THEORIES OF ORGANISATIONS

Max Weber developed the first systematic interpretation of the rise of modern organizations. Organizations, he argued, are ways of coordinating the activities of human beings, or the goods they produce, in a stable way across space and time. Weber emphasized that the development of organizations depends upon the control of information, and he stressed the central importance of writing in this process: an organization needs written rules for its and files in which its "memory" is stored. Weber saw organizations as strongly hierarchical, with power tending to be concentrated at the top. Was Weber right? If he was, it matters a great deal to us all. For Weber detected a clash as well as a connection between modern organizations and democracy that he believed had far reaching consequences for social life.

Weber's View of Bureaucracy

All large-scale organizations, according to Weber, tend to be bureaucratic in nature. The word IIbureaucracyll was coined by a Monsieur de Gournay in 1745, who added to the word IIbureau,'l meaning both an office and a writing table, a term derived from the Greek verb "to rule." Bureaucracy is thus the rule of officials. The term was first applied only to government officials, but it gradually became extended to refer to large organizations in general.

From the beginning the concept was used in a disparaging way. De Gournay spoke of the developing power of officials as "an illness called bureaumania." The French novelist Honore de Balzac saw bureaucracy as lithe giant power wielded by pygmies." This sort of view has persisted into current times: bureaucracy is frequently associated with red tape, inefficiency, and wastefulness. Other writers, however, have seen bureaucracy in a different light -as a model of carefulness, precision, and effective administration. Bureaucracy, they argue, is in fact the most efficient form of organization human beings have devised, because all tasks are regulated by strict rules of procedure.

Weber's account of bureaucracy steers a way between these two extremes. A limited number of bureaucratic organizations, he pointed out, existed in the traditional civilizations. For example, a bureaucratic officialdom in imperial China was responsible for the overall affairs of government. But it is only in modern times that bureaucracies have developed fully.

According to Weber, the expansion of bureaucracy is inevitable in modern societies; bureaucratic authority is the only way of coping with the administrative requirements of large-scale social systems. However, Weber also believed bureaucracy to exhibit a number of major failings, as we will see, which have important implications for the nature of modern social life.

In order to study the origins and nature of the expansion of bureaucratic organizations, Weber constructed an ideal type of bureaucracy. ("ldeal" here refers not to what is most desirable, but to a pure form of ·bureaucratic organization. An ideal type is an abstract description constructed by accentuating certain features of real cases so as to pinpoint their most essential characteristics.) Weber listed several characteristics of the ideal type of bureaucracy:

1. THERE IS A CLEAR-CUT HIERARCHY OF AUTHORITY, such that tasks in the organization are distributed as "official duties." A bureaucracy looks like a pyramid, with the positions of highest authority at the top. There is a chain of command stretching from top to bottom, thus making coordinated decision-making possible. Each higher office controls and supervises the one below it in the hierarchy.

2. WRITIEN RULES GOVERN THE CONDUCT OF OFFICIALS AT ALL LEVELS OF THE ORGANISATION. This does not mean that bureaucratic duties are just a matter of routine. The higher the office, the more the rules tend to encompass a wide variety of cases and demand flexibility in their interpretation.


3.. OFFICIALS ARE FULL-TIME AND SALARIED. Each job in the hierarchy has a definite and fixed salary attached to it. Individuals are expected to make a career within the organization. Promotion is possible on the basis of capability, seniority, or a mixture of the two.

4. THERE IS A SEPARATION BETWEEN THE TASKS OF AN OFFICIAL WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION AND HIS LIFE OUTSIDE. The home life of the official is distinct from his activities in the workplace, and is also physically separated from it.

5. NO MEMBERS OF THE ORGANIZATION OWN THE MATERIAL RESOURCES WITH WHICH THEY OPERATE. The development of bureaucracy, according to Weber, separates workers from the control of their means of production. In traditional communities, farmers and craft workers usually had control over their processes of production and owned the tools they used. In bureaucracies, officials do not own the offices they work in, the desks they sit at, or the office machinery they use.


Weber believed that the more an organization approaches the ideal type of bureaucracy, the more effective it will be in pursuing the objectives for which it was established. He often likened bureaucracies to sophisticated machines operating by the principle of rationality. Yet he recognized that bureaucracy could be inefficient and accepted that many bureaucratic jobs are dull, offering little opportunity for the exercise of creative capabilities. While Weber feared that the rationalization of society could have negative consequences, he concluded that bureaucratic routine and the authority of officialdom over our lives are prices we pay for the technical effectiveness of bureaucratic organizations. Since Weber's time the rationalization of society has become more widespread. Critics of this development who share Weber's initial concerns have questioned whether the efficiency of rational organizations comes a price greater than Weber could have imagined.

Formal and Informal Relations within Bureaucracies

Weber's analysis of bureaucracy gave prime place to formal relations within organizations, the relations between peop'le as stated in the rules of the organization. Weber had little to say about the informal connections and small-group relations that may exist in all organizations. But in bureaucracies, informal ways of doing things often allow for a flexibility that couldn't otherwise be achieved.

