How to study Indian Society & Social Justice for UPSC Mains Exam

Social Justice & Indian Society are included in the General Studies-I paper in UPSC Mains Exam. However, multiple-choice questions from the welfare schemes are also asked in the UPSC Civil Services Prelims exam. Hence, this topic must be prepared effectively for ensuring a good score in both Prelims as well as Mains.

The static part of the syllabus of this topic can be effectively covered from NCERT textbooks of Sociology. For the dynamic portion, it is important to read the current affairs regularly. In this article, we have listed the syllabus, preparation strategy, and booklist to cover the social justice & Indian society UPSC syllabus.

Social Justice & Indian Society UPSC Syllabus

Social Justice and Indian Society are a part of the General Studies-I paper in UPSC Mains. The broad topics covered in this subject are tabulated below:

Social Justice & Indian Society UPSC Syllabus Table

Preparation Strategy For Social Justice & Indian Society For UPSC Mains

Let's look at a simple and effective preparation strategy for preparing social justice & the Indian Society for UPSC Mains Exam:

• Read the NCERTs: The NCERTs of Sociology subject of Class XI and XII are a must-read for conceptual understanding of this topic. Read it at least twice to have a strong foundation. It will introduce you to the topics that are a part of this syllabus. For Prelims, NCERTs along with welfare schemes (current affairs) are sufficient.
• Strengthen your foundation: For Mains, you may feel the need to read a couple of standard books to write effective answers. However, make sure you read syllabus-relevant material only.
• Current Affairs Notes: Since welfare schemes are a major portion of this topic, dependency on current affairs is immense! Make sure you read about the welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of society extremely carefully. You must prepare your own notes for this purpose. Write about the history of this scheme, need and present developments. Make sure you keep updating your notes till the Mains Exam with any update on these schemes.
• Revise Optimally: Since remembering too many schemes can get overwhelming towards the last few days, it is wise to keep revising your notes to maximize concept retention.
• Previous Year Questions & Answer Writing: Practice answer-writing for the predicted questions as well as previous year questions. Writing answers to the previous year’s questions will help you in identifying what kind of questions are asked from this topic. Thus, it will help you in better preparing the draft answers for predicted questions.

Booklist for Social Justice & Indian Society UPSC Preparation

The resources that you must follow to cover social justice and the Indian Society UPSC syllabus include:

• NCERT Class 11 – Introducing Sociology
• NCERT Class 11 – Understanding Society
• NCERT Class 12 – Indian Society
• NCERT Class 12 – Social Change & Development in India
• Social Problems in India by Ram Ahuja
• The Hindu or The Indian Express

Since there is no one single book for this topic, it is important to ensure you read only the syllabus-specific material. For this, you can download the micro topics for the syllabus.

This paper does not require special attention for students who have studied English as a medium of instruction. However, the candidates who face problems in writing or understanding English may need to give a special focus for preparing this paper. We hope that following the strategy mentioned above, you can comfortably tackle the questions in this paper.

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