SOCIAL SCIENCE

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE – I

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Textbook for Class VI

FOREWORD

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The National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005, recommends that
children’s life at school must be linked to their life outside the school. This
principle marks a departure from the legacy of bookish learning which
continues to shape our system and causes a gap between the school, home
and community. The syllabi and textbooks developed on the basis of NCF
signify an attempt to implement this basic idea. They also attempt to
discourage rote learning and the maintenance of sharp boundaries between
different subject areas. We hope these measures will take us significantly
further in the direction of a child-centred system of education outlined in the
National Policy on Education (1986).
The success of this effort depends on the steps that school principals and
teachers will take to encourage children to reflect on their own learning and
to pursue imaginative activities and questions. We must recognise that given
space, time and freedom, children generate new knowledge by engaging with
the information passed on to them by adults. Treating the prescribed
textbook as the sole basis of examination is one of the key reasons why other
resources and sites of learning are ignored. Inculcating creativity and
initiative is possible if we perceive and treat children as participants in
learning, not as receivers of a fixed body of knowledge.
These aims imply considerable change in school routines and mode of
functioning. Flexibility in the daily time-table is as necessary as rigour in
implementing the annual calendar so that the required number of teaching
days is actually devoted to teaching. The methods used for teaching and
evaluation will also determine how effective this textbook proves for making
children’s life at school a happy experience, rather than a source of stress or
boredom. Syllabus designers have tried to address the problem of curricular
burden by restructuring and reorienting knowledge at different stages with
greater consideration for child psychology and the time available for
teaching. The textbook attempts to enhance this endeavour by giving higher
priority and space to opportunities for contemplation and wondering,
discussion in small groups, and activities requiring hands-on experience.
National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)
appreciates the hard work done by the textbook development committee
responsible for this book. We wish to thank the Chairperson of the advisory
committee for Social Science textbooks at the Upper Primary Level,
Professor Hari Vasudevan and the Chief Advisor for this book, Sarada
Balagopalan, for guiding the work of this committee. Several teachers
contributed to the development of this textbook; we are grateful to their
principals for making this possible. We are indebted to the institutions and

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organisations which have generously permitted us to draw upon their
resources, material and personnel. We are especially grateful to the members
of the National Monitoring Committee, appointed by the Department of
Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development
under the Chairpersonship of Professor Mrinal Miri and Professor G.P.
Deshpande, for their valuable time and contribution. As an organisation
committed to the systemic reform and continuous improvement in the
quality of its products, NCERT welcomes comments and suggestions which
will enable us to undertake further revision and refinement.

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New Delhi
20 December 2005

Director
National Council of Educational
Research and Training

TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
CHAIRPERSON, ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS AT THE
UPPER PRIMARY LEVEL
Hari Vasudevan, Professor, Department of History, University of Calcutta,
Kolkata

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CHIEF ADVISOR
Sarada Balagopalan, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS),
Rajpur Road, Delhi
MEMBERS

Anjali Noronha, Eklavya – Institute for Educational Research and Innovative
Action, Madhya Pradesh
Arvind Sardana, Eklavya – Institute for Educational Research and Innovative
Action, Madhya Pradesh
Dipta Bhog, Nirantar – Centre for Gender and Education, Sarvodaya
Enclave, New Delhi
Jaya Singh, Lecturer, DESSH, NCERT
Krishna Menon, Reader, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi, Delhi.
Latika Gupta, Consultant, DEE, NCERT
Mohan Deshpande, Coordinator, Aabha (Arogya Bhan), Aundh, Pune
M.V. Srinivasan, Lecturer, DESSH, NCERT
Sanjay Dubey, Reader, DESSH, NCERT
Shobha Bajpai, Government Middle School, Uda, District Harda, Madhya
Pradesh
Swati Verma, Heritage School, Sector-23, Rohini, Delhi

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MEMBER-COORDINATOR
W. Themmichon Ramson, Lecturer, DESSH, NCERT

