Social structure, diversity and contemporary social issues — part of the Prelims syllabus.
Indian Society is a distinct APPSC Group 2 Prelims subject, tested alongside History, Geography and Current Affairs in the single Screening Test paper.
The foundational institutions and structural pillars of Indian society: Family, Marriage and Kinship systems, the Caste system and its evolving nature, Tribe and ethnicity, Religion and religious pluralism, and the position and issues of Women in Indian society (patriarchy and its structures).
Key thinkers to know: M.N. Srinivas (Sanskritization, Westernization, the concept of the dominant caste, and the book-view vs field-view distinction in studying Indian society), G.S. Ghurye (early systematic work on caste structure), Louis Dumont (Homo Hierarchicus, the ideology of caste as a system of hierarchy and purity/pollution), and Andre Beteille (the transition from caste to class as a lens of stratification).
Casteism, communalism and regionalism as divisive social forces; crime against women; child abuse and child labour; and youth unrest and agitation as a recurring feature of Indian social and political life.
Public policies and welfare programmes addressing social disadvantage, and the specific constitutional and statutory provisions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Minorities, Backward Classes (BCs), Women, Persons with Disabilities, and Children.
India recognises 22 scheduled languages under the Eighth Schedule. As per Census 2011, roughly 68.8% of India's population is rural. These recurring static-fact data points are commonly tested alongside the conceptual/thinker-based questions.
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