GATE Humanities and Social Sciences Syllabus 2027 (Out) - Download XH Topic Wise Syllabus

Section

Topics Covered

Reading Comprehension

Ability to understand complex language material presented in short passages and answer questions based on comprehension and interpretation.

Expression

Questions on the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of a short passage, including corrections or modifications of particular sentences.

Analytical Reasoning

Ability to understand relationships in statements or short passages and draw reasonable conclusions and logical inferences from the given information.

Logical Reasoning

Critical evaluation and prediction of arguments, identification of the main and supporting arguments, and analysis of logical conclusions and outcomes.

Section

Topics Covered

Microeconomics

Theory of Consumer Behaviour: Cardinal and Ordinal Approaches, Consumer Preferences, Utility Function, Marshallian and Hicksian Demand Functions, Duality Theorem, Slutsky Equation, Comparative Statics, Homogeneous and Homothetic Utility Functions, Euler's Theorem, Theory of Revealed Preference (Weak and Strong Axioms), Theory of Production and Costs, Short-run and Long-run Analysis, Existence, Uniqueness and Stability of Market Equilibrium (Walrasian and Marshallian Stability Analysis), Cobweb Model, Decision Making under Uncertainty and Risk, Asymmetric Information (Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard), Theory of Agency Costs, Theory of Search, Non-Cooperative Games (Constant Sum Game, Pure and Mixed Strategies, Bayesian Nash Equilibrium, SPNE, Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium), Theory of Firm, Competitive and Non-competitive Market Structures, Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm, Factor Pricing, Marginal Productivity Theory of Distribution, Theory of Employment in Imperfectly Competitive Markets (Monopolistic Exploitation), General Equilibrium Analysis, Welfare Economics, Fundamental Theorems, Social Welfare Function, and Pareto Optimality.

Macroeconomics

National Income Accounting, Closed and Open Economy Concepts, Determination of Output and Employment (Classical and Keynesian Frameworks), Theories of Consumption (Absolute Income, Relative Income, Life Cycle, Permanent Income, Robert Hall's Random Walk Model), Investment Function Specifications (Dale Jorgenson's Neoclassical Theory and Tobin's Model), Keynesian Stabilization Policies, Multipliers and Investment Accelerator, Demand and Supply of Money, Components of Money Supply, Liquidity Preference and Liquidity Trap, Money Multiplier, Interest Rate Determination, Central Banking, Monetary Policy Instruments, Prudential Regulation, Quantitative Easing, Commercial Banking, Non-Banking Financial Institutions, Capital Market and Regulation, Inflation Theories, Expectations Augmented Phillips Curve, Real Business Cycles, Adaptive and Rational Expectations Hypotheses, IS-LM Model, Mundell-Fleming Model, Monetary and Fiscal Policy Efficacy, and the Impossible Trinity.

Statistics, Econometrics and Mathematical Economics

Basic Statistics including Probability Theory, Discrete and Continuous Probability Distributions, Central Limit Theorem, Index Numbers, Price Indices, Sampling Methods, Sampling Distribution, Estimation and Hypothesis Testing. Econometrics including Simple and Multiple Linear Regression Models, Gauss-Markov Theorem, Heteroscedasticity, Multicollinearity, Autocorrelation, Dummy Variable Regression, Simultaneous Equation Models, Identification Problem, Time Series Analysis (AR, MA, ARMA, Cointegration, Error Correction, Causality, VAR). Mathematical Economics including Differential Calculus, Linear Algebra, Matrices, Cramer's Rule, Static Optimization, Input-Output Model, Linear Programming, Difference Equations, and Differential Equations.

International Economics

Theories of International Trade, International Trade under Imperfect Competition, Gains from Trade, Terms of Trade, Trade Multiplier, Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers, Dumping and Anti-Dumping Policies, GATT, WTO, Regional Trade Blocs, Trade Policy Issues, Balance of Payments, Equilibrium and Disequilibrium, Adjustment Mechanisms, Foreign Exchange Market, Arbitrage, Exchange Rate Determination, IMF, and World Bank.

Public Economics

Market Failure and Remedial Measures, Asymmetric Information, Public Goods, Externalities, Market Regulation, Collusion and Consumer Welfare, Public Revenue (Tax and Non-Tax Revenue), Direct and Indirect Taxes, Progressive and Non-Progressive Taxation, Incidence and Effects of Taxation, Public Expenditure, Public Debt Management, Public Budget and Budget Multiplier, Tax Incidence, Fiscal Policy and its Implications, Environment as a Public Good, Coase Theorem, and Cost-Benefit Analysis.

