Social Empowerment, Communalism, Regionalism and Secularism

What the official syllabus says

UPPCS Main Examination, General Studies I.

Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.

Topics in detail

Four related ideas: how disadvantaged groups are empowered, and three forces (communalism, regionalism, secularism) that shape the unity of a plural society.

Social empowerment

• Meaning: social, economic, political and educational empowerment
• Constitutional provisions: Articles 15(4), 16(4), 17, 46, 330, 332; National Commissions for Scheduled Castes (338), Scheduled Tribes (338A) and Backward Classes (338B, added in 2018)
• Reservation: the Mandal Commission, the Indra Sawhney case (1992), the 103rd Amendment (2019) for economically weaker sections
• Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016; Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019
• Empowerment of minorities, the elderly and children; the role of education, SHGs and local government

Empowerment of tribals and minorities

• Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996
• Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006
• Cultural and educational rights of minorities (Articles 29 and 30); the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992

Communalism

• Meaning: using religious identity for political and social mobilisation against other groups
• Historical roots: colonial policy, separate electorates (1909), the Partition
• Causes today: political mobilisation, economic competition, misinformation and social media
• Effects: violence, distrust, a threat to national integration
• Remedies: the rule of law, prompt policing, value education, interfaith dialogue, the National Integration Council (1961)

Regionalism

• Meaning; positive regionalism (pride, development demands) and negative regionalism (hostility to others)
• Forms: demands for new states, sons-of-the-soil movements, inter-state disputes over water and boundaries
• New states: Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand (2000), Telangana (2014)
• Remedies: balanced regional development, cooperative federalism, the Inter-State Council (Article 263), Zonal Councils, the Sarkaria (1983) and Punchhi (2007) commissions

Secularism

• Western separation of state and religion compared with the Indian idea of equal respect for all religions
• Constitutional basis: Articles 14, 15, 25 to 28, 29 and 30; the word 'secular' added to the Preamble by the 42nd Amendment (1976)
• S. R. Bommai case (1994): secularism part of the basic structure
• Debates: the Uniform Civil Code (Article 44), state funding of religious institutions, minority rights

Overlaps

The Constitution, mechanisms for vulnerable sections and federal relations are in General Studies II.