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(Exam Paper) UPSC IAS Mains 2012: History

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(Exam Paper) UPSC IAS Mains 2012: History

Paper- I

Section-A ( Modern India)

1. Identify the following places marked on the map supplied to you and write short notes of about 40 words on each of them in your answer book. Locational hints for each of the places marked on the map are given below seriatim: 3 × 20 = 60
(i) A prehistoric state
(ii) A chalcolithic site
(iii) A religious centre
(iv) A prehistoric site
(v) An art centre
(vi) A prehistoric site
(vii) An art centre
(viii) A port
(ix) A capital town
(x) A prehistoric site
(xi) A post Mauryan town
(xii) An art centre
(xiii) A prehistoric site
(xiv) A chalcolithic site
(xv) A chalcolithic site
(xvi) A chalcolithic site
(xvii) A prehistoric site
(xviii) An art centre
(xix) A chalcolithic site
(xx) A chalcolithic site

2. (a) Evaluate the significance of scals and sealing in the reconstruction of socio-economic and religious life of the Harappan people. 30
(b) Justify Pliny’s statement that Rome was being drained out of its gold by India during the first century of the Christian era. 30

3. (a) Discuss the extent, settlement pattern and subsistence economy of the megalithic cultures. 30
(b) Assess the education system in early India and identify important educational institutions of the period. 30

4. (a) Examine the role of adhyaksa in the Mauryan administration. 30
(b) Analyse the vibrant cultural activities in peninsular India during 550-750 CE. Compare and contrast in with the situation in contemporary North India. 30

Section ‘B’

5. Write the short notes in not more than 150 words on each of the following: 12 × 5 = 60
(a) Evaluate Rajtarangini as a source of history.
(b) Medieval Indian towns were merely an extension of villages. Comment.
(c) Assess the contribution of the Acharyas in the development of the ideological basis of Bhakti.
(d) Discuss the Caurapancashika and Jain styles of paintings. Can the Caurapancashika style truly be called the precursor of pothi format?
(e) Give social background to the rise of the Maratha movement during the seventeenth century.

6. (a) (a) What king of change were visualized by historians on Indian feudalism? Examine critically. 30
(b) Analyse the racial composition and the role of nobility under the successors of Iltutmish. How did it affect the contemporary polities? 30

7. (a) Evaluate the role of nadu and nagaram in the growth of urbanization under the Cholas. 30
(b) How did the Mongol invasions affect the Delhi Sultanate the north-western frontier policy of the Delhi Sultans? 30

8. (a) State the structure of medieval village society in Northern India. What were the passive forms of resistance of the peasants in the medieval period? 30
(b) How was the Afgan nobility responsible for the decline of the Afghan empires? Discuss. 30

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Paper- II

Section A (Modern India)

1. Critically examine the following statements in about 150 words each: 12 × 5 = 60

(a) “The current practice of categorization of ‘Early Modern India’ is based on a shift from the old imperialist periodization of ‘Muslim India’ — ‘British India’ to the more secularist one of ‘Medieval India’ — ‘Modern India’, which puts Indian history in a universalists chronological structure.”

(b) “Compared to their English counterpart, the French East India Company enjoyed little discretionary power and had to always look up to Paris for all major decisions. This partly explains the failure of the French in India.”

(c) “The peasant movement of the second half of the nineteenth century lacked a positive conception of an alternative society — a conception which would unite the people in a common struggle on a wide regional and all-India plane and help develop long-term political developments.”

(d) “Plantations and mines, jute mills, banking, insurance, shipping and export-import concerns in India were run through a system of interlocking managing agencies.”

(e) “Nehru’s policy of Non-Alignment came to symbolize the struggle of India and other newly independent nations to retain and strengthen their independence from colonialism.”

2. (a) “The forces of free trade and the British determination of create a political and administrative environment conductive to trade and investment had shaped the British polity towards Indian in the first half of the nineteenth century.” — Elucidate. 30

(b) “The contact of the new Indian middle class with the West proved to be a catalyst. The social and religious movements launched by Rammohan or Iswar Charidra Vidyasagar have to be understood in the context.” — Elaborate. 30

3. (a) “The railways, instead of serving as the catalyst of an industrial revolution as in Western Europe and the USA, acted in India as the catalyst of complete colonization’.”— Examine 30

(b) “The Santhal hool began in July 1855. The core of the movement was economic, the basic cause of the uprising was agrarian discount.” — Elucidate. 30

4. (a) “Nehru favoured the policy of integrating the tribal people in Indian society, of making them an integral part of the Indian nation even while maintaining their distinct identity and culture.” — Elaborate with special reference to Northeastern India. 30

(b) “The Chipko became famous as the first major environmental movement in post-colonial Indian and gave rise to the understanding that environmental issues are often women’s issues because they suffer most from the its deterioration.” — Explain 30

Section ‘B’ World History

5. Critically examine the following statements in about 150 words each: 12 × 5 = 60
(a) “The despotic rules of Europe were influenced by the philosophy of Enlighten and began to follow a benevolent policy toward their subjects.”
(b) “The American Revolution was essentially an economic conflict between American capitalism and British mercantilism.
(c) “The connection between the philosophers’ ideas and the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) is somewhat remote and indirect.”
(d) “The process of industrialization in some other countries of Europe was different from that in England.”
(e) “With the Cold War over and the Soviet Union gone, the face of international diplomacy has undergone a metamorphosis.”

6. (a) “The impact of the French Revolution (1789) was initially confined to Europe, but, that of the Russian Revolution (1917) was global.” — Critically review. 30
(b) “Any single explanation for the outbreak of the First World War is likely to be too simple. An amalgam of factors intellectual, social, economic as well as political and diplomatic contributed to this horrifying conflict f monumental proportions.” — Explain. 30

7. (a) How did Napoleon fuse the France of the ancient regime with the France of the post-revolutionary era? 30
(b) Was German unification achieved more by ‘coal and iron’ than by ‘blood and iron’? 30

8. (a) “The announcement of the certain of the Peoples’ Republic of China on October 1, 1949 by Mao Zedong ended the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Party (KMT).” — Elaborate. 30

(b) “The Arab nationalism had a peculiar character. It stood for national independence for separate Arab States as well as for the unity of all Arabs irrespective of their state boundaries.” — Examine. 30