Reading Comprehension: Indian Society and Constitutional Law

Why does the writer draw our attention to what Thomas Hunter had said? What are his fears?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Apathy in addressing community matters has held us back from making progress which is otherwise within our reach. We see serious problems around us but do not try to solve them. We believe as if the problems do not exist or as if they belong to someone else. On the other hand, in the West, people approach societal problems proactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude. For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India. More than four decades ago, Dr. K.L.Rao, an irrigation expert, suggested the creation of a water grid connecting all the rivers in north and south India to solve this problem. Unfortunately, nothing has been done about this. The story of power shortage in Bangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided that a power plant would be built to meet Bangalore’s power requirements. Sadly, we have not yet started it. The Milan subway in Bombay has been in a deplorable state for the last four decades, and no action has been taken.
We Indians would do well to remember Thomas Hunter’s words that idleness travels very slowly and poverty soon overtakes it. What could be the reason for our apathy? We were ruled by foreigners for over a thousand years. So, we have always believed that public or societal issues belong to some foreign ruler and that we have no responsibility to solve them. We have got used to just executing someone else’s orders. ‘We are what we repeatedly do,’ said Aristotle. Having waited for some foreigner to tell us what to do over the last thousand years, the decision-makers in our society are not used to taking decisions on their own. They look to somebody else to take their decisions for them. Unfortunately, there is no body to look up to, and this is our tragedy.

What, accordingly to the passage, is our tragedy?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Apathy in addressing community matters has held us back from making progress which is otherwise within our reach. We see serious problems around us but do not try to solve them. We believe as if the problems do not exist or as if they belong to someone else. On the other hand, in the West, people approach societal problems proactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude. For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India. More than four decades ago, Dr. K.L.Rao, an irrigation expert, suggested the creation of a water grid connecting all the rivers in north and south India to solve this problem. Unfortunately, nothing has been done about this. The story of power shortage in Bangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided that a power plant would be built to meet Bangalore’s power requirements. Sadly, we have not yet started it. The Milan subway in Bombay has been in a deplorable state for the last four decades, and no action has been taken.
We Indians would do well to remember Thomas Hunter’s words that idleness travels very slowly and poverty soon overtakes it. What could be the reason for our apathy? We were ruled by foreigners for over a thousand years. So, we have always believed that public or societal issues belong to some foreign ruler and that we have no responsibility to solve them. We have got used to just executing someone else’s orders. ‘We are what we repeatedly do,’ said Aristotle. Having waited for some foreigner to tell us what to do over the last thousand years, the decision-makers in our society are not used to taking decisions on their own. They look to somebody else to take their decisions for them. Unfortunately, there is no body to look up to, and this is our tragedy.

Why, according to the author, Indians are apathetic?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Apathy in addressing community matters has held us back from making progress which is otherwise within our reach. We see serious problems around us but do not try to solve them. We believe as if the problems do not exist or as if they belong to someone else. On the other hand, in the West, people approach societal problems proactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude. For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India. More than four decades ago, Dr. K.L.Rao, an irrigation expert, suggested the creation of a water grid connecting all the rivers in north and south India to solve this problem. Unfortunately, nothing has been done about this. The story of power shortage in Bangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided that a power plant would be built to meet Bangalore’s power requirements. Sadly, we have not yet started it. The Milan subway in Bombay has been in a deplorable state for the last four decades, and no action has been taken.
We Indians would do well to remember Thomas Hunter’s words that idleness travels very slowly and poverty soon overtakes it. What could be the reason for our apathy? We were ruled by foreigners for over a thousand years. So, we have always believed that public or societal issues belong to some foreign ruler and that we have no responsibility to solve them. We have got used to just executing someone else’s orders. ‘We are what we repeatedly do,’ said Aristotle. Having waited for some foreigner to tell us what to do over the last thousand years, the decision-makers in our society are not used to taking decisions on their own. They look to somebody else to take their decisions for them. Unfortunately, there is no body to look up to, and this is our tragedy.

