Class 12

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Political Science Solutions Unit 3 Democratic Process in India-II Long Answer Questions.

CHSE Odisha 12th Political Science Unit 3 Democratic Process In India-II Long Answer Questions

Short Notes
Question:
Communalism
Answer:
The other long-term development during this period was the rise of politics based on religious identity, leading to a debate about secularism and democracy. We noted in Chapter Six that in the aftermath of the Emergency, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh had merged into the Janata Party. After the fall of the Janata Party and its break-up, the supporters of erstwhile Jana Sangh formed the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) in 1980.

Initially, the BJP adopted a broader political platform than that of the Jana Sangh. It embraced ‘Gandhian Socialism’ as its ideology. But it did not get much success in the elections held in 1980 and 1984. After 1986, the party began to emphasise the Hindu nationalist element in its ideology. The BJP pursued the politics of ‘Hindutva’ and adopted the strategy of mobilising the Hindus. Hindutva literally means ‘Hinduness’ and was defined by its originator, V. D. Savarkar, as the basis of Indian (in his language also Hindu) nationhood.

It basically meant that to be members of the Indian nation, everyone must not only accept India as their ‘fatherland’ (pitrubhu) but also as their holy land (punyabhu). Believers of ‘Hindutva’ argue that a strong nation can be built only on the basis of a strong and united national culture.

They also believe that in the case of India the Hindu culture alone can provide this base. Two developments around 1986 became central to the politics of BJP as a ‘Hindutva’ party. The first was the Shah Bano case in 1985. In this case a 62-year old divorced Muslim woman, had filed a case for maintenance from her former husband. The Supreme Court ruled in her favour.

The orthodox Muslims saw the Supreme Court’s order as an interference in Muslim Personal Law. On the demand of some Muslim leaders, the government passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 that nullified the Supreme Court’s judgefnent. This action of the government was opposed by many women’s organisations, many Muslim groups and most of the intellectuals. The BJP criticised this action of the Congress government as an unnecessary concession and ‘appeasement’ of the minority community.

Question:
Ayodhya dispute
Answer:
The second development was the order by the Faizabad district court in February 1986. The court ordered that the Babri Masjid premises be unlocked so that Hindus could offer prayers at the site which they considered as a temple. A dispute had been going on for many decades over the mosque known as Babri Masjid at Ayodhya.

Mughal emperor Babur’s General. Some Hindus believe that it was built after demolishing a temple for Lord Rama in what is believed to be his birthplace. The dispute took the form of a court case and has continued for many decades. In the late 1940s the mosque was locked up as the matter was with the court.

As soon as the locks of the Babri Masjid were opened, mobilisation began on both sides. Many Hindu and Muslim organisations tried to mobilise their communities on this question. Suddenly this local dispute became a major national question and led to communal tensions. The BJP made this issue its major electoral and political plank.

Along with many other organisations like the RSS and the Vishva Hindu Pari shad (VHP), it convened a series of symbolic and mobilisational programmes. This large scale mobilisation led to surcharged atmosphere and many instances of communal violence. The BJP, in order to generate public support, took out a massive march called the Rathyatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in UP.

Question:
Demolition and after. Explain.
Answer:
In December 1992, the organisations supporting the construction of the temple had organised a Karseva, meaning voluntary service by the devotees, for building the Ram temple. The situation had become tense all over the country and especially at Ayodhya. The Supreme Court had ordered the State government to take care that the disputed site will not be endangered.

However, thousands of people gathered from all over the country at Ayodhya on 6 December 1992 and demolished the mosque. This news led to clashes between the Hindus and Muslims in many parts of the country. The violence in Mumbai erupted again in January 1993 and continued for over two weeks.

Question:
Write about the Anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat
Answer:
In February-March 2002, large-scale violence against Muslims took place in Gujarat. The immediate provocation for this violence was an incident that took place at a station called Godhra. A bogey of a train that was returning from Ayodhya and was full of Karsevaks was set on fire. Fifty seven people died in that fire. Suspecting the hand of the Muslims in setting fire to the bogey, large-scale violence against Muslims began in many parts of Gujarat from the next day. This violence continued for almost a whole month.

Nearly 1100 persons, mostly Muslims, were killed in this violence. The National Human Rights Commission criticised the Gujarat government’s role in failing to control violence, provide relief to the victims and prosecute the perpetrators of this violence. The Election Commission of India ordered the assembly elections to be postponed. As in the case of anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

Question:
Popular movements
Answer:
Chipko movement: The movement began in two or three villages of Uttarakhand when the forest department refused permission to the villagers to fell ash trees for making agricultural tools. However, the forest department allotted the same patch of land to a sports manufacturer for commercial use. This enraged the villagers and they protested against the move of the government. The struggle soon spread across many parts of the Uttarakhand region.

Larger issues of ecological and economic exploitation of the region were raised. The villagers demanded that no forest-exploiting contracts should be given to outsiders and local communities should have effective control over natural resources like land, water and forests. They wanted the government to provide low cost materials to small industries and ensure development of the region without disturbing the ecological balance.

The movement took up economic issues of landless forest workers and asked for guarantees of minimum wage. Women’s active participation in the Chipko agitation was a very novel aspect of the movement. The forest contractors of the region usually doubled up as suppliers of alcohol to men. Women held sustained agitations against the habit of alcoholism and broadened the agenda of the movement to cover other social issues.

The movement achieved a victory when the government issued a ban on felling of trees in the Himalayan regions for fifteen years until the green cover was fully restored. But more than that, the Chipko movement, which started over a single issue, became a symbol of many such popular movements emerging in different parts of the country during the 1970s and later. In this chapter we shall study some of these movements.

Party based movements :
Popular movements may take the form of social movements or political movements and there is often an overlap between the two. The nationalist movement, for example, was mainly a political movement. But we also know that deliberations on social and economic issues during the colonial period gave rise to independent social movements like the anti-caste movement, the kiscm sabhas and the trade union movement in early twentieth century.

These movements raised issues related to some underlying social conflicts. Some of these movements continued in the post¬independence period as Well. Trade union movement had a strong presence among industrial workers in major cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Kanpur. All major political parties established their own trade unions for mobilising these sections of workers.

Peasants in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh organised massive agitations under the leadership of Communist parties in the early years of independence and demanded redistribution of land to cultivators. Peasants and agricultural labourers in parts of Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and adjoining areas continued their agitations under the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist workers; who were known as the Naxalites (you have already read about the Naxalite movement in the last chapter). The peasants’ and the workers’ movements mainly focussed on issues of economic injustice and inequality.

These movements did not participate in elections formally. And yet they retained connections with political parties, as many participants in these movements, as individuals and as organisations, were actively associated with parties. These links ensured a better representation of the demands of diverse social sections in party politics.

Dalit Panthers:
It is a well-known Marathi poet Namdeo Dhasal. Do you know who these ‘pilgrims of darkness’ in this poem are and who the ‘sunflower-giving fakir’ was that blessed them? The pilgrims were the Dalit communities who had experienced brutal caste injustices for a long time in our society and the poet is referring to Dr. Ambedkar as their liberator. Dalit poets in Maharashtra wrote many such poems during the decade of : seventies.

These poems were expressions of anguish that the Dalit masses continued to face even after twenty years of independence. But they were also full of hope for the future, a future that Dalit groups wished to shape for themselves. You are aware of Dr. Ambedkar’s vision of socio-economic change and his relentless struggle for a dignified future for Dalits outside the Hindu caste-based social structure. It is not surprising that Dr.Ambedkar remains an iconic and inspirational figure in much of Dalit liberation writings.

Origins:
By the early nineteen seventies, the first generation Dalit graduates, especially those living in city slums began to assert themselves from various platforms. Dalit Panthers, a militant organisation of the Dalit youth, was formed in Maharashtra in 1972 as a part of these assertions. In the post-Independence period, Dalit groups were, mainly fighting against the perpetual caste based inequalities and material injustices that the Dalits faced in spite of constitutional guarantees of equality and justice. Effective; implementation of reservations and other such policies of social justice was one of their, prominent demands.

Bharatiya Kisan Union:
The social discontent in Indian society since the seventies was manifold. Even those sections that partially benefited in the process of development had many complaints against the state and political parties. Agrarian struggles of the eighties is one such example where better off farmers protested against the policies of the state.

Growth :
In January 1988, around twenty thousand farmers had gathered in the city of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. They were protesting against the government decision to increase electricity rates. The farmers camped for about three weeks outside the district collector’s office until their demands were fulfilled.

It was a very disciplined agitation of the farmers and all those days they received regular food supply from the nearby villages. The Meerut agitation was seen as a great show of rural power of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), an organisation of farmers from western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana regions.

The BKU was one of the leading organisations in the farmers’ movement of the eighties. We have noted in Chapter Three that farmers of Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh had benefited in the late 1960s from the state policies of green revolution’. Sugar aid wheat became the main cash crops in the region since then.

The cash crop market faced a crisis in mid-eighties due to the beginning of the process of liberalisation of Indian economy. The BKU demanded higher government floor prices for sugarcane and wheat, abolition of A Bhartiya Kisan Union Rally in Punjab.

Credit:
Hindustan Times restrictions on the inter-state movement of farm produce, guaranteed supply of electricity at reasonable rates, waiving of repayments due on loans to farmers and the provision of a government pension for farmers.

Characteristics:
Activities conducted by the BKU to pressurise the state for accepting its demands included rallies, demonstrations, sit-ins, and fail bharo (courting imprisonment) agitations.

Uttar Pradesh and adjoining regions. Throughout the decade of eighties, the BKU organised massive rallies of these farmers in many district headquarters of the State and also at the .national capital. Another novel aspect of these mobilisations was the use of caste linkages of farmers. Most of the BKU members belonged to a single community.

The organisation used traditional caste panchayats of these communities in bringing them together over economic issues. In spite of lack of any formal organisation, the BKU could sustain itself for a long time because it was based on clan networks among its members. Funds, resources and activities of BKU were mobilised through these networks.

Women Movements 
Arreck Movement
Origins :
In a village in the interior of Dubagunta in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, women had enrolled in the Adult Literacy Drive on a large scale in the early nineteen nineties. It is during the discussion in the class that women complained of increased consumption of a alcoholism had taken deep roots among the village people and was ruining their physical and mental health.

It affected the rural economy of the region a great deal. Indebtedness grew with increasing scales of consumption of alcohol, men remained absent from their jobs and the contractors of alcohol engaged in crime for securing their monopoly over the arrack trade. Women were the worst sufferers of these ill effects of alcohol as it resulted in the collapse of the family economy and women had to bear the brunt of violence from the male family members, particularly the husband.

Women in Nellore came together in spontaneous local initiatives to protest against arrack and forced closure of the wine shop. The news spread fast and women of about 5000 villages got inspired and met together in meetings, passed resolutions for imposing prohibition and sent them to the District Collector. The arrack auctions in Nellore district | were postponed 17 times. This movement in Nellore District slowly spread all over the State.

Linkages:
The slogan of the anti-arrack movement was simple — prohibition on the sale of arrack. But this simple demand touched upon larger social, economic and political issues of the region that affected women’s life. A close nexus between crime and politics was established around the business of arrack.

The State government collected huge revenues by way of taxes imposed on the sale of arrack and was therefore not willing to impose a bail. Groups of local women tried to address these complex issues in their agitation against arrack. They also openly discussed the issue of domestic violence.

Their movement, for the first time, provided a platform to discuss private issues of domestic violence. Thus, the anti-arrack movement also became part of the women’s movement. Earlier, women’s groups working on issues of domestic violence, the custom of dowry, sexual abuse at work and public places were active mainly among urban middle class women in different parts of the country.

Their work led to a realisation that issues of injustice to women and of gender inequalities were complicated in nature. During the decade of the eighties women’s | movement focused on issues of sexual family and outside.

These groups ran a campaign against the system of dowry and demanded personal and property laws based on the norms of gender equality. These campaigns contributed a great deal in increasing overall social awareness about women’s questions. Focus of the women’s movement gradually shifted , from legal reforms to open social confrontations like the one we discussed above.

As a result the movement made demands of equal representation to women in politics during the nineties. We know that 73rd and 74th amendments have granted reservations to women in local level political offices. Demands for extending similar reservations in State and Central legislatures have also been made.

A constitution amendment bill to this effect has been proposed but has not received enough support from the Parliament yet. Main opposition to the bill has come from groups, including some women’s groups, who are insisting on a separate quota for Dalit and OBC women within the proposed women’s quota in higher i political offices.

Narmada Bachao Andolan:
An ambitious developmental project was launched in the Narmada valley of central India in early eighties. The project consisted of 30 big dams,-135 medium sized and around 3,000 Small dams to be constructed on the Narmada and its tributaries that flow across three states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat and the Narmada Sagar Project in Madhya Pradesh were two of the most important and biggest, multi-purpdse dams planned under the project.

Narmada Bachao Aandolan, a movement to save Narmada opposed the construction of these dams and questioned the themselves to mobilisation and collective action by women. Women’s studies and women’s movements are often used synonymously.

Of course, both are closely related and the former includes the latter but the focus of the present essay, as we have discussed in Chapter I, limited to a review of the literature on women’s collective actions. For that purpose, research- based monographs on women’s movements in India are relatively few.

Most of them are at an exploratory stage.Except for a few, many of the studies are anecdotal, impressionistic and polemical for action—prescription for action—written by feminist activists in journalistic style. For activists involved in feminist movements, feminism is not merely a discourse to be analysed, but ‘a method of bringing about social change’.

Whether one argues that the discourse and methodology—strategies, tactics and programmes—for social change are inseparable or not, the increasing literature certainly provides valuable theoretical and philosophical articulation and empirical data, posing relevant questions and hypotheses for in-depth studies on the social system in general and women’s position therein, in particular.

Some theoretical studies are also available, but more often than not, it is felt that they deal mainly with issues raised by western scholars. Even if this is so, this should not belittle the importance of such studies. Western influence, after all, affects all spheres of our life.

This is more so in the era of globalisation. Moreover, ‘women’s resistance to male domination’, as we understand it today, was the product of western education. British, women took the initiative in forming women’s organisations and defining their objectives!

Women’s liberation movements in India are believed to be largely influenced by women’s movements in the west, which emphasise the ‘universality’ of gender oppression and therefore ‘universal sisterhood’ of women. This has been questioned by many intellectuals.

Questions Solved

Question 1.
Which among the following statements about the partition is incorrect?
(a) Partition of India was the outcome of the “two-nation theory”.
(b) Punjab and Bengal were the two provinces divided on the basis of religion.
(c) East Pakistan and West Pakistan were not contiguous.
(d) The scheme of Partition included a plan for transfer of population across the border.
Answer:
(d)The scheme of partition included a plan for transfer of population across

Question 2.
Match the principles with instances:

(a) Mapping of boundaries on religious ground	(i)Pakistan and Bangladesh
(b) Mapping of boundaries on grounds of different languages	(ii)India and Pakistan
(c) Demarcating boundaries within a country by geographical zones	(iii)Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh
(d) Demarcating boundaries within a country on administrative and political grounds	(iv)Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand

Answer:
(a)-(ii), (b)-(iv), (c)-(i), (d)-(iii)

Question 3.
Take a current political map of India (showing outlines of states) and mark the location of the following Princely States,
(a) Junagadh
(b) Manipur
(c) Mysore
(d) Gwalior.

 

Answer:
The places are marked as 3(a), 3(b), 3(c) and 3(d).

Question 4.
Here are two opinions: Bismay: “The merger with the Indian State was an extension of democracy to the people of the Princely States.” Inderpreet: “I am not so sure, there was force being used. Democracy comes by creating consensus.” What is your opinion in the light of accession of Princely States and the responses of the people in these parts?
Answer:
Accession of Princely States and merger with Indian union was to expand democracy all over the country because princely states never enjoyed their political rights. Indian government central government used force to extend democracy to some extent as this was mandatory to have a uniform base in the country.

Question 5.
Read the following very different statements made in August 1947: “Today you have worn on your heads a crown of thorns. The seat of power is a nasty thing. You have to remain ever wakeful on that seat you have to he more humble and forbearing now there will be no end to your being tested. ” -M.K, Gandhi “India will awake to a life of freedom we step out from, the old to the new we end, today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, -Jawaharlal Nehru Spell out the agenda of nation building that flows from these two statements. Which one appeals more to you and why?

Answer: These two statements focus on the agenda of secularism, democracy, sovereignty and freedom. It focuses on the path which will lead to the real development and prosperity of our country. The first statement appeals to me more than the second one because it invokes the countrymen to remain awake, alert and conscious as it is not the end of our struggle. The time to build the nation initiates now.

Question 6.
What are the reasons being used by Nehru for keeping India secular? Do you think these reasons were only ethical and sentimental? Or were there some prudential reasons as well?
Answer:
Reasons for keeping India secular:
1. All the Muslims did not leave India during participation, some muslims stayed in India as a minority and Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to deal with them in a very civilised and dignified manner.
2. He advocated security and democratic rights of Muslims as a citizen of India. No, these reasons were not only ethical and sentimental, but there were some prudential reasons also as:

•  India’s secular nature cherished its long term goals and principles like socialism, equality, liberty and fraternity.
•  Secularism stops any single faith to become superior and inferior to those who practicised another religion. Hence it considers all citizens equal irrespective of religious affiliation.

Question 7.
Bring out two major differences between the challenge of nation building for eastern and western regions of the country at the time of Independence.
Answer:
The two major differences between eastern (Bengal) and Western (Punjab)regions can be summed up as follows:1. These regions were the muslim majority provinces to be joined. Hence, it was decided that new country Pakistan will comprise two territories i.e. West and East Pakistan.
2. Secondly, there was a problem of minorities on both sides of border (East and West). Lakhs of Hindus and Sikhs in areas of Pakistan and Muslims on the Indian side of Punjab and Bengal found themselves trapped with no option except to leave their homes.

Question 8.
What was the task of the States Reorganisation Commission? What was its most salient recommendation?
Answer:
The State ReorganisationCommission was set up in 1953 by central government to look into the matter of redrawing of boundaries of state:
1. The commission evolved that states’ boundaries should reflect the boundaries of different languages to accommodate linguistic diversity.
2. The State Reorganisation Act was passed in 1 956 which resulted the creation of 14 states and 6 union territories.
3. Its most salient recommendation was the formation of linguistic states i.e. to reorganise states on the basis of accommodation of their languages to prepare a uniform base for the nation.

Question 9.
It is said that the nation is to large extent an “imagined community” held togetherby common beliefs, history, political aspirations and imaginations. Identify the features that make India a nation.
Answer:
India proved herselfthrough all stages of three challenges at the time of nation building like:
1. India is a secular country where people speak different languages and follow different cultures and religions to be recognised as a-nation of unity in diversity with common faith and beliefs.
2. Political aspiration ensures demo-xratic setup based on parliamentary form of government creating political competition in a democratic framework.
3. India’s imaginations established a welfare state on the principle of equality and special protection to socially disadvantaged groups and religions as well as cultural communities.

Question 10:
Read the following passage and answer the questions below:
“In the history of nation-building only the Soviet experiment bears comparison with the Indian. There too, a sense of unity had to be forged between many diverse ethnic groups, religious, linguistic communities and social classes. The scale-geographic as well as demographic was comparably massive. The raw material the state had to work with was equally unpropitious: a people divided by faith and driven by debt and disease.”—Ramachandra Guha
(a) List the commonalities that the author mentions between India and Soviet Union and give one example for each of these from India.
(b) The author does not talk about dissimilarities between the two experiments. Can you mention two dissimilarities?
(c) In retrospect which of these two experiments worked better and why?
Answer:
(a) Commonalities between India and Soviet Union:
(i) Both the nations shaped the nation on linguistic basis.
(ii) To promote welfare motives, the economic and technological developments took place in India also.
(iii) States were divided 6n the grounds of geographical boundary and strength of populations also in both the nations.

(b) Dissimilarities:
(i) Soviet Union was divided into 15 independent republics/countries to be disintegrated.
(ii) India maintained its unity and integrity even among diversified nature of’ ates and peoples without any more division.

(c) The Indian experiment worked better to promote linguistic and cultural plurality without affecting unity and integrity of the nation though India adopted some diplomatic measures to make country united.

Long Answer Type Questions With Answers

Question 1.
What forced the Union Government of India to appoint the State Reorganisation Commission in 1953? Mention its two main recommendations. Name any four new states formed after 1956.
Answer:
1. State Reorganisation Commission was appointed in 1953 by central Government to rearrange the boundaries of states.
2. Its main recommendations were to organise states on language basis as well as the boundaries of state could reflect the linguistic aspects also.
3. The Madras province under British India created following linguistic states:
(a) Andhra Pradesh (Telugu)
(b) Taniilnadu (Tamil)
(c) Kerala (Malayalam)
(d) Karnataka (Kannad)
4. The state Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956 which created 14 states and 6 Union territories.

Question 2.
Explain any three challenges faced by India at the time of its independence.
Answer: India had to face many challenges immediately after she got independence, which can be summed up as follows:
1. Challenge to Shape a Nation: India was divided among various states at the time of independence. Hence a great challenge arose to unify and integrate country into one bond. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel took upon himself to integrate these states either wishfully or diplomatically to be completed into different stages.
2. To Establish Democratic Set up: India constituted representative democracy based on parliamentary form of government and it was a great challenge to develop these democratic practices in the nation.
3. To Ensure Development and Well Being ofthe Society: Indian polity made herself to achieve welfare goals with the evolvement of effective economic policies and eradication of poverty and unemployment.

Question 3.
How did the reorganisation of states take place in India after its independence? Explain.
Answer:
1. In the initial years it was felt that linguistic states may foster seperatism and create pressures on newly founded nation, but India considered democracy and federalism by making a favour to linguistic states only.
2. State Reorganisation Commission was appointed in 1 953 central Government to rearrange the boundaries of states.
3. Its main recommendations were to organise states on language basis as well as the boundaries of states could reflect the linguistic aspects also.
4. The State Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956 which created 14 states and 6 union territories.
5. Linguistic states enhanced democratic practices.
6. Linguistic states reduced separatist attitude by accepting the regional and linguistic claims of all regions.

Question 4.
Explain any three consequences of partition in India.
Answer:
1. In the name of religion, people of one community killed and mained people of the other community. Cities like Lahore, Kolkata and Amritsar were titled as communal zones.
2. People went through social sufferings also be forced to abandon their homes especially minorities, who took shelter in refugee camps.
3. To preserve the honour offamily, many women were killed even many children were separated from their family and if crossed borders, they did not have any home.
4. The partition did not only divide property, assets or liabilities but also the government employees and the railways, etc.

Question 5.
Assess the role played by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in nation building.
Answer:
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is also known as ‘Iron man of India, became India’s Deputy Prime minister and Home minister during integration of princely states. He played a historic role in negotiating the rulers of princely states and diplomatically brought most of them in Indian Union. It was very complicated which required skilful persuation i.e. there were 26 small states in today’s Odisha, Saurashtra Region of Gujarat had 14 states with 119 small states, etc.

Picture/Map Based Questions

A. Study the picture given below and answer the questions that follow:

Question 1.
What does this picture represent?
Answer:
This picture represents the painful scene of partition of country when people were supposed to leave their homes.

Question 2.
Mention some consequences of partition.
(i) Communal Riots (ii) Social Sufferings (iii) Administrative Concerns and Financial Strains.

Question 3.
Which year is being denoted in the picture?
Answer:
The year of 1947, most abrupt, unplanned year in the history.

B. Study the picture given below and answer the questions that follow:

Question 1.
Identify the person in the centre of the cartoon and mention the challenge surrounding him.
Answer:
The person is the first Prime Minister of India Pt. Jawahar Lai Nehru, who faced the first and foremost challenge of integration of princely states and formation of linguistic states.

Question 2.
What does the picture actually refer?
Answer:
The picture refers the problem of reorganization of states on linguistic basis with the fear of disintegration in the country.

Question 3.
How did India avoid all these conflicts?
Answer:
India identified and respected regional demands of the people and enhanced democracy by providing some autonomy to the states also.

C. On a political outline map of India locate and label the following and symbolise them as indicated:

Question 1.
Name and mark the original state from. which the following states were carved out.
(a) Gujarat (b) Meghalaya (c) Haryana (d) Chhattisgarh
Answer:
(a) Gujarat (from Bombay) (b) Meghalaya (from Assam) (c) Haryana (from Punjab) (d) Chhattisgarh (from Madhya Pradesh)

Question 2.
Name and mark the countries reorganised on religious grounds.
Answer:
(a) India (b) Pakistan

Question 3.
Demarcated boundaries of these countries by geographical zones.
Answer:
(a) Pakistan (b) Bang

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Political Science Solutions Unit 3 Democratic Process in India-II Short Answer Questions.

