Topic wise division of History Optional Questions for this millenium

ANCIENT INDIA

Topic	Sub-topic	Brief Description	15 M	20 M	30 Marks	60 Marks
1		Sources
	i)	Archeological sources	2013			2003
	ii)	Exploration, excavation, epigraphy, numismatics, monuments		2011		2007/09
2		Pre-history and Proto-history	2013		2010
3		Indus Valley Civilization		2013	2012	2002
4		Megalithic Cultures		2011	2012	2008
5		Aryans and Vedic Period	2013		2009/10/11	2004
6		Period of Mahajanapadas
	i)	Economic growth; Introduction of coinage				2003/11
	ii)	Spread of Jainism and Buddhism			2011	2007
	iii)	Rise of Magadha and Nandas				2001
7		Mauryan Empire
	i)	Polity, Administration			2012	2005
	ii)	Religion; Spread of religion; Literature				2004
8		Post - Mauryan Period		2013	2010/12	2008
9		Early State & Soc in Eastern, Deccan and South India			2010	2008
10		Guptas, Vakatakas and Vardhanas
	i)	Polity and administration, Economy	2013		2009	2006/05
	ii)	Indian feudalism, Caste system, Position of women	2013	2013		2005/07/10
	iii)	Education and educational institutions	2013		2012	2003
11		Regional States during Gupta Era
	i)	Chalukyas of Badami
	ii)	Palas, Senas, Rashtrakutas			2012
12		Themes in Early Indian Cultural History
	i)	major stages in the evolution of art and architecture		2011		2004/09
	ii)	ideas in Science and Mathematics				2001

MEDIEVAL INDIA

Topic	Brief Description	10M	12M	15M	20 Marks	30 Marks	60 Marks
13	Early Medieval India, 750-1200
	The Cholas: administration, village economy and society					2009/11/12	2004/07
	“Indian Feudalism”				2005/09	2010/12	2011
14	Cultural Traditions in India, 750-1200
	Philosophy: Skankaracharya and Vedanta				2001		2008
	Growth of Bhakti				2002	2010
	Sufism				2003
	Kalhan’s Rajtarangini		2012		2003	2009
	Alberuni’s India				2007		2003
15	The Thirteenth Century	2013
	Consolidation: The rule of Iltutmish and Balban				2004/08/11	2009/12
16	The Fourteenth Century					2012
	“The Khalji Revolution”				2006/11
	Alauddin Khalji						2001
	Muhammad Tughluq				2003/04/09
17	Society, Culture in the 13th&14th Centuries			2013	2010/11	2012
	Sufi movement	2013			2006
	Economy			2013	2013/13	2009/10
18	The 15th & Early 16th Century – Political Developments and Economy	2013		2013
	Mughal Empire, First phase: Babur and Humayun				2001	2010
	The Sur Empire: Sher Shah’s administration					2012	2006
	Bhakti and Sufi Movements		2012		2005		2001/03/04/05/07
	Portuguese Colonial Enterprise				2008
19	The 15th & Early 16th Century – Society and Culture	2013
	Literary traditions				2002/10
20	Akbar
	Establishment of Jagir and Mansab systems				2002	2011
	Rajput policy			2013			2003/07
	Evolution of religious and social outlook			2013	2004/06/09		2002
21	Mughal Empire in the Seventeenth Century
	Major administrative policies of Jahangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb						2004
	Religious policies of Jahangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb				2006/13	2009
	Ahom Kingdom				2008
22	Economy and Society in the 16th & 17th  Centuries
	Agriculture & craft				2010		2008
	Towns, commerce with Europe	2013	2012		2009/10		2006
	Indian mercantile classes, banking, insurance and credit systems						2005
	Evolution of Khalasa				2008
23	Culture in the Mughal Empire
	Hindi and other religious literature						2006
	Mughal architecture				2001		2002
	Mughal painting		2012		2005/07	2011
	Science and technology				2001	2009/10
24	The Eighteenth Century					2011
	Factors for the decline of the Mughal Empire						2005
	Maratha ascendancy under the Peshwas		2012				2001
	The Maratha fiscal and financial system				2003/04/07	2010
	Emergence of Afghan Power, Battle of Panipat:1761				2002		2008

