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
-
What, according to you are the two fundamental axes of social discrimination in Indian society ? Are they changing ?
Next question in the 2017 paper (Q8). 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 paper
Q1(a) · UPSC Mains 2017 · 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
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Srinivas studied India as an observed village structure, not a book of sacred rules. Function explained how custom held groups together. Desai’s class reading and Beteille’s disharmony expose the harmony bias. The village monograph cannot stand for mill, city, and tribe. Keep the field tools; refuse the closed-system claim.
Q1(b) · UPSC Mains 2017 · 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 ?
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Hierarchy still ranks bodies through honour, endogamy, and atrocity. Difference organises caste as political identity and rights. Srinivas’s dominant caste already split ritual rank from local power. Beteille’s disharmony names equality as value beside ranked practice. Public life leans to difference; intimacy still leans to hierarchy.
Q1(c) · UPSC Mains 2017 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
What are the distinct features of islam as practised in India, and how have they changed over time ?
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Indian Islam is regional, often shrine-centred, and internally ranked. Minority status after Partition made community a political fact. Reform and print pushed scriptural uniformity against custom. Caste-like divisions and dargah practice persist. Change is toward a firmer boundary, not toward one identical piety.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.