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Political Science Unit 3 Democratic Process In India-II Short Answer Questions

Short Questions With Answers
Question 1.
Name three problems that the newly independent nation of lndia faced.
Answer:
Three problems that the newly independent nation of India faced:

• As a result of Partition, 8 million refugees had come into the country from Pakistan. These people had to be found homes and jobs.
• The Maharajas and Nawabs of the Princely States (almost 500) had to be persuaded to join the New Nation.
• A political system had to be adopted which would best serve the hopes and expectations of the Indian population.

Question 2.
What was the role of the Planning Commission?
Answer:
The Planning Commission was set up to help design and execute suitable policies for the economic development of India.

Question 3.
What did Dr Ambedkar mean when he said that “In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life we will have inequality”?
Answer:
According to Dr Ambedkar, political democracy had to be accompanied by economic and social democracy. Giving the right to vote would not automatically lead to the removal of other inequalities such as between rich and poor, or between upper and lower castes. He believed that India needed to work towards eradicating all forms of inequality in the economic and social spheres. Only then would the equality granted by the Constitution in the sphere of politics (i.e., one vote for every adult Indian citizen) be of any value. Otherwise, India would just be a land of contradictions – following the principle of “one man, one vote and one value” in its political life and denying the principle of “one man, one value” in its economic and social lives.

Question 4.
After Independence, why was there a reluctance to divide the country on linguistic lines ? .
Answer:
In the 1920s, the Congress had promised that once the country won independence, each major linguistic group would have its own province. However, after independence, it did not take any steps to honour this promise. There was a reason for this. India had already been divided on the basis of religion. The joy of freedom had come along with the tragedy of Partition. This Partition had led to the killing of a million people in riots. Fresh divisions were not considered to be feasible. Congress leaders believed that any further divisions of the country would only disrupt its unity and progress. They felt that the need of the hour was for India to remain strong and united, and work towards becoming a nation, and anything that hindered the growth of nationalism had to be rejected.

Question 5.
Give one reason why English continued to be used in India after Independence.
Answer:
People of the south those who could not speak Hindi, opposed Hindi as National Language. They threatened to separate from India if Hindi was imposed on them. The Constituent Assembly finally decided that Hindi would be the “official language” of India and English would be used in the courts, the services, and communications between one state and another.

Question 6.
How was the economic development of India visualised in the early decades after Independence?
Answer:
The economic development of India visualised in the early decades after Independence were:

• Objectives: Lifting India and Indians out of poverty, and building a modern technical and industrial base were among the major objectives of the new nation.
•  Planning Commission and Five Year Plans: A Planning Commission was set up to help design and execute suitable policies for economic development.
• Mixed-economy: A mixed-economy model was agreed upon. In this economic model, both the State and the private sector would play important and complementary roles in increasing production and generating jobs.
• Focus on heavy industries and dams: In 1956, the Second Five Year Plan was formulated. This focussed strongly on the development of heavy industries such as steel, and on the building of large dams.
• The focus on heavy industry, and the effort at state regulation of the economy (which was to guide the economic policy for the next few decades) had many critics. This approach was criticised because:
  (i) It put inadequate emphasis on agriculture.
  (ii) It neglected primary education.
  (iii) It did not take into account the environmental implications of concentrating. on science and machinery.

Question 7.
Vhat are the challenges India face while building the nation?
Answer:
At the hour of midnight on 14-15 August 1947, India attained independence. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of free India, addressed a special session of the Constituent Assembly that night. This was the famous ‘tryst with destiny’ speech that you are familiar with. This was the moment Indians had been waiting for. You have read in- your history textbooks that there were many voices in our national movement. But there were two goals almost everyone agreed upon one, that after Independence, we shall run our country through democratic government; and two, that the government will be run for the good of all, particularly the poor and the socially disadvantaged groups.

Now that the country was independent, the time had come to realise the promise of freedom. This was not going to be easy. India was born in very difficult circumstances. Perhaps no other country by then was born in a situation more difficult than that of India in 1947. Freedom came with the partition of the country. The year 1947 was a year of unprecedented violence and trauma of displacement. It was in this situation that independent India started on its journey to achieve several objectives. Yet the turmoil that accompanied independence did not make our leaders lose sight of the multiple challenges that faced the new nation.

Question 8.
Write Three Challenges of India face after independence.
Answer:
Broadly, independent India faced three kinds of challenges. The first and the immediate challenge was to shape a nation that was united, yet accommodative of the diversity in our society. India was a land of continental size and diversity. Its people-spoke different languages and followed different cultures and religions. At that time it was widely believed that a country full of such kinds of diversity could not remain together for long. The partition of the country appeared to prove everyone’s worst fears. There were serious questions about the future of India: Would India survive as a unified country ? Would it do so by emphasising national unity at the cost of every other objective? Would it mean rejecting all regional and sub-national identities? And there was an urgent question: How was integration of the territory of India to be achieved?

The second challenge was to -establish democracy. You have already studied the Indian Constitution. You know that the Constitution granted fundamental rights and extended the right to vote to every citizen. India adopted representative democracy based on the parliamentary form of government. These features ensure that the political competition would take place in a democratic framework.
A democratic constitution is necessary but not sufficient for establishing a democracy. The challenge was to develop democratic practices in accordance with the Constitution.

The third challenge was to ensure the development and well-being of the entire society and not only of some sections. Here again the Constitution clearly laid down the principle of equality and special protection to socially disadvantaged groups and religious and cultural communities. The Constitution also set out in the Directive Principles of State Policy the welfare goals that democratic politics must achieve. The real challenge now was to evolve effective policies for economic development and eradication of poverty.
Regionalism

The decade of 1980s also witnessed major developments in the State of Punj ab. The social composition of the State changed first with Partition and later on after the-carving out of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. While the rest of the country was reorganised on linguistic lines in 1950s, Punjab had to wait till 1966 for the creation of a Punjabi speaking State. The Akali Dal, which was formed in 1920 as the political wing of the Sikhs, had led the movement for the formation of a ‘Punjabi suba’. The Sikhs were now a majority in the truncated State of Punjab.Political context.

After the reorganisation, the Akalis came to power in 1967 and then in 1977. On both the occasions it was a coalition government. The Akalis discovered that despite the redrawing of the boundaries, their political position remained precarious. Firstly, their government was dismissed by the Centre mid-way through its term. Secondly, they did not enjoy strong support among the Hindus. Thirdly, the Sikh community, like all other religious communities, was internally differentiated on caste and class lines. The Congress got more support among the Dalits, whether Hindu or Sikh, than the Akalis.

It was in this context that during the 1970s a section of Akalis began to demand political autonomy for the region. This was reflected in a resolution passed at their conference at Anandpur Sahib in 1973. The Anandpur Sahib Resolution asserted regional autonomy and wanted to redefine centre-state relationship in the country. The resolution also spoke of the aspirations of the Sikh qaum (community or nation) and declared its goal as attaining the bolbala (dominance or hegemony) of the Sikhs. The Resolution was a plea for strengthening federalism, but it could also be interpreted as a plea for a separate Sikh nation.

The Resolution had a limited appeal among the Sikh masses. A few years later, after the Akali government had been dismissed in 1980, the Akali Dal launched a movement on the question of the distribution of water between Punjab and its neighbouring States. A section of the religious leaders raised the question of autonomous Sikh identity. The more extreme elements started advocating secession from India and the creation of‘Khalistan’.

Question 9.
Discuss the North-East regional aspiration.
Answer:
In the North-East, regional aspirations reached a turning point in 1980s. This region how consists of seven States, also referred to as the ‘seven sisters’. The region has only 4 per cent of the country’s population but about twice as much share of its area. A small corridor of about 22 kilometers connects the region to the rest of the country. Otherwise the region shares boundaries with China, Myanmar and Bangladesh and serves as India’s gateway to South East Asia. The region has witnessed a lot of change since 1947. Tripura, Manipur and Khasi Hills of Meghalaya were erstwhile Princely States which merged with India after Independence. The entire region of North-East has undergone considerable political reorganisation. Nagaland State was created in 1960; Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura in 1972 while Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram became separate States only in 1986. The Partition of India in 1947 had reduced the North-East to a land locked region and affected its economy. Cut off from the rest of India, the region suffered neglect in developmental terms. Its politics too remained insulated. At the same time, most States in this region underwent major demographic changes due to influx of migrants from neighbouring States and countries. The isolation of the region, its complex social character and its backwardness compared to other parts of the country have all resulted in the complicated set of demands from different states of the North-East. The vast international border and weak communication between the North-East and the rest of India have further added to the delicate nature of politics there. Three issues dominate the politics of North-East: demands for autonomy, movements for secession and opposition to ‘outsiders’. Major initiatives on the first issue in the 1970s set the stage for some dramatic developments on the second and the third in the 1980s.

Question 10.
Write about the Demands for autonomy of states.
Answer:
At independence the entire region except Manipur and Tripura comprised the State of Assam. Demands for political autonomy arose when the non-Assamese felt that the Assam government was imposing Assamese language on them. There were opposition and protest riots throughout the State. Leaders of the major tribal communities wanted to separate from Assam. They formed the Eastern India Tribal Union which later transformed into a more comprehensiveA.il Party Hill Leaders Conference in 1960. They demanded a tribal State to be carved out of Assam. Finally instead of one tribal State, several States got carved out of Assam. At different points of time the Central Government had to create Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh out of Assam. Tripura and Manipur were upgraded into States too.
The reorganisation of the North-East was completed by 1972. But this was not the end of autonomy demands in this region. In Assam, for example, communities like the Bodos, Karbis and Dimasas wanted separate States. They worked for this demand by

f mobilising public opinion and popular movement as well as through insurgency. Often the , same area was claimed by, lore than one community. It was not possible to go on making | smaller and yet smaller States. Therefore, some other provisions of our federal set up were
used to satisfy their autonomy demands while remaining in Assam. Karbis and Dimasas have been granted autonomy under District Councils while Bodos were recently granted Autonomous Council.

Question 11.
Write about ‘Mandal Commission’.
Answer:
In the 1980s, the Janata Dal brought together a similar combination of political groups with strong support among the OBCs. The decision of the National Front government to implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission further helped in shaping } the politics of ‘Other Backward Classes’. The intense national debate for and against reservation in jobs made people from the OBC communities more aware of this identity. Thus, it helped those who wanted to mobilise these groups in politics. This period saw the emergence of many parties that sought better opportunities for OBCs in education and employment and also raised the question of tlje share of power enjoyed by the OBCs. These parties claimed that since OBCs constituted a large segment of Indian society, it was only democratic that the OBCs should get adequate representation in administration and have their due share of political power.

Question 12.
Political fallouts of Dalits. explain.
Answer:
The 1980s also saw the rise of political organisation of the Dalits. In 1978 the L Backward and Minority Classes Employees Federation (BAMCEF) was formed. This ’organisation was not an ordinary’ trade union of government employees. It took a strong OBC and minorities. It was out of this that the subsequent Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti and later the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) emerged under the leadership of Kanshi Ram. The BSP began as a small party supported largely by Dalit voters in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. But in 1989 and the 1991 elections, it achieved a breakthrough in Uttar Pradesh. This was the first time in independent India that a political party supported mainly by Dalit voters had achieved this kind of political success.

In fact, the BSP, under Kanshi Ram’s leadership was envisaged as an organisation based on pragmatic politics. It derived confidence from the fact that the Bahujans (SC, ST, OBC and religious minorities) constituted the majority of the population, and were a formidable political force on the strength of their numbers. Since then the BSP has emerged as a major political player in the State and has been in government on more than one occasion. Its strongest support still comes from Dalit voters, but it has expanded its support now to various other social groups. In many parts of India, Dalit politics and OBC politics have developed independently and often in competition with each other.

Question 13.
What is the meaning of Regionalism?
Answer:
Regionalism means love for ones local or regional interests and values over and above the national interests and values.

Question 14.
What have been the main causes of Regionalism?
Answer:
The main causes of Regionalism have been
(1) Localism
(2) Religious fundamentalism
(3) Linguistic Regionalism
(4) Parochial approach
(5) Illiteracy and ignorance.

Question 15.
What major steps should be adopted for checking Regionalism?
Answer:
The steps should be adopted for checking regionalism are:
(1) Spread of education
(2) Rapid economic development in all parts of the country.
(3) Adoption of secularism as the way of life.
(4) Use of mass media for promoting rational integration.

Question 16.
What is Casteism?
Answer:
Casteism is the principle of giving caste undue importance in social and political relations. Caste based behaviour is casteism.

Question 17.
What is Caste?
Answer:
Caste is a kinship group in which every member is either an actual or a potential kin of another.

Question 18.
What is the role of casteism in Indian politics?
Answer:
Caste has been a factor in Indian politics. Some caste-based attempts atforcible imposition of particular demands and interests over other communities are at work. Caste has been a factor of party politics, voting behaviour and leadership behaviour.

Question 19.
What has been the most disturbing and inhuman impact of casteism?
Answer:
Caste based violence, murders, riots and mass killings constitute the biggest and most disturbing facts of our social and political life.

Question 20.
What is communalism?
Answer:
Communalism is the exploitation of Indian social pluralism for narrow and selfish ends by some groups. It involves communal tensions, communal violence and communal riots.

Question 21.
What are the forms of Communalism?
Answer:
The forms of Communalism are:
(1) Religious Communalism.
(2) Linguistic Communalism.
(3) Regional Communalism.
(4) Ethnic Communalism.

Question 22.
What is Communalisation of history?
Ans. It means attempts at presenting a distorted, nonobjectiv; and sectarian account as historical events and facts. Projection of our rational heroes as members of a particular region or community constitutes attempts at communalisation of history.

Question 23.
What is Terrorism?
Answer:
Terrorism begins with acts of violence designed to ‘violate’ the legal basis of the state and to injure permanently the instruments on which it depends for order.

Question 24.
What are the major factors which act as reasons behind the emergence of terrorism in a society?
Answer:
Terrorist violence and terrorism find a place in a society which is characterised by the socioeconomic, Underdevelopment, illiteracy, ignorance, poverty, sub-nationalism j and preserve of anti-national fundamentalist and bigotic elements.

Question 25.
What is son’s of the soil principle?
Answer:
Another form of regionalism in India has been the popularity of the principle of the sons of the soil. Acting under it, the states impose residential and domicile conditions for appointments within their respective administrations. This principle has a constitutional basis which empowers the legislatures to make residence within their states a qualification for employment.

Question 26.
What has been the role of Caste in Indian Politics?
Answer:
Caste continues to be a major determinant of Indian Politics. It has been acting as a big limiting factor of the process of national integration. Presence of caste and casteism has been adversely affecting the process of national integration. Unfortunately, caste continues to be a major determinant of electoral politics, political participation, voting j behaviour of Indian Politics.

Question 27.
What steps can be taken for checking casteism in our society and politics?
Answer:
The step can be taken for checking casteism in our society and politics are:
(1) Popularisation of secularism as the best way of life.
(2) Spread of Education. .
(3) Making education value-based;
(4) Use of mass media, particularly TV and films to highlight the uselessness of , caste distinctions and casteism.
(5) To promote and develop free flow of trade, commerce and business.
(6) To discourage the political parties from using caste as a basis of getting votes.

Question 28.
What is meant by Communalism of history?
Answer:
Communalism involves the exploitation of social pluralism of Indian Society by various fundamentalist groups, organisations and sects for securing their respective narrowly conceived political, religious and sectarian goals. Communalism has been showing its ugly presence in several forms, fanaticism, bigotism etc.

Question 29.
What are the major factors behind the emergence of terrorism in the world?
Answer:
(1) Religious fundamentalism and Jihadi terrorism.
(2) Presence of some elements of sub-nationalism.
(3) Ethnic nepotism and conflict.
(4) Availability of weapons in the international illegal arms market.
(5) Hostile neighbourhood activity as a source of cross-border terrorism.

Question 30.
Suggest some steps for meeting the challenge of terrorism.
Answer:
(1) Some groups resort to terrorism and violence for securing their narrow interests. The need is to prevent the organization and activities of such groups.
(2) The terrorists always use violence and terror as a means to create fear among the people.
(3) Efforts for encouraging the process of peaceful conflict-resolution in society must be consistly made.

Question 31.
What is Environmental Laws?
Answer:
The Government has enacted several laws for creating a legal framework capable of empowering the public authorities engaged in the works of environment protection and prevention and control of pollution. These have empowered and assigned the responsible for continuously working for securing a state, clean, green, healthy and sustainable environment in India.

Question 32.
What is the Environment Act. 1986?
Answer:
1986—The environment Act: It authorizes the Central government to protect and improve environmental quality, control and reduce pollution from all sources and prohibit or restrict the setting or operation of any industrial facility on environmental grounds.

Question 33.
What is 1989 Environmental Law?
Answer:
1989 – The manufacture, storage and important of hazardous Rules. These define the terms used in this context and sets up. an authority to inspect, once a year, the industrial activity connected with hazardous chemicals and isolated storage facilities.

Question 34.
What is the Environment Rules 1999?
Answer:
These lay down detailed provisions relating to areas to be avoided for siting of industries, precautionary measures to be taken for site selecting as also the aspects of environmental protection which should have been incorporated during the implementation of the Industrial Development Projects.

Question 35.
What is Noise Pollution Rules?
Answer:
2002- The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Amendment Rules. These lay down such terms and conditions as are necessary to reduce noise pollution, permit use of loud speakers or public address systems during night hours (between 10..00 p.m. to 12.00 midnight) on or during any cultural or religious festive occasion.

Question 36.
What is the Laws relating to Water Resources of India?
Answer:

• 1882 – The Essement Act.
• 1897 – The Indian Fisheries Act.
• 1956 – The river boards Act.
• 1970 – The Merchant Shipping Act.
• 1974 – The Water (Prevention and control of pollution) Act.
• 1977 – The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act.
• 1978 – The Water Cess Rules.
• 1991 – The Coastal Regulation Zone Notification.

Question 37.
What is the Easement Act. 1882 which relates to Water Resources of India.
Answer:
1882- The Easement Act. It allows private rights to use a resource that is, groundwater, by viewing it as an attachment to the land. It also states that all surface water belongs to the state and is a state property.

Question 38.
What is the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974?
Answer:
1974- The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution Act. It establishes an institutional structure for preventing and abating water pollution. It establishes standards for water quality and effluent. Polluting industries must seek permission to discharge waste into effluent bodies. The CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) was constituted under this Act.

Question 39.
What is the laws for securing the purity of Air?
Answer:
The laws for securing the purity of air are:

• 1948 – The factories Act and Amendment in 1987.
• 1981 – The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act.
• 1982 – The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Rules.
• 1982 – The Atomic Energy Act.
• 1987 – The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment.
• 1988 – The Motor Vehicles Act.

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Political Science Solutions Unit 1 Democracy in India Long Answer Questions.

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Political Science Unit 1 Democracy in India Long Answer Questions

Long Questions With Answers

Question 1.
Write Meaning of Democracy with giving different definitions of democracy.
Answer:
Long back, former President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln said, “Democracy is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.” The term ‘democracy’ comes from the Greek word demokratia which means “rule of the people”. It was coined from two words: demos that means “people” and Kratos which refers to “power”. That is, in a democracy the power rests with the people. This meaning is based on the experiences of the governments that existed in some of the Greek city-states, notably Athens.

And, today also, democracy is defined as a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodic free elections. When you examinethe definitions of democracy, as suggested above, you will find that most of those definitions define democracy as a form of government which is run by the elected representatives.

Democracy has been defined in many ways. Bryce believes that “Democracy really means nothing more or less than the rule of the whole people, expressing their Sovereign will by their votes”. Maclver observes, “Democracy is not a way of governing, whether by majority or otherwise, but primarily a way of determining, who shall govern, and broadly to what ends”.

It means more than a mere form of government. In its comprehensive form, democracy means, or ought to mean,

• a form of government,
• a type of state,
• a pattern of social system,
• a design of economic order, and
• a way of life and culture. Therefore, when we say that India is a democracy, we mean not only that its political institutions and processes are democratic but also that the Indian society and every Indian citizen is democratic, reflecting basic democratic values of equality, liberty, fraternity, secularism and justice in the social environment and individual behaviour.

Quention 2.
What are the Essential Conditions For Democracy?
Answer:
A system can be termed as a genuine and comprehensive democracy only when it fulfills both political and socio-economic aspects of people’s participation and satisfaction. Let us identify those. There may be two major categories:
(1) political conditions and
(2) social and economic conditions
The fulfillment of the first leads to political democracy and the second as social democracy. Obviously, the first and the foremost, are political conditions of democracy. It is essential that for a system to be democratic, we must adopt a Constitution and laws that vest supreme power in the people.

The human rights and fundamental rights, such as equality, liberty of thought and expression, belief, movement, communication and association must be protected by the Constitution. The democratic system has to have universal adult franchise as the basis of electing representatives at various levels of the government. Moreover, opportunities for political participation of all the citizens not only in elections at regular interval, but also in other aspects of the political process have to be made available.

There has to be a responsible government in which the executive is answerable to the legislature, the legislature to the people and the Judiciaiy to remain independent. Political institutions like political parties and interest and pressure groups (associations, various non-governmental organizations) must be functional for expressing popular needs, demands and grievances. A democratic system is strengthened if it maintains an enlightened public opinion in its various forms through free press and other communication processes. Political democracy is thus one which incorporates all the above political traits.

Question 3.
What is the social and economic conditions of democracy?
Answer:
A democratic system has to ensure that the social development is in tune with democratic values and norms reflecting equality of social status and opportunities for development, social security and social welfare. Citizens must avail opportunities of universal and compulsory education. They must also be enabled to utilize means of economic development. The fruits of economic development must reach all and especially to the poor and the deprived sections of the society. Socio-economic development of the people strengths social democracy.

Question 4.
What are the challenges to democracy?
Answer:
Since independence India has been functioning as a responsible democracy. The same has been appreciated by international community. It has successfully adapted to the challenging situations. There have been free and fair periodic elections for all political offices from the panchayats to the President. There has been smooth transfer of political power from one political party or set of political parties to others, both at national and state levels on many occasions.

You will find many examples in our neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Myanmar and even Bangladesh where transfer of power has been done through military coups. The legislative, executive and judicial organs have been functioning properly.The Parliament and the State Legislatures control the Executives effectively through the means like question hours, etc.

More importantly, some significant enactments like the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005, Right to Education 2009 and other welfare means have empowered the people. The mass media, including print and electronic, have full autonomy and play a key role in formulating and influencing public opinion. Significant social change has taken place in almost all walks of life and the nation is moving ahead on course of socio-economic development.

India is a very large country full of diversities – linguistically, culturally, religiously. At the time of independence it was economically underdeveloped. There were enormous regional disparities, widespread poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and shortage of almost all public welfare means. Citizens had enormous expectations from independence.

As mentioned above, India has changed a lot. Yet, there are various challenges that the country faces in terms of fulfillment of expectations of various sections of society. The challenges come both from prevailing domestic and international conditions as well as lack of adequate prerequisites for a smooth functioning of democracy. These are discussed below.

Question 5.
How Illiteracy is a factor challenging democracy?
Answer:
Illiteracy among people was a matter of grave concern for the successful functioning of democracy in India on the eve of independence and it still continues to be a major challenge. The level of education of citizens is a key to both the successful functioning of democracy and socio-economic development of the country. And perhaps, more importantly, it is an essential condition for human dignity. But the state of formal literacy was almost dismal when India achieved independence.

The literacy rate in 1951 was mere 18.33 per cent and female literacy was negligible with 8.9 percent. It was, therefore, feared by many that the citizens would not be able to play their roles effectively and exercise their right to vote meaningfully which is an individual’s expression of the power of the people, this apprehension, however, has been proved wrong by the Indian electorate over the years.

In spite of a substantial number of them being illiterates, they have demonstrated maturity in the exercise of their right to vote on more than one occasion thus resulting peaceful transfer of political power since independence. The Indian National Congress under the leadership of Ms. Indira Gandhi was very popular and powerful during the early part of 1970s.

But in 1977’s general election, the people of India rejected her primarily because of the misuse of power during emergency in 1975-1977 and provided an opportunity to the. first nomCongress government at the Centre in form of the Janata Party. After that there have been changes in the governments both at the Centre and in the States almost regularly. Literacy is necessary not simply for enabling citizens to participate in elections and exercise their right to vote effectively, it has other important implications as well. Literacy enables citizens to be aware of various issues, problems, demands, and interests in the country.

