1. Chairperson of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is: (University of Hyderabad M.A. 2011)

2. Which of the following is the procedure for the formation of a new state in India according to the Constitution (University of Hyderabad M.A. 2012)

3. Who is the author of The Argumentative Indian? (University of Hyderabad M.A. 2013)

4. Accordingly Rajni Kothari, one of the following was not a feature of the Congress system': (University of Hyderabad MA 2015)

5. Who authored, Working a Democratic Constitution; A History of the Indian Experience? (University of Hyderabad MA 2015)

6. According to the passage caste associations are parallel to (University of Hyderabad MA 2016)

7. What is not the requirement to get membership in the caste association? (University of Hyderabad MA 2016)

8. Caste association specializes in (University of Hyderabad MA 2016)

9. What are the demands of caste associations? (University of Hyderabad MA 2016)

10. What is the reason behind the shift in the aims of caste associations? (University of Hyderabad MA 2016)

11. Passage 4: Read the passages given below and answer the questions No. 85-92

When the caste association turned to the state for furthering their purposes, their initial claims were aimed at raising caste stafus in terms of the values and structure of the caste order. But as liberal and democratic ideas penetrated to wider sections of the population, the aims of the caste association began to shift accordingly. Instead of demanding temple entry and prestigious caste names and histories in the census, the associations began to press for places in the new administrative and educational institutions, and for political representation. Independence and the realization of political democracy intensified these new concerns. Caste associations attempted to have their members nominated for elective office, working through existing parties or forming their own; to maximize caste representation and influence in state cabinets and lesser governing bodies; and to use ministerial, legislative, and administrative channels to press for action on caste objectives in the welfare, educational, and economic realms. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the caste association in the contemporary era, however, is its capacity to organize the politically illiterate mass electorate, thus making possible in some measure the realization of its aspirations, and educating large sections of it in the methods and values of its aspirations, and educating large sections of it in the methods and values of political democracy.

The caste association is no longer a nafural association in the sense in which caste was and is. It is beginning to take on features of the voluntary association. Membership in caste association is not purely ascriptive; birth in the caste is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for membership. One must also 'join' the (Rajput) Kshatriya Mahasabha or the (Jat) Kisan Sabha through some conscious act involving various degrees of identification ranging from attendance at caste association meetings or voting for candidates supported by caste association leaders, to paying membership dues. The caste association has generally both a potential and an actual membership; when it speaks, it often claims to speak for the potential represented in the full caste membership. While the purpose of caste are wide-ranging and diffuse, affecting every aspect of members' life paths, the caste association has come to specialize in politics. The traditional authority and functions of the sub caste are declining, but the caste association's concern with politics and its rewards serve to sustain caste loyalty and identification. This loyalty and sense of identification tend to retain the exclusive quality of the natural association; the caste association seems to have a more complete and intense coulmand of its members' commitments than is usually the case with voluntary associations.

Since modern means of transportation and communication have had the effect of broadening caste, binding together local sub-castes which had been relatively autonomous in to geographically extended associations, caste associations today usually parallel administrative and political units - states, districts, sub-districts, and towns - whose offices and powers of legislation or decision-making are the object of the caste associations' efforts.

(Source: Rudolph und Rudolph (201.4): Expluining lndian Democracy: A Fifty Year Petspectiue, 1956 -2006 The Renlm of tlw Pubtic Splere, Identity and Policy, New Delhi: OUP, pp. 6-7)

Q. Caste association is playing the role of (University of Hyderabad MA 2016)

12. Match the following protest movements f organizations with their respective

leaders and choose the answer from the code. (University of Hyderabad MA 2016)

13. The Mahagathbandhan (Grand alliance) in the Assembly Elections held in Bihar in 2015 consisted of the following political parties: (University of Hyderabad MA 2016)

14. Economic liberalisation in lndia involved (University of Hyderabad MA 2016)

15. Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, popularly known as Nirbhaya Act deals with (University of Hyderabad MA 2016)

16. Which of the following would be the most appropriate title of this passage? (University of Hyderabad MA 2020)

17. Who, among the following, has contributed to the study of culture and politics and is known for his original ideas about how subaltern groups, especially peasants in developing countries, resist domination? (University of Hyderabad Ph.D 2019)

18. Who says, "Lokniti is the child of Rajniti"? (University of Hyderabad Ph.D 2019)

19. Passage 1: Read the passages given below and answer the questions No. 24-27

European civilization seeks to create unity by keeping differences at bay, or by destroying difference and bringing about homogeneity. On the other hand, Indian civilization docs not deny differences, but, by recognizing them and demarcating the relation of each group with all the others, tries to find a place for all in society. "That the bringing together of the diverse into one, of making the stranger into one's own, is not the same as turning everything into a homogeneous mass - do we, in this country, have to shout this truth from the rooftops?"