Development Economics

Theories of Economic Development (Adam Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Schumpeter, Rostow), Balanced & Unbalanced Growth, Big Push Theory, HDI, SDGs, MDGs, Poverty & Inequality, Health, Education, Gender, Fertility, Morbidity, Mortality, Migration, Child Labour, Age Structure, Demographic Dividend, Growth Models (Harrod-Domar, Solow, Ramsey), Technical Progress (Embodied & Disembodied), Endogenous Growth Models

Indian Economy

Economic Growth in India, Agriculture, Industry & Services, Rural & Urban Development, Foreign Capital, Trade Policies, Infrastructure Development, Public-Private Partnerships, Land, Labour & Capital Market Reforms, Poverty, Inequality & Unemployment, Monetary Policy in India, Fiscal Policy, GST, Growth & Equity, Fiscal Federalism, Centre-State Financial Relations, Finance Commission, Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act 2003, Demonetization & Aftermath, Balance of Payments, India's Trade Composition, Export Competitiveness, Exchange Rate Policy

Section

Topics Covered

Literary Forms, Genres, and Modes of Expression

Poetry, drama, fiction (novels, short stories, graphic narratives), creative non-fiction, and non-fiction prose from the Medieval period to the present. Literary genres and subgenres, including their history, evolution, and importance in understanding different forms of writing. Aesthetic and rhetorical strategies, including narrative techniques, poetic techniques, and figures of speech.

History of English Literature and Literary Studies

English literary traditions from Chaucer to contemporary English literature. Global perspectives on literary studies, including Anglophone literatures such as British, American, Canadian, and other Postcolonial literatures. Intersections of literature with political, social, and intellectual movements. Literary studies in relation to Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Environment, and other allied disciplines.

Comparative and World Literatures in English Translation

Literatures in English translation, particularly from India and the Global South. Cross-cultural exchanges and their impact on literary traditions. Theoretical frameworks for comparative literature, including intertextuality, adaptation, interconnectedness, and cosmopolitanism. Multilingualism, Translation Studies, and the politics of language in literary production.

Section XH2.4: Critical Theories and Intellectual Traditions

Major theoretical paradigms and socio-cultural movements shaping literary studies, including Structuralism, Marxism, Feminism, Existentialism, Poststructuralism, Modernism, Postmodernism, New Historicism, Postcolonialism, Posthumanism, and related approaches. Interdisciplinary fields such as Cultural Studies, Film and Media Studies, Memory and Trauma Studies, Dalit and Subaltern Studies, Environmental, Medical, and Digital Humanities. Indian literary and aesthetic traditions, including Classical Poetics (Rasa, Dhvani, Vakrokti, Alamkara, Riti, Aucitya) and other indigenous frameworks for literary interpretation.

Section XH2.5: Contemporary Literary Cultures and Research Methodologies

Major literary awards and prizes, literary festivals, literary associations, and networks. Research methods in literary studies, including archival research, ethnographic methods, textual analysis, discourse analysis, AI-assisted and multimodal approaches. Structuring research arguments, academic integrity, plagiarism checking, citation ethics, and engagement with scholarly discourse.

Section

Topics Covered

Language and Linguistics (Fundamental Concepts)

This section introduces the basic concepts of language and the methods used to study it. Topics include What is Language?—understanding language in its spoken, written, and signed forms, and the distinction between description and prescription. Language and Culture—the relationship between language and cultural heritage, social and personal identities, and linguistic determinism/relativity. The Science of Language—language as an object of scientific study, its basic units, design features, levels of grammatical adequacy, and principles of creativity and productivity. Knowledge vs. Use—the distinction between linguistic competence and performance. History of Linguistics—major schools of linguistic thought, including the European, American, and Indian Grammatical traditions.

Levels of Grammatical Analysis (The Primary Components of Grammar)

A. Phonetics and Phonology (Sounds): Speech production and perception, vocal tract, articulation, phonation, acoustic properties, perceptual cues, auditory system, IPA, phonemes, allophones, complementary and contrastive distribution, tonal, segmental and suprasegmental phonological processes, distinctive features, and modern theories including autosegmental phonology, generative phonology, lexical phonology, prosodic morphology, and optimality theory.

