Target Exam

CUET

Subject

Sociology

Chapter

Social Change and Development in India: Cultural Change

Question:

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow:

Modernity spelled not merely new ideas but also rethinking and reinterpretation of tradition. Both culture and traditions are living entities. People learn them and in turn modify them. India's structural and cultural diversity is self-evident. This diversity shapes the different ways that modernisation or westernisation, sanskritisation or secularisation effects or does not effect different groups of people. It is up to you to explore and identify the complex ways modernisation impacts people in different parts of the country or impacts different classes and castes in the same region. And even women and men from the same class or community.

What is 'westernisation'?

Options:

Structural change brought about by colonialism

Cultural change that predates colonialism

Cultural change brought about by secularisation

Cultural change brought about by colonialism

Correct Answer:

Cultural change brought about by colonialism

Explanation:

The correct answer is Option (4) → Cultural change brought about by colonialism

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, the term subsuming changes occurring at different levels…technology, institutions, ideology and values”