What possible dangers does the author envisage when an institution becomes overzealous in asserting its privileges?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

The most remarkable achievement in post-constitution India is the exercise of the power of the judicial review by the superior courts. So long as this power is wielded by the courts effectively and fearlessly, democracy will remain ensured in India and, with all its shortcomings, the Constitution will survive. The numerous applications for the constitutional writs before the High Courts and the Supreme Court and their results testify to the establishment in India of ‘limited government’, or, ‘the government of laws, not of men’, as they call it in the United States of America. The Supreme Court has well performed its task of protecting the rights of the individual against the executive, against oppressive legislations and even against the Legislature itself, when it becomes overzealous in asserting its privileges not only against the individual citizens but even against the judges.
At the same time, it should be observed that neither the guarantee of the Fundamental Rights nor its adjunct, — Judicial Review, — could have full play during the first quarter of a century of the working of our Constitution owning to their erosion by Proclamations of Emergency over a substantial period of time. It is true that the Emergency provisions are as much a part of the Constitution of India as any other, and that history has proved the need for such powers to meet extraordinary situations, but, broadly speaking, if the application of the Emergency provisions overshadows the other features of the Constitution, the balance between the ‘normal’ and ‘emergency’ provisions is palpably destroyed. Even, apart from Emergency, there has been an astounding erosion of Fundamental Rights owning to multiple amendments of the Constitution.
The means to prevent any such conflict between competing interests is to process all proposals for constitutional amendments through an expert and objective machinery, which would ensure the progressive adaptation of the Constitution to the Copernican changes in the social, economic and political background.

What, according to the passage, is the biggest concern of the author?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

The most remarkable achievement in post-constitution India is the exercise of the power of the judicial review by the superior courts. So long as this power is wielded by the courts effectively and fearlessly, democracy will remain ensured in India and, with all its shortcomings, the Constitution will survive. The numerous applications for the constitutional writs before the High Courts and the Supreme Court and their results testify to the establishment in India of ‘limited government’, or, ‘the government of laws, not of men’, as they call it in the United States of America. The Supreme Court has well performed its task of protecting the rights of the individual against the executive, against oppressive legislations and even against the Legislature itself, when it becomes overzealous in asserting its privileges not only against the individual citizens but even against the judges.
At the same time, it should be observed that neither the guarantee of the Fundamental Rights nor its adjunct, — Judicial Review, — could have full play during the first quarter of a century of the working of our Constitution owning to their erosion by Proclamations of Emergency over a substantial period of time. It is true that the Emergency provisions are as much a part of the Constitution of India as any other, and that history has proved the need for such powers to meet extraordinary situations, but, broadly speaking, if the application of the Emergency provisions overshadows the other features of the Constitution, the balance between the ‘normal’ and ‘emergency’ provisions is palpably destroyed. Even, apart from Emergency, there has been an astounding erosion of Fundamental Rights owning to multiple amendments of the Constitution.
The means to prevent any such conflict between competing interests is to process all proposals for constitutional amendments through an expert and objective machinery, which would ensure the progressive adaptation of the Constitution to the Copernican changes in the social, economic and political background.

Reading of the passage leads to the conclusion that the author is of the view that

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

The most remarkable achievement in post-constitution India is the exercise of the power of the judicial review by the superior courts. So long as this power is wielded by the courts effectively and fearlessly, democracy will remain ensured in India and, with all its shortcomings, the Constitution will survive. The numerous applications for the constitutional writs before the High Courts and the Supreme Court and their results testify to the establishment in India of ‘limited government’, or, ‘the government of laws, not of men’, as they call it in the United States of America. The Supreme Court has well performed its task of protecting the rights of the individual against the executive, against oppressive legislations and even against the Legislature itself, when it becomes overzealous in asserting its privileges not only against the individual citizens but even against the judges.
At the same time, it should be observed that neither the guarantee of the Fundamental Rights nor its adjunct, — Judicial Review, — could have full play during the first quarter of a century of the working of our Constitution owning to their erosion by Proclamations of Emergency over a substantial period of time. It is true that the Emergency provisions are as much a part of the Constitution of India as any other, and that history has proved the need for such powers to meet extraordinary situations, but, broadly speaking, if the application of the Emergency provisions overshadows the other features of the Constitution, the balance between the ‘normal’ and ‘emergency’ provisions is palpably destroyed. Even, apart from Emergency, there has been an astounding erosion of Fundamental Rights owning to multiple amendments of the Constitution.
The means to prevent any such conflict between competing interests is to process all proposals for constitutional amendments through an expert and objective machinery, which would ensure the progressive adaptation of the Constitution to the Copernican changes in the social, economic and political background.