In a classic study, Peter Blau studied informal relations in a government agency, whose task was to investigate possible income-tax violations. Agents who came across problems they were unsure how to deal with were supposed to discuss them with their immediate supervisor; the rules of procedure stated that they should not consult colleagues working at the same level as themselves. Most officials were wary of approaching their supervisors, however, because they felt this might suggest a lack of competence on their part and reduce their promotion chances. Hence, they usually consulted each other, violating the official rules. This not only helped to provide concrete advice, it also reduced the anxieties involved in working alone. A cohesive set of loyalties of a primary group kind developed among those working at the same level. The problems these workers faced, Blau concludes, were probably coped with much more effectively as a result. The group was able to evolve informal procedures allowing for more initiative and responsibility than was provided for by the formal rules of the organization.

Informal networks tend to develop at all levels of organizations. At the very top, personal ties and connections may be more important than the formal situations in which decisions are supposed to be made. For example, meetings of boards of directors and shareholders supposedly determine the policies of business corporations. In practice, a few members of the board often really run the corporation, making their decisions informally and expecting the board to approve them. Informal networks of this sort can also stretch across different corporations. Business leaders from different firms frequently consult one another in an informal way, and may belong to the same clubs and leisure-time associations.

John Meyer and Brian Rowan argue that formal rules and procedures in organizations are usually quite distant from the practices actually adopted by the organizations' members. Formal rules, in their view, are often "myths" that people profess to follow but which have little substance in reality. They serve to legitimate -to justify -ways in which tasks are carried out, even while these ways may diverge greatly from how things are "supposed to be done."
Formal procedures, Meyer and Rowan point out, often have a ceremonial or ritual character. People will make a show of conforming to them in order to get on with their real work using other, more informal procedures. For example, rules governing ward procedure in a hospital help justify how nurses act toward patients in caring for them. Thus a nurse will faithfully fill in a patient's chart that hangs at the end of the bed, but will check the patient's progress by means of other, informal criteria -"how well the person is looking,lI and whether he or she seems alert and lively. Rigorously keeping up the charts impresses the patients and keeps the doctors happy, but is not always essential to the nurse's assessments.

Deciding' how far informal procedures generally help or hinder the effectiveness of organizations is not a simple matter. Systems that resemble Weber's ideal type tend to give rise to a forest of unofficial ways of doing things. This is partly because the flexibility that is lacking can be achieved by unofficial tinkering with formal rules. For those in dull jobs, informal procedures often also help to create a more satisfying work environment. Informal connections officials in higher positions may be effective in ways that aid the organization as a whole. On the other hand, these officials may be more concerned to advance or protect their own interests than to further those of the overall organization.

The Physical Setting of Organizations

Most modern organizations function in specially designed physical settings. A building that houses a particular organization possesses specific features relevant to the organization's a'ctivities, but it also shares important architectural characteristics with buildings of other organizations. The architecture of a hospital, for instance, differs in some respects from that of a business firm or a school. The hospital's separate wards, consulting rooms, operating rooms, and offices give the overall building a definite layout, while a school may consist of classrooms, laboratories, and a gymnasium. Yet there is a general resemblance: both are likely to contain hallways with doors leading off, and to use standard decoration and furnishings throughout. Apart from the differing dress of the people moving through the corridors, the buildings in which modern organizations are usually housed have a definite sameness to them. And they often look similar from the outside as well as within their interiors. It would not be unusual to ask, on driVing past a building, fils that a school?1I and receive the response "No it's a hospital." Although major internal modifications will be required, it can happen that a school takes over buildings that once housed a hospital.

Michel Foucault showed that the architecture of an organization is directly involved with its social makeup and system of authority. By studying the physical characteristics of organizations, we can shed new light on the problems Weber analyzed. The offices Weber discussed abstractly are also architectural settings-rooms, separated by corridors. The buildings of large firms are sometimes actually constructed physically as a hierarchy, in which the more elevated one's position in the hierarchy of authority, the nearer the top one's office is; the phrase "the 'top floor" is sometimes used to mean those who hold ultimate power in the organization.

In many other ways, the geography of an organization will affect its functioning, especially in cases where systems rely heavily on informal relationships. Physical proximity makes forming primary groups easier, while physical distance can polarize groups, resulting in a "them" and "us" attitude between departments. Organizations

The arrangement of rooms, hallways, and open spaces in an organization's buildings can provide basic clues to how its system of authority operates. In some organizations, groups of people work collectively in open settings. Because of the dull, repetitive nature of certain kinds of industrial work, like assembly-line production, regular supervision is needed to ensure that workers sustain the pace of labor. The same is often true of routine work carried out by typists, who sit together in the typing pool, where their activities are visible to their superiors. Foucault laid great emphasis on how visibilitYI or lack of itl in the architectural settings of modern organizations influences and expresses patterns of authority. Their visibility determines how easily subordinates can be subject to what Foucault calls surveillancel the supervision of activities in org(lnizations. In modern organizationsl everyone, even in relatively high positions of authoritYI is subject to surveillance; but the more lowly a person iSI the more her behavior tends to be closely scrutinized.

Surveillance takes two forms. One is the direct supervision of the work of subordinates by superiors. Consider the example of a school classroom. Pupils sit at tables or desks, usually arranged in rows, all in view of the teacher. Children are supposed to look alert or otherwise be absorbed in their work. Of coursel how far this actually happens in practice depends on the abilities of the teacher and the inclinations of the children to conform to what is expected of them.