MODERN INDIA

Topic	Sub-topic	Brief Description	10M	12 M	20 Marks	25M	30 Marks	60 Marks
1		European Penetration into India	2013	2012	2002/6		2009	2002
2		British Expansion in India			2001/4/5/10		2009	2006
3		Early Structure of the British Raj			2004/11		2012	2005
	1	English Utilitarian			2008/11
4		Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule	2013		2001/3/4/5/6/9/10	2013		2001/3/4/6/7
	1	Famine and poverty in the rural interior			2003		2010	2002/5/8
	2	Drain of wealth		2012			2010/1/2	2008
5		Social and Cultural Developments		2012	2008/11			2004
6		Social and Religious Reform movements in Bengal and Other Areas	2013		2005/7/9	2013	2009/12
7		Indian Response to British Rule			2001		2011/12
	1	The Great Revolt of 1857			2005/7/9/10		2011
8		Factors leading to the birth of Indian Nationalism		2012	2010/11		2010	2001
	1	National Congress			2002	2013	2009
	2	the Moderates and Extremists			2006			2003
9		Rise of Gandhi	2013		2002
	1	the Khilafat Movement; the Non-cooperation Movement	2013		2008			2007
	2	beginning of the Civil Disobedience movement						2005
	3	Quit India Movement;			2001/3		2009
	4	The Cabinet Mission			2004
10		Constitutional Developments in the Colonial India			2007	2013
11		Other strands of the National Movement			2010
	1	The Revolutionaries			2008			2003
	2	The Left			2011	2013		2002/6
	3	Subhas Chandra Bose			2002
12		Politics of Separatism			2006/09/10		2009
13		Consolidation as a Nation				2013	2011
	1	Integration of Princely States						2007
	2	Nehru’s Foreign Policy		2012			2011	2001/04
14		Caste and Ethnicity after 1947			2008		2010/12
15		Economic development and political change					2012

WORLD HISTORY

Topic	Sub-topic	Brief Description	10 M	12 M	20 Marks	25 M	30 Marks	60 Marks
16		Enlightenment and Modern ideas		2012
	(i)	Major Ideas of Enlightenment	2013		2004/10			2008
	(ii)	Spread of Enlightenment
	(iii)	Rise of socialist ideas			2001/08
17		Origins of Modern Politics
	(i)	European States System
	(ii)	American Revolution and the Constitution.		2012	2006/10			2005
	(iii)	French revolution and after math, 1789-1815.		2012	2002/3/4/5/6/7/10		2009/12	2001
	(iv)	American Civil War	2013
	(v)	British Democratic Politics, 1815-1850;			2005/11	2013		2004
18		Industrialization			2011
	(i)	English Industrial Revolution:
	(ii)	Industrialization in other countries:		2012			2009
	(iii)	Industrialization and Globalization.			2009
19		Nation-State System
	(i)	Rise of Nationalism in 19th century
	(ii)	Nationalism : state-building			2001/4/5		2012	2002/03
	(iii)	Disintegration of Empires			2001/6
20		Imperialism and Colonialism	2013		2010
	(i)	South and South-East Asia					2010/11
	(ii)	Latin America and South Africa			2009			2001
	(iii)	Australia
	(iv)	Imperialism and free trade:			2007	2013
21		Revolution and Counter-Revolution :
	(i)	19th Century European revolutions			2008
	(ii)	The Russian Revolution of 1917-1921			2005		2009/12	2003
	(iii)	Fascist Counter-Revolution			2005			2004/07
	(iv)	The Chinese Revolution of 1949	2013		2010		2012	2002/5/6
22		World Wars
	(i)	1st and 2nd World Wars as Total Wars:			2007
	(ii)	World War I : Causes and Consequences			2001/3/4/6/11		2010/12
	(iii)	World War II : Causes and consequence			2002/8/9		2010/11
23		The World after World War II:
	(i)	Emergence of two power blocs			2008			2005
	(ii)	Emergence of Third World and Non-Alignment					2010/11
	(iii)	UNO and the global disputes			2003	2013	2009
24		Liberation from Colonial Rule:
	(i)	Latin America-Bolivar
	(ii)	Arab World-Egypt			2009		2012	2001
	(iii)	Africa-Apartheid to Democracy				2013		2006
	(iv)	South-East Asia-Vietnam					2009
25		Decolonization and Underdevelopment	2013
	(i)	Factors constraining Development :					2009
26		Unification of Europe
	(i)	Post War Foundations :			2003/7
	(ii)	Consolidation of European Community
	(iii)	European Union.				2013	2011
27		Disintegration of Soviet Union
	(i)	Collapse of Soviet communism			2010	2013		2002/4/7
	(ii)	Political Changes in Eastern Europe 1989-2001						2008
	(iii)	End of the Cold War and US Ascendancy		2012				2003/08

Above is the analysis of past papers from 2001 onwards. You will be surprised to find that most of the questions are repeated from the last ten year papers for e.g. Indian Feudalism, Bhakti & Sufi Movement. Economic impact of British rule on India is asked record no of times. So that’s the hint.

For preparing mains one has to be focused on relevant areas. Guesswork has to be done to what will come and what will not. (And be mentally prepared to face anything in paper). If you make notes in question-answer format then nothing like that. If you get ready with say 150-200 questions with outline of answers then you can stuck a jackpot. Chronicle Publication has published the book in such format and will prove useful for reference.

It may sound absurd, but NCERT books on History (Class XI & XII), both old and new versions are useful in writing the mains answers. They present the clue about direction and the structure of the answer.