The arrangement by which social unity was sought, even as differences were also recognized, is the Indian caste system. In the Swadeshi period, Tagore even claimed that had the ancient makers of the siistra known of the Muslim and Christian inhabitants of the country, they would not have restricted their rules to only the Hindu castes but "would have defined the claims of all of these alien groups with the Hindu samaj in such a way that there would not have been frequent conflicts between them." In 1911-12, when he was thoroughly disillusioned by the politics of the Swadeshi movement, Tagore was still writing, in the context of the history of caste conflicts in India: "It is not in India's nature to scatter itself among the many. India seeks unity, which is why it strives to contain diversity within the bounds of unity."

Later, in his Nationalism lectures, he says much the same thing about the caste system in India, and reminds his American audience that unlike the European conquerors of the Americas, the Aryans did not try to annihilate the non-Aryan peoples of India but instead sought to include them within society while recognizing their differences. Of course, by 1917 Tagore was far more conscious and articulate than before about the rigidity, and consequent injustices, of the caste system: "...In her caste regulations, India recognized differences, but not the mutability which is the law of life. In trying to avoid collisions shc set up boundaries of immovable walls, thus giving to her numerous races the negative benefit of peace and order but not the positive opportunity of expansion and movement."

Yet Tagore insisted at the same time that "india tolerated difference of races from the first, and that spirit of toleration has acted all through her history. Her caste system is the out come of this spirit of toleration." He had no doubt"at this time that india's ideal was "neither the colour less vagueness of cosmopolitanism, nor the fierce self-idolatry of nation-worship," but social unity through recognition of the mutual differences of races and communities.

[Partha Chatterjee, "The Indian Non-Nation: Imagining with Tagore"]

Q. Indian civilization: (University of Hyderabad Ph.D 2019)

20. Passage I: Read the passages given below and answer the questions No. 24-27

The establishment and growth of liberal parliamentarism and party democracy in India can be read as the consequence of an interactive process between raj liberal refonn measures and nationalist responses to them. Successive generatio"ns of a burgeoning political class acquired a stake in parliamentary institutions and became skillful in deploying them. Among the lessons they learned was learning to lose.

There was a particular division of labor in the building of political institutions. The structures and playbook for parliamentarianism, the vehicle of policy-making and deliberation, were initially supplied by Britain as it introduced legislative councils. However, Indian nationalists supplied the party, the component of the new institutions that would make them democratic.

If Britain provided a parliamentary model and Congress supplied party structure, Nehru and Gandhi, in different ways, articulated a political culture that could sustajn parliamentary institutions. They drew on different normative traditions. Nehru, educated in English political culture, provided a model of parliamentary civility, respect for opponents, restraint on those actions of the ruling party that would unfairly damage the opposition, willingness to observe rules when they were to one's disadvantage.

Gandhi's mode of conducting the nationalist movement complemented and reinforced Nehru's commitment to parliamentary procedure. For Gandhi, these rules, however, arose as much out of the philosophy of satyagraha-respect for the humanity, values, and interests of the opponent, and adherence to non-violence- as out of the British protocols. His adherence to the view that means governed ends, and not the reverse, reinforced the restraints built into the rules of a functioning parliamentary system.

By 1947, the colonial and nationalist experience had equipped India's growing political class with knowledge of parliamentary institutions, electoral processes, and party organization. Starting with the municipal government in the 1870s and extending through the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909, the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms of 1919 and into the reforms of the Government of India Act of 1935, India's political class learned a good deal about how to operate legislative, electoral and party institutions.

The legislative experience was paralleled by the organizational experience accumulated by Congress, an experience that served it when, at independence, it had to organize itself as a political party. Much of the organization building was the work of Gandhi, whose reputation for spirituality and whose role as architect of civil disobedience tend to obscure his capacities as an organizational genius. In 1920, he transformed the Congress from an institution catering to anglicized elites to a popular organization capable of reaching into the urban lower classes and rural areas. In consequence, Congress emerged at independence with broad experience in popular participation and as a political class capable of deploying wide-reaching networks.

