Monday, September 30, 2013

Write a note on the Non-Cooperation movement.

Non-Cooperation movement, (September 1920–February 1922), unsuccessful attempt, organized by Mohandas Gandhi, to induce the British government of India to grant self-government, or swaraj, to India. It arose from the outcry over the massacre at Amritsar in April 1919, when the British killed several hundred Indians, and from later indignation at the government’s alleged failure to take adequate action against those responsible. Gandhi strengthened the movement by supporting (on nonviolent terms) the contemporaneous Muslim campaign against the dismemberment of Turkey after World War I.

The movement was to be nonviolent and to consist of the resignations of titles; the boycott of government educational institutions, the courts, government service, foreign goods, and elections; and the eventual refusal to pay taxes. Noncooperation was agreed to by the Indian
National Congress at Calcutta (now Kolkata) in September 1920 and launched that December. In 1921 the government, confronted with a united Indian front for the first time, was visibly shaken, but a revolt by the Muslim Moplahs of Kerala (southwestern India) in August 1921 and a number of violent outbreaks alarmed moderate opinion. After an angry mob murdered police officers at Chauri Chaura (February 1922), Gandhi himself called off the movement; the next month he was arrested without incident. The movement marks the transition of Indian nationalism from a middle-class to a mass basis.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Write a note on the Indian National Army.

Indian National Army, also known as the Azad Hind Fauj, was formed for the liberation of India from theBritish rule. It was formed in South-East Asia in the year 1942 by pioneering Indian Nationalists and prisoners who wanted to throw off the yoke of foreign domination and liberate the country. The INA was initially formed under Mohan Singh, after the fall of Singapore, the captain in the 1/14th Punjab Regiment in the British Army. However, the first INA under Mohan Singh collapsed and finally it was revived under the leadership of Subash Chandra Bose in 1943. Bose`s army was declared as the Azri Hukumat e Azad Hind. Indian National Army emerged along with Mahatma Gandhi`s peaceful resistance movement within
India. In contrast to Mahatma Gandhi, Bose advocated a more aggressive confrontation with the British authorities.
Origin of Indian National Army
INA was formed during the first world war when the Ghadar Party and the emergence form of the Indian Independence League planned to rebel in the British Indian Army from the Punjab through Bengal to Hong Kong. However, this plan met with failure after the information was leaked to British Intelligence. During the Second World War, the plan to fight the British found revival and a number of leaders and movements were initiated. These included the various "liberation armies" which were formed in as well as with the help of Italy, Germany as well as in South-east Asia. Thus in South East Asia the concept of the Indian National Army emerged. It was supported by the Japanese 15th army and led by Bose.
Composition of the Indian National Army
Indian National Army had many valued freedom fighters that helped in the battles. They all had a brilliant background and fought for a similar cause, freedom of India. The INA freedom fighters were from every sphere ranging from barristers to plantation workers. The revival of the Indian National Army was done by Subhash Chandra Bose.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Discuss the factors that led to the partition of India.

Causes for Partition of India mainly rests around three vital causes which include the British policy of divide and rule on the basis of religion, races, caste and creed, the relationship of Muslim League and Indian National Congress; and the demand of Muslim league for a separate country for the Muslims living in India. The partition of India not only changed the geography of the subcontinent; it at the same time left a deep rooted impact on the hearts of people who had struggled for years to see the dawn of peace with a new India.
The Partition of India was based on number of factors. With the passage of time number of issues developed within Indian politics. The newly rising factors which occupied the political scenario in India included factors like rise of Communalism, creation of new political parties and their rising political awareness, the question of security of the minority groups living in India and the inherent conflict within the existing parties. As a foreign rule the British government made all efforts to understand these variations which helped them to great a strong base in India .It was only during and after the Second World War that the British Government was forced internally as well as externally to grant freedom to India. Among these factors the rise of communalism was the most alarming one which sowed the seeds of partition in the long run. The major group affected by this was the newly created All India Muslim League under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The rise of communalism which turned out to be the most important cause for the Partition of India rested mainly on three factors. Firstly, a belief which prevailed was that people of the same community who follow the same religion will have common secular interest i.e. common political, social and cultural interest; in a multi cultural society like India the secular interests of each community differs with the other; and finally communalism arises when the interests of different religions are seen as antagonistic, incompatible and hostile to each other. As these principles formed the base of the newly created parties this forced them to remain away from each other. On the other side the British rule which lasted in India for last 200 years gave full encouragement to this growing in difference. This was further encouraged by the announcement of Communal awards. The encouragement provided by the British Government could be traced back to the period of Partition of Bengal. With this the British government for the first time raised the issue of difference within the communities of Muslim and Hindus to begin with which was though vehemently protested yet led to partition of India as a whole.
With the roots of communalism already sworn by the British rulers it in the long run formed the base of the new party namely All India Muslim League. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the pioneer of the party, was initially member of Indian National Congress but due to his differences with Mahatma Gandhi he chose to form a new party. The struggle for Pakistan continued to remain as the bone of contention till the end of the struggle till it achieved its mission.
Along with the existing dissatisfaction with the Muslim League the Indian politics faced some more changes within Indian politics. 1940s witnessed the strengthening of some of the existing parties and their new generation politicians like the Akalis of Punjab and Hindu Mahasabha who added to the existing communal drift. The major concern of the present day politics was to look after one`s own security and the existence of their own community highlighting vehemently the issue of Communalism in Indian politics.

What is communalism? Discuss the process of its emergence in Indian society.

Communism," for its part, once referred to a cooperative society that would be based morally on mutual respect and on an economy in which each contributed to the social labor fund according to his or her ability and received the means of life according to his or her needs. Today, "communism" is associated with the Stalinist gulag and wholly rejected as totalitarian. Its cousin, "socialism" -- which once denoted a politically free society based on various forms of collectivism and equitable material returns for labor -- is currently interchangeable with a somewhat humanistic bourgeois liberalism.

