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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Critically examine briefly the phrase “Little Republics” as used to denote India’s villages.

  • UPSC 2021
  • Rural and Agrarian Social Structure

The phrase comes from Charles Metcalfe's minute of 1830: "The village communities are little republics, having nearly everything that they want within themselves, and almost independent of any foreign relations." Before the Indian village was studied it was imagined, and this image did political work for a century. Sociologically it is false as description but…

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 image and the work it did
  • The critique: what the evidence destroyed
  • What survives the critique
  • Conclusion

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