Nevertheless, Congress developed ideas about "loyal opposition" and learning to lose from its own internal governance experience and political rivalries, as well as in its relationship to the British colonial state. The first of the internal battles over strategy, ideology, and leadership that contributed to Congress learning to lose was the split in December of 1905 between the "extremists" and the "moderates." The moderates led by Gokhale prevailed, and Tilak and the "extremists" were expelled. When Gandhi assumed leadership of the Congress in 1920, part of his appeal was his ability to combine the moderates' non-violent means for self-rule with the direct action of the extremists. The various resolutions of the Surat split between the moderates and extremists helped Congress learn to lose by normalizing the practice of dissent and opposition.

Another split occurred in 1922 over the issue of "Council entry," resulting in the formation of the Swaraj Party. When Muslim-Hindu differences erupted in the mid-1920s, the Swaraj Party split (in i 926), with some members joining the Hindu Mahasabha and some rejoining the Congress. Again, as in 1907, the idea and practice of dissent and opposition had been normalized.

Less visible to the public gaze but important for developing a political culture within the Congress that recognized learning to lose were momentous struggles between its pre-eminent leaders, Gandhi and Nehru. The first of these struggles took place in 1927-9 over whether Congress should continue, as Gandhi believed it should,: with the political objective of Dominion Status or, as Nehru advocated, change its objective to puma swaraj, complete independence. The struggle was intense, involving competition for the loyalty of the younger generation. It took place behind the scenes during Congress' annual sessions in December 1927, 1928, and 1929. Gandhi "lost," but in a prudent gesture of conciliation, himself offered the resolution for puma swaraj at the annual session in 1929. The pre-eminent leader of the Congress enacted a visible and exemplary instance of losing to his rival.

This experience and others like it fostered an expectation that dissent and opposition need not be subversive, destabilizing, or destructive. Congress' experience with internal struggles normalized the idea of regulated conflict. Congress' political culture made it possible to rule and be ruled in tum. Losers could acquiesce in their loss because they could expect to become winners.

(Adapted from: "Congress learns to lose: From a one-party dominant to a multiparty system in India", Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and Lloyd L Rudolph, Political Transitions in Dominant Party Systems: Learning to Lose, Edward Friedman and Joseph Wong (eds) New York: Routledge. 15-

41.)

Q. According to the authors of this article, 'learning to lose' contributed to: (University of Hyderabad Ph.D 2020)

21. Match the key ideas/ areas with the scholars of Indian Politics (University of Hyderabad Ph.D 2021)

22. Which of the following best captures the term, 'securalisation of caste'? (University of Hyderabad Ph.D 2021)

23. The party asked the BJP-Ied central government not to bring the three farm bills in Parliament until "all reservations" expressed by farmers were "duly addressed". When the Centre did not pay heed, the party suggested that the bills be sent to a select committee. This too was not accepted. Thereafter, the minister from the party resigned from the Union Cabinet in protest against the bills in 2020. Which is the party being referred to in this paragraph? (University of Hyderabad Ph.D 2022)

24. Match the following concepts with the scholars they are best associated with (University of Hyderabad Ph.D 2022)

25. Indeed, political parties in rural West Bengal largely transcended caste, religion or ethnicity based organisations, which have a greater salience in struggles for social justice in other parts of the country. Consequently, here all types of disputes (familial, social or cultural) took little time to assume partisan forms. This was poss 'ble due to the popular acceptance of political parties as moral guardians not only in the public life of the society but also in the private lives ofthe families ...Conditions such as these have produced in rural West Bengal a specific form of sociability of "party-society". Party-society, therefore, is the specific form of political society in West Bengal's countryside. With which of the following scholars is the concept of "Party Society" best associated with? (University of Hyderabad Ph.D 2022)

26. The concept of ' crisis of governability' is associated with (University of Hyderabad Ph.D 2023)

27. The Buddha argued against the caste system in which of the following Sutta? (University of Hyderabad Ph.D. 2023)

28. Rudolph and Rudolph attribute the success of Indian democracy to (University of Hyderabad M.Phil 2020)

29. "In the terrible history of famines in the world, no substantial famine has ever occurred in any independent and democratic country with a relatively free press". With which of the following scholars would you associate this statement? (University of Hyderabad M.Phil 2020)

