation to ends, separating political analysis from moral judgement.
Why it marks an important stage: it made power, not virtue or salvation, the subject of politics, making him a founder of modern political realism. It anticipates Hobbes's scientific approach to politics and, much later, the behavioural movement's emphasis on observable behaviour.
Limits: his method was not systematic induction; he selected historical examples to suit conclusions, assumed an unchanging human nature, and his empiricism was guided by a normative goal, the unification of Italy.
Even so, by turning politics from what ought to be to what is, Machiavelli opened the path for political science as an empirical discipline.
Q4(b) · Western Political Thought · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Plato and Aristotle
Central to Aristotle’s political thought is his classification of the different types of political constitutions in the Politics. Evaluate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
अरस्तू के राजनीतिक चिन्तन के केन्द्र में उसकी ‘पॉलिटिक्स’ में विभिन्न प्रकारों के राजनीतिक संविधानों का वर्गीकरण है। मूल्यांकन कीजिए।
Practise this question Western Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Evaluate: explain Aristotle's sixfold classification and its criteria, the polity as best practicable state, and its strengths and weaknesses as a basis of his political thought.
Aristotle, after studying the constitutions of many Greek city-states, made the classification of constitutions central to the Politics. A constitution (politeia) is the arrangement of offices that determines who rules and the end the community pursues.
Criteria: the number of rulers (one, few, many) and the purpose of rule (the common good or the rulers' interest). This gives three normal forms, monarchy, aristocracy and polity, and three perversions, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. He added that the real distinction between oligarchy and democracy is wealth: oligarchy is rule of the rich, democracy rule of the poor.
His best practicable constitution is polity, a mixture of oligarchy and democracy resting on a large middle class, which is moderate, stable and least prone to revolution. He also discussed a cycle of change between forms.
Strengths: the scheme was the first comparative, empirical study of governments; its moral criterion of the common good still judges regimes; the mixed constitution influenced Polybius, Montesquieu and modern checks and balances.
Weaknesses: it is based on small city-states, ignores federal and representative forms, treats democracy as a perversion, and excludes slaves and women from citizenship.
It nevertheless remains the foundation of comparative politics.
Q4(c) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Models of Democracy: Representative, Participatory and Deliberative
Explicate the features of deliberative democracy.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
विमर्शी (डिलिबरेटिव) लोकतंत्र के अभिलक्षणों को स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: Explicate means explain in detail, so define deliberative democracy, set out its features with the thinkers behind each, give examples, and note the main critique.
Deliberative democracy emerged in the 1980s and 1990s as a response to aggregative models that treat democracy as the counting of fixed preferences. It holds that democratic legitimacy rests on public reasoning among free and equal citizens.
Its features are: (i) reason-giving: participants justify proposals with reasons others can accept, which Rawls called public reason; (ii) inclusion and equality: all those affected have an equal voice; (iii) freedom from coercion: Habermas's ideal speech situation, where only the force of the better argument counts; (iv) transformation of preferences through discussion; (v) orientation to the common good and, ideally, consensus; and (vi) publicity and accountability, stressed by Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson in Democracy and Disagreement (1996).
Joshua Cohen described the ideal deliberative procedure as free, reasoned and equal. Practical forms include James Fishkin's deliberative polls, citizens' juries and assemblies, and in India the Gram Sabha and parliamentary committees.
Critics such as Iris Marion Young argue that norms of rational speech exclude women and minorities, and Chantal Mouffe that politics is inherently agonistic. Deliberation thus works best as a complement to representation and participation.

Question 5 (50 marks)

Q5(a) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Social Movements: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Women's and Environmental Movements
The dilemmas of the human rights movements in India
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में मानवाधिकार आन्दोलनों की दुविधाएँ
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Identify the main dilemmas facing human rights movements in India (state versus non-state violence, security versus liberty, universalism versus culture, dependence on courts and funding), briefly.
Human rights movements in India, from the PUCL and PUDR to groups working on custodial violence, caste atrocities and displacement, face several dilemmas.
State versus non-state violence: focusing on state abuses under AFSPA or in anti-Naxal operations invites the charge of ignoring violence by insurgents, while condemning both risks dilution. Security versus liberty: in the face of terrorism, public opinion often supports preventive detention laws, isolating rights groups.
