UPSC Mains 2020 Sociology Optional Question Papers with Model Answers

All 56 questions of the 2020 Civil Services Main Examination, Sociology Paper I and Sociology 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 2020 Sociology Paper I

Question 1 (50 marks)

Q1(a) · Sociology: The Discipline · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Modernity, Social Change in Europe and the Emergence of Sociology
How did the intellectual forces lead to the emergence of sociology? Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
समाजशास्त्र के उद्गम में बौद्धिक शक्तियों ने किस तरह योगदान दिया? विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Sociology: The Discipline notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(a)
Approach: Discuss the intellectual forces only (scientific revolution, Enlightenment, conservative reaction, evolutionary and positivist thought) and show how each fed the founders, with one Indian link.
Sociology emerged from the meeting of several intellectual forces in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, alongside the industrial and political revolutions.
Scientific revolution: the success of Newtonian science suggested that society too obeys laws, inspiring Comte's 'social physics' and positivism.
Enlightenment: Montesquieu, Rousseau and Condorcet applied reason to society, compared institutions and believed in progress, making society an object of rational study.
Conservative reaction: de Bonald and de Maistre defended religion, family and hierarchy against revolutionary individualism; Irving Zeitlin argued that sociology's concern with order, community and the sacred came from them, as seen in Durkheim.
Evolutionary and economic thought: Spencer applied evolution to society, while political economy (Adam Smith, Ricardo) and German philosophy (Hegel) shaped Marx's historical materialism.
In India, the same Enlightenment ideas, spread through colonial education, encouraged reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy to question caste and sati, preparing ground for Indian sociology.
Thus intellectual forces gave sociology its scientific method and its central questions.
Q1(b) · Sociology as Science · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Fact, Value, Objectivity and Non-positivist Methodologies
Is sociology a value-free science? Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या समाजशास्त्र एक मूल्य-निरपेक्ष विज्ञान है? विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Sociology as Science notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(b)
Approach: Discuss the positions: the positivist and Weberian case for value freedom, the critics who deny it (Gouldner, Myrdal, Becker, Habermas, feminists), an Indian example, and a balanced conclusion.
A value-free science is one in which the researcher's personal judgements of good and bad do not influence findings. Positivists such as Comte and Durkheim believed sociology could be value-free by studying social facts as things.
Weber gave the classic middle position. Values enter through value relevance, since the topic is chosen for its cultural significance, but once chosen the analysis must be value-free, and a teacher should not preach from the lecture platform. Social science can show which means fit given ends, not which ultimate values to choose.
Critics deny that this is possible. Gouldner called value-free sociology a myth, Myrdal held that values enter all research and should be stated, Becker asked whose side we are on, and Habermas linked knowledge to interests. In India, the report Towards Equality (1974) combined rigorous data with a commitment to women's equality.
Sociology is therefore not value-free, but it can be value-aware: values are declared and checked through method and criticism.
Q1(c) · Sociology as Science · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Science, Scientific Method and Its Critique
Methodology is a system of rules, principles and procedures, which forms scientific investigation. Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रणाली विज्ञान नियमों, सिद्धान्तों एवं प्रक्रियाओं की एक ऐसी व्यवस्था है, जो वैज्ञानिक शोध को रूप देती है। टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Sociology as Science notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(c)
Approach: Comment on the statement by separating methodology from methods, showing how rules guide inquiry (Durkheim, Weber, Popper), then qualifying it with Kuhn and Feyerabend and an Indian example.
Methodology is the logic of inquiry: the rules, principles and procedures that decide how valid knowledge is obtained. It differs from methods, which are specific techniques such as surveys or interviews.
The statement is largely true. Durkheim's The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) laid down rules such as treating social facts as things, discarding prenotions and explaining a social fact by another social fact. Weber gave rules of ideal types, value freedom and causal adequacy, and Popper made falsifiability the test of a scientific claim. Such rules make research checkable and cumulative.
Yet methodology is not a mechanical rulebook. Thomas Kuhn showed that rules belong to paradigms and change in scientific revolutions, and Paul Feyerabend argued that discovery often breaks rules. Sociology also has several strands, each with its own rules. In India, Srinivas's contrast between the book view and the field view of caste was a methodological choice that changed what was found.
Thus methodology is a system of rules, but a reflexive and evolving one.
Q1(d) · Sociological Thinkers: Max Weber · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Max Weber: Social Action and Ideal Types
'Ideal Types' of Max Weber are mental constructs, they do not correspond to the reality. Give your views.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मैक्स वेबर के 'आदर्श प्ररूप' मानसिक संरचनाएँ हैं, जो वास्तविकता के अनुरूप नहीं हैं। अपने विचार दीजिए।
Practise this question Sociological Thinkers: Max Weber notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(d)
Approach: Agree that ideal types are mental constructs, then show that this is their purpose: they are measuring rods for real cases, not descriptions; end with criticism and an Indian example.
Max Weber described the ideal type as an analytical construct formed by the one-sided accentuation of one or more points of view and by synthesising many diffuse concrete phenomena into a unified mental picture.
The statement is half right. Weber himself said an ideal type is nowhere found empirically in reality. But this is its strength: it is a heuristic yardstick against which real cases are compared to frame hypotheses and causal explanations.
Ideal types are built from historical reality (authority, bureaucracy, the 'spirit of capitalism'), so they are not arbitrary fictions. In India, Louis Dumont's model of caste as hierarchy based on purity and pollution works like an ideal type; field studies such as Srinivas's Rampura show how real villages depart from it.
Alfred Schutz criticised Weber for not explaining how actors' own typifications relate to the observer's, and positivists find them hard to test. Still, they bridge interpretive understanding and causal analysis.
Q1(e) · Sociological Thinkers: Parsons, Merton and Mead · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Talcott Parsons: Social System and Pattern Variables
Analyse the relevance of 'Pattern variables' in the study of social change.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सामाजिक परिवर्तन के अध्ययन में 'प्रतिमान परिवर्तियों' की प्रासंगिकता का विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Practise this question Sociological Thinkers: Parsons, Merton and Mead notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(e)
Approach: Define pattern variables, show how Parsons used them to contrast traditional and modern societies, apply to Indian social change, and note limitations.
Talcott Parsons (with Edward Shils, Toward a General Theory of Action, 1951) defined pattern variables as five pairs of dilemmas of choice every actor faces in a role: affectivity versus affective neutrality, diffuseness versus specificity, particularism versus universalism, ascription versus achievement, and collectivity orientation versus self orientation.
They are relevant to social change because Parsons treated one set as typical of traditional societies (affectivity, diffuseness, particularism, ascription) and the other as typical of modern industrial societies (neutrality, specificity, universalism, achievement). Change can thus be measured as a shift in the dominant choices.
In India, the move from caste-based occupation (ascription) to recruitment by competitive examination (achievement), from jajmani ties (diffuse, particularistic) to contracts (specific, universalistic) shows such change.
Limitations: the dichotomy is linear and Western-centric. Milton Singer and Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph showed that tradition adapts and coexists with modernity, as caste associations in politics show. So the pattern variables are a useful yardstick of change, not a law of evolution.

