UPHESC Assistant Professor Sociology 2025, 2026 PYQs

Concept: Research is a systematic, organised, logical process of answering questions or testing hypotheses with empirical evidence.

1. I is wrong — science refines and tests common sense; it does not 'completely reject' it.
2. II is correct — the standard definition.
3. III is wrong — the process begins with a research question/problem; the type of data is decided afterwards.
4. IV is correct — some authors speak of 'research problems' instead of 'questions'; the choice is the researcher's.

Short trick: Research starts with a QUESTION, then decides the DATA.

Concept: Pre-treatment (sorting, shredding, compaction, neutralisation, etc.) prepares waste before final treatment or disposal.

1. Its aims are to make waste less hazardous (innocuous) and to reduce its weight/volume for easier handling and disposal.
2. Raising COD (B) worsens pollution; dilution (D) is not acceptable treatment; A is meaningless.

Short trick: Pre-treatment = Less harm + Less bulk.

Concept: D.P. Mukerji called himself a 'Marxologist', not a Marxist; he stressed the study of Indian tradition.

1. He criticised Indian Marxists for applying universal Marxist categories (class, European stages) mechanically, ignoring Indian tradition and culture — A is true.
2. R correctly states what this 'universalism' means, and that is exactly why he criticised them — R explains A.

Short trick: DP Mukerji: 'First be Indian' — Marxism must be adapted to Indian tradition.

Concept: Durkheim (1893): mechanical solidarity binds simple societies through likeness — similar work and a strong collective conscience.

1. Low division of labour + shared beliefs + repressive law = mechanical solidarity.
2. Organic solidarity arises from interdependence in a complex division of labour with restitutive law.
3. Class conflict is Marx; cultural pluralism is unrelated.

Short trick: Mechanical = 'Likeness'; Organic = 'Difference + interdependence'.

Concept: A 'conglomeration' is a mere heap of separate units; a 'complex of collectivities' (T.K. Oommen and others) is a set of distinct groups — castes, tribes, religions, language and regional groups — that are internally differentiated yet interlinked.

1. So Indian society must be understood through these specific collectivities and their dynamic interaction.
2. A and D wrongly claim traditional segments have vanished; B wrongly claims homogenisation.

Short trick: Complex of collectivities = many distinct groups, interacting — not a heap, not a melting pot.

Concept: Indian inheritance laws (Mitakshara, Dayabhaga, Muslim law) divide land equally among heirs.

1. With each generation, holdings are partitioned into smaller and scattered plots — subdivision and fragmentation.
2. Breakup of joint families and population pressure intensify it; the other options are at best indirect.

Short trick: Each generation divides the field → fragmentation (remedy: consolidation of holdings, 'chakbandi').

Concept: Civil society is the sphere of voluntary associations — NGOs, trade unions, movements, media, citizens' groups — lying between family, state and market.

1. It is independent of state control (not D) and outside party politics in legislatures (not A).
2. Kinship networks are primordial/private, not civil society (not C).

Short trick: Civil society = the 'third sector': not State, not Market, not Family.

Concept: Giddens' structuration theory: 'duality of structure' — structures are both the medium and the outcome of the practices they organise.

1. A is true — society is produced and reproduced through agents' routine actions.
2. R is false — structures do not exist independently of action; they exist only as instantiated in practices and can change through them.

Short trick: Structuration = Structure ⇄ Agency (duality, not dualism).

Concept: Giddens: sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies.

1. The term was coined by Auguste Comte (1838) for the science of society.
2. A is economics' narrower field, B is ecology/geography, D is psychology.

Short trick: Socius (companion) + logos (study) = science of society.

Concept: Rapid, unplanned urbanization (largely migration-driven) outpaces housing supply, so squatter settlements and slums grow — A is true.

1. R is false — rapid urbanization INCREASES pressure on housing, water, sanitation and transport and worsens access to services; that pressure is exactly why slums form.

Short trick: Fast urbanization → overload → slums ('over-urbanization').

Concept: Historical urban comparison is a measurement problem.