It also makes them conscious of the principles of liberty and equality of all and ensures that the representatives elected by them truly represent all the interests in the society.Universal literacy is therefore a must for the successful functioning of Indian democracy. Although according to 2011 Census, the literacy rate has risen to 74.04 per cent, the female literacy rate is still lagging at 65.46 per cent.

This means that over one-fourth of the country’s population is still illiterate while among women nearly one out of three is not literate. If the children have access to basic education, the problem of illiteracy can be checked. Recently, the Right to Education is provided as a fundamental right. We hope that this will help the cause of educating the children universally.

Question 6.
How Poverty is affecting democracy?
Answer:
It is generally said that for a hungry person right to vote does not have any meaning. For him/her the first requirement is food. Therefore, poverty is considered as the greatest bane of democracy. It is, in fact, the root cause of all kinds of deprivations and inequalities. It is the state of denial of opportunities to people to lead a healthy and fulfilling life. Of course, India inherited poverty from the long exploitative British colonial rule, but it continues to be one of the gravest problems today.

Even now a considerable proportion of Indian population lives below poverty line, called ‘BPL’. The poverty line means an income level below which human beings cannot provide for their basic necessities of food, much less for clothes and shelter. The governmental definition of poverty line during the 1960s sought to measure ihe extent of poverty on the amount of income requiredto purchase a barest minimum desirable food having nutritional standards of caloric intake by a person.

According to it, in Indian conditions, a person in rural areas needs an average of 2400 calories per day and in urban areas an average of 2100 calories per day in order to keep himself above the poverty line.

During the 1990s non-food items’like clothes, employment, shelter, education, etc. got included in the definition of poverty. Poverty in the contemporary phase is linked with systemic deprivation of rights. It is also associated with the notion of Human Development Index (HDI) as championed by Mabud-ul-Haq and Amartya Sen. Viewed from the HDI perspective, the definition of poverty also includes socio-economic-political and human rights issues under its ambit.

The persisting phenomenon of poverty is attributed to any factors, one of which is mass unemployment and under-employmenf. A large number of people in rural areas do not have regular and adequate work. In urban areas also the number of educated unemployed is very high. The growing population is regarded as a reason for poverty, though population is considered as,rthe greatest resource in the country. In fact, the process of economic development has not been able to ensure social justice and gap between rich and poor has not been bridged. Because of all this, poverty continues to remain a great challenge to Indian democracy.

Question 7.
How Gender Discrimination is affecting democracy?
Answer:
Discrimination against girls and women exists in every walk of life. You must have had such experiences of prevailing gender inequality in our society and polity. But we know that gender equality is one of the basic principles of democracy. The Constitution of India enjoins upon the State to ensure that men and women are treated as equals and there is no discrimination against women.

Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties as well as the Directive Principles of State Policy make these intensions very clear. But the discrimination against females continues to be a fact of life. It is clearly reflected in the sex ratio, child sex ratio and maternal mortality rate. The number of females in comparison to males has been declining ever since 1901. In 1901, the sex ratio was 972 females per 1000 males. It came down to 927 females per 1000 males in 1991.

According to 2011 Census it is 940 females per 1000 males which is still very unfavourable to females. In some of the States, the 2011 Census reported a very low sex ratio of 877 females per 1000 males (Haryana), the lowest being 618 in Daman & Diu and 866 in the NCT of Delhi. The child sex ratio is a matter of greater concern. According to 2011 Census, the child sex ratio (0-6 years) in India is only 914 female children per 1000 male children. This is lower than the 2001 Census which reported child sex ratio of927 female children per 1000 male children.

It has been declining because of several factors, like the prevailing preference for male child, discriminatory treatment against the girl child right after birth, and the increasing incidence of female infanticides and female foeticides. By using technology, people are forcing mothers td get the fetus of a female child aborted. The infant mortality rate among girl children is high, as compared to that among boy children. The maternal mortality ratio as per the Sample Registration System 2004-06 is 254 per lakh live births, which is considered very high.

Question 8.
How Casteism, Communalism, Religious Fundamentalism is challenge for democracy?
Answer:
The Indian democracy faces serious challenges also from casteism, communalism and religious fundamentalism. They weaken the functioning and stability of democratic system.
(a) Casteism: The caste system which presumably originated in the division of labour in the ancient society has become a more or less rigid group classification, based on birth. Have you ever experienced the role of caste in your life and society? You will agree that the most detrimental and inhuman aspect of the caste system is the practice of untouchability which is continuing in spite of the constitutional ban imposed on it.

This has led to segregation of so called low castes or ‘Dalits’, depriving them of education and other social benefits.The Dalits have been typically performing menial labour and some of the hardest physical work in society. Casteism has played a negative role even in the democratic political processes, in fact, casteism has become notorious as a strategy of exploitation of caste consciousness for narrow political gains. The caste system acts against the roots of democracy.

The democratic facilities – like fundamental rights relating to equality, freedom of speech, expression and association, participation in the electoral process, free media and press, and even legislative forums – are misused for maintaining casteist identity.Casteism has also been contributing towards continuation of socio-economic inequalities. It is true that India has been an unequal society from times immemorial. The Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and the backward classes have suffered down the ages from socio-economic deprivations.

There are enormous inequalities in our society which are posing serious challenge to Indian democracy. What is more alarming is the mixing of caste and politics resulting into‘politicization of caste’ and ‘casteization of politics’ in contemporary Indian polity which has become a grave challenge to our democracy. Despite the era of liberalization and globalization caste consciousness has not been eroded in our society and castes are being increasingly used as vote bank politics.

(b) Communalism: Communalism and religious fundamentalism have acquired a very dangerous form and alarming proportion in India. They disrupt the pattern of co-existence in our multi-religious society. Communalism is-an affront to India’s nationalist identity and a tragic setback to its evolving secular culture. It is subversive of our democratic political stability and destroyer of our glorious heritage of humanism and composite culture. Quite often, communalism is wrongly used as a synonym for religion or conservatism. Adherence to a religion or attachment to a religious community is not communalism.

Religious Fundamentalism
Religious fundamentalism also reinforces communalists in exploiting both religion and politics. In fact, fundamentalism acts as an ideology which advocates a return to orthodoxy and a strict compliance to the fundamental tenets of religion. Religious fundamentalists vehemently oppose progressive reforms in order to establish their exclusive control on their respective communities.

Regionalism
Indian democracy has also been struggling with regionalism which is primarily an outcome of regional disparities and imbalances in development. We all know that India is a plural country with diversities of religions, languages, communities, tribes and cultures. A number of cultural and linguistic groups are concentrated in certain territorial segments. Although development process in the country aims at growth and development of all regions, the regional disparities and imbalances in terms of differences in per capita income, literacy rates, state of health and educational infrastructure and services, population situation and levels of industrial and agricultural development continue to exist.

Existence and continuation of regional inequalities both among States and within a State create a feeling of neglect, deprivation and discrimination. This situation has led to regionalism manifested in demands for creation of new States, autonomy or more powers to States or even secession from the country. It is true that regionalism and sub-regionalism are unavoidable in a vast and plural country like India. It is not always correct to consider every attempt to support or defend regional or sub-regional interests as divisive, fissiparous and unpatriotic.

The problem begins when these interests are politicized and regional movements are promoted for ulterior political motives. Such unhealthy regional or sub-regional patriotism is cancerous and disruptive. The continuing regional imbalances have given rise to militant movements in certain parts of our country. Separatist demands in Jammu and Kashmir or by ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) in Assam or by different groups in the North-Eastern region are matters of grave concern for Indian polity.

Corruption
Corruption in public life has been a major concern in India. In 2011, India was ranked 95th of 183 countries defined as corrupt in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). In fact, corruption is rampant in all walks of life, be it land and property, health, education, commerce and industry, agriculture, transport, police, armed forces, even religious institutions or so called places of spiritual pursuits.

Corruption continues to exist in covert and overt ways at all three levels – political, bureaucratic and corporate sector. One can see the nexus between the politicians, the bureaucrats and the industrialists which has resulted into corruption and corrupt practices. The tentacles of corruption have affected all organs of government, including the judiciary.

Criminalization of Politics
In recent years, criminalization of politics in India has become a debatable issue. There have been allegations that there are some elements in politics who do not have faith in democratic values and practices. They indulge in violence and take refuge in otjter unhealthy, undemocratic methods to win elections. Undoubtedly, this is not a healthy trend in politics and there is an urgent need to apply serious check on such tendencies.

Criminalization of politics is tke very negation of democratic values and has no place in a ‘ democratic set up. Democracy can be strengthened by adopting and promoting democratic values and shunning criminal activities. Recently, the judiciary, while taking a serious , note of criminal tendencies in politics, has showed signs of adopting remedial measures to apply a serious check on such elements.

The Central government and many State governments have been taking steps to address this issue effectively. This is a matter of great satisfaction and a healthy sign for the successful functioning of democracy in our country. We, as awakened citizens and as voters of the largest democracy in the world, can also contribute by discouraging such persons who have a criminal background, from contesting elections.

Question 8.
How to tackle the challenges of Democracy?
Answer:
It is thus clear that democracy in India faces certain serious challenges. These are causes of serious concern to all. In fact, the leadership.of the freedom movement and especially the framers of the Indian Constitution themselves were very much aware of these issues, they made a number of constitutional provisions to address the same. Since independence governments have taken various measures to respond to many of these challenges.

There have been significant improvements in some of these. However, lots still have to be done. For that, efforts have been going on. These is need for collaboration among governmental agencies, political parties, civil society and citizens in general. Certain . significant corrective measures that have been adopted and can be initiated are as follows:

Universal Literacy ‘Education for All’
The significance and necessity of education for efficient functioning of democracy , was appreciated by the framers of the Indian Constitution. Which is why, free and compulsory education to all children up to the fourteen years of age continued to remain constitutional commitment in IndiaA arious governments at national and state levels have i been making efforts to attain this goal.

As a follow up of the National Policy on Education1986, a National Literacy Mission was set up in 1988 to plan and implement programmes for the removal of illiteracy under the platform, Sarva Shiksha Abhiy an. But the goal of universal literacy is yet to be attained.

Currently a nation-wide programme known as Saakshar Bharat is being implemented. It aims at developing functional literacy and numeracy to non-literate and non-numerate adults in the age group of fifteen and above, to enable them to continue their learning beyond basic literacy and acquire equivalence to formal educational system. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a flagship programme for universalization of elementary education for children between 6-14 years of age. Further, the Parliament of India in 2009 passed the Right to Education Act through which education has become a fundamental right for all children of age group’6-14 years.

Poverty Alleviation
From the 1970s, a number of programmes have been implemented for alleviation of poverty in India. These programmes fall into two broad categories:
(1) There are programmes to lift beneficiaries above poverty line by providing them with productive assets or skills or both, so that they can employ themselves usefully and earn greater income,
(2) Programmes are also being implemented to provide temporary wage employment for the poor and the landless.

Elimination of Gender Discrimination
It is now being recognized that the goals of democracy “of the people, for the people and by the people” can not be fully realized if the female population are not included in all ways in the processes of socio-economic and political development. That is why, besides constitutional provisions, several laws have been enacted, policies have been made and implemented and institutional reforms have been carried out for the development of women.

The 73rd and 74th Amendments of Indian Constitution in 1993 are the milestones in the process of political empowerment of women. These Amendments have reserved one-third of the seats in the Panchayati Raj Institutions, Municipalities and Municipal Corporations. Another significant development has been the adoption of the National Policy for Empowerment of Women in 2001, the overarching goal of which is to “bring about the advancement, development and empowerment cf women.” But a lot needs to be done to attain this goal.

Removal of Regional Imbalance
Redressing regional imbalances has indeed been a vital objective of the planning process in India. Efforts are on to reduce regional disparities. Besides, the Statespecific efforts for reducing intra-State regional disparities, a number of Centrally Sponsored Programmes have been in operation for the last two to three decades for taking care of specific aspects of backwardness of such regions.

Administrative and Judicial Reforms
The success of all the above stated corrective measures primarily depends on the efficient functioning of administration and independence and righteousness of the judicial system. But on both counts, a lot needs to be done. The performance of public administration in India has come under close scrutiny in the last few years. Rampant corruption, inefficiencies, wastages and irresponsiveness to the needs of citizens are some of the , commonly acknowledged problems afflicting the administration.

No doubt, the Indian judiciary lias remained independent and neutral; there are serious problems of
(1) slow disposal of cases leading to delays as well as accumulation of backlog, and
(2) very low rate of prosecution in criminal cases.

Administrative reforms have continuously been on the agenda of the government ever since independence. A number of Commissions and Committees have been set up in this regard. But bureaucratic reluctance to change has prevented the reforms to take place in full measure; The recommendations of various Commissions and Committees focus around the need
(1) to make administration accountable and citizen friendly,
(2) to build its capacity for quality governance,
(3) to orient administration for promoting peoples’ participation, decentralization and devolution of powers,
(4) to make administrative decision-making process transparent,
(5) to improve the performance and integrity of the public services,
(6) to reinforce ethics in administration.
(7) to inculcate readiness for e-govemance. Judicial reform also has been a critical concern since long. Various recommendations have been made on many occasions. The major issues that need consideration in this regard are:

• Simplification of Rules and Procedures,
• Repealing Out-dated Laws,
• Increase in the Judge Population Ratio,
• Time-bound filling of Vacant Posts in Judiciary,
• Transparency in Appointment, Promotion and Transfer of Judges,
• Judicial Accountability; and
• Transparency of Court Proceedings.

Sustainable Development (Economic, Social, Environmental)
Indian democracy can adequately respond to all the challenges when it moves forward on the path of sustainable development. A model of development without taking into account the basic needs of millions, today as well as in the future, can not be conducive for the survival of democracy. Development has to be human-centred and directed towards improvement of quality of life of all the people. It has to be focused on removal of poverty, ignorance, discrimination, disease and unemployment. The development process has to aim at sustained economic, social and environmental development.

Question 9.
what is SGSY?
Answer:
In 1999, Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was conceived as a holistic programme of micro enterprise development in rural areas with emphasis on organizing the rural poor into self-help groups (SHGs), capacity building, planning of activity clusters, infrastructure support, technology, credit and marketing linkages. This programme has impacted many rural poor, for example, in Mathur, a village of the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu, 100 women from eight self-help groups were trained in fruit processing by a non-government organization (NGO).

They availed assistance under SGSY to run a fruit processing unit registered under the name of Sathyamurthi Mahalir Mandram in May 2000, The unit produces fruit squash, jam, readyto- serve beverages, pickle, etc. Apart from raising the economic status of the group members, this venture has made the members more aware and they are actively involved in the government schemes, camps and campaigns. They have made significant representations for ensuring provision of basic facilities in their village and by bringing overall development of the area.

Question 10.
Write the meaning and role of political parties.
Answer:
Human beings have always organised themselves in groups and larger formations. Political parties have emerged as one of these human organisations. In modern age the ideal form of government is run through one or the other method of representative institutions. All representative governments and representative institutions require the existence of political parties.

A political party is an organised body of people who share certain common principles and goals regarding the political system of a country. The main purpose of political parties is to acquire and retain political power. Political parties which run the government are called the ruling party. In a coalition government, there may be more than one ruling party. Those who sit in the opposition and criticise and analyse the performance of-the ruling party/ parties generally or on specific issues are called opposition parties. Apolitical party as such should have the following essential features:

• it must be an organised body of people with a formal membership;
• it must have clearly spelt out policies and programmes;
• its members should agree with its ideology, policies and programmes;
• it must aim at getting power through the democratic process;
• it must have a clear and acceptable leadership; and
• it must focus on broad issues and major areas of government policies.

Question 11.
Write about the types of party system.
Answer:
India has a multi-party system- Indian politics is dominated by several national and regional parties. There are countries where there is one-party system or two-party system. Erstwhile Soviet Union and Yugoslavia had single party systems. Similarly, China has one-party system. Earlier in Germany there existed only one-party – the Nazi Party; so was the case in Italy where the only party was known as the Fascist Party. In a two party or bi-party system there are two main political parties.

The United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA), Australia and New Zealand have bi-party systems. There may exist other parties but their role is generally insignificant. For example in UK, there are two main parties, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. In the USA the two main parties are the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Japan, France, Germany and Switzerland have multi-party systems.

Question 12.
Write about the evlution of party system in India.
Answer:
The evolution of Indian party system can be traced to the formation of the Congress, as a political platform in 1885. Other parties and groups originated later. The Indian National Congress was formed as a response to the colonial rule and to achieve independence from the British rule. After independence and with the adoption of a democratic Constitution, a new party system emerged in the wake of the first general elections based on universal adult franchise in 1952.

In preceding lesson you have learnt about the universal adult franchise in detail. During the post-independence period, the party system passed through various phases.The first phase is known as the phase of one-party dominance because with the exception of Kerala during 1956-59, the ruling party both at the Centre and in the states was the Congress. The second phase (1967-1975) saw the emergence of a multi-party system in India. In the Assembly elections in 1967, Congress was defeated in eight States.

For the first time non-Congress parties formed governments in these states. These parties formed coalition governments. Then came the split in Congress into Congress (O) and Congress (N). However, the Congress again became a dominant force at the Centre after winning 1971 mid-term poll. Then came the emergency period (1975-77) which is known as the authoritarian period of Indian democracy.

With the lifting of emergency, the dominance of Congress ended. In the general elections of 1977 Congress was defeated by the Janata Party. Janata Party came into existence as a result of the merger of many opposition parties. But again in 1980 general elections Congress came back to power and remained in power till 1989. Janata Party emerged out of the merger of Congress (O) led by Moraiji Desai, Bharatiya Lok Dal led by Ch. Charan Singh, Congress for Democracy (CFD) led by Jagjivan Ram and H.N. Bahuguna, the socialists led by George Fernandes and Jana Sangh led by L.K. Advani.

In 1989 elections, the National Front joined government with the support of BJP and the Left Front.But this formation could not last its tenure and elections for the tenth Lok Sabha were held in May- June, 1991. Congress again formed government at the Centre. In 1.996 general elections BJP emerged as the single largest party and was asked to form government at the Centre. Since it could not prove its majority within the given time it had to resign. The United Front which was a combination of thirteen parties, formed the government at the Centre with the external support of the Congress and the CPI(M).

But this government also could not last its full term. Although the coalition government formed under the leadership of BJP after 1998 elections was defeated in Lok Sabha, the 1999 elections again provided them the opportunity to form government which lasted its full term under a multi-party coalition, known as National Democratic Alliance (NDA). In the 14th general elections held in 2004, Congress emerged as the single largest party.

It formed alliance with like minded parties and formed government at the Centre. The phase of Indian party system which began in 1989 and is still continuing has been aptly called a phase of coalition politics. No single party has been able to form government on its own at the Centre.

Question 13.
Write about two types of major parties in India.
Answer:
India has two types of political parties – national parties and regional parties. National parties are those which generally have influence all over the country. It is not necessary that a national party will have equal strength in all the states; it varies from State to State. A party is recognised as a national party by the Election Commission on the basis of a formula. The political party which has secured not less than four percent of the total valid votes in the previous general elections at least in four states, is given the status of a national party.

The number of national parties has been changing. In the year 2006, Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], Communist Party of India (CPI), Bahujan Samaj Party, and the Nationalist Congress Party were national parties. However, there are other parties in India, which do not enjoy national influence. Their activities and influence are restricted to particular states or regions. Sometimes these parties are formed to voice demands of a specific region.

These parties are neither weak nor short-lived. Sometimes they prove to be very powerful in their respective regions. These are known as regional parties. Major regional parties are AIADMK and DMK in Tamil Nadu, Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh, Akali Dal in Punjab, National Conference in Jammu dnd Kashmir, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Jharkhand, Asam Gana Parishad in Assam and Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

Question 14.
Write about Indian National Congress.
Answer:
As you have already read, Indian National Congress was formed in the year 1885 in Bombay. W.C. Banarjee was the first President of the Indian National Congress. To begin with, Congress was an organisation of middle class intellectuals who were primarily concerned with political reforms in the British colonial rule. In the twenties under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress became a mass based organisation. The party started enjoying the support of the common people and played a very significant role in the freedom struggle.

After independence Jawahar Lai Nehru became the Prime Minsiter and led the Congress till his death in 1°64. As already mentioned in an earlier paragraph, this was known as the ‘Nehru era’. The Congress party won first five general elections in 1952, 1957, 1962,1967 and 1971. In 1975 national emergency was declared which went on till 1977. In the elections of 1977, the Congress was defeated.

However, in 1980 general elections, the Congress Party led by Indira Gandhi came back to power. Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 and during 1985 general elections, Rajiv Gandhi was the leader of the party. Congress won the 1985 general elections with a larger majority. In 1989 though Congress could not get absolute majority, it was the single largest party. In the tenth general
elections in 1991.

Congress again emerged as the single largest party and formed the government at the Centre. In the 1996, general elections Congress could not form government at the Centre. In the 12th general elections in 1998, Congress could get only 140.Lok Sabha seats. In the 1999 general elections Congress’s strength was further reduced to 112. But in the 14th general elections Congress entered into alliance with other secular parties and secured the number of seats that provided it an opportunity to form a coalition government.

Question 15.
Write about The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Answer:
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was formed in 1980. Since then it has extended its influence in the Hindi belt, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Since 1989, it has been trying to extend its base in South India also. Since its formation in 1980, the BJP has been increasing its number of seats in the Lok Sabha gradually. In 1984, general elections it secured only two seats. In 1989 the number of seats increased to 88. In 1991 general elections BJP’s strength in the Lok Sabha increased to 122 which rose to 161 in the 1996 elections.

In 1998 it won 180 seats and in 1999 its number in Lok Sabha increased to 182. In the 1999 general elections, BJP contested as an alliance partner in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). In the recent 2004 general elections BJP as an alliance of NDA could not get the required majority. It is playing the role of the opposition party. The BJP has emerged as a significant national party but its support base as yet is limited to certain areas, rather than spread all over India.

Question 16.
Write short notes on the Communist Parties.
Answer:
The two Communist Parties are the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)]. Next to the Congress, the Communist Party is the oldest in India. The communist movement began in the early twenties, and the Communist Party was founded in 1925. The communists participated in the national movement, though often they had serious differences with the Congress. The communists assert that the people should be economically equal and the society should not be divided into classes of rich and poor.

The workers and peasants and other toiling people who do most of the productive work for the society, should be given due recognition and power.The communists were the main opposition in the Lok Sabha throughout the Nehru Era. In the firstLok Sabha they had 26 members, in the second and the third Lok Sabha, they had 27 and 29 members respectively. In 1957, the CPI won absolute majority in the Kerala Assembly and formed the first Communist government in India. In the early sixties specially after the Chinese aggression of 1962 there were serious differences among the members of the Communist Party. As a result, the party split into two.

Those who broke away from CPI formed CPI(M) in 1964. The CPI(M)’s main support base has been concentrated in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, though it has registered its presence in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Punjab. The CPI has its pockets of influence in states like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Manipur, Odisha, Pondicherry, Punjab, etc. Moreover, CPI has been a part of the left-front coalition in Kerala and West Bengal. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2004, both the CPI and the CPI (M) were alliance partners of the Congress. They are supporting the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre from outside.

Question 17.
Write short notes on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Answer:
The BSP acquired the status of a national party in 1996. The BSP champions the cause of those sections which belong to low castes, deprived groups, and minorities. In fact, these sections of Indian society (the Bahujan Samaj) form the majority of the Indian population. The BSP believes that this ‘ Samaj ’ should be freed from the exploitation of the upper castes and by forming their own government. BSP’s influence lies in states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. In 1995 and 1997 BSP was a partner in the coalition governments in Uttar Pradesh.

Question 18.
Describe the one-party dominance in early phases.
Answer:
The results of the first general election did n<?t surprise anyone. The Indian National Congress was expected to win this election. The Congress party, as it was popularly known, had inherited the legacy of the national movement. It was the only party then to have an organization spread all over the country. And finally, in Jawaharlal Nehru, the party had the most popular and charismatic leader in Indian politics.

He led the Congress campaign and toured the country. When the final results were declared, the extent of the victory of the Congress did surprise many. The party won 364 of the 489 seats in the first Lok Sabha and finished way ahead of any other challenger. The Communist Party of India came next in terms of seats winning only 16 seats. The state elections were held with the Lok Sabha elections. Congress scored a big victory in those elections as well.

It won a majority of seats in all the states except Travancore-Cochin (part of today’s Kerala), Madras, and Odisha. Finally even in these states Congress’formed the government. So the party ruled all over the country at the national and the state level. As expected, Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister after the first general election. In the second and the third general elections, held in 1957 and 1962 respectively, the Congress maintained the same position in the Lok Sabha by winning three-fourths of the seats. None of the opposition parties could win even one-tenth of the number of seats won by the Congress. In the state assembly elections, Congress did not get a majority in a few cases.

