MCQs on Indian Society

In almost every facet of social life, India provides remarkable variation. Ethnic, linguistic, regional, economic, religious, class, and caste groupings intersect in Indian society, which is also riven by vast urban-rural divides and gender divisions. There are major differences between north and south India, particularly in kinship and marriage systems. Indian society is multidimensional in a way that no other of the world’s great civilizations can match—it resembles a region as diverse as Europe more than any other single nation-state. Rapidly occurring changes affecting various locations and socioeconomic classes in disparate ways are adding to the richness of current Indian culture. Despite the intricacies of Indian life, well-known cultural themes contribute to social harmony and order.

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Apart from the political events of the time, common development in the subcontinent was the recognizable decentralization of administration and revenue collection. From the Cola kingdom, there are long inscriptions on temple walls referring to the organization and functioning of village councils.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The tribe may be an example of …………?

A. Family

B. Association

C. Community

D. Caste

Ans. Option C.

Tribes represent a part of the social evolution between bands and nations. A tribe can be a community of families or of families and individual people living together. A tribe usually divides up the jobs that need to be done among themselves.

2. Indian society is… in nature.

A. Tribal

B. Pluralistic

C. Rural

D. Urban

Ans. Option B.

Indian society is pluralistic in nature. Pluralism refers to the existence within a nation or society of groups distinctive in ethnic origin, cultural patterns, language, religion, etc. The Indian culture followed the concept of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (The world is one family) resulting in a great cultural heritage.

3. Traditional Hindu society was divided into…… Varnas base on the occupation of an individual?

A. three 

B. four 

C. five 

D. seven

Ans. Option B.

The system of classification, Varna is a system that existed in the Vedic Society that divided the society into four classes Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas.

Ancient India in the Vedic Period (c. 1500-1000 BCE) did not have social stratification based on socio-economic indicators; rather, citizens were classified according to their Varna or castes. ‘Varna’ defines the hereditary roots of a newborn, it indicates the colour, type, order, or class of people. Varna is a Sanskrit term, derived from ‘vr’-to cover, to envelop, count, classify, consider, describe or choose.

4. Wright Mills was a ………. Sociologist?

A. American 

B. British

C. Russian

D. French

Ans. Option A.

Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962) was an American sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills was published widely in popular and intellectual journals.

5. What is the type of control organized through bureaucracy? 

A. officials 

B. informal 

C. Formal

D. Court

Ans. Option C.

Bureaucratic control is the use of formal systems of rules, roles, records, and rewards to influence, monitor, and assess employee performance. Rules set the requirements for behaviour and define work methods. Roles assign responsibilities and establish levels of authority.

6. Who defined “Joint family as a group of people who generally lives under one roof, who eat food cooked at one hearth, who hold property in common and who participate in common worship and are related to each other as some particular type of kindred?” 

A. Nimcoff 

B. Karve 

C. Cooley

D. Sriniva

Ans. Option B.

Iravati Karve defines joint family as “a group of people who generally live under one roof, who eat food cooked at one hearth, who hold property in common and who participate in common family worship and are related to each other as some particular type of kindred.”

9. Who authored the book ‘The Psychology of Social Norms’? 

A. Robert Bierstdt 

B. M F Nimkoff 

C. Muzafer Sherif

D. W G Ogburn

Ans. Option C.

 Muzafer Sherif was a Turkish-American social psychologist. He helped develop social judgment theory and realistic conflict theory. Sherif was a founder of modern social psychology who developed several unique and powerful techniques for understanding social processes, particularly social norms, and social conflict.

10. Who wrote the book ‘Mind, Self and Society’? 

A. Homans 

B. Giddens 

C. Mead

D. Gramsci

Ans. Option C.

George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. George H. Mead shows a psychological analysis through behaviour and interaction of an individual’s self with reality. The behaviour is mostly developed through sociological experiences and encounters. These experiences lead to individual behaviours that make up the social factors that create the communications in society. 

 11. Who wrote the famous book ‘Folkways’?

A. Merton 

B. MacIver

C. Sumner

D. Albert

Ans. Option C.

William Graham Sumner was an influential professor of sociology and politics at Yale College and president of the American Sociological Association from 1908 to 1909, and it was in this early classic textbook of sociology, first published in 1906, that he coined the term folkways, to denote the habits and customs of a society. He fully explores the concept here, examining their influence on: – the struggle for existence – labour and wealth – slavery – abortion, infanticide, and the killing of the elderly – cannibalism – sex and marriage – blood revenge and primitive justice – sacral harlotry and child sacrifice – popular sports and drama – education and history – and much more. American academic and author WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER (1840-1910) wrote numerous and varied books including Andrew Jackson as a Public Man (1882) and What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883).

12. Impersonal relationship is the hallmark of ……………….group.

A. Secondary group 

B. In group 

C. Tertiary group

D. Vertical group

Ans. Option A.

Unlike first groups, secondary groups are large groups whose relationships are impersonal and goal-oriented. People in a secondary group interact on a less personal level than in a primary group, and their relationships are generally temporary rather than long-lasting.

13. Which theory analyzes the concepts like personal troubles of milieu and public issues of social structure? 

A. Sociological Imagination 

B. Chicago School 

C. Synthetic School

D. Formalistic School

Ans. Option A.

Sociological imagination is making the connection between personal challenges and larger social issues. Mills identified “troubles” (personal challenges) and “issues” (larger social challenges), also known as biography, and history, respectively.

The “Sociological Imagination” was introduced by C. Wright Mills in 1959. This book was an insightful critique of the research enterprise in sociology. Mills left no stone unturned within sociology with respect to his critical examination of the discipline, including the works of the renowned sociologist Talcott Parsons as well as his own works. Throughout his career until his untimely death, Mills struggled with the question, “what is the nature of the social sciences.” He uniquely described the “promise” of sociology for a world of people trapped in a virtual maze of “private troubles.”

14. When was the book ‘The Sociological Imagination’ published? 

A. 1959 

B. 1911 

C. 1905 

D. 1922

Ans. Option A.

C. Wright Mills is best remembered for his highly acclaimed work The Sociological Imagination, in which he set forth his views on how social science should be pursued. Hailed upon publication as a cogent and hard-hitting critique, The Sociological Imagination took issue with the ascendant schools of sociology in the United States, calling for a humanist sociology connecting the social, personal, and historical dimensions of our lives. The sociological imagination Mills calls for is a sociological vision, a way of looking at the world that can see links between the apparently private problems of the individual and important social issues.
Leading sociologist Amitai Etzioni brings this fortieth-anniversary edition up to date with a lucid introduction in which he considers the ways social analysis has progressed since Mills first published his study in 1959. A classic in the field, this book still provides rich food for our imagination.

15. Harijans were excluded from the?

A. as they are out-castes.

B. as they are too inferior to be included in the varna scheme.

C. by the Hindu religious texts.

D. by villagers.

Ans. Option C.

By the Hindu Religious texts, Vedas do not have any reference to out-castes. Out-castes are later development, probably during Gupta period
Out-castes were formed largely from Inter-Varna marriages (between say a shudra man and an upper-caste woman) as well professions which were considered unclean (such as Chamars who were leather workers and worked with animal hides). The majority of these Indigenous out-castes were a result of various sociological pressures and control dynamics.

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