The second type of surveillance is more subtle but equally important. It consists in keeping filesl recordsl and case histories about people's lives. Weber saw the importance of written records (nowadays often computerized) in modern organizationsl but did not fully explore how they can be used to regulate behaVior. Employee records usually prOVide complete work histories, registering personal details and often giving character evaluations. Such records are used to monitor employees' behavior and assess recommendations for promotion. In many business firmsl individuals at each level in the organization prepare annual reports on the performance of those in the levels just below them. School and college transcripts are also used to monitor individuals' performance as they move through the organization. References are kept on file for academic staffl too.

Organizations cannot operate effectively if employees' work is haphazard. In business firmsl as Weber pointed out, people are expected to work regular hours. Activities must be consistently coordinated in time and spacel something promoted both by the physical settings and by the precise scheduling of detailed timetables. Timetables regularize activities across time and space -in Foucault's words, they "efficiently distribute bodies" around the organization. Timetables are the condition of organizational disciplinel because they slot the activities of large numbers of people together. If a university did not strictly observe a lecture timetablel for example, it would soon collapse into complete chaos. A timetable makes possible the intensive use of time and space: each can be packed with many people and many activities.

UNDER SURVEILLANCEI THE PRISON

Foucault paid a great·deal of attention to organizations, like prisonsl in which individuals are physically separated for long periods from the outside world. In such organizationsl people are incarcerated -kept hidden away-from the external social environment. A prison illustrates in clear detail the nature of surveillance because it seeks to maximize control over inmatesl behavior. Foucault asksl "Is it surprising that prisons resemble factoriesl schoolsl barracksl hospitalsl which all resemble prisons?"

According to Foucault, the modern prison has its ongms in the Panopticon, an organization planned by the philosopher and social thinker Jeremy Bentham in the nineteenth century. "Panopticon" was the name Bentham gave to an ideal prison he designed, which he tried on occasions to sell to the British government. The design was never fully implemented, but some of its main principles were incorporated in prisons built in the nineteenth century in the United States, Britain, and Europe. The Panopticon was circular in shape, with the cells built around the outside edge. In the center was an inspection tower. Two windows were placed in every cell, one facing the inspection tower and the other facing outside. The aim of the design was to make prisoners visible to guards at all times. The windows in the tower itself were equipped with venetian blinds, so that while the prison staff could keep the prisoners under constant observation, they themselves could be invisible.

THE LIMITS OF SURVEILLANCE

Foucault was right about prisons. Even today, most prisons look remarkably like the Panopticon. He was also right about the central role of surveillance in modern societies, an issue that has become even more important now, because of the growing impact of information and communications technologies. We live in what some have called the surveillance society society in which information about our lives is gathered by all types of organizations.

But Weber and Foucault's argument that the most effective way to run an organization is to maximize surveillance -to have clear and consistent divisions of authority -is a mistake, at least if we apply it to business firms, which don't (as prisons do) exert total control over people's lives in closed settings. Prisons are not actually a good model for organizations as a whole. Direct supervision may work tolerably well when the people involved, as in prisons, are basically hostile to those in authority over them and do not want to be where they are. But in organizations where managers desire others to cooperate with them in reaching common goals, the situation is different. Too much direct supervision alienates employees, who feel they are denied any opportunities for involvement in the work they do.

This is one main reason why organizations founded upon the sorts of principles formulated by Weber and Foucault, such as large factories involving assembly-line production and rigid authority hierarchies, eventually ran into great difficulties. Workers weren't inclined to devote themselves to their work in such settings; continuous supervision was in fact required to get them to work reasonably hard at all, but it promoted resentment and antagonism.

People are also prone to resist high levels of surveillance in the second sense mentioned by Foucault, the collection of written information about them. That was in effect one of the main reasons why the Soviet-style Communist societies broke down. In these societies, people were spied upon in a regular way either the secret police or by others in the pay of the secrete police -even relatives and neighbors. The government also kept detailed information on its citizenry in order to clamp down on possible opposition to their rule. The result was a form of society that was politically authoritarian and, toward the end, economically inefficient. The whole society did indeed come almost to resemble a gigantic prison, with all the discontents, conflicts, and modes of opposition prisons generate-and from which, in the end, the population broke free.

Answer the following questions from the above passage:

1. The first systematic interpretation of modern organizations was developed by

A. Emile Durkheim

B. Max Weber

C. Michel Foucault

D. John Meyer

2. According to Max Weber, all large organizations tend to be

A. bureaucracies

B. primary groups

C. inefficient

D. efficient

3. The word bureaucracy was first coined by

A. Max Weber

B. Balzac

C. Monsieur de Gournay

D. An official in imperial China

4. The word IIbureaucracy" literally means

A. terrible organization

B. the rule of officials

C. a large table

D. people are actually furniture

5. Bureaumania

A. was a love of antique furniture

B. wasthe power of officials

C. was the rule of pygmies

D. was the rule of giants

6. Max Weber believed that was the only way to cope with the administrative needs of a large social system

A. tradition

B. bureaucracy

C. charismatic authority

D. surveillance

7. The term "ideal type" refers to

A. the easiest font to read in official documents

B. an abstract description constructed by accentuating certain features of real cases in order to reveal their most
important characteristics

