UPSC Preparation: History optional tips by Ajay Kumar Bansal (AIR 178)

Strategy for History Optional

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

Hello Everyone ,

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.

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.

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.

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 Revolt Factors 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 .