1. Ancient and medieval cities had no regular censuses; their populations are estimated from indirect evidence.
2. What counts as a 'city' (walls, function, size, administrative status) also differs across eras, so figures are not strictly comparable.
3. A and C are factually wrong; B is about modern boundaries, not the core methodological difficulty.

Short trick: No census + no common definition = hard to compare.

Concept: The 1991 LPG reforms removed licences, cut tariffs and opened India to foreign capital and imports.

1. Domestic firms, especially small-scale industries, now face competition from cheaper or better imported goods and MNCs — a key challenge.
2. Liberalization reduced bureaucratic control (not A), increased foreign investment (not B) and raised GDP growth (not C).

Short trick: LPG opened the door → domestic industry faces global rivals.

Concept: Tribe and caste lie on a continuum (F.G. Bailey, Surajit Sinha); groups move in both directions.

1. Jatification = tribes becoming jatis, adopting caste structure and identity (II).
2. Tribalization = some jatis taking on tribal traits and practices (IV).
3. Sanskritization (M.N. Srinivas) = lower castes/tribes adopting high-caste rituals and lifestyle (III).
4. Alienation = loss of control over land and culture through outside intrusion (I).

Short trick: Tribe → Jati = Jatification; Jati → Tribe = Tribalization.

Concept: Land-use change typically follows a sequence: natural vegetation → agriculture → (peri-urban) → urban/built-up use.

1. So conversion to farmland is an earlier step that often precedes urban development.
2. It is not the final stage (urbanization comes later) — B is wrong; C and D are unrelated.

Short trick: Forest → Field → City.

Concept: Castells: in the information age, networks become the dominant form of social organisation.

1. I is correct — governance shifts to managing information flows, connectivity and participation.
2. II is wrong — the rigid Weberian hierarchy is ill-suited to flexible, horizontal networks.
3. III is correct — the 'network state' changes the structure and working of the state.
4. IV is wrong — ICT networks transform economy, work, family, media, identity — not just administration.

Short trick: Network society: flows > hierarchy; affects ALL institutions.

Concept: The historical method reconstructs the past systematically from primary and secondary sources.

1. Sources: documents, records, archives, inscriptions, artefacts and other remains, subjected to external and internal criticism.
2. A is experimental, B is field/ethnographic, C is operations research.

Short trick: Historical method = Past + Sources (documents, remains).

Concept: Qualitative and feminist (standpoint) methodologies hold that knowledge is situated; the researcher is the main research instrument.

1. The researcher's position, values and experiences shape what is seen and how it is interpreted — so reflexivity is built into the research.
2. D is the positivist view; A and B understate the researcher's role, which runs through the whole process.

Short trick: Qualitative: researcher = instrument → standpoint is part of knowledge (reflexivity).

Concept: Early 20th-century delinquency theories (Chicago School, Merton's strain, Sutherland, Cohen's subcultures) were 'malestream' — built on male offenders.

1. So A is false: feminist perspectives were absent, not central.
2. R is true: gender entered criminology only from the 1970s (Carol Smart, 'Women, Crime and Criminology', 1976; Frances Heidensohn).

Short trick: Feminist criminology = 1970s (Carol Smart 1976) — not early 1900s.

Concept: In 'Social Change in Modern India' Srinivas shows how British rule opened new economic opportunities.

1. Industries, growing towns, railways and roads created new occupations outside the caste-bound village economy.
2. These weakened the link between caste and occupation, enabled mobility and fed Westernization and Sanskritization.
3. B and C are the opposite of what happened; D is not his argument.

Short trick: New jobs + towns + railways → caste–occupation link loosened (Srinivas).

Concept: Explanations of globalization (e.g., Malcolm Waters, Jan Aart Scholte) are grouped as materialist and idealist.

1. Materialist: capitalism (world-system, Wallerstein) and technology (communications, transport) are the objective driving forces — A is correct.
2. Idealist: knowledge, information, ideas and cultural/rationalist systems are the prime movers — R is correct.
3. They are two rival positions; one does not explain the other.

Short trick: Materialist = capital + technology; Idealist = ideas + knowledge — parallel views, not cause-effect.