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ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2014-2015)

M.H.I.-2
Modern World
Disclaimer/Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions given in the
Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Private Teacher/Tutors/Auhtors for the help and Guidance
of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the Questions of the Assignments. We do not claim 100% Accuracy
of these sample Answers as these are based on the knowledge and cabability of Private Teacher/Tutor. Sample answers
may be seen as the Guide/Help Book for the reference to prepare the answers of the Question given in the assignment. As
these solutions and answers are prepared by the private teacher/tutor so the chances of error or mistake cannot be denied.
Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/
Solutions. Please consult your own Teacher/Tutor before you prepare a Particular Answer & for uptodate and exact
information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the university.
Section - A
Q. 1. Explain the different ways in which the Renaissance contributed towards the making of a new world.
Ans. By the term Renaissance ( New Birth), used in its narrower sense, is meant that new enthusiasm for classical
literature, learning, and art which sprang up in Italy towards the close of the Middle Ages, and which during the course of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries gave a new culture to Europe. [By many writers the term is employed in a still
narrower sense than this, being used to designate merely the revival of classical art; but this is to depreciate the most
important phase of a many-sided development. The Renaissance was essentially an intellectual movement. It is this
intellectual quality which gives it so large a place in universal history]
Using the word in a somewhat broader sense, we may define the Renaissance as the reentrance into the world of that
secular, inquiring, self-reliant spirit which characterized the life and culture of classical antiquity. This is simply to say
that under the influence of the intellectual revival the men of Western Europe came to think and feel, to look upon life and
the outer world, as did the men of ancient Greece and Rome; and this again is merely to say that they ceased to think and
feel as mediaeval men and began to think and feel as modern men.
The Renaissance is a good place to start, because no historical era has been better reflected in its art. Starting
sometime around 1400, a more secular approach was capturing the ages spirit and imagination. Renaissance paintings
reflected this move toward a more secular realism in two major ways. One was subject matter, many paintings portraying
classical Greek and Roman history and legends or being portraits of individuals. The second way painting reflected the
spirit of the age was through technique. The use of such things as perspective, proportion, shading, and closer attention
details helped create paintings of striking realism compared to anything since the Roman Empire. It should be said that
the single greatest patron of the arts was still the Church and religion was the most common theme, but even those
paintings reflected the new techniques sweeping across Renaissance Europe.
The renaissance had 5 main effects. During the renaissance there were many advances in science art literature religion and ideas. After the Crusades Europe as a whole became very open to new ideas setting the basis for the renaissance.
With this new mind set came literature, before then literature in Europe was almost non-existent with the invention of the
printing press people could share ideas, also with the printing press came mass production of Bibles for the first time in
historian with this new mindset and access to the Bible people began to second guess the church and its teaching and were
able to develope their own perceptions. During the Middle ages the region was exclusively controlled by the Catholic
church. this control also governed art. This meant all painting were strictly religious and the perception of human form
very mutilated because of mans sinful nature. However the Renaissance brought about a new twist on Greek and Roman
art which made completely transformed art giving artists freedom of creativity. Lastly science with the trade and openness
to new ideas came the desire for knowledge with the boom of trade new ideas from around the world were coming
together and some of the worlds greatest minds appeared and transformed out outlook and knowledge of science and the
world around us.
Many agencies conspired to bring in the Renaissance. Among these were the Crusades. These long-sustained enterprises . . . contributed essentially to break the mental lethargy that had fallen upon the European mind, and to awaken in