The most significant of these cases was in Kerala in 1957 when a coalition led by the CPI formed the government. Apart from exceptions like this, Congress controlled the national and all the state governments. The extent of the victory of the Congress was artificially boosted by our electoral system. The Congress won three out of every four seats but it did not get even half of the votes. In 1952, for example, Congress obtained 45 percent of the total votes. But it managed to win 74 percent of the seats.

The Socialist Party, the second-largest party in terms of votes, secured more than 10 percent of the votes all over the country. But it could not even win three percent of the seats. How did this happen? For this, you need to recall the discussion about the first-past-the-post method in your textbook ‘Constitution at Work last year. In this system of election, adopted in our country, the party that gets more votes than others tends to get much more than its proportional share.

That is exactly what worked in favour of Congress. If we add up the votes of all the non-Congress candidates it was more than the votes of the Congress. But the non-Congress votes were divided between different rival parties and candidates. So the Congress was still way ahead of the opposition and managed to win.

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Political Science Solutions Unit 1 Democracy in India Short Answer Questions.

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Political Science Unit 1 Democracy in India Short Answer Questions

Short Questions And Answers

Question 1.
Define democracy. Why democracy cannot be defined only in political context?
Answer:
Democracy is defined as a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and is exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodic free elections. In essence, democracy is a form of government which is run by the elected representatives of the people.

Question 2.
Describe the essential conditions for a successful democracy.
Answer:
The definition of democracy is incomplete unless it is defined in social and individual contexts as well. In the present age, it means more than a mere form of government. In its comprehensive form democracy means,

• a form of government
• a type of state,
• a pattern of social system,
• a design of economic order
• a way of life and culture.
  Therefore, when we say Indian democracy, we mean not only that its political institutions and processes are democratic but also that the Indian society and every Indian citizen is democratic, reflecting basic democratic values of equality, liberty, fraternity, secularism and justice in social sphere and individual behaviour.

Question 3.
What are the major challenges the Indian democracy faces? How these challenges are opportunities to make India an effective democratic system?
Answer:
A system can be termed as a genuine democracy only when it fulfils
(a) political conditions as follows:

• Having a Constitution that vests supreme power in the people and protects fundamental rights, such as equality, liberty of thought and expression, belief, movement, communication and association.
• Having universal adult franchise as the basis of electing representatives
• Having a responsible government in which the executive is answerable to the legislature and the legislature to the people and

(b) social and economic conditions as follows:

• The system ensuring social development that is in tune with democratic values and norms reflecting equality of social status, social security and social welfare and
• The system facilitating a situation where the fruits of economic development reach all and especially the poor and deprived sections of the society.

1. Illiteracy, inequality and poverty adversely affect the functioning of Indian democracy,

• Illiterate citizens are not able to play their roles effectively and exercise meaningfully their right to vote which is an individual expression of the power of the people. Literacy enables citizens to be aware of various issues, problems, demands, and interests in the country, be conscious of the principles of liberty and equality of all and ensure that the representatives elected by them truly represent all the interests in the society,
• Poverty is perhaps the greatest bane of democracy. It is the root cause of all kinds of deprivations and inequalities and is the state of denial of opportunities to people to lead a healthy and fulfilling life.

2. Yes, the popular entertainment channels and films generally depict gender discrimination. In fact, the serials on television channels are reinforcing the prevailing patriarchal system showing females playing traditional roles of mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. It is true that a few of them question the traditional roles, but those also somehow reflect gender discrimination.

3. Caste System: The most detrimental and inhuman example of the prevailing caste system is the practice of untouchability which is continuing in different covert and overt ways in spite of the constitutional ban imposed on it.

• The Dalits still bear the brunt of discrimination and deprivation. This has led to segregation of so called low castes, depriving them of education and other social benefits. The second example relates to politicization of caste system. Casteism has become notorious as a strategy of exploitation of caste consciousness for narrow political gains.
• The caste system acts against the roots of democracy. Communalism: It disrupts quite often the smooth process of co-existence in a multi-religious Indian society Communal riots happening in the country since independence have been dangerous for peace order and social harmony. Secondly the misuse of religion by fundamentalist people during elections and even in other situations has always been proved to be counter-productive.

4. Although development process in the country aims alt growth and development of all regions, the regional disparities and imbalances continue to exist. Existence and continuation of regional inequalities in terms of differences in per capita income, literacy rates, state of health and educational infrastructure and services, population situation and levels of industrial and agricultural development both among States and within a State create a feeling of neglect, deprivation and discrimination.

5. The influence of muscle power in Indian politics has been a fact of life for a long time. Political parties and candidates do not hesitate in seeking the help of criminal elements to dominate the election scene in India. Earlier in the 1960’s, the criminals were content by covertly helping the politician win the election so that they could in turn get protection from him. But the roles have now been reversed. It is the politicians who now bank on the support of the criminals for protection.

6. One of the major reasons of increase of political violence has been the emergence of serious conflict of interests between higher and middle castes as an outcome of agricultural development, abolition of zamindari system, and developments like green revolution and white revolution. These have led to aggressive competition for political power which many a time leads to violence. Another reason is the backlash of the higher castes against the growing awareness and assertion of their rights by the lower castes, particularly the Scheduled Castes and the lowest backward castes. Moreover, violence has been associated with demands for separate States, re-organization of States or adjustment of State boundaries. As we observe, the Telangana Movement in Andhra Pradesh and Bodo Movement in Assam often turned violent. Violence has also been used quite frequently during industrial strikes, farmers’ movements, students’ agitations, and a number of other civil disobedience campaigns.

1. To attain the goal of universal literacy a nation-wide programme known as Saaksltar
Bharat is being implemented. Moreover, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a flagship programme for the universalization of elementary education for children between 6-14 years of age. Besides, the Parliament of India in 2009 passed Right to Education Act through which education has become a fundamental right of all children in the age group of 6-14 years. For poverty alleviation, two kinds of programmes are being implemented:

• Programmes to lift beneficiaries above poverty line by providing them with productive assets or skills or both so that they can employ themselves usefully and earn greater income, and
• Programmes to provide temporary wage employment for the poor and the landless. Public Distribution System (PDS) contributes towards meeting people’s basic food needs, the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) provides rural households below the poverty line with credit to purchase income-generating assets, the Jawahar Rbzgar Yojana (JRY), provides more than 700 million person days of work a year. Moreover, TRYSEM (Training Rural Youth for Self Employment) was started to provide technical skills to the rural youth and to help them to get employment.

2. Besides the State-specific efforts for reducing intra-State regional disparities, a number of Centrally Sponsored Programmes have been in operation for the last two to three decades for taking care of specific aspects of back wardness of such regions. Some of the major programmes are:

• the Tribal Development Programme,
• the Hill Area Development Programme,
• the Border Area Development Programme,
• the Western Ghat Development Programme,
• the Drought Prone Area Programme, and
• the Desert Development Programme.

3. For administrative reforms, the following recommendations need to be implemented:

• to make administration accountable and citizen friendly,
• to build its capacity for quality governance,
• to orient administration for promoting peoples’ participation, decentralization and devolution of powers,
• to make administrative decision-making process transparent,
• to improve the performance and integrity of the public services,
• to reinforce ethics in administration, and
• to inculcate readiness for e-governance. For judicial reforms, the steps that are to be taken are as follows:
  (a) Simplification of Rules and Procedures,
  (b) Repealing Out-dated Laws,
  (c) Increase in the Judge Population Ratio,
  (d) Time-bound filling of Vacant Posts in Judiciary, Transparency in Appointment, Promotion and Transfer of Judges,
  (e) Judicial Accountability and
  (f) Transparency of Court Proceedings.

4. Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for the future generations. When the development is human-centred and directed towards improvement of quality of life of all the people, it has to be focused on removal of poverty, ignorance, discrimination, disease and unemployment.

All these steps will strengthen Indian democracy.
1. Participation in a democratic polity is not confined simply to participation in elections. A vital form of participation comes through membership of political parties and more importantly, active membership in independent non-governmental organizations, that are known as “civil society organizations.” Civil Society Organizations, represent a variety of interests of different groups: women, students, farmers, workers, doctors, teachers, business owners, religious believers and human rights activists.
2. Citizens have to make the democratic system responsive and responsible. They are needed to ensure that the Parliamentarians, Members of State Legislatures and their representatives in Panchayati Raj and Municipal Institutions are accountable. The instruments created by Right to Information Act, 2005 in our country enable citizens to play their role, effectively. Citizens must watch carefully how their political leaders and representatives use their powers, and to express their own opinions and interests.

Question 4.
What is JGSY?
Answer:
Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY) is a programme for the creation of rural economic infrastructure with employment generation as a secondary objective. The programme is implemented by the village panchayats and since its inception it has generated 27 crore men-days of employment each year. The Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) covers 1,778 drought-prone, desert, tribal arid hill area blocks. The programme was designed to provide employment in the form of manual work in the lean agricultural season.

Question 5.
What is Sustainable development?
Answer:
lt is a pattern causing resources that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future generations to come. The term was used by the Bruntland Commission (1987) which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Question 6.
What is MNREGA?
Answer:
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is being implemented to enhance the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

Question 7.
What are Goal and Objectives of National Policy for Empowerment of Women?
Answer:
The goal of this Policy is to bring about the advancement, development and empowerment of women. Specifically, the objectives of this Policy include:

• Creating an environment through positive economic and social policies for full development of women to enable them to realize their full potential;
• Equal access to participation and decision making of women in social, political and economic life of the nation;
• Equal access to women to health care, quality education at all levels, career and vocational guidance, employment, equal remuneration, occupational health and safety, social security and public office, etc.;
• Strengthening legal systems aimed at elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
• Elimination of discrimination and all forms of violence against women and the girl child.

Question 8.
Define Democracy.
Answer:
It is a form of government in which the people are the source of all power. It is exercised by them either directly or indirectly through their elected representatives.

Question 9.
What is indirect democracy?
Answer:
Indirect democracy means the government formed by the elected representatives of the people. It governs on the basis of public opinion.

Question 10.
What is direct democracy?
Answer:
In direct democracy the people directly take part in the law-making. They can reject any law in a referendum and propose bills for law-making under initiative.

Question 11.
What are the modern devices of Direct Democracy?
Answer:
The major modem devices of direct democracy are referendum and initiative. By these two the people participate in the process of law-making.

Question 12.
What are the three dimensions of Democracy?
Answer:
(a) Political Dimension, (b) Social Dimension and (c) Economic Dimension.

Question 13.
What is Referendum?
Answer:
Referendum is the power of the people to .approve or reject any law passed by the legislature. They can demand referendum on any law and then vote to reject or approve it by a majority.

Question 14.
What is Initiative?
Answer:
Initiative is right of the people to propose measures for law making. They can submit bills or demands for law-making on which the legislature has to act.

Question 15.
Write two most essential features of a Democracy.
Answer:
(1) Faith in popular sovereignty and mass political participation and (2) Faith in liberalism and equal rights of all the people.

Question 16.
What is Recall?
Answer:
Recall is the right of the people to recall an elected representative in case it has not been acting according to the dictates of public opinion or who is misusing his authority as their representative.

Question 17.
What is the merits of initiative?
Answer:
(1) A law initiated by the people represents popular will. (2) It positively involves people in the law-making process.

Question 18.
What is the meaning of Plebiscite?
Answer:
It means to know the opinion of the people over any particular issue. It is a democratic way of knowing public opinion on any national issue.

Question 19.
What is popular sovereignty?
Answer:
Popular sovereignty means supremacy i.e. supreme power of the people. It is the very basis of a democracy.

Question 20.
What is a political party?
Answer:
Political party is a large political organisation of people.

Question 21.
What is the most major objective of a political party?
Answer:
The most major objective of a political party is secure political power in the state.

Question 22.
For which purpose political parties use political power?
Answer:
Political parties use political power for securing national interests of the country.

Question 23.
Which party is called the major party?
Answer:
Which secures a majority of seats in a legislature is called the majority party.

Question 24.
What is Bi-party system?
Answer:
When a state has only two or two major and some other political parties, the system is known as bi-party system.

Question 25.
What is multiparty system?
Answer:
When a large number of active political parties are involved in politics is known as multiparty system.

Question 26.
Which party system is not held to be really democratic?
Answer:
One party system is not hold to be really democratic.

Question 27.
By whom elections are basically fought?
Answer:
By political parties elections are basically fought.

Question 28.
What is meant by limited government?
Answer:
When the government of the state enjoys defined powers and a fined hence it is called a limited government. The constitution of the state defines the powers of such government and it always works within such limits.

Question 29.
What are the basic principles of Democracy?
Answer:
The basic principles of democracy are:

• Faith in popular sovereignty.
• Right to equality.
• Right to freedom.
• Representative and responsible government.
• Secret voting and free and fair election system.
• Decentralisation of powers.
• Limited government.
• Rule of law.
• Independence of judiciary.

Question 30.
What is universal adult franchise?
Answer:
When all the adult citizens, both men and women enjoy the right to vote, the system is called universal Adult Franchise. In every modem democratic system, the principle of universal Adult Franchise is essential.

Question 31.
What is direct democracy?
Answer:
In this form of democracy, people have the right and opportunity to directly participate in law-making. They have the power to approve or disapprove the laws passed by the legislature.

Question 32.
What is Indirect Democracy?
Answer:
Indirect democracy in which political power is used by the elected representative of the people. The elected representatives use the legislative and executive authority of the state for a fixed tenure.

Question 33.
What are the fundamental features of Liberal Democracy?
Answer:
The fundamental features of liberal democracy are:

• Faith in the ideology of liberalism and the principle of sovereignty of the people.
• Duly elected representative, limited and responsible government.
• Accountability of all public servants and power-holders.
• Transparency in the working of Government.
• Supremacy of public opinion.
• Mass political participation.

Question 34.
What is social inequality?
Answer:
Social inequality refers to the ways in which socially-defined categories of persons (according to characteristics such as gender, age, class and authenicity) are differentially positioned with regard to access to a variety of social ‘goods’ such as the labour market and other sources of income.

Question 35.
How the Indian Constitution grants constitutional and legal equality?
Answer:
Indian society continues to be a male dominated society. Women of India continue to live with certain inequalities and exploitations. The constitution of India grants equal fundamental rights to all the citizens. It declares that there is to be no discrimination on the basis of genders. Legally women enjoy equal opportunities for development as are being enjoyed by men.

Question 36.
What is the steps which Indian democracy must takes for eliminating social inequalities?
Answer:
Indian democracy must take several strong steps for eliminating social inequalities.
(1) To check caste based discrimination and violence through stronger laws,
policies and actions.
(2) To promote secularism as the way of life by suitably reforming the Indian
education system.
(3) To work for securing the empowerment of women by all.
(4) All women organisations like All India Women Conference and all non
government organisation (NGOs) must organise campaigns against social evils, particularly against casteism.
(5) Since social inequalities are mostly the products of ignorance and mad love for some age-old tradition, all the people must make concerted and collective efforts for creating widespread awareness against social evils.
(6) Our educational institutions, mass media and interest groups should try to build a strong public opinion against all social inequalities.
(7) Indian democracy must ensure that all the people should get encouraged to realise their responsibilities towards the nation.

Question 37.
What is Regionalism?
Answer:
Regionalism means the love for one’s area of living in a particular region to which one belongs. It is something quite natural. The inhabitants of Punjab love the language and culture and there is nothing unusual or wrong about it. To secure the interests of their state is a natural objective before all the inhabitants. This type of regionalism has to be accepted as a natural feature of a federal polity like India.

Question 38.
What is political violence?
Answer:
Violence is being used by some people, their groups and organizations for achieving their narrow political goals, it is called political violence. Several organizations, groups and individuals unfortunately believe that their political system or government will never respond to their political demands and consequently, they believe that use of violence is needed and justified for securing their political objectives.

Question 39.
What is Naxalism?
Answer:
The terms Naxal and Naxalism owe their origin to the village Naxal and Naxalbari movement (West Bengal). Naxalism or Naxal violence began as a violent opposition to the established order. It was basically a peasant and tribal movement against the existing socio-economic political system. It wanted to overthrow the established order by violent means. The Naxal movement had its birth in the late 1960s in the Naxalbari area of West Bengal.

Question 40.
What steps are needed for controlling Naxal violence?
Answer:
India government decided to use Indian Army and paramilitary forces for neutralizing and controlling the Naxal violence in the affected states.
The steps are needed for controlling Naxal violence :
(1) Modernisation, effective deployment and use of law and order enforcement
agencies.
(2) All necessary and well-designed systematic steps must be undertaken for the protection and promotion of the socio-economic welfare.
(3) Participation of all sections of people, particularly the poor peoples.
(4) Securing of sustainable development must be pursued as a priority.
(5) More employment opportunities must be created for poor, tribal people.
(6) Counter-Insurgency operations against the Naxals must be well-planned on efficiently executed.

Question 41.
Give one definition of a political party.
Answer:
Gilchrist writes “A political party may be defined as an orgnised group of citizens who profess to share the same political views and who, by acting as a political unit, try to control the government”.

Question 42.
What is One Party System?
Answer:
One party system is also called single party system. In it there is only one main political party which is continuously in power. One party system is held to be undemocratic.

Question 43.
Give three essential features of a political party.
Answer:
Three essential features of a political party are:
(1) A fairly large organised political association of people.
(2) Agreement on basic principles on ideology.
(3) Faith in peaceful and constitutional means.

Question 44.
Define Bi-party System.
Answer:
Party system exists in a state where there are either only two nearly equal popular political parties or two main political parties. However, there are also present some union or less influential political parties. People have the freedom to form their political parties but in actual practice there are present only two major political parties in . the country.

Question 45.
Define Multiparty System.
Answer:
Multiparty system means the presence of several equally influential political parties in the country. Several political parties are actively involved in the political process elections are contested by a large number of political parties.

Question 46.
Name some countries which have Multiparty System.
Answer:
Some countries which have multiparty system are: India, Switzerland, Japan, Italy and France.

Question 47.
What are the six main functions of political parties?
Answer:
The six main functions of political parties are:
(1) Formation of public opinion.
(2) Act as agencies of political education.
(3) Valuable agencies for recruitment of leaders.
(4) Formulation of Demands.
(5) Aggregation of public demands and taking these to the government.
(6) Formation of government or acting as opposition parties.

Question 48.
What is the merits of political parties?
Answer:
The merits of political parties are:
(1) Essential democratic actors of politics.
(2) Political parties are a source of rational unit.
(3) Political parties in opposition keep the government under check.
(4) Political parties are vital links between the people and their government.
(5) Parties act an agencies for the formulation of public opinion.

Question 49.
What is the demerits of political parties?
Answer:
The demerits in political parties are:
(1) Political parties are a source of divisions among the people.
(2) Political parties cannot reflect and clarify public opinion.
(3) Political parties are always dominated by rich people.
(4) Political parties are a source of disharmony and unhealthy opposition.
(5) Political parties are a source of dirty party politics and delays in law-making.
(6) Often give more importance to their interests over the national interests.

Question 50.
What is the role of political parties in a democracy?
Answer:
Political parties are essential for every democratic state. These act as the basic actors in politics. These continuously participate in the political process. In particular, these always contest elections. When a political party or an alliance of some political parties gets a majority, it forms the government and other parties act as opposition parties.

Question 51.
What is the meaning of “No party No Democracy”?
Answer:
Political parties are totally essential for the functioning of democracy. Without political parties elections cannot be held, government-making cannot be really done, there can be no real check in the exercise of government power, public opinion remains ambiguous and people do not get a real political party, no democratic government can really function. The absence of political parties means the presence of unreal democracy.

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Political Science Solutions Unit 3 Democratic Process in India-II Objective Questions and Answers.

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Political Science Unit 3 Democratic Process In India-II Objective Questions

Multiple Choice Questions With Answers

Question 1.
The worse form of Regionalism is:
(a) State autonomy
(b) Secessionism
(c) Linguistic Regionalism
(d) Sons of the soil policy
Answer:
(b) Secessionism

Question 2.
Regionalism in its negative form means:
(a) Love of ones culture
(b) Love of Ones area
(c) Living in a region
(d) Giving primacy to local interests over national interests.
Answer:
(d) Giving primacy to local interests over national interests.

Question 3.
Regionalism can be checked by:
(a) Promotion of National Integration
(b) Spread of education.
(c) Rapid economic development
(d) All the above.
Answer:
(d) All the above.

Question 4.
Some Regionalism is:
(a) Evil
(b) National
(c) Unnatural
(d) Anti-national
Answer:
(b) National

Question 5.
Casteism adversely affects:
(a) Government-making
(b) Status group
(c) Social group
(d) All the above
Answer:
(d) All the above

Question 6.
Caste is a:
(a) Association
(b) Social group
(c) Kinship group
(d) Status group
Answer:
(c) Kinship group

Question 7.
Casteism can be checked by:
(a) Family
(b) legal Ban
(c) Religion
(d) Secularism and Education
Answer:
(d) Secularism and Education

Question 8.
Caste was described by» Jay Prakash Narayan as:
(a) Factor of politics
(b) Most major political party
(c) Source of Unity.
(d) Social symbol.
Answer:
(b) Most major political party

Question 9.
Communalism is:
(a) Inhuman conduct
(b) Social evil
(c) Mental disease
(d) All the above
Answer:
(d) All the above

Question 10.
Casteism is a:
(a) Social Evil
(b) Natural
(c) Moral Code
(d) Necessary Evil
Answer:
(a) Social Evil

Question 11.
Communalism can be checked by:
(a) Military
(b) Police
(c) Government
(d) People
Answer:
(d) People

Question 12.
Communalism is the product of:
(a) Narrow and irrational outlook
(b) Politics
(c) History
(d) Social relations
Answer:
(a) Narrow and irrational outlook

Question 13.
What encourages communalism in society?
(a) Communal politics
(b) Communal thinking
(c) Communalization of history
(d) All the above
Answer:
(d) All the above

Question 14.
Communalism constitutes the biggest challenge to:
(a) Economy
(b) Public health
(c) National Unity and Integration
(d) Religious freedom
Answer:
(c) National Unity and Integration

Question 15.
What is weapon used by terrorism for facing the people to obey its command?
(a) Suppression and Dominance
(b) Militancy
(c) Terror
(d) Organized power
Answer:
(c) Terror

Question 16.
What is the basic means which the terrorists use for securing their narrow selfish goals?
(a) Violence
(b) Killings
(c) Force
(d) All the above
Answer:
(d) All the above

Question 17.
Terrorism can be tackled by which means:
(a) International law
(b) Collective global action
(c) State Terrorism
(d) Promotion of strong National Integration.
Answer:
(d) Promotion of strong National Integration.

Question 18.
Terrorism is:
(a) Anti-Liberal
(b) Anti-Democratic
(c) Anti-Human
(d) All the above
Answer:
(d) All the above

Question 19.
National Integration can be strengthened by which means?
(a) Efforts of the civil society
(b) Faith in Multi-culturism and secularism
(c) Value based education
(d) All the above
Answer:
(d) All the above

Question 20.
National Integration can be achieved by dependence upon which means?
(a) Social reforms
(b) Conscious collective efforts of the People
(c) Constitutional Directives
(d) State laws
Answer:
(b) Conscious collective efforts of the People

Fill in the Blanks with Appropriate Words

1. Subjects that were placed on the Union List were ______, _______ and __________.
Answer: taxes, defence, and foreign affairs.

2. Subjects on the Concurrent List were ______ and ______.
Answer: forest and agriculture.

3. Economic planning by which both the state and the private sector played a role in development was called a _________ model.
Answer: mixed-economy

4. The death of _______ sparked off such violent protests that the government was forced to give in to the demand for the linguistic state of Andhra.
Answer: Potti Sriramulu

True or False

1. At independence, the majority of Indians lived in villages.
Answer:
True

2. The Constituent Assembly was made up of members of the Congress party.
Answer:
False

3. In the first national election, only men were allowed to vote.
Answer:
False

4. The Second Five Year Plan focussed on the development of heavy industry.
Answer:
True

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1.
Name the leader who played a historic role in negotiating with the rulers of princely states to join the Indian Union.
Answer:
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Question 2.
What is meant by Two Nation Theory?
Answer:
Two Nation Theory was propounded by Muhammad Ali Jinnah to create separate state for Muslims.

Question 3.
Mention the main recommendation of the State Reorganisation Commission of 1953.
Answer:
The main recommendation of the State Reorganisation Commission was to organise states on language basis and the boundaries of states could also reflect the linguistic aspects.

