CBSE Class 11 Sociology Syllabus for Board Exam 2026-27, Download Free PDF Here

Presented as an elective subject to students in senior secondary school, this science turns basic observations into reflections on human behavior and society. It is developed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for Class XI students for the academic year 2026-2027. The Sociology (Subject Code - 039) curriculum will provide students the theoretical tools required to study the ever changing society around them.

The syllabus of Class XI Sociology is divided into two broad parts: 

Part A – Introducing Sociology and Part B – Understanding Society. 

Instead of treating social structures, institutions, and processes as immutable, this curriculum takes a discovery learning approach, wherein social ideas are viewed as constructs that can be questioned and probed. 

Striking a balance between structural theories and research methods through hands-on projects and fieldwork, the curriculum helps students appreciate the rich, pluralistic culture of India. The course outline is listed below.

CBSE Class XI SOCIOLOGY Syllabus

Subject Code-039

Class XI-XII (2026-27)

Rationale

Sociology is introduced as an elective subject at the senior secondary stage. The syllabus is designed to help learners to reflect on what they hear and see in the course of everyday life and develop a constructive attitude towards society in change; to equip a learner with concepts and theoretical skills for the purpose. The curriculum of Sociology at this stage should enable the learner to understand dynamics of human behavior in all its complexities and manifestations. The learners of today need answers and explanations to satisfy the questions that arise in their minds while trying to understand the social world. Therefore, there is a need to develop an analytical approach towards the social structure so that they can meaningfully participate in the process of social change. There is scope in the syllabus not only for interactive learning, based on exercises and project work but also for teachers and students to jointly innovate new ways of learning.

Sociology studies society. The child's familiarity with the society in which she /he lives in makes the study of Sociology a double edged experience. At one level Sociology studies institutions such as family and kinship, class, caste and tribe religion and region- contexts with which children are familiar, even if differentially. For India is a society which is varied both horizontally and vertically. The effort in the books will be to grapple overtly with this both as a source of strength and as a site for interrogation.

Significantly the intellectual legacy of Sociology equips the discipline with a plural perspective that overtly engages with the need for defamiliarisation, to unlearn and question the given. This interrogative and critical character of Sociology also makes it possible to understand both other cultures as well as relearn about one's own culture.

This plural perspective makes for an inbuilt richness and openness that not too many other disciplines in practice share. From its very inception, Sociology has had mutually enriching and contesting traditions of an interpretative method that openly takes into account 'subjectivity' and causal explanations that pay due importance to establishing causal correspondences with considerable sophistication. Not surprisingly its field work tradition also entails large scale survey methods as well as a rich ethnographic tradition. Indeed, Indian Sociology, in particular has bridged this distinction between what has often been seen as distinct approaches of Sociology and Social Anthropology. The syllabus provides ample opportunity to make the child familiar with the excitement of field work as well as its theoretical significance for the very discipline of Sociology.

The plural legacy of Sociology also enables a bird's eye view and a worm's eye view of the society the child lives in. This is particularly true today when the local is inextricably defined and shaped by macro global processes.

• The syllabus proceeds with the assumption that gender as an organizing principle of society cannot be treated as an add on topic but is fundamental to the manner that all chapters shall be dealt with.

• The chapters shall seek for a child centric approach that makes it possible to connect the lived reality of children with social structures and social processes that Sociology studies.

• A conscious effort will be made to build into the chapters a scope for exploration of society that makes learning a process of discovery. A way towards this is to deal with sociological concepts not as givens but a product of societal actions humanly constructed and therefore open to questioning.

Objectives

• To enable learners to relate classroom teaching to their outside environment.

• To introduce them to the basic concepts of Sociology that would enable them to observe and interpret social life.

• To be aware of the complexity of social processes.

• To appreciate diversity in Indian Society and the world at large.

• To build the capacity of students to understand and analyze the changes in contemporary Indian society.

COURSE STRUCTURE

Class XI (2026-27)

Time: 3 Hours

Max. Marks: 80

COURSE CONTENT

A. INTRODUCING SOCIOLOGY (44 Marks)

Unit 1: Sociology, Society and its Relationship with other Social Sciences

• Introducing Society: Individuals and collectivities. Pluralities and Inequalities among societies.

• Introducing Sociology: Emergence. Nature and Scope.

• Relationship with other Social Science disciplines

Unit 2: Terms, Concepts and their use in Sociology

• Social Groups and Society

• Social Stratification

• Status and Role

• Society & Social Control

Unit 3: Understanding Social Institutions

• Family, Marriage and Kinship

• Work & Economic Life

• Political Institutions

• Religion as a Social Institution

• Education as a Social Institution

Unit 4: Culture and Socialization

• Defining Culture

• Dimensions of Culture

• Socialization

• Agencies of Socialisation & Sociology

B. UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY (36 Marks)

Unit 7: Social Change and Social Order in Rural and Urban Society

• Social Change: Types, Causes and Consequences

• Social Order: Domination, Authority and Law; Contestation, Crime and Violence

• Concepts: Village, Town and City

• Social Order and Social Change in Rural and Urban Areas

Unit 9: Introducing Western Sociologists

• The Context of Sociology

• Karl Marx on Class Conflict

• Emile Durkheim: Division of Labour in society

• Max Weber: Interpretive Sociology, Ideal Type & Bureaucracy

Unit 10: Indian Sociologists

• G.S. Ghurye on Caste and Race

• D.P. Mukherjee on Tradition and Change

• A.R. Desai on the State

• M.N. Srinivas on the Village

PROJECT WORK

Max. Marks: 20

A. Project undertaken during the academic year at school level: 15 Marks

1. Introduction - 2 Marks

2. Statement of Purpose - 2 Marks

3. Research Question - 2 Marks

4. Methodology - 3 Marks

5. Data Analysis - 4 Marks

6. Conclusion - 2 Marks

B. Viva - based on the project work: 05 Marks

SOCIOLOGY QUESTION PAPER DESIGN

Class XI (2026-27)

The CBSE Class XI course in Sociology provides a transformative path for gaining insights from class teaching by transforming it into insight about the external world. Assessed via a broad-based 80 marks theoretical assessment scheme along with an exhaustive 20 marks practical assignment and viva, the syllabus ensures that students acquire the basic skills required for conducting surveys and ethnographic research at the macro and micro level respectively.