Q 1.Societies where women inherit property from their mothers are called:
(a) maternal societies
(b) matriarchal societies
(c) matrilocal societies
(d) matrilineal societies

Ans: (d) matrilineal societies

Q 2.The hierarchical ordering of castes is based on the distinction between
(a) Occupation and status
(b) Religion and rituals
(c) Norms and authority
(d) Purity and pollution

Ans: (d) Purity and pollution

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Q 3.Explain the impact of National Development on the tribes.

Ans:

• The loss of the forests because of the building of large dams, factories and mines on which most tribal communities depended has been a major blow.
• The coming of private property in land has also adversely affected tribals, whose community-based forms of collective ownership were placed at a disadvantage in the new system.
• Many tribal concentration regions and states have also been experiencing the problem of heavy in-migration of non-tribals in response to the pressures of development. This threatens to disrupt and overwhelm tribal communities and cultures, besides accelerating the process of exploitation of tribals.

Q 4.Explain any three features of caste.

Ans:
The most commonly cited defining features of caste are the following:
1. Caste is determined by birth - a child is "born into" the caste of its parents. Caste is never a matter of choice. One can never change one's caste, leave it, or choose not to join it, although there are instances where a person may be expelled from their caste.
2. Membership in a caste involves strict rules about marriage. Caste groups are "endogamous", i.e. marriage is restricted to members of the group.
3. Caste membership also involves rules about food and food-sharing. What kinds of food may or may not be eaten is prescribed and who one may share food with is also specified.

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Q 5.What do you understand by Tribal community?

Ans:
"Tribe" is a modern term for communities that are very old, being among the oldest inhabitants of the sub-continent.
Tribes were communities that did not practice a religion with a written text; did not have a state or political form of the normal kind; did not have sharp class divisions; and, most important, they did not have caste and were neither Hindus nor peasants.

Q 6. Clarify the concept of Dominant caste.

Ans:

• "Dominant caste" is a term used to refer to those castes which had a large population and were granted land rights by the partial land reforms affected after Independence.
• The land reforms took away rights from the upper castes who were "absentee landlords" in the sense that they played no part in the agricultural economy but just claimed rent. They mostly lived in towns and cities.
• The land rights were given to the next layer of claimants, those who were involved in the management of agriculture but were not themselves the cultivators.These intermediate castes depended on lower caste for tilling and tending the land.However, once they got land rights, they acquired considerable economic power.
• The large numbers of intermediate caste gave them political power.Thus, these intermediate castes became the "dominant" castes in the country side and played a decisive role in regional politics and the agrarian economy.
• Examples of such dominant castes include the Yadavs of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the Vokkaligas of Karnataka, the Reddys and Khammas of Andhra Pradesh, the Marathas of Maharashtra, the Jats of Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh and the Patidars of Gujarat.

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Q 7.Write a note on the features of caste.

Ans: The most commonly cited defining features of caste are the following:
1. Caste is determined by birth – a child is “born into” the caste of its parents. Caste is never a matter of choice. One can never change one’s caste, leave it, or choose not to join it, although there are instances where a person may be expelled from their caste.
2. Membership in a caste involves strict rules about marriage. Caste groups are “endogamous”, i.e. marriage is restricted to members of the group.
3. Caste membership also involves rules about food and food-sharing. What kinds of food may or may not be eaten is prescribed and who one may share food with is also specified.
4. Caste involves a system consisting of many castes arranged in a hierarchy of rank and status. In theory, every person has a caste, and every caste has a specified place in the hierarchy of all castes. While the hierarchical position of many castes, particularly in the middle ranks, may vary from region to region, there is always a hierarchy.
5. Castes also involve sub-divisions within themselves, i.e., castes almost always have sub-castes and sometimes sub-castes may also have sub-sub-castes. This is referred to as a segmental organisation.
6. Castes were traditionally linked to occupations. A person born into a caste could only practice the occupation associated with that caste, so that occupations were hereditary, i.e. passed on from generation to generation. On the other hand, a particular occupation could only be pursued by the caste associated with it – members of other castes could not enter the occupation.

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Q 8.What changes did colonialism bring about in the caste system?

Ans:
Colonialism brought about major changes in the institution of caste.