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the nations of Western Europe the spirit of a new life. Before the Crusades closed, the way of the Renaissance was already
prepared. In every territory of human activity the paths along which advances were to be made by the men of coming
generations had been marked out, and in many directions trodden by the eager feet of the pioneers of the new life and
culture.
Like Christianity, the Renaissance revealed to men another world, another state of existence; for such was the real
significance, to the men of the revival, of the discovery of the civilization of classical antiquity.
Q. 2. Write a note on the critique of capitalism giving reference to the views of Marx and Engels.
Ans. Marx and Engels were early critics of the effects of the modern factory system, predicting its end as the workers
rose up and took control of a system which exploited them so badly and treated them as appendages to machines.
In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels describe the emergence of a new industrial society and the unequal
relationships between its different social classes. This inequality, they believed, would breed hostility between two most
important classes, the ruling or bourgeois class, which owned the 'means of production', and the working class or proletarians, who were worked to the bone to create the wealth of the bourgeoisie.
[T]he modern working class [is] a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work These labourers,
who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are exposed to all the
vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.
Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labour, the work of proletarians has lost all individual
character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the
most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him
Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial
capitalist. Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organised like soldiers. As privates in the industrial army
they are placed under the command of the perfect hierarchy of officers and sargeants They are daily and hourly
enslaved by the machine, by the overseer, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more
openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and more embittering it is
But with the development of industry the proletariat not only increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater
masses, its strength grows, and it feels its strength more The unceasing improvement of machinery, every more rapidly
developing, makes their livelihood more and more precarious Thereupon the workers begin to form combinations
(trade unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent
associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts
Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate
result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is helped by the improved means of communication that
are created by modern industry, and that place workers of different localities in contact with one another. It was just this
contact which was needed to centralise the numerous local struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle
between classes.
Q. 5. Write short notes on any two of the following in about 250 words each.
(i) Postmodernism
Ans. Postmodernism is a late-20th-century movement in the arts, architecture, and criticism that was a departure
from modernism. Postmodernism includes skeptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, history,economics,
architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. It is often associated with deconstruction and post-structuralism because its
usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time as twentieth-century post-structural thought.
The philosophical modernism at issue in postmodernism begins with Kants Copernican revolution, that is, his
assumption that we cannot know things in themselves and that objects of knowledge must conform to our faculties of
representation (Kant 1964). Ideas such as God, freedom, immortality, the world, first beginning, and final end have only
a regulative function for knowledge, since they cannot find fulfilling instances among objects of experience. With Hegel,
the immediacy of the subject-object relation itself is shown to be illusory. As he states in The Phenomenology of Spirit,
we find that neither the one nor the other is only immediately present in sense-certainty, but each is at the same time
mediated (Hegel 1977, 59), because subject and object are both instances of a this and a now, neither of which are
immediately sensed. So-called immediate perception therefore lacks the certainty of immediacy itself, a certainty that
must be deferred to the working out of a complete system of experience. However, later thinkers point out that Hegels
logic pre-supposes concepts, such as identity and negation, which cannot themselves be accepted as immediately given,
and which therefore must be accounted for in some other, non-dialectical way.
The later nineteenth century is the age of modernity as an achieved reality, where science and technology, including

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networks of mass communication and transportation, reshape human perceptions. There is no clear distinction, then,
between the natural and the artificial in experience. Indeed, many proponents of postmodernism challenge the viability of
such a distinction tout court, seeing in achieved modernism the emergence of a problem the philosophical tradition has
repressed. A consequence of achieved modernism is what postmodernists might refer to as de-realization. De-realization
affects both the subject and the objects of experience, such that their sense of identity, constancy, and substance is upset
or dissolved. Important precursors to this notion are found in Kierkegaard, Marx and Nietzsche. Kierkegaard, for example, describes modern society as a network of relations in which individuals are leveled into an abstract phantom
known as the public. The modern public, in contrast to ancient and medieval communities, is a creation of the press,
which is the only instrument capable of holding together the mass of unreal individuals who never are and never can be
united in an actual situation or organization. In this sense, society has become a realization of abstract thought, held
together by an artificial and all-pervasive medium speaking for everyone and for no one.
(ii) Problems of Mass Society
Ans. Mass society as an ideology can be seen as dominated by a small number of interconnected elites who control
the conditions of life of the many, often by means of persuasion and manipulation. This indicates the politics of mass
society theorists- they are advocates of various kinds of cultural elite who should be privileged and promoted over the
masses, claiming for themselves both exemption from and leadership of the misguided masses.
"As technological innovation allowed government to expand, the centralized state grew in size and importance."
"Since then, government has assumed responsibility for more and more areas of social life: schooling, regulating wages
and working conditions, establishing standards for products of all sorts, and providing financial assistance to the elderly,
the ill, and the unemployed." "In a mass society, power resides in large bureaucracies, leaving people in local communities with little control over their lives. For example, state officials mandate that local schools must meet educational
standards, local products must be government-certified, and every citizen must maintain extensive tax records. Although
such regulations may protect and enhance social equality, they also force us to deal more and more with nameless officials
in distant and often unresponsive bureaucracies, and they undermine the autonomy of families and local communities."
Mass society theory has been active in a wide range of media studies, where it tends to produce ideal visions of what
the mass media such as television and cinema are doing to the masses. Therefore, the mass media are necessary instruments for achieving and maintaining mass societies. "The mass media give rise to national culture that washes over the
traditional differences that used to set off one region from another." "Mass-society theorists fear that the transformation of
people of various backgrounds into a generic mass may end up dehumanizing everyone."
Section - B
Q. 8. Write a note on the legacy of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Ans. The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the
Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional
government in the first revolution of February 1917. In the second revolution, during October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik (Communist) government.
On 9 November 1917, The Times approvingly quoted Naklukoff, the ambassador to Paris of the recently overthrown
Kerensky government: The situation must be regarded seriously but not tragically. Even if the facts be true there is no
occasion for undue alarm... It is better that it should have taken place and be disposed of once and for all. The maximalist
(Bolshevik) movement, by its arbitrary action, is already doomed. I have no doubt that the movement will be stopped by
the first Cossack regiment that appears on the scene. The leader of the Social Revolutionary party gave the Bolsheviks
no more than a few days, while the famous writer, Maxim Gorky, expected them to stay in power for two weeks.
However, once it became clear that the soviet regime of the Bolsheviks would be more enduring than their earlier prophecies, the capitalists resorted to lies and slander. This was insufficient, so a more powerful argument was used: arms,
tanks, aeroplanes and interventionist armies to attack and destroy the revolution.
In the years since, no effort has been spared to distort what happened in 1917 and to falsify the ideas of the great
leaders of the revolution, particularly Lenin and Trotsky. If the capitalists fear of the contagious effects of the Russian
revolution was justified in 1917 and subsequently, why today do historians like Orlando Figes still go to such lengths
(over 900 pages) to carry out, in essence, the same role as earlier calumniators of the Russian revolution? After all, with
the collapse of the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1989-90, the heritage of the Russian
revolution, particularly the planned economy, has apparently been eradicated forever. Yet the fact that those, like Figes
or the even more reactionary historian, Richard Pipes, have devoted so much attention to the revolutions anniversary,
shows its enduring attraction to workers today. This will be even more so in the future given the economic, political,