Universalism versus cultural relativism: defending individual rights against caste panchayats or personal laws can clash with community and minority group rights. Institutional dilemma: reliance on courts and the National Human Rights Commission (1993), whose powers are recommendatory, makes movements legalistic and dependent on judicial attitudes.
Resources and legitimacy: foreign funding, regulated under the FCRA, exposes groups to charges of serving foreign interests. Resolving these dilemmas requires building mass support and a consistent defence of the dignity of all.
Q5(b) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Caste, Religion and Ethnicity in Indian Politics
Relation between ethnicity and democracy in India
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में नृजातीयता और लोकतंत्र के बीच सम्बन्ध
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: Briefly explain the two-way relationship between ethnicity and democracy in India, with theory and examples, and conclude on accommodation.
Ethnicity refers to group identity based on shared language, religion, tribe, caste or region. India shows that a deeply diverse society can sustain democracy, but the relationship runs both ways.
Democracy accommodates ethnicity: linguistic reorganisation of states (1956), the Sixth Schedule, Article 371 provisions, and accords with Mizo, Bodo and other groups gave ethnic groups voice and autonomy. Atul Kohli, in his 1997 study of self-determination movements, found an inverted U-curve: ethnic movements rise with mobilisation and then decline when a firm but accommodating state offers power-sharing.
Ethnicity shapes democracy: ethnic parties such as the DMK, Akali Dal and AGP deepened federalism and representation; Stepan, Linz and Yadav call India a state-nation that allows multiple identities within one political community.
Tensions arise when ethnicity becomes exclusionary, as in nativist violence or insurgency. Democracy in India survives because it negotiates ethnic claims rather than suppressing them.
Q5(c) · The Constitution and the Organs of Government · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Duties, and Directive Principles
Increasingly higher focus on Directive Principles of State Policy
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राज्य नीति के निदेशक तत्त्वों पर बढ़ता हुआ उच्चतर फोकस
Practise this question The Constitution and the Organs of Government notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: The question asks about the growing importance of the Directive Principles, so the answer shows the shift from subordination to harmony through courts and legislation.
The Directive Principles were made non-justiciable, and in Champakam Dorairajan (1951) the Supreme Court held that they must yield to Fundamental Rights. Over time, courts and Parliament have given them much greater weight.
Judicial shift: Kesavananda Bharati (1973) stressed that Parts III and IV together form the conscience of the Constitution, and Minerva Mills (1980) held their harmony and balance to be a basic feature. Courts then read Directives into Article 21: livelihood (Olga Tellis, 1985), release of bonded labour (Bandhua Mukti Morcha, 1984), education (Unni Krishnan, 1993), and food, with the right-to-food orders in PUCL v Union of India (2001) enforcing midday meals.
Legislative shift: Parliament converted Directives into entitlements: panchayati raj (73rd Amendment), Article 21A and the RTE Act, MGNREGA and the National Food Security Act.
This trend reflects a move towards rights-based welfare, though critics warn that courts may stretch their role and that resources limit implementation.
Q5(d) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Party System, Coalition Politics and Pressure Groups
Marginalization of the left ideology in India
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में वामपन्थी विचारधारा का हाशिये पर जाना
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: Explain briefly the electoral decline of the Left in India and its causes (ideological, social, organisational, governance), with a line on its continuing relevance.
The Left, chiefly the CPI and CPI(M), was once a significant national force: the Left Front won about sixty Lok Sabha seats in 2004 and supported the UPA government from outside. By 2014 its tally had fallen to about a dozen, and it lost West Bengal in 2011 after 34 years of rule.
Causes: first, a class-based ideology struggled to engage with caste and identity politics, letting OBC, Dalit and regional parties capture the poor. Second, liberalisation weakened organised labour, its core base. Third, the Singur and Nandigram land acquisition controversies (2006-07) alienated peasants in Bengal.
Fourth, organisational ossification, an ageing leadership and the 1964 split and later Naxalite breakaways fragmented the movement; withdrawal of support from the UPA over the Indo-US nuclear deal (2008) also cost it influence.
Yet Left ideas survive in welfare policy and social movements, and the Left still governs Kerala; its revival depends on combining class with caste, gender and ecological concerns.
