NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 9 End-of-chapter exercise — Questions, activities and projects

Book page 148 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

What are some of the rules you follow in your family and neighbourhood? Why are they important?

Answer

Most rules at home and in a neighbourhood are unwritten — exactly like the community practices on page 143, which the chapter calls ‘rules’, “though they were rarely written down”. Write down the ones you actually follow, and then say what each one protects.

Rules in my family — sample answer	Why it is important
Everyone eats together at night, and nobody starts before the others sit down	It is the one time the whole family talks; problems come up here first
Tell an elder where you are going and when you will be back	Safety — and it saves everyone from worry
Homework and school bag are finished before play	Work first keeps the whole evening free of quarrels
Whoever uses a thing puts it back; each of us keeps our own corner clean	Shares the housework instead of leaving it to one person
Big spending is discussed by both parents	The same practice as Tenzing’s family — fewer mistakes, and equal respect
Food is not wasted; leftovers are used or shared	Respect for the work and money behind every meal
Speak politely to elders and to anyone who works in the house	Respect is owed to everybody, not only to those senior to us

Rules in my neighbourhood — sample answer	Why it is important
Waste is put out in the morning, wet and dry kept separate	Keeps the lane clean and makes the waste collector’s work possible
No loudspeakers late at night; music is turned down after 10 pm	Children study and old people sleep; one house’s fun should not be another’s trouble
Vehicles parked in the marked place, not across a gate	Ambulances and fire engines must be able to get in
Water is not wasted; taps are shut at the common tank	The supply is shared and limited — this is the ‘shared resource’ rule of page 143 in a city form
Pet owners clean up after their pets; the park is kept for everyone	One of the very rules the book mentions for Residents’ Welfare Associations
Everyone contributes to festival and cleaning drives, by money or by work	Common things belong to nobody unless everybody takes a share of them

Why rules matter, in one line: a family and a neighbourhood are shared spaces with limited things — time, money, water, quiet, attention. Rules are the agreement about how those are shared, so that people do not have to argue about the same thing every single day. The chapter says it of communities: such practices “have provided communities a secure access to resources”, and in return “all families and individuals … have specific duties to perform. Otherwise, the community will not function smoothly.”

Q2.

Do you think some rules are unfair to a few people in the family or community? Why?

Answer

Yes — some are, and the honest test of a rule is simple: does everyone who has to follow it also get a say in making it, and does it fall equally on everybody?

A rule that can be unfair	Why it is unfair	A fairer form of it
Girls do the cooking and cleaning; boys are not asked	The same work, the same house, but only one half of the children carry it — and it eats into their study and play time	A rota in which every child takes a turn, as Tenzing’s father showed by taking over the chores
Only boys are sent to the better or the farther school	A child’s education should not depend on whether they are a girl or a boy	The same schooling for every child; if money is short, the family decides together and openly
“Children should not speak when elders are talking”	Applied to everything, it silences the people a decision is about — for instance, a child’s own studies	Listen first, then speak; and let children be heard on matters that concern them
A colony rule that domestic workers or delivery workers must not use the main lift or gate	It treats some people as lesser for the work they do — the same people the colony depends on entirely	One entrance and one lift for everybody
A ban on playing in the only open space of a colony	The rule protects the grass and takes away the children’s only ground	Fixed play hours and a marked area, decided with the children
An old practice that keeps some families away from a common well, temple, or gathering	It is unjust and against the Constitution’s guarantee of equality — no tradition can justify it	Equal access for every family, without exception
A meeting time or a notice that leaves out people who cannot read, or who work late	They must obey rules they never got to discuss	Announce in the local language, hold meetings at a time working people can attend

Three questions that test any rule:
1. Who made it? Did the people it binds have a voice? The chapter notes approvingly that in a Residents’ Welfare Association, “people living in the community participate in making such rules”.
2. Who does it fall on? A rule that always burdens the same people — the youngest, the women, the poorest — is unfair however old it is.
3. Can it be changed? Rules made by people can be changed by people. That is exactly what your own Questions, activities and projects is inviting you to think about.

How to raise it at home: not by refusing the rule, but by asking for the reason and proposing a fairer version — “Could we make a rota for the dishes?” A reason you can hear is the difference between a rule and an order.

Q3.

Describe several situations that you have observed where community support makes a difference. You can draw or write about these.

Answer

Method. Describe each situation in four steps: (1) what happened, (2) what one family alone could have done, (3) what the community did, (4) the difference it made. Three or four situations are enough. Draw them as panels if you prefer, with one sentence under each.

Sample answers

Situation	What the community did	The difference
1. A flooded lane after heavy rain	About thirty neighbours cleared the choked drain on a Sunday morning with spades and buckets; one family sent tea; the local sweeper showed where the blockage was	Water drained in one morning instead of standing for a week. No family could have done it alone, and no complaint would have been answered that fast
2. A wedding in a house with little money	Neighbours lent chairs, vessels and a shamiana; four families cooked; the young men managed the guests	The family got a proper wedding without falling into debt — the sharing of work and things, exactly as in a village community
3. An accident on the road outside school	Shopkeepers stopped traffic, an autorickshaw driver took the injured man to hospital, someone called his family	He got help within minutes. Strangers acted because the person in trouble was in their street
4. An old woman living alone falls ill	The neighbours took turns to bring food and medicines and to sit with her; a college student did her bank work	She was cared for at home. This is the halma idea — supporting an individual in a time of crisis
5. A dry village pond	The whole village gave shramdaan for three days to desilt the pond and repair its bund before the monsoon	The pond held water all summer, and the wells nearby did not run dry — the same reasoning as the Bhils’ trenches near Jhabua
6. Children out of school in our area	Two college students and a retired teacher started free evening classes in the community hall; residents donated books	Eleven children joined a regular school the next year — Kamal Parmar’s story repeating on a smaller scale

What to write in your conclusion: in every one of these, the same pattern appears — a problem too big for one family, solved by people who expected nothing in return, and a duty accepted rather than a payment received. As the chapter puts it, communities exist because “all families and individuals within the community have specific duties to perform”, and because “everyone depends on a number of other people and communities”.

If you draw it: four panels work well — the problem, people gathering, the work being done together, the result. Look at the photographs on page 145 of the textbook for the idea: an entire hillside of people digging trenches, walking to the site with their own tools, and, at the end, a pond full of water where a bare slope used to be.

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