RBSE Solutions for Class 8 Social Science Civics Chapter 1 The Indian Constitution

Rajasthan Board RBSE Solutions for Class 8 Social Science Civics Chapter 1 The Indian Constitution Textbook Exercise Questions and Answers.

RBSE Class 8 Social Science Solutions Civics Chapter 1 The Indian Constitution

RBSE Class 8 Social Science Civics The Indian Constitution InText Questions and Answers

Page-6

Question 1. 
Why did the people of Nepal want a new constitution?
Answer:
The people of Nepal wanted to follow the path of democracy and for this, they needed a new constitution with democratic ideals. The previous monarchial constitution did not have the ideals that they wanted for Nepal.

Question 2. 
Discuss with your teacher what you understand by the term ‘constitutive’. Provide one example of ‘constitutive rules’ from your everyday life. 
Answer:
The term ‘constitutive’ means having the power to establish something. One example of ‘constitutive rule’ is the rules in the game of chess.

Page-7

Question 1. 
In what way is the class monitor misusing his power?
Answer:
The class monitor misused his power by making false complaints against Anil to the class teacher. Anil was punished for the deed which he had not done.

Question 2. 
In which of the following situations is a minister misusing his power :
(a) refuses to sanction a project of his ministry for sound technical reasons;
(b) threatens to send his security staff to rough up his neighbour;
(c) calls up the police station asking them not to register a complaint that is likely to be filed against his relative.
Answer:
In the above (b) and (c) situations, the minister is misusing his power.

Page-8

Question 1. 
Who is in a minority in the above storyboard? In what way is this minority being dominated by the decision taken by the majority?
Answer:
The girls are in the minority. The majority i.e. boys dominate them by imposing their choice of game to be played during the games period.

Page-9

Question 1. 
Why Was Shabnam happy that she had not watched TV? What would you have done in a similar situation?
Answer:
Shabnam was happy because she knows the answers to the questions in the test for which she studied instead of watching her favourite T.V. programme. I would have also prepared for my test instead of watching T.V.

Page-10

Question 1. 
Let us recap the reasons why the Constitution plays an important role in democratic societies by recalling the constitutive rules that you have read about through these examples:
Answer:

Example	Constitutive Rules
Then, the people of Nepal adopted a new Constitution after the success of the people’s movement for democracy.	It lays down ideals that define the kind of country that we want to live in.
Suresh, the class monitor wrongly picks on Anil, his classmate.	No one has the authority to misuse the power of his position in a democratic society.
The girls do not get to play basketball because the boys are the majority in class.	The rules are the same for all groups whether minorities or majorities.
Shabnam decides to revise her chapters instead of watching T.V.	In a democracy, there is freedom of choice for all. People are free to choose what is good for them.

 

Page-13

Question 1. 
Discuss the difference between State and Government with your teacher.
Answer:
State: A state is a political institution that represents sovereign people living in a certain territory. The state has four components population, fixed territory, government and sovereignty. This shows that the government is a part of the state. The government is responsible for administering and enforcing laws. The government can change with elections. The state is a more broad term than the government.

Page 14

Question 1.
Which Fundamental Rights will be following situations violated:
(a) If a 13-year old child is working in a factory manufacturing carpets.
(b) If a politician in one state decides to not allow labourers from other states to work in his state.
(c) If a group of people are not given permission to open a Telugu-medium school in Kerala.
(d) If the government decides not to promote an officer of the armed forces for being a woman.
Answer:
(a) It is violating the Right against Exploitation.
(b) It is violating the Right to freedom of business.
(c) It is violating the Cultural and Educational Rights.
(d) It is violating the Right to Equality.

Page-15

Question 1. 
The Constitution also mentions Fundamental Duties. Find out with the help of your teacher what these include and why it is important for citizens in a democracy to observe these.
Answer:
The fundamental duties are the moral obligations of all the citizens of India. They help to promote a spirit of patriotism and uphold the unity of India.
These duties include:

1. To abide by and respect the constitution.
2. To uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
3. To safeguard public property.
4. To defend the country.
5. To value and preserve the rich heritage of our culture.

RBSE Class 8 Social Science The Indian Constitution Textbook Questions and Answers

Question 1.
Why does a democratic country need a Constitution?
Answer:
The following are the main reasons why a democratic country needs a constitution:
(1) Formulating the ideals: Constitution lays out certain ideals that form the basis of the kind of country that we as citizens aspire to live in. A constitution helps serve as a set of rules and principles that all persons in a country can agree upon as the basis of the way in which they want the country to be governed.

(2) The second important purpose of a constitution is to define the nature of a country’s political system.