C. the best example

D. best record keeping

8. Which of the following best characterizes Weber's ideal type of bureaucracy?

A. Ownership is not in the hands of the workers

B. Separation of work and home life

C. Each job has a fixed salary attached to it

D. All of the above

9. The closer bureaucracies are to the ideal type, the more they become in achieving their objectives.

A. ineffective

B. effective

C. feudal

D. biased

10. Max Weber likened bureaucracies to operating onthe principle of

A. machines; rationality

B. organisms; evolution

C. human; emotionalism

D. rivers; erosion

11. The relations between people as stated in an organization are

A. formal relations

B. informal relations

C. primary groups

D. mythical

12. Peter Blau studied in a government agency, the ways of doing things more flexibly than in a bureaucracy.

A. formal relations

B. informal relations

C. secondary groups

D. primary grou·ps

13. Blau determined that informal relations

A. led to loyalties between peers

B. were built only in factories run by private parties

C. must exist between workers and bosses

D. at the top personal ties between members rarely exist

14. John Meyer and Brian Rowan found that the in a bureaucracy are often ceremonial or ritual in order to justify
procedures.

A. primary groups

B. traditions

C. surveillance

D. formal procedures

15. For those in dull jobs

A. hospital administration is not an option

B. obeying officials is not needed.

C. unofficial tinkering with formal rules is exciting

D. none of the above



16. Hospitals, business firms, and schools are set apart by their

A. architectural styles

B. physical settings

C. interiors and exteriors

D. all of the above


17. The geography of an organization is particularly facilitative of

A. formal and informal relationships

B. the problems analysed by Weber

C. differing dress codes

D. internal modifications



18. The architecture of an organization is directly reflective of its

A. decorations and furnishings

B. hierarchy and system of authority

C. rooms and corridors

D. differing dress codes



19. Large firms have physical settings that are sometimes constructed to designate

A. a hierarchy of authority

B. physical distance and proximity

C. informal relationships

D. none of the above



20. Certainkinds ofindustriaIworksandforms ofroutineworkwithinorganizationshaveshared characteristics in that

A. they have people working collectively in open settings

B. they are often boring, repetitive

C. they are regularly supervised and visible

D. all of the above

21. What sets apart Foucault's analysis of organizations from that of Weber's is that

A. the former focuses on informal connections

B. the latter is ideal typical, while the former is real

C. the former shows a greater attentiveness to the physical settings of organizations

D. the former addresses dull jobs and the latter unofficial ways of doing things

22. Foucault stressed

A. physical proximity and distance within organizations

B. the possibility of visibility and supervision


C. routine work within organizations

D. the pace of labour within organizations

23. Surveillance implies that

A. everybody is subjected to supervision

B. visibility, or the lack of it, influences patterns of authority

C. activities in orgaisations are closely monitored

D. all of the above

24. What are the two forms of surveillance highlighted in the passage?

A. Class rooms and office records

B. Computers and teachers

C. Direct supervision and employee records

D. Business firms and annual reports

25. What are the means by which organizations regularize activities across time and space?

A. Timetables

B. Haphazard work

C. Consistent coordination

D. Work histories

26. Common to factories, hospitals, schools and prisons is the fact that they all involve

A. physical incarceration

B. surveillance

C. external environment

D. many people and many activities

27. The Panopticon was a prison designed for

A. United States, Britain and Europe

B. maximum surveillance

C. schools and hospitals

D. prison staff

28. The term 'surveillance society' designates

A. precise scheduling of activities

B. information gathering by various types of organizations

C. greater freedom

D. prisons modeled on the Panopticon

29. The limits of surveillance are drawn when we encounter

A. organizations which involve mutual cooperation between employees

B. organizations in which the people involve are hostile to authority

C. modern prisons

D. clear divisions of authority

30. Soviet-style communist societies broke down mainly because

A. people were spied upon regularly

B. they were politically authoritarian

C. they resembled a huge prison

D. all of the above



31. If means -means means and x means then 27x10 5

A) 43

B) 7

C) 3

D) 6

32. Arrange the following in a logical order

1) Objectives Data analysis Data collection Conclusion Review of literature

A)

B)

C)

D)

33. A group of 1275 students and teachers of a high school went on an educational tour with one escort teacher for every 16 students. How many teachers accompanied the students?

A) 85

B) 90

C) 70

D)75

34. In an office 65% of the employees own a house and 40% own a car and 25% own both house and car. What percent of employees neither own a house nor a car?


A) 5

B) 20

C) 15

D) 25

35. From the word IMAGINATION what is the maximum number of independent meaningful words that can be made without changing the order of the letters and using each letter only once?

A) 3

B) 1

C) 2

D) 4

36. In the following letter sequence how many are followed by m but not preceded by h
a g r h t s m b c s m i b u v s m h e r h s m g f e h s m e c s m w q a s m h i b

A) 4

B) 5

C) 6

D) 7

37. Factory ABC decides to reduce its workers from 7200 by removing 180 workers every year. Factory XYZ decides to increase its workers strength from 4500 by employing 90 workers every year. In how many years the workers' strength of both the factories will be equal?

