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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.

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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