Question 4.
Which two languages were spoken in Bombay state before it was divided in 1960?
Answer:
Gujarati and Marathi

Question 5.
Name any four princely states that resisted their merger with the Indian Union?
Answer:
Junagadh, Hyderabad, Kashmir and Manipur.

Question 6.
How many princely states consisted at the time of independence of India?
Answer:
565 princely states.

Question 7.
What was meant by princely states?
Answer:
Princely states were ruled by princes who employed some form of control over their internal affairs under the supremacy of the British.

Question 8.
What was the basis of the report of States Reorganisation Commission?
Answer:
States Reorganisation Commission Report was based on the distribution of boundaries of states on language basis to reflect linguistic aspects.

Question 9.
Why were the states reorganised on linguistic basis in India in 1956?
Answer:
States were reorganised on linguistic basis in India in 1956 to maintain unity and integrity of the nation to avoid violence and conflicts among the people.

Question 10.
Whose speech was known as ‘tryst with destiny’?
Answer:
‘Tryst with destiny’ speech was delivered by the first Prime Minister of independent India Pt. Jawahar Lai Nehru while addressing special session of constituent Assembly as the midnight of 14-15 August 1947.

Question 11.
Name the states which decided to remain independent in place of joining India.
Answer:
Travancore, Junagadh, Hyderabad and Bhopal decided to remain independent.

Question 12.
In which Congress Session proposal for linguistic principles of reorganisation was accepted?
Answer:
Nagpur Congress Session of 1920.

Question 13.
Name the movement which demanded the separate province for Andhra region.
Answer:
The Vishal Andhra movement demanded that Telugu speaking areas should be separated from Madras Province of which they were a part and be made into a separate Andhra Province.

Question 14.
Why did Amritsar and Kolkata become communal zones?
Answer:
Amritsar and Kolkata became communal zones because Muslims did not wish to move into area of Hindus and Sikhs majority and on the other hand Hindus and Sikhs also wanted to stay away from the areas of Muslim predominance.

Question 15.
Define Globalisation.
Answer:
Globalisation refers to integration of an economy with the other country based on interdependence.

Question 16.
What is WSF?
Answer:
WSF is the World Social Forum, a global platform to bring together a wide coalition of human rights activists, environmentalists and women activists.

Question 17.
Identify any two consequences of the partition of India in 1947.
Answer:
1. Communal Riots took place as the people of one community were killed and maimed by the people of other community in the name of religion.
2. People went through immense sufferings as they were forced to abandon their homes and to secure temporary shelter in the refugee camps. Thousands of women were abducted on both sides of border.

Question 18.
Mention any two challenges that India faced just after independence.
Answer:
(i) Challenge to shape a nation
(ii) Challenges to establish democracy. Or
(iii) Challenge to ensure the development and well being of the entire society.

Question 19.
Name the original states from which the following states were carved out.
(a) Meghalaya (b) Gujarat
Answer:
(a) Assam (1972) (b) Bombay (1960)

Question 20.
Explain the role played by Sardar Patel in the integration of princely states into the Indian Union.
Answer:
Sardar Patel negotiated with the rulers of princely states and diplomatically merged most of them into the Indian Union i.e. there were 26 small states in today’s Orissa and 14 big states and 119 small states in today’s Gujarat.

Question 21.
Which state got divided on bilingual basis?
Answer:
Bombay got divided on bilingual basis consisting of Gujarat and Marathi speaking people. After popular agitation, the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were created in 1960.

Question 22.
Name the leader who advocated separate state of Andhra Pradesh by observing fast unto death and participation in Salt Satyagraha.
Answer:
The leader Potti Sriramulu of Madras resigned from government job to participate in Salt Satyagraha and advocated equality in the society and demanded entry of dalits in temples of Madras as well as observed fast unto death since 19 October 1952 to create separate state of Andhra Pradesh

Question 23.
What was government’s approach towards the integration of princely states was based on three considerations?
Answer:
1. Most of the princely states willingly wanted to join Indian Union.
2. The government wanted to accommo-‘date plurality by adopting flexible approach
in dealing with the demand of the region.
3. The central government was so much concerned towards integration and
consolidation of territorial boundaries of Indian nation.

Questions 24.
Which interests were hidden behind the conflicts between Hindus and Muslims at the time of independence?
Answer:
Hindu and Muslim communities bear some political interests at the time of independence:
1. Muslim League demanded a separate nation for Muslims to protect the interests of Muslims only.
2. There were some Hindu organisations also which made efforts to look after the interests of Hindus only to make India a‘Hindu Nation’.

Question 25.
“India got independence under very difficult circumstances rather than any other country”. Justify thfe statement.
Answer:
India got independence in 1947 under very difficult circumstances:
1. Freedom came with the partition of the country.
2. The year 1947 became the year of unprecedented violence and trauma.
3. Still our leader faced all these challenges in an appreciable manner by accommodating regional diversities also.

Passage Based Questions With Answers

Passage 1.
Read the passage given below carefully and answer the following questions:
The interim government took a firm stance against the possible division of India into smaller principalities of different sizes: The Muslim League opposed the Indian National Congress and took the view that the States should be free to adopt any course they liked. Sardar Patel, India’s Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Minister during the crucial period, immediately after Independence, played a historic role in negotiating with the rulers of Princely States in bringing most of them into the Indian Union.

Question 1.
Which government has been referred to as the interim government?
Answer:
The Indian National Congress has been referred to as the interim government.

Question 2.
Why did the Muslim League oppose the Indian National Congress?
Answer:
The Muslim League opposed the Indian National Congress because it was of the view that the states should be free to adopt any course they liked.

Question 3.
What makes the role of Sardar Patel a historic one? Explain.
Answer:
Sardar Patel was India’s Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Minister during the
crucial period immediately following Independence. He negotiated with the rulers of princely states firmly but diplomatically and brought most of them into the Indian Union.

Passage 2.
Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions:
We should begin to work in that spirit and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities, the Hindu community and the Muslim community- because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vaishnavas, Khatris, also Bengalees, Madrasis, and so on-will vanish. You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed-that has nothing to do with the business of the State. — Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Question 1.
Do you think that Jinnah’s statement contradicts the theory which was the basis of creation of Pakistan? Justify your answer.
Answer:
Jinhah’s statement does not con-tradict the ‘Two Nations’ Theory’ as he aimed at the creation of separate state for Muslims without any interference in other communities like Pathans, Punjabis, Shias and Sunnis.

Question 2.
What is the essence of Jinnah’s statement in this passage?
Answer:
The essence of Jinnah’s statement in this passage is his secular outlook regarding the protection and promotion of every community by giving freedom to practices one’s own beliefs (religiously).

Question 3.
To what extent did Pakistan live up to Jinnah’s expectations in this passage?
Answer:
Pakistan did not live up to Jinnah’s expectations because Pakistan became an orthodox Muslim country that did not respect the interests of other communities after independence.

Passage 3.
Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions:
We have a Muslim minority who are so large in numbers that they cannot, even if they want, go anywhere else. That is a basic fact about which there can be no argument.. Whatever the provocation from Pakistan and whatever the indignities and horrors inflicted on non-Muslims there, we have got to deal with this minority in a civilized manner. We must give them security and the rights of citizens in a democratic state. If we fail to do so, we shall have a festering sore which will eventually poison the whole body politic and probably destroy it. —Jawaharlal Nehru.

Question 1.
Why did Jawaharlal Nehru want to deal with the Muslim minority in a civilized way?
Answer:
Because India adopted democracy which commits equal rights and opportunities to each and every human being in a place of dividing them.

Question 2.
Why this minority should be given security and rights on the same footing as 20 all others in a democratic system?
Answer:
It was argued by Jawaharlal Nehru not only for ethical and sentimental reasons but prudential reasons also to realize long-cherished goals and principles such as socialism, equality, and fraternity.

Question 3.
If this minority was not provided security and rights what kind of scenario is envisaged?
Answer:
If this minority was not provided security and rights it may affect:

• Basic nature of the democratic system.
• It is against the secular nature of India.
• It may affect India’s foreign policy also.
• It may threaten other minorities also.
• Most important it may lead to the disintegration of the nation.

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Political Science Solutions Unit 1 Democracy in India Objective Questions and Answers.

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Political Science Unit 1 Democracy in India Objective Questions

Multiple Choice Questions With Answers

Question 1.
Who among the following is the founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party?
(a) Kanshi Ram
(b) Sahu Maharaj
(c) B.R. Ambedker
(d) Jotiba Phule
Answer:
(a) Kanshi Ram.

Question 2.
What is the guiding philosophy of the Bharatiya Janata Party?
(a) Bahujan Samaj
(b) Revolutionary democracy
(c) Integral humanism
(d) Modernity
Answer:
(d) Modernity

Question 3.
Consider the following statements on parties.
(a) Political parties do not enjoy much trust among the people.
(b) Parties are often rocked by scandals involving top party leaders.
(c) Parties are not necessary to run governments.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) (a) (b) and (c)
(b) (a) and (b)
(c) (b) and (c)
(d) (a) and (c)
Answer:
(b) (a) and (b)

Question 4.
The basis of Democracy is-
(a) Elected government
(b) Welfare State
(c) Bicameralism
(d) Popular Sovereignty
Answer:
(d) Popular Sovereignty

Question 5.
Which is a dimension of Democracy?
(a) Political democracy
(b) Social democracy
(c) Economic democracy
(d) All the above
Answer:
(d) All the above

Question 6.
A democratic government is-
(a) Elected government
(b) Responsible government
(c) Limited government
(d) All the above.
Answer:
(d) All the above.

Question 7.
Which of the following is not a feature of democratic government?
(a) Rule of one person
(b) Limited government
(c) Responsible government
(d) All the above.
Answer:
(a) Rule of one person

Question 8.
Indirect democracy is known as:
(a) Representative government
(b) Government of the public
(c) Non direct democracy
(d) Elected government
Answer:
(a) Representative government

Question 9.
Who said democracy is a government in which everyone has a share?
(a) Seeley
(b) Dicey
(c) Bryee
(d) Abraham Lincoln
Answer:
(a) Seeley

Question 10.
Direct Democracy is based upon the principle of:
(a) Direct Election
(b) Direct: participation of the/people in the work of the government.
(c) Sovereignty of State
(d) Rule of all.
Answer:
(b) Direct: Participation of the people in the work of the government.

Question 11.
Which is the most essential condition for the success of democracy?
(a) Economic equality
(b) Enlightened citizenship
(c) Democratic citizenship
(d) All the above
Answer:
(d) All the above

Question 12.
Initiative means:
(a) The system of representation.
(b) Right of the people to propose legislation.
(c) Right to approve legislation.
(d) The system of legislation.
Answer:
(b) Right of the people to propose legislation.

Question 13.
Referendum is a:
(a) Positive device
(b) Negative device
(c) Device of delegated legislation
(d) Legislative device.
Answer:
(b) Negative device

Question 14.
Which is not a device of direct democracy?
(a) Recall
(b) Representation
(c) Initiativer
(d) Referendum
Answer:
(b) Representation

Question 15.
Electorate means :
(a) Those who actually vote
(b) All the voters
(c) The right to vote
(d) Contestants in an election. ,
Answer:
(b) All the voters

Question 16.
A Representative Democracy has :
(a) Representative government
(b) Limited government
(c) Responsible and accountable government
(d) All the above.
Answer:
(d) All the above.

Question 17.
The system of direct legislation by all the people of a Canton is known in Switzerland as:
(a) Landesgemeimde
(b) Direct law making
(c) Popular law making
(d) Delegated legislation.
Answer:
(a) Landesgemeimde

Question 18.
The other name of representative democracy is :
(a) Direct Democracy
(b) Indirect Democracy
(c) Limited Democracy
(d) Partial Democracy
Answer:
(b) Indirect Democracy

Question 19.
Democracy cannot function without:
(a) Political parties
(b) Elections
(c) Electorate
(d) All these three
Answer:
(d) All these three

Question 20.
Referendum means :
(a) Reference
(b) Refer from
(c) Refer there
(d) Refer to
Answer:
(d) Refer to

Question 21.
Democracy has a form faith in the ideology of:
(a) Gandhism
(b) Socialists
(c) Individualism
(d) Liberalism
Answer:
(d) Liberalism

Question 22.
In universal adult franchise :
(a) All the people have the right to vote
(b) All adult women have the right to vote
(c) All adult men have right to vote
(d) AH adults have the right to vote
Answer:
(d) All adults have the right to vote

Question 23.
The inauguration of the Constitution of India on:
(a) 15th August 1947
(b) 23rd Feb. 1972
(c) 12th March 1962
(d) 26th January 1950
Answer:
(d) 26th January 1950

Question 24.
Which Article of the Constitution of India calls upon the state to provide adequate means of livelihood to men and women?
(a) Article 39
(b) Article 48
(c) Article 52
(d) Article 72
Answer:
(a) Article 39

Question 25.
Which Act is the criminal law Amendment?
(a) Act 1973
(b) Act 1983
(c) Act 1953
(d) Act 1963
Answer:
(b) Act 1983

Question 26.
Which Acts have given 30% reservation to women in Panchayati Raj and Urban local government Institution?
(a) 64th and 65th Amendment Acts
(b) 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts
(c) 45th and 46th Amendment Acts
(d) 84th and 85th Amendment Acts
Answer:
(b) 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts

Question 27.
Which Article of the Constitution of India calls upon the State to provide adequate means of livelihood?
(a) Article 39
(b) Article 56 .
(c) Article 48
(d) Article 93
Answer:
(a) Article 39

Question 28.
Which Act is the Dowry Prohibition?
(a) Act 1961
(b) Act 1972
(c) Act 1895
(d)Act 1983
Answer:
(a) Act 1961 .

Question 29.
Who among the following is the founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party?
(a) Kanshi Ram
(b) Sakshi Maharaj
(c) B.R. Ambedkar
(d) Jatiba Phule
Answer:
(a) Kanshi Ram

Question 30.
What is the guiding philosophy of the Bharatiya Janta Party?
(a) Bahujan Samaj
(b) Revolutionary democracy
(c) Integral humanism
(d) Modernity
Answer:
(d) Modernity

Question 31.
Indian National Congress was established-
(a) 1906
(b) 1885
(c) 1872
(d) 1892
Answer:
(b) 1885

Question 32.
Who observed “No Party No Democracy”?
(a) Munro
(b) Duvergen
(c) Gettell
(d) Burke
Answer:
(a) Munro

Question 33.
Most visible, function of political parties is?
(a) Formulation of Public opinion
(b) Policy-making
(c) Contesting elections
(d) Social Reforms
Answer:
(c) Contesting elections

Question 34.
The basis of organisation of a pressure group is-
(a) Ideology
(b) Interests
(c) Leadership
(d) Needs
Answer:
(b) Interests

Question 35.
Which is consider to be a better party system?
(a) Bi-Party system
(b) Lack of Party system
(c) Multi-Party systein
(d) Single-Party system.
Answer:
(a) Bi-Party system

True or False

1. Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY) is a programme for the creation of rural economic infrastructure.
Answer: True

2. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is not a flagship programme for the universalization of elementary education.
Answer: False

3. Public Distribution System (PDS) contributes towards meeting people’s basic food needs.
Answer: True

4. During the 1990s non-food items like clothes, employment, shelter, education, etc. got included in the definition of poverty.
Answer: True

5. W.C. Bonnarjee was the first President of the Indian National Congress.
Answer: True

6. The two Communist Parties are the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the. Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Answer: True

7. In 2008 passed the Right to Education Act through which education has become a fundamental right for all children of age group 6-14 years.
Answer: False

8. The United Kingdom (UK) has not bi-party systems.
Answer: False

9. The United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA), Australia and New Zealand has bi-party systems.
Answer: True

10. The BSP acquired the status of a national party in 1996.
Answer: True

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Political Science Solutions Unit 5 Issues in International Politics Long Answer Questions.

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Political Science Unit 5 Issues in International Politics Long Answer Questions

Long Type Questions With Answers

Question 1.
Explain any four components of India’s security strategy.
Answer:
(a)To strengthen its military capabilities.

• India has been involved in conflicts with its neighbours as Pakistan in 1947-48, 1965, 1971, 1999 and China in 1962
• In South Asian region, India is surrounded by nuclear armed countries.

(b) To strengthen international norms and institutions.

• India’s first Prime Miniter J.L. Nehru supported Asian solidarity, disarmament, decolonisation and the UN as a forum to settle down international conflict.
• It used non-alignment to help to carry out an area of peace outside the blocs.

(c) To meet security challenges within country.

• Several militant groups from areas such as Nagaland, Mizoram, Punjab, Kashmir have sought to break away from India.
• India has made efforts to preserve national unity by adopting a democratic political system by providing freedom of speech and expression along with the right to vote.

(d) To develop its economy:

• India develops the way to lift vast mass of citizens out of poverty, misery and huge economic inequalities.
• A democratically elected government is supposed to combine economic growth with human development without any demarcation between the rich and the poor.

Question 2.
Identify and explain any four new sources of threats to security.
Answer:
Four new sources of threats to security can be identified as follows.

• Terrorism is a war against democrary and a crime against humanity. It refers to political violence that targets civilians deliberately and discriminately to use it as a weapon against national government. It has become a global phenomena because even superpower is not free from terrorist attacks.
• Human rights are those basic conditions which an individual is supposed to enjoy as a human being. These rights include political rights, freedom of speech and expression, economic rights, social and civil rights and fights of indigenous people to lead as honourable and dignified life.
• Global poverty refers to low economic growth, low national income and low standard of living of developing or least developed countries.
• Health epidemic is a very serious threat to a country’s security because severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), HIV-AIDS, bird flue etc. diseases spread across countries through migration business, tourism and military operations.

Question 3.
What is meant by Security? Mention any four components of Indian security strategy.
Answer:
At its most basic, security implies freedom from threats. Human existence and the life of a country are full of threats. We generally say that only those things that threaten ‘core values’ should be regarded as being of interest in discussions of security. Thus, security relates only to extremely dangerous threats- threats that could so endanger core values that those values would be damaged beyond repair if we did not do something to deal with the situation.

India’s security strategy has four broad components which have been used in varying combination from time to time.

1. The first component was strengthening its military capabilities because India has been involved in conflicts with its neighbours – Pakistan in 1947-48,1965, 1971 and 1999 and China in 1962. Since it is surrounded by nuclear-armed countries in the South Asia region,
2. India’s decision to conduct nuclear tests in 1998 was justified by the Indian government in terms of safeguarding national security.
   The second component of India’s security strategy has been to strengthen international norms and international institutions to protect its security interests.
3. The third component of Indian security strategy is geared towards meeting security challenges within the country. Several militant groups from areas such as Nagaland, Mizoram, the Punjab and Kashmir among others have from time to time sought to break away from India. India has tried to preserve national unity by adopting a democratic political system.
4. There has been an attempt in India to develop its economy in a way that the vast mass of citizens are lifted out of poverty and misery and huge economic inequalities are not allowed to exist.

Question 4.
Give a comparative analysis of Indian expenditure on traditional and non-traditional security.
Answer:

• India spends more on traditional security than non-traditional because:
• India has been involved in conflict with its neighbours as Pakistan in 1947-48, 1965,1971 and 1999 and China in 1962.
• In South Asian Region, India is surrounded by nuclear armed countries. Hence, India’s decision to conduct nuclear test n 1990 was justified to safeguard national security.
• India’s first tested nuclear device in 1974.
• Though India has made efforts to develop its economy and an individual’s security from poverty but still it is lagging behind even now and we are supposed to make more efforts.

Question 5.
Mention and explain the components and India’s security strategy.
Answer:
India has faced traditional military and non-traditional threats to its Security that have emerged from within as well as outside its borders. Its security strategy has four broad components i.e.:

• To strengthen its Military capabilities;
  Because:
  (a) India has been involved in conflict with its neighbours, as Pakistan in 1947¬48, 1965, 1971 and 1999 and China in 1962.
  (b) In South Asia Region, India is surrounded by nuclear armed countries. Hence, India’s section to conduct nuclear test in 1990 was justified to safeguard national security.
  (c) India first tested nuclear device in 1974.
• To strengthen international Norms and international Institutions:
  (a) India’s first Prime Minister J.L. Nehru supported Asian solidarity, disarmament, decolonisation and the UN as a forum to settle down international conflict.
  (b) India signed Kyoto Protocol in 1997 to be a part of roadmap for reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases to check global warming.
• To Meet Security Challenges within the Country.
  (a) Several militant groups from areas such as Nagaland, Mizoram, Punjab, Kashmir has sought to break away from India.
  (b) India makes efforts to preserve national unity by adopting a democratic political system by providing freedom of speech and expression along with the right to vote.
• To Develop its Economy.
  (a) India develops the way to lift vast mass of citizens out of poverty, misery and huge economic inequalities.
  (b) A democratically elected government is supposed to combine economic growth with human development without any demarcation between the rich and the poor.

Question 6.
Explain the areas of operation of non-traditional notion of security.
Answer:
Non-traditional concept of security includes human and global security covering a wide range of threats affecting human existence:
1 It does not cover only the states but also the individuals and communities also.
2. It emphasises on security on nature of threat and right approach to deal with the threat its sources can be identified as follows:

• Terrorism refers to political violence to target civilians deliberately and discriminately to use it as a weapon against national government.
• Human Rights refer to basic conditioons which an individual is supposed to enjoy as a human being as political rights, freedom of speech and expression, economic rights, social and civil rights to lead an honourable and dignified life.
• Global poverty refers to low economic growth, low national income and low standard of living of developing or least developed countries.
• Health epidemics is a very serious threat to country’s security because severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (ARS), HIV, AIDS, bird flue diseases spread across countries through migration, business, tourism and military operations.

Question 7.
What is Traditional security?
Answer:
The traditional security paradigm refers to a realist construct of security in which the referent object of security is the state. The prevalence of this theorem reached a peak during the Cold War. For almost half a century, major world powers entrusted the security of their nation to a balance of power among states.

In this sense international stability relied on the premise that if state security is maintained, then the security of citizens will necessarily follow. Traditional security relied on the anarchistic balance of power, a military build-up between the United States and the Soviet Union (the two super powers) and on the absolute sovereignty of the nation state.

States were deemed to be rational entities, national interests and policy driven by the desire for absolute power. Security was seen as protection from invasion; executed during proxy conflicts using technical and military capabilities. As Cold War tensions receded, it became clear that the security of citizens was threatened by hardships arising from internal state activities as well as external aggressors.

Civil wars were increasingly common and compounded existing poverty, disease, hunger, violence and human rights abuses. Traditional security policies had effectively masked these underlying basic human needs in the face of state security. Through neglect of its constituents, nation states had failed in their primary objective.

In the historical debate on how best to achieve national security, writers like Hobbes, Macchiavelli and Rousseau tended to paint a rather pessimistic picture of the implications of state sovereignty. The international system was viewed as a rather brutal arena in which states would seek to achieve their own security at the expense of their neighbors. Inter-state relations were seen as a struggle for power, as states constantly attempted to take advantage of each other.

According to this view, permanent peace was unlikely to be achieved. All that states could do was to try to balance the power of other states to prevent any one from achieving overall hegemony. This view was shared by Writers such as E.H. Carr and Hans Morgenthau. More recently, the traditional state-centric notion of security has been challenged by more holistic approaches to security.

Among the approaches which seeks to acknowledge and address these basic threats to human safety are paradigms that include cooperative, comprehensive and collective measures, aimed to ensure security for the individual and, as a result, for the state. To enhance international security against potential threats caused by terrorism and organized crime, there have been an increase in international cooperation, resulting in transnational policing.

The international police Interpol shares information across international borders and this cooperation has been greatly enhanced by the arrival of the Internet and the ability to instantly transfer documents, films and photographs worldwide.