A) 11 years

B) 8 years

C) 12 years

D) 10 years

38. Sheetal walks 20 Km towards North. From there she walks 12 Km towards South. Then she walks 6 Km towards East. How far is she with reference to her starting point?

A) 10km

B) 12Km

C) 14Km

D) 16Km

39. Arrange the given words in order and choose the one that comes first

A) Science

B) Scuttle

C) Scorn

D) Scent

40.

A) 121

B) 122

C) 111

D) 112


41. 27, 125,

A) 343

B) 625

C)215

D)636

42. If Naseer scored 240 marks out of 360 how many marks he would have scored out of 120?

A) 70

B) 69

C) 80

D) 85

43. In a certain code sie lie' means, 'some good songs', 'sie tat nik' means 'some real stories' and 'lie nik pol' means 'many good stories'. What is the code for

A) hi

B) sie

C) lie

D) cannot be determined


44. If the day before yesterday was Saturday, what day will fall on the day after tomorrow?

A) Friday

B) Thursday

C) Wednesday

D) Tuesday

45. The presence of calcium in milk makes it white. Rice too is white. Therefore rice also contains calcium.

A) False

B) Probably true

C) True

D) Can't say

46. A vendor bought a number of bananas at 6 for 5 rupees and sold them at 5 for 6 rupees. He gained by


A) 55%

B) 44%

C) 32%

D) 25%



47. From the given alternatives choose the number which is different from the rest

A) 65

B) 81

C) 53

D)43

48. From the given alternatives choose the word which is different from the rest

A) Metre

B) Yard

C) Mile

D) Acre

49. 'Reading' is related to 'Knowledge' in the same way as is related to

A) Experience

B) Employment

C) Money

D) Engagement

50. A publication house received an order for 2085 books. The staff bundled the books in such a way that the number of books in each bundle was equal to the number of bundles. Then how many books were left out?

A) 40

B) 80

C) 60

D)85

51. From the given alternatives find the odd one out

A) Lucknow

B) Patna

C) Bhopal

D) Mysore

52. In a joint family there are father, mother, 3 married sons and one unmarried daughter. Of the sons 2 have 2 daughters each and one has a son. How many female members are there in the family?

A) 6

B) 3

C) 9

D) 2

53. A man said to a lady, 'your mother's husband's sister is my aunt'. How is the lady related to the man?

A) Daughter

B) Mother

C) Aunt

D) Sister

54. AZeX IRKP

A) LONM

B) MNOL

C) NOLM

D) MLOL

55. In a certain code means 'Sam is weak' and means 'you are intelligent'. What is the code for in this code?

A) 6

B) 4

C) 7

D) Cannot be determined


Literary Passage

While the decline of political wit is a recurrent subject of discussion in Britain and America, a frequent topic of our times in India is the virtual absence of wit in public life. Indeed, the· Indian intelligentsia never seem to tire of saying thatlndians have no sense of humour.

This is a sweeping assertion and, in my view, an ignorant one too. It is possible that they are talking about themselves or their social milieu. A certain type of English-educated Indian, who is most likely to have been to a 'public' or Mission school, and has been taught to emulate the mores of the British and other such dominant peoples, tends to make an ass of himself when trying to be witty in a foreign language. He may be a pucca sahib in every other way, but his can be quite appalling.

The common people (especially the rural), on the other hand, have a way of laughing at their own misfortunes. They can also laugh at their oppressors. Satire became a habit with them while they groaned under the oppression of kings, priests and plutocrats. In contemporary India, the politician and the bureaucrat are the ones they take their revenge upon.

There is much humour in Indian proverbs. Even the gods are not spared. There is a special form of worship called ninda-stuti, praise by dispraise. Real humour in India, as elsewhere, is contained within the different languages and it is as difficult for Indians of one region to understand the humour of another, as it is for the English-educated Indian to absorb the true flavour of English humour. India is also by tradition a class-ridden and hierarchical society. Excessive reverence is shown to elders and to those in authority, though this may be changing. Sons and daughters don't usually joke with their parents and vice-versa; a boss can't afford to be seen in a mood of levity with his employees; the landlord wouldn't dream of sharing a joke with his peasant labourers. The path to wit and humour is strewn with pitfalls.

With Indian intellectuals, solemnity is a motto. Many of them wouldn't be seen dead with a joke. And the higher they go in the cerebral scale, the drier they become. 'All jokes are schoolboyish,' said the editor of a national daily to me once, though even his paper devotes the occasional 'third leader' to an effort at humour. Another national daily from the culturally traditional South similarly reserves a place for humour in a tucked-away corner on Sundays. This newspaper, when it started to publish the Art Buchwald column some years ago, placed this 'statutory warning' at the top: 'The following article is written in a humorous vein.'

It is a firm belief among Indian intellectuals and scholars that they will not be taken seriously if they are caught being witty. The phenomenon is not, of course, peculiar to India. It is by now well established that Adlai Stevenson lost the Presidential election (not once but twice) because of his irrepressible wit. And after seeing the political failure of such a good man American politicians seem to have, despite occasional lapses, taken to the well-known advice given by Senator Thomas Corwin to Garfield: 'Never make people laugh. If you would succeed life, you must be solemn, solemn as an ass. AU great monuments are built on solemn asses.'

