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On this page, you will find NCERT Class 8 Civics Chapter 4 Notes Pdf free download. CBSE Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 4 SST Understanding Laws will seemingly, help them to revise the important concepts in less time.

Understanding Laws Class 8 Notes Social Science Civics Chapter 4

CBSE Class 8 Civics Chapter 4 Notes Understanding the Lesson

1. Parliament is in charge of making laws.

2. Laws apply to all:

• All persons in independent India are equal before the law.
• Law cannot discriminate between persons on the basis of their religion, caste and gender.
• Rule of law means that all laws apply equally to all citizens of the country and no one can be above the law.
• Any crime or violation of law has a specific punishment as well as process through which the guilt of the person has to be established.
• In ancient India, there were innumerable and often overlapping local laws. Different communities enjoyed different degrees of autonomy in administering these laws among there own.
• System of law began to further evolve during the colonial period.
• It is believed that it was the British colonials who introduced the Rule of law in India.
• Historians have disputed this claim on several grounds.
• Sedition Act of 1870 changed the idea of sedition.
• Indian nationalists began protesting and criticising the arbitrary use of authority by the British.
• By the end of the 19^th century the Indian legal profession also began emerging and demanded respect in colonial courts.
• Indian judges began to play a greater role in working decisions.
• With the adoption of the Constitution, this document served as the foundation on which our representatives began making laws for the country.
• Every year our representatives pass several laws as well as revise existing ones.
• Hindu Succession Amendment Act 2005. According to this new law, sons, daughters and their mothers can get an equal share of family property.

3. How do new laws come about?

• Parliament plays important role in making laws.
• An important role of Parliament is to be sensitive to the problems faced by the people.
• Role of citizens is crucial helping Parliament frame different concerns that people have into laws.
• From establishing the need for a new law to its being passed at every stage of the process, voice of citizen is a crucial element.

4. Unpopular and controversial laws:

• Sometimes, a law can be Constitutionally valid and hence, legal but it can continue to be unpopular and unacceptable to the people because it is felt that the intention behind it is unfair and harmful.
• In democracy like ours, citizens can express the unwillingness to accept repressive laws framed by the Parliament.
• There is a pressure on Parliament to change the law if people begin to feel that the wrong law is passed.
• If the law favours one group and disregards the other then it will be controversial and leads to conflict.
• The people who think that the law is not fair can approach the court to decide on the issue.
• The court has the power to modify or cancel laws if it finds that they don’t adhere to the Constitution.
• As a citizen one should remember that role does not end with electing our representatives.
• It is the involvement and the enthusiasm of the people that help Parliament performing representative functions properly.

Understanding Laws Class 8 CBSE Notes Important Terms

Criticise: to find fault with or disapprove of a person or thing.

Evolution: Process of development from a simple to a complex form and is often used to discuss the development of the species of plants and animals.

Sedition: This applies to anything that the government might consider as stirring up resistance or rebellion against it. In such cases government does not need absolute evidence in order to arrest persons.

Repressive: To control severely in order to prevent free and natural development or expression.

On this page, you will find NCERT Class 8 Civics Chapter 3 Notes Pdf free download. CBSE Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 3 SST Why do we Need a Parliament will seemingly, help them to revise the important concepts in less time.

Why do we Need a Parliament Class 8 Notes Social Science Civics Chapter 3

CBSE Class 8 Civics Chapter 3 Notes Understanding the Lesson

1. Parliament enables citizens of India to participate in decision making and control the government. Therefore, Parliament is the most important symbol of Indian democracy and key features of the Constitution.

2. Why should people decide?

• After long and difficult struggle in which many sections of society participated, India got independence.
• Under colonial rule people lived in fear of the British government and disagreed with the decisions of the British.
• Criticizing the British government was a grave danger at that time.
• During 1885, India National Congress (I.N.C) demanded that there be elected members in the legislatures with a right of discussing budget and ask questions.
• Government of India act 1909, allowed for some elected representation.
• The British did not allow for all adults to vote nor could people participate in decision making.
• Nationalists, after getting freedom decided government will not do what they want but the people should get involved in decision making.
• The dreams and aspirations of the freedom struggle were made concrete in the Constitution of independent India, laying down the principle of universal adult franchise.