Question 2 (50 marks)

Q2(a) · Sociological Thinkers: Parsons, Merton and Mead · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Robert K. Merton: Functions, Conformity and Deviance, Reference Groups
What are the reactions of R.K. Merton to the functionalism of social anthropologists? Bring out the limitations of latent functions.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सामाजिक मानवशास्त्रियों के प्रकार्यवाद के बारे में आर.के. मर्टन की प्रतिक्रियाएँ क्या हैं? निहित प्रकार्यों की सीमाओं के बारे में टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Sociological Thinkers: Parsons, Merton and Mead notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: Set out Merton's criticism of the three postulates of anthropological functionalism and his paradigm (dysfunction, functional alternatives, manifest and latent functions), then show the limitations of latent functions.
Robert K. Merton, in Social Theory and Social Structure (1949, revised 1957), accepted functional analysis but rejected the sweeping assumptions of social anthropologists such as Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown. He proposed a codified, empirically testable functionalism and theories of the middle range.
He questioned three postulates. The postulate of the functional unity of society (every item works for the whole system) holds at best for small, integrated societies, not complex ones. The postulate of universal functionalism (every standardised item has a positive function) ignores dysfunctions and non-functions. The postulate of indispensability (each item is necessary) ignores functional alternatives or equivalents.
In their place he offered: dysfunctions (consequences that reduce adaptation), net balance of consequences, the question 'functional for whom', functional alternatives, and the distinction between manifest functions (intended and recognised) and latent functions (neither intended nor recognised). His example was the Hopi rain dance, which does not produce rain but strengthens group solidarity.
Flow chart: social item → consequences → functional or dysfunctional → manifest (intended, recognised) or latent (unintended, unrecognised) → net balance.
Latent functions, however, have limitations. Whether a function is recognised depends on who is asked, so the line between manifest and latent is unclear. The concept risks explaining persistence by consequences discovered after the fact, a teleological or tautological argument, as critics such as Colin Campbell and Anthony Giddens noted. It also can justify harmful practices: caste or dowry may be said to have latent integrative functions, hiding their exploitation. Finally, the observer's judgement replaces actors' meanings, a criticism from interpretive sociology.
Still, Merton made functionalism more critical and realistic, and latent functions remain a key idea for seeing beyond appearances.
Q2(b) · Stratification and Mobility · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Equality, Inequality, Hierarchy, Exclusion, Poverty and Deprivation
How are Hierarchy and Exclusion the major impediments in the transformation of societies? Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
समाज के रूपान्तरण (ट्रांसफोर्मेशन) में पदानुक्रम एवं बहिष्करण किस तरह प्रमुख बाधक हैं? विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Stratification and Mobility notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: Define hierarchy, exclusion and transformation, explain through theory (Myrdal, Tumin, Parkin, Dumont) how they block economic, political and cultural change, give Indian evidence, and balance it with ways in which they are being challenged.
Hierarchy is a ranked ordering of groups by status, and exclusion is the denial of full participation in social life (René Lenoir, 1974). Transformation means a shift towards open, democratic and productive social arrangements; both act as brakes on it.
Economic impediment: hierarchy fixes occupations by birth and wastes talent. Gunnar Myrdal's Asian Drama (1968) saw caste and status attitudes as obstacles to development, and Melvin Tumin argued that stratification limits the discovery of talent among the poor. Hereditary occupations, Dalit landlessness and low female labour force participation keep human resources idle.
Political impediment: exclusion silences some groups while dominant groups capture institutions. Frank Parkin's social closure, drawn from Weber, shows privileged groups monopolising opportunities, as in elite capture of panchayats and welfare benefits.
Cultural impediment: hierarchy legitimised by religion (Dumont's pure and impure) breeds fatalism and resistance to inter-caste marriage, seen in honour killings and caste panchayats. Exclusion also breeds distrust and conflict, as Tumin noted, weakening national integration.
Flow chart: Ascribed hierarchy + exclusion → wasted talent, low human capital, elite capture → slow growth, weak democracy → conflict and mistrust → stalled transformation.
Yet the relation is not one way. Marxists see hierarchy changing as economic relations change; Srinivas showed Sanskritisation and westernisation creating mobility; and Christophe Jaffrelot's "silent revolution" of backward castes in politics shows the excluded transforming society. Globalisation has opened new jobs but also new exclusions such as the digital divide.
Hierarchy and exclusion are therefore major but not insurmountable impediments; inclusive education, land and labour rights and anti-discrimination law turn them into issues of democratic struggle.
Q2(c) · Politics and Society · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Nation, State, Citizenship, Democracy, Civil Society and Ideology
Explain democracy as an order of society. What are the factors preventing people's participation in politics?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रजातन्त्र को समाज की एक व्यवस्था के रूप में स्पष्ट कीजिए। राजनीति में लोगों की भागीदारी को रोकने वाले कारक क्या हैं?
Practise this question Politics and Society notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Two parts: explain democracy as a social order (Tocqueville, Ambedkar, Dewey) beyond a form of government, then list the social, economic and institutional factors that prevent participation, with Indian examples.
Democracy is not only a method of choosing governments but an order of society. Tocqueville (Democracy in America) saw it as a social condition of equality of status that shapes manners and associations.
B.R. Ambedkar, following John Dewey, called democracy a mode of associated living, and in 1949 warned that political democracy cannot last without social democracy based on liberty, equality and fraternity.
Factors preventing participation: (1) Social hierarchy: caste dominance and fear of reprisal limit Dalit participation in some villages. (2) Patriarchy: women face restrictions in public life, and some elected women panchayat members act as proxies for male relatives. (3) Poverty and lack of time or resources, which Sidney Verba linked to unequal participation. (4) Illiteracy and lack of information. (5) Migration: internal migrants often cannot vote where they work. (6) Apathy and distrust of politicians, notably among urban middle classes. (7) Money and muscle power in elections.
Removing these barriers turns formal democracy into a social order of equal citizens.

