Paper: IAS Mains Previous Year Paper History (1989)

Paper -I- History-1989 (Mains)

Section A

1. Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you. Also give brief descriptive notes on the places marked on the map:
(i) Ahichhatra
(ii) Atranjikhera
(iii) Ayodhya
(iv) Brahmagiri
(v) Burzahom
(vi) Chamba
(vii) Dhauli
(viii) Dwarka
(ix) Hastinapur
(x) Kalibangan
(xi) Kanchipuram
(xii) Kapilavastu
(xiii) Karnasuvarna
(xiv) Khajuraho
(xv) Lothal
(xvi) Madhyamika
(xvii) Madurai
(xviii) Nagaijunikonda
(xix) Paithan
(xx) Pragyotishpur
(xxi) Puskalavati
(xxii) Sanchi
(xxiii) Sarnath
(xxiv) Surparaka
(xxv) Tamralipti
(xxvi) Tanjore
(xxvii) Thaneswar
(xxviii)Vaisali
(xxix) Vatapi

2. Discuss briefly the development of religious ideas and rituals in the Vedic age. Do they show any parallelism with the religion of the Indus Civilization?

3. Discuss the comparative merit of the Arthasastra, the Indica and Ashoka Inscriptions as sources for the administration, socio-economic conditions and religious life in the Mauryan period.

4. Discuss critically the role Harsha played in the history of his times.

Section B

5. Write short essays of not more than 200 word each on any three of the following:
(a) The significance of Alauddin Khilji economic regulations for his imperialsim.
(b) The empire-builder in North India of the sixteenth century.
(c) The Mughals and the European trading companies
(d) The emergence of composite culture during the period 16th to 18th centuries.

6. Discuss the salient features of Indian society on the eve of the campaigns of Mahmud of Ghazni, with particular reference to the observations made by Al-Biruni.

7. ‘Art, literature and culture reached a high level of development in the Vijayanagar Empire.’ Discuss.

8. Analyses the distinguishing features of the land revenue system under the Mughals and point out its influence on the strength of the Mughal State.

Paper - II- History-1989 (Mains)

Section A

1. Comment an any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘……. the hunt of the Pindaris became merged in the Third Maratha War.’
(b) ‘If the paramount power cast its imperial cloak over the princes, it was also entitled to see that what was sheltered was in the main creditable.’
(c) ‘Nowhere was the influence of the missionaries felt more than in relation to the women’s movement.’
(d) ‘Curzon was an unconscious catalyst who did not understand, let alone desire, what the new century was about to bring forth, but who helped it to be born.’

2. What led to the Caste Movements in Western and Southern India? How did they affect the local socio-political life?

3. Identify the main features of industrial development in India from 1914 to 1947 with special reference to the emergence of a class of factory laborers.

4. Examine the main aspects of Muslim Leage politics from 1937 to 1947. Was the partition of the country unavoidable?

Section B

5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘The discovery of the new world, coinciding with the swift diffusion of printed books, taught the Europeans that “Truth”, in Bacon’s noble phrase, “is the daughter not of authority, but of time.’
(b) Louis XIV’ was the first French sovereign to make of monarchy a serious profession.’
(c) ‘The Eastern Question has always been an international question.’
(d) ‘Extreme nationalism of the Fascist Variety has various faces in various countries, but it has everywhere certain common characteristics.’

6. The French Revolution (1789) really achieved far less than what it intended to effect. Do you agree?

7. Write a critique on the partition of Africa from 1870 to 1914, with particular reference to Germany’s imperial designs in the Continent.

8. Trace the growth of Arab nationalism after the, First World War. How far was it a reaction to oil imperialism?