B. Morphology (Words): Morphemes, allomorphs, morpheme types, inflection and derivation, word formation processes, constraints on word formation, lexical and structural ambiguity, morphology-phonology interface, mental lexicon, distributed morphology, lexicalist and paradigm-based approaches, and construction morphology.

C. Syntax (Sentences): Sentence structure, words, phrases, clauses, Phrase Structure Rules, X-bar Theory, syntactic processes and representations, diagnostics of structure, theta theory, case theory, binding, argument structure, valency alternations, syntax-morphology and syntax-phonology interfaces, structural and semantic ambiguity. Major syntactic theories including Generative Grammar (Minimalist Programme), LFG, and HPSG. Universal Grammar, language acquisition, tacit vs. explicit knowledge, and core vs. peripheral grammar.

D. Semantics and Pragmatics: Semantics: Compositionality, truth conditions, propositions, quantifiers, lexical semantics (synonymy, antonymy), propositional semantics (paraphrase, entailment, contradiction), syntax-semantics and semantics-pragmatics interfaces. Pragmatics: Speech acts, Grice's Maxims, conversational implicatures, presuppositions, deictic and indexical expressions, and discourse analysis

Historical Linguistics (Language Change)

Sound change, Grimm's Law, Verner's Law, grammaticalization, semantic change, comparative reconstruction of ancestral languages, language contact, and borrowing.

Sociolinguistics (Language and Society)

Language variation, sociolects, dialects, language contact and migration, dialect geography, pidgins, creoles, communicative competence, code-switching, code-mixing, multilingualism, language policy, language endangerment (EGIDS), language maintenance, revitalisation, documentation, and minority and majority languages.

Typology and Universals (Language Classification)

Structural language classification (agglutinative, isolating, fusional), genetic classification, Greenberg's universals, South Asian language families (Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman), and constitutional provisions for languages.

Methods of Analysis (How to Do Linguistics)

Data collection through fieldwork, experiments, elicitation, and sampling; quantitative and qualitative data analysis; research ethics; corpus development, annotation, types of corpora, and corpus analysis.

Applied Linguistics (Linguistics in the Real World)

Psycholinguistics, computational linguistics (corpora, parsing, LLMs, speech recognition, sentiment analysis, etc.), Second Language Acquisition (SLA), language teaching methods and assessment, and clinical linguistics including language disorders, assessment, and evidence-based therapies.

Topic

Syllabus

Classical Indian Philosophy

Orthodox Systems: Sānkhya (Puruṣa, Prakṛti, Guṇas, Satkāryavāda, Mokṣa (Kaivalya), Pramāṇas, Theory of Error); Yoga (Pramāṇas, Theory of Error, Iśvara, Citta, Kleśa, Aṣṭānga-yoga, Kaivalya); Nyāya (Pramāṇas, Hetvābhāsa, Iśvara, Asatkāryavāda, Theory of Error, Navya-Nyāya); Vaiśeṣika (Parataḥprāmāṇya, Padārthas, Theory of Atomism); Mīmāmsā (Dharma, Apūrva, Mokṣa, Pramāṇas in Kumārila and Prabhākara, Anyathākhyāti); Vedānta (Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, Dvaitādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Pramāṇa in Advaita and Viśiṣṭādvaita). Heterodox Systems: Cārvāka, Jainism, Buddhism including Ti-piṭaka, Sarvāstivāda, Mādhyamika, Yogācāra, Doctrine of Momentariness, Dependent Origination, Two Truths, Tri-kāya, Bodhisattva Ideal, Upāyakauśalya. Upaniṣads, Bhagavadgītā and Dharmaśāstras: Pure Monism, Brahman, Ātman, Pañca-kośa, Parā-vidyā, Aparā-vidyā, Dharma, Ṛta, Puruṣārtha, Śreyas and Preyas, Varṇāśramadharma, Svadharma, Sādhāraṇa Dharma, Ṛna, Yajña, Karma-yoga, Sthitaprajña, Lokasaṃgraha, Law of Karma. Kāṣmira Śaivism, Śaivasiddhānta, Vīra Śaivism, Śāktism and Vaiṣṇavism: Pratyābhijña school, Śiva and Śakti, Kriyā, God (Pati), Divine Power (Śakti), Bondage and Liberation, and philosophical foundations of Vīra Śaivism, Śāktism and Vaiṣṇavism.