Question 3 (50 marks)

Q3(a) · Works and Economic Life · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Formal and Informal Organisation of Work
Capitalism has brought increasing informalisation of work in society. Substantiate your answer.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पूँजीवाद ने समाज में काम की अनौपचारिकता को बढ़ावा दिया है। अपने उत्तर द्वारा प्रमाणित कीजिए।
Practise this question Works and Economic Life notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: Substantiate with theory and evidence: flexible accumulation and the structuralist school (Harvey, Atkinson, Portes and Castells), informalisation inside formal firms and through subcontracting, Indian data and studies (NCEUS, Breman, Holmström); then a brief counterpoint and conclusion.
Informalisation means the spread of work without secure contracts, social security or legal protection, both through growth of the informal sector and through casualisation inside formal enterprises.
Early theories expected the opposite: W.A. Lewis's dualist model and modernisation theory assumed that capitalist growth would absorb traditional informal work. Instead, Portes, Castells and Benton (The Informal Economy, 1989) showed that capital deliberately uses informal labour through subcontracting to cut costs and weaken unions.
After the crisis of Fordism in the 1970s, David Harvey described a shift to flexible accumulation, and John Atkinson's flexible firm (1984) kept a small secure core and a growing periphery of temporary, part-time and outsourced workers. Guy Standing calls the result the precariat, and global value chains push production to home-workers in the South.
India shows this clearly. The NCEUS (2007) estimated about 92% of the workforce informally employed in 2004–05 and found that the growth of formal-sector jobs was largely informal. Contract labour expanded in factories and even government offices; the 2012 unrest at Maruti's Manesar plant was rooted partly in contract workers' grievances. Jan Breman's 'footloose labour' and Mark Holmström's 'fortress' of protected workers, whose walls became porous, describe the same trend.
Platform capitalism adds a new layer: gig workers are classed as 'partners', not employees, and NITI Aayog (2022) estimated 77 lakh of them in 2020–21.
Critics add nuance: in India informality predates capitalism, rooted in caste and household production (Harriss-White), and recent steps such as e-Shram and the Code on Social Security, 2020 seek partial formalisation.
Overall, capitalism has not eliminated informality but reproduced and deepened it as a source of flexible, cheap labour, as the structuralist school argued.
Q3(b) · Sociological Thinkers: Marx and Durkheim · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Emile Durkheim: Suicide, and Religion and Society
Critically analyse Durkheim's views on elementary forms of religious life and role of religion. Also discuss the consequences of religious revivalism in contemporary society.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
दुर्खीम के अनुसार धार्मिक जीवन के प्रारम्भिक रूपों (एलिमैन्ट्री फॉर्म्स ऑफ रिलिजियस लाइफ़) और धर्म की भूमिका का आलोचनात्मक विश्लेषण कीजिए। समकालीन समाज में धार्मिक पुनर्जागरणवाद के परिणामों की भी चर्चा कीजिए।
Practise this question Sociological Thinkers: Marx and Durkheim notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: First analyse the arguments and the functions of religion in The Elementary Forms with criticism; then discuss the positive and negative consequences of religious revivalism today, with Indian and world examples.
In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912), Durkheim studied the totemism of the Arunta of central Australia, using the ethnography of Spencer and Gillen, to find the essence of religion in its simplest form. Religion divides the world into sacred and profane; the totem is the emblem of the clan, so the sacred force people feel is the power of society itself.
Role of religion: rites, negative, positive and piacular, discipline members, bind them into a moral community, revive shared sentiments through collective effervescence, and console them in loss. Religion also gave the first categories of thought, such as time and space.
Criticism: E.E. Evans-Pritchard doubted that Arunta totemism was typical; Lévi-Strauss read totemism as classification; and Marx and conflict theorists note that religion legitimises inequality and divides groups.
Religious revivalism is the renewed assertion of religion in public life, which Peter Berger (1999) called the desecularisation of the world and José Casanova (1994) the deprivatisation of religion.
Consequences: positively, it can give identity, community and welfare, as in faith-based service; negatively, it can produce communalism, majoritarian politics and violence, as in the Ram Janmabhoomi mobilisation, the Babri Masjid demolition (1992) and the Khalistan movement of the 1980s, and globally after the Iranian Revolution (1979). It also strains secular constitutional values; T.N. Madan argued that secularism must take religion seriously in India.
Conclusion: revivalism thus shows Durkheim’s point that religion integrates the in-group, but also that this solidarity can sharpen boundaries against others.
Q3(c) · Systems of Kinship · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Patriarchy, Sexual Division of Labour and Contemporary Trends
Discuss the consequences of Across Region marriage on kinship system in modern Indian society.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
आधुनिक भारतीय समाज में नातेदारी प्रणाली पर क्षेत्रीय विवाह के परिणामों की चर्चा कीजिए।
Practise this question Systems of Kinship notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: Explain what across-region marriages are and why they arise (skewed sex ratio, poverty), citing Ravinder Kaur, then discuss their consequences for kinship rules, the bride's position and caste, both positive and negative.
Across-region marriages are marriages in which brides from poorer, distant regions such as West Bengal, Assam and Odisha marry men in Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh. Ravinder Kaur (Economic and Political Weekly, 2004) linked them to the shortage of women caused by sex selection; Haryana's child sex ratio was 834 in Census 2011.
Consequences for kinship: they break Karve's northern rules of caste endogamy and known-family alliance, since brides often come from other castes, languages and religions. Bride price or brokerage replaces dowry, reversing the direction of payment.
Bride's position: cut off from her natal kin, the bride lacks the protection of her family, and some are stigmatised as 'bought' brides (molki or paro) or trafficked. Yet some women describe economic security and gradual acceptance.
Wider effects: new inter-regional kin networks may slowly weaken caste purity norms, though the children's caste and inheritance can be contested.
These marriages show how demographic imbalance forces kinship rules to adapt, but they are a symptom of patriarchy rather than its decline.

