Belgium  in Europe, is bordered with Netherlands, France and Germany. The population of Belgium is a little over one crore. This country has a very complex ethnic composition.

• 59 per cent of the total population lives in the Flemish region and speaks Dutch language
• 40 per cent people live in the Wallonia region and speak French.
• The remaining speaks German.

The arrangement Belgium has worked out is different from any other   country and is very innovative. Following are some of the elements of   the Belgian model:
Constitution prescribes that the number of   Dutch and French-speaking ministers shall be equal in the central   government. Some special laws require the support of majority of members   from each linguistic group. Thus, no single community can make   decisions unilaterally. Many powers of the central government have been   given to state governments of the two regions of the country. The state   governments are not subordinate to the Central Government. Brussels  has a  separate government in which both the communities have equal   representation. The French- speaking people accepted equal   representation in Brussels because the Dutch-speaking community has   accepted equal representation in the Central Government.

It is essential to have resource planning because of the following reasons:

1. It helps to identify the various resources present in different regions of the country.
2. It helps in the conservation of various non-renewable/extinguishable resources.
3. It helps in reducing wastage of resources.
4. It helps in equal distribution of resources among the regions that have acute shortage of it.
5. It helps in keeping track of remaining resources.
6. It helps to take care of future generations.

Thus, resource planning is necessary for sustaining quality of life and global peace.

Civil war broke out in Sri Lanka because of the increasingly strained relations between the Tamils and Sinhala communities where the Tamils felt they were being severely discriminated against.

 There were serious repercussions of the war where the people were forced to take shelter, leave their home, belongings, their children were unprotected. Hatred and disparity increased thus leading to Sri Lanka’s economical slowdown

(i) In some countries, there are constitutional and legal arrangements for the representation of socially weaker sections and women in legislatures and administration.
(ii) In India, Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are given reservations in constituencies of Parliament and State Assemblies. There measures are meant to provide them space in government and administration. This would also prevent their feeling of alienation from government.
(iii) In Belgium, the “Community Government” provides equal representation in government to different linguistic groups of Dutch French and German-speaking people.

Power is shared among different organs of the govt, i.e.the juduciary, legislative and executive. This ensures that no organ can exercise unlimited power and each organ checks the other.
1) Judiciary over executive and legislature - The judiciary can review the laws made by the legislative and the functioning of the legislature.
2) executive over juduciary - The judges are appointed by the executive.
3) executive over legislature - The president is highest member  of the executive. No law can be passed without his/her consent.
4) legislature over executive -  Unless the bill is passed in the legislature, it cannot become a law.

In Belgium, leaders recognised the existence of regional differences and cultural diversities. The Belgian government accommodated its diverse ethnic population in the following manner:

• Constitution says that the number of Dutch and French speaking ministers shall be equal in the Central government. Thus, no single community can make decisions unilaterally.
• Many powers of the Central Government have been given to the state governments, of the two regions of the country. The state governments are not subordinate to the Central government.
• Brussels has a separate government in which both the communities have equal representation.
• There is a third kind of government, called the ‘community government’. This government is elected by the people belonging to one language community—Dutch, French and German speaking, no matter where they live. This government has the power regarding cultural education and language related issues.
  These arrangements helped to avoid a civic strife between the two major communities and a possible division of the country on linguistic lines.

‘Sri Lankan Tamils’ started their struggle by lanching their political parties for the;
(i) recognition of Tamil as an official language and regional autonomy.
(ii) For regional autonomy.
(iii) Equality of opportunity in securing education and jobs.
In order to protest for their demand they started a political struggle in the way of conflict with the government.
(i) By 1980s several political organisation were formed demanding an independent Tamil Elam (State) in northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka.
(ii) The distrust between the two communities turned into wide spread conflict which soon turned into a civil war.
(iii) Asa resultthousandsofpeopleof posh communities have been killed and caused a terrible set back to the social, cultural and economic life of the country.

• Each caste group tries to become bigger by incorporating within it, neighbouring castes or sub-castes, which were earlier excluded from it.
• Various caste groups are required to enter into a coalition with other castes or communities and thus, enter into a dialogue and negotiation.
• New kind of caste groups have come up in the political arena like ‘backward’ and ‘forward caste’ groups.
  Thus, caste plays different kinds of roles in politics.

