Rationale
Sociology is introduced as an elective subject at the higher secondary stage. The syllabus is designed to help learners to reflect on what they hear and see in the course of everyday life and develop a constructive attitude towards society in change; to equip a learner with concepts and theoretical skills for the purpose. The curriculum of Sociology at this stage should enable the learner to understand dynamics of human behaviour in all its complexities and manifestations. The learners of today need answers and explanations to satisfy the questions that arise in their minds while trying to understand social world. Therefore, there is a need to develop an analytical approach towards the social structure so that they can meaningfully participate in the process of social change. There is scope in the syllabus not only for interactive learning, based on exercises and project work but also for teachers and students to jointly innovate new ways of learning.
• Sociology studies society. The child’s familiarity with the society in which she /he lives makes the study of sociology a double edged experience. At one level sociology studies institutions such as family and kinship, class, caste and tribe, religion and region — contexts with whichchildren are familiar, even if differentially. For India is a society which is varied both horizontally and vertically. The effort in the books will be to grapple overtly with this both as a source of
strength and as a site for interrogation.
• Significantly the intellectual legacy of sociology equips the discipline with a plural perspective that overtly engages with the need for defamiliarisation, to unlearn and question the given. This interrogative and critical character of sociology also makes it possible to understand both other cultures as well as relearn about one’s own culture.
• This plural perspective makes for an inbuilt richness and openness that not too many other disciplines in practice share. From its very inception sociology has had mutually enriching and contesting traditions of an interpretative method that openly takes into account ‘subjectivity’ and causal explanations that pays due importance to establishing causal correspondences with considerable sophistication. Not surprisingly its field work tradition also entails large
scale survey methods as well as a rich ethnographic tradition. Indeed Indian sociology in particular has bridged this distinction between what has often been seen as distinct approaches of sociology and social anthropology. The syllabus provides ample opportunity to make the child familiar with the excitement of field work as well as its theoretical significance for the very discipline of sociology.
• The plural legacy of sociology also enables a bird’s eye view and a worm’s eye view of the society the child lives in. This is particularly true today when the local is inextricably defined and shaped by macro global processes.
• The syllabus proceeds with the assumption that gender as an organizing principle of society cannot be treated as an add on topic but is fundamental to the manner that all chapters shall be dealt with.
• The chapters shall seek for a child centric approach that makes it possible to connect the lived reality of children with social structures and social processes that sociology studies.
• A conscious effort will be made to build into the chapters a scope for exploration of society that makes learning a process of discovery. A way towards this is to deal with sociological concepts not as givens but a product of societal actions, humanly constructed and therefore open to questioning.
Objectives
1. To enable learners to relate classroom teaching to their outside environment.
2. To introduce them to the basic concepts of sociology that would enable them to observe and interpret social life.
3. To be aware of the complexity of social processes.
4. To appreciate diversity in society in India and the world at large.
5. To build the capacity of students to understand and analyse the changes in contemporary Indian society.
Sociology Syllabus Classes XI
Introducing Sociology (Total Periods 110)
Unit I: Society and Sociology (Periods 22)
• Introducing Society: Individuals and collectivities, Plural Perspectives.
• Introducing Sociology: Emergence, Nature and Scope, Relationship with other disciplines.
Unit II: Basic Concepts (Periods 22)
• Social Groups
• Status and Role
• Social Stratification
• Social Control
Unit III: Social Institutions (Periods 24)
• Family and Kinship
• Political and Economic Institutions
• Religion as a Social Institution
• Education as a Social Institution
Unit IV: Culture and Society (Periods 20)
• Culture, Values and Norms: Shared, Plural, Contested
• Socialisation: Conformity, Conflict and the Shaping of Personality
Unit V: Doing Sociology: Methods and Techniques (Periods 22)
• Tools and Techniques: Observation, Survey, Interview
• The Significance of Field Work in Sociology
Understanding Society (Total Periods 110)
Unit I: Structure, Process and Stratification (Periods 22)
• Social Structure
• Social Processes: Cooperation, Competition, Conflict
• Social Stratification: Class, Caste, Race and Gender
Unit II: Social Change (Periods 22)
• Social Change: Types and Dimensions; Causes and Consequences
• Social Order: Domination, Authority and Law; Contestation, Crime and Violence
• Village, Town and City: Changes in Rural and Urban Society
Unit III: Environment and Society (Periods 18)
• Ecology and Society
• Environmental Crises and Social Responses
Unit IV: Western Social Thinkers (Periods 24)
• Karl Marx on Class Conflict
• Emile Durkheim on Division of Labour
• Max Weber on Bureaucracy
Unity V: Indian Sociologists (Periods 24)
• G.S. Ghurye on Race and Caste
• D.P. Mukerji on Tradition and Change
• A.R. Desai on the State
• M.N. Srinivas on the Village
Sociology Syllabus Classes XII (PART I)
Indian Society (Total Periods 110)
Unit I: Structure of Indian Society (Periods 24)
• Introducing Indian Society: Colonialism, Nationalism, Class and Community
• Demographic Structure
• Rural-Urban Linkages and Divisions
Unit II: Social Institutions: Continuity and Change (Periods 20)
• Family and Kinship
• The Caste System
• Tribal Society
• The Market as a Social Institution
Unit III: Social Inequality and Exclusion (Periods 26)
• Caste Prejudice, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes
• Marginalisation of Tribal Communities
• The Struggle for Women’s Equality
• The Protection of Religious Minorities
• Caring for the Differently Abled
Unit IV: The Challenges of Unity in Diversity (Periods 22)
• Problems of Communalism, Regionalism, Casteism and Patriarchy
• Role of the State in a Plural and Unequal Society
• What We Share
Unit V: Project Work (Periods 18)
Sociology Syllabus Classes XII (PART II)
Change and Development in India (Total Periods 110)
Unit I: Process of Social Change in India (Periods 22)
• Process of Structural Change: Colonialism, Industrialisation, Urbanisation
• Process of Cultural Change: Modernization, Westernisation, Sanskritisation, Secularisation
• Social Reform Movements and Laws
Unit II: Social Change and the Polity (Periods 22)
• The Constitution as an instrument of Social Change
• Parties, Pressure Groups and Democratic Politics
• Panchayati Raj and the Challenges of Social Transformation
Unit III: Social Change and the Economy (Periods 22)
• Land Reforms, the Green Revolution and Agrarian Society
• From Planned Industrialisation to Liberalisation
• Changes in the Class Structure
Unit IV: New Arenas of Social Change (Periods 20)
• Media and Social Change
• Globalisation and Social Change
Unity V: Social Movements (Periods 24)
• Class-Based Movements : Workers, Peasants
• Caste-Based Movements: Dalit Movement, Backward Castes, Trends in Upper Caste Responses
• Women’s Movements in Independent India
• Tribal Movements
• Environmental Movements