Directions: Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by choosing the correct/most appropriate options:

An aggravating factor, often overlooked, is the shape that inequality takes in different segments _______ our society. It is economic on one plane; on others, it is regional, caste, and religious. Some are spelt out, others understated, and still others assumed. Sociologists have identified nine categories of people who are determined to be socially and/or politically and/or economically excluded. These particularly include Dalits, Adivasis, women, and religious minorities. Recent studies on religious minorities who constitute around 20% of India’s population have traced discrimination relating to them to perceptions that relate to the very origins of thinking that brought about the partition of August 1947. They argue that violence was not merely accidental but integral to the foundation of the nation and that the need for fraternity coexisted with the imperative need for restoring social cohesion in segments of society.

Much blame for the haste displayed by decision-makers has been written about on the basis of the documentation made available subsequently and, at this distance of time, its validity cannot be dismissed altogether. A primary concern of the Constitution-makers related to cohesion and integration of the units of the new Republic formally described as ‘A Union of States’. In the words of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, ‘the inspiration and the stimulus came from above rather than from below and unless the transplanted growth takes a healthy root in the soil, there will be a danger of collapse and chaos.’ This was amplified by V.P. Menon as the integration ‘of the minds of the people’. Over time, uneven development has characterized the States of the Indian Union. Regional and linguistic diversity characterizes them. And so does uneven economic development and progress, resulting in uneven levels of education, employment, social cohesion, and contentment.