Communalism is a philosophy which believes in society being divided into a number of religious communities that are different from each other and opposed to each other. In this kind of society, each community think itself as superior to others.

Communalism takes various forms in politics:

• The most common form of communalism involves our everyday beliefs. These are religious prejudices, stereotypes of religious communities and belief in the superiority of one’s religion over other religions. These are so common that we often fail to notice it, even when we believe in it.
• It often leads to a pursuit for political dominance of one’s own religious community. It takes the form of majoritarian dominance, for those belonging to majority community and for people belonging to the minority community; it can take the form of a desire to form a separate political unit.
• Another common form of communalism is political mobilisation. It involves the use of sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeal and plain fear in order to bring the followers of one religion together in the political arena.

Geography

Section earlier consisted of Seven Chapters

but now Second Chapter i.e. Forest and Wildlife Resources has been removed

In Chapter Four i.e. Agriculture - Content of Page no. 44 to 47 of NCERT book is to be deleted

In Sixth Chapter i.e. Manufacturing Industries - Content mentioned on page no. 74-75 of NCERT, Geography Text book i.e. Aluminium Smelting, Chemical Industries, Fertilizer Industry, Cement Industry is not required to be deliver in class room during instruction.

Civics

Popular Struggles and Movements (Note : Ch-5 is to be done as project work only and will not be evaluated in theory)

(i) The sharing of powers among political parties, pressure groups and movements ensures the influence in decision making process as democracy implies people’s choice among various contenders.
(ii) Regarding political parties this sharing takes place in the way of political competition among different parties. This in turn ensures that power does not remain in one hand.
(iii) In the case of coalition government this sharing becomes direct when two or more parties form an alliance to contest election and if their alliance is elected.
(iv) At the same time, pressure group and movements influence power sharing through dharna, rallies, protest, strike etc.
(v) In anotherway by becomingthe member of committee ora part of the planning commission.

A coalition government is one which is formed by the coming together of at least two political parties. Usually, it is the partners in an electoral coalition that form a political alliance and adopt a common political programme.
PM of coalition govt cannot take his own decisions as his party doesnt enjoys majority.so,he have to take concerns from other parties in alliance.so,decision making in coalition govt is slow.

(i) Government adopted majoritarian measure to establish Sinhala Supremacy. In 1956, an Act was passed to recognise Sinhala as the only official language thus disregarding Tamil.
(ii) The governments followed preferential politics that favoured Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs.
(iii) A new Constitution stipulated that the state shall protect and foster Buddhism.
(iv) Sri Lankan Tamils felt that none of the major political parties led by the Buddhist Sinhala leaders were sensitive to their language and culture.
(v) As a result, the relations between the Sinhala and Tamil communities strained overtime and it soon turned into a Civil War.

The Champaran rebellion in Bihar was the first active involvement of Gandhi in the Indian freedom struggle. When Gandhi returned to India in 1915, the country was reeling under the tyrannous colonial rule. The British forced the farmers to grow indigo and other cash crops on their fertile land, and then sell these crops to them at a much cheaper price. The situation became more gruesome for the farmers due to harsh weather conditions and levy of heavy taxes pushing them towards abject poverty.

Having heard of the situation of farmers at Champaran, Gandhi immediately paid a visit to this district in April 1917. He adopted the approach of civil disobedience movement and launched demonstrations and strikes against the landlords bringing them down on their very knees. As a result, they signed an agreement in which they granted control and compensations to the farmers, and canceled the hikes in revenue and collection. The success of this movement earned Gandhi the status of Mahatma.

- Balkan was a cluster of present day countries like Serbia, albaria, Romania, etc..

- It was ruled by Ottoman empire and inhabitants were called slavs.

- disintegration of Ottoman empire and spread of nationalist ideas in Europe made this area very explosive.

- revolutionaries of this region demanded for independence.

- after the balkan states got independence, they were jealous of each other and wanted to extend their territories.

- European powers - austro-hungary, Russia, Germany and Britain wanted to extend their influence an dominance on this region.

- This led to series of wars known as world war 1