[Download] History Mains Question Papers last 33 Years (1979-2011) for UPSC Civil service exam

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1979

Paper-I
1. Mark any fifteen of the following on the map supplied to you and give descriptive notes on, them:
(i) Avanti
(ii) Asirgarh
(iii) Amaravati
(iv) Aihole
(v) Brahmagiri
(vi) Daulatabad
(vii) Fathrpur Sikri
(viii) Golkonda
(ix) Gangaikondacholapuram
(x) Hampi
(xi) Jaunpur
(xii) Kapilavastu
(xiii) Kanauj
(xiv) Kanchipuram
(xv) Lothal
(xvi) Paithan
(xvii) Panipat
(xviii) Ranthambhor
(xix) Rupar
(xx) Samugarh
(xxi) Salsette
(xxii) Tamralipti
(xxiii) Takshashila
(xxiv) Talikota
(xxv) Somnath
(xxvi) Kalinjar
(xxvii) Mandu
(xxviii)Warangal
(xxiv) Murshidabad
Section A
2. Give an appraisal of town planning of the Indus cities and evaluate the various reasons for their
decline.
3. Give an account of the Geography of the Vedic texts and describe the social life during the Vedic
times.
4. Discuss the nature of Ashoka’s Dhamma. Was it responsible for the downfall of his empire?
5. Describe the expansion of the Gupta empire under Samudragupta with the help of the Allahabad
pillar inscription.
6. Discuss the contribution of the Pallavas to South Indian art. Was this art wholly indigenous?
Section B
7. Describe the village administration of the Chola period as known from the Uttaramerur inscriptions.
8. Bring out the essential features of the administration of
Ala-ud-din Khalji.
9. Give an account of the polity and society of Vijayanagara empire under
Krishnadevaraya.
10. In which respects did the policies of Aurangzeb contribute to the disintegration of the Mughal
empire?
11. Examine the economic condition of the rural agricultural classes and of the urban artisans and traders
during the Mughal period.
Paper-II
Section A

1. Assess critically the economic impact of the British rule in India till the end of the nineteenth
century.
2. “1858 is the Great Divide in modern Indian history, as the policy, practice and ideals of the
government that followed differed fundamentally from the government of the Company which it
displaced.” Discuss.
3. Examine the main trends in social reform and social change in India between 1829 and 1929.
4. Discuss the nature, methods and activities of the Terrorist Revolutionary Movement and assess its
place in India’s Freedom Struggle.
5. Analyze the circumstances, between 1942 and 1947, that led to freedom and partition of India.
Section B (Modern World)
6. The period 1500 to 1700 in Europe has been called ‘the heyday of the Commercial Revolution.’
Explain the causes that led to this Revolution & examine its impact on society.
7. What do you understand by Imperialism? How did it affect the people of Asia in the nineteenth
century?
8. What were the ideals of the French Revolution of 1789? How far is it correct to say that it overthrew
mercantilism and the surviving relics of feudalism and contributed to the political supremacy of the
middle class?
9. Account for the rise of militarism in Japan between the two World Wars. How did it affect the peace
of the world?
10. “Holland was engaged in a systematic exploitation of Indonesia in the nineteenth century.”
Elucidate.
11. Discuss the internal problem of China after the First World War and account for the establishment of
Communist rule in the China in 1949.