Stevenson once spoke of the efficacy of humour in an interview with leon Harris, author of The Fine Art of Political Wit. He said: think it can be extremely effective, especially for Americans, because are such sensible people, responsive to humour-ordinary Americans. I would hate to think that humour is, in the long run, more effective than reason, but it certainly is more arresting than reason. I think ridicule, and the best of us ridicule humorously, is effective where our political scene is concerned. Naturally I believe that reason must prevail. If it doesn't, we're lost. Humour is no substitute for reason. On the other hand, it certainly can illustrate and enrich reason.'

Stevenson comes close to a definition of the political cartoon. The best of them are indeed Ireason illustrated and enriched by humourl. Another definition could be derived from Aneurin Bevan's description of his own role in British Parliament. He once began a speech with these words: II welcome this opportunity of pricking the bloated bladder of lies with the poniard of truth.'

Bursting bloated bladders of lies or pomposity, cutting people down to size, these are the purposes of satire. The great masters of political wit of the past excelled in the subversive use of laughter. We no longer have men like Sheridan, Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and Aneurin Bevan on the British political scene. The nature of politics and administration has changed; this may be one reason. Also, there is too much work to be done in Parliament these days and there just isn't time or the leisurely after-dinner debates that once produced the sparks of malice that flashed across the chamber. Politics has become more gentlemanly. As the late Harold Macmillan remarked a few years ago, 'You can hardly say boo to a goose in the House of Commons now without cries of "Ungentlemanly", "Not fair", and all the rest.'

The output of wit and humour in the Indian Parliament has always been low. Neither in Hindi, the dominant language, nor in English, Widely used on the floor as well as officially, has there been any memorable exchange of wit in the last four decades since India became free. But there have been political leaders who had a keen sense of humour, who could not only be witty but could enjoy wit at their own expense. Mahatma Gandhi was one such, and Sarojfni Naidu and C. Rajagopalachari were two others. Gandhils humour was gentle, though it could at times be barbed. When a foreign correspondent asked him what he thought of western civilization, Gandhi replied, lIt's a good idea.' Sarojini Naidu nicknamed Gandhi Mickey Mouse. If she had been able to draw, she would have made an excellent caricaturist. Nehru wasn't known for levity but he enjoyed wit and humour, and he could laugh at himself. He loved cartoons and collected many originals. Nehru, Gandhi and were major actors on the cartoon stage of the time. In more recent times atruly witty performer in the Indian Parliament was the late Piloo Mody. He never missed a chance to provide comic relief in the House. His huge physical presence alone could manage that and he could claim, like Falstaff, am not only witty in myself but the cause that wit is in other men.'

Both Nehru and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, enjoyed cartoons and considered them a necessary and useful institution in an otherwise pompous and self -centred world of politics. 'Itls good to have the veil of our conceit torn occasionallyl Nehru once said, referring to the veteran cartoonist, Shankar, who had been lampooning those in authority from well before the country's independence, until a defade ago, when he decided to retire from the political scene. Nehru's personal exhortation to Shankar, which he publicly expressed, was spare me.'

There was a bleak period for cartoons and cartoonists during the Emergency when Mrs. Gandhi's government imposed pre-censorship on the press. But pre-censorship was lifted for cartoons after the first three months. I presume that this was done in order to relieve the boredom that had enveloped the press as well as politics.

'A thing that cannot stand laughter is not a good thing,' James Thurber once said. And an Emergency that could not take some ridicule ,couldn't be considered good either. Mrs. Gandhi acted wisely in letting cartoonists have their way.

Cartoonists everywhere have been a privileged lot. This is not only because they are a preciously rare breed among journalists but even more due to the fact that it is virtually impossible to edit cartoons. A cartoon is a total statement, which the editor (or reader) has either to take as it is or reject entirely. The blue pencil is of little value when dealing with a cartoon.

Cartooning, nevertheless, can be a dangerous profession. This was recently illustrated by what happened to the editor of Ananda Vikatan, a popular Tamil weekly magazine of Madras. The magazine published a cartoon showing two characters on a public platform, one supposed to be a member of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and looking like a pickpocket, and the other meant to be a minister resembling a dacoit. The idea was spelt out in so many words (in the caption). The Assembly Speaker, like the majority of the was not amused and sentenced the editor Mr. Balasubramanian (who refused to apologize) to three months in prison. The event sent shock waves through the country and the press almost unanimously deplored the Speaker's action ... though it was generally accepted that the cartoon as such was in poor taste. As it happened, the editor was released after a mere three days.

But cartoonists do manage to have their say even when their cartoons are an embarrassment to those in power. Helen Vlachos, the Greek newspaper owner, came to appreciate this while she was in exile during the rule of the colonels in Greece. She felt that cartoonists were able, even under a dictatorship, to maintain some kind of opposition. The printed word was too precise, she said. In Greece, the very ambiguity of some of the cartoons published gave them the subversive element so essential to the nature of this art. While the colonels were too dense to get the message, the readers worked it out with subtle skill.