During the 1980s and 1990s, as the entire social and political spectrum has shifted ideologically to the right, "anarchism" itself has not been immune to redefinition. In the Anglo-American sphere, anarchism is being divested of its social ideal by an emphasis on personal autonomy, an emphasis that is draining it of its historic vitality. A Stirnerite individualism -- marked by an advocacy of lifestyle changes, the cultivation of behavioral idiosyncrasies and even an embrace of outright mysticism -- has become increasingly prominent. This personalistic "lifestyle anarchism" is steadily eroding the socialistic core of anarchist concepts of freedom.
Let me stress that in the British and American social tradition, autonomy and freedom are not equivalent terms. By insisting the need to eliminate personal domination, autonomy focuses on the individual as the formative component and locus of society. By contrast, freedom, despite its looser usages, denotes the absence of domination in society, of which the individual is part. This contrast becomes very important when individualist anarchists equate collectivism as such with the tyranny of the community over its members
Today, if an anarchist theorist like L. Susan Brown can assert that "a group is a collection of individuals, no more and no less," rooting anarchism in the abstract individual, we have reason to be concerned. Not that this view is entirely new to anarchism; various anarchist historians have described it as implicit in the libertarian outlook. Thus the individual appears ab novo, endowed with natural rights and bereft of roots in society or historical development.1
But whence does this "autonomous" individual derive? What is the basis for its "natural rights," beyond a priori premises and hazy intuitions? What role does historical development play in its formation? What social premises give birth to it, sustain it, indeed nourish it? How can a "collection of individuals" institutionalize itself such as to give rise to something more than an autonomy that consists merely in refusing to impair the "liberties" of others -- or "negative liberty," as Isaiah Berlin called it in contradistinction to "positive liberty," which is substantive freedom, in our case constructed along socialistic lines?
In the history of ideas, "autonomy," referring to strictly personal "self-rule," found its ancient apogee in the imperial Roman cult of libertas. During the rule of the Julian-Claudian Caesars, the Roman citizen enjoyed a great deal of autonomy to indulge his own desires -- and lusts -- without reproval from any authority, provided that he did not interfere with the business and the needs of the state. In the more theoretically developed liberal tradition of John Locke and John Stuart Mill, autonomy acquired a more expansive sense that was opposed ideologically to excessive state authority. During the nineteenth century, if there was any single subject that gained the interest of classical liberals, it was political economy, which they often conceived not only as the study of goods and services, but also as a system of morality. Indeed, liberal thought generally reduced the social to the economic. Excessive state authority was opposed in favor of a presumed economic autonomy. Ironically, liberals often invoked the word freedom, in the sense of "autonomy," as they do to the present day.2
Despite their assertions of autonomy and distrust of state authority, however, these classical liberal thinkers did not in the last instance hold to the notion that the individual is completely free from lawful guidance. Indeed, their interpretation of autonomy actually presupposed quite definite arrangements beyond the individual -- notably, the laws of the marketplace. Individual autonomy to the contrary, these laws constitute a social organizing system in which all "collections of individuals" are held under the sway of the famous "invisible hand" of competition. Paradoxically, the laws of the marketplace override the exercise of "free will" by the same sovereign individuals who otherwise constitute the "collection of individuals."
No rationally formed society can exist without institutions and if a society as a "collection of individuals, no more and no less" were ever to emerge, it would simply dissolve. Such a dissolution, to be sure, would never happen in reality. The liberals, nonetheless, can cling to the notion of a "free market" and "free competition" guided by the "inexorable laws" of political economy.
Alternatively, freedom, a word that shares etymological roots with the German Freiheit (for which there is no equivalent in Romance languages), takes its point of departure not from the individual but from the community or, more broadly, from society. In the last century and early in the present one, as the great socialist theorists further sophisticated ideas of freedom, the individual and his or her development were consciously intertwined with social evolution -- specifically, the institutions that distinguish society from mere animal aggregations.
What made their focus uniquely ethical was the fact that as social revolutionaries they asked the key question -- What constitutes a rational society? -- a question that abolishes the centrality of economics in a free society. Where liberal thought generally reduced the social to the economic, various socialisms (apart from Marxism), among which Kropotkin denoted anarchism the "left wing," dissolved the economic into the social.3
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as Enlightenment thought and its derivatives brought the idea of the mutability of institutions to the foreground of social thought, the individual, too, came to be seen as mutable. To the socialistic thinkers of the period, a "collection" was a totally alien way of denoting society; they properly considered individual freedom to be congruent with social freedom and, very significantly, they defined freedom as such as an evolving, as well as a unifying, concept.
In short, both society and the individual were historicized in the best sense of this term: as an ever-developing, self-generative and creative process in which each existed within and through the other. Hopefully, this historicization would be accompanied by ever-expanding new rights and duties. The slogan of the First International, in fact, was the demand, "No rights without duties, no duties without rights" -- a demand that later appeared on the mastheads of anarchosyndicalist periodicals in Spain and elsewhere well into the present century.
Thus, for classical socialist thinkers, to conceive of the individual without society was as meaningless as to conceive of society without individuals. They sought to realize both in rational institutional frameworks that fostered the greatest degree of free expression in every aspect of social life.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Write a note on the Quit India Movement.

