Like the Britishers in the movie, Indians also believed that they wer…

Please read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

A popular Bollywood movie 'Lagan' portrays India before Independence. Indians were ruled by the Britishers for many years. They were denied basic rights. The common and the lower strata of the society were not provided the privilege of education as the Britishers felt that 'Indians are not good enough'. They deliberately gave Indians less qualified jobs and kept highly qualified jobs for themselves.

Like the Britishers in the movie, Indians also believed that they were useless and continued to take up jobs that were below their potential. This on the part of Indians is an example of:-

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 4

The correct answer is Option (4) → Self fulfilling prophecy

Option (1) Scapegoating — Incorrect. In scapegoating the majority places the blame on a weak minority for its own social, economic or political problems. Here the Indians are not blaming anyone; they are acting on what was said about them.

Option (2) Social Identity — Incorrect. Social identity refers to those aspects of a person that link her/him to a social or cultural group; a strong social identity with a very positive attitude to one’s own group can lead to negative attitudes towards other groups. Believing oneself useless is the opposite of a proud group identity.

Option (3) Kernel of Truth — Incorrect. This is why people who hold a stereotype keep it: they think there must be some truth in what everyone says about the other group. It describes the British holding on to their idea, not the Indians living up to it.

Option (4) Self fulfilling prophecy — Correct. Sometimes the group that is the target of prejudice is itself responsible for continuing it: it behaves in ways that confirm the negative expectations. The British held that Indians were ‘not good enough’; when Indians came to believe they were useless and kept taking jobs below their potential, they acted in a way that made the British description look true, and so strengthened the prejudice.

NCERT (2025-26): “Prejudice and Discrimination … Social psychologists have shown that prejudice has one or more of the following sources :…

…A strong social identity and ingroup bias : Individuals who have a strong sense of social identity and have a very positive attitude towards their own group boost this attitude by holding negative attitudes towards other groups. These are shown as prejudices.
Scapegoating : This is a phenomenon by which the majority group places the blame on a minority outgroup for its own social, economic or political problems. The minority is too weak or too small in number to defend itself against such accusations. Scapegoating is a group-based way of expressing frustration, and it often results in negative attitudes or prejudice against the weaker group.
Kernel of truth concept : Sometimes people may continue to hold stereotypes because they think that, after all, there must be some truth, or ‘kernel of truth’ in what everyone says about the other group. Even a few examples are sufficient to support the ‘kernel of truth’ idea.
Self-fulfilling prophecy : In some cases, the group that is the target of prejudice is itself responsible for continuing the prejudice. The target group may behave in ways that justify the prejudice, that is, confirm the negative expectations. For example, if the target group is described as ‘dependent’ and therefore unable to make progress, the members of this target group may actually behave in a way that proves this description to be true. In this way, they strengthen the existing prejudice.”