The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 43, 25August, 2020]

Dear Students, 
Please find below today’s answer for Daily Answer Writing Practice .

“Equality is treating everyone the same, equity is giving everyone what they need so that they can be treated as same.” In the light of this statement explain with example why equity is ethically more desirable than equality. (10 Marks, 150 Words)

Answer:
The Given statement explains about continuous efforts required for achieving an egalitarian society. For the same, we first need to accept the inherent inequality present in the society. Accepting this inherent inequality will guide us in behaving differently with people with different opportunities. The sentence differentiates between equality and equity.

When decisions are taken ignoring the existing inequality and by assuming that all are equal is called equality. Whereas, when this is taken into consideration it is called equity. Equity always recognises inherent inequality and strives to eliminate it. It seems as unequal treatment,but it is toward the goal of equality. In this case, efforts must focus on equality of opportunity. This means those who are less privileged must be given more than those of more privileged.

This makes equity ethically more desired as compared to equality. Because if decisions are made according to equality, we will end up discriminating against the weaker section. And this is unethical. It is against the idea of justice. So equality has a lot of aspirational value,but equity is very crucial in the functional arena.

For example, in Indian society, some groups of people are historically less privileged due to the prevalent caste system. They do not stand at the equal level as compared other castes with respect to privileges. To cure this inequality constitution of India provides for positive discrimination.This is upholding equity.This means a kind of unequal treatment for providing equality of opportunity to people from less privileged caste. Also,forinstance, many government commutative examinations, to facilitate equality of opportunity to women candidates, have waived examination fees for female candidates.In the absence of this equity, it will be an injustice against these underprivileged sections.

#GS4 #Ethics

Join telegram channel: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily for answer writing practice of UPSC mains

The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 44, 26 August, 2020]

Dear Students,
Please find below today’s question for Daily Answer Writing Practice

“Keeping in mind the complexities of governance the Civil servants should be specialized generalists”. Illustrate. (10 Marks, 150 Words)

Submit your answers before 8 pm on https://t.me/AnswerWritingDailyDiscuss

Model Answer would be posted after 8 pm today.
#GS2#polity

Join telegram channel: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily for answer writing practice of UPSC mains

The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 44, 26 August, 2020]

Dear Students, 
Please find below today’s answer for Daily Answer Writing Practice

“Keeping in mind the complexities of governance the Civil servants should be specialized generalists”. Illustrate. (10 Marks, 150 Words)

Answer: The genesis of Indian Civil Services lies in their generalized mode of functioning. The Britishers wanted an abled cadre to perform functions like revenue collection and maintenance of law & order.
The changing times have resulted in this abled cadre performing welfare-oriented functions, which no longer were simple or lucid. The elitist nature was to be changed overnight. These administrative officers of higher echelon are expected to be generalist as they must maintain harmony between parts, ensure cooperation amongst multiple actors and oversee implementation of policies.
But the present era produces complex problems which require specialist supervision. For e.g. growing cyber crimes and economic offences would be better addressed by a specialist then a generalist. This however cannot be confused with lessening importance of generalist in day-to-day functioning of the administration because of the drawbacks associated with specialist like tunnel vision, process oriented and insensitive.
The need of the hour is to increase the ambit of our generalist cadre or inculcate specialist in the higher ranks. The latter is too frequent nowadays, for e.g. RBI governor/ vice-chairman of NITI aayog /departmental secretary etc. are from private sector.
But this is not the solution as the deformities of specialist could not be overlooked and hence, we must create a recruitment policy whereby the generalist be rehearsed about the evolving issues and issue specific skills be inculcated in them.
Neither generalist or specialist, it has to be an specialist generalist (with the wisdom of generalist and in depth knowledge of the subject like specialist) to counter modern day governance challenges.

#GS2 #polity

Join telegram channel: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily for answer writing practice of UPSC mains

The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 45, 27 August, 2020]

Dear Students,
Please find below today’s question for Daily Answer Writing Practice

Discuss the importance of the documentation projects of the Colonial state in effecting the complete conquest of India. (15 Marks, 250 Words)

Submit your answers before 8 pm on https://t.me/AnswerWritingDailyDiscuss

Model Answer would be posted after 8 pm today.
#GS1 #History

Join telegram channel: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily for answer writing practice of UPSC mains

The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 44, 26 August, 2020]

Discuss the importance of the documentation projects of the Colonial state in effecting the complete conquest of India.