1980

Paper-I
1. Mark any fifteen of the following on the map supplied to you and give descriptive notes on them:
(i) Amber
(ii) Ahmadnagar
(iii) Anegondi
(iv) Badami
(v) Bassein
(vi) Bidar
(vii) Chanderi
(viii) Chittor
(ix) Arikamedu
(x) Devagiri
(xi) Gaur
(xii) Halebid
(xiii) Ikkeri
(xiv) Kalibangan
(xv) Jinji
(xvi) Burzahom
(xvii) Dvarasamudra
(xviii) Nalanda
(xix) Nagarjunakonda
(xx) Nasik
(xxi) Pattadakal
(xxii) Penugonda
(xxiii) Fran
(xxiv) Purandar Fort
(xxv) Gulbarga
(xxvi) Sasaram
(xxvii) Sikandara
(xxviii) Tanjore
(xxix) Kausambi
(xxx) Mamallapuram
Section A
2. Discuss the trade, cultural contacts and the extents of the Indus Civilization within and outside India
and describe in detail any one of the Indus sites within India.
3. Discuss the political pattern and the major religious ideas and rituals of the Vedic age.
4. Critically examine the sources for the study of Mauryan dynasty. How are they useful in
understanding the Mauryan administration?
5. Discuss the ancient Indian contacts with South-East Asia with reference to causes, chronology and
original home of the migrators. What was the impact of these contacts on the art of Kambuja and
Java?
6. Examine the development of religion, literature and fine arts under the
Gupta’s.
Section B
7. Give an account of the impact of Islam on Indian culture in respect of society, religion and fine arts.
8. Describe the development of Chola power under Rajaraja and Rajendra I. Form an estimate of their
cultural contributions.
9. Discuss the patterns of land revenue system developed in Medieval India and examine their
significant features.
10. Discuss the origin of the Vijayanagara Kingdom. Do you agree with the view that Krishnadevaraya
was an ideal ruler of this dynasty?
11. Trace the development of Maratha power under Shivaji.
Paper-II
Section A (Modern India)
1. “The poverty of the Indian people was the consequence of the Government’s land revenue and
taxation policy!” Discuss this statement with reference to British rule in India in the 19th Century.
2. Critically examine the nature of the Revolt of 1857. How did it affect the British policy in India after
1858?
3. Describe briefly the ideals and programme of the Indian National Congress between 1885 and 1905
and assess official response to it.
4. What were the circumstances that led Mahatma Gandhi to start the Non-cooperation Movement?
Examine its contribution to India’s struggle for freedom.
5. Write a brief essay on the peasant movement in India between 1921 and 1947.
Section B (Modern World)
6. Give an account of the revolutionary developments in agriculture in western Europe between 16th
and 18th centuries. How far were they affected by the Commercial Revolution?
7. Explain the main features of the Technological Revolution and discuss its impact on society.
8. Trace the various stages that led to the Unification of Italy between 1848 and 1870.
9. What were the causes for the success of Bolshevik Revolution of 1917? Discuss its significance in
the history of the world.
10. ‘The period 1919 to 1945 is important in the history of Egypt for the explanation of its resources by
Great Britain and rise of strong nationalism’. Discuss.
11. ‘The years 1840 to 1860 confronted the Ching dynasty and the people of China with unprecedented
crises due to imperialist designs of western powers’. Discuss critically.

1981

Paper-I
Section A

1. Mark any fifteen of the following on the map supplied to you and give descriptive notes on them:
(i) Ahichchatra
(ii) Aihole
(iii) Bamiyan
(iv) Bharukachcha
(v) Bokhgaya
(vi) Chanhudaro
(vii) Ellora
(viii) Girnar
(ix) Hastinapura
(x) Kalibangan
(xi) Kausambi
(xii) Madurai
(xiii) Mahishmati
(xiv) Muziris
(xv) Nagarjunakonda
(xvi) Poompuhar
(xvii) Purushapura
(xviii) Rajgir
(xix) Shabazgarhi
(xx) Sopara
(xxi) Sravanabelgola
(xxii) Sravasti
(xxiii) Tamralipti
(xxiv) Thanesar
(xxv) Tdsali
(xxvi) Ujjain
(xxvii) Vaisali
(xxviii) Vijayanti
(xxix) Vatapi
(xxx) Vidisa
2. Bring out the elements of change and continuity in the domestic and foreign policies of
Ashoka.
3. How far do the coins of the Gupta’s provide clues regarding trends in economy, polity, religion and
arts? Discuss them in the light of corroborating evidence from archaeology and literature
4. Discuss critically the main aspects of polity and society under the Pallavas?
Section B

