Solution

CLASS 10 POWER SHARING

Class 10 - Social Science

Section A
1.
(d) To recognise Tamil as an official language
Explanation: The Sri Lankan Tamils launched parties and struggles for the recognition of Tamil as an official language, for
regional autonomy and equality of opportunity in securing education and jobs. But their demand for more autonomy to
provinces populated by the Tamils was repeatedly denied.
2.
(d) 59%
Explanation: The ethnic composition of Belgium includes 59% of the Flemish region speaking Dutch, 40% of people living in
Wallonia and speaking French, and 1% of the population speaking German.

A
3.

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(c) Dutch-speaking
Explanation: The minority French-speaking community was relatively rich and powerful. This was resented by the Dutch-
speaking community who got the benefit of economic development and education much later.
4.
(d) A is false but R is true.

5.
Explanation: A is false but R is true. D
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(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.
Explanation: Both the statements are correct about the distribution of power but in two different aspects. The assertion talks
about the horizontal distribution of power where power is shared among different organs of government, such as the
legislature, executive, and judiciary. Since it allows different organs of government placed at the same level to exercise
different powers, it works as a check and balance of power.
While the reason states power-sharing among governments at different levels – a general government for the entire country and
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governments at the provincial or regional level. This division of powers involving higher and lower levels of government is
called the vertical division of power.
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6.
(c) A is true but R is false.
Explanation: Power-sharing is a good way to ensure the stability of political order because it helps to reduce the possibility of
conflict between social groups. Since social conflict often leads to violence and political instability. Imposing the will of the
majority community over others may look like an attractive option in the short run, but in the long run, it undermines the unity
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of the nation.
Section B
7. Read the text carefully and answer the questions:
Two different sets of reasons can be given in favour of power-sharing. Firstly, power-sharing is good because it helps to reduce the
possibility of conflict between social groups. Since social conflict often leads to violence and political instability, power-sharing is
a good way to ensure the stability of political order. Imposing the will of the majority community over others may look like an
attractive option in the short run, but in the long run, it undermines the unity of the nation. The tyranny of the majority is not just
oppressive for the minority; it often brings ruin to the majority as well. There is a second, deeper reason why power sharing is
good for democracies. Power-sharing is the very spirit of democracy. A democratic rule involves sharing power with those
affected by its exercise, and who have to live with its effects. People have a right to be consulted on how they are to be governed.
A legitimate government is one where citizens, through participation, acquire a stake in the system. The first set of reasons is
Prudential and the second is moral. While prudential reasons stress that power-sharing will bring out better outcomes, the former
emphasises the very act of powersharing as valuable.
(i) A legitimate government in a democracy is one where citizens have a stake in the system through participation and
consultation on how they are governed.

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 (ii) The downside is that it can lead to the tyranny of the majority, which is oppressive for the minority and can ultimately
harm the majority as well.
8. Sri Lankan Tamils are concentrated in the north and east of the country.
Section C
9. A. In vertical division of Power Sharing power is shared among the different levels of the government like Union Government,
state government and Lower levels.
B. Different levels of the government exercise the power of the government.
C. No specification of the system of checks and balance.
D. It ensures the concept of deepening of democracy.
E. Central Government, State Government and Panchayat Raj are the example of the Vertical division of Power Sharing
F. In vertical division of powers, constitution clearly lays down the powers of different levels of government.
G. There is no such concept of checks and balances in the vertical Division because powers are clearly given by the constitution
from the higher level to the lower level.
H. Vertical division of powers promotes the concept of deepening of democracy.
10. To accommodate diverse regional and cultural country, Belgian Government adopted the following measures:

A
i. Constitution prescribes that the number of Dutch and French-speaking ministers shall be equal in the Central Government.
ii. Many powers of the Central Government have been given to State Governments of the two regions of the country.

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iii. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, has a separate government in which both the communities have equal representations.
iv. Apart from the Central and State Governments, there is a third kind of government. This community government is elected by
the people belonging to one language community-Dutch, French and German-speaking- no matter where they live. This
government has the power regarding cultural, educational and language related issues.
11. After the Independence (1948), the leaders of the Sinhala community of Sri Lanka sought to secure dominance over the
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government by virtue of their majority. So they took some Majoritarian measures to establish their dominance. These are
i. In 1956, an Act was passed which recognised Sinhala as the only official language, thus disregarding Tamil language.
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ii. Preferences were given to Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs, etc.
iii. State shall promote and foster Buddhism according to new Constitution.
iv. Sri Lankan Tamil felt that none of the major political parties led by Buddhist Sinhala leaders were sensitive to their language
and culture. It increased the feeling of alienation among the Srilankan Tamils.
v. The Srilankan Tamils launched parties and struggles for the recognition of Tamil as an official language.
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All these measures strained the relationship between the two communities.
12. When people participate in the planning and implementation of developmental schemes, they would naturally exercise greater
control over these schemes. This would eliminate the corrupt middlemen.
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13. The distrust between Tamil speaking and the Sinhalese over the majoritarianism issue resulted in a wider conflict which soon
turned into a civil war.
The following were the results of the civil war:
a. Thousands of people of Sinhala and Tamil communities were killed.
b. Many families were forced to leave the country and many more lost their livelihood.
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c. Sri Lanka, in general, suffered from an economic crisis.

d. Civil war has caused a terrible setback to the social-cultural and economic life of the country.
Section D
14. A. Federalism is a system of government under which power is divided between a central authority and its various constituent
units.
B. In federal government power is shared among the different levels of government but in unitary government all powers are in
the hands of a single unit.
C. The Belgium leaders tried to solve the ethnic problem by respecting the feeling and interest if different committees and
regions by establishing a federal government, where as the Sri Lankan Government tried to solve the problem through
Majoritarianism.
Federal govt is far better than the unitary govt as the federal govt involves the concept of power sharing and that involve the active
participation of people and effective decisions in favour of the people.
for eg in belgium who divided its govt powers into central, state and community govt, was a successful amendment with no
conflicts.

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 While in sri lanka who rested the power only to the central govt and that resulted in the civil war between the tamil minority group
and the rest sri lankan people.
Hence looking into the above examples we can say that federal govt is better than the unitary govt.
15. i. Organs of the government: Legislature, executive and judiciary are the three organs of the government. Legislature is
responsible for making laws, executive organ is responsible for execution or implementation the laws whereas judiciary is
there to provide justice to the people or to solve the disputes.
ii. Power sharing: In India the Union Parliament, i.e., the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha makes laws whereas various ministers
and government officials are responsible for the execution of the laws. These ministers are not independent but they are
responsible or answerable to the Parliament or State Assemblies. Similarly, although judges are appointed by the executive,
they can check the functioning of executive or laws made by the legislatures. This arrangement is called a system of checks
and balances.
16. A. The leaders of the Sinhala community tried to ensure the dominance of their community over the other communities of Sri
Lanka after independence.
B. The adopted a series of majoritarian measures to establish Sinhala supremacy.
C. In 1956, an act was passed to recognize Sinhala as the only official language.

A
D. Sinhala people were given special preference in government jobs and university admissions.
E. Buddhism was declared the national religion.

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F. Consequences: All these government measures increased the feeling of alienation among the other Communities. They felt
that their language and culture were not given due importance. They also felt that the constitution and the policies of the
government denied them to give equal political powers. As a result their relations with the Sinhala community worsened.

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