In August 1942, Gandhiji launched the Quit India Movement (“Bharat Chhodo Andolan”). A resolution was passed on 8 August 1942 in Bombay by the All India Congress Committee, declaring its demand for an immediate end of British rule. The Congress decided to organize a mass struggle on non-violent lines on the widest possible scale. Gandhiji’s slogan of ‘Do or Die’ (‘Karo ya Maro’) inspired the nation. Every man, women and child began dreaming of a free India. The government’s response to the movement was quick. The Congress was banned and most of its leaders were arrested before they could start mobilizing the people. The people, however, were unstoppable. There were hartals and demonstrations all over the country. The people attacked all symbols of the British government such as railway stations, law courts and police stations. Railway lines were damaged and telegraph lines were cut. In some places, people even set up their independent government. The movement was most widespread in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, Bombay, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Places such as Ballia, Tamluk, Satara, Dharwar, Balasore and Talcher were freed from British rule and the people there formed their own governments.
The British responded with terrible brutality. The army was called out to assist the police. There were lathi-charges and firing at the unarmed demonstrators. Even old men and children were shot dead while taking part in processions. Protestors were arrested and tortured and their homes raided and destroyed. By December 1942, over sixty thousand people had been jailed.The few leaders who had escaped arrest went into hiding and tried to guide the mass movement. Among them were Jai Prakash Narayan, S M Joshi, Aruna Asaf Ali, Ram Manohar Lohis, Achyut Patwardhan and Smt Sucheta Kripalani.
The Indians suffered greatly throughout the Second World War. There was a terrible famine in Bengal in AD 1943 in which over thirty lakh people died. The government did little to save the starving people. The Congress had little success in rallying other political forces under a single flag and program. Smaller parties like the Hindu Mahasabha opposed the call. The Communist Party of India strongly opposed the Quit India movement and supported the war effort because of the need to assist the Soviet Union, despite support for Quit India by many industrial workers. In response the British lifted the ban on the party.[5] The movement had less support in the princely states, as the princes were strongly opposed and funded the opposition.[6]
Muslim leaders opposed Quit India. Muhammad Ali Jinnah's opposition to the call led to large numbers of Muslims cooperating with the British, and enlisting in the army.[7] The Muslim League gained large numbers of new members. Congress members resigned from provincial legislatures, enabling the League to take control in Sindh, Bengal and Northwest Frontier.[8][9]
The nationalists had very little international support. They knew that the United States strongly supported Indian independence, in principle, and believed the U.S. was an ally. However, after Churchill threatened to resign if pushed too hard, the U.S. quietly supported him while bombarding Indians with propaganda designed to strengthen public support of the war effort. The poorly run American operation annoyed both the British and the Indians.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Discuss the causes of the Revolt of 1857. Why did it fail?

One of the primary and severe outbursts of resentment against the British rule came in the form of the Indian revolt of 1857. This revolt followed the battles of Plassey and Buxar and the main cause was resentment against setting up of British rule in Bengal. It is called the first war of independence by many historians though it is a debatable topic. The British historians termed it Sepoy Mutiny and Jawaharlal Nehru called it a feudal revolt which was much more than just a Sepoy Mutiny. Read further about the causes of revolt of 1857 in India.
The revolt was basically started by the soldiers who worked for the East India Company and later was spread across the country by peasants, artisans and soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the sake of others. Different religions of India came together and fought united for one cause. There were many different reasons for the outbreak of the revolt of 1857. Exploitation by the British, imposing of their faith forcefully on Indians, etc. were just some causes. Some of the other causes are discussed below.
Thousands of soldiers were rendered jobless when the northern states were annexed. The able soldiers of kingdoms like Oudh were very frustrated by this move and were waiting to seek revenge.
The Indian soldiers employed under the British were made to use a special type of cartridge that was to be bitten off before being loaded in a rifle. It was rumored that the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. This angered the Hindus and Muslims as it hurt their religious sentiments.
The policy of annexation introduced by Lord Dalhousie was received with much discontent among Indians. Due to the introduction of the new policy, Baji Rao's adopted son Nana Sahib was dispossessed of the pension his father was receiving. It was announced that Bahadur Shah Zafar will not be allowed to stay in the Red Fort anymore and they would have to move to a place near Qutub Minar. It was also announced that the successors of Bahadur Shah would not be given the title of king.
The British started to impose Christianity to provoke people further. Taxes were collected form temples and mosques and Hindu and Muslim soldiers were asked to accept the faith of Christianity.
The Revolt of 1857 could not be successful on account of the following factors (reasons):
a) Lack of unity and cohesion:
Many state rulers e.g. the Scindias, Holkars, Nizam of Hyderabad, Nawab of Bhopal, Rajas of Patiala, Nabha, Jind Jodhpur etc., big Zamindars and traders actively supported the British. The Sikh, Rajput and Gorkha Battalions remained loyal to the British to suppress the Revolt.
b) The rising was not widespread:
The Revolt was limited to U.P., Delhi and West Bengal. It did not assume a national character.
c) No common aims and ideals:
The Hindus and the Muslims wanted to establish their separate empires. There was no unified programme.
d) Lack of discipline, resources and organization:
The revolutionaries lacked resources (men and money), discipline and organization. They were brave and patriotic but lacked leadership qualities.
An unplanned early start: An unplanned early start (Much before the scheduled date i.e. May) alerted the British rulers. The revolt was crushed and failed miserably.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

As a teacher you must have felt some problems in implementation of continuous comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) in your school. Mention those problem and also explain how did you overcome those problem .