According to the author, the balance between the normal and emergency provisions is palpably destroyed

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

The most remarkable achievement in post-constitution India is the exercise of the power of the judicial review by the superior courts. So long as this power is wielded by the courts effectively and fearlessly, democracy will remain ensured in India and, with all its shortcomings, the Constitution will survive. The numerous applications for the constitutional writs before the High Courts and the Supreme Court and their results testify to the establishment in India of ‘limited government’, or, ‘the government of laws, not of men’, as they call it in the United States of America. The Supreme Court has well performed its task of protecting the rights of the individual against the executive, against oppressive legislations and even against the Legislature itself, when it becomes overzealous in asserting its privileges not only against the individual citizens but even against the judges.
At the same time, it should be observed that neither the guarantee of the Fundamental Rights nor its adjunct, — Judicial Review, — could have full play during the first quarter of a century of the working of our Constitution owning to their erosion by Proclamations of Emergency over a substantial period of time. It is true that the Emergency provisions are as much a part of the Constitution of India as any other, and that history has proved the need for such powers to meet extraordinary situations, but, broadly speaking, if the application of the Emergency provisions overshadows the other features of the Constitution, the balance between the ‘normal’ and ‘emergency’ provisions is palpably destroyed. Even, apart from Emergency, there has been an astounding erosion of Fundamental Rights owning to multiple amendments of the Constitution.
The means to prevent any such conflict between competing interests is to process all proposals for constitutional amendments through an expert and objective machinery, which would ensure the progressive adaptation of the Constitution to the Copernican changes in the social, economic and political background.

By exercising which power can the continuation of democracy in India be ensured?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

The most remarkable achievement in post-constitution India is the exercise of the power of the judicial review by the superior courts. So long as this power is wielded by the courts effectively and fearlessly, democracy will remain ensured in India and, with all its shortcomings, the Constitution will survive. The numerous applications for the constitutional writs before the High Courts and the Supreme Court and their results testify to the establishment in India of ‘limited government’, or, ‘the government of laws, not of men’, as they call it in the United States of America. The Supreme Court has well performed its task of protecting the rights of the individual against the executive, against oppressive legislations and even against the Legislature itself, when it becomes overzealous in asserting its privileges not only against the individual citizens but even against the judges.
At the same time, it should be observed that neither the guarantee of the Fundamental Rights nor its adjunct, — Judicial Review, — could have full play during the first quarter of a century of the working of our Constitution owning to their erosion by Proclamations of Emergency over a substantial period of time. It is true that the Emergency provisions are as much a part of the Constitution of India as any other, and that history has proved the need for such powers to meet extraordinary situations, but, broadly speaking, if the application of the Emergency provisions overshadows the other features of the Constitution, the balance between the ‘normal’ and ‘emergency’ provisions is palpably destroyed. Even, apart from Emergency, there has been an astounding erosion of Fundamental Rights owning to multiple amendments of the Constitution.
The means to prevent any such conflict between competing interests is to process all proposals for constitutional amendments through an expert and objective machinery, which would ensure the progressive adaptation of the Constitution to the Copernican changes in the social, economic and political background.

What, according to the author, is the attitude of Indians that comes in the way of India's progress?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Apathy in addressing community matters has held us back from making progress which is otherwise within our reach. We see serious problems around us but do not try to solve them. We believe as if the problems do not exist or as if they belong to someone else. On the other hand, in the West, people approach societal problems proactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude. For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India. More than four decades ago, Dr. K.L.Rao, an irrigation expert, suggested the creation of a water grid connecting all the rivers in north and south India to solve this problem. Unfortunately, nothing has been done about this. The story of power shortage in Bangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided that a power plant would be built to meet Bangalore’s power requirements. Sadly, we have not yet started it. The Milan subway in Bombay has been in a deplorable state for the last four decades, and no action has been taken.
We Indians would do well to remember Thomas Hunter’s words that idleness travels very slowly and poverty soon overtakes it. What could be the reason for our apathy? We were ruled by foreigners for over a thousand years. So, we have always believed that public or societal issues belong to some foreign ruler and that we have no responsibility to solve them. We have got used to just executing someone else’s orders. ‘We are what we repeatedly do,’ said Aristotle. Having waited for some foreigner to tell us what to do over the last thousand years, the decision-makers in our society are not used to taking decisions on their own. They look to somebody else to take their decisions for them. Unfortunately, there is no body to look up to, and this is our tragedy.

