Chapter – 6

The Challenges of Cultural Diversity

In this post we have given the detailed notes of class 12 Sociology Chapter 6 (The Challenges of Cultural Diversity) in English. These notes are useful for the students who are going to appear in class 12 board exams.

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Cultural Diversity

• Cultural diversity refers to the existence of different sections of society whose lifestyle, language, customs, religious beliefs, etc. are different from each other.
• Due to these differences, the way of life, life goals and challenges present in life are different from each other, due to which it becomes a challenge to create harmony among all these classes and groups.

Community Identity

• A community is formed from a group of people who are interconnected by a particular religion, language, region, and ideology.
• With birth, a person acquires a special identity which is associated with the community in which the child is born.

Characteristics of Community Identity

• Community identity is associated with an individual from the time of his birth.
• It is based on its own.
• It is not achieved based on any achievement.
• The likes or dislikes of the person are not included in this.

Importance of Community Identity

• Community identity is of utmost importance in a person’s life as it has been associated with him since childhood, and it gives him an identity in society.
• An individual is rigidly attached to his community identity.

Nation

• A nation is a special kind of community that can be described but difficult to define.
• In the present world, many nations exist with different characteristics, they can be described according to their different characteristics, but it is a very difficult task to construct a definition of a nation with some characteristics.

For example

• There are many nations in the world which are based on one religion, language, same history, etc., but there are many paths in the world that do not have a common language, religion, or history.
• There are many nations where a language is mainly spoken but those nations cannot be identified based on language.

Regionalism

A situation in which a person starts loving his area and hating other areas is called regionalism, due to this situation the person starts considering people from other areas as foreigners in his area.

India and Regionalism

• Due to the high cultural diversity in India, the influence of regionalism is high. India regionalism is found due to diversity in language, culture, and religion etc.
• This regionalism is a big challenge for the Indian system because motivating people with so many different desires and beliefs to live together is not an easy task.
• India’s federal structure reduces the problem of regionalism to some extent, under which the state governments at the regional level ensure the development of the region and the central government works to bind all these areas together.

Minority Communities and Reservations

Minority Community

• The communities of the society whose number is less based on religion or caste are called minority communities.
• For example
• Muslims, Jains, Parsis etc.

Reservation

• Providing a special share in the resources of society to the deprived sections of society is called reservation.

Minority Communities and Reservations

• Reservation for the minority sections present in society is a very necessary system.
• Due to low numbers, minority communities cannot serve their interests politically, hence it is very important to protect the interests of minority communities through reservation and special provisions.

India and Minority Communities

• The development of the minority community is one of the most important aspects of social development, that is why special provisions were made by the Indian Constitution for the minorities present in India.

Article 29

• Article 29 of the Indian Constitution makes the following special provisions for minority communities.
• Minority communities can make efforts to maintain their language, script, and culture.
• No citizen can be deprived of any educational institution run by the state based on caste, religion, and language.

Article 30

• Article 30 of the Indian Constitution makes the following special provisions for minority communities.
• The minority has the right to establish educational institutions based on their religion or language.
• In the event of granting aid to educational institutions, the State cannot discriminate on the grounds that the institution is run by a minority.

Communalism

• Communalism is a religion-based ideology in which one considers one’s community superior and considers other communities as inferior or hostile.
• It is an aggressive way of propagating a particular religion, in which it tries to make a particular religion dominant while other religions are weak.
• People with communal thinking believe that only members of one religion can form a community, members of different religions cannot form a community together.

Communalism in India

• Communalism in India is a concern that India has faced communal riots several times in its history.
• The anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and the anti-Muslim riots of 2002 are good examples of this.

Secularism

• According to this ideology, the state will not give special importance to religion and all religions will be given equal rights.
• This ideology is the product of Western thinkers, and its influence has increased rapidly in India over time, in 1976, the word secular was included in the preamble of the Indian Constitution.

Authoritarian state

• Unlike democracy, an authoritarian state is a system in which the person in power runs the system according to his own by answering the people, in which all decisions are taken according to the wishes of the leader, ignoring the demands of the people.

Characteristics of the Authoritarian State

• In this type of state, the freedom of the press is curtailed.
• Civil liberties are limited.
• Freedom of expression is curtailed.
• The influence of the government on all political organizations increases.
• The leader in power acts according to his wishes rather than the people.

Authoritarian conditions in India

• The Emergency imposed in India on June 25, 1975, and the circumstance during that time is a good example of the authoritarian system.
  • On June 25, 1975, emergency was declared in India by Indira Gandhi’s government.
  • The censorship system was implemented on almost all means of mass communication.
  • People were forcibly sterilised all over the country.
  • The election was postponed by changing the constitution.
  • The liberty rights of citizens were taken away.
• At the global level, the Chinese system is a good example of an authoritarian system.

Civil Society

• The field beyond the private sector of an individual where I discuss society and issues related to it is called civil society.
• This is the area where a person comes and discusses the issues related to society and considers the rules and laws to keep the social order normal.

Some of the main topics raised by civil society.

• Human Rights
• Cultural loss due to construction of dams
• Health understanding due to slums
• Education reforms
• Rules for the development of Dalits
• Improving the social status of women
• Solving the problem of pollution
• Protection of environment etc.
• Right to Information.

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