Contemporary Issues and Political Thinkers
The final domain links political ideas to live controversies - globalisation, rights, environment, security - and asks you to attribute concepts to thinkers accurately.
Contemporary issues
- Globalisation and liberalisation: the 1991 reforms opened the economy; the WTO (1995) governs trade rules; debates centre on jobs, inequality, farmers and cultural homogenisation.
- Human rights: the NHRC was created by the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993; the tension between security laws and civil liberties persists.
- Environment: the Paris Agreement (2015) and India's Panchamrit pledge at COP26 (2021), including net zero by 2070.
- Corruption and accountability: the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013; the RTI Act as the everyday tool.
- Terrorism, internal security and the digital public sphere.
Thinkers you must attribute correctly
- Gandhi: satyagraha, swaraj, sarvodaya, trusteeship, unity of means and ends.
- Ambedkar: annihilation of caste, constitutional morality, social justice; the Poona Pact (1932) compromise on separate electorates.
- Nehru: democratic socialism, secularism, scientific temper, non-alignment.
- M.N. Roy: radical humanism and party-less democracy.
- Jayaprakash Narayan: Total Revolution (1974) and clean public life.
- Periyar E.V. Ramasamy: Self-Respect Movement, rationalism, caste and gender reform in Tamil Nadu.
- Thiruvalluvar: Aram (virtue) as the foundation of public life.
Worked example
'Which thinker would defend reservations as justice rather than a violation of equality?' Reasoning: Ambedkar treats equality as substantive - caste imposes unequal starting points, so corrective measures are required. Gandhi would emphasise uplift through constructive work and trusteeship; Rawls' difference principle permits inequality only if it benefits the least advantaged. Attribute precisely.
Traps
Crediting Total Revolution to M.N. Roy; portraying Gandhi as a supporter of separate electorates; and writing about globalisation only as a benefit or only as a harm - the examiner wants the balance.