(3) To guard against the misuse of authority: In a democracy, the public chooses the. leaders, however, there is always the possibility that these leaders might misuse their authority and the constitution guards against this misuse of authority by our political leaders.

(4) To ban the dominancy of the majority: Even in a democracy, die dominant group can use its power against other less powerful people or groups. The constitution usually contains rules that ensure that minorities are not excluded from anything that is routinely available to the majority.

(5) To protect principles of broad interest: We might at times feel strongly about an issue that might go against our larger interests and the constitution helps us guard against this. The constitution helps to protect us against certain decisions that we might take that could have an adverse effect on the larger principles that the country believes in.

Question 2. 
Look at the wordings of the two documents given below. The first column is from the 1990 Nepal Constitution. The second column is from the more recent Constitution of Nepal.1990 Constitution of Nepal.
Part 7:   Executive
Article 35:   Executive Power: The executive power of the Kingdom of Nepal shall be vested in His Majesty and the Council of Ministers.
2015:   Constitution of Nepal
Part 7:   Federal Executive
Article 75:   Executive Power: The executive power of Nepal shall, pursuant to this Constitution and law, be vested in the Council of Ministers. What is the difference in who exercises ‘Executive Power’ in the above two Constitutions of Nepal? With this in mind do you think Nepal need a new constitution? Why?
Answer:
Nepal’s constitution of 1990 was based on the principle that the supreme power of governance would rest with the king as it was a monarchy. The constitution of Nepal of 2015 is the constitution of a democratic state, in which the final power lies in The Council of Ministers are composed of elected representatives of the people. Since these arrangements have been made in the Constitution and in the law, so Nepal does not need a new Constitution.

Question 3. 
What would happen if there were no restrictions on the power of elected representatives?
Answer:
If there were no restrictions on the power of elected representatives, then they can misuse the authority. This misuse of power can result in gross injustice to the people.

Question 4. 
In each of the following situations, identify the minority. Write one reason why you think it is important to respect the views of the minority in each of these situations.
(a) In a school with 30 teachers, 20 of them are male.
(b) In a city, 5 per cent of the population are Buddhists.
(c) In a factory mess for all employees, 80 per cent are vegetarians.
(d) In a class of 50 students, 40 belong to more well-off families.
Answer:
(a) In this situation women teachers are in minority. It is necessary to respect the views of minority women teachers so that the domination by the majority does not harm the minorities.

(b) In this situation Buddhists are a minority. It is important to respect the view of the Buddhist religion so that inter-community domination does not establish.

(c) In this situation non-vegetarian workers are a minority. In this situation, it is important to respect the views of non-vegetarian worker minorities so that the minorities in food and drink do not Jaave to be deprived of something which is normally restricted to the majority.

(d) In this situation 10 students who. are not from well-off families are a minority. In this situation, it is important to respect die views of children of not so well-off families so that they do not face any kind of discrimination due to poverty.

Question 5. 
The column on the left lists some of the key features of the Indian Constitution. In the other column write two sentences, in your own words, on why you think this the feature is important :

Key Feature	Significance
(1) Federalism (2) Separation of Powers (3) Fundamental Rights (4) Parliamentary Form of Government

Answer:
(1) Federalism:

1. National level decisions are taken by the central government and provincial level decisions are taken by the state government. Panchayati Raj died in the third tier of government.
2. The Constitution contains lists that detail the issues that each tier of government can make laws on.

(2) Separation of Powers:

1. In order to prevent the misuse of power, the division of power has been done in three organs of government - legislature, executive and judiciary. 
2. On the basis of sharing of power, each organ acts as a check on the other organs of government and this ensures the balance of power between all three.

(3) Fundamental Rights:

1. Fundamental Rights protect citizens against the arbitrary and absolute exercise of power by the state.
2. Every citizen must be in a position to claim those rights.

(4) Parliamentary Form of Government:

1. The people have a direct role in electing their representatives at each level of government. 
2. These representatives are accountable to the people. 

Question 6. 
Write down the names of the Indian States, which share borders with the following neighbouring nations:
(a) Bangladesh
(b) Bhutan
(c) Nepal
Answer:
(a) Indian states sharing a border with Bangladesh:

• West Bengal, 
• Assam,
• Meghalaya, 
• Tripura, 
• Mizoram.

(b) Indian states sharing a border with Bhutan:

• West Bengal, 
• Sikkim, 
• Assam,
• Arunachal Pradesh.

(c) Indian states sharing a border with Nepal:

• Uttarakhand, 
• Bihar, 
• West Bengal, 
• Sikkim, 
• Uttar Pradesh.