5. Write short answers of not more than 200 words each for any three of the following questions:
(i) How did Sankaracharya seek to integrate the different religions cults in India ?
(ii) What were the aims of Alauddin Khalji behind his market regulations, and how far were they
achieved?
(iii) Examine the major contributions of the Sur rulers to the administrative system.
(iv) Why did the Marathas fail in establishing a lasting empire in India?
6. Examine the factors which were responsible for opening and development of European trade in-India
during the 16th and 17th centuries.
7. Explain with illustrative detail the part played by the following factors in the disintegration of the
Mughal empire:
(a) Aurangzeb’s alleged departure from the policies of his predecessors,
(b) Inherent defects of the Mansab and Jagir system. and
(c) Growth of new political forces in the provinces.
8. Identify the traces of Persian and Rajput traditions and show how they were synthesized
in the field of painting, architecture and literature at the Mughal court.
Paper-II
Section A (Modern India)
1. Write critical notes on any three of the following in about 200 words each:
(a) Consequences of the ruin of handicraft industries under the rule of the East India Company.
(b) Impact of western contact on social changes half of 19th century in the first
(c) Significance of the Swadeshi Movement 1905-07 in the freedom struggle.
(d) Gandhiji’s role in solving the communal problem.
2. Trace the circumstances that led to the introduction of the Permanent Settlement in Bengal. Discuss
its impact on landlords, peasants and the Government.
3. Give a brief account of the industrial and agricultural policy of the Government of India between
1858 and 1914. How far is it correct to say that it was more in the interest of British capital than the
Indian people?
4. Assess the role of the Left Wing within the Indian National Congress between 1920 and 1947.
Section B (Modern World)

5. Write critical notes on any threes of the following in about 200 words each:
(a) Theory of ‘The New imperialism’ after 1870.
(b) Effect of British liberalism on the social or economic life of the people of England.
(c) Lenin’s role in the Russian Revolution of 1917.
(d) Importance of the Opium War in the history of China.
6. Give a critical account of the progress of merchantalism in the 17th century. How far is it correct to
say that it paved the way for the Industrial Revolution?
7. ‘Napoleon kindled the national sentiment but German unity was achieved by Bismarck.’ Discuss.
8. What was the culture system in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) during the 19th century? Why
was it dismantled?

1982

Paper-I
Section A
1. Write short answers of not more than 200 words each on any three of the following:
(a) Was India civilized before the advent of the Aryans? State briefly the extent and striking
features of the earlier civilization, if any.
(b) Do you think that the economic factors were alone responsible for the disintegration of the
Mauryan Empire?
(c) How far is it correct to say that the Indians of the ancient period indulged only metaphysical
things and not in the development of pure sciences?
(d) Examine the role of guilds in the economic life of ancient India.
2. Discuss the cultural impact of India of the South-East Asia during the ancient period.
3. Discuss the conditions of economic life in the age of the
Guptas.
4. Trace the origin and development of the political authority of the Chalukyas of Badami and discuss
their contribution to religion and architecture.
Section B
5. Mark any fifteen of the following on the map supplied to you and give descriptive notes:
(i) Agra
(ii) Ahmednagar
(iii) Ajmer
(iv) Attock
(v) Bidar
(vi) Bijapur
(vii) Burhanpur
(viii) Chaul
(ix) Chittod (Chittor)
(x) Champaner
(xi) Dabhol
(xii) Daulatabad
(xiii) Fatehpur Sikri
(xiv) Gingee
(xv) Golconth
(xvi) Cwaljor
(xvii) Hampi
(xviii) Janjiar
(xix) Jaunpur
(xx) Mandu
(xxi) Multan
(xxii) Panipat
(xxiii) Pune
(xxiv) Raigad (Raigarh)
(xxv) Ranthambhor
(xxvi) Surat
(xxvii) Talikota
(xxviii) Tanjavur
(xxix) Ujjain
(xxx) Vengurla
6. Critically examine the Views of Balban, Ala-ud-din Khalji and the Tughluq on the nature of
Kingship under the Delhi Sultanate
7. Analyze the cause of the agrarian crisis of the Mughal Empire and briefly discuss the agrarian
aspects of the peasant revolt against the Empire.
8. Review the efforts made by Shivaji in consolidating his power in the Deccan in the seventeenth
century.
Paper-II
Section A (Modern India)
1. Comment an any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘Baksar takes rank amongst the most decisive battles ever fought.’
(b) The Reforms of 1909 introduced ‘a cardinal problem and ground of controversy at
every revision of the Indian electoral system.’
(c) Ram Mohan Roy ‘presents a most instructive and inspiring study for the New India of which
he is the type and pioneer
(d) The Cripps Mission gave India “a post-dated cheque.”
2. Trace the course and explain the consequences of the drain of wealth from Bengal in the eighteenth
century.
3. Describe the nature of Indian Nationalism with special reference to the character of its leadership iii
the period between 1885 and 1905.
4. Tribal revolts were a reaction to an alien, unfeeling administration. Elucidate with reference to the
British tribal policy in Eastern India in the nineteenth century.
Section B (Modern World)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each
(a) ‘Imperialism and Colonialism have long employed as instruments of national policy.’
(b) ‘The characteristic motive of this period (1830-1871) was not so much Liberalism as
Nationalism.’
(c) ‘Japanese policy in relation to Manchuria reacted back upon Japan affecting her both
economically and politically.’
(d) ‘Mehemet Ali, half an illiterate barbarian, half a consummate statesman, was wholly a
genius.’
6. Trace the growth of Capitalism in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. How did it
affect the Wage System in the country?
7. Critically examine the main features of the foreign policy of Nazi Germany.
8. How did the Treaty Port System in China develop between 1840 and 1860 ? What was its
inference on Chinese attitude to foreigners?