Question 4 (50 marks)

Q4(a) · Social Change in Modern Society · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Education, Science, Technology and Social Change
Is humanity at the mercy of Nature, Science and Technology? Comment in the light of pandemic situation.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या मानवता प्रकृति, विज्ञान एवं प्रौद्योगिकी की दयालुता पर निर्भर है? महामारी के सन्दर्भ में टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Social Change in Modern Society notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: Use the pandemic to discuss humanity's relationship with nature and technology: vulnerability (Beck's risk society, zoonoses, Anthropocene), human agency through science, and the social distribution of risk; argue that humanity is not helpless but faces risks of its own making.
The COVID-19 pandemic revived an old question: does humanity control nature through science, or is it at the mercy of both? Comte and the Enlightenment saw science as the means of mastering nature, while Ulrich Beck's risk society (1986) argued that modern societies face manufactured risks created by science and industry themselves.
Vulnerability to nature: the pandemic, likely zoonotic in origin, spread through global travel and dense cities. Habitat loss, intensive animal farming and climate change, the conditions of what scientists call the Anthropocene, raise such risks. Lockdowns showed how quickly social life could be halted.
Vulnerability to science and technology: Beck and Giddens describe manufactured uncertainty, in which experts disagree and citizens must trust abstract systems. Misinformation on social media, privacy concerns over tracing apps, and debates over vaccine safety showed that technology can create new anxieties.
Human agency: yet science also gave humanity tools to respond: vaccines were developed within a year, India administered over 220 crore doses through CoWIN, and digital platforms sustained work, education and cash transfers. Collective action, public health systems and community networks, such as Kerala's local self-government response, mattered as much as technology.
Social distribution of risk: the burden was unequal. Migrant workers walking home during the 2020 lockdown, informal workers and children without devices bore the greatest costs, confirming Beck's point that risk follows inequality.
Humanity is therefore not at the mercy of nature or science, but it faces risks of its own making; reflexive modernisation, sustainable development and equitable public systems are the way forward.
Q4(b) · Social Change in Modern Society · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Education, Science, Technology and Social Change
According to Durkheim, “The major function of education is the transmission of society's norms and values.” Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
दुर्खीम के अनुसार “शिक्षा का महत्त्वपूर्ण कार्य समाज के मानकों एवं मूल्यों का प्रसार करना है।” विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Social Change in Modern Society notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Explain Durkheim's view of education as methodical socialisation (moral education, secular morality, specialised skills), extend with Parsons, then criticise through Marxist, Bourdieu and interactionist views with Indian examples.
For Durkheim (Education and Sociology, 1922; Moral Education), education is the methodical socialisation of the young generation. Its main function is to transmit society's norms and values so that individuals share the collective conscience that makes social life possible.
Durkheim argued that each society creates the type of person it needs. Education instils discipline, attachment to social groups and autonomy, the three elements of morality. In modern societies with organic solidarity, schools must teach a secular morality in place of religion, and history teaching builds commitment to society. Schools also teach specialised skills required by the division of labour, and act as a 'society in miniature' where children learn to follow impersonal rules.
Talcott Parsons extended this: the school is a bridge between the particularistic family and universalistic society, socialising pupils into achievement values and selecting them for adult roles. In India, the Constitution's values, NCERT curricula, the national anthem and civic education aim to build national integration.
Critique: Marxists argue that schools transmit the values of the ruling class: Althusser called the school the dominant ideological state apparatus, and Bowles and Gintis's correspondence principle shows schools mirroring the hierarchy of work. Bourdieu showed that schools reward the cultural capital of dominant groups. In India, Krishna Kumar showed how textbooks reflect the outlook of dominant groups, and debates over curriculum show that whose norms are transmitted is contested.
Flow chart: society's collective conscience → school (discipline, attachment, autonomy) → socialised individuals → social solidarity.
Durkheim's view correctly highlights education's integrative role, but must be balanced by recognising conflict, power and the potential of education for change, as in Freire's critical pedagogy.
Q4(c) · Stratification and Mobility · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Social Mobility: Open and Closed Systems, Types and Causes
Critically assess social mobility in closed and open systems.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सामाजिक गतिशीलता का बन्द एवं खुली व्यवस्थाओं के सन्दर्भ में आलोचनात्मक मूल्यांकन कीजिए।
Practise this question Stratification and Mobility notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: Assess mobility in closed and open systems critically: what is possible in each, with studies, and the limits of the dichotomy.
Closed systems such as caste fix status by birth, while open systems such as class allow movement by achievement. The contrast, however, is one of degree.
Closed systems: mobility is collective and positional. Srinivas showed castes rising through Sanskritisation, Surajit Sinha described tribal groups claiming Rajput status, and Owen Lynch (1969) showed the Jatavs of Agra moving from Sanskritisation to Ambedkarite Buddhism and political mobilisation. Yet Srinivas noted that such change is only positional; the hierarchy itself remains.
Open systems: mobility is individual and higher, but not equal. Goldthorpe's Oxford Mobility Study found that much upward mobility in Britain came from the expansion of service-class jobs (structural mobility), while relative chances by class origin barely changed. Racial and gender barriers persist, and Bourdieu shows privilege passed on through cultural capital.
Hence closed systems are not static and open systems are not fully fair; both must be assessed by actual rates and channels of mobility.

