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