Q5(e) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Election Commission, CAG, Finance Commission and UPSC
The role of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in promoting good governance
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सुशासन को बढ़ावा देने में, भारत के नियंत्रक एवं महालेखा परीक्षक की भूमिका
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: Briefly explain the CAG's constitutional role and how audit promotes the elements of good governance, with examples and limits.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (Articles 148-151), protected by a six-year tenure and judge-like removal, audits the accounts of the Union, the states and public bodies.
It promotes good governance, understood as accountability, transparency, rule of law and efficiency, in several ways.
Through compliance audit it checks whether spending was authorised by law, and through performance audit whether schemes achieved results economically and efficiently.
Its reports, examined by the Public Accounts Committee, make the executive answerable to the legislature, and reports such as those on the 2G spectrum (2010) and coal block allocation (2012) brought irregularities to public notice.
Its limits are that audit is after the event, reports are delayed, the PAC acts slowly and presumptive loss estimates have been criticised as policy judgments.
Timely, real-time audit and an effective follow-up mechanism would make the CAG a stronger instrument of good governance.

Question 6 (50 marks)

Q6(a) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 20 marks≈ 14 min
National Commissions: SCs, STs, Women, Human Rights, Minorities and Backward Classes
Discuss the working of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes to curb violence against Dalits.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
दलितों के विरुद्ध हिंसा को नियंत्रित करने में, राष्ट्रीय अनुसूचित जाति आयोग की कार्यप्रणाली की विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: Discuss the NCSC's working in curbing atrocities: its constitutional basis and powers, how it acts on violence against Dalits (monitoring, inquiry, compensation, review of the Atrocities Act), its limitations, and a conclusion with reforms.
Ambedkar warned in November 1949 that India was entering a life of contradictions, with political equality but social inequality; violence against Dalits, from Kilvenmani (1968) to Laxmanpur Bathe (1997) and Khairlanji (2006), shows that contradiction.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (Article 338), separated from the joint SC and ST commission by the 89th Amendment (2003), is the constitutional body charged with safeguarding Dalits.
Powers: it investigates and monitors all safeguards for SCs, inquires into specific complaints of deprivation of rights, and while doing so has the powers of a civil court; the Union and states must consult it on major policy matters affecting SCs.
Working against violence: it monitors the implementation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and its 1995 Rules, including registration of cases, special courts, relief and rehabilitation of victims.
Its members visit sites of major atrocities, call for reports from district officials and police, press for registration of FIRs and arrest of accused, and recommend compensation and protection for victims and witnesses.
Its reports, laid before Parliament, highlight high pendency and low conviction rates in atrocity cases and recommend exclusive special courts, which a 2015 amendment to the Atrocities Act later provided.
Limitations: its recommendations are not binding; it depends on the police and state machinery it is monitoring; its regional offices are few and staff limited; its reports are often tabled late; and caste prejudice in local administration persists.
The NCSC has given Dalit victims an important forum and kept atrocities on the national agenda, but curbing violence needs binding directions, time-bound action-taken reports, a dedicated investigative wing and, above all, social change against caste hierarchy.
Q6(b) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Social Movements: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Women's and Environmental Movements
Examine the scope and limitations of women’s movements in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में महिला आन्दोलनों की व्याप्ति और परिसीमाओं का परीक्षण कीजिए।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: Examine the scope (phases, issues, achievements) and limitations (class, caste, co-optation, implementation) of women's movements in India, and conclude.
The women's movement in India has evolved from nineteenth-century social reform, through participation in the national movement, to an autonomous feminist movement after the 1970s.
Scope: the report Towards Equality (1974) of the Committee on the Status of Women in India revealed declining sex ratios and women's marginalisation, sparking the autonomous movement. Campaigns after the Mathura custodial rape judgment (1979) led to the Criminal Law Amendment of 1983; anti-dowry and anti-sati campaigns produced new laws; grassroots struggles included Chipko, the anti-arrack movement and SEWA's organisation of informal women workers.
Achievements: one-third reservation in panchayats and municipalities (73rd and 74th Amendments, 1992), the Vishaka guidelines (1997) on sexual harassment, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005), and, after the 2012 Delhi gang rape, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013 based on the Verma Committee.
Limitations: the movement has been seen as urban and middle class; Dalit feminists such as Gopal Guru, in 'Dalit Women Talk Differently' (1995), argued that it ignored caste. NGO-isation and state co-optation diluted its radicalism; laws are poorly implemented; and the Women's Reservation Bill for legislatures remained stalled.