Answer:

The quintessence of the colonial rule in India was control of its vast natural and human resources. A variety of activities and mechanisms ensured successful accomplishment of safeguard its economic and strategic interests. Military, legal, constitutional and bureaucratic institutions of the colonial state, as per British interests, selectively shaped various spheres of Indian economy, polity and society.

In order to govern a distant land and alien people, the colonial administration tried to acquire knowledge about its people through information-gathering in various forms. Therefore, the colonial project of conquering and controlling-governing India required colonial knowledge.

This knowledge encompassed various facets such as information about geography, minerals, languages, school surveys, population census, documentation of manuscripts, classification of archaeological specimens, collection of oral histories, customs and local histories, reformulation of legal codes, publishing gazetteers, etc.

1. Colin Mackenzie's Surveys and Historical Collections – the mechanism of surveying served as a useful tool in acquiring territorial-political control first and social control later.

2. The 'Martial Races' and Military Recruitment Policy – social classification as loyal and disloyal populations and sowing the seeds of social disunity through divide and rule policy

3. Identifying the 'Criminal Castes and Tribes' – ethnographic construction of Indian society by a colonial state to enhance policing and control nomadic population

4. Census and Social Ordering – bureaucratic classification of Indian castes and varna into hierarchical and competing social groups which lent administrative-statistical form to orientalist vision of Indian society.

All these attempts were not only academic exercises. The collected data was documented, classified based on ideological vision and put to colonial use by the colonial institutions. The cultural construction resulting from the collection and classification of this kind of knowledge helped the British in preserving their rule in India. The colonial intervention in the social sphere led to the classification and categorisation of Indian society into various ethnic groupings which helped the British in controlling India. They created "loyal citizens" in India not only based on their allegiance but on behaviour and attitudes also. And thus, the task of cultural colonisation after military conquest of India was effected.

#GS1 #History
Join telegram channel: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily for answer writing practice of UPSC mains

Additional Information 1

Colin Mackenzie's Surveys and Historical Collections

Colin Mackenzie spent most of his long career in peninsular India as a cartographer and surveyor, but he also collected every historical record and artefact he could find. He amassed a huge collection, relying exclusively on Indian assistants and informants concerning the social and political history of peninsular India. In addition to the usual statistical tables, Mackenzie collected numerous historical memoirs of the royal families of each region.

Mackenzie and his assistants collected every historical, ethnographic and religious text, tradition and document they could find. They also collected copies of inscriptions, coins, and images and drew sketches. The sketches and drawing reflected a quest for local knowledge, and included sketches of agricultural implements, buildings, landscape and ethnographic drawings, i.e., pictures of 'typical' representatives of different groups, castes and tribes.

In the late nineteenth century, Mackenzie's collection was a source of reference for the origin stories of local castes that were documented in the large number of manuals and gazetteers produced by district-level administration.

The career of Mackenzie reveals that colonial conquest was effected (brought about) through the mechanism of surveying which served as a useful tool in acquiring territories and political control over India. The nature of information gathering varied from surveying with extensive statistical tables and classification to acquiring command over the Indian languages and remoulding the legal system etc. and slowly and steadily the company state with commercial motives was transformed into the colonial state enjoying complete political control.

#GS1 #History
Join telegram channel: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily for answer writing practice of UPSC mains

Additional Information 2

The 'Martial Races' and Military Recruitment Policy

Concerns about military recruitment in the years after the rebellion of 1857 led to a consolidation of various colonial theories about the so-called martial races of India. The colonial administrators believed that certain castes and ethnic groups were particularly suitable for military endeavours. As a result of this belief, military recruitment policy became specifically linked to ethnographic classification. The 'martial races' were seen as devoted to military discipline and loyal to the Crown. In the wake of 1857 rebellion, recruitment of Punjabis, especially Sikhs, became important for the colonial army. Subsequently Sikhs and Gorkhas, constituted the core of the 'martial races'. These so-called martial races were identified as a group which could provide useful service as soldiers with a deep sense of loyalty and a natural respect for authority and discipline.

Lord Roberts, Commander-in-Chief of the Indian army from 1885 to 1893 and a leading exponent of the idea of martial races, believed that "the people of Southern India lacked military ability and competence". As a result of this official ethnography, in 1882 eight out of the forty Madras infantry battalions were disbanded. By the turn of the century, their strength was further reduced to 25 battalions. From the late 1890s, martial race theory was codified in a series of official manuals. These handbooks, usually written by British officers with long field experience, guided army recruitment policy until the start of the Second World War. This, again was a continuation of the policy of divide and rule.

