Direction (Qs. 1 to 5) given below is a passage. Read carefully to answer the questions given under it.
When we talk about public opinion someone may legitimately ask the question: Does the public care for law and order? The answer is “Yes”. The vast majority of the people in India, as elsewhere, are law abiding and they want that they should be able to carry on their daily work in a peaceful atmosphere. It is this craving for peace, which enabled strong kings to finish feudal regimes in many countries in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is this very feeling, which enabled many dictators in the 20th century to earn public applause in the beginning by ending lawlessness. Let us go back in history. There was a time in the history of the world when there was no state and no government. Man lived in the state of nature. The famous British political philosopher Hobbes has given a description of this state. Both life and properly were unsafe and man lived in a state of perpetual terror. This forced human beings to evolve ordered societies to make laws for themselves and to follow these laws. As society developed, rules of conduct got codified as laws, e.g. laws were made against murder and theft so that everyone could live and enjoy his property. Individual selfishness against community interests became a crime. Arresting criminals was obeying the mandate of the people. As laws grew in number and complexity, professional police forces emerged. Even now citizen constables have not been entirely displaced and a Bobby in U.K. has very few powers not enjoyed by a citizen. The greatest benefit of civilized life was law and order. The rule of law was recognized by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as the most prominent feature of democracy. Aristotle said that every child in school must be taught obedience to law, else the State would cease to exist. The state of public opinion in a country has a vital bearing on law and order. This may be a vague and nebulous concept but one can notice the big differences as, for example, between U.K and India. It will not be possible for anyone in U.K to collect a crowd of a hundred on several of those issues on which one can collect a crowd of several thousands in India. Here, in India, a systematic attempt was made by several sections to denigrate this very concept and to advance the thesis that illegal activities may be quite democratic and praiseworthy. If this is accepted, the very basis of civilized existence is knocked out, because civilization, as it has developed, would not have been possible without the concept of the rule of law. Its universal acceptance now is due to several hundreds of years of struggle. Once it is destroyed, we will revert to the state of nature, in which life, as described by Hobbes, was nasty, brutish and short.
1. A majority of people follow the law and order basically because
a. It took hundreds of years to enforce laws
b. Otherwise we would revert back to nature
c. They want to live safely and peacefully
d. It is democratic and praiseworthy
2. “It is this very feeling, which enabled …” which feeling is referred to here?
a. Abiding by law
b. Ending lawlessness
c. Winning applause
d. Living in peace
3. Individual selfishness against community interests became a crime. This sentence means that it is a crime to
a. Compare self-interest with community interest
b. Give more importance to self-interest than community interest
c. Keep community interest before self interest
d. Having self-interest at the cost of community interest
4. Which of the following is not an indication of a civilized society?
a. Laws against murder and theft
b. Following of the laws by the people
c. Living in a state of terror
d. Arresting criminals
5. Which of the following philosophers belonged to U.K.?
a. Hobbes
b. Socrates
c. Aristotle
d. Plato
Answers:
1. Option- c They want to live safely and peacefully
2. Option- d Self-explanatory
3. Option- d Having self-interest at the cost of community interest
4. Option- c Self-explanatory
5. Option- a Self-explanatory
