Arrange the following books in order of its publication years. A. Dip…

The correct answer is Option (2) → C, B, A, D

Note: The given answer is as per the official NTA Answer Key. However, the question can have more than one correct answer, i.e. both Option (2) and Option (3), because NCERT gives two different years for book B, as explained below.

(C) Alice Thorner’s Semi feudalism or Capitalism — 1982.

(B) M. N. Srinivas’s The Dominant Caste and Other Essays — 1987, in the references of the chapter ‘Change and Development in Rural Society’.

(A) Dipankar Gupta’s Social Stratification — 1991 (Daniel Thorner’s essay of 1991 appeared in Dipankar Gupta (Ed.), Social Stratification).

(D) Ruten Mario’s Farms and Factories — 1995.

All four books come from the same reference list, at the end of ‘Change and Development in Rural Society’, and in that list the order is C, B, A, D, which is Option (2). But the reference list of the chapter ‘Social Institutions: Continuity and Change’ dates the same book of M. N. Srinivas to 1994. With 1994 for B, the order becomes C (1982), A (1991), B (1994), D (1995), which is Option (3).

Tip for students: When a year can be read in two ways, go with the one list that carries all the items of the question — here the references of the rural society chapter, which hold all four books.