#GS1 #History
Join telegram channel: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily for answer writing practice of UPSC mains

Additional Information 3

Identifying the 'Criminal Castes and Tribes'

From its inception, the colonial state used surveillance and mechanisms of social ordering and code which defined certain groups as barbaric and beyond the bound of civility.

The British tradition of associating forests with crimes and outlaws lent support to the 'criminal ethnography' constructed by the British. The belief in the professional and hereditary character of crime was common among the colonial administrators of nineteenth century. A variety of ideological strands contributed to the construction of ethnography of criminal tribes and castes. These additional elements were: (i) the fear of nomadic and wandering groups among the Brahmin subordinates of British, (ii) the cultivators' apprehension of hunting-gathering people and (iii) the high castes' dread of people outside the institutional framework of caste.

In 1835 a special Thagi and Dacoity Department was set up to investigate and punish gang robberies and murders. Later on an increasing number of people, groups, communities and tribes were stigmatised as 'the criminal tribes'. The legal code of the colonial rule was used to chastise a wide variety of marginal groups who did not conform to the pattern of settled agriculture and wage labour, especially nomadic, pastoral communities and the forest-dwelling tribes. The Criminal Tribes Act (1871) provided for registration of all or any members of such tribes who were notified as 'criminal tribes'. The registered members had to report themselves to the local police authority at fixed intervals and notify their place of residence or any intended change of residence. Any contraventions of these legal provisions invited severe punitive measures. After 1857, many castes that had opposed British authority were also declared "criminals".

The identification of certain castes by the British as 'criminal castes' was part of a larger discourse in which caste determined the occupational profile as well as social and moral stature of all its members. The 'criminal castes' were branded simultaneously as typical and deviant. The theories about criminal castes also partake of a set of late-nineteenth century notions of biological and racial disposition of criminality, which in case of India were applied to an entire group.

Frederick S. Mullaly, a senior police officer in the Madras police, wrote Notes on Criminal Classes of Madras Presidency (1892) on the basis of earlier ethnographic texts prepared by colonial administrators in nineteenth century and various district gazetteers compiled from 1860s onwards. These notes were prepared to guide police officials in dealing with the 'criminal castes'.
Anthropometry or measurement of various physical indices such as average height and weight, shape and size of skull, the relation of head size to body size, the relative sizes of different body parts assumed importance in the 1890s under the influence of H.H. Risley. The basic assumption of colonial sociology was that most of the crimes were committed by habitual groups and communities that moved from place to place and were able to conceal their identities. Anthropometry seemed to be the perfect means to pick up the principal suspects. It was, therefore, quickly adopted first in Bengal and then in Madras.

In the last decade of nineteenth century, fingerprinting replaced anthropometry as a means of criminal identification as it proved to be error-free, cheap and an efficient method of classifying criminals. Fingerprinting quickly established itself as a universal system of criminal identification. In testing technologies of policing, as in many other areas, colonies served as an important experimental laboratory for the British state. The colonial police and bureaucracy could easily identify and control, by making use of scientific fingerprinting, even the poorest villagers and nomads.

#GS1 #History
Join telegram channel: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily for answer writing practice of UPSC mains

Additional Information 4

Census and Social Ordering

The census represented another scientific method adopted by the colonial state to classify and numerically represent the population. However, it provided a distorted picture of the social hierarchy. The parameter used to classify the social groups was based on the pan-Indian principle of varna. Thus, the variations in the social structure in the different regions were not taken into account.
Thus, the statistical project was enmeshed with the Orientalist ideology for the delineation of social hierarchy. Colonial description of Indian society was meant to serve British imperial interests. The diversity reflected through the census depicted Indian polity as conflict ridden which required progressive administration. The extraordinary and novel apparatus of decennial census exemplifies ways by which the documentation project of the colonial state attained unprecedented scope in interpreting the diverse social order of India.
The idea of an all-India census was first seriously contemplated in the mid-1850s. Even earlier, there were regional household counts. The first all-India census was conducted in 1871 -72. It did not cover all regions and was not systematically carried out.

W. C. Plowden, the Census Commissioner of 1881, further classified the census data on castes to create artificial larger blocks of castes such as the major agricultural castes, major groups of artisans and village servants and so on. This artificial creation of the differentiation within castes was amenable to administrative concerns like recruitment to the colonial army, branding of 'criminal castes', maintenance of law and order, agrarian policy and legal adjudication.