Religious and community politics, as in the Shah Bano controversy, also divided the movement on personal laws.
The women's movement has greatly widened rights and public awareness, but its future depends on intersectional solidarity and effective implementation.
Q6(c) · Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Revolutionary, Peasant and Workers' Movements
Explain how peasant movements promoted nationalist ideas during the struggle for Indian independence.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
स्पष्ट कीजिए कि भारतीय स्वतंत्रता संग्राम के दौरान किसान आन्दोलनों ने किस प्रकार राष्ट्रीय विचारों को आगे बढ़ाया।
Practise this question Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: Explain how peasant movements, from early agrarian revolts to Gandhian and Kisan Sabha struggles, spread and deepened nationalist ideas, and note the tensions between class and nation.
Colonial land revenue systems, high rents, indebtedness and forced commercial cropping made the peasantry the most exploited class under British rule. Their struggles carried nationalist ideas from towns to villages.
Exposing colonial exploitation: the Indigo Revolt (1859–60), dramatised in Dinabandhu Mitra’s Nil Darpan, and the Deccan riots (1875) revealed the nexus of planters, moneylenders and the colonial state, and gave content to the Moderates’ economic critique.
Linking local grievance to Swaraj: Gandhi’s Champaran (1917) and Kheda (1918) campaigns showed peasants that the Raj stood behind their oppressors. Baba Ramchandra’s Awadh Kisan Sabhas, the Eka movement and the Bardoli Satyagraha (1928) brought peasants into Non-Cooperation and gave Patel the title ‘Sardar’. No-tax and no-rent campaigns in Civil Disobedience made defiance of the state a village activity.
Widening the idea of the nation: the All India Kisan Sabha (1936) made zamindari abolition a national demand; the Faizpur Congress (1936) adopted an agrarian programme; and the Karachi Resolution (1931) promised relief to peasants. Nationalism thus became a promise of social justice.
Tensions: Congress often restrained no-rent movements to keep zamindars on side, and Ranajit Guha’s Subaltern Studies argue that peasant insurgency had its own consciousness, not simply borrowed from nationalist elites.
Peasant movements gave nationalism its mass base and social content.

Question 7 (50 marks)

Q7(a) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Election Commission, CAG, Finance Commission and UPSC
Discuss the nature of reforms of the electoral process in India and explain the further scope for reforms.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में चुनाव प्रक्रिया में सुधारों की प्रकृति का विवेचन कीजिए तथा और आगे सुधारों की गुंजाइश को स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Discuss the nature of electoral reforms so far (by legislation, the Election Commission and the courts) and then explain the further scope for reform, ending with a conclusion on why reform matters.
Electoral reforms aim to keep elections free, fair and meaningful; reports such as the Tarkunde Committee (1975), the Dinesh Goswami Committee (1990), the Indrajit Gupta Committee (1998) and the Law Commission's 170th Report (1999) set the agenda.
Nature of reforms so far: reforms have been incremental and shared among Parliament, the Election Commission and the Supreme Court rather than coming from one comprehensive law.
Legislative reforms: the voting age was lowered to 18 (61st Amendment, 1988); the Anti-Defection Law (1985) was tightened by the 91st Amendment (2003); booth capturing was made an offence; electronic voting machines were given legal backing; and the 2003 changes made corporate donations to parties tax-deductible and required disclosure of large donations.
Election Commission initiatives: photo identity cards, strict enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct since T.N. Seshan, expenditure observers and the nationwide use of EVMs from 2004.
Judicial reforms: disclosure of candidates' criminal, financial and educational background (Association for Democratic Reforms, 2002); immediate disqualification of legislators on conviction (Lily Thomas, 2013); NOTA (PUCL, 2013); and a direction to introduce VVPAT in phases (2013).
Further scope: decriminalisation of politics, for example barring candidates against whom serious charges have been framed, and fast-track trials of legislators; control of money power through transparent party funding, audited accounts and state funding in kind.
Other needs are curbs on paid news and misuse of government advertising, power for the Election Commission to deregister parties and statutory backing for the Model Code, inner-party democracy, and an independent, collegium-style appointment of Election Commissioners.
Reforms so far have protected the procedural integrity of elections; the next stage must address their substance: money, muscle and party oligarchy.