3. People and their representatives:

• The take-off point for democracy is the idea of consensus.
• The decision of people creates a democratic government and decides about its functioning.
• Individual gives approval to the government in many ways one of which is through elections in which people would elect their representative for the government.
• The Parliament is made up of representatives together and controls and guides the government.
• In this sense, people through their chosen representative, form the government and also control it.

4. The role of the Parliament:

• Created after 1947, Indian Parliament is an expression of faith and because of it, the people of India have principle of democracy.
• Parliament, in our system, has immense powers because it is the representative of the people.
• Elections of parliament are held in similar manner as they are for the State legislature.
• Lok Sabha is usually elected once every five years.
• Each constituency elects one person to the Parliament.
• The candidates contesting elections usually belong to different political parties.
• Elected candidates become Member of Parliament or MPs.
• The MP’s together make up the Parliament.
• Parliament has following functions:

A. Select the National government:

• Parliament consists of the President, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha in India.
• After elections, a list is prepared about how many MP’s belong to each political party.
• For a political party to form the government, they must have majority of elected MPs.
• There are 543 elected and 2 nominated members in Lok Sabha, to have a majority a party should have at least half the number i.e., 272 members or more.
• The opposition is formed in Parliament by all the political parties that oppose majority party/ coalition formed. The largest among these parties is called the Opposition party.
• One of the most important functions of the Lok Sabha is to select the executive.
• The Prime Minister (PM) of India is the leader of the ruling party in Lok Sabha.
• PM selects ministers to work with in order to implement decisions.
• The ministers take charge of different areas of government functioning like health, education, finance, etc.
• The joining together of different political parties who are interested in similar concerns forms coalition government.
• Rajya Sabha functions primarily as the representative of the States of India in the Parliament.
• The members of Rajya Sabha are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of various States.
• There are 233 elected and 12 nominated members in Rajya Sabha.

B. To control, guide and inform the government:

• The Parliament, while in session, begins with question hour.
• The Opposition parties play a critical role in the healthy functioning of a democracy.
• The government gets valuable feedback and it is kept on its toes by the questions asked by the MPs.
• The MPs are representatives of the people and have a central role in controlling, guiding and informing Parliament and this is a key aspect of the functioning of Indian democracy.

5. Lawmaking is a significant function of the Parliament.

6. The people in the Parliament:

7. Parliament now has more and more people from different backgrounds.

8. It has been observed that representative democracy cannot produce a perfect reflection of the society.

9. It is important to ensure that communities that have been historically marginalized are given adequate representation.

10. Considering this some seats are reserved in the Parliament for SCs and STs.

11. This has been done so that MPs elected from these constituencies will be familiar with and can represent Dalit andf Adivasi interests in Parliament.

12. Recently it has been suggested that there should be reservation of seats for women.

13. The fact that we can ask questions and are working towards answers is a reflection of the strength and the faith that people of India have in a democratic form of government.

Why do we Need a Parliament Class 8 CBSE Notes Important Terms

Approval: to give one’s consent to and be favourable towards something.

Coalition: A temporary alliance of groups and parties.

Unresolved: Situation in which there are no easy solutions to problem.

On this page, you will find NCERT Class 8 Civics Chapter 2 Notes Pdf free download. CBSE Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 2 SST Understanding Secularism will seemingly, help them to revise the important concepts in less time.

Understanding Secularism Class 8 Notes Social Science Civics Chapter 2

CBSE Class 8 Civics Chapter 2 Notes Understanding the Lesson

1. History provides us the many examples that show how there was discrimination, exclusion and persecution on the ground of religion.

2. Maximum times members of one religious community either persecute or discriminate against member of other religious communities.

3. The process of discrimination always occurs at the time when one religion is given official recognition by the State at the expense of other religions.

4. No one would wish to be discriminated against because of their religion nor dominated by another religion.

5. In India the Indian Constitution allows individuals the freedom to live by their religious beliefs and practices as they interpret these.