Map Question Strategy: History Optional by Gaurav Gupta (2013/AIR 117)

Importance

• Very Important question – 60 marks/20 locations
• Objective and to-the-point answer
• Highly scoring gives edge over other optionals such as Psychology, Political Science etc
• If you have prepared well then would save time for other questions

1. Strategy is to divide the time domain into various phases

2. One should be aware of different names for same time phase (Indus Valley Civilization also known as Chalcolithic period/Copper Age and Bronze Age) as sometimes UPSC may ask in a round-about way.

3. Make your reference maps with great accuracy so that you may revise it later.

• Pre-historic
  • Paleolithic
  • Mesolithic
  • Neolithic
• Harappan Civilization/Bronze Age
• Mahajanpada Period (Later Vedic Age)
• Mauryan Period
• Early Ancient Historical period
• Gupta Age

Remembering and Practice Tips –

• Always practice on blank map (as this is what you will get in the exam)
• Take reference from –
  • International and national boundaries
  • Key inflection points on the boundary
  • Key Rivers
  • Tropical line, longitude and latitude referencing
  • Key locations – such as capitals of state
  • But Don’t depend too much on reference cities and rivers – as they are not given in the exam

• Make short notes about those locations at one place for those locations behind the map, which would help you in remembering key features of that.
• Give more importance to pre-historic, early historic, ancient, early medieval and medieval sites in decreasing order.

Sample Map: Mauryan Era sites

• You can differentiate between different types of edicts during Mauryan era using different symbols.
• Idea is to have clarity on the map to revise it later so use extended lines wherever required to write its name etc.

History Optional - Map Question Strategy - Rugved Thakur (2010/AIR 67)

History Optional - Map Question

The simple math connected with the Map question
The map question in History optional paper 1 is an important question from the point of view of scoring high marks in History. Normally in any other 60 marks question the average marks for a good score will be in the range of 32 to 36. However in the Map question one can look at an average score of 40+ and can target a score of around 50 by working on it.

The map question takes the History paper 1 score to beyond 180 and can help you touch 200.

Map Plotting
The basic aim is to remember where a particular place is situated in the Indian subcontinent. Unlike geography optional we need not remember all places but only those places that have some historic significance.

There are number of ways to remember a place on the map:-

1. One way is to visualise the map with all the state boundaries (State boundaries are not printed on the UPSC map). Based on the visualisation of the state boundary you will have to remember the location of the historic site.
2. Another way is to visualise the rivers flowing in India (Rivers are also not printed on the UPSC map). The advantage of this method is that majority of the historic sites are located on the banks of a river.
3. Next method is by remembering some fixed places e.g. Delhi, Allahabad, Ujjain or modern state capitals. Then we remember all other historic sites by remembering their position with respect to these fixed places. e.g if one can remember Delhi, it will be easy to plot Panipat, Kurukshetra, Thaneswar to the north of Delhi and similarly Mathura, Agra to the south-east of Delhi.
4. Remembering all places on the coastline of India is relatively easy. One has to remember some indentation mark along the coast  e.g. Mumbai, Ganjam, Chennai, Korkai etc.
5. Grid system - It is the most scientific of all methods and extremely accurate. However it requires the maximum effort. I had used this system to remember the historic sites.

The Grid system
It is used by geography optional students to prepare for their map work.

I had used the above shown technique to plot grid lines of my own on the blank map. I then used to remember in which grid and at what location the places lie. There is no standard technique for drawing grid lines. You develop your own lines and remember all places with reference to your grid. 

In the exam, use a faint pencil to draw the grid. It should not take more than 2 minutes to draw the grid. After which you plot. As I said before, it takes time but is highly reliable. You can erase the grid lines after all points have been plotted or if you have used a 2H pencil the grid may not be visible and you can save the time to erase the grid.

Which ever technique you adopt, you must have seen the place on the map before; otherwise there is no way you can plot it. So the next step is to find as many places as can be asked.

The following sources can be used for map sites:-

1. Previous year question papers. Use the internet to find all the locations on the map.
2. All maps in NCERT Text books.
3. Any other History optional map book available in the market. 

Take information from all sources and create your own maps. Then keep practicing on the maps you have created.

Accuracy
In history we need not be very accurate. I am not aware of the amount of error permissible but the correction is said to be fairly lenient. However glaring mistakes should be avoided e.g. all places on the coast should be shown on the coast. They cannot be plotted in land. Similarly if we are plotting two nearby places, their orientation should be correct with respect to one another e.g. We should be exactly sure while plotting Ujjain, Vidisha and Eran as to which is to the north/south/east/west of the other. While plotting Ujjain even if it is shown too close to the Maharashtra border, Vidisha should always be to the east of Ujjain.    

How much effort?
Daily 15 minutes practice between preliminary examination and main examination. 

