Passage Based Questions: Social Movements | Sociology Class 12 - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Passage  - 1

Direction: Read the following passage and answer the questions:

Passage:
“People may damage a bus and attack its driver when the bus has run over a child. This is an isolated incident of protest. Since it flares up and dies down it is not a social movement. A social movement requires sustained collective action over time. Such action is often directed against the state and takes the form of demanding changes in state policy or practice. Spontaneous, disorganised protest cannot be called a social movement either. Collective action must be marked by some degree of organisation. This organisation may include a leadership and a structure that defines how members relate to each other, make decisions and carry them out. Those participating in a social movement also have shared objectives and ideologies. A social movement has a general orientation or way of approaching to bring about (or to prevent) change. These defining features are not constant. They may change over the course of a social movement’s life. Social movements often arise with the aim of bringing about changes on a public issue, such as ensuring the right of the tribal population to use the forests or the right of displaced people to settlement and compensation. Think of other issues that social movements have taken up in the past and present. While social movements seek to bring in social change, counter movements sometimes arise in defence of the status quo. There are many instances of such counter movements. When Raja Ram Mohan Roy campaigned against sati and formed the Brahmo Samaj, defenders of sati formed Dharma Sabha and petitioned the British not to legislate against sati.”

Q1: How would you define a socio-reform movement?
Ans: A movement that started to remove the existing social evils and ills of society is known as a socio-reform movement.

Q2: What is the primary goal of a socio-reform movement?
Ans: The main aim of the socio-reform movement is to remove the existing social evils from society and to make social life progressive.

Q3: What were the reasons behind the initiation of tribal movements in India?
Ans: Tribal movements were started to save the tribal cultures so that they could not be mixed with the cultures of other societies.

Passage  - 2

Direction: Read the following passage and answer the questions:

Passage:
Universal adult franchise, or the right of every adult to vote, is one of the foremost rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. It means that we cannot be governed by anyone other than the people we have ourselves elected to represent us. This right is a radical departure from the days of colonial rule when ordinary people were forced to submit to the authority of colonial officers who represented the interests of the British Crown. However, even in Britain, not everyone was allowed to vote. Voting rights were limited to property-owning men.

Q1: What is meant by universal adult franchise?
Ans: It is the right to vote given to every citizen in a democracy.

Q2: Who were granted the right to vote in Britain?
Ans: Voting rights were given to property-owning men.

Passage  - 3

Direction: Read the following passage and answer the questions:

Passage:
The repertoire of satyagraha. The fusion of foreign power and capital was the focus of social protest during India's nationalist struggle. Mahatma Gandhi wore khadi, handspun, hand-woven cloth, to support Indian cotton growers, spinners, and weavers whose livelihoods had been destroyed by the government policy of favouring mill-made cloth. The legendary Dandi March to make salt was a protest against British taxation policies that placed a huge burden on consumers of basic commodities to benefit the empire. Gandhi took items of everyday mass consumption like cloth and salt and transformed them into symbols of resistance.

Q1: What was the central focus of India’s nationalist struggle?
Ans: It was against the fusion of foreign rule and capital.

Q2: How did Mahatma Gandhi demonstrate his strategic brilliance during the nationalist struggle?
Ans: Gandhi took items of everyday mass consumption like cloth and salt and transformed them into symbols of resistance.