A popular television serial shows every character from one fictional hill community as brave and born for the army, while characters from a neighbouring plains community appear as clever traders who cannot be trusted. In a history class, Ms. Farida asks her students to find out where labels of this kind about whole communities came from. When a student mentions that his neighbour from the plains community is honest at work but careless about money at home, Ms. Farida asks the class what the serial fails to see in such people.
In a country such as India, many labels of the kind shown in the serial are partly:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Colonial creations
Option (1) Creations of the modern mass media — Incorrect. The serial in the passage is modern media, but it only repeats an old label. These stereotypes go back to the long period of colonial rule, long before television.
Option (2) Products of the social reform movements — Incorrect. Social reform movements fought social evils such as caste discrimination and practices that hurt women. They worked against unfair treatment and did not create labels about whole communities.
Option (3) Products of the linguistic reorganisation of states — Incorrect. The linguistic reorganisation of states redrew state borders on the basis of language after independence. It has no link with labels such as brave, cowardly or untrustworthy.
Option (4) Colonial creations — Correct. India was colonised for a long time, and many stereotypes are partly colonial creations. Colonial rulers called some communities martial races, others cowardly, others untrustworthy. The hill community shown as born for the army echoes that martial race label.
NCERT (2026-27): “Social Inequality … |