(a) Explain Historical Materialism and discuss its relevance in the context of social development and change. (20 marks) (b)…

(a) Historical materialism and its relevance to social change

Marx and Engels hold that the way people produce their material life conditions their social, political and intellectual life (Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859). The mode of production consists of the forces of production (labour, tools, technology) and the relations of production (property relations). This economic base shapes the superstructure of law, state, religion and ideology, which in turn reflects and defends the interests of the ruling class. Change arises from contradiction: as productive forces develop they outgrow existing relations, and class struggle, "the history of all hitherto existing society" (Communist Manifesto), resolves it in a revolution. The stages are primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism and socialism, with the dialectic as method (Engels, Anti-Dühring). Relevance. It explains how technology and property reshape society: the Green Revolution deepened rural class differences between rich farmers and landless labour; the industrial and platform economy has produced a gig workforce with weak bargaining power; land reforms and the abolition of zamindari changed agrarian relations, and the debate on labour codes is a conflict over relations of production. Criticism. Economic determinism undervalues culture, caste, religion and political action as independent causes (Weber; Ambedkar on caste as not reducible to class); Gramsci's hegemony gives the superstructure autonomy; the predicted revolutions in advanced capitalism did not come and welfare states softened class conflict; and the stage-scheme fits India's history poorly. It remains valuable as a method for tracing material interests behind social change, if not as a law.

(b) Ambedkar's annihilation of caste: social and political significance

In Annihilation of Caste (1936), the undelivered address for the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal, Ambedkar argues that caste is not a division of labour but a division of labourers, a graded hierarchy of "ascending scale of reverence and descending scale of contempt", which blocks collective action. It is rooted in the sanction of the shastras, so reform of customs such as inter-dining is not enough; the religious authority of the shastras must be destroyed, and inter-marriage, which dissolves the sense of separate kin, is the real remedy. The aim is a society based on liberty, equality and fraternity. Social significance: it shifts the target from untouchability alone to the system of graded inequality, gives the depressed classes dignity and identity, and informed the Mahad Satyagraha (1927), temple-entry efforts and conversion to Buddhism in 1956. Political significance: it shaped the Poona Pact (1932) and the Constitution, with Articles 14–17 (abolition of untouchability), 15(2), 16(4), 46, reserved seats under 330 and 332, the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, and the mobilisation of Dalit politics. Critique. Caste persists in marriage, occupations, violence and private-sector discrimination; intra-Dalit divisions and the creamy layer debate arise; reservation reforms status within caste and does not annihilate it; critics from Gandhi's side held that reforming Hinduism was possible, and Marxists that class had to be added to caste. The annihilation remains an unfinished social and political programme.

(c) Gender discrimination, female foeticide and social imbalance

Son preference is rooted in patriliny, patrilocal marriage, inheritance and ritual roles, while daughters are seen as a cost because of dowry and as "belonging to another house". This discrimination in the value of lives shows up first in neglect of girls and then in sex-selective abortion once ultrasound became cheap and available. The law prohibits it: the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994, bans sex determination and advertising, but enforcement is weak, with few convictions; it is practised more in wealthier and landed groups and in the north-west, not only among the poor. Declining fertility with a small family size and a persistent son preference makes the selection sharper. Evidence: the child sex ratio (0–6 years) was 919 in Census 2011, against 927 in 2001, with Haryana at 834 and Punjab at 846; NFHS-5 (2019–21) gave a sex ratio at birth of 929, a better figure that still shows an imbalance. Social imbalance: a marriage squeeze, with bride purchase and trafficking (paro brides in Haryana and Punjab), polyandry-like arrangements, more violence against women, restrictions on girls' mobility in the name of protection, and wasted potential in the workforce. Remedies: strict enforcement of the PCPNDT Act, equal inheritance (Hindu Succession Amendment 2005), anti-dowry law, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, schooling and jobs for girls, and a change in social norms.