Important Questions: Citizenship | Political Science Class 11 - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Q1: Mention some essential characteristics of citizenship.
Ans:

• Citizenship is membership of the political community.
• Citizenship is a qualification.
• Citizenship is based on equality and freedom.
• Citizenship involves rights and facilities.
• Citizenship also involves duties and obligations.
• Citizenship creates trust and confidence among the members of the community.
• The contents and idea is expanding as per the democratic development.

Q2: Explain the idea of fall and equal membership.
Ans: The concept of full and equal membership means that all citizens rich or poor should be guaranteed certain basic rights and a minimum standard of living by the state. In the wake of the right of movement people of different strata and different occupations move from one place to another, from one region to another region in search of better job opportunities make the combination of insider and outsider population which likely creates the feeling of hardness and conflict.

Q3: Explain civil, political, and social rights that are considered necessary for the dignified life of a man.
Ans: T. H. Marshall considered civil rights, political rights, and social rights as very necessary for a man to lead a dignified life. The contents and essential elements of these rights are as under –

• Civil rights protect the individual’s life, liberty, and property.
• Political rights enable the individual to participate in the process of governance
• Social rights give the individual access to education and employment.

Q4: How the equal rights can be ensured?
Ans: The provision of equal rights is considered an essential feature for the accomplishment of citizenship. However to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all citizens cannot be a simple matter and easy for any government because different people and different social and occupational groups may have different needs and different demands. Moreover, equal rights for citizens do not mean that uniform policies have to be adopted for all the people of different sections of the society. The different needs and claims of people should have to be taken into account while framing the policies, because for all the citizens the rights are to accepted in relativity, of course not in totality.

Q5: What is apartheid? Discuss its impact on citizenship.
Ans: Apartheid means racial discrimination that prevailed in South Africa. The black people of South Africa became the victim of apartheid (racial discrimination) on the basis of which they were denied equal and full citizenship.

Q6: Discuss the problem of stateless people.
Ans: People in the world get displaced due to wars, famine, or other natural calamities. Several states refuse to accept them due to their personal reasons and state policies and they are not in a position to return to their homes. They become stateless and refugees. They may be forced to live in refugee camps. They cannot legally work and educate their children or acquire the property. The problem of stateless people is an important one and confronting the world community.

Q7: What do you mean by citizenship?
Ans: Citizenship implies full and equal members of a political community. The theories given by different liberal political thinkers suggest that citizenship should be universal. This means that every member of the community should be given citizenship. It also means that every person irrespective of his caste, color, sex, and status should be considered worthy of giving rights and duties. In fact, citizenship is a qualification that makes a man worthy of getting the rights and discharging of duties and responsibilities.

Short Answer Type Questions

Q8: Discuss the importance of citizenship.
Ans: As we know that citizenship ensures rights and duties to the citizens enabling them to lead a respectable and dignified life. Citizenship provides rights of varying importance. The nature of rights given to the citizens may vary from state to state and society to society. In most democratic states political rights like the right to vote, civil rights like the freedom of speech or belief, socio-economic rights like rights to a minimum wage, or the right of education are given. Equality of rights and states is one of the basic rights of citizenship. It is citizenship that integrates society on the basis of equality.

Q9: Discuss the struggle for citizenship in different parts of the world.
Ans: Human society has witnessed a long struggle against the domination of colonial, imperialist exploitation. In such systems vast section of the society had been denied, Inequalities and discrimination was the order of that society. With the passage of time, people become intolerant of the inequalities and injustices. Struggles for equal states and participation in the affairs of the state started in different parts of the world. French Revolution, Russian Revolution, and Chinese, Revolution are examples of this trend. In Asia, Africa, and Latin countries nationalistic movements started against the colonial rules which prevailed there. In South Africa, the black African population started ‘ against the apartheid policy of the white government for equality and, justice.

Q10: Discuss the freedom of movement.
Ans: One of the important rights which has become very important in recent years is the right of movement. This is freedom of the citizens from one place to another in search of occupation and to settle there adopting a particular occupation. This right has become particularly useful for the laborer and people of special fields who tend to migrate from one place to another. Some people may even travel outside the country in search of jobs. Markets for skilled and unskilled workers have developed in different parts of the country. IT workers have more opportunities in towns like Bangalore, nurses from Kerela are found working all over the country. Indian Constitution has given the right of movement in different parts of the world.

Q11: Explain the concept of citizenship as explained by T.H. Marshall.
Ans: T.H. Marshall a great British sociologist gave a new orientation to the meaning of citizenship and defined it a status bestowed on those who are full members of a community. All who possess the status are equal with respect to the rights and duties with which the status is endowed. The key idea of T.H. Marshall’s concept of citizenship is that of equality. He considered citizenship as leveling process breaking the hierarchic inequalities. In fact, T.H. Marshall defined the idea of citizenship in modem liberal state as giving due regard to human personality and promoting the people’s participation in the affairs of the state.

Q12: Which rights are considered most important by T.H. Marshall in his idea of citizenship?
Ans: T.H. Marshall emphasized three rights in his idea of citizenship which is as under

• Civil Rights: Civil rights provide the citizen’s rights of equality and liberty and the right of expression.
• Political Rights: Political rights enable people to participate in the process of governance, and also the right to vote, the right to be elected, and the right to form an association.
• Social Rights: Social rights give individuals opportunities for education and, employment to earn their livelihood.