6. For the above purpose, India adopted a studying of separating the power of religions and the power of the State.

7. Secularism refers to this separation of religions from the State.

8. To function democratically it is important for a country that there should exist the separation of religion from State power.

9. If majority religious groups have the access to State power, they misuse their power against other religions.

10. The majority could quite easily prevent minorities from practising their religions.

11. This will result in the tyranny of the majority and the violation of Fundamental Rights.

12. This shows why it is important to separate the State and religion in democratic societies.

13. The need to protect the freedom of industries to exit from their religion, embrace religion or have the freedom to interpret religious teachings differently. This is another reason that shows the importance of separation of religions from the State.

14. India Secularism, according to the Indian Constitution, it is mandatory for the Indian State to be secular.

15. As per the Constitution, only a secular State can realise its objective to ensure the following:

16. That one religious communists does not dominate another.

17. That some members do not dominate other members of the same religious community.

18. That the State does not enforce any particular religion non take away the religions freedom of individuals.

19. Indian State works in various ways to prevent the above domination.

20. Indian State is not ruled by a religious group and nor does it support any religion.

21. Government schools cannot promote any religions either in the morning prayers or through religions celebrations.

22. Indians secularism also works on the strategy of non interference.

23. It means that in order to respect the sentiments of all religions and not interfere with religious practices, the State makes certain exception for particular religions communities. For e.g., A sikh while riding bike can wear Pugri (turban) instead of helmet.

24. Indian secularism also works to prevent domination of majority over minority through the strategy of intervention.

25. Indian Constitution bans untouchability.

26. To ensure that laws relating equal inheritance rights are respected, the State may have to intervene in the religion-based ‘personal laws’ communities.

27. The Indian Constitution grants the right to religious communities to set up their own schools and colleges. Also the financial aid on non-preferential basis is provided to them.

28. There is a strict separation between religion and the State in U.S.A. While in Indian secularism, the State can intervene in the religious affairs.

29. The Indian State is secular and works in various ways to prevent religious domination.

30. The Indian Constitution gurantees Fundamental Rights that are based on these secular principles.

31. To prevent violation of these rights in India Society we need Constitutional mechanism to prevent them from happening.

32. The knowledge that such rights exist, makes us sensitive to their violations and enables us to take action when these violations takes place.

Understanding Secularism Class 8 CBSE Notes Important Terms

Secularism: India adopted a strategy of separating the power of religion and the power of the State. This separation of religion from the State that is called secularism.

Intervene: It refers to the State’s efforts to influence a particular matter in accordance with the principle of the Constitution.

Coercion: to force someone to do something. It refers to the force used by a legal authority like the State.

Freedom to interpret: It refers to the freedom that all persons shall have to understand things in their own way.

On this page, you will find NCERT Class 8 Civics Chapter 1 Notes Pdf free download. CBSE Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 1 SST The Indian Constitution will seemingly, help them to revise the important concepts in less time.

The Indian Constitution Class 8 Notes Social Science Civics Chapter 1

CBSE Class 8 Civics Chapter 1 Notes Understanding the Lesson

1. The society has Constitutive rules that make it what it is and differentiate it from other kinds of societies.

2. In large societies different communities of people live together and rules are formulated through consensus, and in modern countries, this consensus is usually available in written form.

3. A written document where one finds, such rules is called a Constitution.

4. Most countries of the world in present-day have a Constitution.

5. The Constitution serves purposes:

I^st purpose:

6. It lays out certain ideals that form the basis of the kind of country that the citizens of that country aspire to live in.

7. A Constitution tells us about the fundamental nature of the society.

8. A Constitution helps serve as a set of rules and principles that all persons in a country can agree upon as the basic way in which they want the country to be governed.

9. It not only tells us about the type of government but it also explains about an agreement on certain ideals that the citizens of the country believe and should uphold.

10. The best example for the I^st purpose in Nepal.

11. Nepal that was monarchial country in past adopted its previous Constitution in 1990 reflected with the fact that the final authority rested with king.