Question 8.
Identify various factors causing environmental degradation.
Answer:
Envirnomental Problem: Some of the notable problem of environment can be identified as under: –

• Land Air And Water: Pollution of land and water has affected plants, animals and human beings. The quality of soil is deterionating resulting in the loss of agricultural land. The loss is estimated to be about five to seven million hectares of land each year. Soil erosion, as a result of wind and/or water, costs the world dearly. The recurring floods have their own peculiar casualties like deforestation, silt in the river bed, inadequate and improper drainage, loss of men and property. The vast oceans, after being turned into dumping grounds for all nuclear wastes, have poisoned and polluted the whole natural environment.
• Population Growth: Population growth means more people to eat and breathe, and putting an excessive pressure on land and forest, and ultimately disturbing the ecological balance. Our growing population is putting pressure on land, leading to poor quality of productivity, deforestation (the loss of forest land so necessary for ecological balance and exitinction of wild life leading to imbalance in the ecological order, loss of wild life heritage and ultimately dwindling of several species. The growing population is not only a problem for the natural environment; it is a problem for any other aspect of environment, say, for example social, economic, political etc.
• Urbanization: Urbanization is no less a source of pollution, and therefore, a threat to the environment. Urbanization means maddening race of people from villages to the cities. The net result of urbanization is dirt, disease and disasters. In a state of growing urbanization, environmental problem like sanitation, ill-heath, housing, water-supply and electricity keep expanding. On the other, the environmental degradation is caused in the rural life due to indiscriminate collection of firewood, overgrazing and depletion of other natural resources.
• Industrialization: Industrialization coupled with the development of the means of transport and communication has not only polluted the environment, but also has led to the shrinking of the natural resources. Both ways, the loss is really heavy. Increasing level
  of heat fluxes, carbon dioxide and particulate, radioactive nuclear wastes and the like create environment hazards. On the other hand, the consumption of conventional source of energy leads to the loss of natural resource. We are building a world without caring for future generations.

Question 9.
What are the national and international commitment for environment protection?
Answer:
The growing awareness about environmental protection has resulted in new measures across the world. The late Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi was the only Head of Government, attending the 1972 Stockholm conference, which was called the “U.N. Conference on Human environment”. The Rio Conference 20 years later was called the “U.N. Conference on Environment and Development”.

It was Mrs. Gandhi who first pointed out that poverty was the greatest polluter and unless it was eliminated through national and international efforts it was futile to talk about protecting the planet from environmental disaster. UNDP, the World Bank and other institutions of the U.N. system are now advocating the elimination of poverty as the central task in sustainable development.

Indeed environmental and development polices are seen as complementing each other. The compulsions of development is certainly to be resolved. But any world order cannot be sustainable if three-fourths of its population continues to live in poverty. Environmental rights and developmental rights together constitute the democratic and human rights of all the people of the world.

The Montreal convention and the conventions on climate change; bio-diversity and forest adopted at Rio are important landmarks in the world movement for sustainable development and environmental protection. India has accepted these conventions and is taking systematic measures to implement them. An environmental action programme funded by U.N.D.P.is under implementation. There are 31 schemes for industrial pollution control approved by the World Bank, involving of US. $ 105 million.

On the anvil are common effluent plants for small industries located in a cluster, the big plants being looked after individually. Seventeen grossly polluting industries have been identified for environment control within a time schedule. For certain categories of industries, prior environment clearance is compulsory before they can be set up.

In regard to transport pollution apart from conversation measures, population free engines are being designed, some of which have already been introduced for two-wheelers, three-wheelers and some of the popular cars. A National Forestry Plan is in progress. Environmental Brigades, Afforestation Brigades and Ecological task Force have been organized by Non-government organizations (NGOs.) India’s wild life conservation projects have met with remarkable success.

India has a protected network of75 national parks and 421 wild life sanctuaries. The Tiger project has been a great success. India also has an elaborate law relating to the prevention of pollution of water, soil and air and a system of environmental audit of most industrial projects. While this is voluntary for most countries, India has a mandatory rule in this regard.

India is also engaged in serious and systematic efforts to develop alternative and renewable sources of energy like solar, wind and wave energy which are environment friendly. Emphasis is laid on solar energy on which some significant technological progress has been made. India is taking all these measures partially with international assistance.

Question 10.
Write about the justice of the poor against factories that pollute the Environment.
Answer:

• Environmental Courts: Special courts are being set up to ensure speedy
• Environment Friendly Products: The government is setting stringent standards for all products in the market. Those, which meet these standards of production and performance will be given the label of excellence like the ISI mark.
• Unleading of Petrol: Refineries are being persuaded to make their petrol lead free. Indian petrol has the highest lead content, which creates major pollution through automobiles.
• Ban on Harmful Pesticides: Eight chemical pesticides, of which DDT, BHC, Aldrin and Malathion are the main culprits have been isolated. There are now plans to replace them with safe biopesticides.
• National Waste Management Council: The main task is to convert 40 million tones of fly ash, that lie as a mountain near thermal power plants into bricks, city garbage into energy and sewage into fertilizer.
• Public Liability Insurance: This makes it mandatory for all companies to take out a public liability insurance to be paid in 48 hours.
• Pollution by Motor Vehicles: Anti-pollution measures against motor vehicles are being strictly enforced. Vehicles not adhering to the standards prescribed are fined heavily and may even be asked to be off the road.
• Hotel Near Sea Shore: Action has been taken against a large number of hotels which encroach beaches in flagrant violation of laws.
• National River Action Plan: The proposal is to set up a National river authority which will plan policy for water use and waste management at the national level.
• Solar Energy Commission: Since the energy sector is the major polluter, the idea is to create decentralized energy at the village level, instead of multiplying the mainstream producer.
• No Smoking In Public Places: A ban is proposed on smoking in public places. The Delhi government has taken a lead in this direction, majors taken by India for environment pollution.

Question 11.
What is sustainable development?
Answer:
The world commission on environment and development (the Brundtland commission) submitted its report entitled “Our common future in 1987. This report highlighted and popularised the concept of ‘sustainable development’. Sustainable development has been defined on meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the need of future generations. All developmental activities involve some amount of environmental degradation.

What is required is to take into account the damage to environment as a result of development, and strike a balance between development and environmental protection. The aim should be to achieve sustainable levels of people’s welfare and development. The primary concern is how many people can ultimately be supported by environment and at what level of quality of life.

The mainstream greens scholars like Carr, Brown, Dala, Schumacher. Does not make sense and others, all lay stress on the “sustainability” of the environment together with development. The emphasis of the mainstream green’ are not on pollution, but on

1. energy and its resource may be renewed, and be kept renewing,
2. the waste be changed into raw-material, raw-material into waste, waste into raw- material: recycling of waste into raw material;
3. gross national product and its growth targets need not be sought, but what should be sought is the satisfaction of real human needs’.

The greens say that growth means cancer, a cancer that threatens to spread worldwide and destroy all life. The concept of sustainable development is more about the environment and less about development; more about stability and less about change; more about restricting one’s wants and less about continuing material development more about the non-exploitative attitude towards environment and less about harnessing it; more about small communities and less about the larger ones.

It is not a concept of development with environment, but is environment without growth. Indeed, ecological degradation should stop. But why should the pace of development stop? A disciplined uses of environmental benefits go a long way for all round development. Scholars and activists assert that environmental degradation can be controlled and reversed only by ensuring that the parties causing the damage should be made accountable for their action and that they should participate in improving environmental conditions.

What is needed is a set of norms, which bring the demands of development and the compulsion of the environment closer to each other.

Question 12.
What is the objective of India’s National Environment policy?
Answer:
Ans. In India, environmental awareness gained importance in 1 970s after the UN-sponsored conference on the environment in Stockholm (1972). The Indian government took many environment-friendly activities. Ministry of environment and forest was established and laws were enacted on environment protection in -1986. The objective of India’s National Environment, policy, here, is worth stating.

• Conserve and develop a safe, healthy, productive, and aesthetically satisfying environment.
• Upgrade, develop and manage rural and urban settlements to enhance the quality of life.
• Plan development on sound ecological principles with environmental impact assessment and incorporating appropriate environmental safeguards.
• Promote environmental safety technologies, recycling of resources, and utilization of wastes.
• Conserve the biotic diversity in the country by creating nature reserves and sanctuaries for specific habitats such as mountains, rain forests, pastures, deserts, wetlands, lakes, beaches, mangroves, estuaries, lagoons, and islands.
• Safeguard the environment within the national maritime Exclusive Economic Zone.
• Evolve environmental norms and establish effective mechanisms for monitoring surveillance and collection and dissemination of information.
• Preserve science landscapes, as well as historic and cultural monuments and their environs.
• Promote environmental education at all levels and create public awareness.
• Encourage research in environmental science and technological and social investigation to conserve and improve the environment.
• Develop adequate manpower within the country, of ecologists, environmental scientists, planners, and managers of the highest- quality and recognize their work as an important component of national development.

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Political Science Solutions Unit 5 Issues in International Politics Short Answer Questions.

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Political Science Unit 5 Issues in International Politics Short Answer Questions

Short Questions With Answers

Question 1.
What is security?
Answer:
The concept of security in general refers to freedom from the risk of loss or damage to a thing that is important to survival and well-being. It can have both broad and narrow application, and it can apply to a limited set of objects to be secured, or to a deeper array of interconnected elements in a social system. In its shallowest and narrowest form, which is also its most influential and widespread interpretation, security refers to the security of the nation-state from attack from armed forces.

Question 2.
Define National security.
Answer:
Richard Ullman (1983), for example, has defined a national security threat as anything that can quickly degrade the quality of life of the inhabitants of a state, or that narrows the choices available to people and organizations within the state.

Question 3.
What is securitization?
Answer:
Indeed, because security is a “speech act” that raises the profile of a problem to be of paramount importance to whoever constructs the discourse, broadening the range of security risks without explicitly identifying a referent object that is not the state most often operationalizes state monopolization of responses to meet the new security challenges. This is what is implied in the idea of “securitization”.

Question 4.
What is “Global”?
Answer:
The scale of consumption and pollution in modem, high-energy societies has caused large decreases in primary forest cover; biodiversity losses; depletion of fish stocks; land degradation; water pollution and scarcity; coastal and marine degradation; the contamination of people, plants and animals by chemicals and radioactive substances; and climate change and sea-level rise. These environmental changes are “global” because they are ubiquitous and because some pollutants such as greenhouse gases and radioactive wastes have global consequences.

Question 5.
Define human security.
Answer:
Human security is the combination of threats associated with war, genocide, and the displacement of populations. At a minimum, human security means freedom from violence and from the fear of violence.

Question 6.
Define corporative security.
Answer:
Corporate security is the involvement of international corporation depending on the nature of threat and the willingness and ability of countries to respond.

Question 7.
Mention any two human rights in poltical field.
Answer:
One is freedom of speech and expression and second is freedom to assemble in peaceful maimer.

Question 8.
Which is the greatest danger to security as per traditional notion of secuirity?
Answer:
It is from military threats which lies in another country to endanger the core value of sovereignty independence and territoirial integration of country.

Question 9.
What is meant by disarmament?
Answer:
Disarmament bound state to give up certain kinds weapon to avoid mass destruction through signing various treaties.

Question 10.
What is global poverty?
Answer:
Global poverty signifies a condition available in the state to suffer from low income and less economic growth that is developing or underdeveloped countries.

Question 11.
Is the notion of security applicable to all the state.
Answer:
All states do not experience the same threat at a time hence security is groued into two as per requirements. Traditional and non-traditional conception.

Question 12.
Suggest any one effective step which would limit war and violence between countries.
Answer:
An effective step may be in the form of cooperative security only that involves international corporation which may be bilateral, regional, continental or global which depends upon the nature of threats and the willingness and ability of countries to respond to limit war or violence corporative security place at national and international levels.

Question 13.
Highlight any two threats of country’s security as per traditional notion of security or explain traditional concept of security.
Answer:
Traditional notion of security covers both internal and external threats of country’s security. External threats consist of four components that is military threats, threat of war, balance of power and alliance building. Internal threats include maintenance of internal peace and order and recognise corporative security to limit violence.

Question 14.
What is military threats?
Answer:
Military threats refers to military action from another country to endanger the core value of country’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. Military action often targets men and women that is ordinary citizens.

Question 15.
Explain non-traditional concept of security.
Answer:
Non-traditional concept of security includes human an4 global security covering a wide range of threats affecting human existence.
(1) It does not covers the state only but also the individual and community.
(2) It emphasize on security on nature of threats and right approach to deal with threat.

Question 16.
Write a note on Arms control.
Answer:
Arms control regulates the acquisition or development of weapons by adopting following measures:

• The Anti Ballistic Missiles Treaty in 1992 stopped the US and Soviet Union from using ballistic missiles to limit large scale production.
• Other arms control treaties were also signed i.e. Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and Nuclear non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) to limit the weapons which may bring large scale destruction.
• NPT regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons in 1968.
• NPT did not abolish nuclear weapons rather it limited number of countries that could have them.

Question 17.
What is global security?
Answer:
Defining global security In an address in 1993 I defined “global security” as the absence of threats to the vital interests of the planet, and I argued that this new concept should replace that of “national security.” Furthermore, the idea of security must extend well beyond its traditional military dimension to encompass the interrelated military, political, economic, environmental, health and other threats I list above. Now is an opportune time to build global consensus on these issues and the logical party to take the initiative would clearly be a revitalized UN. International cooperation will become increasingly important in achieving our shared global security goals. We will need new theories and analytic frameworks for global security to replace traditional theories such as containment, balance of power, deterrence, and hegemonic stability.

Question 18.
What is Human security?
Answer:
Defining human security “Human security” will be defined here as the absence of threats to the vital interests of individual people on a worldwide basis. In the words of the UN Development Programme, which originated the concept, human security is “freedom from pervasive threats to people’s rights, safety or lives,” involving both “safety for people from violent threats, such as organized conflict, gross violations of human rights, terrorism and violent crime” and “safety from non-violent threats, such as environmental degradation, economic crises, illicit drugs, infectious diseases and natural disasters.” These two concepts of security, global security and human security, are not inconsistent; rather, they are both complementary and mutually reinforcing.

Question 19.
What are the main features of Human Security?
Answer:
Human security brings together the ‘human elements of security, rights and development. As such, it is an inter-disciplinary concept that displays the following characteristics: people-centered multi-sectoral comprehensive context-specific prevention-oriented As a people-centered concept, human security places the individual at the ‘centre of analysis. ’

Consequently, it considers a broad range of conditions which threaten survival, livelihood and dignity, and identifies the threshold below which human life is intolerably threatened. Human security is also based on a multi-sectoral understanding of insecurities.

Therefore, human security entails a broadened understanding of threats and includes causes of insecurity relating for instance to economic, food,health, environmental, personal, community and political security.

Question 20.
Explain the concept of environmental degradation.
Answer:
Environment constitutes a. very important part of our life. To understand life without studying the impact of environment is simply impossible. The need to protect environment can be ignored only at our peril. We use environmental resources in our day to day life. These resources are renewabteand non-renewable. We have to be more cautious in consuming non-renewable resources like coal and petroleum, which are prone to depletion.

All human activities have an impact on environment. But in the last two centuries or so, the human influence on environment has increased manifold due to the rapid population, growth and the fast development in science and technology. These two are the major factors in reducing the quality of environment and causing its degradation. The environmental degradation poses a great danger to man’s own survival.

It should be realized, sooner than later, that conservation and improvement ofthe environment are vital for the survival, and well being of mankind. Natural resources of land, air and water have to be used wisely as a trust to ensure a healthy environment for the present and future generations.

Question 21.
Write about awareness about environment problem.
Answer:
In the past two decades, environment has attracted the attention of decision makers, scientists and even laymen in many parts of the world. They are becoming increasingly, conscious of issues such as famines, droughts, floods, scarcity of fuel, firewood and fodder, pollution of air and, water, problems of hazardous chemicals and radiation, depletion of natural resources, extinction of wildlife and dangers to flora and fauna.

People are now aware of the need to protect the natural environmental resources of air, water, soil and plant life that constitute the natural capital on which man depends. The environmental issues are important because the absence of their solutions is more horrible. Unless environmental issues are not solved or not taken care of the coming generations may find earth worth not living. The need of the planet and the needs of the person have become one.

There is no denying the fact that environment has to be protected and conserved so to make future life possible. Indeed, man’s needs are increasing and accordingly, the environment is also being altered, indeed, nature’s capacity is too accommodating and too regenerative yet there is a limit to nature’s capacity, especially when pressure of exploding population and technology keep mounting. What is required is the sustenance, conservation and improvement of the changing and fragile environment.

Question 22.
Which third weapon both the superpowers did not want to give up under the concept of disarmament?
Answer:
Disarmament requires all states to give up certain kinds of weapons i.e. the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and 1992 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) banned the production and possession of these weapons. Despite the US and Soviet Union were not ready to give up the third type of weapons of mass destruction namely nuclear weapons.

Question 23.
“The secure states do not imply the secure people in itself”. Examine the statement.
Answer:
The secure states are supposed to protect their people from an individual in security also rather the territorial security only. Hence they are required to provide security from foreign attacks hunger, diseases and natural disasters, etc. because it destructs the people rather than war.

Question 24.
How is global poverty a source of insecurity? Explain.
Answer:
Global poverty refers to low economic growth, low national income, and low standard of living of developing or least developed countries. It is a source of insecurity because:

• Half the world’s population growth occurs in just six countries- India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, considered developing countries, and even in the poorest countries population is expected to triple in the next 50 years.
• Globally, this disparity contributes to the gap between the northern and southern countries of the world.
• Poverty in the south has also led to a large migration to seek better economic opportunities in the north.
• All these created international political fiction as international law and norms make a distinction between migrants and refugees as they do not get ready to accept migrants.

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Political Science Solutions Unit 5 Issues in International Politics Objective Questions and Answers.

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Political Science Unit 5 Issues in International Politics Objective Questions

Multiple Choice Questions With Answers

Question 1.
Propnens of narrow concept of human security focus on?
(a) Violent threats to individual.
(b) Violent threat to country
(c) Violent threat
(d) None
Answer:
(a) Violent threats to individual.

Question 2.
Strategic Arms limitation Treaty was signed by?
(a) Brezne
(b) W.Carter
(c) Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter
(d) None
Answer:
(c) Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter

Question 3.
The art of reducing,limiting or abolishing weapn was termed as?
(a) Disbarment
(b) Armcontrol
(c) Armrace
(d) Unarm
Answer:
(a) Disbarment

True or False

1. Coal is a renewable resource.
Answer: False

2. The fast development in science and technology is a major factor contributing to the environmental degradation.
Answer: True

3. The growing population in India does not contribute to the environmental degradation.
Answer: False

4. Trees are a good example of non-renewable resource.
Answer: False

Passage Based Questions With Answers

Passage 1.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions:
The US and Soviet Union signed a number of other arms control treaties including the strategic Arms Limitations Treaty II (SALT II) and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 was an arms control treaty in the sense that it regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons, those countries that had tested and manufactured nuclear weapons before 1967 were allowed to keep their weapons and those that had not done so were to give up the right to acquire them. The NPT did not abolish nuclear weapons; rather; it limited the number of countries that could have them.

Question 1.
What is arms control treaty?
Answer:
To regulate the acquisition or development of weapons among countries.

Question 2.
Was NPT an arms control treaty? Why?
Answer:
Yes, because it regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons to protect world from large seat destruction.

Question 3.
What was the intention behind regulation of NPT?
Answer:
It did not abolish nuclear weapons rather it limited the number of countries that could have them.

Passage 2.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions:
Global poverty is another source of insecurity. The world population- now at 650 crores will reach 700 to 800 crore within 25 years and many eventually level out of 900 to 1000 crore. Currently, half the world’s population growth occurs in just six countries – India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Among the world’s poorest countries, the population is expected to triple in the next 50 years whereas many rich countries will see population shrinkage in that period, high per capita income and low population growth make rich states or rich social groups get richer, whereas low incomes and high population growth reinforce each other to make poor states and poor groups get poorer.

Question 1.
Name the countries expected to occur half the world’s population growth.
Answer:
India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.

Question 2.
Mention two reasons to make rich states higher.
Answer:
(i) High per capita income
(ii) Low population growth.

Question 3.
What makes poor countries poorer?
Answer:
Low income and high population growth.

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Psychology Solutions Unit 3 Long Answer Questions Part-2.

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Psychology Unit 3 Long Answer Questions Part-2

Long Questions With Answers

Question 1.
Counselling Process
Answer:
Meaning and Nature of Counselling:
Counselling provides a system for planning the interview, analysing the counsellor’s and client’s behaviour, and determining the developmental impact on the client. In this section, we will discuss skills, concepts and methods that are designed to help develop concrete competencies. A counsellor is most often interested in building an understanding of the client’s problem by focusing on what understanding the client has of her/his problem and how s/he feels about it.

The actual or objective facts of the problems are considered less important, and it is considered more important to work on the feelings and their acknowledgement by the clients. The focus is more on the person and how s/he defines the problem. Counselling involves a helping relationship, which includes someone seeking help, and someone willing to give help, who is capable of or trained to help in a setting that permits help to be given and received (see Fig.9.2).

The following elements about counselling are common to the major theoretical approaches to counselling :

• Counselling involves responding to the feelings, thoughts and actions of the client
• Counselling involves a basic acceptance of the client’s perceptions and feelings, without using any evaluative standards.
• Confidentiality and privacy constitute essential ingredients in the counselling setting. Physical facilities that preserve this quality are important.
• Counselling is voluntary. It takes place when a client approaches a counsellor. A counsellor never uses any kind of coercion for obtaining information.
• Counsellors and clients both transmit and receive verbal and non-verbal messages during the process. Therefore, awareness and sensitivity to the nature of the message is an important prerequisites for a counsellor’s effectiveness.

Breaking the Myths of Counselling:

• Counselling is not merely giving information.
• Counselling is not giving advice.
• Counselling is not the selection and placement of individuals onto jobs or for courses.
• Counselling is not the same as interviewing though interviewing may be involved.
• Counselling is not influencing attitudes, beliefs and behaviour by persuading, admonishing, threatening or compelling.

Developing Effective Relationships:
For most people who seek help from a counsellor, effective or satisfying relationships are almost non-existent or infrequent. Since the change in behaviour is often created and supported by a network of social support, it is essential for clients to start developing more positive relationships with other persons. The counselling relationship is the initial vehicle through which this begins.

Like all of us, counsellors too are not perfect, but they are trained in developing a more healthy and helpful relationships than others. In brief, counselling usually has an all-inclusive outcome for the clients. Effective behavioural change that takes place in the client is multifaceted. It may show up in the form of a client taking greater responsibility, developing new insight, learning to engage in different behaviours, write down the characteristics of counselling.

Characteristics of an Effective Helper:
Being a trained helper, the counsellor has the responsibility for ensuring that her/his client benefits from counselling and its therapeutic effects are achieved. To a large extent, however, the success of a counselling process depends on the skill, knowledge, attitude, personal qualities and behaviour of a counsellor, any or all of which can enhance or diminish the helping process. In this section, we will discuss four qualities that are associated with effective counsellors. These include:

• Authenticity,
• Positive regard for others
• Ability to empathise and
• Paraphrasing.
  Let us understand these qualities briefly:

Authenticity:
Your image or perception of yourself makes up your “I”. The self-perceived “I” is revealed through ideas, words, actions, clothing and lifestyle. All of these communicate your “I” to others. Those who come into close contact with you also build their own image of you for themselves, and they also sometimes Communicate this image to you.

For example, friends tell you what they like and dislike about you. Your teachers and parents praise and/or criticise you. You are also evaluated by persons you respect. These collective judgments by people you respect also called ‘significant others, develop into a ‘me’. This other perceived ‘me’ is the person that others perceive you to be.

This perception may be the same as or different from your own self-perception of ‘I’. The degree to which you are aware of these perceptions of others as well as of your own perception of yourself indicates that you are self-aware. Authenticity means that your behavioural expressions are consistent with what you value and the way you feel and relate to your inner self-image.

Positive Regard for Others:
In a counselling-counsellor relationship, a good relationship allows freedom of expression. It reflects acceptance of the idea that the feelings of both are important. We should remember that when we form a new relationship, we experience feelings of uncertainty and anxiety. Such feelings pt minimised when a counsellor extends a positive regard to the client by accepting that it is all right to feel the way the client is feeling. In order to show positive regard to others, the following guidelines may be kept in mind:

• When you are speaking, get into the habit of using “I” messages rather than “you” messages. An example of this would be, “I understand” rather than “you should not”.
• Respond to what the other person has said, after checking with her/him.
• Give the other person the freedom to share feelings or anything she/he wants to say. Do not interrupt or cut in.
• Do not assume that the other person knows what you are thinking. Express yourself according to the frame of reference, i.e. in the context of the verbal exchange taking place.
• Do not label either yourself or the other person (e.g., “you are an introvert”, etc.).

Empathy:
This is one of the most critical competencies that a counsellor needs to have. You have already read in Chapter 5 that empathy is the ability of a counsellor to understand the feelings of another person from her/his perspective. It is like stepping into someone else’s shoes and trying to understand the pain and troubling feelings of the other person. There is a difference between sympathy and empathy. In sympathy, you play the saviour. You may think that someone deserves your kindness.