Description writing
We also need to write a few words on the sites we have plotted. One need not prepare too hard here. If you are writing the main examination you will have enough information to write 40 words on a particular site. You will have to write the following description:

• Describe location of the site - near the coast, bank of a river etc.
• Mention the time period in which the site was famous.
• Write its historical significance (political, economic, social, religious), monuments, wars, political capital etc.
• Write about its modern/ present day significance (if any)

To sum it up, we should try to find the locations of as many historical sites as possible. Try to locate all places that you come across during your preparation. Finally keep practicing and revising.

History Optional in Civil Service Exam - Sri Lochan (2012)

History Optional in Civil Service Exam

IMO optionals in CSE are going to stay for atleast one more year (2013) before the Centre approves the new CSM pattern. So what I am going to write here wont be obsolete for atleast one more year.

History optional should be chosen only if one is deeply interested in it. It is a vast subject unlike public administration or sociology or literature or philosophy. Unless one is inquisitive about the subject it becomes tedious to read. People tend to choose optionals like PA or socio or literature etc, even if they dont have any positive interest in them, as they have less voluminous syllabus, as they are easy to score, as they are easy to understand, as study material and coaching are easily available etc. History differs from them on the first two points. So history is normally taken by people who do BA or MA in history or those who are really fascinated by the subject.

So, what to read for history optional from the exam point of view then?
Unfortunately there is no one book which is comprehensive enough, which has everything we need to study. There are many books to read and one has to take the help of internet too. But I will try to present the absolute minimum number of books you have to read which are indispensable. A beginner should first read +1, +2 NCERT books. After that proceed to read the following books.

1. Ignou BA (not MA material) for ancient, medieval, modern Indian history. Most important source of all. There are only very few topics in these booklets which you dont have to study. Otherwise you have to read most of them. It is lucidly written.
2. Gazetteer of India Volume-2 for ancient and medieval Indian history. You need to be discreet enough to leave some topics and subtopics through out the book particularly in political history part as these are not necessary for the exam but very interesting. This book is a good source for the art, architecture, S&T, social life, different sources of history. It is full of facts, there is a risk that some may lose interest in reading history. :-)
3. Medieval India by Satishchandra (both parts). Lucidly written book although biased.
4. Spectrum's A brief history of Modern India. This is a book which is normally studied for GS History. But this is enough for optional history too. It is well written abridged version of Grover and Bipanchandra put together.
5. Jain&Mathur for world history. I observed that some people have a low opinion about this book. But I found it be good from the exam point of view. Buy it.
6. Modern World History by Lowe. A very well written book.
7. Spectrum's Historical Atlas of India. This is not enough. You have to do much more than reading this one. I will write a separate post on how to prepare for map question which carries 60 marks.

Apart from the above books which are absolutely essential, take the help of internet particularly Wikipedia wherever necessary. There are certain other books which some people suggest but which are NOT necessary in my opinion. They are -

1. AL Basham's the wonder that was India - very nice book. Read it if you have spare time.
2. Romila Thapar's Ancient India - well written from Marxist perspective, biased. No need to read. One may hate Romila but none can disagree that she is good writer. :-)
3. DN Jha's book on ancient India - lucid but very biased. Useless to read.
4. Medieval India by JL Mehta (all 3 volumes) - good books but no need to read.
5. Bipan Chandra's two books : Struggle for Independence, India after Independence - very biased and useless books written by a Congress chamcha. Resist indoctrination. Dont forget to perform shuddhikaran on yourself to clean the polluted mind after reading these books. :-)
6. Modern Indian History by Sumit Sarkar -No need to read.
7. Grover's Modern India - Modern Indian history between 18th century and 1905 is given at length in this book. But history after that is rushed through. This is voluminous, full of details. Good book Buy this.
8. Modern Europe to 1870 by CJH Hayes - very nice book. Read it in spare time. If I am not wrong there is another book written by Hayes for history after 1870. I dont have that book.
9. Ensemble's History Atlas - no need.

There are many NBT books on History which makes your knowledge comprehensive like India by Al Biruni, Medieval India by Irfan Habib, Coins, Temples of South India, Temples of North India, a book on Aryans by Romila, Asokan inscriptions, Shivaji, Bhagat Singh, Partition, philosophy of bomb, Tagore and Nehru, etc etc. These books are of very low prices and if history intrigues you then read them in spare time (Not from the exam point of view but just for fun).

One may be wondering, "But what about the coaching material, like Baliyan?" I haven't even seen any coaching material for history but generally speaking coaching material is useless, shallow, unorganised, incomprehensive, written in poor language. So my suggestion would be not to buy any coaching material.

So these are the books to be read. But beginners may be wondering where to start. My suggestion would be to start with old NCERT books for +1, +2. Read them twice as if you are reading a good non-fiction non-acdemic book. Then proceed to read IGNOU material. After that you will figure a way by yourself.

And remember that studying history doesnt mean cramming all the facts. It is more about understanding the perspectives and ideologies, looking through the motives behind actions, understanding the causes behind the social, economic, political, cultural, religious, technological changes (change and continuity!). Dont blindly believe what the author is saying. Indian Marxist historians and Congress chamcha historians are good at twisting the facts into deceptively convincing and false narratives. Try to build your own arguments based on facts against what the author is saying.