Continuous and comprehensive evaluation is an education system newly introduced by Central Board of Secondary Education in India, for students of sixth to tenth grades. The main aim of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation is to evaluate every aspect of the child during their presence at the school. This is believed to help reduce the pressure on the child during/before examinations as the student will have to sit for multiple tests throughout the year, of which no test or the syllabus covered will be repeated at the end of the year, whatsoever. The Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation method is claimed to bring enormous changes from the traditional chalk and talk method of teaching provided it is implemented accurately.
As a teacher we do have faced many problems in the implementation of such systems. Problems faced under this method are.
Time Constraints:
Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation requires us to spend more time evaluating individual students. While the advantages of this include a broader view of the child's progress and more interaction with the child's parents, it can put additional strain on us that negatively influences their ability to assess students. Student conferences are more frequent under this system, requiring us to add more hours to their work day. This disadvantage can easily be remedied if parents avail themselves for conferences with the teacher during school hours and if classroom sizes are limited. We have to adjust our timings and schedule as per the system. So we request parents to avail themselves for the conference so that time constraints can be avoided and be maintained well.
Potential for Inconsistencies:

Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation requires all of us to be trained and adhere to the same assessment methods. However, the system is liable to suffer from many inconsistencies. We teachers are charged with assessing cognitive abilities as well as health habits, work habits, cleanliness and cooperation. While a general standard of health habits and cleanliness, for example, may be assumed, the truth is such personal standards can be surprisingly subjective. Training teachers in assessing these values  may not provide any more consistent results than standardized testing.
Potential for Prejudice:
Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation is aimed at grooming students academically as well as shaping their attitudes, beliefs and values. The potential for prejudice against minority groups or sectarian religious groups is a great risk in a system based on teacher-only assessment. Standardized tests allow students whose grades may be negatively influenced by teacher prejudice to prove their capability outside of the classroom.
The Ghost of Classrooms Past:
Kindergarten through high school portfolio assessment may set students up for continued poor performance. Traditionally, students have started each new school year without any known predetermined expectations by teachers. This can be liberating for students who wish to leave their poor performance behind and apply themselves anew. However, carrying records of poor performance in elementary through high school may engender in students a low expectation of their ability to overcome that history of performance. A teacher's ability to read a student's entire history may unintentionally establish expectations of poor performance that prevents teachers from applying different methods of teaching subjects to struggling students.
Student scoring better marks:
A downside of the CCE system is the grading system. This is because the bracket is very wide, for example students that score between 90 and 100 will get an A* grade. You may see this as a positive scheme because it gives the chance for more students to receive a higher grade, however, a student that scores 8 more points than someone else but doesn't receive a better grade may seem unfair. Though * more points does matter a lot. But that student also stands in the same line as of the student who scored 90. Which is a problem for us that how to get a good grade for that particular student.
Stress on Students as well:
Despite the system aiming to lessen stress, the grading system may in fact cause more stress for the students.. For example, a student may feel more pressure to get a higher grade because the grade margin is substantially larger than you would expect. As a teacher it puts a stress on us also to note how a student is doing and what is his requirement to complete is grade goal
INITIAL REACTIONS: 
As a teacher it aggrieves me to share that CCE has created more chaos rather than being welcomed by the schools. The bewilderment it has generated is equivocal amongst school managements, teachers, students, parents, publishers and other agencies working in the field of education. Therefore, there are schools demanding intensive CCE

training for different stakeholders there are Students who feel that it will mean more assessments for them on an ongoing basis. Teachers feel that their work has increased tremendously with assessments having additional ‘descriptive indicators’.
Hence we face more than the above mentioned problems in the continuous comprehensive evaluation system but as teacher we have to get over all the above problems and get a systematic solution to it. If we do not get a solution its ultimately us who suffers because it’s not a system followed by school or college this system is run by whole education system, all over the world and not only in India.
Though the method is problematic its good for the students to achieve marks not only on the basis of class studies but also on the basis of their class behavior also. Students who score well do not think about their behavior and have much attitude in them just because they score well. Because of continuous comprehensive evaluation this thing has almost vanished from the class rooms thus ultimately this method is helpful to teachers like us who now don’t have to tolerate the burden of student’s behavior as they are already cleaned up through continuous comprehensive evaluation. They behave well to get the best possible grades. Hence it’s a very helpful concept of studies and maintaining class discipline too.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Explain the concept of ‘Grading’ & its types with suitable examples.

Grading is a powerful tool faculty use to communicate with their students, colleagues, and institutions, as well as external entities.   The authors, through their personal experiences in the classroom and from listening to faculty from myriad institutions at workshops around the country, have found that teachers have “spent nearly every day of *their+ teaching lives wrestling with the problems, the power, and the paradoxes of the grading system” (xv).  “Effective Grading . . . presents suggestions for making classroom grading more fair, more time-efficient, and more conducive to learning” (xvi).
Letter Grades
With the letter grade system, students can receive A, B, C, D or F grades. Letter grades are usually calculated with a nine or 10-point range assigned to each letter. A is the highest grade, associated with 90 percent accuracy or higher and  F grade is given for a performance with 59 percent accuracy or less.

4.0 Grading Scale
The 4.0 grading scale is another common type of grading, often used in conjunction with letter grades. This scale typically is used in high schools and colleges, as a means to calculate a Grade Point Average (GPA)
 Mastery Grading
A new trend in grading systems is mastery, Rick Wormeli writes in his book, "Fair Isn't Always Equal." Many school systems, in kindergarten through 12th grade, are moving away from the sometimes-subjective traditional grading systems toward the more concrete mastery grade systems.
For example:  Schools ad collages. They use Letter grade system. They give grades according to what student has got marks.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

What is distinctive about the cold war as compared to other international conflicts of the twentieth century?

