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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

‘Tribal conflicts based on ethnic differences often camouflage a struggle for political and economic advantage.’ Substantiate with examples.

  • UPSC 2014
  • Challenges of Social Transformation

The statement is an instrumentalist proposition: ethnicity is the vehicle of conflict, not its cause. Paul R. Brass (Ethnicity and Nationalism, 1991) argued that elites select the symbols that mobilise a constituency in competition for state resources. Against tribal India the claim is largely borne out — though "camouflage" concedes too much to the view…

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • The theoretical ground for the statement
  • Substantiating the claim
  • Where "camouflage" overstates
  • Conclusion

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