Q7(b) · The Constitution and the Organs of Government · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Supreme Court: Envisaged Role and Actual Working
Examine the debates on the appointment procedure of judges to the higher judiciary in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत की उच्चतर न्यायपालिका में न्यायाधीशों की नियुक्ति की क्रियाविधि पर वाद-विवादों का परीक्षण कीजिए।
Practise this question The Constitution and the Organs of Government notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: The question asks to examine the debates over appointing higher judges, so the answer traces the constitutional text and the Judges cases, sets out the arguments on each side, and concludes with the reform under way in 2014.
Under Articles 124 and 217, judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are appointed by the President after consultation with the Chief Justice of India and other judges. The meaning of consultation has been the core of the debate.
Evolution: in the First Judges case (S.P. Gupta, 1981) the Court held that consultation does not mean concurrence, giving the executive primacy. The Second Judges case (1993) reversed this, giving primacy to the Chief Justice acting with senior judges, the collegium. The Third Judges case (1998), on a presidential reference, fixed the Supreme Court collegium as the Chief Justice and four senior-most judges.
For the collegium: it protects judicial independence. The supersession of judges in 1973 and 1977 showed the danger of executive control.
Against it: it is not found in the text, works without transparency or written criteria, has led to charges of nepotism, and has not ensured diversity of gender and social background. Judges appointing judges is unusual among democracies.
Reform: the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (2002) proposed a National Judicial Commission. In August 2014 Parliament passed the 99th Amendment and the NJAC Act; the Supreme Court struck them down in 2015.
A balance of independence and accountability remains the goal.
Q7(c) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Panchayati Raj, Municipal Government and the 73rd and 74th Amendments
Explain how the participation of women impacted the functioning of rural local bodies in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
स्पष्ट कीजिए कि महिलाओं की भागीदारी ने भारत के ग्रामीण स्थानीय निकायों की कार्यात्मकता पर किस प्रकार असर डाला है।
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Explain the impact of women's participation on how rural local bodies function: priorities, style of governance, social change, and the constraints, with evidence, and conclude.
Article 243D, added by the 73rd Amendment (1992), reserves at least one-third of panchayat seats and chair posts for women, and several states, starting with Bihar in 2006, have raised this to half; women have since entered rural local bodies in the lakhs.
Changed priorities: Chattopadhyay and Duflo (2004) found that in West Bengal and Rajasthan women pradhans invested more in drinking water and other public goods that women had demanded, showing that the politics of presence alters the agenda.
Women-led panchayats have given more attention to sanitation, anganwadis, girls' schooling, health and campaigns against liquor and domestic violence.
Style of functioning: many observers report more regular Gram Sabha attendance by women when a woman presides, greater willingness to raise household concerns in public, and in some places less tolerance of petty corruption.
Social change: exposure to women leaders reduced voter bias against them in later elections, and Dalit and Adivasi women's presence has challenged both caste and gender hierarchies.
Constraints: proxy rule by husbands (pradhan-pati), illiteracy, rotation of reserved seats and hostility from dominant castes have limited impact in many places, and panchayats' own weak powers restrict what any leader can change.
Women's participation has therefore made rural local bodies more responsive and inclusive, though its full impact depends on training, longer tenure and devolution of real powers.

Question 8 (50 marks)

Q8(a) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Party System, Coalition Politics and Pressure Groups
Explain how pressure groups have been influencing public policy-making with suitable illustrations.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उपयुक्त उदाहरण देकर समझाइए कि दबाव समूह किस प्रकार लोक नीति-निर्माण को प्रभावित कर रहे हैं।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: Explain how pressure groups influence policy: define them and their types, describe their methods, illustrate with Indian cases, and add a brief evaluation.
Pressure groups are organised associations that try to influence public policy in their interest without contesting elections. Arthur Bentley's The Process of Government (1908) and David Truman's The Governmental Process (1951) placed group pressure at the centre of politics; Gabriel Almond classified them as associational, institutional, non-associational and anomic.
Types in India: business groups (FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM), labour unions (INTUC, AITUC, BMS, CITU), peasant organisations (Bharatiya Kisan Union, Shetkari Sanghatana), professional bodies (Bar Council, Indian Medical Association), caste and religious associations, and new social movements and NGOs.
Methods: lobbying ministers and bureaucrats, representation on advisory committees, pre-budget consultations, funding parties, media campaigns, litigation such as public interest litigation, and protest through strikes, dharnas and rallies.