After the Second World War the spirit of rivalry was further strengthened with the chief victors getting into two different fronts. The first and the seconds’ world wars were fought due to imperialistic attitudes of some western countries. But the cold war is ideologically different from the first and the Second World War. The division of Europe into two antagonistic spheres became evident. The main cause of the cold war was the ideological conflict between the U.S.S.R and the U.S. The cold war s origin can be traced back to Russian revolution in 1917. Communism established itself a militant faith. It believed to bring world revolution by the total extinction of the non believers. By exerting internal and external pressures the desired goals were aimed to be achieved. The beliefs and ideas of communism were strictly opposed by America. On the other hand soviet and Chinese communist leaders defined bourgeoisie capitalism as an anti progressive force. It was attributed with the features like oppressive and imperialistic attitude. But they were doomed to be buried under socialism. The first and the second world were inspired by imperialistic interest. Rise of extremist power was also prepared the stage for the Second World War, besides totalitarism surfaced to varying degrees in the first half of the 19th century. As a result individual liberty was sacrificed on the name of the state. Large scale unemployment and economic distress considerably increased the fear of enemies both internally and externally. Germany’s Nazi regime, Italy’s fascism regime and Japan’s modernization drive also played a vital role. Mutual distrust and failure of building an anti fascist alliance along with the non existence of a strong international body to co-ordinate among international powers also hailed it. The first world was mainly characterised by expansion plans by military and naval commands of different countries. Several mobilization plans and a lightening of the hostile coalitions built a momentum for war over riding arguments for peace developing from trade, industry and good sense created an international crisis. The Great War had claimed t5he lives of no less than 15th million people. Its development took place due to high ambitions, aspirations and jealousy which centred around countries like Germany, Britain, Russia, France, Belgium etc. But the Second World War was vaster in its impact. The cold war in comparison is an era of conflict which has witnessed no wide scale, direct conflicts. Rather the war was fought on diplomatic terms. In 1945 the US was a supreme power and it was evident in its economy that accounted for about 50 percent of the total world GNP. In the Second World War the U.S.S.R had lost 20 million men in war casualties and approximately the same number in related events. But still a large portion of the eastern and the central Europe into the centre of the Germany and also the Balkans were occupied by U.S.S.R. Germany was divided into two war fronts centring which tensions prevailed between U.S.S.R on one hand and united front of the French ,British and the Americans. The prime foreign policy objective of the US was containment of communism. The country took a number of effective measures to oppose communism. All Latin American countries committed themselves to join defence against internal and external communist subversion in Rio treaty of 1947. Attempts were being made to form a united front of non-communist European countries. In 1949 north Atlantic treaty organization was formed. Its main objective was to provide defence to the west European countries. Turkey and FRG joined it later. On the other central and eastern European countries were brought together in the Warsaw pact time under the leadership of the Soviet Union. Confrontation between two military alliances started a new arms race. The fear of nuclear warfare loomed over the whole world. The cold war came to Asia first when china proclaimed itself as the peoples of china in October 1949.china saw US as an adversary of its interest. The most dangerous crisis of the world war took place in October 1962 over the issue of soviet missiles placed in the Caribbean island of cuba.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Explain briefly the characteristics of a good evaluation tools.

1.  Objective-baseness:  Evaluation is making judgment about some phenomena or performance on the basis of some pre-determined objectives.  Therefore a tool meant for evaluation should measure attainment in terms of criteria determined by instructional objectives.  
2.  Comprehensiveness: A tool should cover all pints expected to be learnt by the pupils.  It should also cover all the pre-determined objectives.  This is referred to be comprehensiveness.
3.  Discriminating power: A good evaluation tool should be able to discriminate the respondents on the basis of the phenomena measured. 
 4.  Reliability: Reliability of a tool refers to the degree of consistency and accuracy with which it measures what it is intended to measure.  If the evaluation gives more or less the same result every time it is used, such evaluation is said to be reliable.
5.  Validity: Validity is the most important quality needed for an evaluation tool.  If the tool is able to measure what it is intended to measure, it can be said that the tool is valid.  It should fulfill the objectives for which it is developed.  
 6.  Objectivity: A tool is said to be objective if it is free from personal bias of interpreting its scope as well as in scoring the responses. Objectivity is one of the most primary pre-requisites required for maintaining all other qualities of a good too.
7.  Practicability: A tool, however, well it satisfies all the above criteria, may be useless unless it is not practically feasible.

Nature and Content of Western political thought.

Political thought is related to politics, but it is history that provides political thought its very basis. Political thought can not be studies without politics sometime it may possible but we cannot study political thought without history.  We must follow history to understanding political thought, so it is in historical context. A political philosopher’s political philosophy emerges in the age of philosopher breaths. Plato classification of states depicted the classification as it prevailed then; his theory of education was drawn heavily from what existed in Athens and Sparta then. Machiavelli’s whole methodology depicted his debt of history. Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau made history as the basis interpretation of history. The objectives conditions of history always provide the foundations on which the political philosophers have built their philosophy. We can understand the political philosophy of a political thinker only in the historical context. Separate a political philosopher from his times, one will always find a proper condemning Plato as an enemy of open society. A contextual study is always a safer method of understanding a text. It is true that a text without a context is a structure without a base. In this sense Machiavelli is better understood in the context of renaissance. But Hobbes Locke, with their views as apart as the north-south poles, can be better studied in the background of the English civil war. Also Marx can be understood in the light of the growing capitalism of the European western society. Is it western political thought is based on history? But its history, Professor Sabine rightly says, has no concluding chapter. This has grown and is growing and in fact, will always keep growing. This has grown in a typical way; each subsequent philosopher criticizes the philosophy or political ideas of an earlier philosopher, and in the process builds his own philosophy. Here Aristotle did so with Plato, Locke did so with filmer, Bentham with Blackstone, john Stuart mill, with Bentham, Marx did so with Hegel, Adam smith, proudhon. Then western political thought has grown its proceeds on polemics, it changes, but it continues. It is continuing since the days of Plato and Aristotle. No wonder if then it is said that all philosophy is a footnote to Plato. Plato and Aristotle together gave the base on which stands the whole fabric of western political thought, for political idealism and political realism are the two pillars of the western political philosophy from where rise numerous other related shades. So we can say that it is not easy to identify what the western political thought contains. The attempt, indeed, would be arbitrary. However, major contents of the western political thought can be, for the sake of making a point, be stated, to be political institution, and procedures, political idealism and realism. Lastly we can say that western political thought is rich in its contents. It has helped in stating the utility of political institutions, political procedures to be followed. It has given the western tradition values such as democracy, nationalism, liberty, justice and above all the two parallel pillars, idealism and realism; on which rest the major frameworks of political theory within which most theorists operate.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Bureaucratisation in the context of the modern world.