The 1891 census abandoned the varna criterion for enumeration in favour of occupational criteria on the proposals of J.C. Nesfield and Sir Denzil Ibettson. However, from the late-nineteenth century onwards H. H. Risley criticised this scheme and tried to classify Indian people and castes into distinct racial groups on the basis of physical measurement of various bodily traits.

As the Census Commissioner for 1901, Risley conceived of a grand scheme for the grouping and categorising of every racial type in India. He also tried to adopt a procedure for organising castes on the basis of 'social precedence' and rank them accordingly. As a result of this, a large number of caste associations emerged to contest their assigned position in the official hierarchy, each demanding higher position and ranking. The census of 1911, therefore, abandoned the scheme of ranking but continued to gather information on castes.

#GS1 #History
Join telegram channel: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily for answer writing practice of UPSC mains

The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 46, 28 August, 2020]

Dear Students,
Please find below today’s question for Daily Answer Writing Practice

"One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG) initiative is full of social, economic, environmental and strategic potential" Elaborate [10 marks, 150 words]

Model Answer would be posted after 8 pm today

For Daily Answer Writing Practice for Mains 2020 join: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily
For Daily MCQ Practice for Prelims 2020 join: https://t.me/DailyMCQsForUPSC
For Daily History Optional Answer Writing Practice join: https://t.me/HistoryDailyAnswerWriting

The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 47, 29 August, 2020]


Dear Students,
Please find below today’s question for Daily Answer Writing Practice

Discuss the genesis of western disturbances and impact of these disturbances on India's winter climate and agriculture.[10 marks, 150 words]


#geography # GS1

Model Answer would be posted after 8 pm today

For Daily Answer Writing Practice for Mains 2020 join: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily
For Daily MCQ Practice for Prelims 2020 join: https://t.me/DailyMCQsForUPSC
For Daily History Optional Answer Writing Practice join: https://t.me/HistoryDailyAnswerWriting

The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 47, 29 August, 2020]

Dear Students, 
Please find below today’s answer for Daily Answer Writing Practice .

Discuss the genesis of western disturbances and impact of these disturbances on India's winter climate and agriculture.

Answer:
The Western disturbances are extra-tropical storm originating in the Mediterranean region that brings sudden winter rain to the north-western parts of the Indian sub-continent is called Western Disturbance. It is a non-monsoonal precipitation pattern driven by the westerlies. Its frequency varies from year to year, but on an average 3 to 5 disturbances are experienced per month from November to March. The resultant changes in weather conditions have both positive and negative impact on agriculture and thus socio-economic conditions of the people.

Genesis:
Disturbance means an area of “disturbed” or reduced air pressure, and as the disturbances travels from West to East, they are termed as western disturbances. They originate in Mediterranean sea and enter India with moisture content augmented from the Caspian sea and the Persian Gulf on the way and cause winter rainfall in Northern India. This movement of the western disturbances is associated with sub-tropical westerly jet stream, which blows at a very high speed during winter over the sub-tropical zone. In winter season, the southern branch of this jet stream shifts towards topic of cancer and flows along 25 degree north latitude. This jet stream is responsible for bringing western disturbances form the Mediterranean region to the subcontinent.

Impact:
• Western Disturbances along with their induced systems are the principle rain producing systems during non-monsoonal months over North India including Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Their effect sometime extends up to Gangetic plains and Northeast India.
• They are also responsible for bringing snowfall in the higher reaches of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
• Western Disturbance brings winter and pre-monsoon rain and is important for the development of the Rabi crop in the Northern subcontinent. Considering that wheat is one of the most important Rabi crops, which is the staple diet of people in this region, winter showers contribute to India’s food security.
• Sometime, due to severe rainfall/ snowfall, it damages the rabi crops. Pulses are also get affected.
• As the western disturbance will be bringing more moisture, there will be an increase in fog. Low visibility problems will increase in Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana.

Non-monsoonal rainfall are very important for sustainability of agriculture in India, which is provided by western disturbance in north and north-east monsoon in south. These climatic phenomena also leads to variation from typical monsoon climate in India, which has its impact on agriculture & socio-economic condition.

