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UPSC Prelims 2025 CSAT, question 24

Topic: Reading comprehension

Directions · Q21 to Q24

Directions for the following 4 (four) items :
Read the following two passages and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Passage · Q23 to Q24

In our country, handlooms are equated with a culture that ensures a continuity of tradition. This idea has become part of the public policy-framing and provides a legitimate basis for the State to support the sector. But the notion of tradition as a single, linear entity is being strongly contested today. The narratives dominant in defining culture/tradition in a particular way are seen to have emerged as the identities and histories of large sections. The discounted and, at times, forcibly stifled identities are fighting for their rightful place in history. Against this backdrop, when we promote handloom as a traditional industry, it is not surprising that large sections of our population choose to ignore it.

Q24

With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made :

I. There is no need for the State to be involved in any manner in the handloom sector.

II. Handloom products are no longer appealing and attractive in the rapidly changing modern world.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid ?

  1. (a) I only
  2. (b) II only
  3. (c) Both I and II
  4. (d) Neither I nor IICorrect answer

Solution.

Answer: (d) Neither I nor II

  1. Statement I is incorrect: the author critiques the narrow 'tradition' narrative used to frame handloom policy, not the existence of State support itself.
  2. Statement II is incorrect: the passage attributes public indifference to the exclusionary framing of 'tradition', not to handloom products lacking appeal in the modern world.