Illustrations: industry associations shaped the 1991 reforms and later tax and trade policy; the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan's campaign led to the Right to Information Act (2005); the Right to Food campaign and Supreme Court litigation contributed to the midday meal scheme and the National Food Security Act (2013); Narmada Bachao Andolan forced rehabilitation policies onto the agenda; and farmer lobbies have long secured MSP, fertiliser subsidies and loan waivers. The anti-corruption movement of 2011 pushed the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act (2013).
Evaluation: pressure groups strengthen participatory democracy and inform policy, but access is unequal; organised business and rich farmers outweigh the unorganised poor, and India lacks lobbying regulation.
Pressure groups are therefore a vital link between society and the state; their democratic value depends on transparency and balanced access.
Q8(b) · The Constitution and the Organs of Government · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Duties, and Directive Principles
What are the provisions for constitutional protection of right to freedom of religion and how far have they succeeded in promoting secularism in India?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
धर्म की स्वतंत्रता के अधिकार के सांविधानिक संरक्षण के उपबन्ध कौन-से हैं और वे भारत में धर्मनिरपेक्षता को बढ़ाने में कहाँ तक सफल हुए हैं?
Practise this question The Constitution and the Organs of Government notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(b)
Approach: The question has two parts, so the answer first sets out the constitutional provisions on freedom of religion and their judicial interpretation, then evaluates how far they have promoted secularism.
India chose a secular state for a deeply religious, plural society, and Articles 25–28 protect freedom of religion.
Provisions: Article 25 guarantees freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practise and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality, health and other provisions of Part III, and lets the state regulate secular activities linked to religion and pursue social reform. Article 26 gives denominations the right to manage their religious affairs and property; Article 27 bars taxes for promoting any religion; Article 28 bars religious instruction in wholly state-funded institutions. Articles 29–30 protect minority institutions.
Judicial interpretation: the essential religious practices test (Shirur Mutt, 1954) protects only practices integral to a religion. Rev. Stanislaus (1977) held that propagation does not include a right to convert, while Bijoe Emmanuel (1986) protected Jehovah's Witness children who stood respectfully but did not sing the national anthem.
Successes: minorities have their own institutions and personal laws, temple entry and abolition of untouchability advanced reform, and secular parties and courts have resisted theocracy.
Limits: communal violence (1984, 2002), the politics of the Shah Bano case (1985) and the Muslim Women Act (1986), anti-conversion laws and the unrealised uniform civil code show the gap between principle and practice.
The provisions have succeeded in keeping India a multi-religious democracy, but secularism ultimately depends on political culture as much as on law.
Q8(c) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Electoral Behaviour and the Socio-economic Profile of Legislators
Account for the changes in the socio-economic profile of legislators during last one decade in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में पिछले एक दशक के दौरान, विधायकों के सामाजिक-आर्थिक वर्णन (प्रोफाइल) में बदलावों के कारण बताइए।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: Account for the changes in legislators' profile over 2004-2014 (wealth, criminal cases, caste, occupation, gender, age, dynasty) with ADR evidence, and explain the causes.
Since the Supreme Court's rulings of 2002-03 made candidates disclose assets, education and criminal cases, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has tracked the changing profile of legislators. The decade 2004-2014 shows clear trends.
Rising wealth: ADR found that the share of crorepati MPs rose from about 58 percent in 2009 to about 82 percent in 2014, showing that elections increasingly favour wealthy candidates. Criminalisation: MPs with declared criminal cases rose from about 30 percent in 2009 to about 34 percent in 2014.
Social composition: Christophe Jaffrelot and Sanjay Kumar's Rise of the Plebeians? (2009) shows that OBC legislators grew in the Hindi belt after Mandal, while upper-caste representation, after declining, partly recovered with the BJP's success in 2014.
Occupation and background: the share of agriculturists and businesspeople rose, while lawyers declined; political dynasties became more visible, especially among younger MPs.
Gender: women's representation in the Lok Sabha remained low, about 11 percent in 2014, as the Women's Reservation Bill passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 lapsed.
Causes: rising election costs, the role of money and muscle in winning, weak intra-party democracy, and the logic of winnability in ticket distribution. The profile shows a democratised social base but a narrowing economic base among India's legislators.

UPSC Mains 2014 Political Science and International Relations PSIR Paper II