General Studies I · Topic
Indian society and diversity
Official syllabus
Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.
UPSC CSE 2026 notification
What this covers
Indian society should be studied as a changing arrangement of institutions, identities, inequalities and forms of collective life. Diversity is expressed through language, religion, caste, tribe, region, class, gender and rural-urban location, but these dimensions intersect rather than forming sealed groups. Constitutional democracy, markets, migration, education, technology and social movements reshape older institutions without simply erasing them. Analysis should connect structure with agency: how institutions distribute opportunities and constraints, how groups negotiate identity and resources, and how accommodation, conflict and reform alter social relations.
Key ideas
- Social structure and social change
- Caste class tribe and gender
- Family kinship and community
- Religious linguistic and regional diversity
- Rural urban and agrarian relations
- Democracy citizenship and participation
- Inequality mobility and exclusion
- Accommodation conflict and reform
Subtopics 4
- 01Salient features of Indian societySalient features are recurring patterns that help explain Indian society;
- 02Forms of diversityDiversity includes language, religion, caste, tribe, ethnicity, region, ecology, occupation, class and gender.
- 03Unity accommodation and contestationUnity is an institutional and social achievement, not the absence of difference.
- 04Social institutions and changeSocial institutions are durable systems of roles, norms and authority through which society organizes family life, kinship, caste, tribe, religion…