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LL.M. (Two Years) Sem 1 Law and Social Transformation in India 2013 Dec Question Paper with Solutions - KSLU

KSLU Solved Question Papers

Law and Social Transformation in India

Previous Year Question Paper with Solution

LL.M. (Two Years) · Sem 1

2013 Dec Examination

munotes.in

Mumbai

First published on munotes.in on 1 November 2026.

Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.

Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.

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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2013 Dec examination.

The Paper as Set

The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2013 Dec 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 80 · 20 questions answered

Instructions printed on the paper

N.B. (1) Answer all questions. (2) Answer one essay type and one short note question from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks.

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.

Read the original question paper

Q1

(a)"Social change is held to occur only when social structure, patterns of social relations established social norms and social role changes" - Comment.[10]

Answer

For full marks, cover: what the statement says (a structural view: social change is change in structure, relations, norms and roles); the sociological definitions behind it (Kingsley Davis, Morris Ginsberg, MacIver and Page, Wilbert Moore); the four elements explained with Indian examples (structure: caste, family, land; relations: landlord and tenant, husband and wife; norms: untouchability, dowry, endogamy; roles: women at work and in the forces); the role of law in changing each, with cases (Vineeta Sharma, Shakti Vahini, Secretary, Ministry of Defence v. Babita Puniya); a comment: the statement's strengths and its limits (change in values and culture; "cultural lag"; change on paper and in practice; gradual change); a conclusion.

What the statement says

The statement offers a strict test of social change. A society does not change merely because new technology arrives or new laws are passed. Social change occurs only when four deeper things change:

its social structure, the lasting arrangement of groups and institutions;
its patterns of social relations, how people stand towards each other;
its established social norms, the rules of behaviour people expect and enforce; and
its social roles, the parts people are expected to play.

This is the structural view of social change found in classical sociology.

The definitions behind it

Kingsley Davis wrote that social change means only those alterations that occur in social organisation, that is, in the structure and functions of society.
Morris Ginsberg defined social change as a change in social structure. Examples are the size of a society, the balance of its parts or the type of its organisation.

R.M. MacIver and C.H. Page saw society as a web of social relationships, and social change as change in those relationships.
Wilbert Moore described it as a significant alteration of social structures, including the norms and values in which they are embodied.

The statement combines these: change must reach structure, relations, norms and roles together.

The four elements in India

1. Social structure. India's traditional structure rested on caste, the joint family and the concentration of land in a few hands. Change in structure means change in these. Examples are the decline of zamindari, the spread of the nuclear family and new middle classes among formerly excluded castes.

2. Patterns of social relations. Relations between landlord and tenant, upper and lower caste, and husband and wife were relations of command and dependence. Change means relations of greater equality, such as the recorded tenant who owns his land, or the wife who shares property.

3. Social norms. Old norms included untouchability, dowry, child marriage and marriage only within the caste. Change means new norms, such as equal access to public places, marriage by choice and a later age of marriage.

4. Social roles. Traditional roles confined women to the home and the lower castes to "unclean" work. Change means new roles: women as officers, judges and elected leaders, and Dalits as administrators and legislators.

How law changes each element

Structure: the family and property.

Facts. In Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma, (2020) 9 SCC 1, the question was whether a daughter was a coparcener in the Hindu joint family if her father had died before the 2005 amendment. Held. She was a coparcener by birth, with the same rights as a son. Why it matters. The structure of the joint family, once a line of male heirs, was changed to include daughters.

Relations and norms: caste and marriage.

Facts. In Shakti Vahini v. Union of India, (2018) 7 SCC 192, couples who married across caste were threatened and killed at the instance of khap panchayats. Held. The choice of a partner is a constitutional right, and no assembly may punish it in the name of "honour". The Court issued preventive and punitive directions. Why it matters. Law attacked the norm of caste endogamy and the relations of control that enforce it.

Roles: women in public life.

Facts. In Secretary, Ministry of Defence v. Babita Puniya, (2020) 7 SCC 469, women officers of the Army sought permanent commissions and command posts. The Government cited physical limits and family roles. Held. An absolute bar on women in command violated articles 14 and 16, and arguments based on gender stereotypes were rejected. Why it matters. Law opened a role that society had reserved for men.

Other laws work in the same way. Article 17 and the Protection of Civil Rights Act attack the norm of untouchability. Land reform changed agrarian structure, and the 1992 Amendments created new political roles for women and Dalits.

Comment

Strengths of the statement. It rightly distinguishes deep change from surface change. A new road or a new law changes nothing fundamental if caste, gender and class relations stay the same. It gives a test by which the success of law in social transformation can be judged.

Its limits.

Values and culture. Change in ideas and values often comes before structural change and makes it possible. The spread of education, mass media and new ideas of equality are part of social change even before structures shift.
Cultural lag. William Ogburn (1922) noted that material and legal change often runs ahead of norms and attitudes. Change may be real in one element and lagging in another, so "only when all change" may be too strict.
Paper and practice. Law can change formal structure and roles quickly, as with reservations or the 2005 amendment. Norms change slowly. Dowry and child marriage persist despite the law.
Gradual change. Social change is usually a process, not an event. It may begin in one element and spread to others over generations.

So the statement is best read as a definition of deep and lasting social change, not of every change.

Conclusion. The statement reflects the structural view of social change held by Davis, Ginsberg, MacIver and Moore. Change is real only when structure, relations, norms and roles change. Indian law has worked on all four. It changed family structure in Vineeta Sharma, caste relations and norms in Shakti Vahini, and gender roles in Babita Puniya. But change in values, cultural lag and the gap between law and practice show that the four elements rarely change together. Social change is better seen as a gradual process in which law can lead, but which is complete only when norms and relations follow.

LL.M. (Two Years) Sem 1 Law and Social Transformation in India 2013 Dec Question Paper with Solutions

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