Best Sociology Courses for UPSC IAS 2023 & 2024 Online in India Skip to main content

Sociology For UPSC

We bring to you a highly-comprehensive Sociology optional course prepared by a team of experts working tirelessly to cater to exam’s ever changing needs and to aid your process of becoming a humane civil servant.

All the lectures are delivered by your favourite “Sociology sir” who is attempting to revolutionalise the online content by providing everyone with an affordable solution for Sociology optional.

Test Series and Current Affairs 2024

Mains 2023 Crash Course & Test Series

Our endeavor is to make sure that you study this subject with us and end up loving it for what it is.
Our aim is to teach you as much as we can and make Sociology the strongest point of your preparation.

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Syllabus Covered

Paper 1

Sociology: The Discipline

  • Modernity and social changes in Europe and the emergence of Sociology.
  • Scope of the subject and comparison with other social sciences.
  • Sociology and common sense.

Sociology as a Science

  • Science, scientific method, and critique.
  • Major theoretical strands of research methodology.
  • Positivism and its critique.
  • Fact value and objectivity.
  •  Non-positivist methodologies

Research Methods and Analysis

  • Qualitative and quantitative methods.
  • Techniques of data collection.
  • Variables, sampling, hypothesis, reliability, and validity.

Sociological Thinkers

  • Karl Marx – Historical materialism, mode of production, alienation, class struggle.
  • Emile Durkheim – Division of labour, social fact, suicide, religion, and society.
  • Max Weber – Social action, ideal types, authority, bureaucracy, the protestant ethic, and the spirit of capitalism.
  • Talcott Parsons – Social system, pattern variables.
  • Robert K. Merton – Latent and manifest functions, conformity and deviance, reference groups.
  • Mead – Self and identity.

Stratification and Mobility

  • Concepts – equality, inequality, hierarchy, exclusion, poverty, and deprivation.
  • Theories of social stratification – Structural functionalist theory, Marxist theory, Weberian theory.
  • Dimensions – Social stratification of class, status groups, gender, ethnicity, and race.
  • Social mobility – open and closed systems, types of mobility, sources, and causes of mobility.

Works and Economic Life

  • The social organization of work in different types of society – slave society, feudal society, industrial capitalist society.
  • Formal and informal organization of work.
  • Labour and society.

Politics and Society

  • Sociological theories of power.
  • Power elite, bureaucracy, pressure groups, and political parties.
  • Nation, state, citizenship, democracy, civil society, ideology.
  • Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution.

Religion and Society

  • Sociological theories of religion.
  • Types of religious practices: animism, monism, pluralism, sects, cults.
  • Religion in modern society: religion and science, secularization, religious revivalism, fundamentalism.

Systems of Kinship

  • Family, household, marriage.
  • Types and forms of family.
  • Lineage and descent.
  • Patriarchy and sexual division of labour.
  • Contemporary trends.

Social Change in Modern Society

  • Sociological theories of social change.
  • Development and dependency.
  • Agents of social change.
  • Education and social change.
  • Science, technology, and social change.

Paper 2

 Introducing Indian Society

  • Perspectives on the Study of Indian Society: Indology (G.S. Ghure); Structural functionalism (M. N. Srinivas); Marxist sociology (A. R. Desai).
  • Impact of colonial rule on Indian society: Social background of Indian nationalism; Modernization of Indian tradition; Protests and movements during the colonial period; Social reforms.

Social Structure

  • Rural and Agrarian Social Structure: The idea of Indian village and village studies; Agrarian social structure— evolution of land tenure system, land reforms.
  • Caste System: Perspectives on the study of caste systems: G. S. Ghurye, M. N. Srinivas, Louis Dumont, Andre Beteille; Features of caste system; Untouchability-forms and perspectives
  • Tribal Communities in India: Definitional problems; Geographical spread; Colonial policies and tribes; Issues of integration and autonomy.
  • Social Classes in India: Agrarian class structure; Industrial class structure; Middle classes in India.
  • Systems of Kinship in India: Lineage and descent in India; Types of kinship systems; Family and marriage in India; Household dimensions of the family; Patriarchy, entitlements and sexual division of labour.
  • Religion and Society : Religious communities in India; Problems of religious minorities.

