Basic Concepts :
Society, community, association, institution. Culture-culture change,
diffusion, Cultural-tag, Cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, acculturation.
Social Groups-primary, secondary and reference groups.
Social structure, social system, social action.
Status a
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nd role, role conflict, role set.
Norms and values-conformity and deviance.
Law and customs.
Socio-cultural processes :
socialisation, assimilation, integration, cooperation, competition,
conflict, accommodation, Social distance, relative deprivation.
Unit II :
Marriage, Family and Kinship :
Marriage : types and norms, marriage as contract, and as a sacrament.
Family : types, functions and changes.
Kinships : terms and usages, rules of residence, descent, inheritance.
Unit III :
Social Stratification :
Forms and functions; Caste and Class. Jajmani system, purity and pollution,
dominant caste, sanskritisation.
Unit IV :
Types of Society :
Tribal, agrarian, industrial and post-industrial.
Unit V :
Economy and Society :
Man, nature and social production, economic systems of simple and complex
societies, non-economic determinants of economic behaviour, market (free)
economy and controlled (planned) economy.
Unit VI :
Industrial and Urban Society :
Rural-Urban Continuum, urban growth and urbanization-town, city and
metropolis; basic features of industrial society; impact of automation on
society; industrialisation and environment.
Unit VII :
Social Demography :
Population size, growth, composition, and distribution in India; components
of population growth-births, deaths and migration; causes and consequences
of population growth; population and social development; population policy.
Unit VIII :
Political Processes :
Power, authority and legitimacy; political socialisation; political
modernisation, pressure groups; caste and politics.
Unit IX :
Weaker Sections-and Minorities :
Social justice-equal opportunity and special opportunity; protective
discrimination; constitutional safeguards.
Unit X :
Social Change :Theories of change; factors of change; science,
technology and change. Social movements-Peasant Movement, Womens Movement,
Backward Caste Movement, Dalit Movement.
Sociology Syllabus for Main Examination
Paper-I
General Sociology/Foundations of Sociology/Fundamentals of Sociology
1. Sociology-The Discipline :
Sociology as a science and as an interpretative discipline; impact of
industrial and French Revolution on the emergence of sociology; sociology
and its relationship with history, economics, political science, psychology
and anthropology.
2. Scientific Study of Social Phenomena :
Problem of objectivity and value neutrality; issue of measurement in social
science; elements of scientific method-concepts, theory and fact,
hypothesis; research designs-descriptive, exploratory and experimental
3. Techniques of data collection and analysis :
Participant and quasi-participant observation; interview, questionnaire and
schedule case study, sampling-size, reliability and validity, scaling
techniques-social distance and Likert scale.
4. Pioneering contributions to Sociology:
a) Karl Marx : Historical materialism, mode of production, alienation and
class struggle.
b) Emile Durkheim : Division of labor, social fact, religion and society.
c) Max Weber : Social action, ideal types, authority, bureaucracy,
protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism.
d) Talcott Parsons : Social system, pattern variables.
e) Robert K. Merton : Latent and manifest functions, anomie, conformity and
deviance, reference groups.
5. Marriage and Family :
Types and forms of marriage; family-structure and function; personality and
socialization; Social control; family, lineage, descent and property;
changing structure of family marriage and sex roles in modern society;
divorce and its implications; gender issues; role conflicts.
6. Social Stratification :
Concepts-hierarchy, inequality and stratification; theories of
stratification-Marx, Davis and Moore and Melvin Tumins critique; forms and
functions; class-different conceptions of class; class-in-itself and
class-for-itself; caste and class; caste as a class.
7. Social Mobility :
Types of mobility-open and closed models; intra-and inter-generational
mobility; vertical and horizontal mobility; social mobility and social
change.
8. Economic System :
Sociological dimensions of economic life; the impact of economic processes
on the larger society; social aspects of division of labor and types of
exchange; features of pre-industrial and industrial economic system;
industrialisation and social change; social determinants of economic
development.
9. Political System :
The nature of power-personal power, community power, power of the elite,
class power, organisational power, power of the un-organised masses;
authority and legitimacy; pressure groups and political parties; voting
behaviour; modes of political participation-democratic and authoritarian
forms.
10. Educational System :
Education and Culture; equality of educational opportunity; social aspects
of mass education; problems of universalisation of primary education; role
of community and state intervention in education; education as an instrument
of social control and social change; education and modernisation.