Medieval Europe experienced centralization of power in the heads of the king it was quite different from the professional attitude and proficiency which modern bureaucracy displays. Royal absolutism monopolised power in its own favour and appointment in important posts were being made purely on the basis of king’s appraisal. The feudal lords were appointed for their loyalty and efficiency was not a mother of prime importance. The transformation took place in the nineteenth century in Europe. All challenges from feudal nobilities and local estates had been overcome. The modern state could accumulate apparently unlimited resources by means of industrialization. The main challenges before the state was to harness and exploit these vast resources, besides there were newer sources, both material and human. The state began to take direct interest in different fields like industry, education health etc. To mobilise and use the resources efficiency new institutions and professions were required. The emergence of professional bureaucracies takes place against this background. The direct activities of the state vastly expanded. Starting with Britain from the 1830s, but all these were accompanied by a comparable campaign against corruption which is a direct result of bureaucracy. Professionals were being appointed especially through the competitive examination. In stages from 1870, entry into the civil service was to take place through competitive examinations. The professionals took changes everywhere and education itself became a form of investment. This process was slower in France. The France had a reputation for absolutist states, royal bureaucracies and Napoleonic efficiency. High levels of proficiency and bureaucracy were attained in Paris, but the provinces remained in the hads of local interests to a degree greater than Germany or Berlin. In Russia extraordinary concentration of power at the top tends to make it an under governed country. In the second half of the 19th century political parties also changed into bureaucratic structures. In the 1860s they transformed themselves into large mass organizations. In Britain, the party used to be a loose association of groups engaged in regional or local polities. From about 1867 the loose polities of local parties changed as the parties began to be more organized and centralized. Both liberal and conservative party, benefit societies, each of them organized their own constituency associations. These associations were centralized. The central unit were empowered to exercise full control over the local units. The German party system developed in compatible manner. In 1875 SPD or the social democratic party was formed. Indeed the German civil service became something of a model across the ideological spectrum, the contrast to some extent in the France and the Mediterranean states, France being predominantly occupied with weaker organizational structures. Than the German or the British counterparts. The reason is mainly because of the size of the parties. After the Second World War the communist party became an excellent bureaucracy in typically Stalinist fashion. The fascist bureaucracies formally submitted to the principle of leadership. But this leadership is not a single leadership but a virtual leadership. The bureaucratization of political parties means democratization of the bureaucracy. A political party in this context is conceived as an agent of democracy. In the matter of single party system the bureaucracies are of two types the party and the state.

The democratic institutions of modern times which embody the hopes of the exploited are the trade unions. The trade unions are the organizations which undergoes a new wave of industrialization, new technologies, and above all new structures of management. The emergence of professional management was conceived in the act of professional workers who are not only skilled but also trained on the job. They could frame plans for action, committee work and negotiation eventually they began to play an important role in politics both at national and regional. Unions supported particular political parties. They have to work in union with each other at the bureaucratic level, for the purposes of national representation. Unions built up national organizations to represent them, for ex trade union congress (TUC) in Britain, the confederation general du travail (CGT) in France.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

What is history from below? Discuss it with reference to the history-writing in India.

Grass hoods history, history seen from below or the history of the common people, people’s history, and even ‘history of everyday life. The conventional history about the great deeds of the ruling classes received further boost from the great tradition of political and administrative historiography developed by Ranke and his followers. The history from below was an attempt to write the history of the common people. It is history concerned with the activities and thoughts of those people and regions that were neglected by the earlier historians. Peasants and working classes, women and minority groups, unknown faces in the crowd, and the people lost in the past became the central concern of this historiographical tradition.

 According to Raphael Samuel, the term “people’s history” has had a long career, and covers and ensemble of different writing. The beginning of the history from below may be traced to the late 18th century. In the classical western tradition, history-writing involved the narration of the deeds of great men. The common people were considered to be beyond the boundaries of history and it was beneath the dignity of the historian to write about them. Peter burke points out, ‘until the middle of the eighteenth century, the word “society” in its modern sense did not exist in any European language, and without the word it is very difficult to have any conception of that network of relationships we call “society” or “the social structure”.
     In India, most of members of the subordinate classes, including the industrial classes, are not literate, therefore, direct sources coming from them are extremely rare, if not completely absent. Given this scenario, the historian trying to write history from below have to rely on indirect sources. As sabyasachi bhattacharjee points out, given the low level of literacy we have to depend on interferences from behavior pattern. Report on opinions and sentiments, on oral testimonies etc. oral traditions also have their problems. They cannot be stretched back too far and one has to work within living memory. These problems are outlined by one of the great practitioner of history from below, Ranjit Guha,the founder of the subaltern studies . Above all “history from below” has to face problem of the ultimate relative failure of mass initiative in colonial India,
     Most talk about elitist origins of the evidences which the historians use for understanding the mentalities behind the peasant rebellions. This has come down to us in the form of official records of one kind or another –police reports, army dispatches, administrative accounts, minutes and resolutions of governmental departments, and so on. Non-official sources of our information on the subject, such as newspapers or the private correspondence between persons of authority, too speak in the same elitist voice, even if it is that of the indigenous elite or of non-Indians outside officialdom.
    History from the below,  As the perspective of the common people in the process of history- writing. It is in against that concept of historiography, which believes I Disraeli’s dictum that history is the biography of great men. Instead the history from below endeavors to take into accounts the lives and activities of masses who are otherwise ignored by the conventional historians. Moreover it attempts to take their point of view into accounts as far possible. It is venture; the historians face a lot of problems because the sources are biased in favor of the rulers, administrators and the dominant classes in general.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

What do you understand by civil society? Describe the main trends that describe the relationship between state and civil society.