Social Changes in India

  • Visions of Social Change in India: Idea of development planning and mixed economy; Constitution, law and social change; Education and social change.
  • Rural and Agrarian Transformation in India: Programmes of rural development, Community Development Programme, cooperatives, poverty alleviation schemes; Green revolution and social change; Changing modes of production in Indian agriculture; Problems of rural labour, bondage, migration.
  • Industrialization and Urbanisation in India: Evolution of modern industry in India; Growth of urban settlements in India; Working class: structure, growth, class mobilization; Informal sector, child labour; Slums and deprivation in urban areas.
  • Politics and Society: Nation, democracy and citizenship; Political parties, pressure groups, social and political elite; Regionalism and decentralization of power; Secularization.
  • Social Movements in Modern India: Peasants and farmers movements; Women’s movement; Backward classes & Dalit movements; Environmental movements; Ethnicity and Identity movements.
  • Population Dynamics: Population size, growth, composition and distribution; Components of population growth: birth, death, migration; Population Policy and family planning; emerging issues: ageing, sex ratios, child and infant mortality, reproductive health.
  • Challenges of Social Transformation: Crisis of development : displacement, environmental problems and sustainability; Poverty, deprivation and inequalities; Violence against women; Caste conflicts; Ethnic conflicts, communalism, religious revivalism; Illiteracy and disparities in education

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the online class different from offline ones?

There were lots of limitations in offline classes like limited time for every class like an hour, which gets compromised during question-answer sessions, as a result, the content gets affected. A teacher too cannot look into the doubts of thousands of students in offline classes but is possible in online mode. You can read extra books, ask doubts in the telegram group where a community has been made. In recent times we all are getting comfortable studying online.

How many calls will a student get in the mentorship course?

The content provided along with the videos is so enriching and has been taught in a very simplified way. Still, if doubts arise you all have been given access to Telegram groups where mentors are there to address your doubts. Even then if you have doubts which you want to understand over a call, Mentors will arrange for that once you inform them of the same. You can still reach us through e-mail or the Telegram group if your doubt remains.

How will answer writing be done in Sociology Mentorship Course?

You take the printout of that PDF and write your answer in the space provided or you can write it on a separate blank sheet and send it to us through the portal provided by scanning it. At the end of 5Chapters, when half of your Paper 1 Syllabus is over you will get a bigger test named Half Length Test (HLT). Effectively you will get 20 small tests and 4 big tests. This will be HLT 1, at the end of the 10Th Chapter you will get HLT2. you will get 2 Questions at the end of it. We need to understand the syllabus first for that. There are 10 Chapters in Paper1, once it is covered through videos, PDFs, books, etc.

Is this course sufficient enough to clear the paper?

We too have designed all our courses in such a way, whether it’s Sociology, GS, PSIR, etc. that they are content-rich so that we can build a certain level that we can tackle questions that we have not seen before. UPSC is ever-evolving and it comes up with something new from time to time which we need to prepare on the spot. We prepare our students in such a way that they can tackle questions asked by UPSC on the spot.

What are the study materials for Sociology? Will we get study materials from your side? Which books should we follow?

You will be given topic-wise tests, where topics will be listed first. Once you cover these topics first, a test can be attempted. To improve your answers, you will first get a model answer PDF and a video solution too will be available explaining the same. Apart from all this, the detailed evaluation will be presented to you for a personalized approach so that your mistakes can be corrected.

How to prepare current affairs in Sociology? Will it be covered in the course?

This is one of the common issues faced by most of the students that how they can tackle current affair topics in all kinds of subjects. Subjects like Sociology are full of theory and UPSC asks like that. The majority of the Answers can be found in the content, but to make it more facts based on recent updates we add Contemporary examples as well from time to time. Current affairs are used to give recent examples and make your answers more factual.

What if the student wants to talk to you, Shekhar Sir?

The whole content has been made by Shekhar Sir, and he tries his best to deliver to you the best quality content so that everything is crystal clear to you but still some issues remain, so if there are some complicated doubts, then students can contact Shekhar Sir. We try our best that your doubts get resolved parallel through the Telegram group.

Will the video be live or pre-recorded? What will be the timings of the Lectures?

All the videos will be pre-recorded which will be recorded recently from time to time and include current affairs, recent UPSC questions. These videos will be made available to you at 9 am and can be viewed whenever you want as per your comfort. It will be recommended that you prepare a proper schedule of your own.

Batch 6

UPSC CSE 2024 Batch

Course

Price

Mentorship Course (Content + Evaluation + Mentorship)

Rs. 22,000/-

With Answer Evaluation (Content + Evaluation)

Rs. 18,000/-

Without Answer Evaluation (Content Only)

Rs. 12,000/-

Sociology Current Affairs

Rs. 6,000/-