Indian Society is the first of NCERT's two Class XII Sociology books. It introduces the structure of Indian society: its population, its institutions of caste, tribe and family, the market, the patterns of inequality and exclusion they sustain, and the tensions of cultural diversity. (The second book, Social Change and Development in India, covers change, development and mass media.) As Class 12 Sociology NCERT notes for UPSC, it supplies much of the vocabulary of the GS1 Indian Society syllabus.

The book has seven chapters, and the rationalised NCERT reprint (2026-27) keeps all seven, shortening chapters 1 and 3 to 6. These notes follow the full 2021-22 text and mark what the reprint dropped.

What the book covers, by theme:

  • The sociological perspective: unlearning common sense, reflexivity, the social map, personal troubles and social issues, colonialism and nationalism (ch. 1).
  • Population: Malthus and the demographic transition, age structure and the demographic dividend, the declining sex ratio, literacy, rural-urban change and population policy (ch. 2).
  • Institutions: caste in the past, under colonialism and today; tribes and the career of a concept; family and kinship (ch. 3); the market as a social institution, from the tribal haat to globalisation (ch. 4).
  • Inequality and diversity: social inequality and exclusion of Dalits, adivasis, women and the disabled (ch. 5); regionalism, minorities, communalism, secularism and civil society (ch. 6).
  • Doing sociology: choosing research methods and six suggested projects (ch. 7).

Each chapter page carries figures drawn from NCERT's tables and boxes and from dated official data: Srinivas's four processes of change, the demographic transition, India's age composition and sex ratio since 1901, the principles of caste, tribal distribution, Khasi matriliny, the Dhorai tribal market, Bourdieu's three forms of capital, poverty by caste and community, the state-nation model, India's religious composition, and how to draw a sample.

For UPSC, this book directly feeds GS1 (Indian Society; communalism, regionalism and secularism; population; women and social empowerment) and supports GS2 on vulnerable sections and social justice.