Question 5 (50 marks)

Q5(a) · Sociology: The Discipline · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Scope of Sociology and Comparison with Other Social Sciences
In the context of globalisation, has the scope of sociology been changing in India? Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या भारत में समाजशास्त्र के कार्यक्षेत्र में भूमण्डलीकरण के सन्दर्भ में बदलाव आ रहा है? टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Sociology: The Discipline notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Comment on how globalisation has widened the scope of Indian sociology: new themes (IT work, diaspora, consumerism, migration, digital life, gig work, identity), new theories and methods, with named Indian studies.
Globalisation, the growing interconnection of economies and cultures, especially after India's 1991 reforms, has widened the scope of Indian sociology.
New themes: earlier Indian sociology centred on caste, village, family and tribe. It now studies IT and call-centre work, as in Carol Upadhya's study of Bangalore's software workforce (Reengineering India, 2016), diaspora and remittances, consumer culture and the new middle class, migration, the gig economy and digital media.
Old themes reworked: caste appears in matrimonial websites and global labour markets; Yogendra Singh (Culture Change in India, 2000) examined identity amid globalisation.
New theories: Arjun Appadurai's 'scapes' (1996), Giddens' time-space distanciation and Beck's risk society are used to study Indian change.
New methods: multi-sited ethnography and digital data supplement village fieldwork.
Thus globalisation has expanded both the subject matter and the perspectives of sociology in India, while its core concerns of inequality and identity remain.
Q5(b) · Research Methods and Analysis · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Variables, Sampling, Hypothesis, Reliability and Validity
Discuss the importance and sources of hypothesis in social research.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सामाजिक शोध में परिकल्पना के महत्त्व एवं स्रोतों की चर्चा कीजिए।
Practise this question Research Methods and Analysis notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: Define hypothesis (Goode and Hatt), discuss its importance, then list its sources following Goode and Hatt with sociological and Indian examples.
A hypothesis is a testable statement of a relationship between variables; Goode and Hatt (1952) call it a proposition that can be put to a test to determine its validity.
Importance: it gives direction to research and prevents aimless data collection; it identifies the variables and the data required; it links theory with empirical evidence; it permits verification or falsification, which Popper saw as the mark of science; and tested hypotheses build theory, as Merton’s middle-range theories encouraged.
Sources (as classified by Goode and Hatt): first, general culture, such as the common belief that education weakens caste in marriage; second, scientific theory, such as Durkheim’s integration thesis applied to farmer suicides; third, analogies from other fields or societies, such as testing Sanskritisation among tribes; fourth, personal experience and observation, such as a researcher noticing that SHG membership seems to change women’s say at home. Previous research and its unanswered questions are a further source.
A good hypothesis must be clear, specific, testable and related to theory.
Q5(c) · Sociological Thinkers: Marx and Durkheim · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Emile Durkheim: Social Fact and Division of Labour
What are the problems in observing social facts in Durkheim's views?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
दुर्खीम के विचारों के अनुसार सामाजिक तथ्यों के अवलोकन में आने वाली समस्याएँ क्या हैं?
Practise this question Sociological Thinkers: Marx and Durkheim notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: State Durkheim’s rules for observing social facts and then explain the problems they raise, including his own answers and later criticism.
In The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Durkheim’s first rule was to consider social facts as things. Observation, he said, faces problems that the rules try to solve.
Problems: (i) social facts such as solidarity or collective conscience cannot be seen directly, so they must be studied through external indicators, as he used types of law for solidarity and suicide rates for integration; (ii) the observer carries prenotions, common-sense ideas that must be systematically set aside; (iii) facts must be defined by external characteristics and studied where they are detached from individual manifestations; (iv) distinguishing the normal from the pathological is difficult.
Later criticism: Jack Douglas (1967) and J. Maxwell Atkinson (1978) showed that official statistics are themselves social constructions; Weber and Alfred Schutz argued that meanings cannot be observed as things.
Indian example: under-reporting of suicides and of caste atrocities in police records shows how hard it is to observe social facts accurately.
Q5(d) · Religion and Society · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Sociological Theories of Religion
State the reasons for the various religious beliefs and practices in pre-modern societies.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पूर्व-आधुनिक समाजों में विभिन्न धार्मिक आस्थाओं एवं व्यवहारों के कारणों का उल्लेख कीजिए।
Practise this question Religion and Society notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: The question asks for the causes of religious belief and practice in pre-modern societies. Organise the reasons by theory: intellectual (Tylor, Frazer), emotional or psychological (Malinowski), social (Durkheim, Radcliffe-Brown) and power (Marx), with tribal Indian examples.
In pre-modern societies religion pervaded economy, kinship and politics, for several reasons.
Need to explain: Tylor traced animism to reflection on dreams and death, and Frazer (The Golden Bough, 1890) saw magic and religion as early attempts to explain and control nature before science.
Uncertainty and anxiety: Malinowski found that Trobriand Islanders used magic for dangerous open-sea fishing but not in the safe lagoon; religion helps at life crises such as birth, puberty and death. Rain rituals and harvest festivals among Indian peasants serve the same purpose.
Social solidarity: for Durkheim, totemic rituals expressed and renewed the unity of the clan, and Radcliffe-Brown showed that Andamanese rituals maintained social sentiments. The Santhal and Munda sacred grove (sarna) is the focus of village unity.
Legitimation and control: Marx and later conflict theorists saw religion as sanctioning the authority of chiefs, priests and kings, as in divine kingship.
With low technology and close-knit communities, religion supplied explanation, comfort, unity and order at once.
Q5(e) · Systems of Kinship · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Family, Household and Marriage: Types and Forms
Does the institution of marriage continue to be sacred in Indian society? Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या भारतीय समाज में विवाह की संस्था अभी भी पवित्र मानी जाती है? टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Systems of Kinship notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: Comment means giving a judgement: show the sacred elements that remain (ritual, indissolubility ideal, endogamy) and the forces of secularisation (law, divorce, choice, commercialisation), and conclude with a balanced view.
K.M. Kapadia (1955) described Hindu marriage as a sacrament: a religious duty for dharma and progeny, indissoluble and binding even beyond death. Christian marriage is also a sacrament, while Muslim nikah is a civil contract with religious sanction.
Sacredness continues: most marriages are still solemnised with saptapadi, nikah or church rites; arranged, caste-endogamous marriage remains the norm (only about 5% inter-caste, IHDS 2011–12); divorce stays rare and stigmatised; and rituals like Karva Chauth have grown popular through media.
Signs of secularisation: the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 made marriage dissoluble; the Special Marriage Act, 1954 allows civil marriage; courts protect live-in relationships (D. Velusamy, 2010); dowry shows commercialisation (Srinivas, 1984); and companionate ideals (Uberoi, 2006) put happiness above duty.
Weber's idea of disenchantment helps here: the sacred is giving way to rational calculation, but slowly and unevenly.
Marriage in India therefore remains sacred in ritual form and social meaning, while its legal basis and personal meaning have become increasingly contractual, especially among the urban educated.