11. Religion :
Origins of religious beliefs in pre-modern socieites; the sacred and the
profane; social functions and dysfunctions of religion; monistic and
pluralistic religion; organised and unorganised religions; semitism and
antisemitism; religion, sect and cults; magic, religion and science.
12. Science & Technology :
Ethos of science; social responsibility of science; social control of
science; social consequences of science and technology; technology and
social change.
13. Social Movements :
Concepts of social movements; genesis of social movements; ideology and
social movement; social movement and social change; types of social
movements.
14. Social change and Development :
Continuity and change as fact and as value; theories of social change-Marx,
Parsons and Sorokin; direted social change; social policy and social
development.
Paper-II
Study of Indian Society
1. Historical Moorings of the Indian Society :
Traditional Hindu social organization; socio-cultural dynymics through the
ages; impact of Buddhism, Islam, and the West, factors in continuity and
change.
2. Caste System :
Origin of the caste system; cultural and structural views about caste;
mobility in caste; caste among Muslims and Christians; change and
persistence of caste in modern India; issues of equality and social justice;
views of Gandhi and Ambedkar on caste; caste on and Indian polity; Backward
Classes Movement; Mandal Commission Report and issues of social backwardness
and social justice; emergence of Dalit consciousness.
3. Class Structure :
Class structure in India, agrarian and industrial class structure; emergence
ofmiddle class; emergence of classes among tribes; elite formation in India.
4. Marriage, Family and Kinship:
Marriage among different ethnic groups, its changing trends and its future;
family-its structural and functional aspects-its changing forms; regional
variations in kinship systems and its socio-cultural correlates; impact of
legislation and socio-economic change on marriage and family; generation
gap.
5. Agrarian Social Structure :
Peasant society and agrarian systems; land tenure systems-historical
perspectives, social consequences of land reforms and green revolution;
feudalism-semi-feudalism debates; emerging agrarian class structure;
agrarian unrest.
6. Industry and Society :
Path of industrialisation, occupational diversification, trade unions and
human relations; market economy and its social consequences; economic
reforms liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation.
7. Political Processes :
Working of the democratic political system in a traditional society;
political parties and their social base; social structural origins of
political elites and their orientations; regionalism, pluralism and national
unity; decentralisation of power; panchayati raj and nagarpalikas and 73rd
and 74th constitutional amendments.
8. Education :
Directive Principles of State Policy and primary education; education;
educational inequality and change; education and social mobility; the role
of community and state intervention in education; universalisation of
primary education; Total Literacy Campaigns; educational problems of
disadvantages groups.
9. Religion and Society :
Size, growth and regional distribution of different religious groups;
educational levels of different groups; problems of religious minorities;
communal tensions; secularism; conversions; religious fundamentalism.
10. Tribal Societies :
Distinctive features of tribal communities and their geographical spread;
problems of tribal communities-land alienation, poverty, indebetedness,
health and nutrition, education; tribal development efforts after
independence; tribal policy-isolation, assimilation and integration; issues
of tribal identity.
11. Population Dynamics :
Population size, growth, composition and distribution; components of
population growth; birth rate, death rate and migration; determinants and
consequences of population growth; issues of age at marriage, sex ratio,
infant mortality rate; population policy and family welfare programmes.
12. Dimensions of Development :
Strategy and ideology of planning; poverty, indebtedness and bonded labor;
strategies of rural development-poverty alleviation programmes; environment,
housing, slums, and unemployment; programmes for urban development.
13. Social Change :
Endogenous and exogenous sources of change and resistance toc hange;
processes of change-sanskritisation and modernisation; agents of change-mass
media, education and communication; problems of change and modernisation;
structural contradictions and breakdowns.
14. Social Movements :
Reform Movements : Arya Samaj, Satya Sadhak Samaj, Sri Narayanguru Dharma
Paripalana Sabha, and Ram Krishna Mission.
Peasant movements-Kisan Sabha, Telengana, Naxalbari.
Backward Castes Movement : Self-respect Movement, backward castes
mobilisation in North India.
15. Women and society :
Demographic profile of women; special problems-dowry, atrocities,
discrimination; existing programmes for women and their impact. Situational
analysis of children; child welfare programmes.
16. Social Problems :
Prostitution, AIDS, alcoholism, drug
addiction, corruption.