List of all major books for Sociology Optional Subject

1. Sociology, 5^th edition – Michael  Haralambos
2. Sociology – A Guide to Problems and Literature, T. B. Bottomore
3. Classical Sociological Theory-George Ritzer & Douglas J. Goodman – McGrawHill Publications
4. 11 and 12^th NCERT – Sociology
5. Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, Anthony Giddens
6. Caste its 20th Century Avatar, M.N. Srinivas
7. Modernisation of Indian Tradition, Yogendra Singh
8. Social change in India, Yogendra Singh
9. Contemporary Sociology by M Francis Abraham, Oxford Publications
10. Society in India by Ram Ahuja
11. Handbook of Indian Sociology by Veena Das

List of all important and relevant IGNOU booklets:

MSO 001 Book 1: Block 2, 3 and 4

MSO 001 Book 2: Block 5, 6, 7 and 8

MSO 003 Book 1: block 1 (all the 4 units), block 2 (unit 5), block 3 (unit 9 and 10)

MSO 003 Book 2: block 6 (all the 4 units), block 7 (unit 24, 25), block 8 (unit 27 and 28)

MSO 004 Book 1: Entire booklet

MSO 004 Book 2: Block 5 (Unit 17, 19 and 20), block 6, 7 and 8

MSOE 004 Book 2: Blocks 5, 6 and 7

MPSE 007

Tutorial notes widely touted:

1) Generally, we refrain from suggesting any notes. But Mr. Upendra Gaur’s class notes have been suggested by a lot of toppers in Sociology over the years. In addition to all the books suggested above, you may refer to Upendra Gaur’s notes for anything that you might not be able to cover using the books suggested.

2) Sindhuri Madam’s notes (UPSC 2008 AIR 43) is also said to be very good. It is comprehensive and the notes have been prepared from multiple standard resources. If you can get it, please do read through.

3)  Vajiram Mahapatra sir’s class notes have also been acclaimed.

Please note that 1 and 3 have been suggested by students who have attended the classes of the said teachers’ and might have hence understood the notes better. Giving an objective answer to whether the notes by themselves will be of great use or not will be difficult. However, please read the standard textbooks and then run through each of these notes quickly. Use whatever you find suits your requirements and discard the rest.

Paper-I

Books:

1. Sociology, Haralambos, 5^th edition – A fantastic book to learn the fundamental concepts that constitute Sociology. The book also helps in Paper-2
2. Sociology – A Guide to Problems and Literature, T. B. Bottomore
3. Sociological Theory by George Ritzer and Douglas J. Goodman (VI edition) – Read Chapter 4.
4. Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, Anthony Giddens
5. 11 and 12^th NCERT – Sociology

Paper – II

Books:

1. IGNOU notes (especially for thinkers and topic on Indian system)
2. 11 and 12^th NCERT – Sociology
3. Caste its 20th Century Avatar, M.N. Srinivas
4. Modernisation of Indian Tradition, Yogendra Singh
5. Social tradition in India, Yogendra Singh
6. Notes by different tutorials as mentioned above
7. Contemporary Sociology by M Francis Abraham (Oxford Publications): Chapters 11, 14,15 and 17)
8. Society in India by Ram Ahuja (Selective pages from Chapters 1, 2, 4, 8, 9 and 16)
9. Handbook of Indian Sociology by Veena Das – Use this book only to cover those topics which you have not been able to cover using the standard textbooks mentioned above.

Note:

1) For Current affairs vis-à-vis Paper 2, please stick to Yojana, Hindu (& other standard newspapers & magazines). There is no need to go for horizontal diversification.

If you would like to explore Sociology more (and if you have the time to do so), the following books might be interesting.

Selective Reading:

1) Indological Perspective by Ghurye (Lesson 8)

2) Structural Functional Perspective by M N Srinivas (Lesson 10)

3) Marxian Perspective by A R Desai (Lesson 14)

4) Modernization of Indian tradition by Yogendra Singh (page 85 to 160, page 208 to 213)

5) Caste its 20th Century Avatar by M N Panini

6) The Political Economy of Caste by M N Panini (pp 28 to 63)

7) Tribal India by Nadeem Husnain (selective pages)

8) India’s Population Policy by Bhende and Kanitkar (selective pages)

9) Principle of Polulation Studies by Bhende and Kanitkar (Appendix C)

10) Indian tribals and search for an indigenous identity by Walter Fernandes

11) Slum problem in India: Magnitude, Genesis and Possible Solution by B K Chakraborty

12) Sixty Years of Development induced Displacement in India by Walter Fernandes

A few online sources:

1) Rajiv Ranjan Singh’s blog on Sociology (AIR 191, CSE 2009): http://intellection-rajiv.blogspot.in

2) Tanvi Sundriyal’s (AIR 6, CSE 2009) blog: http://thecivilservicesdream.blogspot.in/

3) Anay Dwivedi’s (AIR 5, CSE 2009) blog: http://anaydwivedi.wordpress.com/

Studying, Preparing and Writing – Sociology

1. Conceptual framework – For theory subjects like Sociology, it is paramount to master the fundamental concepts that form the subject. You need to understand what various terms mean and master the jargon of the subject. Once you understand the concepts and the jargon, you can start writing your own notes and analyses.

2. Thinkers – If you want to score well in Sociology, you have to make sure you understand each of the Thinkers. It is not just about mugging up what the text book says about the thinkers or only reading the topics in the textbook. When you are read about the thinkers, you need to understand their mindset and ideology. All thinkers (to a great extent) base their comments on issues in line with their core ideology. Please try and understand what this core ideology of each thinker is. It would then become exponentially easier to write about the opinions of thinkers on various issues and not just those issues which you have studied in the textbook.

3. Balanced answers – Although Sociology is immensely dry, it might be helpful to use examples while answering questions in Mains wherever applicable. Your answers need to be structured so that the examiner has a linear logical flow while reading it. This will ensure better marks. Please practice writing answers as it will help you structure answers on-the-go in the examination. Please be objective in your answers and wherever possible, provide a strong, logical conclusion to your answer.

Note:

1) If you honestly read through all the books listed, you will complete a great part of the syllabus. If you have missed any topic or feel that you need more material, you can refer the notes of any of the coaching institutes.

2) Please study topic wise. Do not be haphazard in your preparation. The subject is so vast that if you study without focus, you might have studied hard for 6 months and yet have achieved nothing. Please make a plan and study. Cover a topic, write answers and make notes (if you want to). Move on to the next topic.

Answer writing

At the end of the day, the most important primary activity that an aspirant needs to do is study the question papers of the last 20-25 years, understand what kind of questions are being asked. There is a tendency of repeating questions from previous years’ as far as certain optional subjects with static content go.

Learn to write effective answers within the prescribed word limit. There will not be enough time during the exam to think and write. Your mind should be trained enough that it should be able to answer a question upon first seeing it. Write and practice as much as you can. The importance of practicing writing answers cannot be overstressed. Make use of flowcharts wherever possible to explain.

Initially just practice writing good answers and compiling points. After 2 months of answer writing everyday, you can start writing answers by timing it appropriately. For example, a 20 marks question should be allotted no more than 12 minutes.

Revision

Needless to say, you will have to revise the entire syllabus at least 3 times. Make your own notes if necessary. The more you revise, the more you will retain.

Work hard. Work smart!