NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 9 The three options before the students — LET'S EXPLORE

Book page 188 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Which of the three methods do you think is most effective? Why?
Answer

The third method — students of each grade elect one representative, and the representatives form the committee. Test the three against what a committee actually has to do.

MethodCan it decide quickly?Is every grade heard?Verdict
1. Everyone in the school is on the committeeNo — with hundreds of members, reaching a decision and managing implementation is very hardYes, in principleFair but unworkable
2. The Head Teacher chooses the membersYes — the committee is smallNo — most students have no role and no way to make sure their voices are heardWorkable but not fair
3. Each grade elects a representativeYes — the committee stays smallYes — every grade has someone who will advocate for its needsFair and workable
Why it happens: a committee needs two things that pull against each other — it must be small enough to act and wide enough to represent. Method 1 gives representation without workability, method 2 gives workability without representation. Method 3 gets both, because a small number of people carry the voices of a large number. That is exactly the trade-off that makes large countries choose representative democracy over direct democracy.
Did you know? The same logic scales up. India has about 96 crore voters; they elect 543 members to the Lok Sabha. Every one of those members is doing what your class representative does — carrying many voices into a room small enough to take decisions.
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