Question 6 (50 marks)

Q6(a) · Works and Economic Life · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Labour and Society
Discuss the new labour codes and their impact on formal and informal labour in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
नई श्रम संहिताओं की विवेचना कीजिए और इनके भारत में औपचारिक एवं अनौपचारिक श्रमिकों पर पड़ने वाले प्रभावों का वर्णन कीजिए।
Practise this question Works and Economic Life notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: Outline the four labour codes and their main provisions, then assess their impact separately on formal labour (flexibility, unions, job security) and informal labour (minimum wages, social security, gig workers), with Polanyi, Standing and Breman, ending with a balanced view; note that the codes came into force in November 2025.
India consolidated 29 central labour laws into four labour codes: the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, 2020. They were passed by Parliament in 2019–20 and came into force on 21 November 2025.
Impact on formal labour: the Industrial Relations Code raised the threshold for prior government permission for lay-offs, retrenchment and closure from 100 to 300 workers, allowed fixed-term employment and extended notice requirements for strikes to all establishments. Employers welcome this flexibility as a spur to investment and formal hiring. Central trade unions call it a dilution of job security and collective bargaining, and held a nationwide strike in November 2020.
Impact on informal labour: the Code on Wages extends minimum wages to all workers, not only scheduled employments, and provides for a national floor wage. The Code on Social Security recognises gig, platform and unorganised workers and provides for welfare funds and registration, linked to e-Shram. The OSH Code covers inter-state migrant workers and allows women to work night shifts with consent and safeguards. These are steps towards what Karl Polanyi called the protective 'double movement'.
Limits: many benefits depend on rules framed by states and on registration; small units below thresholds remain outside most provisions; and enforcement capacity is weak. Jan Breman's and Barbara Harriss-White's work shows that informal labour is governed by caste, kinship and contractor networks that law reaches with difficulty.
The codes thus simplify law and widen formal coverage on paper, but shift the balance of power in the formal sector towards employers; their real impact on informal workers depends on implementation.
Q6(b) · Politics and Society · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Theories of Power, Power Elite, Bureaucracy, Pressure Groups and Parties
According to Mills, “Elites rule in institutional terms rather than psychological terms.” Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मिल्स के अनुसार, “विशिष्ट वर्ग संस्थागत दृष्टि से शासन करता है न कि मनोवैज्ञानिक दृष्टि से।” टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Politics and Society notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: Explain Mills's institutional (not psychological) theory of the power elite, contrast it with Pareto's psychological basis, evaluate with critics (Dahl, Parsons, Sweezy), and apply to India.
C. Wright Mills (The Power Elite, 1956) argued that in the mid-twentieth-century USA, major decisions were made by a small power elite. He explained its power by the positions its members occupy in key institutions, not by their personal qualities.
This was a deliberate break from classical elitism. Pareto traced elite rule to psychological residues, the lions' persistence and the foxes' cunning; Mosca and Michels relied partly on the incompetence and apathy of the masses. For Mills, people are powerful because they command the 'big three' institutional hierarchies: the corporations, the military and the federal political executive.
These institutions had become centralised and interlocked after the Second World War. Men moved between them (generals joining corporate boards, executives becoming cabinet members), shared similar class backgrounds, elite schools and clubs, and so formed a cohesive group. Below them was a middle level of Congress and interest groups, and at the base a passive mass society shaped by media.
Flow chart: institutional command posts (corporate, military, political) → interchange of personnel and shared background → cohesive power elite → decisions over a mass society.
Criticism: Robert Dahl said Mills did not show that the elite actually prevailed in specific decisions; Talcott Parsons objected to his zero-sum view of power; Marxists like Paul Sweezy said the elite is really the capitalist class. Mills did mention shared psychology and lifestyle, so the line between institutional and psychological is not absolute.
In India, the nexus between top bureaucrats, ministers and large business houses, and the movement of retired officials into regulatory and corporate posts, show institutional power; but competitive elections and movements limit any single elite.
Mills's statement thus shifts elite theory from personality to structure, which makes it testable and still useful.
Q6(c) · Research Methods and Analysis · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Techniques of Data Collection
Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of social survey method in social research.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सामाजिक शोध में सामाजिक सर्वेक्षण पद्धति की योग्यताओं एवं कमजोरियों का विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Practise this question Research Methods and Analysis notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: Define the social survey with early examples, then analyse strengths and weaknesses in two balanced blocks with Indian surveys (NSS, NFHS, PLFS) and critics (Cicourel), ending with a short judgement.
A social survey collects standardised information from a large number of respondents, usually a sample, through questionnaires, schedules or structured interviews. Charles Booth’s survey of London poverty (1886–1903) and Seebohm Rowntree’s study of York (1899) were early examples; in India the National Sample Survey has run since 1950.
Strengths: wide coverage and representativeness with probability samples, so findings can be generalised, as with NFHS-5 (2019–21) or PLFS on employment; high reliability because questions are standardised and can be repeated; comparison across caste, region and time; and direct use in policy.
Weaknesses: it captures what people say, not what they do; answers may be shaped by social desirability, such as under-reporting dowry or untouchability; the researcher’s categories may not fit respondents’ meanings, lowering validity; non-response and interviewer effects of caste or gender distort results. Cicourel and other interpretivists argue that survey data are constructed by the instrument itself.
Thus the survey is indispensable for breadth, but it gains validity when supported by qualitative methods.