Civil society is a domain parallel to but separate from the state. It is a realm where citizens associate according to their own interests and wishes. It is “the realm of organized social life that is voluntary, self-generating, largely self-supporting, and bound by a legal order or set of shared values.” Outside of their households, the members of society form a large variety of intermediary organizations for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting their interests. There is no unanimity on the question of which types of social organizations should fall within the scope of civil society. Yet, conventionally organizations that are considered to be parts of civil society include churches, neighborhood associations, private charities, grassroots groups and local clubs - all those social organizations that are open, voluntary, self-generating, autonomous from the State, and yet bound by a legal order. Civil society does include independent mass media and the broader field of autonomous cultural and intellectual activity. The Universities, theatres, film societies, publishing houses and the social think tanks are important components of civil society. In fine, it is an intermediary phenomenon standing between the private sphere and the State. Civil Society needs to be distinguished from the broader concept of ‘society’ in general, as it involves behaving and acting collectively in a public sphere, to express their interests, ideas and preferences to achieve collective goals and make demands on the state. Thus all of social life is not subsumed in civil society. Parochial society represented by individual and family life and inward-looking group activity such as religious worship, spirituality etc. does not fall within civil society. Similarly, economic society in the form of profit making enterprise of individual business firms is outside the scope of civil society. Also, civil society needs to be distinguished from political society represented, in a democracy, by political parties and campaign groups and organizations that primarily aspire for winning control of the state. Democracy and civil society are twins: they are integrally related to each other. A healthy liberal democracy needs the support of a public “that is organized for democracy, socialized to its norms and values, and committed not just to its myriad narrow interests but to larger, common civic end”. To quote Larry Diamond, “such a civil public is only possible with a vibrant ‘civil society’.” One has to trace back in this context to Alexis de Tocqueville whose classic writings on American politics laid the foundation of democracy-civil society nexus thesis. Tocqueville thought, America’s democracy was sustained by the richness and diversity of its voluntary associations. In his view, voluntary associations assisted in the development of democratic values such as trust, tolerance and compromise. New generations of neo-Tocquevillians, prominent among who is Robert Putnam, have, since the 1990s, revived the concept of civil society as the bedrock of democracy. Putnam’s work on the political development of the Italian regions - the prosperous North vis-à-vis the impoverished South - sought to explain superior institutional performance in the former in terms of flourishing ‘social capital’ which stands for “features of social organization such as trust, norms and networks”. The propensity of individuals to join private, voluntary associations, according to Putnam, contributes to the effectiveness of democracy because of its ‘internal’ and ‘external’ consequences. Internally, associations “install habits of cooperation, solidarity, and public spiritedness”. Externally, a dense network of secondary associations “contributes to effective social collaboration”. The Putnam thesis is simply this: where there is no social capital, democracy could not flourish. For the most comprehensive theoretical assessment of the virtues of civil society in the context of democratic transition and consolidation, one has to refer to Larry Diamond’s recent work on Developing Democracy. Civil society, in Diamond’s view, serves the “development, deepening and consolidation of democracy”. As Diamond explains the process, civil society provides the basis for the limitation of state power, supplements the role of parties in stimulating political participation, increases the political efficacy and skill of democratic citizens, educates the masses in democracy, structures multiple channels, beyond the political party, for articulating, aggregating, and representing interests, empowers the powerless to advance their interests, generates a wide range of cross-cutting interests, mitigates thereby the polarities of political conflict, recruits and trains new political leaders, develops techniques for conflict mediation and resolution, gives citizens respect for the state and positive engagement with it, and facilitates the spread of ideas essential for economic reform.
 Diamond has, however, laid down certain conditions that must be fulfilled for civil society to perform the democracy building functions. First, a stable democracy has a good prospect if civil society does not contain “maxima list, uncompromising interest groups or groups with anti-democratic goals and methods”. Second, another feature of a strong civil society is what Diamond has called the “level of organizational institutionalization”. As he argues, “where interests are organized in a structured, stable manner, bargaining and the growth of cooperative networks are facilitated”. Third, the other important requirement is the “internally democratic character” of organizations as defined by “decision-making, leadership selection, accountability and transparency”. Following Diamond’s presents, five distinct features of civil society which can be identified as under: Civil society is concerned with public ends rather than private ends.  Civil society and state are related to each other in such a way that it does not seek to win control over the state. To reform the structure of power rather than to take power themselves as organizations is the goal of civil society.  Civil society encompasses pluralism and diversity.  Any organization that seeks to monopolies power and occupy the political space as a monopolist disallowing all competitors, violates the pluralistic and market oriented nature of civil society. Civil society does not seek to represent the complete set of interests of a person or a community. This characteristic follows from what has been stated above. Profusion of different organizations and individuals having multiple organizational ties are clear signs of healthy civil society functioning.  Civil society, should distinguished from the more clearly democracy enhancing phenomenon of civic community. Putnam’s model of civil community along with the idea of social capital is both a broader and narrower concept than civil society: “broader, in that it encompasses all manner of associations; narrower in that it includes only associations structured horizontally around ties that are more or less mutual, cooperative, symmetrical, and trusting”. Putnam, like Tocqueville, has sensitized us to the importance of associational life in general; but civil society is a much more refined concept that distinguishes it from the much wider and more general arena of associational life. It needs to be emphasized, in this context, that “the key to constructing a civic community is not whether an organization has an explicitly civic (public) or political purpose.”

Monday, September 16, 2013

Explain the concept of divergent thinking. Design and develop a plan for promoting divergent thinking among your learners.