1983

Paper-I
Section A
1. Mark any fifteen of the following on the map supplied to you and give short descriptive notes on
them:
(i) Amaravati
(ii) Arikamedu
(iii) Avanti
(iv) Bedsa
(v) Belur
(vi) Bhrigukachha
(vii) Dwarka
(viii) Elephanta
(ix) Halebid
(x) Kanchipuram
(xi) Kaushambi
(xii) Kurukshetra
(xiii) Lothal
(xiv) Madurai
(xv) Mahabalipuram
(xvi) Maski
(xvii) Nagarjunkonda
(xviii) Nalanda
(xix) Nasik
(xx) Patliputra
(xxi) Pratishthana
(xxii) Rajagriha
(xxiii) Rupar
(xxiv) Sanchi
(xxv) Sarnath
(xxvi) Shravasti
(xxvii) Sopar
(xxviii) Tamralipti
(xxix) Varanasi
(xxx) Vatap
2. Examine the contribution of Vedic culture in the sphere of social institutions and religion. Was
there any continuity between the Indus and the Vedic cultures in this respect?
3. Analyze Ashoka’s policy of Dhamma and account for its failure.
4. Who were the Pallavas ? Review briefly their contribution to art and administration?
Section B
5. Write short answers of not more than 100 words each on any three of the following:
(a) Why was Firuz Tughluq regarded as an ideal Muslim king of medieval times?
(b) What was the most significant contribution of Kabir and Guru Nanakdev to Bhakti
movement?
(c) Do you think that the reign of Krishnadevaraya inaugurated a new epoch in the history of
Vijayanagar?
(d) What motivated Akbar to enunciate Din-i-Ilahj ? How far did he succeed in spreading it?
6. Critically examine the economic regulations of Ala-ud-din
Khalji.
7. Review briefly the methods of land-revenue assessment adopted by the
Mughals.
8. How far did Peshwa Bajirao I succeed in establishing Maratha supremacy in the Deccan and political
hagemony in the North?
Paper-II
Section A (Modern India)
1. Comment on arty three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) The Treaty of Bassein, 1802 was “a step which changed the footing on which we [the English
stood in western India. It trebled the English responsibilities in an instant.”
(b) The Permanent Settlement of land revenue in Bengal was a “bold, brave and wise measure.”
(c) “The Mutiny was not inevitable in 1857, but it was inherent in the constitution of the
Empire.”
(d) The Cabinet Mission Plan “seemed to open an avenue for the reconciliation of a united India
with Muslim autonomy’.”
2. Review the relations of the Government of India with Indian States in the period 1858-1918 with
particular reference to the cases where the doctrine of paramount was asserted by the Government.
3. Explain the main features of Montford Reforms. How far did they implement the policy of
administrative devolution?
4. Trace the industrial growth of British India after the First World War. How did the Government’s
tariff policy influence the growth?
Section B (Modern World)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) “Mercantilist philosophy was based upon a belief that private & social interests are not
necessarily in harmony.”
(b) “The writings of the philosophers had a tremendous influence on the minds of the people and
created a revolutionary awakening in their minds and formed the intellectual creed of the
French Revolution”
(c) “The bold knight, Lenin, having rescued the fair maiden of the Revolution from the evil
sorcerer, Kerensky, everyone lived happily hereafter.”
(d) “ ….. nascent nationalism in Indo-China developed within both an Asian and a European
context with but scanty reference in either case to traditionalist considerations.”
6. Trace the course of the movement for Italian Unification from 1848 with special reference to the
contribution of Mazzini.
7. Identify the main strands in the Egyptian nationalist movement in the first half of the present century
and explain the role played in it by Zaghlul Pasha.
8. Review the political circumstances in China in the years 1945-49 leading to the establishment of the
Communist rule in the land. How did the United States seek to resolve the conflict between the
Nationalists and the communists in the period?