Optional Subject Preparation : History - Rugved Thakur (2010/AIR 67)

Optional Subject Preparation : History

The best way to prepare for any optional subject is to start with the basics. We should start by creating a strong foundation and later build on it.


The following is a step-wise guide. 

1. Familiarisation with our optional subject 
• For history, we can start our preparation by reading NCERT books of standard 7-8th onwards uptill 12th. Books till standard 10th will give us a feel of the subject.
• These books need to be read from cover to cover. It will provide a quick overview to the optional subject.
2. Creating a strong foundation
• 11th and 12th Standard NCERT books will provide the source material. There are two books for standard 11th - Ancient and medieval. And two books for standard 12th - Modern and World.
• These books need to be read atleast 2 or 3 times, underline/make notes etc. of what you think is important. I used to underline for prelims but that is no longer required.
• This will give you a grip on the entire subject. 
3. Raising the level of our preparation to Graduation level
• There are basic books for each section - I am just listing a few. There are many more that one can read.
• Ancient
• Ancient India - D.N Jha
• The Wonder That Was India - A.L.Basham
• Medieval
• 2 Books (One on sultanate and other on Mughals) written by Satish Chandra
• Modern
• India's Struggle For Independence - Bipan Chandra and others
• A New Look At Modern Indian History - B.L.Grover and S.Grover
• World
• History Of The Modern World - Jain and Mathur
• By reading these books one will have control over atleast 90% of the syllabus. For the remaining 10% we will have to refer to various other sources, which can be done at a later time in our preparation.
• One has to read these books from cover to cover. Underline/ make notes etc.
4. Testing our preparation
• This would be a good time to assess ourself. Try to solve Previous Year Question Papers.
• Check the answers with solved questions. All solutions available in the market may not be reliable. One can get the answers evaluated from some teachers or seniors.
• One should self assess one's performance - which questions we could answer easily, which questions we were not very comfortable with, which questions we had no idea etc. Try and find the reasons for the same. The solutions maybe to read the basics again or repeat the standard book reading or to read something new.
5. Improve on shortcomings.
6. Quality Improvement
• To improve the score additional reading is required. Selective reading of various books or certain chapters from various books helps us in getting a different perspective, which is helpful in analytic writing.
• Another method for quality improvement is question-answer discussion with fellow aspirants.
• One can also improve the quality of answers by contemplation. Try to visualise the answers to as many questions as possible. 
• One can just jot down the important points in answers. There is no need to write down all the answers in totality.
7. Full Test Series
• One should try to answer the entire paper both paper 1 and 2. This also helps in time management.
• One should learn the answer writing technique required in Civil Services Examination. It is slightly different from what we are used to in university examinations.
• This will be the stage to concentrate on our target score - i.e the score that we are aiming for in UPSC Main Examination. 

Time-lines
An approximate time for completion of steps 1 to 5 would be 8 months on a half day basis. The other half day can be utilised for either the other optional subject or for General Studies.

Steps No. 6 and 7 are continuous steps and one has to keep repeating both these steps till one clears the examination along with periodic revision of our notes prepared in steps 1 to 5.

Strategy for History Optional by Surabhi Malik,IAS. (2012)

Strategy for History Optional by Surabhi Malik,IAS.

This is a subject where strategics becomes paramount; since the expanse of the syllabus itself appears insurmountable. Since you are preparing for exam purposes here and your primary objective is not, presumably, the 'love of learning' , it becomes important to begin, as I like to put it, backwards.

It's best to analyze the question papers spanning at least a decade; questions before that are too simplistic to have a fair chance of appearing in the same form again. So, I would suggest compartmentalizing questions based on chronology. That gives us a fairly expansive scale of topics to focus on. Second, when preparing a particular topic from a book or notes, it's important to cover it in entirety-- i.e. think of all possible aspects of a situation that you can be questioned on. Apart from facts, focus on 'whys'-- why civilizations crumbled, how different was their end to another end. 'How' religious policies contributed to administration, art and architecture. Focus on analytical questions, but be clear about facts. Only when there is clarity of facts relating to different periods can you handle a question that seeks to highlight the differences and similarities therein. You must be clear in your head what the basic differences between different civilizations are. This suggests a panoramic view of history along with some microscopic treatment. Last year, there were some descriptive questions like Khilji's market reforms, etc-- and these are very standard questions that serve as bonus for an exam-taker. Don't be caught off-guard on such questions.

For books, I began with 'Modern India' by Bipin Chandra, supplemented by 'India's struggle for Independence' by Bipin Chandra, Mukherjee, Panikkar. Spectrum's book on Modern India that people use for the prelims is also a storehouse of facts! For Ancient India, I referred to 'Ancient India' by R.S. Sharma (a wonderfully concise book where every single word is important) and supplemented sparsely by 'The Wonder that was India' by A.L. Basham. Romila Thapar's treatment of 'Ashoka' is venerated in Indian historiography. For Medieval India, I found Satish Chandra's two volumes on Medieval India quite sufficient.
Apart from this, another famous standard text is 'An Advanced History of India' by Majumdar, Raychaudhuri and Dutta.