12. In 2006 with the constant struggle and the people’s movement for several decades the establishment of Democracy was seen putting an end the powers of the king.

13. Now in Nepal there was a definite need for the framing of the new Constitution as the people of the country did not want to continue with the previous Constitution which did not reflect the ideals of the country. The ideals that were wanted by the people of that country.

14. Nepal and its people are involved in the process of writing a Constitution for the country.

II^nd purpose:

15. The II^nd most important purpose of Constitution is to define the native of a country’s political system.

16. The countries which have adopted it, in those countries, Constitution plays a crucial role in laying out important guidelines that govern decision making within these societies.

17. In democratic societies the Constitution often lays down rules guarding against the misuse of authority by the political leader as in democratic societies the people of choose their leaders, and the leaders exercise power responsibly on the people behalf.                                                       ,

18. Right to Equality is one of Fundament Right guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.

19. Constitution even functions to ensure that the dominant group does not use its power against less powerful group or people in a democracy.

20. The Constitution usually contains of rules ensuring that minorities are not excluded from anything that is routinely available to the majority.

21. The Constitution prevents tyranny or domination by the majority of a minority.

22. The Constitution also helps us ‘to save us from ourselves’. This means that the Constitution helps to protect us against certain decisions that we might take that could have an adverse effect on the larger principle that the country believes in.

23. A good Constitution never allows any whims to change its basic structure.

24. Key features of the Indian Constitution itself carries the struggle that was faced under the British, the dreams that how free India would be, the ill treatment of British towards Indians, all these with the long experience of authoritarian rule under the colonial rule convinced the Indians that the free India should be a democracy in which every one should be treated equal and allowed to participate in government.

25. Then the work was started for the ways in which a democratic government should be set up in India and the rules that would determine its functioning.

26. A Constituent Assembly comprised of 300 members, was founded in 1946. The 300 members met periodically for the next 3 yrs for the purpose of writing the Indian Constitution.

27. Various issues were kept in mind while the framing up of the Constitution for the country that was made up of several communities and that comprised of several different languages speakers, the people belonged to different religions and had different cultures. The Constituent Assembly drafted the Indian Constitution by giving this country a visionary document that reflects a respect and maintains diversity while preserving national unity.

28. The final document also reflects their concern for eradicating poverty through socio-economic reforms as well as emphasizing the crucial role the people can play in choosing their representatives.

29. The Indian Constitution has several number of features that are:

1. Federation: The term refers to the existence of more than one level of government in the country.

• In India, the governments are at the state level and at the centre and Panchayati Raj is the 3^rd tier of government.
• Under Federalism the states are not merely agents of the federal government but draw their authority from the Constitution as well.
• In short, the Indian Constitution defines the power of each government at each level and at every tier.

2. Parliamentary Form of government: The Indian Constitution guarantees universal adult suffrage for all citizens as at the time of making the Constitution, the members of Constituent Assembly felt that freedom struggle had prepared the masses for universal adult suffrage and that this would encourage a democratic mindset and break the clutches of traditional caste, class and gender hierarchies. This means the people of India have a direct role in electing their representatives.

• Also, every citizen of the country, irrespective his/her social background, can also contest in elections.
• The representatives are accountable to the people.

3. Separation of power: As per the Indian Constitution there are 3 organs of the state. That are

• The Legislative
• The Executive
• The judiciary.
• The legislative refers to our elected representatives.
• The Executives are the groups of people who are responsible for the implementation of laws and run­ning of the government.
• The Constitution states that each of these organs should exercise different powers.
• Each organ acts as a check on the organs of the state and this ensures the balance of Power between the 3 organs.

4. Fundamental Rights: This section of the India Constitution has often been referred to as the ‘conscience’. The Fundamental Rights protect the citizens against any arbitrary and absolute exercise of power by the state.

• The Indian Constitution guarantees the Fundamental Rights of individuals against the state as well as against other individuals.
• Various minorities communities have expressed the need for the Constitution to include the rights that would protect their group. Therefore the Indian Constitution also guarantees the rights of minorities against the majority.
• In addition to Fundamental Rights, the Constitution of India also consists of a section called The Directive Principle of State Policy.
• The Directive Principle of State Policy (D.P.S.P) was designed to ensure greater social and economic reformers and also to serve as a guide to the independent Indian state to institute laws and policies that would help in reducing the poverty of the masses.

