Unlock Elite Access: Level Up Your Preparation with Exclusive Content

Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Which is more significant, the principle of ‘hierarchy’ or the principle of ‘difference’, in intercaste relations in the present day?

  • UPSC 2017
  • Caste System

Dipankar Gupta, in Interrogating Caste: Understanding Hierarchy and Difference in Indian Society (2000), argued against Louis Dumont that caste was never a single agreed ladder but a field of discrete, mutually repelling jatis. The present-day evidence supports him for public life, while hierarchy survives where caste is most intimate.

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

What the full answer covers

  • Why difference now organises inter-caste relations
  • Where hierarchy still binds
  • The verdict
  • Conclusion

Unlock this answer and 1,500+ more

  • 1,500+ solved UPSC Sociology PYQs from 1985 to 2026, Paper-1 and Paper-2
  • Topic-wise across all 25 syllabus units, newest exam year first
  • A full model answer for every question, shaped to 10 or 20 marks, with thinkers and Indian examples
  • Read online on lotusarise.com, plus PDF download

₹1,499₹2,50040% off

Get Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions @ ₹1,499 →

One-time payment · 12 months of access · Instant access · UPI, cards, RuPay

See every Caste System question (92 solved) →Already enrolled? Log in