Personally, I got some history notes from Mr. Hemant Jha in Delhi. I found them very useful for filling in important gaps in my knowledge. He covers different aspects of topics and questions remarkably well, with regard to extra information and facts. Be aware though, you should be reading standard texts for improving your answer-writing abilities.

As a part of my strategy, I covered the Indian History very exhaustively and was a little selective for World History. I do not necessarily recommend this, since it is generally thought that the questions on World History are more straightforward than questions on Modern India. I did so because my comfort level with Indian History was greater and I felt confident of being able to tackle tricky questions. In my selective studies on World History, i followed Mr. Hemant Jha's notes as well as 'Modern World' by K. Krishna Reddy. There are other better books, you should Google and look some of those up. I focused on European History and the Revolutions in particular as I saw a repetition of questions in these topics.

For Map, there are books available in the market with a large number of map sites and I'm afraid there's no short cut there. You really have to learn to mark all of them on the map and learn at least 3 things about each place.

Finally, remember to set targets and achieve daily goals! Anything left over tends to add up dangerously in History. Remember you will be writing 4-5 page answers, and when you have covered an 'aspect' of a question that satisfies that word limit, move on. You're not here to do specialized research on one particular area. While answering questions, your introduction and conclusion should be impressive. While I personally used my introduction to explain the setting and context of the question, I used my conclusion to summarize my answer and place into perspective the direction that my answer took. Make sure it's insightful; that's half the battle won! All the best to everyone!

UPSC Preparation: Strategy for History Optional - Ajay Kumar Bansal (2013,AIR 178)

Name UPSC – CSE 2013 Rank Optional Subject Marks Scored Background

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Ajay Kumar Bansal Rank 178 History 246(121+125) Civil Engineer IIT Roorkee

Contrary to popular belief, history has a well defined and limited syllabus and even students from non- arts background can master it in short time. I am myself an engineer and still chose it. I have interest in history since school days, so this added up as a small bonus for me. Besides my own specialisation, Civil Engineer is unmanageable, because of vastness of syllabus, so I found history to be natural choice for me.History is a safe and scoring subject in this exam. While in recent years popular subjects like public administration, geography, sociology etc. have seen scores on a bit lower side, history has managed to maintain its old momentum.This is Ajay Kumar Bansal. I have secured rank 178 in this year’s UPSC Civil Service Examination. My optional was History, and it rewarded me handsomely in terms of marks. Here are my two cents for UPSC History Preparation.Hello Everyone ,

As per the new General Studies pattern, taking History also covers almost 60% of GS Paper 1. This year 15 out of 25 questions in GS Paper 1 were from history and Culture, so 150 marks of your GS are prepared automatically with this optional.

Major Study Sources

The syllabus of history could become a goliath, if not approached in right way. The trick to the hurdle is to stick to the syllabus prescribed by UPSC and study from right source. The syllabus is divided into Ancient History, Medieval History , Modern History and World History. Although the availability of books is not an issue, but with history , the problem is of plenty. I myself stuck to selective study material, rather than reading everything I could get my hand on.

Ancient History	:	IGNOU BA Material ( egyankosh.ac.in ) History of Early India : By Romila Thapar NCERT Class 11th , 12th
Medieval History	:	IGNOU BA Material (egyankosh.ac.in) History of Medieval India : By Satish Chandra NCERT Class 11th , 12th
Modern History	:	Modern India History : Grover & Mehta (European Imperialism to 1857 Revolt) India’s Struggle for Independence : By Bipin Chandra India after Gandhi : By Ramchandra Guha (fpr Post Independence) NCERT Class 11th , 12th
World History	:	Study of European History : By L Mukharjee World History : By Norman Lowe (topic not covered by L Mukharjee)
Map ( Scoring Bonanza)	:	For Map Sites :NCERT Maps , Maps in Romila Thapar Book For exact locations : Google Maps No Atlas is good enough , prepare your own maps
Practise Paper	:	Get any previous year question bank

Mantra for success

The study sources that I mentioned above are more than sufficient. The core for each part should be, IGNOU material for Ancient and Medieval India, Grover-Mehta for Modern History and L.Mukharjee for World History. However to read them again and again could be a real mess. The trick lies in making your own notes , topic wise by mixing these sources. It is a real tough job and would require 3-4 months of dedication of 4-5 hours each. But once you are done , you need not touch any book ever, just glance through the notes and you can revise whole subject in 2 full days.

