WHY TO SELECT SOCIOLOGY FOR IAS EXAM

WHY TO SELECT  SOCIOLOGY  FOR IAS EXAM

                                                       SAROJ  SAMAL

What is the best optional for civil services? Why an optional is more scoring than other? These are the questions often asked by many students preparing for the civil service examination.

        Certainly, it is crucial that an aspirant should select the right optional, Selection of an improper optional can really cost a candidate dear. Let me tell you emphatically that there is no such thing like best optional. Nor any optional is more scoring than other. I may assert that it is not the optional which scores, rather it is the candidate who scores. Therefore, right optional means an optional which is the right one for a particular candidate. Now the question arises as to which optional is the right one for whom.

        In my view, the first criterion of choosing an optional is that you should really like and enjoy learning it. The second criterion in selecting an optional subject, especially if you have not already studied it at graduate or post-graduate level, is that whether proper guidance is available in that subject. By proper guidance, I mean a teacher who can take genuine personal interest to help you cultivate right frame of mind.

Cultivating the right frame of mind is more important than reading many books. The third criterion is the extent to which it is contributing to G.S, Essay paper and interview.

        Viewed from the above angle, no doubt, Sociology is one of the popular optional for the civil service examination. In the recent years, two candidates from non-Sociology background topping the successful list of IAS examination bears testimony to the fact of the popularity of Sociology. One of the advantages of opting for Sociology is that one doesn’t require early training at college or university level to do well in the Civil service examination. In fact, if we look at the syllabus prescribed by the UPSC, the questions asked in the exams, we find that even those who have studied sociology at university level have only a marginal advantage as compared to those who did not. Quite often, candidates with Engineering, Science, Medical, English literature and Psychology background have been able to score good marks in sociology papers of UPSC civil service exam.

        However, two qualities are essential for scoring good marks in sociology. Firstly the candidate should be able to write analytically. Secondly the candidate should be inquisitively interested in contemporary social issues.

    

        The reason for Sociology being the most popular optional is that it is the optional which is less technical. So it can easily be covered and mastered by a candidate during a short period of time. Secondly sociology, if properly understood, can help in covering some sections of G.S, Essay paper & interview.

Let me tell you, how sociology contributes to the above areas of study. I am presenting these in a point-wise manner with an integrated approach.

CONTRIBUTION OF SOCIOLOGY FOR G.S, ESSAYS AND INTERVIEW

1.     Impact of globalization

2.     Social exclusion, protective Discrimination and Reservation for SC, ST & OBC.

3.     Tribal problems, issues of Tribal Integration and Development

4.     Rural Development

5.     Status of women, Feminism, Atrocities against women & women empowerment.

6.     Disparities in Education, Privatisation of Education & Universalisation of Primacy Education, Project of U.E.E: The saga of spectacular achievement & conspicuous failure.

7.     Democratic Decentralisation and empowerment of marginalized citizens.

8.     Modernity, its impact on caste system, weakening and strengthening of caste        system, caste and politics, Future of caste system in India, Gandhi & Ambedkar on caste.

9.     Religion & Science, weakening and strengthening of religion in the era of science

10.   Secularism, Secularisation, Communalism & Fundamentalism, Problems of Religious Minorities

11.   Instability of marital institution and increasing rate of divorce in India & Emerging issues in marriage and family.

12.   Increasing rate of farmers suicide in India & contract farming.

13.   Population explosion & policy to tackle it.

14.   Naxalism, Terrorism & Regionalism in India.

15.   Ecological imbalance,  Environmental pollution & Sustainable development.

16.   Corruption & Institutionalised mechanism to tackle it.

17.   Democratic socialism, mixed Economy, Poverty Eradication Programmes and Employment generation in India since Independence.

18.   Land Acquisition Policy, SEZ and Societal Reaction.

19.   Inter-generational gap and youth unrest in India.

20.   Nationalism, Multinational state, Ethic movements & Ethno-nationalism in India.

21.   Ageing, Old Age problems & policy for old age pension (Social assistance scheme)

22.   Land Reform, Green Revolution

23.   Increasing rate of crime & Ammendment of criminal law and Juvenile Justice & Capital punishment.

24.   Patriarchy, Khap Panchayat and Honour killing

25.   Anti-caste, Anti-Brahmin movement and Buffalo nationalism in India.

26.   Gandhism, Marxism & Maoism.

27.   Democracy, Civil Society & Social Movement

28.   Mushrooming of temples on the roadside, emergence of different religious cult and religion in modern India

29.   Philosophies like communism, socialism and capitalism & their impact on society

If you analyse the latest changes introduced by the UPSC in restructuring the syllabus of general studies, you can reach at the conclusion that topics of sociology are there in every paper of the syllabus of general studies since 2013.