UPSC Mains 2014 GS Paper 4 Q6: model answer
What factors affect the formation of a person’s attitude towards social problems? In our society, contrasting attitudes are prevalent about many social problems. What contrasting attitudes do you notice about the caste system in our society? How do you explain the existence of these contrasting attitudes?
What the question wants
Explain the factors that shape attitudes to social problems, describe the contrasting attitudes to caste in society, and explain why both exist.
How to structure it
Three parts.
- Factors
- Contrasting attitudes on caste
- Why they coexist
How to think it through
Factors: family, peers, religion, education, media, personal experience, economic interest, law. Caste contrasts: urban professional 'caste no longer matters' vs matrimonial ads and honour killings; support for reservation vs 'merit' opposition; inter-caste marriage acceptance rising but still ~5% (IHDS ~5%); untouchability practice in rural areas (IHDS 2011-12, 27% households admitted some form). Explanation: cognitive dissonance, socialisation vs education, economic interest, political mobilisation, private vs public sphere.
Model answer
A young engineer may say 'caste doesn't matter in my office' and then search a matrimonial site by caste the same evening. Both attitudes live inside one person.
Factors that shape attitudes
- Family and early socialisation: the first and strongest source.
- Religion, community and peers: they reward conformity.
- Education and media: they can widen or harden views.
- Personal experience and economic interest: people often believe what benefits them.
- Law and institutions: Article 17 and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act signal what society will not tolerate.
Contrasting attitudes on caste
- In public life, caste is condemned; in private life, especially marriage, it is followed. The India Human Development Survey found only about 5% of marriages were inter-caste.
- Some support reservation as justice; others call it a threat to merit.
- Cities show more mixing; some villages still practise untouchability and separate wells.
Why both exist
- Cognitive dissonance: modern beliefs and inherited habits pull against each other.
- Private and public spheres follow different rules.
- Politics mobilises caste identity even as it preaches equality.
Laws changed the rules of caste; attitudes change only when private habits change.
Draw: A two-sided coin: 'public face' (equality, law) and 'private face' (marriage, rituals).
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
attitude formation, socialisation, cognitive dissonance, Article 17, PoA Act 1989, IHDS ~5% inter-caste marriage, reservation debate, public vs private sphere.
Where most answers lose marks
- Answering only the factors and skipping the caste contrast and its explanation.
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Fresh examples from current affairs
Supreme Court: no prior approval under Section 17A needed to probe a bribe demand
In a judgment of 16 October 2026, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices S.V.N. Bhatti and N.V. Anjaria held that investigating a bribe demand by a public servant does not need prior approval under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Asking for a bribe, the court said, is not part of discharging official duties.
UPSC angle: Prelims: Sections 7, 7A, 17A and 19 of the PC Act. · Mains GS-II/GS-IV: honest officers versus accountability.
19 Oct 2026Learn the concept
Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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