1984

Paper -I
Section A
1. Write short answers of not more than 200 words each on any three of the following:
(a) How do you account for the decline of the major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization?
(b) What was the position of Varuna in the Vedic system of Gods?
(c) What were the causes of the origin of the heterodox sects in the sixth century BC?
(d) What was the contribution of the Chalukyas of Badami to Indian architecture?
2. Examine the administrative system of the Mauryas and discuss briefly the causes of disintegration of
the Mauryan Empire.
3. How was overseas trade organized in South India up to 300 A. D.? Discuss this with special
reference to Roman trade and point out its impact on Indian economy.
4. Critically examine the sources of information for the study of Harshavardhan and discuss his
religious policy.
Section B
5. Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and give brief descriptive notes
on them:
(i) Ahmedabad
(ii) Ajmer
(iii) Aurangabad
(iv) Bikaner
(v) Baroda
(vi) Calicut
(vii) Cutch
(viii) Deogiri
(ix) Fatehpur Sikri
(x) Gulbarga
(xi) Halebid
(xii) Hospet
(xiii) Indore
(xiv) Jaisalmer
(xv) Jodhpur
(xvi) Kalyan
(xvii) Kanyakumari
(xviii) Kucknow
(xix) Meerut
(xx) Murshidabad
(xxi) Nasik
(xxii) Panjim
(xxiii) Raichur
(xxiv) Rameshwaram
(xxv) Shravari Belgola
(xxvi) Sommath
(xxvii) Tirupati
(xxviii) Udaipur
(xxix) Vasar (Bassein)
(xxx) Warangal
6. Do you agree with the view that Muhammad Tughluq was transcendent failure’ ? Why did he fail to
achieve the ideals he had set for himself?
7. Which were the major European Powers engaged in trade with India in the medieval period ? How
did they organise their trade and what were the chief items of trade?
8. What was the contribution of the Mughals to the development of education and literature?
Paper – II
Section A (Modern India)
1. Comment an any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘We have no right to seize Sind, yet we shall do so and a very advantageous, useful, humane
piece of rascality it will be.’
(b) ‘ ……. if we could keep a number of Nature States without political power, but as royal
instruments, we should exist in India as long as our naval supremacy was maintained.’
(c) In British India ‘the impact of the government on the people meant essentially the impact of
government on the village.’
(d) ‘Curzon’s political obtusely created a breach between government and people which was
never wholly closed in the remaining forty-two years of British rule.’
2. Trace the course of the Anglo-Maratha relations in the first two decades of the nineteenth century.
Account for the ultimate defeat of the Maratha power by the British.
3. Explain the essential features of the ryotwari system of land revenue with special reference to
Thomas Munro’s contribution to its evolution.
4. Review the main trends in the Social Movements in India from 1900 to 1947 with particular
reference to the changing position .of women in the country.
Section B (Modern World)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘If imperialism is viewed as a phase of the struggle for power between States, its result must
be judged in terms of its role in power politics.’
(b) ‘It is one of the ironies of history that Napoleon was the creator of modern Germany.’
(c) ‘The Treaty of Nanking is the basic act in the imposing but unstable structure of international
relations which governed China for a hundred years.’
(d) Hitler was ‘a creature flung to the top by the tides of revolutionary change, or the
embodiment of the collective unconsciousness of a people obsessed with violence and death.’
6. Account for the growth of Liberalism in Britain in the nineteenth century. How far did it influence
the contemporary social and economic issues-in the country?
7. Identify the main strands in the Nationalist Movement in Indonesia between the two World Wars.
How did Japanese occupation of land influence the course of the Movement?
8. Give a critical account of the Agricultural Revolution in Western Europe in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. How did it affect the social and economic life of the people?