Question 7 (50 marks)

Q7(a) · Social Change in Modern Society · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Development and Dependency
Technology has accelerated the process of development and dependency. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रौद्योगिकी ने प्रगति एवं निर्भरता की प्रक्रिया को बढ़ावा दिया है। विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Social Change in Modern Society notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Show technology as an accelerator of development (Ogburn, Castells, India's digital public infrastructure) and of dependency (world-systems, platform and data dependence), then conclude that outcomes depend on control over technology.
Technology has long been seen as a motor of change: Ogburn treated invention and diffusion as the main sources of change, and modernisation theorists such as Rostow saw technology transfer as the route to take-off. Dependency theorists, however, see technology as a channel of unequal power.
Accelerating development: Manuel Castells's network society shows information technology reorganising economies around knowledge. In India, the Green Revolution raised food output from the mid-1960s; IT services created a new middle class; and digital public infrastructure, Aadhaar, UPI (launched 2016) and Direct Benefit Transfer, reduced leakages and expanded financial inclusion. Mobile phones and telemedicine reached villages, and online learning sustained education during COVID-19.
Accelerating dependency: in Wallerstein's terms, the core monopolises high-technology production while the periphery buys it. Most countries depend on a few firms and nations for semiconductors, operating systems, cloud services and patented medicines; India imports most of its chips. Scholars describe platform capitalism and data colonialism, where data from the global South flows to corporations in the core. The Green Revolution created dependence on hybrid seeds, fertilisers and agribusiness, which Vandana Shiva criticised.
Technology also deepens internal dependence: NFHS-5 (2019–21) found that only 33.3% of women aged 15–49 had ever used the internet, against 57.1% of men, so benefits flow unevenly and the digital divide reproduces inequality.
Flow chart: technology → productivity and connectivity → development; technology owned by core → royalties, data and profit outflow → dependency.
Thus technology accelerates both processes; whether it yields autonomy or dependency depends on indigenous capacity, as India's open digital public infrastructure and semiconductor push suggest, and on inclusive access.
Q7(b) · Sociology as Science · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Fact, Value, Objectivity and Non-positivist Methodologies
Phenomenological perspectives in sociology reject many of the assumptions of positivism. Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
समाजशास्त्र में घटनात्मक दृष्टिकोण, प्रत्यक्षवाद की बहुत सी पूर्वधारणाओं को अस्वीकार करते हैं। टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Sociology as Science notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: Comment by listing the main assumptions of positivism and showing how phenomenology (Husserl, Schutz, Berger and Luckmann) and its offshoots reject each, with Indian illustrations, then assess the limits of the phenomenological critique.
Phenomenology, a philosophy of Edmund Husserl brought into sociology by Alfred Schutz (The Phenomenology of the Social World, 1932), studies how people experience and give meaning to the everyday world. The statement is correct: it rejects several core assumptions of positivism.
First, positivism assumes that society is an objective reality external to individuals, as in Durkheim's social facts. Phenomenology holds that reality is built through consciousness and shared typifications in the taken-for-granted life-world. Berger and Luckmann (1966) showed how human products are externalised, objectivated and then internalised, so that society appears as an objective thing.
Second, positivism assumes one method for natural and social sciences. Phenomenologists reply that atoms do not interpret their world but people do, so the sociologist must study first-order meanings of actors before building second-order concepts.
Third, positivism treats official statistics as facts. Phenomenologists and ethnomethodologists show that they are products of classification: Jack Douglas and J. Maxwell Atkinson for suicide, Cicourel for delinquency. In India, the meaning and counting of caste depend on how enumerators and people classify it, as the colonial census and the 2025 decision to enumerate caste show.
Fourth, positivism assumes a detached, value-free observer and causal laws. Phenomenology asks the researcher to bracket preconceptions and describe how meanings are formed, rather than to search for laws.
Flow chart: external facts → constructed reality; one method → meaning-first method; statistics as facts → statistics as products; causal laws → description of meaning-making.
The critique has limits: it neglects structure, power and inequality, can slide into relativism, and offers little for large-scale comparison. Giddens's structuration and Bourdieu's habitus try to join its insight on meaning with the reality of structure.
Q7(c) · Sociological Thinkers: Marx and Durkheim · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Karl Marx: Alienation and Class Struggle
Critically assess the Marxian theory of 'Alienation'.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मार्क्स के 'अलगाववाद' के सिद्धान्त का आलोचनात्मक मूल्यांकन कीजिए।
Practise this question Sociological Thinkers: Marx and Durkheim notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Briefly state the theory, then assess its strengths and weaknesses with critics and an Indian example.
Marx’s theory of alienation (Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, 1844) holds that under capitalism workers are estranged from the product, the labour process, their species-being and other people, because private property and wage labour take control of work away from them.
Strengths: it gives a structural, not merely psychological, account of discontent at work, links economy to human nature, and inspired later studies such as Harry Braverman’s on deskilling (1974) and Arlie Hochschild’s on emotional labour (1983). Gig workers in India managed by apps illustrate it.
Weaknesses: (i) it is philosophical and hard to test, so Melvin Seeman (1959) turned it into measurable feelings of powerlessness and meaninglessness; (ii) Robert Blauner (1964) found that alienation varies with technology; (iii) Weber argued that bureaucracy would alienate even under socialism; (iv) Althusser saw the early concept as humanist and pre-scientific.
Thus the theory remains a powerful critique, though it needs empirical refinement.