Paraphrasing:
This skill has already been discussed in the section on communication earlier. You will recall that this involves the ability of a counsellor to reflect on what the client says and feels using different Words.

Ethics of Counselling:
In recent years, counsellors have taken important steps to develop their professional identity. A critical criterion for any professional group is the development and implementation of appropriate ethical standards. Social workers, marriage counsellors, family therapists and psychologists —all have their ethical codes. Awareness of ethical standards and codes is extremely important because counselling is a part of the service sector. Not following ethical standards may have legal implications.

While learning about the competencies of a counsellor, it is important for you to know that the client-counsellor relationship is built on ethical practice. The American Psychological Association (APA) has developed a code of ethical conduct for behaviour “‘and decision-making in actual clinical settings. The practical knowledge of these ethical domains can guide the practice of counselling in achieving its desired purpose.

Some of the APA practice guidelines are:

• Knowledge of ethical/professional codes, standards and guidelines, knowledge of statutes, rules, regulations and case law relevant to the practice of psychology.
• Recognise and analyse ethical and legal issues across the range of professional activities in the clinical setting.
• Recognise and understand the ethical dimensions/features of her/his own attitudes and practice in the clinical setting.
• Seek appropriate information and consultation when faced with ethical issues.
• Practice appropriate professional assertiveness related to ethical issues.

Interview Stage/Phase:
Any counselling process, be it individual or group, starts with the interview stage. This stage could also be referred to as the familiarization, orientation or introductory stage. This stage is very important because for you as a counsellor to start well determines the success of other stages and the entire counselling relationship. The counsellor and the client meet for the first time.

The counsellor makes a deliberate effort to get acquainted with the client by establishing rapport. This is done by asking the client to sit down so that he or she would be emotionally relaxed in the counsellor’s office. The Counsellor inquires about the client’s name, class, parents, friends, progress in school and mission in the counsellor’s office. This should be done with caution so that the client does not feel as if he or she is being interrogated.

The counsellor further assures the client that whatever is discussed will be kept confidential. This is to win the client’s confidence and make him or her open up to say the purpose for coming to the counsellor’s office.  The client may or may not present his problem during this stage. The counsellor should not be in a hurry to make him/her disclose his mission.

During this stage, the counsellor needs to display in his behaviour all the qualities of an effective counsellor by being patient listening carefully, showing empathy, showing unconditional positive regard that is treating his clients with respect, and warmth, irrespective of his age, sex, race, colour, religion and socio-economic status. This is very important as counsellors are not expected to be segregational or discriminative.

Working Stage/Phase:
This is the second stage/phase of the counselling process. As the title suggests, it is the stage where the counsellor fully engages the client in a discussion about what to do and how it will be done concerning the problem of the client. If the client has not disclosed his/ her mission in the first stage, the counsellor now asks the client. He uses questioning techniques to make the client open up.

Questions such as:
Are you okay? Can I help you? What is the matter? What has brought you to my office? The client now responds. The counsellor having listened, to the client will suggest different techniques depending on the nature of the problem presented on how the problem can be handled. The counsellor uses techniques such as responding, exploring, restatement, interpretation, confrontation, unconditional positive regard, empathy, silence and catharsis to diagnose the problem.

Also, it is during this stage that the goals for counselling are set by the client and counsellor. The counsellor here tells the client that counselling aids such as cassettes, radio, video and tape recorders may be used and the purpose for using them will be explained to the client. The counsellor should also tell the client the number of sessions that the counselling relationship may cover. This will depend on the nature of the problem.

If the problem is a simple one, it may take fewer sessions but if it is a complicated one, it may take a longer period to solve especially problems bordering on a change of behaviour or breaking of habit. If the counsellor needs to contact an “outsider” who may be responsible for the 4 problems faced by the client, the permission and consent of the client must be sought. The counsellor also takes the client through the methods to be used in solving the problem. All these are dope in the working stage of the counselling process.

Termination Stage/Phase:
This stage is the third stage in the counselling process. Termination means bringing an end to the counselling relationship between the counsellor and the client. Different reasons have been given by many authors on why a counselling relationship may end or terminate. Some of these reasons are given below for you to understand. It is important to stress here that the termination of a counselling relationship may be a temporary or permanent one. The following reasons are given by different authors.

Counselling Goals are achieved:
As discussed earlier in this unit, you were told that the client and the counsellor would set the goals for counselling. When these goals have been realised to the satisfaction of the client and counsellor, the relationship can be called off temporarily or permanently. Temporarily because the counsellor may want to follow up the client to see if he is doing well or putting into practice what has been discussed and suggested. Permanently if the client’s: problem is solved and may not need to see the counsellor again. The client should be told that if he has a problem in future, he should be free to see the counsellor.

Un-cooperative Attitude from the Client:
The counsellor may discover that the client he or she is dealing with is not cooperating with him, especially when the client is a referred person, the counsellor should still try his or her best to make the client understand why he or she needs counselling. If after several attempts nothing good is coming out of the relationship, the counsellor can terminate the relationship temporarily and ask the client to think over his behaviour and may decide to come back if convinced to continue.

The client may decide not to continue:
The counsellor and client may enter into a counselling relationship without any problem. After some time, the client may decide not to continue for reasons best known to him. Sometimes it may be due to the fact that the client is not honest in the relationship and when his attention is drawn to this fact he may decide to stay away and remain with his problem. The reasons for the behaviour may not be given to the counsellor. The best thing to do is to allow the client go as counselling is not by force.

Referral to an Expert/Specialist:
The counsellor may discover that the client has a problem that is beyond his competence, area and experience, when this happens the client should be referred to the appropriate quarters for specialized treatment. For instance, the client may approach the counsellor with a problem that is both medical and educational, such as having had eye vision and his inability to read comprehension passages during English language lessons.

The counsellor should handle the educational aspect if he is competent in English or makes a referral to an English teacher and a medical doctor. He should not start to prescribe glasses or drugs for the client because that is not his area of specialization. The counsellor should get the client prepared before referring him or her. The client should know why he is being sent to another person.

Practicum/Internship may end before the Counselling Goals are achieved:
There are instances when the counselee in question is a student, either undergraduate or post-graduate, posted to a school for practicum exercise. There may be instances when the practicum period will end without the counsellor achieving his purpose or the school may close for the holiday, when this happens the relationship can be terminated temporarily or permanently. As far as the school calendar is concerned, that may be permanent termination, but if the counsellor picks interest in a student’s case and wants to help in solving the  problem, he may decide to visit the student at home and continue on a personal basis.

Death of Counsellor or Client:
A counselling relationship may be terminated permanently when the counsellor or client dies. If it is the counsellor that dies, the client may seek counsel from another counsellor. There may be other reasons for terminating a counselling relationship not mentioned here. You should read other books for more information on processes and techniques of counselling.

Follow-Up Stage/Phase:
This is the stage in a counselling process where you the counsellor will want to know what is happening to your client after termination. Hie follow-up aims at finding out whether the client is carrying out the decisions arrived at before you ended the session for every client-so you the counsellor determine with the client whether the stage of follow-up will be necessary.

Counselling Strategy:
Strategy in counselling is basically the technique or method used during counselling to understand and find a solution to a problem presented by the client. Strategies are tools used by the counsellor to handle problems. For instance, a medical doctor may use a stethoscope to diagnose a disease, a fisherman uses fishing nets while a mechanic uses spanners and hammers.

So also the counsellor uses tools such as listening, responding, interpretation, probing, exploring, restatements, confrontation, disclosure, unconditional positive regard, empathy and summarization as techniques or strategies during counselling; all these strategies are emphasis skills that the counsellor uses while counselling. The ability of a counsellor to solve a client’s problem depends on how he uses the strategies.

Question 2.
Meaning Of Listening Skill.
Answer:
The entire counselling process begins with listening to the client. Listening is the ability of the counsellor to pay attention to the verbal and non-verbal expressions of the client. It involves hearing words, receiving the sound made by the client and gaining insight into whatever is uttered. Attentive listening is a skill that must be developed and used by any counsellor. Some counsellors may listen to the client but not hear what he or she has said.

When the counsellor listens attentively he is conveying to the client that he understands him, this he may do by nodding and not speaking as the client talks. Okun (1982) observed that the skill of listening may surface as the only strategy needed in a helping relationship. In fact, listening skill is the foundation stone on which other skills depend. If a counsellor has not listened attentively, he may not be able to use techniques such as responding, restatement, questioning, confrontation and self-disclosure.

All these depend on how well the Counsellor has listened to the client. Kolo (1997) also observed that techniques like “minimal encourager” may not be used if the counsellor had not listened attentively. These minimal encourager-s include, “yes”, “tell me more” “is that so”? “hum! “I am listening”. Kolo (1997) also highlighted some factors that could hinder effective listening by the counsellor. They are:

• The inability of the client to hear the counsellor.
• Lack of trust between the client and the counsellor.
• When the client is shy or timid.
• Inner rules that inhibit self-disclosure.
• Tension and anxiety on the part of the client.
• Gender influence, socio-economic status, and religious background.
  The counsellor should, as much as possible, find a way of handling these factors so that there

Interviewing Skills:
Cast your mind back to our discussion on the counselling process. As earlier mentioned, interviewing skill is very important for any effective counselling to develop. It takes about 50 per cent of the counselling time. A good interviewing skill demonstrated by a counsellor only shows his or her competence as a counsellor and may win the confidence of his/her client. It shows that the counsellor has concern and empathy for the client. A hypothetical case is cited for the readers’ study. A counsellor and a client. A client in SSII reading Arts subjects comes to the counsellor for guidance on the possible courses to study at the university.

The counsellor is sitting in his office reading a textbook on counselling.
The student knocks at the door.
Counsellor: Yes come right in.
Client: She enters the office.
Counsellor: How are you today? Please sit down.
Client: She is hesitant but the counsellor encourages her to feel free and sit down.
Counsellor: What is your name and what class are you in?
Client: I am Amina in SSII.
Counsellor: Can I help you? Or what has brought you to my office?
Client: I saw a notice on the bulletin board to see the counsellor when we have a problem, so I decided to come.
Counsellor: Yes you are right, you are in the right place. What can I do for you?
Client: I bought the JAMB form I don’t know how to fill it and I don’t know what course to read In the University.
Counsellor: What subjects are you reading? And what do you intend to read later in life?
Client: I am offering Arts subjects and I want to read Law.
Counsellor: Most of the Universities offer Law.
Client: I will rather go to the University in the North because I have never been to the South or East.
Counsellor: There is nothing bad in trying other places since you are from the north. You need to go out and interact with people from other places, but your choice is final.
Client: I will think about it and discuss it with my parents because they will be responsible for my upkeep there.
Counsellor: Concerning the subjects you are offering, you need to be good in English, History, Government, Literature and other Arts subjects. You also need to consider the hazards in the job, like travelling to get information about a case, attack from opponents, etc. to mention a few. Are you the outgoing and outspoken type?
Counsellor: You should come to the office at your free period to fill out the form together so that you can submit it on time.
Client: Thank you, Sir, for your time and assistance.
At die, next meeting the counsellor and client will explore the Universities and the client will pick one.

Question 3.
Group Dynamic Process In Counselling Introduction.
Answer:
Group dynamic process in counselling is another method of providing guidance. Counselling services to a group of students or clients. Although information, observations and studies have shown that some problems experienced by clients are better handled when treated individually, the process of using a group process in solving some problems cannot be overemphasized. In this unit, an attempt is made to describe groups in the context of counselling relationships, purposes of group formation, forming a group for counselling intervention and stages of the group process.

Group Dynamics:
Group may be described as any collection of human beings who are brought into a social relationship with one another, while group dynamics is all that it takes to form a group. It should be noted that man’s life, to some extent, consists of group life. When a man is born, he is brought into a group made up of his parents, father and mother himself inclusive making it a group of three that continues to enlarge with the arrival of other siblings.

He leaves home and goes to school, he associates with his classmates, and another group of individuals in the class, and he goes to secondary and university the same is the case even in the working place he may need to work in a group of people. So group dynamics is very important in determining the social relationships of individuals. Group counselling is an important aspect of counselling activities. There are instances where the counsellor must just see the students in the group.

The counsellor may not achieve much progress and success if he adopts the individual counselling strategy. Thus for the formation of a group for counselling purposes,’ some group dynamics procedure must be put in place. For instance, in some schools depending on how prevalent these behaviour problems are, such as excessive fighting, chronic tiredness or fatigue, violent outbursts, aggressiveness, extreme withdrawals (isolates) inability to get along with other peers, shabby dressing, drug abuse, sexual harassment, telling lies etc. these can be approached using group counselling strategy.

When the groups are small, individuals find it easy to express their feelings about a wide range of personal problems. Individuals who have similar problems when put together for counselling intervention, identify with others and realise that they are not alone and that, there are other people who share similar problems. This makes them open up so as to share experiences and find a way of finding solutions to their problems.

Because of the opportunity for interaction in groups, the members can express their concerns and difficulties and believe they can be gently heard, they, therefore, help one another gain increased self-acceptance. A counselling group must have a purpose depending on the nature of the problem.

Some of the purposes and goals of forming a group according to UNESCO (2000) include the following:

• To grow in self-acceptance and learn not to demand perfection.
• To learn how to trust oneself and others.
• To foster self-knowledge and the development of a unique self-identity.
• To lessen fears of intimacy, and learn to reach out to those who would like to be closer to you.
• To become aware of choices and to make choices wisely.
• To become more sensitive to the needs and feelings of others.
• To clarify values and decide whether, and how to modify them to find ways of understanding and resolving personal problems.

Formation Qf The Group:
In forming a counselling group, students should realise that the place to start is by clarifying the rationale and purpose for forming it. It is very important to note that adequate time should be spent in planning for its formation. If proper planning is not made and if the members are not carefully selected and prepared the entire process can flounder. The step to take is announcing the counsellor’s intentions and recruiting members. The counsellor needs to announce what the group is for and what it intends to do for the members that will be recruited and participate.

How a group is announced influence the way it will be received by potential members, as well as the kind of people that will join the group. Personal contact with potential members has been found to be one of the best methods of recruiting members. For instance, when the writer of this unit conducted a study on three modes of treatment for anxiety and improving English comprehension skills amongst secondary school students, he personally visited the school, met the school counsellors told them her mission and solicited their support to use the students in that school.

All the SS II students were gathered and informed of the purpose of the study and how they stand to benefit from the study in terms of reducing their anxiety level and increasing their performance in the English language through study skills counselling, rational emotive therapy and a combination of the two strategies. Volunteers indicated and forty (40) of them were randomly chosen from the 92 volunteers and were assigned to experimental and control groups.

The next process in forming a group for counselling involves screening and selecting members. The counsellor who is the group leader would conduct a pre-group interview and give them inventory to fill or answer the questionnaire given to them. He then selected group members whose needs, goals, and problems are compatible or similar to the established goals of the group. The counsellor may ask each participant these questions:

• Why does this person want to join the group?
• How ready is the person to become actively involved in the process of self-examination that will be part of the group?
• Does the person have a dear understanding of the nature and purpose of the group? Do they have a view of what is expected of them?
• Is there any indication that a person may be counterproductive to the „’ development of cohesion in the group? Or will the group be counterproductive to the person?

Some practical considerations in group formation: In selecting members for a particular group, these factors are to be considered.
Size of the Group:
In forming a counselling group, the size of the group matters a lot for the effectiveness of the process. In an ideal situation, the size is determined by the age of the members, the experiences of the counsellor, the type and purpose of the group and whether there is a co-counsellor or co-leader. Children in elementary school maybe 4-5 members in a group, while adolescents may be 8-10 members UNESCO (2000).

For adults, 2-4 hour weekly sessions might be preferable. The frequency and duration of the session are dependent on the style of leadership and the type of people in the group. For instance, in the study on anxiety conducted which was referred to earlier, the members were adolescents, we met once a week for one hour and for ten weeks with the first week as the pre-treatment session and the tenth (10th) week as the post-treatment session.

Duration and Time for Meeting:
In determining the duration and time for the meeting, frequent short sessions may be used. This suits their attention span. If the group is taking place in the school setting, the session can be after the regular class period. This is to avoid clashing with the school timetable and creating unnecessary conflict between the counsellor, students and the school authority.

For the adults, having 2-4 hours may be ideal. However, being civil servants or businessmen and women they may not be changed to spare. 2-4 hours during the week, but this session can take place during the weekends. The duration time is because they have greater or higher attention spans than adolescents or children.

Place of Meeting:
The next pertinent question is where should this meeting take place. Wherever is chosen as the place for the meeting, the leader should ensure adequate physical arrangement, and good ventilation and the place must guarantee some degree of privacy and freedom from distraction. That is why it is not good to have such sessions in the classroom, staffroom or in the counsellor’s office if the space is enough to accommodate all the members.

Nature of Membership:
The counsellor needs to determine if the membership will be on a voluntary or involuntary basis. Voluntary members have been found to be the best because they
voluntarily avail themselves of counselling unlike those referred. Sometimes it may be that the counsellor wants to address a particular issue but can not do it on an individual basis so he adopts the group method. The counsellor must orientate the members and prepare them to become part of the group. Also, the counsellor should tell the group what they would gain by participating in the group.

Nature of the Group:
An open group is one characterized by changing membership while a closed group adds no new members during the lifetime of the group. Sometimes, closed groups have advantages that are distinct, because trust, and openness can be developed and work accomplished. If members are allowed to drop from the group and new ones join at random, it may be difficult to determine the success of the therapy used in the group.

Pre-Group Session:
It is absolutely necessary for the counsellor or leader to conduct a pre-group session. This could be an extension of the screening process. Also, important information is given to members to

Groupdynamicprocess:
This process starts with giving the members certain rules that will guide their participation in the group. It could be verbal or written. Each member has to be committed to this guide as it serves as the guiding rule.

• Members are to avoid any drugs during or before the meeting.
• Members are expected to be punctual and regular to meetings.
• Members should not engage in any illicit sexual relationship with the opposite sex in the group.
• Members must avoid smoking during sessions.
• Confidentiality must be maintained by all members.
• Physical violence must be guided and verbally abusive language should be avoided.
• Members are given list of their rights and responsibilities and what is expected of them before they join the group.
• Children and adolescents must produce written consent from their parents and guardians.

Before anyone drops out of the group, he should notify the leader and discuss in the group before leaving. The next step in group process dynamics are the stages involved in the process. Four stages are identified here.

The initial stages:
The central process involved in this stage involves orientation and exploration. Members get to know each other by age, name, class, and family background and also learn how the group functions. They also discuss fears and hopes pertaining to the group’s identified personal goals and determine the safety of the group. They also choose amongst themselves the group monitor. Each of the members assesses himself or herself and ask pertinent questions.

The transition stage:
This is the second stage in the group process and is characterized by the expression of feelings regarding interaction in the group, as well as an individual personal group. Since the group comprises of people from different family backgrounds, cultures, religions, socio-economic status of parents, ages, each member may be sceptical or hesitant to open up. As time goes on and as they realise that sessions are held to help them out, they open up and free themselves from unnecessary anxiety and fear.

The working stage:
The working stage is characterized by the commitment of members to explore significant problems they have brought to the session. Group cohesion is used during this stage, members become transparent with one another, this is shown by the level of cooperation shown by members in the group. Also, each show some degree of initiative behaviour and are punctual to meetings, attendance rate is high, trust for one another is shown, they support and encourage one another after listening to the experiences of each other. Cohesion is ascertained after negative feelings expressed by members have been dealt with. This ensures trustworthiness.

The final stage:
The final stage is characterized by the successful accomplishment of the difficult process of consolidation and termination. This is when the purpose of initiating the group is achieved, if the sessions had been handled adequately, the members may have a feeling of sadness that they are parting with friends and the leader. They may also wonder if they will be able to put into practice what they have learned without the help of group members and leaders.

The leader may suggest having a follow-up session to encourage members put into practice what they have learned or the need to change. The final stage is very important because it gives the members the opportunity to clarify their experiences, consolidate the gains they have made and revisit their decisions about the newly acquired behaviour they want to implement in their everyday life.

The counsellor can use these follow-up devices to check his members.

• In Follow-up interviews, the leader may try and arrange an interview with each member a few weeks or months after the termination of the group.
• Members can contact one another periodically after termination to give support.
• The counsellor can organize a follow-up group session for the entire members after Termination.

Question 4.
Describe the set of competencies that must be kept in mind while administering a psychological test.
Answer:
The set of competencies that must be kept in mind while administering a psychological test are as follows:
Ability to select and implement multiple methods and means of evaluation in ways that are responsive to, and respectful of diverse individuals, couples, families and groups.

• Ability to utilise systematic approaches to gather data required for taking decisions.
• Knowledge of psychometric issues and bases of assessment methods.
• Knowledge of issues related to the integration of different data sources.
• Ability to integrate assessment data from different sources for diagnostic purposes.
• Ability to formulate and apply diagnoses to understand the strengths and limitations of current diagnostic approaches.
• Capacity for effective use of supervision to implement and enhance skills.

Question 5.
What is the typical format of a counselling interview?
Answer:
The format of a counselling interview is as follows:
Opening of the Interview:
The opening of the interview involves establishing rapport between two communicators. The purpose is to make the interviewee comfortable. Generally, the interviewer starts the conversation and does most of the talking at the outset. This serves two functions, i.e, it establishes the goal of the interview and gives the interviewee time to become comfortable with the situation and the interviewer.

Body of the Interview:
The body of the interview is the heart of the process. In this stage, the interviewer asks questions in an attempt to generate information and data that are required for the purpose.

The sequence of Questions:
To accomplish the purpose of an interview, the interviewer prepares a set of questions, also called a schedule, for different domains, or categories s/he wants to cover. To do this, the interviewer must first decide on the domains/ categories under which information is to be generated.

For example, in the questions used in job interviews, die interviewer selected several categories such as the nature of the organisation they last worked for, satisfaction with the past job, views on the product, etc. These categories and the questions within them are framed ranging from easy-to-answer to difficult-to-answer. Questions are also formulated to assess facts as well as subjective assessments.

Question 6.
What do you understand by the term counselling? Explain the characteristics of an effective counsellor.
Answer:
Counselling provides a system for planning the interview, analysing the counsellor’s and client’s behaviour and determining the developmental impact on the client. In this section, we will discuss skills, concepts and methods that are designed to help develop concrete competencies. A counsellor is most often interested in building an understanding of the client’s problem by focusing on what understanding the client has of her/his problem and how s/he feels about it.

The actual or objective facts of the problems are considered less important, and it is considered more important to work on the feelings and their acknowledgement by the clients. The focus is more on the person and how s/he defines the problem.

The following elements about counselling are common to the major theoretical approaches to counselling:

• Counselling involves responding to the feelings, thoughts and actions of the clients.
• Counselling involves a basic acceptance of the client’s perceptions and feelings, without using any evaluative standards.
• Confidentiality and privacy constitute essential ingredients in the counselling setting. Physical facilities that preserve this quality are important.
• Counselling is voluntary. It takes place when a client approaches a counsellor. A counsellor never uses any kind of coercion for obtaining information.
• Counsellors and clients both transmit and receive verbal and non-verbal messages during the process. Therefore, awareness and sensitivity to the nature of the message is an important prerequisites for a counsellor’s effectiveness.

Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Psychology Solutions Unit 3 Long Answer Questions Part-1.

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Psychology Unit 3 Long Answer Questions Part-1

Long Questions With Answers

Question 1.
What is a Group?
Answer:
The preceding introduction illustrates the importance of groups in our lives. One question that comes to mind is: “How are groups (e.g. your family, class and the group with which you play) different from other collections of people ?” For example, people who have assembled to watch a cricket match or your school function are at one place but are not interdependent on each other. They do not have defined roles, statuses and expectations from each other.

In the ease of your family, class and the group with which you play, you will realise that there is mutual interdependence, each member has roles, there are status differentials and there are expectations from each other. Thus, Think about your day-to-day life and the various social interactions you have. In the morning, before going to school, you interact with your family members; in school, you discuss topics and issues with your teachers and classmates and after school you phone up, visit or play with your friends.

In each of these instances, you are part of a group which not only provides you the needed support and comfort but also facilitates your growth and development as an individual. Have you ever been away to a place where you were without your family, school and friends? How did you feel? Did you feel there was something vital missing in your life? Our lives are influenced by the nature of the group members we have.

It is, therefore, important to be part of groups which would influence us positively and help us in becoming good citizens. In this chapter, we shall try to understand what groups are and how they influence our behaviour. At this point, it is also important to acknowledge that not only do others influence us, but we, as individuals, are also capable of changing others and society.