Sample :

1857 RevoltFactors and Forces Colonial rule of British Policies of Lord Dalhousie Racial Discrimination – Europeon Superiority Military discontent – greased cartridges, overseas wars- no extra bhatta , loss of caste , poor economic avenues for Indians Doctrine of lapse – fear in Indian princes Socio cultural reforms – Abolition of Sati, widow remarriage- seen as attack on Indian culture Christian Missionary Activity – attack on Indian religion and culture, Charter act 1833 – right of inheritance to converts Peasants discontent – colonial policies, commercialisation of agriculture, repeated famines Etc.

Nature of Revolt Sepot Mutiny Hindu Muslim Conspiracy – Europeon historians First War of Independence – Savarkar, nehru etc. Views of Modern Historian – R C Majumdar etc Causes of Failure A B C Etc Importance of Revolt A B C Etc Role of Indian Princes in Revolt A B C etc

So, as I demonstated above, I divide the page in two halves and write points in bullet form , any important line or statement, I note down and thus the whole history is ready for me in 200-250 pages.

Strategy for Map Work

Map is one of the most scoring part of paper, provided your strategy for map is right. The problem with historical sites is that , almost all Atlas, books etc. give only indicative location of them. But in exam we need to have them at pin point location. The trick to the puzzle is to know exact position of few landmark sites, say capital city of all states of India , and then locate each site with reference to these landmark sites. I used google maps for this extremely annoying job. The name of these sites, you can pick up from NCERT books and maps. You need to google each to know the nearby modern town and then locate it on your own. For example, Kalibangan , is located in Hanumangarh district in Rajasthan. Now I should locate it relative to position of International border with Pakistan and nearby landmark places like Jaipur and Delhi.

Answer Writing in Exam

Any answer in UPSC exam has to be systematic, to the point and should be approached logically. Most of the questions are to be written in 200 or 30 words and word limit should be adhered to, as there is no bonus for filling the pages and paper is anyways very lengthy. First 2-3 lines should consist of introduction, which should contain a microcosm of your whole answer. It should be used to build the theme of your answer. Next 2-3 paragraphs should contain the actual content. Finally you should conclude in 2-3 lines.

Miscellaneous Remarks

Although UPSC has increased weightage of GS Papers and reduced optional to one, still a handsome score in your subject could be a game changer for you. The toughest part for history is to manage the vast syllabus and to know what to read and what to leave. But if once one can make exam oriented notes for each topic , the rest is just child play.

Note : Always see the previous year questions for each topic for it will give you idea of how to approach that topic, what all to read, how to prepare notes etc.

I hope the post has been helpful for you. If you still have any doubts left, you could always find me on facebook, google, twitter etc. My email is ajay.bansal01@gmail.com .

History Optional For UPSC,strategy from Gaurav Gupta (CSE-2013/AIR-117)

Name Rank Marks Scored Background

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Gaurav Gupta Rank 117 239(114+125)  IIT Kanpur, Electrical Engineering, 2006

History as optional -

First of all one should take optional based on his interest as this subject is you would be reading for next 1-2 years or more so you must have zeal to go deeper, read new books by new writers to learn and understand various perspectives. And that is why I took History as optional despite being told by some people that it is not ‘scoring’, or it has ‘large syllabus’. However once I decided, I made sure that I should not get such thoughts. In UPSC all subjects are scoring provided you are answering what is asked.

Other benefits of History as optional (once you have decided that you have interest in it) -

• I take history as very scientific, analytical and objective subject as you have to frame your answer based on historical evidences/facts and records.
• I liked to read about how was our past and it is always fascinating to know how the older world used to live.
• Also History as optional helps a lot in GS Paper-I (as modern history comes in GS-1+60% of world history comes in GS-1+parts of ancient and medieval history comes as culture and it is also very helping in scoring good in paper-I of Prelims.
• It gives you material to talk about many things, many socio-political-economic issues and also to write about.

Preparation Strategy:

• For history, I was almost dependent on self-study only except that I got few notes from my coaching for world history as it was part of GS-Paper-I and given some books to read by my Prof as supplementary material.
• I decided that I would stick to few text books/source and would read them from end to end and then would not be distracted by many other books which may also be good but would reduce my focus from other parts of course.
• I made self-made written notes for all parts of history – Ancient, Medieval, Modern and world as in history there are so many facts, names, years etc which you may have to remember to incorporate in your answers and after reading so much one may feel before examination that one is forgetting everything !! (It happens and then you loose sleep before the exam day) So these notes really help you revise faster and gives feeling of completion if you have revised them 1-2 times before exam (This was one of the weakness during my first attempt).
• Then I made sure that I do  not leave any topic mentioned in the History syllabus and so when I found that I have not enough information/data/knowledge about any topic from books then I referred to online sources/Britannica encyclopedia / supplementary books to read about them and note important points from them.
• I went through every question of last 20 years and tried many questions by writing also – this has three benefits, a) It gave boost to my confidence, b) as History is static subject so certain topics/questions/issues can be repeated so you will have already structured answer, c) You will find certain loopholes in your preparation, certain things which you might have missed and not covered.