Question 8 (50 marks)

Q8(a) · Sociological Thinkers: Marx and Durkheim · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Karl Marx: Alienation and Class Struggle
How does Marx view social conflict as an essential element in social change?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सामाजिक परिवर्तन में मार्क्स सामाजिक संघर्ष को कैसे एक मौलिक तत्त्व के रूप में मानता है?
Practise this question Sociological Thinkers: Marx and Durkheim notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: Explain how, for Marx, conflict arising from contradictions in the mode of production drives change, through class consciousness and revolution, then give Indian examples and criticism.
Marx and Engels opened The Communist Manifesto (1848) with the claim that the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. For Marx, social conflict is not a disorder but the engine of change, because it springs from contradictions built into every class society.
Source of conflict: in each mode of production one class owns the means of production and appropriates the surplus of another, freemen and slaves, lords and serfs, bourgeoisie and proletariat. Their interests are opposed, so conflict is structural.
Mechanism of change: as the forces of production develop they clash with the relations of production; the exploited class moves from a class in itself to a class for itself (The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847) as it gains consciousness and organisation; revolution then replaces the old relations and the superstructure changes with the base.
Flow chart: contradiction of forces and relations → exploitation → class consciousness → class struggle → revolution → new mode of production
India: the Tebhaga (1946–47) and Telangana (1946–51) struggles and the Naxalbari uprising (1967) pressed land reform and tenancy rights, analysed by D.N. Dhanagare; trade union struggles such as the Bombay textile strike (1982–83) won labour laws.
Criticism: Ralf Dahrendorf (1959) located conflict in authority rather than property; Lewis Coser (1956) showed that conflict can also integrate groups; functionalists stress consensus; and revolutions did not occur in advanced capitalism. Still, Marx made conflict central to the sociology of change.
Q8(b) · Systems of Kinship · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Patriarchy, Sexual Division of Labour and Contemporary Trends
What is the impact of gender division of labour on the development of society?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
समाज के विकास पर श्रम के लिंग-विभाजन के पड़ने वाले प्रभाव कौन-से हैं?
Practise this question Systems of Kinship notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(b)
Approach: Define the gender division of labour and its explanations, then analyse its impact on development (economic, human development, demographic, political) with Boserup, Mies, Sen and Indian data, and close with policy implications.
The gender division of labour allocates production and public roles mainly to men and reproduction, domestic work and care mainly to women. Functionalists (Murdock; Parsons's instrumental and expressive roles) saw it as natural and efficient, while Margaret Mead (1935) and Ann Oakley (1974) showed it to be cultural.
Economic impact: Ester Boserup (Woman's Role in Economic Development, 1970) showed that modernisation and plough agriculture marginalised women, as new technology and training went to men. India's female labour force participation was only 41.7% in 2023–24 (PLFS, age 15+), and much of women's work is unpaid, so a large part of human potential is under-used.
Invisible work: the Time Use Survey 2019 found women spending about 299 minutes a day on unpaid domestic work against 97 for men. Because GDP ignores this work, development planning undervalues it; Maria Mies (1982) showed how Narsapur lace makers were 'housewifised' to cheapen their labour for export.
Human development: confining women to the home limits their education, health and autonomy; Amartya Sen's capability approach treats such deprivation as a failure of development, and his 'missing women' (1990) point to the deadly side of devaluing women.
Demographic and social effects: where women work outside and earn, fertility and child marriage fall and children's schooling improves, as Kerala's experience suggests.
Political effects: women's limited time restricts public participation, though reservation in panchayats (73rd Amendment, 1992) and the Women's Reservation Act, 2023 aim to change this.
A rigid gender division of labour thus slows growth and narrows freedoms. Recognising, reducing and redistributing care work, through crèches, maternity and paternity benefits and support for self-help groups, is essential for inclusive development.
Q8(c) · Politics and Society · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Protest, Social Movements, Collective Action and Revolution
Examine how social movements come to an end. Illustrate with examples.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
परीक्षण कीजिए कि सामाजिक आन्दोलनों का अन्त कैसे होता है। उदाहरणों सहित स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Politics and Society notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: Use the life-cycle model (Blumer and later writers) and Miller's four routes of decline (success, failure, co-optation, repression), with an Indian example for each.
Social movements pass through a life cycle of emergence, coalescence, bureaucratisation and decline, a model developed from Herbert Blumer's work. Frederick Miller (1999) identified four main routes by which movements end.
Success: when goals are met, the movement dissolves or turns into an institution. The farmers' protest of 2020–21 ended in December 2021 after the three farm laws were repealed. Co-optation: leaders are absorbed into the system; Weber's routinisation of charisma and Michels's oligarchy explain this, as when the India Against Corruption movement gave rise to the Aam Aadmi Party in 2012, and T.K. Oommen showed the Bhoodan movement becoming an institution.
Repression: the state crushes the movement, as with the Telangana armed struggle after 1948 and Naxalite groups in the 1970s. Failure: internal splits, loss of resources or of public support, as the Narmada Bachao Andolan weakened after the Supreme Court allowed the dam's construction in 2000.
Movements rarely vanish entirely; their ideas often survive in laws, parties and new movements.

UPSC Mains 2020 Sociology Paper II