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UPSC 2022 GS-I · 15 marks · 250 words

Analyse the salience of 'sect' in Indian society vis-a-vis caste, region and religion.

भारतीय समाज में जाति, क्षेत्र तथा धर्म के समानांतर ‘पंथ’ की विशेषता की विवेचना कीजिये।

What “Analyse” demands

break the issue into its constituent parts and show the relationships and causation between them.

The characteristic failure: narration in sequence rather than decomposition into causes and effects.

What a top answer must contain

These are the checkable specifics from the marking standard for this question — the actual case, committee, datum or thinker, not an instruction to “give examples”.

  • Sect as voluntary formation (sampradaya, panth) against ascriptive caste — the analytical contrast to open with
  • Cross-cutting: Bhakti panths, Lingayats, Radhasoami recruit across castes yet re-caste over time (Lingayat separate-religion demand)
  • Region and religion: Warkari-Maharashtra, Akali-Punjab as regional identities; Barelvi-Deobandi as intra-religious sectarianism
  • Theory: Weber's church-sect typology; Srinivas — sect as both solvent and rebuilder of hierarchy

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