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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The collective effort that this textbook represents extends
beyond the formal writing team. Several friends and colleagues
were involved with this book in many ways. As members of our
self-initiated internal review committee Mary John, S.
Mohinder, Aditya Nigam and C.N. Subramaniam provided us
with detailed feedback and inputs.
In addition, Solly Benjamin, Rajeev Bhargav, Anu Gupta,
Sarah Joseph, Prakash Kant, Prabhu Mahapatra, Farah Naqvi,
Awadhendra Sharan, Sujit Sinha, Bhupendra Yadav and
Yogendra Yadav read particular chapters and commented on
them. Alex M. George played multiple roles in terms of providing
us with ideas, feedback and information. Keshab Das helped us think through one of
our chapters with his detailed draft. Sumangala Damodaran provided us the wording
of the IPTA song that we have used in the first chapter. Ben eagerly worked at providing
us with information on rice cultivation in Chizami, Nagaland.
We specially would like to thank Urvashi Butalia who generously agreed to edit the
book at short notice. Her detailed editing and comments greatly enriched the quality of
the book, its presentation of ideas and our writing style.
We would like to thank R.K. Laxman (The Times of India), Sheila Dhir,
Poile Sengupta and Anjali Monteiro for permitting us to use their work and writings.
We duly acknowledge, Penguin, Tulika and the Government of Maharastra for
allowing us to use their publications.
Some of the illustrations in this book have been done by children. The children of
Government Middle School, Uda, District Harda have drawn the pictures used in the
collage on rural livelihoods. Aditi, Aishwarya, Anisha, Bali, Meenakshi and Sahar also
provided us with their drawings. Saswati Chaudhury has painted two of the
illustrations that we have used in the first chapter.
The photographs were generously provided by Down to Earth, Hindustan Times and
Nehru Memorial Library. We specially thank Outlook for the help and understanding
extended to us and to Jan Breman and Parthiv Shah for their Photographs.
The Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS); Eklavya; Nirantar – Centre
for Gender and Education and Ankur Society for Alternatives in Education played an
important institutional role in the evolution of the book by being patient with our
constant absences, our excessive demands and lending their help in whichever way we
required. Mr. Adhikari, Vikas, Sachin and Ghanshyam at CSDS, Dinesh Patil at
Eklavya and Shalini Joshi, Purwa Bhardwaj, Malini Ghosh, Prasanna and Anil Hasda
at Nirantar have helped us a great deal.
All of the above individuals – as parents, teachers or students – have a knowledge
of textbooks and became involved in this process out of a commitment to bettering the
ways in which we introduce children to new ideas.
Special thanks are due to Savita Sinha, Professor and Head, DESSH, NCERT for her
support during the development of this book.
The Council also gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Arvind Sharma,
DTP Operator during the preparation of the book.
The efforts of the Publication Department, NCERT in bringing out this book are also
highly appreciated. This textbook is a reflection of all of our efforts. Suggestions and
critical feedback on this book are welcome.

ON USING THIS BOOK

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Why 'Social and Political Life'?

Members of the team that drew up the National Curriculum Framework 2005 were of the
opinion that the subject 'Civics' grew out of a certain colonial past and therefore required
to be changed. In addition, members of the curriculum committee felt that civics had been
focused only on describing government institutions and programmes and needed to
develop a critical outlook. "Social and Political Life" is the new subject that emerged out
of this exercise. This new subject has also simultaneously expanded its scope by
including within its purview topics that deal with various aspects of social, political and
economic life.
What is different about 'Social and Political Life'?

A great deal of effort has gone into consciously devising a different approach while writing
this textbook. The textbook incorporates a mix of the following three elements:
1)

2)

Introducing concepts with a view to enabling comprehension rather than the
retention of facts. Some of the ways in which we have done this is through
minimising a listing of information, through asking questions that encourage the
child to think, and through avoiding definitions wherever possible.
Keeping in mind that the child is already deeply enmeshed within familial and
social networks, we have tried to balance the ideal with the real in our discussion
of topics.

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3)

Recognising that children learn best through concrete experiences. We have tried
to discuss institutions and processes through incorporating these either in the
form of fictional narratives, or case-studies or exercises that draws on the child's
experiences.

