Class Notes 4 You

Indian Environmental movement are diverse and complex. RC Guha had argued that they are empty stomach movements and only post 1990s the era of professionalism was started in this sphere. It has been impacted by various factors like nature of political economy of India post 1991 LPG Reforms, changing nature of consumer demands towards more materialistic needs, etc.  Post 1990s changes • Adoption of a liberal economy where the government role declined and market forces captured the Indian economy boosting high scale capitalistic production interventions linking to increased nature of economic activities concentrated in urban areas based on deforested lands like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Bangaluru, etc. • Liberalization led market forces -Economic liberalizationbased on free market liberal era spurred economic growth, brought competition, increased production thereby increasing economic activities. But at the same time, it induced negative externalities due to high economic conce...

NCBC was given the constitutional status through 102nd Constitution Amendment Act, 2018. It has also been given the authority to examine grievances and welfare measures regarding the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes. Previously, NCBC was given a statutory status under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. In the Indian constitution, Article 340 deals with the need to, identify those "socially and educationally backward classes", and also to understand the conditions of their backwardness, and then to make recommendations to remove the difficulties they face. NCBC has proved itself to be an empowered body through - • The commission has the power to investigate and monitor all those matters relating to the safeguards provided for the socially and educationally backward classes under the Constitution or under any other law to evaluate the working of such safeguards. • It also participates and advises the government on the socio-economic develop...

Indian governance system has the provision of a bicameral system, i.e. two houses at the parliament. Upper house i.e. Rajya sabha and the lower house i.e. Lok sabha. Similarly, at the state level, the equivalent of the lower house is vidhan sabha or legislative assembly and that of upper house is legislative council or vidhan parishad. Article 169 of the constitution gives the provision for creation and abolition of legislative council in the states. Need of legislative councils- • It allows some leaders, professors, and other people who don’t participate in elections top articipate in legislative process. • It also helps to formulate better and detailed discussed legislation. • Upper House consists of representatives like- graduates, teachers, outstanding persons in the fields of art, literature, science and social service, brings in more representation in the lower house. • Having a second house at state level would allow for more debate and sharing of work between the Houses. Why le...

The Indian constitution was framed by the constituent assembly with the vision of building a unified and coherent society. Preamble of the constitution was specially designed keeping in mind all the ideals and aspirations that are forefathers wanted to see in our constitution. The preamble of Indian constitution is based on 1946 objective resolution proposed by J L Nehru. It was unanimously adopted on 22nd Jan, 1947. It shows the guiding purpose and principles of the document and also indicates the source of its power, i.e. people of India.  Our society is ever-evolving one with one of the largest diversity in the world, thus there is a need of a social contract which would be flexible, and responsible to the needed changes of the time; and while at the same time- should be rigid and robust. John Locke’s concept of social contract resembles Indian scenario the most. Both- John Locke’s state and Indian state talks about establishing- a state and how it interacts with the citizens. S...

The idea of industrialization arrived in India in around 1950s that was largely based on western understanding of development through technology. At that time, the worker class constituted a small part of the population. The gradual framing of industrial policies helped to increase the industrial workforce in India. It was in 1870’s when attempts were made in India for the first time to better the working conditions of the workers by framing laws for them. But it remained a very weak effort because of no concrete benefits to the working class due to it. The period of 1915-1922 saw various national freedom struggle movements. This period also witnessed the resurgence of the workers movements. Organizations for workers movements-  1. Working men’s club- It was formed by Sasipada Banerjee in 1870 in Bengal. He also started publishing a monthly journal ‘Bharat shramjibi’ to further increase worker’s cause. 2. Working men’s mission- it was formed in 1878 in Bengal by leaders of Brahmo s...

Entitlement theory was proposed by “Robert Nozick” in his book- “Anarchy, state and Utopia”. It is a theory based on distributive justice and private property. Through this theory, Nozick attempted to explain the concept of “Justice in holdings”. The entitlement theory largely comprises of three main principles- Principle of justice in acquisition- It deals with the initial acquisition of holdings. It explains the concepts like- how people first came to own the unowned, what type of things can be hold, etc. Principle of justice in transfer- It attempts to explain- how any person can acquire holdings from some other person. This also includes any voluntary exchanges and gifts. Principle of rectification of injustice- This principle attempts to explain- how to deal with any of those holdings that are unjustly acquired or transferred. Nozick believed that if the world would have been wholly just, then only the first two principles would be needed. Then, the entitlement theory would imply ...

Mahatma Gandhi was categorical in emphasizing that, decentralization of power through grass root network of proactive panchayats was the only way in order to achieve the end of human happiness combined with full mental and moral development. The ideal of ‘Gram Swaraj ‘in Gandhian thought was only possible when the panchayats were capable of ensuring efficiency in resource use and allocation. Gandhian Theory of Oceanic circles tries to reimagine governance through a web of self-independent villages. Panchayats within such villages should be organized in a way to ensure that the resources of villages are utilized smartly and fully to meet the needs. For agricultural development, the Bhoodan Movement was organized on the same lines where the land resource was judiciously used by voluntarily transferring it from big landholders to the landless and disadvantaged sections of society. The 73rd Amendment of Indian Constitution captures the essence of this Gandhian ideal of decentralization by ...

Rawls in his work 'A Theory of Justice' (1971) mentioned that justice is the first virtue of social institutions just like truth is the first virtue of any system of thought. Justice is one of the central ideas of Political theory which has been dealt with by scholars from ancient times like Plato and Aristotle to contemporary times like Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze. There are two approaches to justice- procedural and substantive.While John Rawls supported the former, Dr Ambedkar supported the latter. John Rawls theory is purely procedural in nature as it is based on development of overlapping consensus with regard to distribution of primary social goods in the society. Rawls gave the principles of distributive justice using a hypothetical thought experiment. He held that when people are made to stand behind a veil of ignorance where they have no knowledge about their attributes, class, social status or their own conceptions of good, they could arrive at certain principles to att...

Sabine held that “Hobbes’s absolutism is a derivative of his individualism.” In his work 'Leviathan', Hobbes supported absolute, indivisible and inalienable sovereignty. Hobbes views were influenced by the events which took place during his time (English civil war, 1642-51) Hobbes believed that man is utilitarian due to movement of particles in his mind which creates emotions of inclination and aversion. As a result individuals are guided by their passion (resolutive compositive method). Since individuals are guided by passion, he held that in the state of nature, the law of might is right prevails and life of man is “nasty, poor, brutish and short.” Hobbes held that man is so individualistic that he cannot live in peace with other men until and unless there is absolute authority. So he held that “man has only two options either to live in a state of absolute authority or absolute anarchy.” To protect the lives of individuals, he gave absolute theory of sovereignty. According t...