Q13: Define the concept of Nation.
Ans: A state formed on the basis of nationality is called a Nation. Nationality can be defined as a group of people of the same race, history, culture, geography with the same future aspirations. When the people of the same nationality are organized, it is called a Nation-State. In fact, the concept of the nation-state is evolved in the modem period. Nation-states claim that their boundaries define not just territory but also a unique culture and shared history. The national identity of a democratic state is supposed to provide citizens with a political identity that can be shared by all the members of the society and state.

Q14: Discuss two essential features of citizenship as discussed by T.H. Marshall.
Ans: As said earlier, that T.H. Marshall considered equality as the essential elements of the concept of citizenship which means two things which are as under:

• It should improve the quality of rights and duties given to the people.
• It should improve the number of people upon whom these duties and rights are given.

Through his concept of citizenship, T.H. Marshall seeks to remove the inequalities which exist in the different social classes. In this way through his idea of citizenship, he wants to establish an equalitarian and integrated society in which all the people are given respectable status and all the citizens exercise their rights and duties in a responsible way.

Long Answer Type Questions

Q15: What is the meaning of citizenship? What are its need and significance? Explain it with reference to the views of T. H. Marshall.
Ans: Citizenship is the characteristics or qualification that makes a person of a political community worthy of getting rights and doing his/ her duties in that political community. Citizenship ensures the active and positive participation of the people of all classes in national affairs. In this way, citizenship implies full and equal members of a political community. In the contemporary world, states provide a collective political identity to their members as well as certain rights.
The precise nature of the rights granted as a result of citizenship may vary from state to state but most of the democratic and liberal and secular states grant civil, political, and social rights to all sections of the society as a result of the provision of citizenship. It will be wrong to understood citizenship as the relationship between the people and state. It is also a relationship between citizen to citizen involving certain obligations of citizens to each other and to the society. Therefore the idea of citizenship is useful for both i.e. for states\society and the people. Citizenship is not only a legal concept, it is closely related to the notions of equality and rights. Great British sociologist, T.H. Marshall has defined citizenship as “a status bestowed on those who are full members of a community. AJTwtio possesses the status are equal with respect to the rights and duties with which the status is endowed.” According to the-Trier Marshall, citizenship is useful because it ensures equality by removing the diverse effects of the class hierarchy. It thus helps in the creation of an equalitarian and integrated society.

Q16: Explain the idea of equal rights of citizens in the state.
Ans: As discussed above the condition of equal rights for all citizens is necessary to condition for the idea of citizenship as discussed by T.H. Marshall and accepted by most of the academicians for a liberal modem democratic state. When we talk of equal rights, they should not be – understood in an absolute sense. In society, there are people of a different class, economic groups, income groups, and occupational groups who may need different socio-economic conditions and facilities, and wages.
We cannot equalize these unequal groups. That does not mean the negation of citizenship. It is, therefore, the rights should be accepted in the relative sense. Equal rights for citizens need not mean that uniform policies have to be applied to all the people since different groups of having different needs. It is therefore for providing equal rights as per the needs of the people the government should frame the policies keeping ‘ in view the needs of the people which are bound to be different as per their different occupations and backgrounds.

Q17: Do you think full and equal membership means equal rights?
Ans: Citizenship is considered as full and equal membership means equal rights for every member of the political community. Through citizenship, full and equal membership is given to everyone who is worthy of it and it ensures that all the people irrespective of their socio¬economic status, should be guaranteed certain basic rights and a minimum standard of living.
But the situation seems to be different. All the members of the politicians do not enjoy equal status. There are people who are involved in petty jobs like hawkers, plumbers, mechanics and masons, etc. who live in slum-like conditions in different urban and rural areas and do not get equal rights. Their living conditions are horrible and they are seen with contempt by other people. Although they do the useful service to the society and contribute significantly to the economy of the state.

Q18: How does citizenship explain the relationship between the people and the states?
Ans: Citizenship is the characteristic; it is a qualification that enables a person to get involved in affairs with rights, dignity, and obligation. Therefore citizenship provides equal and full membership of the state or the political community. It is definitely the characteristics that determine the relationship between man and the state.
Citizenship is definitely more than the technical and legal relationship between the states and the people, it is also about citizen-citizen relations and involves certain obligations of citizens to each other and to the society. Citizenship is not concerned just about the legal obligations of man towards the state but also has moral obligations also for the state people and society. It provides the opportunity to share the common experiences of each other which generate a sense of togetherness.

Q19: Discuss the development of the nation of citizenship.
Ans: The development of the concept of citizenship has been corresponding to the development of state and state. The development of democracy and level of awareness has brought structural and functional changes in the relations between man to man and man to state. Increased mobility in the society has helped in building a new relationship among the people which gave new meaning to the concept of citizenship. More and more people have come into the periphery of the state. Now the citizenship is no more limited to certain sections of society. It is more and more involvement of the people of all sections of the society in the affairs of state in a responsible way. Today citizenship is considered as full and equal members of a political community.
States provide a collective political identity to their members as well as certain rights which gives the citizens dignity and respectability.

Q20: Discuss the concept and need for citizenship.
Ans: A person who is a member of a political community and enjoys certain rights from the society and political community and he/she discharges his duties for the community faithfully is called as the citizen. The characteristic or the qualification which makes a person eligible to perform the duties and enjoy certain rights from society is known as citizenship. Citizenship has been defined as full and equal members of a political community. In the present day world, all states provide a collective political identity to their members as well as rights and duties.
The need for citizenship has become more strong in the contemporary aware and complex world. It is citizenship that provides the opportunity to the people to ensure their fuller development and to lead a decent and dignified life. Without the citizenship, people remain stateless and has to lead the life of refugees.