Sanskritization and urbanization are respectively the processes of:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Cultural and structural change
Option (1) Social and Cultural change — Incorrect. Sanskritisation is a cultural change, but the second half is wrong. Urbanisation changed where and how people live and work, a change in social structure; calling it ‘social’ change does not separate it from the first, since every change in society is social.
Option (2) Cultural and structural change — Correct. Sanskritisation, the process by which a caste raises its status by adopting the ritual, domestic and social practices of higher castes, is one of the four processes of change in cultural practices, with modernisation, secularisation and westernisation. Urbanisation is a structural change: cities replaced villages as places to live for many, so living and working arrangements, or structures, changed. Social structure is the continuing arrangement of persons in relationships, while culture is the socially established norms and patterns of behaviour.
Option (3) Structural and Cultural change — Incorrect. The two kinds are right but in the reverse order. The question asks ‘respectively’: sanskritisation changes customs and practices (culture), and urbanisation changes the arrangement of living and working (structure).
Option (4) Social and Non-Social change — Incorrect. Both processes change the life of people in society, so neither is ‘non-social’.
NCERT (2025-26): “…Industrialisation and urbanisation transformed the lives of people. Factories replaced fields as places of work for some. Cities replaced villages as places to live for many. Living and working arrangements or structures changed. Changes also took place in culture, ways of life, norms, values, fashions and even body language. Sociologists understand social structure as a ‘continuing arrangement of persons in relationships defined or controlled by institutions’ and ‘culture’ as ‘socially established norms or patterns of behaviour’. You have already studied about the structural changes that colonialism brought about in Chapter 1. You will observe how important those structural changes are for understanding the cultural changes that this chapter seeks to understand. This chapter looks at two related developments, both a complex product of the impact of colonial rule. The first deals with the deliberate and conscious efforts made by the 19th century social reformers and early 20th century nationalists to bring in changes in social practices that discriminated against women and ‘lower’ castes. The second with the less deliberate yet decisive changes in cultural practices that can broadly be understood as the four processes of sanskritisation, modernisation, secularisation and westernisation.…” |