Contemporary Indian Philosophy

Swami Vivekananda (Practical Vedanta, Nature of Religion, Destiny of the Soul); Sri Aurobindo (Evolution, Mind and Supermind, Integral Yoga); Iqbal (Self, God, Man and Superman, Intellect and Intuition); Tagore (Religion of Man, Education, Nationalism); K. C. Bhattacharyya (Swaraj in Ideas, Concept of Philosophy, Subject as Freedom, Doctrine of Māyā); Radhakrishnan (Intellect and Intuition, Idealist View of Life, Universal Religion, Hindu View of Life); J. Krishnamurti (Thought, Freedom from the Known, Analysis of Self, Choiceless Awareness); Gandhi (Truth, Non-violence, Satyagraha, Swaraj, Hind Swaraj); Ambedkar (Basic Features of the Indian Constitution, Untouchability, Democracy); Daya Krishna (Three Myths about Indian Philosophy).

Classical and Modern Western Philosophy

Metaphysics: Pre-Socratic philosophers (Thales, Anaxagoras, Anaximenes, Ionians, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Democritus), Plato and Aristotle on Being, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Modern Metaphysics (Substance, Mind-Body Dualism, Parallelism, Pre-established Harmony, Solipsism, Self, Personal Identity, Phenomena and Noumena, Transcendental Deduction, Absolute Idealism). Epistemology: Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, and the Gettier Problem. Ethics: Egoism, Altruism, Universalism, Subjectivism, Cultural Relativism, Ethical Realism and Anti-realism, Ethical Cognitivism and Non-cognitivism, Intuitionism, Kantian Ethics, Utilitarianism (Bentham, J. S. Mill), Care Ethics, Theories of Punishment, Professional Ethics, Environmental Ethics (Aldo Leopold, Arne Naess, Peter Singer), Bioethics. Social and Political Philosophy: Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, Marx, Rawls, Nozick, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Charles Taylor, Capability Approach. Logic: Truth and Validity, Nature and Classification of Propositions, Categorical Syllogism, Laws of Thought, Square of Opposition, Propositional Logic, Quantification, Symbolic Logic, Truth Tables, Deductive and Inductive Logic, Mill's Method.

Contemporary Western Philosophy

Frege (Sense and Reference); Logical Positivism (Verification Theory, Elimination of Metaphysics); Moore (Common Sense, External World); Russell (Logical Atomism, Definite Descriptions); Wittgenstein (Language and Reality, Picture Theory, Private Language, Meaning and Use, Forms of Life); Gilbert Ryle (Critique of Cartesian Dualism); W.V.O. Quine (Two Dogmas of Empiricism); P.F. Strawson (Concept of Person); Husserl (Phenomenology, Intentionality, Inter-subjectivity); Heidegger (Dasein, Being-in-the-World); Sartre (Types of Being, Freedom, Bad Faith); Merleau-Ponty (Perception, Embodied Consciousness); William James (Pragmatism, Meaning and Truth, Religious Experience); John Dewey (Inquiry, Fallibilism, Experience, Education); Nietzsche (Critique of Enlightenment, Will to Power, Genealogy of Morals, Overman); Richard Rorty (Critique of Representationalism); Habermas (Communicative Rationality).

Section

Topics Covered

Section XH5.1: Research Methods and Statistics

Research Approaches: Philosophical worldviews and research criteria; quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method research designs. Research Design: Research problems, purpose statement, variables, operational definitions, hypothesis formulation, and sampling techniques. Research Methods: Interview, self-completion questionnaires (survey), observation, experiment, quasi-experiment, field studies, focus group discussions, narratives, case studies, and ethnography. Research Ethics: Ethical principles in conducting and reporting psychological research. Statistics: Measures of central tendency and dispersion, normal probability curve, parametric and non-parametric tests, effect size, and power analysis. Correlation: Product moment, rank order, partial correlation, multiple correlation, biserial, point biserial, tetrachoric, and phi coefficient. Regression: Simple linear and multiple regression. Factor Analysis: Assumptions, methods, rotation, and interpretation. Experimental Designs: Factorial design, randomized block design, repeated measures design, single-subject designs, cohort studies, and statistical analysis using ANOVA, MANOVA, and ANCOVA.