Children bring in a lot of what happens in the outside world to the classroom. The
discussion of topics draws upon as well as interrogates these understandings. The reality
is portrayed along with an analysis of how we could move towards the ideal. This ideal is
emphasised through the values that are enshrined in the Constitution and through
people's struggles to achieve these.

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This book is divided into four sections that focus on different concepts i.e. diversity,
government, local government and administration and livelihoods. Each section contains
chapters that elaborate and expand on these concepts.

I. Beginning Each Chapter

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Each Chapter begins with two
elements that have been
introduced to create an interest
in the child to find out what the
Chapter is about. The first of
these is the Introductory Box
that provides a brief glimpse
into the contents of what that
Chapter will deal with. At times
it has questions that are
designed both to generate
curiosity as well as to elicit the
child's experiences on the
particular topic. We have also
begun each Chapter with a large
visual. The reason behind this is
once again to enable the child to
conjecture, with the help of the
picture provided, what the
particular Chapter seeks to get
across.
Teachers
are
encouraged to come up with
their own questions and visuals
in addition to using those
provided in this book.

Chapter 2

Diversity and
Discrimination

In the previous chapter you have discussed
the meanings of diversity.
Sometimes
people who are 'different' from others are
teased, laughed at or not included in a
certain activity or group.
We feel hurt,
angry, helpless or sad when friends or
others treat us in such ways. Have you ever
wondered why this happens?
In this chapter we will try and explore how
such experiences are related to the society
we live in. We will look at how they are
connected to the inequalities that exist
around us.

II. In-text Questions and Exercises

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What were Hector and his classmates protesting about?
List five ways in which the non-whites were
discriminated against:
1.
2.
3.

You will notice that all of the Chapters include
boxes that contain in-text questions, discussion
boxes or exercises. These serve several purposes.
One is to help the teacher gauge the extent to
which the student has understood what has been
discussed earlier in the Chapter.

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3. Talk to a vegetable vendor or hawker
and find out how do they organise their
work, their way of preparing, purchasing,
selling etc.
4. Bachchu Manjhi has to think twice
before taking a day off from work. Why?

Exercise: Look at the statements in the column on the left.
Can you identify which level they belong to? Place tick marks
against the level you consider most appropriate.
Local

State

Central

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The third is to
allow the student
to recall and make
connections with
what has been
taught earlier.

Second is to expand on the student's understanding
of concepts by attempting to locate these within a
child's own experiences.

The decision of the Indian government to maintain peaceful
relations with Russia.

The decision of the West Bengal Government on whether to
have Board exam in Class 8 for all government schools.
Introduction of two new train connections between Jammu
and Bhubaneswar.

Discuss

Why do you think Samir Do did not attend school?
Do you think it would have been easy for him to
attend school if he wanted to? In your opinion is it
a fair situation that some children get to go to school
and others don't?

The discussion boxes are meant for discussion
in small groups which then later gets shared with
the whole class. These discussion boxes are central
to the student experientially expanding upon their
understanding of particular concepts and should
therefore in no way be ignored for the sake of time
constraints.

III. End-Text Questions

In drafting the end-text questions, care has been taken to encourage the student to
understand rather than to blindly memorise the contents of the book. Students should be
encouraged to write the answers in their own words. Various types of questions have been
used. A brief explanation of three different types of questions are provided:
QUESTIONS

What is the work of the police?
List two things that the work of a
Patwari includes.

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1.
2.

»

»

One type requires the child to specifically recall
some of the main ideas of the Chapter.

Another type asks the student to answer based on
their own experiences.

5.

Fill in the following table to show the
services provided by people in the
markets which you visit frequently.

of
the
Name of the shop Nature
service provided
or office

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6.

Compare the situation of Sekar and Ramalingam by filling
out the following table:
SEKAR

RAMALINGAM

Land
cultivated

»

There are compare and contrast
questions that ask the student to think
through the information presented to
them

Labour
required

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Selling of
harvest

6.

