Read the statements given below and choose the option with the correc…

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

Note: The given answer is as per the official NTA Answer Key. However, there is nothing in the NCERT book that fixes the chronological sequence of these four processes. The book says only that Sanskritisation pre-dates the coming of colonial rule, which places it first; the order given below to industrialisation, westernisation and secularisation is reasoning, not a statement of the book, as explained below.

(D) Sanskritisation — first. Sanskritisation pre-dates the coming of colonial rule; the other processes are responses of the people of India to the changes that colonialism brought. Option (2) is the only option that begins with Sanskritisation.

(A) Industrialisation — second. Industrialisation is the emergence of machine production, based on inanimate power such as steam or electricity. Britain was the first society to undergo it, and its impact reached India through colonial rule.

(C) Westernisation — third. M.N. Srinivas defines westernisation as the changes brought about in Indian society and culture as a result of over 150 years of British rule, in technology, institutions, ideology and values.

(B) Secularisation — last. In the modern west secularisation has meant a decline in the influence of religion, and theorists of modernisation assume that modern societies become increasingly secular; it belongs to the most modern phase.