Section XH5.2: Psychometrics

Foundations of psychological measurement; scales and item construction; analysis of intelligence, performance, ability, aptitude, and personality test items; methods of test construction; standardization of measures including reliability, validity, and norms; application of psychological assessment and measurement; applications of psychological testing in educational, counselling, clinical, organizational, and developmental settings.

Section XH5.3: Biological and Evolutionary Basis of Behaviour

Heredity and behaviour; evolution and natural selection; nervous system; brain structures and functions; neurons, neural impulse, synaptic transmission, and neurotransmitters; hemispheric lateralization; endocrine system; biological basis of motivation (hunger, thirst, sleep, sex), emotion (limbic system), memory, and hormonal regulation of behaviour. Methods of Physiological Psychology: Invasive methods (anatomical, degeneration, lesion, chemical, microelectrode studies), non-invasive methods (EEG and brain scanning), muscular and glandular systems, genetics and behaviour, chromosomal anomalies, nature-nurture controversy, twin studies, and adoption studies.

Section XH5.4: Perception, Learning, Memory and Forgetting

Sensation, sensory thresholds, sensory adaptation, vision, hearing, touch, pain, smell, taste, kinesthesis, and vestibular sense. Perception: Attention, Gestalt principles, depth perception, and illusions. Learning: Classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social learning theory, and cognitive learning. Memory: Encoding, storage, retrieval, information processing theories, long-term memory retrieval, reconstructive memory. Forgetting: Encoding failure, interference theory, and memory trace decay theory.

Section XH5.5: Cognition

Thinking, intelligence, and language; concepts, propositions, imagery; information processing and ecological approaches; problem-solving methods, strategies, obstacles, and metacognition; decision-making; theories of intelligence (Spearman, Thurstone, Jensen, Cattell, Gardner, Sternberg); emotional intelligence; measurement of intelligence; individual differences; role of heredity and environment; differences between intelligence, aptitude, and creativity.

Section XH5.6: Personality

Theories of personality including psychoanalytic, behaviourist, social, cognitive, humanistic, trait, and type theories; biological basis of personality; personality assessment methods.

Section XH5.7: Motivation, Emotion and Stress and Coping

Motivation theories including instinct, drive-reduction, arousal, incentive, humanistic, achievement motivation, intrinsic motivation, aggression, curiosity, and exploration. Emotion: Nature and theories of emotion. Stress: Definition, stressors, cognitive factors, General Adaptation Syndrome, effects of stress, coping strategies including problem-focused and emotion-focused coping.

Section XH5.8: Social Psychology

Social perception including attribution, impression formation, social categorization, and implicit personality theory. Social influence including conformity, compliance, obedience, attitudes, beliefs, and values. Attitude formation, attitude change, persuasion, cognitive dissonance, prejudice, discrimination, aggression, power, prosocial behaviour, belief systems, value patterns, group dynamics, and theories of intergroup relations and conflict.

Section XH5.9: Development Across the Life Span

Nature versus nurture in development; prenatal development including chromosomes, genes, and DNA; physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development during infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood; moral development; theories of aging.

Section XH5.10: Clinical Psychology and Organizational Behavior

Psychological disorders; concepts of mental disorders; assessment and diagnosis; DSM and other diagnostic tools. Psychotherapies: Psychodynamic, phenomenological/experiential, behaviour therapy, cognitive therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), meditation, and biological therapy. Organizational Behaviour: Organizational demographics and diversity, organizational culture, decision-making, power and politics, leadership theories, leadership styles and effectiveness, positive organizational behaviour, and performance management through rewards and punishment.

Section XH5.11: Applications of Psychology

Applications of motivation and learning theories in education; educational achievement; counselling and guidance in schools; applications of motivation, learning, emotion, and perception in group dynamics and organizations; personal space, crowding, and territoriality; interventions for mental health and wellbeing.