30. Who among the following is associated with the concept of State-Nation? (University of Hyderabad M.Phil 2020)

31. Match the authors from List x with the titles of their works in List y given below: (University of Hyderabad M.Phil 2020)

32. Who said "Caste is immobile class and Class is immobile caste"? (University of Hyderabad M.Phil. 2020)

33. Farmers often need support to identify (University of Hyderabad M.Phil 2020)

34. Match column I with column II by selecting the most appropriate code below:  (University of Hyderabad M.Phil 2019)

35. Which one of the following methodological approaches informed the work of Pranab Bardhan? (University of Hyderabad M.Phil 2019)

36. The percentage of operated land owned by small farmer is (University of Hyderabad MA 2017)

37. Which of the following states has been exempted from the implementation of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989? (University of Hyderabad MA 2018)

38. Which of the following departments is under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India? (University of Hyderabad MA 2018)

39. Which of the following organizations is associated with the protest against the release of the Indian film 'Padmavathi'? (University of Hyderabad MA 2018)

40. In which of the following states, Indian National Congress was the leading party after the last assembly elections, but could not form a government? (University of Hyderabad MA 2018)

41. 'Civil Society' is best described as (University of Hyderabad MA 2018)

42. The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in (University of Hyderabad MA 2018)

43. In which of the following landmark cases did the Supreme Court uphold  reservation for backward classes in govemment jobs, fix 50% limit for  reservation, put forward the concept of creamy layer and strike down the demand for reservation for financially poor sections among the forward castes? (University of Hyderabad MA 2019)

44. Consider the following statements on Indian secularism: (University of Hyderabad MA 2019)

i. It accords respect to all religions and treat them equally in the public sphere

ii. It does not prevent the state from addressing retrograde religious practices

Which of the above statements best represent Indian secularism?

45. Passage 1.  Read the passage and answer the questions No. 71-76

Three decades of politically guided economic development have failed to alleviate rural poverty  in India. This stark fact raises issues which go beyond the o ften discussed one of suitable  development policies. The more fundamental question concerns the political conditions under  which appropriate strategies, aimed at reconciling "growth with distribution," are likely to be  pursued effectively. Given the basic constraints of a democratic polity and a largely capitalist  economy in India, what type of regimes can facilitate economic gains by (he lower classes? This  article suggests an answer to his question by comparatively analyzing some recent and varying  reform experiences in India. As a large federal polity, where states are often ruled by political  parties other than that controlling the center, India provides a considerable variety of  developmental "models" within one country. Especially between 1977 and 1980, when India was  governed by a highly fragmented Janata party, the State governments exercised considerable  autonomy. Since, by the Indian constitution, the agrarian sector is under the jurisdiction of the  stares, this autonomy was especially significant in rural policies. Communist-ruled West Bengal,  Congress-ruled Karnataka, and Janata-ruled Uttar Pradesh, as three of India's more important  states, thus provide interesting comparisons of the significance of regime variations for rural  reform, allowing us to examine how different patterns of political rule, in similar social structural  conditions, affect redistribution policies.

I argue here that, within the general constraints of the democratic-capitalist model of India's  development, certain patterns of leadership, ideology, and organization lend to facilitate  distribution, while others do not. A well-organized, left-of-center regime, such as that of the  communists in West Bengal, could politically penetrate the rural society without being coopted, by the pro pertied groups, enabling the leadership 10 implement a number of redistributive  programs. By contrast, a factionalized government dominated by commercial peasant interests in  Uttar Pradesh had little success in its efforts to alleviate rural poverty. The case of Karnataka lies  in between: here, a government dominated by a populist leader was able to push through limited  reforms. These three cases, then, not only highlight the significance of regime-type in alleviating  rural poverty, but also allow the delineation of the specific regime features underlying success or  failure in redistributive programs.'

(Source: Atul Kohli (1983): "Regime types and poverty reform in India," Pacific Affairs, 56(4),  pp.649-50)

Which of the following. according to the author, accountS for differential redistribution  policies in Karnataka, UP and West Bengal?  (University of Hyderabad MA 2021)

46. The Sixth Schedule which deals with the administration of tribal areas is applicable to  (University of Hyderabad MA 2021)

47. Match the following political leaders with the political party they are associated with  (University of Hyderabad MA 2021)

48. Which of the following is True about state reorganization bill in India? (University of Hyderabad MA 2021)

49. Which of the following is true about the idea of dharmanirpeksheta?  (University of Hyderabad MA 2021)