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Social Science (087) — AI-generated practice question

AI-generated practice question — model-generated for extra practice, not a previous-year CBSE board question.

Q1. [1] medium thorough-understanding
A democratic government passes a law declaring one religion the official state religion, makes its language mandatory in all schools and gives its followers priority in government jobs. Which of the following best explains the likely outcome of such policies on democracy and social harmony? ((A)) It strengthens democracy by giving a clear cultural identity to the nation. ((B)) It leads to majoritarianism, alienates minorities and can trigger social conflict and instability. ((C)) It promotes transparency and accountability among citizens. ((D)) It ensures efficient decision-making by reducing diversity-related debates.
  1. A Sri Lanka failed to hold free and fair elections, making it undemocratic.
  2. B Majority rule in Sri Lanka turned into the permanent dominance of one ethnic-religious community, denying others the chance to ever be in the majority.
  3. C Sri Lanka's government was a dictatorship that suppressed all social differences.
  4. D Sri Lanka's poor economic growth led to violent social conflicts among its citizens.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 13:21 · grounding rag
Model Answer

(B) It leads to majoritarianism, alienates minorities and can trigger social conflict and instability.

Such policies make rule by majority community permanent, denying minorities equal status — violating the democratic principle that every citizen must have a chance to be in the majority.

Source: Accommodation of social diversity, Chapter 5; Religion, communalism and politics, Chapter 3

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Explanation

The examiner expects you to identify majoritarianism as the key concept. The Sri Lanka example from Chapter 5 shows how making one religion/language official alienates minorities and destabilises democracy. Chapter 3 reinforces that using state power to favour one religious group is communalism, which threatens democracy. Option B directly matches these textbook outcomes. Options A, C, and D are factually incorrect per the source.

Previous-year CBSE Grade 10 board exam questions, organised by subject and chapter, each with a model answer — free to read and print.