Read the passage given below and answer the questions based on it:
Historically, states have tried to establish and enhance their political legitimacy through nation-building strategies. They sought to secure... the loyalty and obedience of their citizens through policies of assimilation or integration. Attaining these objectives was not easy, especially in a context of cultural diversity where citizens, in addition to their identifications with their country, might also feel a strong sense of identity with their community ethnic, religious, linguistic, and so on. Most states feared that the recognition of such difference would lead to social fragmentation and prevent the creation of a harmonious society. In short, such identity politics was considered a threat to the state unity. In addition, accommodating these differences is politically challenging, so many states have resorted to either suppressing these diverse identities or ignoring them on the political domain. Policies of assimilation - often involving outright suppression of the identities of ethnic, religious or linguistic groups - try to erode the cultural differences between groups. Policies of integration seek to assert a single national identity by attempting to eliminate ethno-national and cultural differences from the public and political arena, while allowing them in the private domain. Both sets of policies assume a singular national identity.
Out of the following, which policy insists that the public culture be restricted to a common national pattern while all 'non-national' cultures are to be practised within the private sphere?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Integrationist Policy
Option (1) Isolationist Policy — Incorrect. Isolation was one side of the isolation versus integration debate of the 1940s about tribes. The isolationist side argued that tribals needed protection from traders, moneylenders and Hindu and Christian missionaries, so they were to be kept apart from the rest of society. Keeping a group apart is the opposite of asking it to follow a common national pattern in public life.
Option (2) Assimilationist Policy — Incorrect. Assimilationist policies persuade, encourage or force all citizens to adopt a uniform set of cultural values and norms, usually those of the dominant group; other groups are expected to give up their own culture altogether. They do not leave non-national cultures a private sphere, which is the point of the question.
Option (3) Integrationist Policy — Correct. Integrationist policies insist that the public culture be restricted to a common national pattern, while all ‘non-national’ cultures are to be relegated to the private sphere. A community may keep its own language or customs at home, but public life follows one national pattern. Here too the dominant group’s culture may come to be treated as the ‘national’ culture.
Option (4) Nationalist Policy — Incorrect. Nationalism is the feeling of belonging to one’s nation, and every nation-building strategy draws on it. ‘Nationalist’ therefore does not name one particular policy towards community identities; the passage names two, assimilation and integration, and it is integration that keeps the ‘non-national’ cultures to the private sphere.
Note: The lines on the isolation versus integration debate of the 1940s, in the section ‘Mainstream Attitudes towards Tribes’ of the chapter ‘Social Institutions: Continuity and Change’, were there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. This portion has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter and its account of tribal societies are still there.
NCERT (2025-26): “…Policies that promote assimilation are aimed at persuading, encouraging or forcing all citizens to adopt a uniform set of cultural values and norms. These values and norms are usually entirely or largely those of the dominant social group. Other, non-dominant or subordinated groups in society are expected or required to give up their own cultural values and adopt the prescribed ones. Policies promoting integration are different in style but not in overall objective: they insist that the public culture be restricted to a common national pattern, while all ‘non-national’ cultures are to be relegated to the private sphere. In this case too, there is the danger of the dominant group’s culture being treated as ‘national’ culture.…” NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “Mainstream Attitudes Towards Tribes … The famous isolation versus integration debate of the 1940s built upon this standard picture of tribal societies as isolated wholes. The isolationist side argued that tribals needed protection from traders, moneylenders and Hindu and Christian missionaries, all of whom were intent on reducing tribals to detribalised landless labour. The integrationists, on the other hand, argued that tribals were merely backward Hindus, and their problems had to be addressed within the same framework as that of other backward classes.…” |