Class 12 Sociology · Chapter 1 NotesIntroducing Indian Society

Sociology is unlike other school subjects because every student already has some knowledge of society. A child is not expected to know History, Geography, Psychology or Economics before studying them, but even a six-year-old already knows something about society and social relationships. By the time you are eighteen, you have absorbed a great deal about the society you live in without ever formally studying it. This prior knowledge comes from growing up within a family, community and social environment. It is acquired naturally and automatically through the process of socialisation, not through explicit teaching. This makes Sociology both easier to begin and trickier to master, because the subject matter is already familiar to the learner.

• No one starts from zero in Sociology.
• Knowledge about society is acquired without explicit teaching.
• Prior knowledge comes from socialisation into a social group and environment.

Familiarity with society has two sides. The advantage is that students are generally not afraid of Sociology and feel it cannot be very hard to learn. The disadvantage is that this same familiarity can become an obstacle. To learn Sociology properly, we need to unlearn much of what we already believe about society. The initial stage of learning Sociology consists mainly of such unlearning. This is necessary because our common sense is acquired from a particular viewpoint, the viewpoint of the social group and environment we are socialised into. Our social context shapes our opinions, beliefs and expectations. These beliefs are not necessarily wrong, but they are partial. The word partial here means both incomplete and biased.

• Advantagestudents feel Sociology is not difficult.
• Disadvantageprior knowledge must be unlearned.
• Partial means incomplete (opposite of whole) and biased (opposite of impartial).

Sociology can show you what you look like to others. It teaches you to look at yourself from the outside, an ability called self-reflexivity, or simply reflexivity. Reflexivity means turning your gaze back towards yourself instead of always directing it outward. However, this self-inspection must be critical. It should be quick to criticise and slow to praise oneself. Reflexivity helps you understand that your own views are shaped by your social position, and that other people may see the same situation very differently. It is a key skill that sociological thinking develops in students.

• Reflexivity is the ability to reflect upon yourself.
• It means turning your gaze back towards yourself.
• Critical self-inspection should be quick to criticise and slow to praise oneself.

A social map tells you where you are located in society. As a seventeen or eighteen year old, you belong to the social group called young people. People your age or younger account for about forty per cent of India's population. You may belong to a regional or linguistic community, such as a Gujarati speaker from Gujarat or a Telugu speaker from Andhra Pradesh. Depending on your parents' occupation and family income, you may be a member of an economic class such as lower middle class or upper class. You could also belong to a religious community, a caste or tribe, or other social groups. Each identity locates you on a social map and within a web of social relationships. Sociology describes what kinds of groups exist, how they relate to each other, and what this means for your own life.

• Young people your age or younger are about forty per cent of India's population.
• Identities include region, language, economic class, religion, caste and tribe.
• Sociology maps groups, their relationships and their meaning for individuals.

C. Wright Mills, a well-known American sociologist, wrote that sociology can help map the links and connections between personal troubles and social issues. Personal troubles are the individual worries, problems or concerns that everyone has. For example, you may be unhappy about how elders in your family treat you, or worried about your future and what sort of job you might get. These are about one person and derive meaning from a personalised perspective. A social issue, on the other hand, is about large groups and not about the individuals who make them up. Sociology helps you see how what looks like a private problem may actually be connected to wider social patterns and structures.

• Personal troubles are individual worries and concerns.
• Social issues are about large groups, not individuals.
• Sociology links personal troubles with social issues.

This is the first of two textbooks on Sociology. It introduces the basic structure of Indian society, while the second book will focus on social change and development in India. Chapter 2 discusses the demographic structure of the Indian population, including how sociologists and demographers study population and whether population is only an obstacle to development. Chapter 3 revisits the basic institutions of caste, tribe and family. Chapter 4 explores the socio-cultural dimensions of the market as an institution that has been a vehicle of change, shaped first by colonialism and then by developmental policies. Chapter 5 deals with inequality and exclusion in the context of caste, tribe, gender and the disabled. Chapter 6 addresses the challenges posed by India's immense diversity, including communal conflict, regionalism, linguism and casteism. Chapter 7 offers suggestions for the practical component of the course.

• Chapter 2demographic structure of the Indian population.
• Chapter 3caste, tribe and family as basic institutions.
• Chapter 4socio-cultural dimensions of the market.
• Chapter 5inequality and exclusion.
• Chapter 6diversity and challenges like communal conflict and casteism.
• Chapter 7practical component of the course.