Divergent thinking is an approach to a situation or concept which focuses on exploring as many aspects of the concept as possible. Starting with a single idea, the divergent thinker allows his or her mind to wander off in many different directions, gathering numerous thoughts and ideas which relate to the concept. Divergent thinking can be used as a method of creative brainstorming in a wide variety of settings, ranging from the research and development department of a major company to the classroom.
With divergent thinking, people start out thinking about a single concept, and develop many solutions and approaches to the concept. This contrasts with convergent thinking in which many ideas are brought together to a single focus, often by following a series of logical steps to arrive at this focus. Divergent thinking is often associated with creative pursuits and the humanities, which tend to encourage a more free-form method of thinking, but in fact, it can be beneficial in the sciences as well, with the ability to think in a far-reaching and erratic way being a useful skill when it comes to solving some scientific puzzles.
It is difficult to test for divergent thinking on examinations which are designed to test intelligence and mental ability. This type of thinking cannot be pinned down or categorized, because it relies heavily on the ability to generate random, disorganized thoughts in a free-flowing way, and there is no way to test for this with a conventional examination. As a result, people who are skilled at divergent thinking may not perform terribly well on intelligence tests, when they are in fact quite intelligent.
Divergent thinking exercises can help develop the mind and foster creativity. For example, students might be given a list of items and asked to think of as many possible uses as they can for each. Or, students may be presented with a problem and asked to brainstorm a number of different solutions. Divergent thinking can also be used as the basis for the development of products in addition to intellectual ideas.

For people who are used to convergent thinking, it can be difficult to explore divergentthinking. Aids such as free association exercises, free writing diaries, and so forth can help people grow accustomed to thinking in this way while allowing them to develop their thoughts. There are also numerous divergent thinking exercises available on the Internet, including exercises designed for classrooms and groups.
Strategies of Divergent Thinking
The goal of divergent thinking is to generate many different ideas about a topic in a short period of time. It involves breaking a topic down into its various component parts in order to gain insight about the various aspects of the topic. Divergent th inking typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing manner, such that the ideas are generated in a random, unorganized fashion. Following divergent thinking, the ideas and information will be organized using convergent thinking; i.e., putting the var ious ideas back together in some organized, structured way.
To begin brainstorming potential topics, it is often helpful to engage in self analysis and topic analysis.
Self Analysis
Ask the following questions to help brainstorm a list of potential topics.
How do I spend my time? What are my activities during a normal day?
What do I know about? What are my areas of expertise? What am I studying in school?
What do I like? What are my hobbies? What are my interests?
What bothers me? What would I like to change in my world or life?
What are my strongest beliefs, values and philosophies?
Topic Analysis
Ask the following questions to help narrow and refine a broad topic into a specific, focused one. Substitute your topic for the word "something."
How would you describe something?
What are the causes of something?
What are the effects of something?
What is important about something?
What are the smaller parts that comprise something?
How has something changed? Why are those changes important?
What is known and unknown about something?
What category of ideas or objects does something belong to?
Is something good or bad? Why?
What suggestions or recommendations would you make about something?
What are the different aspects of something you can think of?
Techniques to Stimulate Divergent Thinking
1. Brainstorming. Brainstorming is a technique which involves generating a list of ideas in a creative, unstructured manner. The goal of brainstorming is to generate as many ideas as possible in a short period of time. The key tool in brainstorm ing is "piggybacking," or using one idea to stimulate other ideas. During the brainstorming process, ALL ideas are recorded, and no idea is disregarded or criticized. After a long list of ideas is generated, one can go back and review the ideas to criti que their value or merit.
2. Keeping a Journal. Journals are an effective way to record ideas that one thinks of spontaneously. By carrying a journal, one can create a collection of thoughts on various
subjects that later become a source book of ideas. People often have insights at unusual times and places. By keeping a journal, one can capture these ideas and use them later when developing and organizing materials in the prewriting stage.
3. Freewriting. When free-writing, a person will focus on one particular topic and write non-stop about it for a short period of time. The idea is to write down whatever comes to mind about the topic, without stopping to proofread or revise the writing. This can help generate a variety of thoughts about a topic in a short period of time, which can later be restructured or organized following some pattern of arrangement.
4. Mind or Subject Mapping. Mind or subject mapping involves putting brainstormed ideas in the form of a visual map or picture that that shows the relationships among these ideas. One starts with a central idea or topic, then draws branches off the main topic which represent different parts or aspects of the main topic. This creates a visual image or "map" of the topic which the writer can use to develop the topic further. For example, a topic may have four different branches (sub-topics), and each of those four branches may have two branches of its own (sub-topics of the sub-topic) *Note* this includes both divergent and convergent thinking.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Explain with examples the influence of media on learning.

Media in today’s world plays a very important role in influencing the studies. Media being the most effective part in the technology has some vital roles to play. In today’s world almost everyone has got computers, laptops, Smart phones, tablets and many other latest technology with the help of whom people are easily connected to outside world. Internet is the main source of connection among the youths which help them connected to real world and helps them learning.
For Example GOOGLE : Today whatever information we need, we directly go to GOOGLE and get it. In today’s era we are not bound to anyone. Whatever help or query we have, we consult to media directly through internet. Thus Media do have a strong influence for the today’s generation. Media does play a vital role.
Whatever projects or assignment are given in schools or collages are completed on the basis of media only. The textbooks available in the market are so expensive that people can afford e-books online, read it topic over, change the book. That’s it. Not only help full in studies but media also helps in acquiring general knowledge about anything a person is interested in. access to internet has become so easy that anyone can get connected to it and search for, what it wants.  
As the technology will improve and invention increases different method of learning will also be invented which would be better than one another. Thus settling and accepting the new ideas is the best easy and cheap way of learning.