The author talks about 'competing interests'. What are they?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

The most remarkable achievement in post-constitution India is the exercise of the power of the judicial review by the superior courts. So long as this power is wielded by the courts effectively and fearlessly, democracy will remain ensured in India and, with all its shortcomings, the Constitution will survive. The numerous applications for the constitutional writs before the High Courts and the Supreme Court and their results testify to the establishment in India of ‘limited government’, or, ‘the government of laws, not of men’, as they call it in the United States of America. The Supreme Court has well performed its task of protecting the rights of the individual against the executive, against oppressive legislations and even against the Legislature itself, when it becomes overzealous in asserting its privileges not only against the individual citizens but even against the judges.
At the same time, it should be observed that neither the guarantee of the Fundamental Rights nor its adjunct, — Judicial Review, — could have full play during the first quarter of a century of the working of our Constitution owning to their erosion by Proclamations of Emergency over a substantial period of time. It is true that the Emergency provisions are as much a part of the Constitution of India as any other, and that history has proved the need for such powers to meet extraordinary situations, but, broadly speaking, if the application of the Emergency provisions overshadows the other features of the Constitution, the balance between the ‘normal’ and ‘emergency’ provisions is palpably destroyed. Even, apart from Emergency, there has been an astounding erosion of Fundamental Rights owning to multiple amendments of the Constitution.
The means to prevent any such conflict between competing interests is to process all proposals for constitutional amendments through an expert and objective machinery, which would ensure the progressive adaptation of the Constitution to the Copernican changes in the social, economic and political background.

What leads to the conclusion that Indians have a tendency to disown their problems as their own?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Apathy in addressing community matters has held us back from making progress which is otherwise within our reach. We see serious problems around us but do not try to solve them. We believe as if the problems do not exist or as if they belong to someone else. On the other hand, in the West, people approach societal problems proactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude. For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India. More than four decades ago, Dr. K.L.Rao, an irrigation expert, suggested the creation of a water grid connecting all the rivers in north and south India to solve this problem. Unfortunately, nothing has been done about this. The story of power shortage in Bangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided that a power plant would be built to meet Bangalore’s power requirements. Sadly, we have not yet started it. The Milan subway in Bombay has been in a deplorable state for the last four decades, and no action has been taken.
We Indians would do well to remember Thomas Hunter’s words that idleness travels very slowly and poverty soon overtakes it. What could be the reason for our apathy? We were ruled by foreigners for over a thousand years. So, we have always believed that public or societal issues belong to some foreign ruler and that we have no responsibility to solve them. We have got used to just executing someone else’s orders. ‘We are what we repeatedly do,’ said Aristotle. Having waited for some foreigner to tell us what to do over the last thousand years, the decision-makers in our society are not used to taking decisions on their own. They look to somebody else to take their decisions for them. Unfortunately, there is no body to look up to, and this is our tragedy.

'We see serious problems around us but do not try to solve them. We believe as if the problems do not exist or as if they belong to someone else.' What does author appear to suggest?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Apathy in addressing community matters has held us back from making progress which is otherwise within our reach. We see serious problems around us but do not try to solve them. We believe as if the problems do not exist or as if they belong to someone else. On the other hand, in the West, people approach societal problems proactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude. For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India. More than four decades ago, Dr. K.L.Rao, an irrigation expert, suggested the creation of a water grid connecting all the rivers in north and south India to solve this problem. Unfortunately, nothing has been done about this. The story of power shortage in Bangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided that a power plant would be built to meet Bangalore’s power requirements. Sadly, we have not yet started it. The Milan subway in Bombay has been in a deplorable state for the last four decades, and no action has been taken.
We Indians would do well to remember Thomas Hunter’s words that idleness travels very slowly and poverty soon overtakes it. What could be the reason for our apathy? We were ruled by foreigners for over a thousand years. So, we have always believed that public or societal issues belong to some foreign ruler and that we have no responsibility to solve them. We have got used to just executing someone else’s orders. ‘We are what we repeatedly do,’ said Aristotle. Having waited for some foreigner to tell us what to do over the last thousand years, the decision-makers in our society are not used to taking decisions on their own. They look to somebody else to take their decisions for them. Unfortunately, there is no body to look up to, and this is our tragedy.