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social and ecological disasters which loom for world capitalism. Everything must be done to obscure the lessons of 1917
for today.
The road to the Russian Revolution of 1917 was a long one. Throughout the 19th century, generations of educated
and idealistic Russians had dreamt of the revolution which would overthrow the Tsar and bring freedom, justice and
equality for all.
The Russian Intelligentsia, as this group of idealists became known, were particularly attracted to the ideas of the
socialists, and later by the ideas of the German philosopher Karl Marx. Socialism originally seemed to offer a way out of
the political and economic backwardness of a still largely feudal society. At the same time it seemed to hold out the
possibility of avoiding the horrors of early industrialisation witnessed in western Europe. Many of the early Russian
socialists wanted to avoid large-scale industry and envisioned an egalitarian society based around the village commune.
But by the end of the 19th century, Russia was itself experiencing the dislocation of rapid industrial growth and the
creation of a new working class. A wave of strikes and protests centred on the capital, St Petersburg, in 1905 failed to
dislodge the Tsar. But by February 1917, largely because Russia was now a major player in the Great War, the process of
social breakdown had gone further.
Q. 9. Critically analyse impact of development on ecology.
Ans. People may use biodiversity directly (e.g. food, materials, medicines, fuel, fibre, commercial goods) or may rely
on it indirectly (e.g. water purification services, grazing for livestock, pollination services for crops, protection from
floods). In addition, many people value ecosystems and their living components for their visual, spiritual, sense of place
or cultural attributes.
In the face of climate change, our ability to adapt and be resilient to a changing environment relies on the persistence
and ongoing evolution of living organisms. Conserving biodiversity is thus seen to give us 'adaptation insurance'.
The basis for ecosystem services is healthy ecosystems. Healthy, diverse ecosystems in turn rely on resilient and
functional communities of living organisms. The loss of biological diversity destabilizes ecosystems and makes them
more vulnerable to shocks and disturbances such as hurricanes and floods, which may further reduce their ability to
provide for human well-being. The rural poor, who are often directly dependent on ecosystem services, are most vulnerable to the negative consequences of deteriorating ecosystems. Despite broad agreement to achieve a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss at all levels by 2010 (the so-called 2010 target'2), biodiversity is in decline at all
levels and geographical scales3. Deforestation and conversion of natural habitats like mangroves, grasslands and wetlands is rife. The average abundance of species is on the decline: many forms of pollution, the spread of alien organisms,
and intensified harvest, hunting and fishing is leading to this decline.
Economic, social and environmental change is inherent to development. Whilst development aims to bring about
positive change it can lead to conflicts. In the past, the promotion of economic growth as the motor for increased wellbeing was the main development thrust with little sensitivity to adverse social or environmental impacts. The need to
avoid adverse impacts and to ensure long term benefits led to the concept of sustainability. This has become accepted as
an essential feature of development if the aim of increased well-being and greater equity in fulfilling basic needs is to be
met for this and future generations.

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