Read the passage and answer the questions that follow:
Modernity spelled not merely new ideas but also rethinking and reinterpretation of tradition. Both culture and traditions are living entities. People learn them and in turn modify them. India's structural and cultural diversity is self-evident. This diversity shapes the different ways that modernisation or westernisation, sanskritisation or secularisation effects or does not effect different groups of people. It is up to you to explore and identify the complex ways modernisation impacts people in different parts of the country or impacts different classes and castes in the same region. And even women and men from the same class or community.
Which among these is NOT a characteristic of modernisation?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Instead of individual, it is the group that becomes the primary unit of change.
Option (1) People influenced not by local but global contexts. — A characteristic of modernisation (Incorrect). Modernity means that local ties and parochial perspectives give way to universal commitments and cosmopolitan attitudes. In other words, people are influenced not just by local but by universal contexts.
Option (2) Instead of individual, it is the group that becomes the primary unit of change. — Not a characteristic of modernisation (Correct). Modernity holds the very opposite: the individual rather than the group becomes the primary unit of society and politics. How a person behaves and thinks is no longer decided by the family, tribe, caste or community. The option turns this round, so it does not describe modernisation.
Option (3) Association in which men live and work is based on choice and not birth. — A characteristic of modernisation (Incorrect). In modern society the associations in which people live and work are based on choice, not birth. The job a person does is decided by what she or he wishes to do, not by the parent’s occupation.
Option (4) Utility, calculation and science takes precedence over emotions and irrationality. — A characteristic of modernisation (Incorrect). In modernity the truths of utility, calculation and science take precedence over those of the emotions, the sacred and the non-rational. A scientific attitude gains ground.
NCERT (2025-26): “Modernisation and Secularisation … assumes that local ties and parochial perspectives give way to universal commitments and cosmopolitan attitudes; that the truths of utility, calculation, and science take precedence over those of the emotions, the sacred, and the non-rational; that the individual rather than the group be the primary unit of society and politics; that the associations in which men live and work be based on choice not birth; that mastery rather than fatalism orient their attitude toward the material and human environment; that identity be chosen and achieved, not ascribed and affirmed; that work be separated from family, residence, and community in bureaucratic organisation….(Rudolph and Rudolph, 1967)…” “In other words it means that people are influenced not just by local but universal contexts. How you behave, what you think is no longer decided by your family or tribe or caste or community. What job you wish to do is decided not by the job your parent does, but by what you wish to do. Work gets based on choice, not birth. On whom you are depend on what you achieve, not by who you are. A scientific attitude gains ground.” |