Question

UPSC Prelims 2021 Question:

Which one of the following best defines the term ‘State’?

1. A Community of persons permanently occupying a definite territory independent of external control and possessing an organized government
2. A politically organized people of a definite territory and possessing an authority to govern them, maintain law and order, protect their natural rights and safeguard their means of sustenance
3. A number of persons who have been living in a definite territory for a very long time with their own culture, tradition and government
4. A society permanently living in a definite territory with a central authority, an executive responsible to the central authority and an independent judiciary

Answer (Detailed Solution Below)

Option 1: A Community of persons permanently occupying a definite territory independent of external control and possessing an organized government

Detailed Solution

Explanation:

A state is a political division of a body of people that occupies a territory defined by frontiers. The state is sovereign in its territory (jurisdiction) and has the authority to enforce a system of rules over the people living inside it.
According to James Wilford Garner, State is “a community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, independent, or nearly so, of external control, and possessing an organized government to which the great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience.”

Therefore, option (1) is the correct answer.

Subject: Polity | Governance

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