UPMSP Intermediate Sociology key terms

The relatively stable pattern of relationships among groups and institutions in a society - such as family, caste and economy - that shapes how individuals act and how resources are distributed.

The statistical study of human populations, covering size, growth, density, age composition, sex ratio and migration; in India the Census is its main source of data.

The number of females per 1,000 males in a population; the Indian Census reports it for the whole country and separately for children aged 0-6.

A hereditary, endogamous group ranked by ritual purity and pollution and traditionally tied to an occupation; in India the local jati differs from the fourfold varna model.

The classical fourfold scheme of Hindu society - Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra - used in scripture as an ideal ranking rather than an exact description of local birth groups.

The rule that a person must marry within a defined group such as a caste, clan or religious community; caste endogamy is central to the persistence of caste in India.

A community claiming common descent, territory, language and culture, often outside the caste order and officially listed in India as a Scheduled Tribe.

The network of relationships created by descent and marriage, which defines rights, obligations, residence and permitted marriage partners for individuals and families.

A household in which parents, their married sons and grandchildren live together, share property and a common kitchen, and are usually headed by the eldest male.

A household made up of a married couple and their unmarried children, common in cities and among migrants and increasingly chosen by young couples.

Goods, cash or property given by the bride's family to the groom or his family as a condition of marriage; forbidden by the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, but still widely practised.

M. N. Srinivas's term for a low caste adopting the rites, customs and lifestyle of a higher caste to claim higher ritual status, often without gaining economic or political power.

A system of male dominance operating through family, kinship, property and public life, which gives men greater authority and restricts women's choices, mobility and inheritance.

A social institution, not only a physical place, in which goods, services and labour are exchanged under shared rules, prices and relations of trust between buyers and sellers.

Direct exchange of goods or services without the use of money; it needs a double coincidence of wants and survives in village haats and during currency shortages.

The splitting of production into specialised tasks done by different workers, which raises output but makes each worker dependent on others; Durkheim linked it to social solidarity.

The process by which groups are denied full access to resources, services and public life - as when Dalits face untouchability or informal workers lose social security.

The practice of treating certain castes as ritually impure and barring them from temples, wells and social contact; abolished by Article 17 and the 1955 Protection of Civil Rights Act.

Constitutionally provided quotas in education, public employment and legislatures for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, meant to correct historical disadvantage and still widely debated.

The belief that followers of one religion form a single hostile community whose interests clash with those of other religions, producing communal politics, riots and religion-based mobilisation.

Loyalty to one's region expressed in demands for statehood, autonomy, language rights or a fairer share of resources; it may be cultural or political and is not always separatist.

In the Indian Constitution, the principle that the state has no religion of its own, treats all faiths with equal respect and may reform religious practices; Articles 25-28 protect religious freedom.

Rule by a foreign power over a territory and its people, as under British rule in India, which reorganised land revenue, law, trade and education to serve the coloniser's economy.

The rising share of a population living in towns and cities, with shifts in occupation, family life and administration; in India it is slow but concentrated in a few large cities.

The shift from agriculture and handicrafts to machine-based factory production, which creates new classes of owners and wage workers and reshapes towns and family life.

The adoption of rational, scientific and bureaucratic ways of thinking and organising, along with new technology and institutions; critics say it can devalue local knowledge and traditions.

A village arrangement of hereditary patron-client ties in which service castes such as potter, barber and priest worked for landowning families in return for grain and customary payments.

State measures to abolish intermediaries such as zamindars, regulate tenancy, impose ceilings on holdings and consolidate plots, intended to reduce rural inequality.

The use from the mid-1960s of high-yielding varieties, fertiliser, irrigation and credit, which raised foodgrain output in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh but widened regional disparity.

Movement of people between places for work, marriage or better living conditions; rural-to-urban and inter-state labour migration are central to the Indian economy.

Economic activity that is unregistered, unregulated and without social security, such as home-based piece work, street vending and casual construction labour, employing most Indian workers.

An association of workers formed to bargain collectively over wages, hours and working conditions; recognised in India under the Trade Unions Act, 1926.

Marx's term for workers' estrangement from the product, the process and the purpose of their labour when they do not own or control what they produce.

Full and equal membership of a state, carrying rights such as voting and equality before the law, duties such as paying taxes, and a share in national identity.

The right of every adult citizen to vote irrespective of caste, sex, religion, education or income; adopted in India for the first general election of 1951-52.

The three-tier elected local government of rural India - village, block and district - given constitutional status by the 73rd Amendment, 1992, with seats reserved for women and Scheduled Castes.

The growing interconnection of economies and societies through trade, investment, technology and migration, accelerated in India by the liberalisation policies of 1991.

Channels such as newspapers, radio, television and the internet that reach large audiences and shape public opinion, culture and political debate.

Sustained, organised collective action by a group seeking to promote or resist change, such as peasant, women's, environmental or caste-based movements in India.