Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer
How does A. R. Desai argue that Indian social classes must be studied through the colonial mode of production? Elucidate.
- UPSC 2026
- Perspectives on the Study of Indian Society
A. R. Desai reverses the usual order of Indian sociology. In Social Background of Indian Nationalism (1948) he argues that the classes one meets in modern India — zamindar, tenant, agricultural labourer, industrialist, mill-hand, English-educated professional — are not survivals of an older order but deposits of colonial capitalism. Class must therefore be read from…
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What the full answer covers
- Dissolution of the pre-British village
- Revenue settlements as class-making instruments
- De-industrialisation and the new classes
- Why the colonial specification matters
- Conclusion
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