KSLU Solved Question Papers
Political Science (International Relations and Organisation)
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 4
2020 Nov Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 4 Political Science (International Relations and Organisation) 2020 Nov Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.
Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
Passages from this volume may be quoted, in print, online or by an AI system, with credit: name munotes.in and link to this volume's page. The volume may not be reproduced as a whole. Full terms at munotes.in/content-license.
munotes.in is an independent study resource for students of Karnataka State Law University. It is not affiliated with Karnataka State Law University, and is not endorsed by it.
The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.
The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2020 Nov examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2020 Nov examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2020 Nov examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1Define 'Nationality' and explain the factors that promote nationality.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: definitions of nationality as a sentiment (J. S. Mill, 1861; Renan, 1882) and nationality as a legal status (the Nottebohm Case, 1955); the factors that promote nationality, in five groups: factors of unity (geography, belief in common descent, language, religion, culture), factors of memory (common history, shared suffering and glory, common subjection), factors of will (political aspiration, consciousness, leadership), factors of modern life (a common state and law, education, communications and the press, economic ties, symbols, sport) and external factors (a common enemy, war); how the factors work together in four stages; three illustrations (Poland, India, Bangladesh); why no factor is essential (Mill on Switzerland); the factors that weaken nationality; a conclusion.
Definition of nationality
Nationality as a sentiment. J. S. Mill wrote in Considerations on Representative Government (1861) that "A portion of mankind may be said to constitute a nationality if they are united among themselves by common sympathies which do not exist between them and any others". Ernest Renan, in his lecture "What is a Nation?" (1882), called a nation "a soul, a spiritual principle", made of a shared past and a present will to live together. In this sense nationality is a feeling of oneness among a people.
Nationality as a legal status. In law, nationality is the legal bond between a person and a state. The leading case is the Nottebohm Case (Liechtenstein v. Guatemala), Second Phase, judgment of 6 April 1955. Nottebohm, a German national living in Guatemala since 1905, was naturalised in Liechtenstein in October 1939. Liechtenstein then claimed against Guatemala on his behalf. By eleven votes to three, the Court held the claim inadmissible. It described nationality as "the juridical expression of the fact that an individual is more closely connected with the population of a particular State". Nottebohm's links with Liechtenstein were "extremely tenuous". The case shows that even legal nationality rests on a real social bond, the same bond that political science studies.
In this answer, nationality means the sentiment: the feeling that turns a population into a people.
Factors that promote nationality
A. Factors of unity
1. Geographical unity. People who live in one land with clear frontiers meet, trade and intermarry, and come to feel like one people.
2. Belief in common descent. A shared belief in common ancestors gives a sense of kinship, even where the people is in fact mixed. Mill named "identity of race and descent" as a cause of nationality.
3. Common language. Mill wrote that "Community of language and community of religion greatly contribute to it". Language carries songs, stories and ideas from one generation to the next.
4. Common religion. Shared faith gives shared festivals, values and places of pilgrimage. It strengthened national feeling in Ireland and Poland, though it can divide a people of several faiths.
5. Common culture. Customs, dress, food, music and literature give a people its character.
B. Factors of memory
6. Common history. For Mill, "the strongest of all is identity of political antecedents; the possession of a national history, and consequent community of recollections". Children who learn the same story of the past come to share one identity.
7. Shared suffering and glory. Renan stressed that common suffering unites a people even more than common triumph. In one translation of his lecture, "bereavements are better than triumphs, because they impose duties, they command a common effort". He called the nation "a great solidarity", built on sacrifices made in the past and those people are ready to make in the future.
8. Common subjection. Foreign rule teaches subject peoples to resist together. British rule helped Indians of many regions and faiths see themselves as one people.
C. Factors of will
9. Political aspiration. The wish to live under a government of one's own turns a cultural group into a political community. Renan called a nation's existence "a daily plebiscite".
10. Political consciousness. People must know themselves to be one nation, distinct from others.
11. Leadership. Leaders give a people a voice and a goal. Mazzini's Young Italy (1831) preached Italian unity, and Gandhi carried Indian nationality to the villages.
D. Factors of modern life
12. A common state and law. Living under one constitution and one law makes people fellow citizens. India's Constitution gives every citizen one citizenship.
13. Education. Schools teach a common history, language and civic values. India's Constitution makes it a fundamental duty of every citizen "to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India" (art. 51A(e)), and education is the main way that duty is taught.
14. Communications and the press. Railways, post, newspapers, radio and now the internet link distant regions. The Indian National Congress, founded at Bombay in 1885, grew through such links.
15. Economic ties. A single market and common currency give people a shared interest in staying together.
16. Symbols and sport. Flags, anthems, national days and national teams keep the feeling alive in daily life.
E. External factors
17. A common enemy. An external threat draws people together. Groups that quarrel among themselves in quiet times often unite when their homeland is attacked, and the memory of that unity outlasts the danger.
18. War. Shared sacrifice in war can forge a lasting sense of nationhood.
How the factors work together: four stages
The factors usually act in a sequence.
- Shared bonds. Living on one land, speaking related languages and sharing customs give a population its first sense of likeness.
- Shared memory. A common history, especially of suffering under foreign rule, turns likeness into solidarity.
- Shared will. Leaders and movements turn solidarity into a political demand for self-rule.
- Shared institutions. Once a state exists, its law, schools, communications and symbols spread and renew the feeling in every generation.
At each stage, a factor that is weak can be made up by others. This is why nationalities as different as the Swiss and the Indian have formed.
Three illustrations
Poland. After the partitions ended with the Third Partition of 1795, Poland had no state of its own for about 123 years. Language, faith and memory kept Polish nationality alive until independence was restored on 11 November 1918.
India. India has many languages and religions, yet one nationality. Common subjection, a common struggle, leadership, communications and later a common Constitution created it.
Bangladesh. The Bengali language movement reached its peak on 21 February 1952, when police fired on protesters in Dhaka. Language and shared suffering turned a nationality into a nation, which became the state of Bangladesh in 1971.
No single factor is essential
Mill himself observed that "None of these circumstances, however, are either indispensable or necessarily sufficient by themselves". He pointed to Switzerland, which has "a strong sentiment of nationality, though the cantons are of different races, different languages, and different religions". The factors work together; the will to live together matters most.
Factors that weaken nationality
Deep divisions of caste, class, region or religion, unequal development, discrimination against minorities and foreign interference can weaken nationality. A wise state strengthens it through justice, equal rights and respect for diversity.
India's Constitution shows how. Article 14 provides that the State "shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws". Article 29 gives any section of citizens "having a distinct language, script or culture of its own" the right "to conserve the same". A federal structure lets regions keep their own identity within one nation. In this way diversity is made a support of nationality, not a threat to it.
Conclusion. As a sentiment, nationality is a people's feeling of common sympathy and will to live together. As a legal status, it is a person's genuine bond with a state, as Nottebohm held. It is promoted by factors of unity (land, descent, language, religion, culture) and of memory (history, shared suffering, common subjection). Factors of will (aspiration, consciousness, leadership), of modern life (state, law, education, communications, economy, symbols) and external pressure complete them. Poland, India and Bangladesh show the factors at work. No factor is essential, and the will to live together is the core.
The rest of the answers
The first answer is free. The rest come with the KSLU B.A. LL.B. Semester 4 solved papers.
You have read the question paper and its first answer in full. Buy the solved papers once and you can read every answer of every solved paper in this semester.
Solved papers: ₹499 Already bought it? Sign in
The question paper itself stays free.
Found an error in this volume? Report it and we will check it against the paper.