#GS2 #Geography

Join telegram channel: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily for answer writing practice of UPSC mains

The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 48, 30thAugust, 2020]


Dear Students,
Please find below today’s question for Daily Answer Writing Practice:

Comment on the impacts of Covid-19 crisis on the current world order. [10 marks, 150 words]


#International #GS2

Model Answer would be posted after 8 pm today

For Daily Answer Writing Practice for Mains 2020 join: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily
For Daily MCQ Practice for Prelims 2020 join: https://t.me/DailyMCQsForUPSC
For Daily History Optional Answer Writing Practice join: https://t.me/HistoryDailyAnswerWriting

The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 49, 31 August, 2020]

Dear Students,
Please find below today’s question for Daily Answer Writing Practice:

Environmental movements often also contain economic and identity issues. Justify with the help of suitable example from India's post-independence history. [10 marks, 150 words]

#GS1 #Society
Model Answer would be posted after 8 pm today

For Daily Answer Writing Practice for Mains 2020 join: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily
For Daily MCQ Practice for Prelims 2020 join: https://t.me/DailyMCQsForUPSC
For Daily History Optional Answer Writing Practice join: https://t.me/HistoryDailyAnswerWriting

Dear students,
We appreciate the amount of seriousness you all have maintained. However, this is to bring to you notice that we are going to put the model answers for all the questions that we have put for you to practice. Don't worry about it. Please keep calm untill we do so.

We have halted the posting and evaluation of the answers from the aspirants in the last month upto the Prelims. We will still continue posting questions and answers everyday for the practice for those who want it.

The Daily Answer Writing Practice [Question 49, 31 August, 2020]
Environmental movements often also contain economic and identity issues. Justify with the help of suitable example from India's post-independence history. [10 marks, 150 words]

Answer
In the West, the environmental movement arose to protect endangered species and natural habitats and thus modern environmentalism was given birth to by scientists. In India, however, it was the imperative of human survival when patterns of resource use disadvantaged local communities and devastated the natural environment. This was an environmentalism of the poor, which married the concern of social justice on the one hand with sustainability on the other.

Economic Issues (development discourse) –
The emphasis on development model in post-independence decades led to the unchecked use of natural resources and created further demands for greater exploitation. It presumed that all sections of people will be beneficiaries of development. Thus, big dams displace people from their homes and livelihood (forest and pastures). Industries displace agriculturalists, artisanal fisherfolk squeezed out by large trawlers. The impact of industrial pollution is yet another story. Therefore, the context of the environmental movements in India is the conflicts over forests, fish, and pasture; conflicts about the siting of large dams; conflicts about the social and environmental impacts of unregulated mining.

In the Chipko movement, villagers rallied together to save the oak and rhododendron forests near their villages. They hugged the trees to prevent their being felled by government contractors. At stake was the question of villagers’ subsistence. All of them relied on the forest to get firewood, fodder and other daily necessities. This conflict placed the livelihood needs of poor villagers against the government’s desire to generate revenues from selling timber.

Identity Issues –
Environmental movements are not old social movements based on class mobilisation to address issues of economic inequality. In such movements like Chipko, the villagers also valued the forest for their own sake and were of the view that their existence and identity is closely linked to the forest.

Women, being solely in charge of cultivation, livestock and children, suffered the most due to increasing floods and landslides in Garhwal region. They were able to perceive the link between their victimization and the denuding of mountain slopes by commercial interests. Thus, sheer survival made women support the movement. Women were also given no share in the decision-making process, public power and political activities like men. These movements provided them with the opportunity to raise their concerns and fight for their rights.

So, concerns about economy, ecology, women and political representation underlay the environmental movements like the Chipko movement.

#GS1 #Society
For Daily Answer Writing Practice for Mains 2020 join: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily
For Daily MCQ Practice for Prelims 2020 join: https://t.me/DailyMCQsForUPSC
For Daily History Optional Answer Writing Practice join: https://t.me/HistoryDailyAnswerWriting

If you submit answers in Hindi to our English questions (when we resume submissions for evaluation), we can try to get them evaluated.

If there is a good demand for Hindi medium, we can think of starting Hindi initiative also in near future. However, as of now, we have capabilities only for English content.

The Daily Answer Writing Practice
[Question 50, 01 Sep, 2020]

Dear Students,
Please find below today’s question for Daily Answer Writing Practice:

[01st Sep 2020]: What is meant by Supply Chain Resilience in the context of International Trade? Discuss how India stands to benefit if the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative mooted by Japan materialises? [15 marks, 250 words]

#GS3 #Economy #GS2 #International
Model Answer would be posted after 8 pm today

For Daily Answer Writing Practice for Mains 2020 join: https://t.me/AnswerWritingDaily
For Daily MCQ Practice for Prelims 2020 join: https://t.me/DailyMCQsForUPSC
For Daily History Optional Answer Writing Practice join: https://t.me/HistoryDailyAnswerWriting

Admit cards are out: https://www.upsc.gov.in/