HISTORY FOR UPSC - PREPARATION STRATEGY
The causes of events are even more interesting than the events themselves
Event-Advent Of Europeans:
Causes Of Event-What if Vasco Da Gama lost the sea route to India?
Event-Battle Of Plassey
Causes Of Event-What would have been the consequences if Mir Jafar didn’t deceive Siraj Ud Daula & there was no foundation Of British Rule in India.?
But History Is all about the Past & it keeps repeating itself in the future.
◦ In order to know your past you’d definitely need a strong hold of these books.
Prelims :
Ancient Medieval & Modern History
Mains (GS-1) -
1.Modern Indian History
2.India Post Independence
3.World History
4.Art & Culture
Book list for Indian History
Modern History starts from Class 8th NCERT :
1. Our Pasts 3-Part 1
2. Our Pasts 3-Part 2
12th Standard NCERT :
3. Themes in Indian History-Part 1
4. Themes in Indian History-Part 2
5. Themes in Indian History-Part 3
Now moving to Standard Books (After completion Of NCERT’s)
6.Brief History of Modern India-Spectrum
If you’ve left with some extra time:
7.India’s Struggle For Independence
Art & Culture:
There are high chances of Art & Culture Questions popping from Ancient & Medieval:
What to do?
Jot down points from Art & Culture Standard Book-Nitin Singhania into your NCERTs to bring a continuity in the subject.
NCERT:
Class 11-Fine Arts
Standard Book:
Nitin Singhania
Everybody does read these books,hence to be on the safer side, you can learn these two books apart from Updating your Current Affairs (Archeology, excavations, numismatics). This will be suffice for Art & Culture.
UPSC IAS Mains General Studies – I Syllabus
Modern Indian History
India Post Independence
World History
Art & Culture
UPSC IAS Mains General Studies I - History Syllabus
➨Modern India (middle of the 18th century until the present)
All the Economic, Administrative & Socio-cultural impacts of the mentioned points.
• European Penetration of India
• British Conquest of India
• British Policies & Their Impact
• Socio-cultural Reform Movements
• Growth of Nationalism in India (1858-1905)
• Freedom Struggle and Movements
➨India Post Independence
• Partition and Its Aftermath
• Integration of Princely States
• Wars with Pakistan & China
• Nuclear Policy
• Green Revolution, Operation Flood & Cooperatives
• Emergency
• Popular Movements
➨ World History
• Industrial Revolution
• Renaissance
• Discovery of Sea Routes
• European Nations Settle North America
• Rise of the Slave Trade
• American War of Independence
• French Revolution
• Nationalism in Europe
• Rise of Capitalism, Colonialism & Imperialism
• World War I (Causes, Impacts, and After-effects)
• World War II (Causes, Impacts, and After-effects)
• Cold War
• Rise of Asia & Africa
• Developments in West Asia & North Africa
• Spread of Communism
• Korean War
• Vietnam War
• Cuban Crisis
• Collapse of Soviet Union
➨ Art and Culture
Indian Art Forms
• Indian Paintings
• Classical Dance Forms
• Folk Dance Forms
• Classical Music
• Puppetry
• Pottery
• Drama/Theatre
• Martial Arts
Architecture
• Harappan Architecture
• Temple Architecture
• Cave Architecture
• Indo-Islamic Architecture
• Modern Architecture
• Rock Cut Architecture
• Colonial Architecture
Literature
• Ancient Indian Literature
• Literature in Ancient Languages
• Early Dravidian Literature
• Medieval Literature
• Women Poets of Bhakti
• Modern Indian Literature
My Preparation Strategy for history:
I at the beginning thought of going in an orderly manner( Ancient, Medieval & Modern).
Ancient history is like moving & learning the very past core of History, & the content in Ancient History for beginners would be like reading a bulky novel for the first time.
Hence I was pushed into the fear of not really getting the point of moving forward.
How I moved Forward!
I reached out to some of my senior aspirants. The first advice they gave me was to start with Modern India-(Spectrum). I personally felt the book was more than enough & the book by itself felt like the notes we normally jot down.
Back then I’ve heard alot of people say go for
Old Bipin Chandra( I haven’t personally read them). Later after completing Modern, I moved to Ancient & Medieval.
What are the basics while learning history?
1.Chronological Order - You can refer Previous Year Question an get an idea.
Eg: Prelims 2020 Question
Every Year there is a high chance of one or two chronological order questions.
Learn the chronology like a story or using some or the other trick to get that extra two marks & be in the race.
2.Ideology- For Eg: Who are Moderates & Extremists?(What was the objective behind these people?)
Differences Moderates and Extremists
Moderates
Moderates believed in Liberalism and Moderate Politics. They believed that the British rulers were merely unaware of the plight of the Indian masses and that once they were made aware the British authorities would do their utmost to improve the lives of the local populace.
Eg: Dadabai Naoroji, A.O. Hume
Extremists
The Extremist leaders firmly believed that the British had no interest of the Indian people in mind.
Eg: Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tila
#Which one of the following movements has contributed to a split in the Indian National Congress resulting in the emergence of ‘moderates’ and ‘extremists’?(2015)
(a) Swadeshi Movement
(b) Quit India Movement
(c) Non-Cooperation Movement
(d) Civil Disobedience Movement
Solution (a)
#A bill or an Important Act (The idea behind it)
The Ilbert Bill controversy was related to the: (2013)
(a) imposition restrictions the Indians of certain to carry arms by Indians
(b) imposition of restrictions on newspapers and magazines published in Indian languages
(c) removal of disqualifications imposed on the Indian magistrates with regard to the trial of the Europeans
(d) removal of a duty on imported cotton cloth
Solution (c)
3.Concepts- What is communism,capitalism,imperialism,marxism & the differences between these.
One common agreement between Gandhism and Marxism is:(Prelims 2020)
(a) the final goal of a stateless society
(b) class struggle
(c) abolition of private property
(d) economic determinism
Solution (A)
4.For Ancient & Medieval:
Every year definitely one question will pop up from UPSC’s most favourite topic-Bhuddhism & Jainism .
Eg:Anekantavada is a core theory and philosophy of which one of the following?
(a) Buddhism
(b) Jainism
(c) Sikhism
(d) Vaishnavism
Answer: B
Finally concept clarity is must, google search each & every concept until you are very clear about the topic & then move to the next one.
How to organise History?
We learn history from various sources & a bulk of NCERTS , which are not in the same order. What I did?
While learning Themes in Indian History, I added up the points & story from Our Pasts-NCERT to maintain the flow in my preparation.By this way one will be able to recall things at ease & while revising you’ll be able to grasp things effectively.
