UPPSC 2025 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 83 of 150

Correct — A, Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A). The Assertion is the standard definition: national integration is treated in Indian political sociology as a multi-dimensional process — political (a shared constitutional and party system), economic (interdependence and balanced regional development), social (breaking caste and communal barriers), cultural (mutual respect across languages and faiths) and psychological (a felt sense of belonging to one nation) — with the dimensions reinforcing one another. The Reason is also true on its checkable core: the National Integration Council does date from 1961, when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru convened a National Integration Conference in September-October 1961 out of which the Council was set up, with the Prime Minister as its chairman; 'unity in diversity' is the guiding idea conventionally attached to it. But the Reason is an institutional and historical fact about a body, while the Assertion is a conceptual claim about what integration consists of. The existence and founding year of a council cannot explain why the concept has five interlinked dimensions — if anything the causality runs the other way, since it was the many-sided nature of the problem that made a broad-based council necessary. Both true, no explanatory link: option (a).

• (b)(A) is true, but (R) is false — The Reason is not false. The National Integration Council genuinely traces to 1961 — Nehru's National Integration Conference of September-October 1961 produced it, and its first meeting followed in June 1962. A candidate who has only heard of the Council's later reconstitutions (2005 and 2010) or its last meeting (2013) may wrongly reject 1961.
• (c)(A) is false, but (R) is true — The Assertion is the textbook description of national integration and is not false. Nothing in it is overstated: it lists dimensions and says they are inter-related, which is exactly how the concept is taught. Rejecting a correct definitional statement is the commonest way to lose an assertion-reason mark.
• (d)Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A) — This is the trap the question is built on. Both statements are true and both are about national integration, so the eye wants to link them — but a date-and-institution fact does not explain a conceptual definition. Ask the explicit test: does the Reason answer the question 'WHY does national integration have these dimensions?' It does not; it only tells you that a council exists to promote integration.

National integration is the process of building a common sense of nationhood across a society divided by religion, language, caste, region and tribe — not by erasing those differences but by keeping loyalty to the nation stronger than loyalty to any one group. It is analysed along political, economic, social, cultural and psychological dimensions, and these interlock: regional economic disparity feeds regional political resentment, which in turn hardens cultural distance. The National Integration Council, set up in 1961 with the Prime Minister as chairman and drawing in Chief Ministers, opposition leaders and public figures, is the institutional forum for exactly this problem — its remit is communalism, casteism and regionalism.

Assertion-reason items on definitions almost always resolve into option (a) or (d), and the whole question is whether the Reason explains the Assertion or merely accompanies it. The discipline is to read the Assertion as a 'what' claim and then ask whether the Reason answers the matching 'why'. Here the Assertion defines a concept and the Reason narrates a body's founding; a founding date is evidence that the state took the problem seriously, not an explanation of the concept's structure. Note also the trap direction in the codes for this paper: option (a) is the 'both true, no link' choice and option (d) is the 'both true, link' choice — the reverse of the more familiar UPSC ordering, so read the code labels before marking.

• The National Integration Council came out of the National Integration Conference convened by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in September-October 1961; its first meeting was held in June 1962
• The Prime Minister of India is the ex-officio chairman of the Council; its members include Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, opposition leaders, and public and media figures
• Its declared remit is to combat communalism, casteism and regionalism
• The Council was reconstituted in 2005 (103 members) and again in April 2010 (147 members); its 16th and most recent documented meeting was on 23 September 2013
• The constitutional expression of the same idea is Article 51A(c), the Fundamental Duty 'to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India'

• Assuming that two true statements on the same theme must stand in an explanatory relationship — the commonest assertion-reason error
• Rejecting the Reason because the Council has been dormant since 2013; dormancy does not change its 1961 founding
• Confusing the National Integration Council with the Inter-State Council (a constitutional body under Article 263, set up in 1990)

UPPSC likes the assertion-reason format for concept-plus-institution pairs, and often pairs a sound definition with a true but unrelated historical fact; UPSC prefers to test the constitutional handle — which Part or Article carries 'unity and integrity of India'.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who is the ex-officio chairman of the National Integration Council?

  • (a)The President of India
  • (b)The Vice-President of India
  • (c)The Prime Minister of India
  • (d)The Union Home Minister

  Answer(c) The Prime Minister of India — the Council was set up in 1961 following the National Integration Conference convened by Prime Minister Nehru.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The duty 'to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India' is placed in the Constitution of India under:

  • (a)the Preamble
  • (b)Fundamental Rights (Part III)
  • (c)Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV)
  • (d)Fundamental Duties (Part IVA)

  Answer(d) Fundamental Duties (Part IVA) — it is Article 51A(c), inserted by the 42nd Amendment, 1976 on the Swaran Singh Committee's recommendation.