NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 10 The chapter in four points — Before we move on …

Book page 160 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

No country can run without governance and government.

Answer

Because a country is simply a very large number of people sharing one space — and, as the chapter begins, “when a large number of people live together, there can be disagreements and disorder, and rules become necessary to maintain order and harmony in the society”.

Take away	What stops
Governance (the process)	No decisions are taken, no rules are framed, and nobody sees that anything is followed. Fig. 10.1’s lower picture, everywhere
Government (the system)	There is no legislature to make laws, no executive to run roads, railways, health, defence or the police, and no courts to settle disputes

And note the two words are not the same: governance is the work; government is who does it. A country needs both — a set of institutions, and the process by which they actually take and carry out decisions.

Why this is the first point of the summary: the whole chapter is built on it. Rules exist everywhere already — at home, in school, in the examination hall, on the road, at work. Governance is not something new imposed from above; it is the same familiar thing at the scale of a country.

Q2.

A modern government has three organs — legislative, executive and judiciary — which need to work together.

Answer

Three different jobs, three different organs — but one governance.

Organ	Its job, in the book’s words	Who it is, in India (Fig. 10.5)
Legislature	“Makes new laws… sometimes it also updates or removes existing laws”, through “an assembly of representatives of the people”	Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha nationally; the Vidhan Sabha in a State
Executive	“Implements (or ‘executes’) the laws” — head of state, ministers, and any agency responsible for law and order	President (nominal head) with the Prime Minister as executive head; Governor (nominal head) with the Chief Minister as executive head
Judiciary	“The system of courts which decides whether someone has broken the law”, and sometimes examines executive decisions and whether a law “is well conceived and fair to all”	Supreme Court of India; High Court in a State

“Work together” and “kept separate” are both true, and the chapter says both in one breath: “these three organs must be kept separate, although they interact with each other and work together”. The separation is called the separation of powers, and its purpose is checks and balances — each organ can check the others and “restore balance if one organ acts beyond its expected role”.

Three separate organs, arrows running between them, and governance at the centre — the shape the textbook draws on page 154.

Q3.

The Indian government functions at three levels — Centre or national, State and local.

Answer

Different problems are the right size for different levels — and Fig. 10.4 on page 155 draws them as a pyramid, with the Central Government at the top, the State Government in the middle, and the Local Government at the broad base.

Level	Works at	Typical matters	The chapter’s flood example
Local Government	The town or village level	Water, streetlights, drains, waste, local roads, markets — studied in the next two chapters	If the flood “is not too severe, the local authorities may be able to deal with it”
State Government	The State level	Police and law and order, public health, education, agriculture, irrigation, local government	If it “involves several towns and many villages, the State Government will step in and send rescue teams”
Central Government	The national level	Defence, foreign affairs, atomic energy, communications, currency, inter-state commerce, education, national policies	If it is “a massive flood affecting vast areas, the Central Government may also come to help by sending relief supplies, the army, etc.”

The chapter also gives a homely comparison: a bulb that will not light. You check the bulb, switch and fuse yourself; then you call an electrician; and if the fault is outside the house, you go to the Electricity Board. “These are also three levels of dealing with a problem.”

Why the pyramid is drawn widest at the bottom: the local level touches the most people and the most daily matters. That is why the chapter’s title is Grassroots Democracy — the ‘grassroots’ are that broad base, where ordinary citizens can most easily take part.

Q4.

Democracy is the overall framework for this system. It functions through elected representatives, both at the State and the national levels.

Answer

The organs and the levels are the machinery; democracy is what makes it belong to the people. Take democracy away and you would still have a legislature, an executive and a judiciary — but the people would have no say in who sits in them, and no lawful way to change a rule.

Piece of the machinery	What democracy adds to it
The legislature makes the laws	Its members are elected — MLAs at the State level, MPs at the national level
Decisions have to be taken	They are taken “through dialogue and debate”, by trying to convince one another — not by command
Rules bind everybody	So everybody has a say in them: “citizens also have a say in the laws and rules governing the society”
Government exists at three levels	Elections at all three, and grassroots democracy at the base, so “citizens can have a say in decisions which affect them”
Anybody can be wrong	Representatives face the voters again; and courts can examine whether a law is “fair to all”

The scale is worth remembering: India is the world’s largest democracy, with some 970 million voters in 2024, and in principle every citizen above 18 may take part in these elections.

One line for revision: three organs — how the work is divided; three levels — where the work is done; democracy — whose government it is.

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