ICAR AIEEA-PG Rural Society, Polity & Institutions: practice questions

1 · Social, political and economic structure of rural societies · medium

In a village survey, 120 of 200 operational holdings are marginal, 50 are small, 20 semi-medium and 10 medium. What share of holdings are small and marginal together?

1. 95%
2. 25%
3. 85%
4. 60%

2 · Social, political and economic structure of rural societies · medium

Daniel Thorner's classification of agrarian groups into malik, kisan and mazdoor is based mainly on:

1. The ritual rank of each caste in the varna order and its rules on commensality and marriage
2. The crops grown, separating food-grain, commercial-crop and plantation households
3. The size of operational holding in hectares, using the five official size classes from marginal to large
4. The source of income: property rights, own cultivation with family labour, or wage work for others

3 · Rural and urban communities compared · medium

Which of these is NOT one of Sorokin and Zimmerman's eight differentiating characteristics of rural and urban communities?

1. Density of population
2. Occupation
3. Literacy rate
4. System of interaction

4 · Social stratification: class, caste, ethnicity and status · medium

The jajmani system described by William Wiser (1936) is best characterised as:

1. A system of land tenure in which tenants paid a fixed cash rent to a revenue-collecting landlord
2. A village council of caste elders that settled disputes about marriage, inheritance and breaches of caste rules
3. Hereditary patron-client ties in which service castes served landowning households for payment in kind
4. A cooperative credit arrangement in which castes pooled savings for lending at harvest time

5 · Rural leadership · medium

The method of identifying leaders in which each member of a group is asked whom they consult or would choose, and the choices are mapped in a sociogram, is the:

1. Self-designation method
2. Reputational method
3. Positional method
4. Sociometric method

6 · Local self-government institutions in rural areas · easy

A constitution lists subjects, such as minor irrigation and animal husbandry, that higher governments may devolve to rural local bodies. Which factor most determines whether that list produces real devolution?

1. Whether the list is longer than twenty subjects in total
2. Whether the list sits in a schedule or in the main text
3. Whether the subjects are named in the national language
4. Whether funds and staff for those subjects are transferred too

7 · Local self-government institutions in rural areas · medium

In Bangladesh, the lowest elected tier of rural local government is the:

1. Union Parishad
2. Barangay
3. County government
4. Zila parishad

8 · Rural leadership · easy

A respected elder whom farmers consult about crop choices, though he holds no office, is an example of:

1. A rational-legal authority
2. A formal leader
3. An informal leader
4. A positional leader

9 · Value systems and customs · easy

Customs that are everyday conventions, whose breach brings only mild disapproval, such as ways of greeting or dressing, are called:

1. Taboos
2. Mores
3. State laws
4. Folkways

10 · Local self-government institutions in rural areas · easy

A village assembly of all registered voters that approves plans and reviews the local council's spending, such as the gram sabha in South Asia or the town meeting in parts of New England, is an example of:

1. Deconcentration of central ministries to field offices
2. Delegation of defined tasks to semi-autonomous agencies
3. Direct democracy within representative local government
4. Privatisation of local services to community firms