Main Text Books -

• Upinder Singh (Ancient and Early Medieval India), (VERY GOOD BOOK) – has many maps, pictures, latest findings, different point of views and gender perspective
• Salma Ahmed Farooqui (Comprehensive History of Medieval India) and Old NCERT Medieval India book
• Bipin Chandra (Modern India) + Coaching Notes
• Word History – Coaching Notes (HAD GOOD NOTES SO DID NOT REFER TO BOOK) and also referred to xerox notes of world history by Rau classes (Delhi) from my friend and found them quite good.

Supplementary sources -

• India After Gandhi by Ramchandra Guha
• Spectrum Modern India History
• Mastering Modern World History by Norman Lowe
• Spectrum Culture Book
• India After Independence by Bipin Chandra (found very biased however)
• india.gov.in
• Online Britannica encyclopedia
• India by John Keay
• Watched episodes of “Bharat ek Khoj” on youtube

New pattern and my opinion

• I found this year paper a bit different that previous year questions. History First paper was interesting, the questions required deep understanding and the ability to frame the answer by combining various parts which are scattered here and there in the books. So reading analytically is must. Now the pattern demand understanding of concepts, connecting the dots – interconnection between social issues, economic issues, gender issues from historical perspective and there must not be too much focus on mastering years of wars/political lineage and succession of kingdoms — now those questions are not being asked.
• You should have very strong hold on one part of each paper, for example I had strong hold on ancient India in first paper and Modern India in second paper and good amount of strong hold in world history too. This can help in choosing which questions to select and answer.
• Try to give archaeological findings and their example in your answer to support your argument.
• Also try to include latest findings in your answer (for example I included latest finding based on DNA analysis on caste structure history in ancient India in one of my answer.)

Writing Strategy

• I followed introduction-main body with headings/sub-headings-conclusion format in writing long answers (15/20 number). For compulsory question I tried to write very objectively in short paragraph format.
• I tried to attempt question 1 and 5 (compulsory) in the last else one has tendency to write more in 12 marks question and fixed that I should have 45-60 min at least for these questions to write in the last.
• I got 114 (225 marks attempted) in Paper-I and 125 in (all questions attempted) in Paper-2. I however noticed that even in my this attempt at various points in some questions I did not focus on core of the answer and included some unwarranted parts in my answers thus digressing and due to which main answer was small so I hope future aspirants don;t repeat this mistake (especially in Paper-I) and try to see what parts have been asked in the question and answer all the parts giving due importance to each part.
• There may be some questions which are part of compulsory question of 12 marks each which you don’t know at all. It was the case in first paper where I did not know two of 5 questions so I left them and decided to focus more on those which I know and tried to give more time to map question in place of putting unrelevant answer and fluff such questions to get 2-4 marks or even 0 marks as those who are checking answer scripts must be knowledgeable in their field and subject and we cannot make them fool. This is my opinion and I know many try to write something even if they know nothing and I found then getting not selected also.

Map practice and strategy 

• I referred this book for maps-Spectrum’s Historical Atlas (with key places)
• I found above book useful but it has majority of locations from medieval India and modern India perspective however in recent times the focus of UPSC in history has shifted to pre-historic and ancient Indian sites (paleolithic, neolithic, megalithic, Bronze age etc). For that I found book by Upinder Singh very informative and too good as it has many maps, new locations which have been discovered recently and pictures etc which makes reading history very interesting.
• So I divided the locations in a time -scale (pre-historic (paleo/meso/neo-microlithic), historic (mahajanpada age/Mauryan/Early historic/Gupta etc) and then mapped them state-vise in practice maps and made short notes about them listing important features behind the map-paper. (Like – Shortughai in Afghanistan was trading out-post during Indus civilization) — This helped in eleventh hour revision also.
• Before one month of exam I practiced the map almost “every day” in the new pattern where UPSC asks to guess the location and then write about it. By dividing the locations based on states in India (and nations – Pak/Afghanistan) it became easier to guess the location else its very confusing when some locations are very near-by.
• My wife used to give 15 locations on a map with only dots showing and then I used to solve them. This I did almost every day before 1 month of exam.
• One month practice helped me a lot in dealing with map question and I was able to strike 80-90% during practices. Also give more focus to pre-historic, early historic and early medieval sites. Also make sure that you are aware of synonyms of different periods as it may confuse you. (For example: Harappan civilization is also known as bronze age civilization and Vedic age is also known as Iron age etc)

I am attaching some notes I have prepared for some topics of Modern Indian History, however most of my history notes are in written format so it would not be possible to upload them and also I believe it is best to have one’s own notes as every one has his own way to making notes, inferring from that and style of learning.

(Also this is the strategy I followed which may not be best but I found it good and suitable for me, so Please create your own strategy which suits you and your study style. You can take inputs from many people but ultimately you will have to have your own strategy.)

Additional History Notes – Modern India

Indian women freedom fighters

Khalaji revolution