Yet, it must be emphasized that a free environment is essential for the proper functioning of cartoonists. Ideas of liberty can at times be smuggled through in a cartoon but liberty itself is a condition for a cartoonist's continued existence.

On the whole, I think India is a congenial place for cartoonists. It has its aberrations, political and social, but it has a base of tolerance that has sustained a democracy for nearly four decades. Certain inhibitions exist, nevertheless. Religious fervour often takes on menacing attitudes and discretion often becomes the better part of satire. Reaction appears from time to time in fundamentalist clothes, and cartoonists have to take cover. One can write against religion, promote atheism, but to use satire against a religious phenomenon, whatever that be, will be to risk a violent demonstration, no doubt led by a young and aspiring 'leader of the masses.

David Low has recalled in his autobiography a meeting he had with Mahatma Gandhi. This was while Gandhi was in England for the Round Table Conference. The Mahatma remarked that Indians had a lively appreciation of satire and therefore Low might find it useful to spend some time in India. But Low didn't respond to the suggestion because only a short while before one of his cartoons published in the Star, a London evening newspaper, very nearly caused a bloody riot in faraway Calcutta. Low had made the indiscretion of drawing the prophet (along with a number of other historical celebrities) in a rather facetious cartoon about the cricketer Jack Hobbs' batting record in some test match or the other.

Despite all these inhibitions -the distaste for humour for which Indian intellectuals are well­known, the nervous disposition of some of the editors and the explosive sensitivity of certain religious communities -cartooning has flourished in India and continues to do so. There is virtually no newspaper in the country that doesn't have a cartoonist or is not on the lookout for one. Even editors who may personally look down on anything approaching levity are happy to publish cartoons. This may be, I suppose, a case of the triumph of public opinion over editorial solemnity. When dealing with pompous editors, the circulation manager can be a cartoonist's ally.

Answer the following questions on the above passage:

56. The Indian pucca sahibs

A. have a way of laughing at themselves

B. lack wit in public

C. find it odd to be witty in a foreign language

D. don't spare even their Gods

57. True flavor of English humour cannot be adapted by

A. class ridden and hierarchical society

B. elders

C. english educated Indians

D. indians belonging to different regions

58. Many Indian intellectuals

A. lack the ability to understand jokes

B. don't usually joke with their parents

C. don't share a joke with their employees

D. lack the sense of humour

59. Humour according to Stevenson can

A. help in understanding difficult situations

B. enrich reason

C. be taken seriously if it humiliates people

D. make people laugh

60. 'Reason illustrated and enriched by humour' is the definition of

A. satire

B. political Cartoon

C. wit

D. levity

61. The British political scene lacks

A. leaders with character

B. leaders like Leon Harris

C. intelligent persons

D. leaders with humour

62. The Indian parliament has always lacked

A. persons with wit

B. intelligent persons

C. leaders like Winston Churchill and Lloyd George

D. gentlemen

63. The Parliamentarian Piloo Mody was known for his

A. oratory

B. preparatory work

C. wit

D. speeches in the parliament in English

64. The National leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sarojini Naidu were known for their

A. thrift

B. sharp statements

C. commitment

D. sense of humour

65. During the Emergency (1975-77) the Indian Government actually allowed the newspapers to

publish

A. cartoons

B. articles against the establishment

C. articles against Indira Gandhi

D. articles supporting theimposition of emergency

66. In South India, the Tamil Nadu Assembly was antagonistic towards

A. an article on a corrupt minister

B. a statement by the editor of a Tamil weekly

C. a cartoon depicting leaders as pickpocket and dacoit

D. the Speaker's comments

67. Even during the rule of the Colonels the Greek n"ewspapers published

A. articles against the Government

B. cartoons with subversive element

C. articles against the Colonels

D. articles on Helen Vlachos

68. David Low didn't accept Gandhiji's invitation to India because

A. a cartoon had created havoc in an Indian city

B. he thought that Indians were not mature enough to understand humour

C. he had no time to visit India

D. he didn't like Gandhiji

69. In spite of many objections, in India there is a favourable atmosphere for just

A. criticalarticles

B. bold editorials

C. cartooning

D. public opinion

70. South Indian newspapers are characterized by

A. good humour and columnists

B. jokes tucked away in a corner and columns with humour having warnings

C. none of the pages with jokes

D. ample scope for humour articles

71. According to the author, the purpose of satire is

A. cutting people down

B. bursting bloated bladders of lies and pomposity

C. Both are true

D. Both are false

72. Since the time India has been free, inside the Indian Parliament

A. humour has been remarkable

B. output of wit as humour is always low

C. English is more often spoken to share humour

D. None of the above

73. According to the author, the conditions for a cartoonist's existence are

A. printing and paper

B. liberty and free environment

C. job andsalary

D. None of the above

74. As written in the passage given, cartoons and satire are not tolerated in certain areas of life in India.
They are

A. social, economic and political life

B. sports and leisure

C. religious life, God and atheism

D. None of the above

75. Choose the appropriate option from the choice given: The passage conveys the message that

A. India is a congenial place for cartoonists

B. there are aberrations in political and social areas of life in India

C. democracy is sustained for decades with a free environment

D. All of the above



76. According to the Census 2011, the child (up to six years) sex ratio in India stood at:

A. 914 girls per 1000 boys;

B. 927 girls per 1000 boys;

C. 983 girls per 1000 boys;

D. None of the above.

77. Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 is envisaged

A. to strengthen various provisions contained in the Land Acquisition Act 1894

B. to ensure minimum protection for the land owners, farmers in particular

C. to help the corporate houses buy land from the farmers at a rate below the market price

D. to hand over more powers to the Central Government in matters of land acquisition and resettlement.

78. The National Food Security Act 2013 promises

A. a legal entitlement to only 75 per cent of the rural population to get subsidised grains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)

