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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

‘Caste is becoming weaker and stronger at the same time in present day India.’ Discuss the factors responsible for continuity and change.

  • UPSC 1997
  • Caste System

The statement looks like a contradiction and is not. Caste is a compound institution with a ritual dimension and a secular dimension, and the two have moved in opposite directions. M. N. Srinivas's account of secularisation in Social Change in Modern India (1966) supplies the key: as ritual considerations retreat from conduct, caste becomes a…

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

What the full answer covers

  • Weakening: caste as a ritual order
  • Strengthening: caste as a political and identity resource
  • Why both at once: the mechanism of the paradox
  • Conclusion

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