Bihar Intermediate Sociology (BSEB) cheat sheet

Unity in diversity rests on a shared civilizational continuity (pilgrimage, epics, festivals) alongside regional linguistic and religious variation; diversity is horizontal, not hierarchical.

Linguistic plurality: the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution lists 22 scheduled languages; Hindi and English are the official languages of the Union for official purposes.

Religious composition (Census 2011): Hindus about 79.8%, Muslims 14.2%, Christians 2.3%, Sikhs 1.7%, Buddhists 0.7%, Jains 0.4%.

Regional diversity is institutionalised through federalism, the States Reorganisation Act 1956 (language-based states after the Fazl Ali commission), and the Sixth Schedule for tribal areas.

Tribal society: about 8.6% of the population (Census 2011); 705 Scheduled Tribes notified; characterised by distinctive kinship, dormitory institutions (ghotul), and community ownership of land.

Village society: traditional jajmani ties (patron-client service exchange) are being replaced by market and cash transactions, weakening caste-linked occupational reciprocity.

Family forms in India range from patrilineal joint families in the north to matrilineal systems such as the Nayar taravad and Khasi matriliny in Meghalaya.

Regional kinship contrasts: North Indian kinship emphasises village exogamy and patrilineal clan exogamy; South Indian systems permit cross-cousin marriage.

Family types: nuclear vs joint; patrilocal, matrilocal, neolocal residence; patrilineal, matrilineal, bilateral descent; monogamy vs polygyny/polyandry.

Hindu marriage is traditionally a sacrament (samskara) with three goals: dharma, praja (progeny), and rati (pleasure); the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 treats it as a contract for legal purposes.

Hindu Marriage Act 1955: monogamy for all Hindus, minimum age 18 (bride) and 21 (groom) under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, and seven recognised conditions for a valid marriage.

Dissolution: Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act lists fault grounds (adultery, cruelty, desertion for two years, conversion, insanity, leprosy); mutual consent divorce under Section 13B.

Special Marriage Act 1954 permits inter-caste and inter-religious civil marriage with 30-day notice; registration is mandatory for legal validity.

Muslim personal law recognises nikah as a contract with mahr (dower); talaq, khula, and mubarat are forms of dissolution; the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019 criminalises instant triple talaq.

Kinship terms: consanguineal (blood) vs affinal (marriage) kin; primary, secondary, and tertiary kin; avoidance and joking relationships regulate affinal ties.

Dowry is prohibited under the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961; Section 304B IPC (now BNS) covers dowry death within seven years of marriage.

Varna is the fourfold textual model (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra) plus Avarna/outcaste; jati is the actual endogamous local group - varna is ideology, jati is practice.

Caste features per Ghurye: segmental division, hierarchy, restrictions on commensality, endogamy, and hereditary occupation.

Louis Dumont's Homo Hierarchicus treats purity/pollution as the core principle of caste; the pure–impure opposition ranks groups and is expressed through food, touch, and marriage.

M.N. Srinivas: Sanskritisation (lower castes adopting upper-caste ritual practices), Westernisation, and dominant caste (numerical strength plus land ownership).

B.R. Ambedkar rejected caste as merely division of labour, calling it a division of labourers; he advocated annihilation of caste through political and educational means.

Class stratification uses achieved status and economic criteria (ownership of means of production, occupation, income, education) rather than birth-ascribed status.

Constitutional safeguards: Article 15(4) and 16(4) for backward classes; Article 17 abolishes untouchability; SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989; Mandal Commission (1980) recommended 27% OBC reservation.

Social mobility types: vertical (up/down in rank) vs horizontal (change of group at same rank); intra-generational vs inter-generational mobility.

Sanskritisation and Westernisation (Srinivas) describe cultural change; modernisation includes secularisation, urbanisation, and industrialisation.

Land reforms after 1950: abolition of zamindari, tenancy regulation, ceiling on holdings, and consolidation of holdings; implementation varied sharply across states.

Green Revolution (from the late 1960s) raised wheat and rice output in Punjab, Haryana, and western UP, but widened regional and class inequality.

Globalisation from 1991 (New Economic Policy: liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation) integrated India into world markets and expanded the service sector.

Urbanisation trend: about 31% urban (Census 2011); growth of million-plus cities and peri-urban slums; migration streams follow push-pull factors.

Social movements: peasant movements (Telangana, Tebhaga), tribal movements (Jharkhand, Narmada Bachao Andolan), Dalit movements (Mahad Satyagraha, Dalit Panthers), and women's movements.