B. a legal entitlement to only 50 per cent of the urban population to get subsidised grains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)

C. a legal entitlement to 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the urban population (but not exceeding 57 percent) to get subsidised grains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)

D. a legal entitlement to 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the urban population (but not exceeding 67 percent) to get subsidised grains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).

79. Which of the following statements is factually incorrect?

A. The Central Bureau of Investigation is headed by a cabinet minister

B. The Gauhati High Court declared on November 6th 2013 that the CBI is unconstitutional

C. CBI traces its origin from the Special Police Establishment started in the year 1941

D. D.P. Kohli is the founder Director of CBI (1961-1968)

80. The place where India and UNESCO have agreed to establish the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development

A. Paris

B. New York

C. New Delhi

D. Belfast

81. The African country in which outbreak of the deadly viral disease Ebola has been confirmed is

A. Uganda

B. Swaziland

C. Congo

D. Sudan

82. What is India's position in the Global Hunger Index 2013, released by the International Food Policy Research Institute along with Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide?

A. 63rd

B. 136th

C. 35th

D. 98th

83. Which among the following is the first South Asian Country to approve the commercial cultivation of Genetically Modified Bt Brinjal?

A. India

B. Sri Lanka

C. Bangladesh

D. Pakistan

84. Which country will host the Men's Hockey World Cup in 2018?

A. England

B. Australia

C. Pakistan

D. India

85. Who is Malala Yousafzai?

A. A school girl from Pakistan who became target of Taliban for her activism for right to education for women

B. Bangladeshi writer who lived in exile owing to her feminist views and criticism against Islam

C. Human rights activists from Afghanistan, who recently got nominated for Nobel Prize.

D. Indian ambassador to Afghanistan

86. Who recently became the third batsman to score a double hundred in ODls?

A. Virendra Sehwag

B. Rohit Sharma

C. Ricky Ponting

D. Sachin Tendulkar

87. Justice Verma Committee is associafed with which of the following?

A. Reforming and invigorating anti-rape law

B. Inquiry about socio-economic backwardness of minorities in India

C. Formulating a tribal policy to safeguard the interests of tribals against land alienation

D. Preparing detailed gUidelines for dealing with sexual harassment at workplace

88. A recent Supreme Court Judgment directed to provide reservation to Persons with Disabilities up to what percentage?

A.

B. 3%

C. 4%

D. 5%

89. From which of the following site ISRO successfully launched its historic mission to Mars?

A. Chandipur-on-Sea, Balasore

B. ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore

C. Satish Dhawan Space Station, Sriharikota

D. Vikram Sarabhai Space Station, Thiruvananthapuram

90. Arab Spring started in which one of the following countries?

A. Morocco

B. Tunisia

C. Egypt

D. Syria

91. Who among the following disclosed the spying activities of the National Security Agency of USA?

A. Julian Assange

B. Edward Snoden

C. John Kerry

D. None of the above

92. Who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics?

A. Francois Englert and Peter W. Higgs

B. Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel

C. Eugene F. Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller

D. Alice Munro

93. In which of the following states electiohs were held in November 2013?

A. Maharashtra

B. Haryana

C. Chhattisgarh

D. Manipur

94. The beauty pageant contestant who has become the first Indian origin woman to be crowned Miss America is

A. Nina Davuluri

B. Ridhi Patel

C. Dolly Mihas

D. Melanie Kannokada

95. Which of the following is a Bollywood movie depicting the life sketch of a renowned Indian sport personality?

A. Chak-de-India

B. Iqbal

C. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

D. Khel Khel Mein

96. If Wi-Fi technology works through radio frequencies, on what basis does Li-Fi technology function?

A. Low radio frequencies

B. Sound waves

C. Light waves

D. Nuclear waves

97. Which of the following projects was the first to get affected by the April 2013 Apex Court judgment giving Gram Sabhas the right to decide about acquisition of their lands for the purpose of industrialization?

A. POSCO

B. Vedanta

C. Kudankulam

D. None of the above

98. Which Census of India included caste for enumeration for the first time after independence?

A. 1931

B. 1991

C. 2001

D. None of the above

99. 'Bali Action Plan' is related to which of the following?

A. Climate Change

B. Ban on trade and commerce of nuclear energy

C. Reduction of chemical and biological weapons

D. War against Taliban

100. Which of the following would be a major consequence of the July 2013 Supreme Court Order on Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951?

A. Sitting Members of Parliament and State Legislatures convicted for offenses are free to continue in their office

B. Sitting Members of Parliament and State Legislatures convicted for offenses would be immediately disqualified

C. Persons convicted for their offenses cannot contest in the elections to the Parliament and State Legislatures

D. Both and