»

Questions also ask the
student to imagine a
situation that they have
read about and react to the
issues it throws up.

Read the following news item.
...The incident came to light when some villagers brought a badly injured Lad to
hospital for treatment. In the FIR recorded by the police Lad said that he was
attacked when he insisted that the water in the tanker must be emptied into the
storage tanks constructed as part of the water supply scheme by Nimone Gram
Panchayat so that there would be equal distribution of water. However, he alleged
that the upper caste men were against this and told him that the tanker water was
not meant for the lower castes.
Adapted from Indian Express, May 1, 2004
a.
Why was Bhagvan beaten?
b.
Do you think that the above is a case of discrimination? Why?

7. Discuss:

In the two photographs
you see different ways of
collecting and disposing
garbage.
i) Which way do you
think provides safety to
the person disposing
garbage?

»

Another type has used
visuals/ photos to ask the
student to describe what they
see and how it relates to what
they have read in the Chapter.

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These various types of questions will allow the teacher to evaluate whether the child
has not only understood a concept but that this learning includes an ability to relate to
the concept meaningfully. The teacher is encouraged to set questions of various types, like
the ones described above, when evaluating the student. It is important that we formulate
new questions, similar to the end-text questions. We must try to abandon the practice of
students 'learning' answers to a fixed set of questions. Expressing opinion, or debating on
certain issues is part of engaging with or learning a concept.

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IV. Use of Narratives
This book uses several narratives, both fiction and nonfiction, to enable the child to understand ideas and
institutions. These narratives should be used to encourage
introspection as well as discussion, with the effort being to
have the student identify as much as possible with the
story. In some Chapters we have asked students to write
narratives of their own based on their experiences of similar
situations. The
student should
Bachchu Manjhi – A Cycle-Rickshaw Puller
be encouraged
I come from a village in Bihar where I worked as a mason.
to be as creative
My wife and three children live in the village. We don't own
land. In the village I did not get masonry work regularly.
as possible while writing and narrating these
The income that I earned was not sufficient for our family.
stories. The teacher is also encouraged to look
After I reached this city, I bought an old cycle rickshaw and
for linkages that can be made with concepts
paid for it in instalments. This was many years ago...
that are being taught in the other subjects.

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I meant it as a
joke. A joke for the
small ragged boy who
sold newspapers at
the traffic light at the
busy
intersection.
Every time I cycled
past he would run
after me, holding out
the English paper and
screaming out the
evening's headlines in a mixture of Hindi
and English. This time, I stopped by the
pavement and asked for the Hindi paper.
His mouth fell open...

Imagine that you are a writer or an artist who lives in the place
described above. Either write a story or draw a picture of your life here.

Do you think you would enjoy living in a place like this? List five
different things that you would miss the most if you lived here.

V. Use of Images

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This book contains several illustrations and
photographs. These are as integral to the Chapter as the
narrative is and the teacher is encouraged to use these
in explaining the narrative contents of this book. In
addition pictures help the child visualise a situation
even if the child is not familiar with it. The teacher is
encouraged to use relevant visual material in the
classroom in addition to what is provided here. The
library, newspaper, magazines, the internet are all a
potential source of visuals and should be used whenever
possible.

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VI. Use of other Sources
Letters to the editor

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A textbook is important but
only one among many
sources that can be used
in a classroom. Students
should be encouraged to
read outside their textbooks.
One way would be to find
out answers to some of the
questions raised in the
class in other sources like
the newspaper, magazines,
books etc.

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Not bad! One of the taps in the
nearby village must be getting
water!

CONTENTS

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Foreword iii
On Using this Book

UNIT I

DIVERSITY

Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Understanding Diversity 3
Diversity and Discrimination

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UNIT II GOVERNMENT
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

What is Government? 27
Key Elements of a Democratic Government

UNIT III LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND
ADMINISTRATION
Panchayati Raj 43
Rural Administration
Urban Administration

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Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7

49
57

UNIT IV LIVELIHOODS
Chapter 8
Chapter 9

Rural Livelihoods
Urban Livelihoods
References

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67
76

35

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