Revision summary
Revivalism organises a selected past against loss or rivals. Performing arts return as national and tourist stages. Language campaigns spread purified or regional tongues. Crafts are branded while artisans often stay poor. Canons are caste-marked; counter-revivals also exist.
Model answer
Introduction
Cultural revivalism is an organised attempt to restore, purify, or stage a past that is said to have been lost to colonialism, the market, or rival communities. It is not mere memory. It is a present politics of identity that selects which past will live.
Body
What revivalism does
- Yogendra Singh’s modernisation of tradition is close: old forms return through new associations, media, and the state.
- Revival can be defensive (language boards, craft museums) or majoritarian (a single civilisational aesthetic).
- G. S. Ghurye’s Indological Hindu whole often supplies the archive that revivalists quote.
Performing arts
- Classical music and dance sabhas, and state academies, revived temple and court forms as national culture.
- Folk theatre and ritual performance are restaged for festivals and tourism, sometimes stripped of Dalit or women’s original roles.
- Cinema and television recycle bhakti and epic, a mass revival that is also an industry.
Language dissemination
- Sanskrit promotion, shuddha Hindi, and anti-English campaigns are revival as linguistic nationalism.
- Counter-revivals exist too: Tamil, other scheduled languages, and tribal scripts claiming schools and signboards.
- Print, apps, and temple classes spread a standardised tongue that village dialects may not speak.
Arts and crafts
- Handloom and GI tags revive weaves as heritage while weavers remain poor, a socio-spatial cousin of heritage tourism.
- Khadi is both a Champaran-to-Gandhi nationalist craft ethic and a boutique brand.
- Tribal painting and bronze enter galleries; the grove that fed the motif may be mined.
Critique
- Revival often cements upper-caste canons.
- Ambedkarite and women’s groups revive other pasts: Buddhist, labour, and protest song.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD RV[Cultural revivalism] --> PA[Performing arts sabha] RV --> LN[Language boards scripts] RV --> CR[Craft GI khadi] SL[Selection of past] --> RV
Conclusion
Cultural revivalism restages arts, languages, and crafts as a usable past. Recent examples run from sabhas and GI weaves to language boards and televised epics. Sociology should ask who owns the canon, and who only supplies the labour of authenticity.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Why have we started using another category of tribes called the Particularly Vulnerable Groups (PVTGs) Why are they so called ?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2017 · Q8(c)). View answer →
-
Is revival always conservative?
It often is. Language and craft movements can also be anti-colonial or regional-democratic.
-
Does tourism equal revival?
Tourism can fund a form and empty its social meaning. Revival is wider than the ticket counter.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2017 · Q1(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Write a critique of the structural and functional perspective used by M.N. Srinivas in the understanding of Indian society -
2017 · Q1(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Which is more significant, the principle of 'hierarchy' or the principal of difference; in inter caste relations in the present day ? -
2017 · Q1(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
What are the distinct features of islam as practised in India, and how have they changed over time ? -
2017 · Q3(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
Indebtedness is one of the serious issues leading to farmers suicides Discuss reasons and suggest solutions -
2017 · Q4(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
Explain the concepts of dominant caste' and ' vote ' bank giving examples from specific regions -
2017 · Q5(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Give an account of the problems relating to the "creamy layer". -
2017 · Q6(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
Discuss some of the striking issues of development induced imbalances that need urgent attention -
2017 · Q6(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
What are the causes and solutions for the low female sex-ratio in the DEMARU States of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, and Gujarat ?
More from this topic
Q7(b) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
"Educational development is the only Panacea for country's all ills and evils." Critically examine the above statement with reference to NEP-2020
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Education is necessary for mobility and anti-caste citizenship but not a solo panacea. NEP 2020 reforms structure, language, vocation and equity on paper. Without teachers, public finance and jobs, it becomes credentialism and a dual private-public system. Caste, land and informal labour reproduce ills that schooling alone cannot dissolve. Phule–Ambedkar were right to start with the school and wrong if we stop there.
Q7(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
What are the Private and Public network and support systems operative in Indian society for the aged? Suggest measures to curb down the challenges before care givers of the aged
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Private support for the aged is still mainly kin, plus a small paid-care market. Public support is pensions, NPHCE and the 2007 Maintenance Act, all thin relative to need. Nuclear residence and migration weaken the joint-family guarantee without ending dependence. Caregivers, mostly women, face time poverty and little respite. Measures must combine adequate pensions, home services and gender-equal family law.
Q5(b) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Bring out various factors responsible for declining of village Industries in India.
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Village industries declined through colonial competition, forest enclosure and the collapse of patronage. Post-independence mill goods, power-looms and plastics continued the squeeze. Credit, GST, and migration now pull youth out of hereditary crafts. Some clusters brand and survive; most artisan households enter informal labour. The process reorders caste occupations, not only GDP shares.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.