• From 1901, the British administrators started collection information on case known as Census that also had information on the social hierarchy of caste.
• The land revenue settlements and related arrangements and laws served to give legal recognition to the customary (caste-based) rights of the upper castes.
• These castes now became landowners in the modern sense rather than feudal classes with claims on the produce of the land, or claims to revenue or tribute of various kinds.
• Towards the end of the colonial period, the administration also took an interest in the welfare of downtrodden castes, referred to as the ‘depressed classes’ at that time.
• It was as part of these efforts that the Government of India Act of 1935 was passed which gave legal recognition to the lists or ‘schedules’ of castes and tribes marked out for special treatment by the state.
• Castes at the bottom of the hierarchy that suffered severe discrimination, including all the so-called “untouchable” castes, were included among the Scheduled Castes.

9.Summarize the major changes in the institution of caste from colonial times to the present day.

Ans:
Major changes in the institution of caste from colonial times to the present day:

• Caste appears to decline for the upper caste, urban middle and upper classes, because it has already benefited these groups.
• For the upper castes, caste plays no part in their public lives, being limited to the personal sphere of religious practice or marriage and kinship.
• Untouchability has been abolished legally, but continues to exist in practice, especially in rural areas.
• Reservation for SC and ST and OBC has provided some protection and benefits. However, this has also resulted in the intensification of caste identities for these groups.
• The conflict between a seemingly casteless upper caste group and an apparently caste defined lower caste group is one of the central aspects of the institution of caste in the present.
• Caste remains of more importance to electoral politics.

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10.Explain the main factors influencing the formation of tribal identity in recent times.

Ans:
Main factors influencing the formation of tribal identity in recent times:

• Tribal identity is formed by forced incorporation of tribal communities into mainstream.
• Resistance and opposition to the non-tribals.
• Positive impact has been achievement of statehood of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
• There has been gradual emergence of an educated middle class among tribal communities.
• Education has resulted in urbanized professional class.
• As tribal society is getting more differentiated, different bases are growing for assertion of tribal identity, such as those of the middle classes and the masses.

11.What are the two sets of principles to understand the theoretical interpretation of caste?

Ans:

• The caste system can be understood as the combination of two sets of principles, one based on difference and separation and the other on wholism and hierarchy.
• Many of the scriptural rules of caste are thus designed to prevent the mixing of castes – rules ranging from marriage, food sharing and social interaction to occupation.

12.Show your understanding of the concept of role conflict using the case study of Khasi tribes.

Ans:

• Several scholars have highlighted the inherent contradictions in matrilineal systems. One such contradiction arises from the separation of the line of descent and inheritance on the one hand and the structure of authority and control on the other.
• The former, which links the mother to the daughter, comes in conflict with the latter, which links the mother’s brother to the sister's son.
• Khasi matriliny generates intense role conflict for men. They are torn between their responsibilities to their natal house on the one hand, and to their wife and children on the other.
• The strain generated by such role conflict affects Khasi women more intensely. A woman can never be fully assured that her husband does not find his sister’s house a more congenial place than her own.
• Similarly a sister will be apprehensive about her brother’s commitment to her welfare because the wife with whom he lives can always pull him away from his responsibilities to his natal house.
• The women are more adversely affected than men by the role conflict generated in the Khasi matrilineal system not only because men wield power and women are deprived of it, but also because the system is more lenient to men when there is a transgression of rules.

13.Tribals have paid a disproportionate price for the development of the rest of the Indian Society. Identify the reasons.

Ans:

• This kind of development benefitted the mainstream at the expense of the Tribes.
• National Development particularly in the Nehruvian Era involved building of large Dams.
• Dispossessing tribal of their land resulted as a necessary by-product of the exploitation of minerals and utilisation of favorable sites for setting up hydroelectric power plants in Tribal areas.
• Loss of forests was a major blow to the tribal communities. The coming in of private property adversely affected the tribal community based forms of collective ownership. Forests were systematically exploited in British times and continued after Independence.
• Series of Dams built on Narmada where most of the costs and benefits seem to flow disproportionately to different communities and regions.
• Tribal community regions started experiencing problem of heavy in migration of Non Tribals due to pressure of Development. This threatens to disrupt and overwhelm tribal communities and cultures besides accelerating exploitation.