Imagine that your school has reached the final tournament in kabaddi at the state-level. The opponent is a strong team that has won the tournament two years in a row. They are aiming to win a third time, a hat-trick. The match is on, and a player from your team has just got one of the players from the other team ’out1; then a dispute breaks out. The player from the other team insists that she had already crossed into her team area before your team player caught her. The referee has seen that the player from the other team was indeed ‘out’. To settle the dispute amicably, she pulls out a little official rulebook.
The team captains confer with the referee and look at the rules. They then agree that the player was indeed ‘out’, and your team has won the state-level trophy. Discuss in your group what might have happened if there was no official rulebook that the referee and the team captains could refer to. What is required to ensure everyone agrees to abide by the rulebook? What might happen if the team captains did not agree to refer to the rulebook at all?
Think of a game that you play often and list the rules you follow. Each group will then present their set of rules to the rest ofthe class. Listen to each presentation, discuss the rules, and work together to decide on a common set of rules for the game. What challenges do you face in reaching a consensus on rules that everyone agrees with? What could be the ‘rulebook’ for a country? How would it be made?