The benefits of cooperation and competition and how they influence our personal and social lives will also be examined. We will also see how identity develops—how we come to know ourselves. Similarly, we would try to understand why sometimes group conflicts arise; examine the perils of group conflict and apprise ourselves of various conflict resolution strategies so that we are able to contribute towards making a, harmonious and cohesive society.

Introduction:
Family, class and playgroup are examples of groups and are different from other collections of people. A group may be defined as an organised system of two or more individuals, who are interacting and interdependent, who have common motives, who have a set of role relationships among its members and who have norms that regulate the behaviour of its members.

Groups have the following salient characteristics:

A social unit consisting of two or more individuals who perceive themselves as belonging to the group. This characteristic of the group helps in distinguishing one group from the other and gives the group its unique identity. A collection of individuals who have common motives and goals. Groups function either working towards a given goal or away from certain threats facing the group.

A collection of individuals who are interdependent, i.e. what one is doing may have consequences for others. Suppose one of the fielders in a cricket team drops an important catch during a match—this will have consequences for the entire team. Individuals who are trying to satisfy a need through their joint association also influence each other.

A gathering of individuals who interact with one another either directly or indirectly. A collection of individuals whose interactions are structured by a set of roles mid norms. This means that the group members perform the same functions every time the group meets and the group members adhere to group norms. Norms tell us how we ought to behave in the group and specify the behaviours expected from group members.

Groups can be differentiated from other collections of people. For example, a crowd is also a collection of people who may be present at a place/situation by chance. Suppose you are going on the road and an accident takes place. Soon a large number of people tend to collect. This is an example of a crowd. There is neither any structure nor a feeling of belongingness in a crowd. The behaviour of people in crowds is irrational and there is no interdependence among members.

Teams are special kinds of groups. Members of teams often have complementary skills and are committed to a common goal Or purpose. Members are mutually accountable for their activities. In teams, there is a positive synergy attained through the coordinated efforts of the members. The main difference between groups and teams are: In groups, performance is dependent on the contributions of individual members.

In teams, both individual contributions and teamwork matter. In groups, the leader or whoever is heading the group holds responsibility for the work. However in teams, although there is a leader, members hold themselves responsible. An audience is also a collection of people who have assembled for a special purpose, maybe to watch a cricket match or a movie.

Audiences are generally passive but sometimes they go into a frenzy and become mobs. In mobs, there is a definite sense of purpose. There is polarization in attention and the actions of persons are in a common direction. Mob behaviour is characterised by the homogeneity of thought and behaviour as well as impulsivity.

Question 2.
Why Do People Join Groups?
Answer:
All of you are members of your family, class and groups with which you interact or play. Similarly, other people are also members of a number of groups at any given time. Different groups satisfy different needs and therefore, we are simultaneously members of different groups. This sometimes creates pressure for us because there may be competing demands and expectations. Most often we are able to handle these competing demands and expectations. People join groups because these groups satisfy a range of needs. In general, people join groups for the following reasons :

Security:
When we are alone, we feel insecure. Groups reduce this insecurity. Being with people gives a sense of comfort and protection. As a result, people feel stronger, and are less vulnerable to threats.

Status :
When we are members of a group that is perceived to be important by others, we feel recognised and experience a sense of power. Suppose your school wins in an interinstitutional debate competition, you feel proud and think that you are better than others.

Self-esteem :
Groups provide feelings of self-worth and establish a positive social identity. Being a member of prestigious groups enhances one’s self-concept.

Satisfaction of one’s psychological and social needs:
Groups satisfy one’s social and psychological needs such as sense of belongingness, giving and receiving attention, love and power through a group. .

Goal achievement:
Groups help in achieving such goals which cannot be attained individually. There is power in the majority.

Provide knowledge and information:
Group membership provides knowledge and information and thus broadens our view. As individuals, we may not have all the required information. Groups supplement this information and knowledge.

Group Formation
In this section, we will see how groups are formed. Basic to group formation is some contact and some form of interaction between people. This interaction is facilitated by the following conditions:

Proximity:
Just think about your group of friends. Would you have been friends if you were not living in the same colony, or going to the same school, or may be playing in the same playground? Probably your answer would be ‘No’. Repeated interactions with the same set of individuals give us a chance to know them and their interests and attitudes. Common interests, attitudes and background are important determinants of your liking for your group members.

Similarity:
Being exposed to someone over a period of time makes us assess our similarities and paves the way for the formation of groups. Why do we like people who are similar? Psychologists have given several explanations for this. One explanation is that people prefer consistency and like relationships that are consistent. When two people are similar, there is consistency and they start liking each other.

For example, if you like playing football and another person in your class also loves playing football; there is a matching of your interests. There are higher chances that you may become friends. Another explanation given by psychologists is that when we meet similar people, they reinforce and validate our opinions and values, we feel we are right and thus we start liking them.

Suppose you are of the opinion that too much watching of television is not good, because it shows too much violence. You meet someone who also has similar views. This validates your opinion, and you start liking the person who was instrumental in validating your opinion.

Common motives and goals :
When people have common motives or goals, they get together and form a group which may facilitate their goal attainment. Suppose you want to teach children in a slum area who are unable to go to school. You cannot do this alone because you have your own studies and homework. You, therefore, form a group of like-minded friends and start teaching these children. So you have been able to achieve what you could not have done alone.

Stages of Group FormationRcmember that, like everything else in life, groups develop. You do not become a group member the moment you come together. Groups usually go through different stages of formation, conflict, stabilisation, performance and dismissal. Tuckman suggested that groups pass through five developmental sequences. These are: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

When group members first meet, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the group, the goal and how it is to be achieved. People try to know each other and assess whether they will fit in. There is excitement as well as apprehension. This stage is called the forming stage. Often, after this stage, there is a stage of intragroup conflict which is referred to as storming.

In this stage, there is conflict among members about how the target of the group is to be achieved, who is to control the group and its resources and who is to perform what task. When this stage is complete, some sort of hierarchy of leadership in the group develops and a clear vision as to how to achieve the group goal. The storming stage is followed by another stage known as norming. Group members by this time develop norms related to group behaviour.

This leads to the development of a positive group identity. The fourth stage is performing. By this time, the structure of the group has evolved and is accepted by group members. The group moves towards achieving the group goal. For some groups, this may be the last stage of group development. However, for some groups, for example, in the case of an organising committee for a school function, there may be another stage known as adjourning stage.

In this stage, once the function is over, the group may be disbanded. However, it must be stated that all groups do not always proceed from one stage to the next in such a systematic manner. Sometimes several stages go on simultaneously, while in other instances groups may go back and forth through the various stages or they may just skip some of the stages. During the process of group formation, groups also develop a structure.

We should remember that group structure develops as members interact Over time this interaction shows regularities in the distribution of task to be performed, responsibilities assigned to members and the prestige or relative status of members. Four important elements of group structure are : Roles are socially defined expectations that individuals in a given situation are expected to fulfil. Roles refer to the typical behaviour that depicts a person in a given social context.

You have the role of a son or a daughter and with this role, there are certain role expectations, i.e. including the behaviour expected of someone in a particular role. As a daughter or a son, you are expected to respect elders, listen to them and be responsible towards your studies. Norms are expected standards of behaviour and beliefs established, agreed upon, and enforced by group members. They may be considered as a group’s ‘unspoken rules’.

In your family, there are norms that guide the behaviour of family members. These norms represent shared, ways of viewing the world. Status refers to the relative social position given to group members by others. This relative position or status may be either ascribed (given may be because of one’s seniority achieved the person has achieved status because of expertise or hard work. By being members of the group, we enjoy the status associated with that group.

All of us, therefore, strive to be members of such groups which are high in status or are viewed favourably by others. Even within a group, different members have different prestige and status. For example, the captain of a cricket team has a higher status compared to the other members, although all are equally important for the team’s success. Cohesiveness refers to togetherness, binding, or mutual attraction among group members.

As the group becomes more cohesive, group members start to think, feel and act as a social unit and less like isolated individuals. Members of a highly cohesive group have a greater desire.to remain in the group in comparison to those who belong to low cohesive groups. Cohesiveness refers to the team spirit or ‘we feeling’ or a sense of belongingness to the group.

It is difficult to leave a cohesive group or to gain membership of a group which is highly cohesive. Extreme cohesiveness, however, may sometimes not be in a group’s interest. Psychologists have identified the phenomenon of groupthink (see Box 7.1) which is a consequence of extreme cohesiveness.

Type Of Groups:
Groups differ in many respects some have a large number of members (e.g., a country), some are small (e.g., a family), some are short-lived (e.g., a committee), some remain together for many years (e.g., religious groups), some are highly organised (e.g., army, police, etc.) and others are informally organised (e.g., spectators of a match). People may belong to different types of groups. Major types of groups are enumerated below:

• primary and secondary groups
• formal and informal groups
• ingroup and outgroup.

Primary and Secondary Groups:
A major difference between primary and secondary groups is that primary groups are pre-existing formations which are usually given to the individual whereas secondary groups are those that the individual joins by choice. Thus, family, caste and religion are primary groups whereas membership of a political party is an example of a secondary group. In a primary group, there is face-to-face interaction, members have close physical proximity and they share warm emotional bonds.

Primary groups are central to an individual’s functioning and have a very major role in developing the values and ideals of the individual during the early stages of development. In contrast, secondary groups are those where relationships among members are more impersonal, indirect and less frequent. In the primary group, boundaries are less permeable, i.e. members do not have the option to choose its membership as compared to secondary groups where it is easy to leave and join another group.

Formal and Informal Groups:
These groups differ in the degree to which the functions of the group are stated explicitly and formally. The functions of a formal group are explicitly stated as in the case of an official organisation. The roles to be performed by group members are stated in an explicit manner. The formal and informal groups differ on the basis of structure.

The formation of formal groups is based on some specific rules or laws and members have definite roles. There are a set of norms which help in establishing order. A university is an example of a formal group. On the other hand, the formation of informal groups is not based on rules or laws and there is a close relationship among members.

Ingroup and Outgroup:
Just as individuals compare themselves with others in terms of similarities and differences with respect to what they have and what others have, individuals also’ compare the group they belong to with groups of which they are not a member. The term ‘ingroup’ refers to one’s own group and ‘outgroup’ refers to another group. For ingroup members, we use the word ‘we’ while for outgroup members, the word ‘they’ is used.

By using the words they and we, one is categorising people as similar or different. It has beefy-found that persons in the ingroup are generally supposed to be similar, are viewed favourably and have desirable traits. Members of the outgroup are viewed differently and are often perceived negatively in comparison to the ingroup members. Perceptions of ingroup and outgroup affect our social lives.

These differences can be easily understood by studying Tajfel’s experiments given in Box 7.2. Although it is common to make these categorisations, it should be appreciated that these categories are not real and are created by us. In some cultures, plurality is celebrated as has been the case in India. We have a unique composite culture which is reflected not only in the lives we live but also in our art, architecture and music.

Influence Of Group On Individual Behaviour:
We have seen that groups are powerful as they are able to influence the behaviour of individuals. What is the nature of this influence? What impact does the presence of others have on our performance? We will discuss two situations:

• an individual performing an activity alone in the presence of others (social facilitation) and
• an individual performing an activity along with others as part of a larger group (social loafing).
  Since social facilitation has been briefly discussed in Chapter 6, we would try to understand the: phenomenon of social loafing in this section.

Social Loafing:
Social facilitation research suggests that the presence of others leads to arousal and can motivate individuals to enhance their performance if they are already good at solving something. This enhancement occurs when a person’s efforts are individually evaluated. What would happen if the efforts of an individual in a group are pooled so that you look at the performance of the group as a whole?

Do you know what often happens? It has been found that individuals work less hard in a group than they do when performing alone. This points to a phenomenon referred to as ‘social loafing’. Social Loafing is a reduction in individual effort when working on a collective, task, i.e. one in which outputs are pooled with those of other group members. An example of such a task is the game of tug-of-war.

It is not possible for you to identify how much force each member of the team has been exerting. Such situations give opportunities to group members to relax and become free riders. This phenomenon has been demonstrated in many experiments by Latane and his associates who asked a group of male students to clap or cheer as loudly as possible as they (experimenters) were interested in knowing how much noise people make in social settings.

They varied the group size; individuals were either alone, or in groups of two, four and six. The results of the study showed that although the total amount of noise rose up, as size increased, the amount of noise produced by each participant dropped. In other words, each participant put in less effort as the group size increased. Why does social loafing occur?

The explanations offered are:

• Group members feel less responsible for the overall task being performed and therefore exert less effort.
• The motivation of members decreases because they realise that their contributions will not be evaluated on an individual basis.
• The performance of the group is not to be compared with other groups.
• There is improper coordination (or no coordination) among members.
• Belonging to the same group is not important for members. If is only an aggregate of individuals. Social loafing may be reduced by:
• Making the efforts of each person identifiable.
• Increasing the pressure to work hard (making group members committed to successful task performance).
• Increasing the apparent importance or value of a task.
• Making people feel that their individual contribution is important.
• Strengthening group cohesiveness increases the motivation for successful group outcomes.

Group Polarisation:
We all know that important decisions are taken by groups and not by individuals Kelman distinguished three forms of social influence, viz. compliance, identification, and internalisation. In compliance, there are external conditions that force the individual to accept the influence of the significant other. Compliance also refers to behaving in a particular way in response to a request made by someone.

Thus, in the example described above, you may sign the letter with the thought that you were accepting to a request, not because you agree with other students, but because you have been requested to do so by a significant member. This would be a case of compliance also called ‘external/public conformity’. Compliance could take place even without a norm.

For example, a member of a community group for ‘clean environment’ requests you to put a sticker on your bike that reads, ‘Say No to Plastic Bags’. You agree to do so, not because of a group norm, or even because you personally believe in banning plastic bags, but because you see no harm or problem in putting such a sticker on your bike. At the same time, you find it easier to say ‘yes’ rather than ‘no’ to such a harmless (and eventually meaningful) request.

Identification, according to Kelman, refers to the influence process based on agreement-seeking or identity¬seeking. Internalisation, on the other hand, is a process based on information-seeking. Yet another form of behaviour is ‘obedience ’. A distinguishing feature of obedience is that such behaviour is a response to a person in authority. In the example given above, you may sign the letter more readily if a senior teacher or a student leader asks you to do so.

In such a situation, you are not necessarily following a group norm but rather carrying out an instruction or an order. The presence of an authority figure immediately makes this behaviour different from conformity. For instance, you may stop talking loudly in the classroom when the teacher asks you to keep quiet, but not when your classmate tells you to do the same thing.

We can see that there are some similarities between conformity, compliance and obedience, but there are also some differences. All three indicate the influence of others on an individual’s behaviour. Obedience is the most direct and explicit form of social influence, whereas compliance is less direct than obedience because someone has requested and thus you comply (here, the probability of refusal is there). Conformity is the most indirect form (you are conforming because you do not want to deviate from the norm).

Question 3.
What is The Autokinetic Effect?
Answer:
Sherif conducted a series of experiments to demonstrate how groups form their norms, and members make their judgments according to these norms. Participants were seated in a dark room and asked to concentrate on a point of light. After watching this point of light, each person was asked to estimate the distance through which the point had moved.

This kind of judgment had to be made over a number of trials. After each trial, the group was given information about the average distance judged by the members. It was observed that on subsequent trials, subjects modified their judgments in a way that made them more similar to the group average. The interesting aspect of this experiment was that the point of light actually did not move at all.

The light was only seen as moving by the participant (therefore, the effect has been called the ‘autokinetic effect’). Yet in response to instructions from the experimenter, the participants not only judged the distance the light moved but also created a norm for this distance. Note that the participants were not given any information regarding the nature of change if any, in their judgments over trials.

Group Pressure and Conformity: The Asch Experiment 7.4
Asch examined how much conformity there would be when one member of a group experiences pressure from the rest of the group to behave in a specific way or to give a particular judgment. A group of seven persons participated in an experiment that was a ‘vision test’. There was actually only one true subject. The other six participants were associates of the experimenter or ‘confederates’ as they are called in social psychology.

These confederates were given instructions to give specific responses. Of course, this was not known to the true subject. All participants were shown a vertical line (standard line) that had to be compared with three vertical lines of different lengths, A, B and C (comparison lines). Participants had to state which of the comparison lines, A, B or C was equal to the standard line.

Standard Line	Comparison Lines
	ABC

When the experiment began, each participant, by turn, announced her/his answer. The first five persons gave wrong answers (as they had been instructed to do so). The true subject’s turn came last but one in each round. So the true subject had the experience of 5 persons giving incorrect answers before her/him. The last person (also a Confederate) gave the same incorrect answer as the first five persons.

Even if the true subject felt that these answers were incorrect, a norm had been presented to her/him. There were twelve trials. Did the true subject conform to the majority answer, or did she/he give her/his own judgments? It was observed that 67 per cent of subjects showed conformity, and gave the same incorrect answer as the majority. Remember that this was a situation in which the answers were to be given publicly.

Compliance:
It was stated earlier that compliance refers simply to behave in response to a request from another person or group even in the absence of a norm. A good example of compliance is the kind of behaviour shown when a salesperson comes to our door. Very often, this person comes with some goods that we really do not wish to buy.

Yet, sometimes to our own surprise, we find that the salesperson has spoken to us for a few minutes and the conversation has ended with a purchase of what he or she wished to sell. So why do people comply? In many situations, this happens because it is an easy way out of the situation. It is more polite and the other party is pleased. In other situations, there could be other factors at work. The following techniques have been found to work when someone waits for another person to comply.

The foot-in-the-door technique :
The person begins by making a small request that the other person is not likely to refuse. Once the other person carries out the request, a bigger request is made. Simply because the other person has already complied with the smaller request, he or she may feel uncomfortable refusing the second request. For example, someone may come to us on behalf of a group and give us a gift (something free), saying that it is for promotion. Soon afterwards, another member of the same group may come to us again and ask us to buy a product made by the group.

The deadline technique :
In this technique, a ‘last date’ is announced until which a particular product or ‘an offer’ will be available. The aim is to make people ‘hurry’ and make the purchase before they miss the rare opportunity. It is more likely that people will buy a product under this deadline condition than if there is no such deadline.

The door-in-the-face technique:
In this technique, you begin with a large request and when this is refused a later request for something smaller, the one that was actually desired, is made, which is usually granted by the person.

Obedience :
When compliance is shown to instruction or order from a person in authority, such as parents, teachers, leaders, or policemen, that behaviour is called obedience Why people show obedience is easy to understand. Most often it is because if we disobey, some punishment might follow. Sometimes, it is because we believe that persons in authority must be obeyed. People in authority have effective means of enforcing their orders.

Milgram conducted an experiment to show that individuals obey commands from people who are strangers. The experimenter informed the respondents in the study that they were participating in an experiment to study the effects of punishment on learning. The experiment was conducted in pairs. One person in each pair was the “learner”, whose work was to memorise pairs of words.

The other participant was the “teacher”, who would read these words aloud and punish the learner when she/he made errors by giving her/him a shock. The learner would make errors according to prearranged instructions. The teacher was asked to deliver a shock each time the learner made errors. The teacher was further told to increase the strength of the shock each time the learner made an error.

In reality, no shocks were given. The instructions were so arranged that the teacher was faced with a dilemma — should she/he continue shocks even when they were increasingly painful? The experimenter kept on motivating the teacher to continue. In all, 65 per cent showed total obedience. Some participants, however, protested and asked the session to end. Milgram’s study suggests that even ordinary people are willing to harm an innocent person if ordered by someone in authority.

Question 4.
Why do people obey even when they know that their behaviour is harming others?
Answer:
Psychologists have identified several reasons for this. Some of these reasons are:

• People obey because they feel that they are not responsible for their own actions, they are simply carrying out orders from the authority.
• Authority generally possesses symbols of status (e.g., uniform, title) which people find difficult to resist.
• Authority gradually increases commands from lesser to greater levels and initial obedience binds the followers for commitment. Once you obey small orders, slowly there is an escalation of commitment for the person who is in authority and one starts obeying bigger orders.

Determinants of Cooperation and Competition:
What factors determine whether people will cooperate or compete? Some of the important ones are given below:

Reward structure:
Psychologists believe that whether people will cooperate or compete will depend on the reward structure. A cooperative reward structure is one in which there is promotive interdependence. Each is a beneficiary of the reward and the reward is possible only if all contribute. A competitive reward structure is one in which one can get a reward only if others do not get it.

Interpersonal communication:
When there is good interpersonal communication, then cooperation is the likely consequence. Communication facilitates interaction and discussion. As a result, group members can convince each other and learn about each other.

Reciprocity:
Reciprocity means that people feel obliged to return what they get. Initial cooperation may encourage more cooperation. Competition may provoke more competition. If someone helps, you feel like helping that person; on the other hand, if someone refuses to help you when you need help, you would not like to help that person also.

Social Identity:
Have you ever asked the question “who am I ?” What was your answer to this question? Probably your answer was that you are a hard-working, happy-go-lucky girl/ boy. This answer tells you about your social identity which is one’s self-definition of who she/he is. This self-definition may include both personal attributes, e.g. hard working, happy-go-lucky, or attributes which you share with others, e.g. girl or boy.

Although some aspects of our identity are determined by physical characteristics, we may acquire other aspects as a consequence of our interaction with others in society. Sometimes we perceive ourselves as unique individuals and at other times we perceive ourselves as members of groups. Both are equally valid expressions of self. Our personal identities derived from views of ourselves as a unique individuals, and social identities derived from groups we perceive ourselves to be members of, are both important to us.

The extent to which we, define ourselves either at personal or at social levels is flexible. From your own experience; you would realise that identification with social groups can have a great deal of importance for your self-concept. How do you feel when India wins a cricket match? You feel elated and proud. You feel so because of your social identity as an Indian. Social identity is, thus, that aspect of our self-concept which is based on our group membership.

Social identity places us, i.e. tells us what and where we are in the larger social context and thus helps us to locate ourselves in society. You have a social identity of a student of your school. Once you have this identity as a student of your school, you internalise the values emphasised in your school and make these values your own. You strive to fulfil the motto of your school.

Social identity provides members with a shared set of values, beliefs and goals about themselves and about their social world. Once you internalise the values of your school, this helps to coordinate and regulate your attitudes and behaviour. You work hard for your school to make it the best school in your city/state. When we develop a strong identity with our own group, the categorisation as ingroup and outgroup become salient.

The group with which you identify yourself becomes the ingroup and others become the outgroup. The negative aspect of this ownership group and outgroup categorisation is that we start showing favouritism towards our ingroup by rating it more favourably in comparison to the outgroup and begin devaluating the outgroup. This devaluation of the outgroup is the basis of a number of intergroup conflicts.

Intergroup Conflict: Nature And Causes:
Conflict is a process in which either an individual or a group perceives that others (individual or group) have opposing interests and both try to contradict each other. There is this intense feeling of an ‘other’ (also referred to as ‘they’). There is also a belief by both parties that the other will protect only its own interests; their (the other side’s) interests will, therefore, not be protected.

There is not only opposition of each other, but they also try to exert power on each other. Groups have been found to be more aggressive than individuals. This often leads to the escalation of conflict. All conflicts are mostly as there is a human price for them. In wars, there are both victories and defeats, but the human cost of war is far beyond all this. Various types of conflict are commonly seen in society, which turns out to be costly for both sides as well as for society. Mentioned below are some of the major reasons for group conflicts.

One major reason is the lack of communication and faulty communication by both parties. This kind of communication leads to suspicion, i.e. there is a lack of trust. Hence, conflict results. Another reason for intergroup conflict is relative deprivation. It arises when members of a group compare themselves with members of another group and perceive that they do not have what they desire to have, which the other group.

In other words, they feel that they are not doing well in comparison to other groups. This may lead to feelings of deprivation and discontentment, which may trigger off conflict. Another cause of conflict is one party’s belief that it is better than the other and that what it is saying should be done. When this does not happen, both parties start accusing each other.

One may often witness a tendency to magnify even smaller differences, thereby conflict gets escalated because every member wants to respect the norms of her/his group. A feeling that the other group does not respect the norms of my group and actually violates those norms because of malevolent intent. The desire for retaliation for some harm done in the past could be another reason for conflict. Biased perceptions are at the root of most conflicts.

As already mentioned earlier, feelings of ‘they’ and ‘we’ lead to biased perceptions. Research has shown that when acting in groups, people are more competitive as well as more aggressive than when they are on their own. Groups compete over scarce resources, both material resources, e.g, territory and money as well as social resources, e.g. respect and esteem. Perceived inequity is another reason for conflict. Equity refers to the distribution of rewards in proportion to an individual’s contributions, if: