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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

‘Indian society may be understood as a system of cognitive structures.’ How far do you agree with this statement ?

  • UPSC 2012
  • Perspectives on the Study of Indian Society

The claim is structuralist: that Indian society coheres less through force or interest than through shared categories of thought — oppositions people carry in their heads and enact without deliberating. Louis Dumont gave it its strongest form. I agree about the ideology of caste, which cognitive analysis explains with unmatched economy; not about the system,…

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What the full answer covers

  • The cognitive reading
  • What the reading gets right
  • Why it cannot stand alone
  • Conclusion

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