(a) What is Taylorism? Analyze its merits and demerits. (20 marks) (b) What are new religious movements? Elaborate emphasizing…

(a) Taylorism: merits and demerits

Taylorism is the system of "scientific management" developed by F.W. Taylor (The Principles of Scientific Management, 1911), which replaces rule-of-thumb work with methods designed by study. It rests on four ideas: a science for each element of work, based on time and motion study; scientific selection and training of workers; co-operation between management and labour; and a division of tasks in which managers plan and workers execute. Workers are paid by a differential piece-rate, as in Taylor's experiments at Bethlehem Steel. It should not be confused with Fordism, which added the moving assembly line and mass consumption.

Merits. It raises productivity and cuts waste, standardises methods that can be taught and audited, links pay to output, makes selection and training systematic, and reduces dependence on craft skill. Such discipline helped mass production and is still visible in factory engineering and service call centres.

Demerits. Breaking work into narrow repetitive tasks deskills labour (Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital, 1974) and separates conception from execution. It produces alienation in Marx's sense, because workers lose control of the whole process. It treats workers as economic beings, ignoring social needs and informal groups (Mayo's human relations critique), and breeds resistance, from slowdowns to strikes; Taylor's methods were investigated by the US Congress in 1912. Its modern echo, algorithmic management in warehouses and gig work, raises the same issues. Taylorism improves efficiency at a human cost.

(b) New religious movements: forms and orientations

New religious movements (NRMs) are religious or spiritual groups that have emerged mostly since the 1950s outside the established mainstream traditions, often led by a charismatic founder. Sociologists prefer the term to "cult", which carries a negative sense, and distinguish it from the older church-sect typology; NRMs may be new organisations or new forms of older faiths. Eileen Barker's work has been central to the study.

Forms. They include sects and cults in Stark and Bainbridge's terms (audience, client and cult movements), New Age and therapeutic movements offering meditation and healing, syncretic groups blending traditions, revivalist and reformist movements, and Pentecostal and charismatic churches.

Orientations. Roy Wallis classified them by attitude to the world. World-rejecting movements see society as corrupt, demand total commitment and often live communally, as ISKCON does in part. World-affirming movements accept the world and offer methods of personal success and fulfilment, as in Transcendental Meditation, Art of Living and some self-development groups. World-accommodating movements revive spirituality within existing religions or work within society, like some charismatic movements. Brahma Kumaris and the Osho movement show mixtures.

NRMs grow where modernity, mobility and individualism create a search for meaning, and where traditional institutions are seen as remote.

(c) Science, technology and age-old taboos and superstitions

Science and technology erode taboos and superstition by replacing magical explanation with testable knowledge, the "disenchantment" Weber described. Vaccination campaigns and the eradication of polio (certified 2014) overcame rumours about sterilisation through evidence and trusted communicators. Sanitary pads, menstrual-hygiene programmes and school toilets are weakening menstrual taboos. Astronomy programmes, including ISRO's public outreach, explain eclipses, and ultrasound and medical care challenge beliefs about disease as divine punishment. Forensic and digital evidence and anti-superstition laws, such as Maharashtra's 2013 Act and Bihar's and Jharkhand's witch-hunting laws, support the change, and Article 51A(h) makes scientific temper a duty.

Limits remain. Belief persists among the literate, and technology itself can spread misinformation; WhatsApp rumours have led to lynchings. Science may be used in ways that reinforce the old, such as sex-selection through ultrasound. Change requires education, scientific temper and social reform, along with technology.