5. Secularism: A secular state is a state which never officially promotes any type of religion as the state religion and India is one of the secular states that officially does not have any religion.

• The Constitution plays crucial role in laying out ideas that citizens would adhere to including the representatives that we elect to rule us.
• Often a major change in the Constitution means a change in the fundamental nature of the country.

The Indian Constitution Class 8 CBSE Notes Important Terms

Arbitrary: Arbitrary is a functioning which based on a desire or idea only rather than reason. Our Con­stitution is prevented arbitrary functioning.

Ideal: A goal or a principle in its most excellent or perfect form.

Polity: A society has an organized political structure. India is a democratic polity.

Sovereign: Possessing supreme or ultimate power.

Tyranny: The cruel and unjust use of power or authority.

Trafficking: The practice of the illegal buying and selling of different commodities across the National boundaries.

On this page, you will find NCERT Class 8 Geography Chapter 6 Notes Pdf free download. CBSE Class 8 Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 6 SST Human Resource will seemingly, help them to revise the important concepts in less time.

Human Resource Class 8 Notes Social Science Geography Chapter 6

CBSE Class 8 Geography Chapter 6 Notes Understanding the Lesson

1. Human Resource is the ultimate resource as healthy, educated and motivated people develop resources as per their requirements and people are a nation’s greatest resources.

2. Human resources differ in their educational levels, age and sex and unequally distributed over the world.

3. The way in which people are spread across the earth surface is known as the pattern of population distribution. The distribution of the world’s population is extremely uneven. As some areas of the world are very populated and some are sparely populated.

4. More people live north of the Equator than south of the Equator. Almost three-quarters of the world’s people live in two continents Asia and Africa. 60% of the world’s people stay in just 10 countries.

5. Population density: The number of people living in a unit area of the earth’s surface.

6. Factors that affect the distribution of population are:

• Topography
• Climate
• Soil
• Water
• Minerals.

7. These are the subcategory of the major factors that are Geographical factors important for the distribution.

8. The other major factors are social, cultural and economic factors.

9. Population change refers to change in the number of people during a specific time and the world’s population has never been stable.

10. The reasons behind the growth of population was that there were availability of better food supplies and medicine.

11. Births are usually measured using the birth rate i.e. the number of live births per 1000 people.

12. Death are usually measured using the death rate i.e. the number of deaths per 1000 people.

13. Migration refers to the movement of the people in and out of an area.

14. Natural growth rate is the difference between the birth rate and the death rate of a country, and population increase in the world is mainly due to rapid increase in natural growth rate.

15. Emigrants are people who leave a country and Immigrants are the ones who arrive in a country.

16. General trend followed during international migration is from the less developed nations to the more developed nations that too in search of better employment opportunities.

17. Rates of population growth vary across the world.

18. Population composition refers to the structure of the population. The composition helps us in knowing the number of males or females, their age group and the education they have, do they have employment or what are the income levels and health conditions there.

19. Population pyramid is something special and interesting it is the way of studying the population composition and the population pyramid is also known as Age-sex pyramid. Its shape tells about the people their children (below 15 yrs), the aged people (above 65 yrs) and also it reflects the number of deaths.

20. Population pyramid also tells about the dependents in the country which have two groups. The young i.e. aged below 15 yrs and elderly, the one aged over 65 yrs.

21. The skilled, spirited and hopeful young people endowed with a positive outlook are the future of any nation.

Human Resource Class 8 CBSE Notes Important Terms

Life expectancy: It is the number of years that an average person can expect to live.

Migration: It is the movement in which people move within a country or between countries.

Natural growth rate: The difference between the birth rate and death rate of a country is called the natural growth rate.

Emigrants: These are the people who leave a country.

Emigration: When a person leaves a country.

Immigration: When a person enters a new country.

Rem-migration: When person leaves a country.