Topic

Syllabus

Sociological Theory

Classical Sociological Traditions: Emile Durkheim (Social Solidarity, Social Facts, Religion, Functionalism, Suicide, Anomie, Division of Labour, Law); Max Weber (Types of Authority, Social Action, Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Bureaucracy, Ideal Type, Methodology); Karl Marx (Class and Class Conflict, Dialectical and Historical Materialism, Capitalism, Surplus Value, Alienation). Structural-Functionalism and Structuralism: Bronislaw Malinowski, A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Talcott Parsons (AGIL, Systems Approach), Robert K. Merton (Middle-Range Theory, Reference Groups, Latent and Manifest Functions), Claude Lévi-Strauss (Myths, Structuralism). Hermeneutic and Interpretative Traditions: G.H. Mead, Alfred Schutz, Harold Garfinkel, Erving Goffman, Clifford Geertz. Recent Developments: Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, Anthony Giddens, Frankfurt School. Conflict Theory: Ralf Dahrendorf, Lewis Coser, Louis Althusser. Indian Thinkers: M.K. Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar, Radha Kamal Mukherjee, G.S. Ghurye, M.N. Srinivas, Irawati Karve, A.R. Desai, Andre Béteille.

Research Methodology and Methods

Conceptualizing social reality, philosophy of science (Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn), scientific method, epistemology, hermeneutic traditions, etic and emic approaches, inductive and deductive methods, objectivity, reflexivity, ethics and politics of research. Research design including facts, concepts, theories, hypotheses, research questions, objectives, and reading social science research. Quantitative and qualitative methods including ethnography, survey, historical, comparative, and statistical methods. Research techniques such as sampling, questionnaire, schedule, observation, interview, case study, data analysis, interpretation, statistical analysis, and report writing.

Sociological Concepts

Social structure, culture, networks, status and role, identity, community, socialization, diaspora, values, norms, rules, personhood, habitus, agency, bureaucracy, power, authority, self and society. Social Institutions: Marriage, family, kinship, economy, polity, religion, education, law, and customs. Social Stratification: Caste, class, status, power, gender, sexuality, disability, race, tribe, ethnicity, inequality, hierarchy, and marginalization. Social Change: Evolution, diffusion, modernization, development, globalization, social mobility, Sanskritization, Westernization, educational and occupational change.

Agrarian Sociology and Rural Transformation

Rural and peasant society, caste-tribe distinction and continuum, agrarian social structure, class relations, land ownership, agrarian relations, decline of the agrarian economy, de-peasantization, agrarian change, agrarian unrest, peasant movements, feudalism, mode of production debate, land reforms, Panchayati Raj, rural development programmes, community development, Green Revolution, agricultural change, and farmers' movements.

Family, Marriage and Kinship

Theoretical approaches including Structural-Functionalist, Alliance, and Cultural perspectives. Gender relations and power dynamics, inheritance, succession, authority, gender, sexuality, reproduction, children, youth, elderly, emotions and family, emerging family forms, changing marriage practices, changing care and support systems, family laws, domestic violence, crime against women, and honour killing.

Indian Society / Sociology of India

Colonial, Nationalist, and Indological perspectives (G.S. Ghurye); Structural-Functional approach (M.N. Srinivas); Dialectical approach (A.R. Desai); Subaltern Studies (Ranajit Guha); Non-Brahmin perspectives (Jyotirao Phule, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar); Feminist perspectives (Leela Dube, Sharmila Rege). Social institutions including family, kinship, household, village, and urban settings. Social stratification based on caste, class, tribe, and gender. Tradition and modernity (M.N. Srinivas, Yogendra Singh, Dipankar Gupta), agrarian sociology (Andre Béteille, A.R. Desai, D.N. Dhanagare), social movements (T.K. Oommen), village studies, communalism, and secularism.

Social Movements

Introduction to social movements including nature, definitions, characteristics, relationship with social change, and types of movements (Reform, Rebellion, Revival, Revolution, Insurrection, Counter Movement). Theories of social movements including Structural-Functional, Marxist, Resource Mobilization Theory, and New Social Movements. Social movements in India including peasant, labour, Dalit, women's, and environmental movements, with emphasis on social basis, leadership, ideology, and actions. Relationship between social movements, the state, civil society, globalization, and issues of citizenship.

Sociology of Development

Perspectives on development including definitions, indices, Liberal (Modernization Theory), Marxist, and Neo-Marxist perspectives (Dependency Theory and World Systems). Micro-politics of development including transforming communities, maps and models, knowledge and power, subaltern movements, post-colonial development, decentralization, devolution, and participatory approaches. Critiques of development including post-development perspectives (Escobar), alternative development paradigms, feminist critiques, human development, and development-induced dispossession.