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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Write short note with a sociological perspective: Other Backward Classes.

  • UPSC 2013
  • Social Classes in India

The Other Backward Classes are a residual constitutional category. Articles 15(4) and 16(4) permit provision for "socially and educationally backward classes" and Article 340 allows a commission to investigate them, but the Constitution nowhere defines them. The absence of a positive definition is why its criteria have always been contested.

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

What the full answer covers

  • Defining backwardness: a contested history
  • Caste as class — and the failure to coincide
  • The category today
  • Conclusion

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