Development indicators: Human Development Index combines life expectancy, education (mean and expected years of schooling), and GNI per capita; Kerala shows high HDI despite low per capita income.

Digital and communication change: Green Revolution, White Revolution (Operation Flood), and IT-enabled services reshaped rural and urban livelihoods.

Poverty measurement: Tendulkar committee (2009) and Rangarajan committee (2014) use consumption expenditure; multidimensional poverty index uses health, education, and standard of living.

Unemployment types: open, disguised (surplus labour in agriculture), seasonal, structural, and frictional; MGNREGA (2005) guarantees 100 days of unskilled wage employment per rural household.

Caste-based problems: untouchability (Article 17), atrocities, manual scavenging; legal remedies include SC/ST (PoA) Act 1989 and Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers Act 2013.

Gender problems: female foeticide (PC-PNDT Act 1994), domestic violence (Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005), sexual harassment (POSH Act 2013), and unequal work participation.

Child welfare: Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, Right to Education Act 2009 (free compulsory education 6–14 years), and Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006.

Welfare schemes: ICDS (1975) for maternal and child nutrition, Mid-Day Meal Scheme, Ayushman Bharat, and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana for financial inclusion.

Problems of the elderly and disabled: Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007; Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.

Substance abuse, trafficking, and communalism are addressed through the NDPS Act 1985, Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956, and constitutional secularism.

Culture components: norms (folkways, mores, laws), values, beliefs, symbols, language, and material culture; material vs non-material culture.

Ethnocentrism judges other cultures by one's own standards; cultural relativism evaluates a culture in its own terms; culture lag (Ogburn) is the gap between material and non-material culture.

Socialisation stages: primary (infancy, family), secondary (school, peers), adult and anticipatory socialisation; agencies include family, school, peer group, media, and religion.

Mead: the self develops through imitation, play, and game stages; the 'I' is the spontaneous self and the 'me' the socially internalised self; 'generalised other' emerges in the game stage.

Cooley's looking-glass self: we imagine how we appear to others, imagine their judgement, and develop self-feeling (pride or mortification).

Freud's model: id (instinctual), ego (reality principle), superego (internalised morality); socialisation is the internalisation of the superego.

Social control: formal (law, police, courts, codes) vs informal (custom, folkways, mores, public opinion, gossip, ridicule); internal control via socialisation vs external control via sanctions.

Sanctions: positive (reward) and negative (punishment), formal and informal; Durkheim links crime to social integration and calls crime a normal social fact.

Auguste Comte coined 'sociology' (1838); law of three stages: theological, metaphysical, positive; social statics vs social dynamics.

Emile Durkheim: social facts are external and constraining; studied suicide types (egoistic, altruistic, anomic, fatalistic) and anomie; Division of Labour (mechanical vs organic solidarity).

Max Weber: verstehen (interpretive understanding); ideal types; types of authority (traditional, charismatic, legal-rational); The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Karl Marx: base (economy) and superstructure (ideas, politics); class struggle; alienation; surplus value; historical materialism; false consciousness.

Functionalism (Parsons, Merton): society as an integrated system of interdependent parts; Merton's manifest vs latent functions and dysfunctions.

Conflict perspective (Marx, Dahrendorf, Coser): society as a struggle over scarce resources; Dahrendorf locates conflict in authority relations, not just property.

Symbolic interactionism (Mead, Blumer, Goffman): society is created through everyday interaction; Blumer's three premises of meaning, language, and thought; Goffman's dramaturgy (front stage/back stage).

Indian thinkers: Ghurye (caste and race), Srinivas (Sanskritisation, dominant caste), Dumont (purity/pollution), Ambedkar (annihilation of caste), and Radhakamal Mukerjee (social ecology).

Quantitative vs qualitative methods: surveys and experiments use numbers and statistical inference; ethnography, case study, and life history use meanings and thick description.

Sampling types: probability (simple random, systematic, stratified, cluster) and non-probability (purposive, quota, snowball, convenience).

Variables: independent (cause) vs dependent (effect); operationalisation converts concepts into measurable indicators; validity and reliability are distinct criteria.

Methods of data collection: questionnaire (structured, self-administered), interview (structured, unstructured, group), observation (participant vs non-participant), and document analysis.

Merton's norm of 'organised scepticism' and value neutrality (Weber) govern sociological inquiry; objectivity is a regulative ideal, not a claim of total detachment.

Data types: nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio; measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode) and dispersion (range, variance, standard deviation).

Ethics in research: informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, no harm to participants, and right to withdraw.

Key concepts: status (ascribed vs achieved), role and role conflict, institution, association, community, group (primary vs secondary), and reference group.