1985

Paper -I
Section A
1. Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and give brief descriptive notes
on them:
(i) Ajanta
(ii) Atranjikhera
(iii) Ayodhya
(iv) Bharhut
(v) Dhauli
(vi) Ganjam
(vii) Gaya
(viii) Gwalior
(ix) Harappa
(x) Junagadh
(xi) Kalibangan
(xii) Kapilavastu
(xiii) Kanyakubja
(xiv) Khajuraho
(xv) Lothal
(xvi) Manyakheta
(xvii) Mathura
(xviii) Multan
(xix) Nagarjunikonda
(xx) Prayaga
(xxi) Rameshwaram
(xxii) Sakala
(xxiii) Sravana Belgola
(xxiv) Surparaka
(xxv) Tanjore
(xxvi) Taxila
(xxvii) Ujjain
(xxviii)Vaisali
(xxix) Vengi
(xxx) Vikramsila
2. Discuss the geographical area known to the Rigvedic people. Were they familiar with the sea?
3. ‘The Gupta period stands at the center of Indian history.’ Discuss the development of arts and
literature in that Gupta period in the light of this statement.
4. Trace briefly the history of the struggle between the Chalukyas and the
Pailavas. Analyze its causes and bring out its importance.
Section B
5. Write short answers of not more than 200 words on any three of the following:
(a) What were the salient features of the bureaucratic machinery of the Cholas?
(b) Examine the responsibility of Firoz Tughluq for the fall of his dynasty
(c) Where, when and how did Urdu originate?
(d) Was Shivaji a nationalist leader?
6. What were the problems Balban faced? How far did he succeed in solving them? Was he a trendsetter
in his theory of kingship?
7. Discuss briefly the causes that contributed to the religious movements of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. Analyze their approach to the realities of contemporary life.
8. Analyze the religious policy of the Mughal emperors from Akbar to Aurangzeb. How did it affect the
stability of the Mughal empire?
Paper – II
Section A (Modern India)
1. Comment an any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) “Thus ended the famous battle of Buxar, on which depended the fate of India and which was
as gallantly disputed as was important in its results.”
(b) “Our system acts very much like a sponge, drawing. up all the good things from the banks of
the Ganges, and squeezing them down on the banks of the Thames.”
(c) “On the whole, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the so-called First National War of
Independence. was neither First, nor National, nor a war of Independence.”
(d) “These religion-reform movements were national in content but religious in form. It was in
the later stages of our national existence, that nationalism found exclusively or predominantly
secular forms.”
2. What changes did the British attitude undergo towards the Princely states after 1858? Was the
Government of India Act of 1858 intended to introduce direct relations between the Princes and the
Crown?
3. Identify the main strands in the Civil Disobedience Movement with particular reference to the
changing role of ‘business pressures’ in the country
4. Show how British rule led to the spread of land-lordism in certain parts of India, and how the,
peasant was progressively impoverished under this rule.
Section B (Modem World)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) “What mattered in 1789- and what made men revolutionary almost in spite of
themselves was the whole revolutionary situation’ ; and in producing that situation the work of the
philosophers played no very important role.”
(b) “They have stopped me -from making Italy by diplomacy from the North, 1 will make it by
revolution from the South.”
(c) “Mohammad Mi combined ambition with perspicacity to a greater degree than any other
Oriental ruler of the nineteenth century.”
(d) “The turn of the tide against the Kuomintang, consequently, was due as much to its weakness
as to consequently, was due as much to its weakness as
6. Trace the growth of capitalism in Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Why was
France, as compared to Britain, late in developing the capitalist spirit and the institutional framework
of capitalism?
7. Analyze the causes of the Russian Revolutions of 1917. Why was the second Revolution significant
in more that one way?
8. Critically examine the culture system in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) during the nineteenth
century. Why was it dismantled?

1986

Paper -I
Section A
1. Write short essays of not more than 200 words on any three of the following:
(a) Democratic elements hi the political system of the early Vedic period.
(b) The role of guilds in the economic life of India from c. 200 B: C. to c. A. 0. 300
(c) The significance of the policy o matrimonial alliances for the expansion and consolidation of
the Gupta empire.
(d) The contributions of the Pallavas to Indian architecture.
2. ‘On circumstantial evidence Indra stands convicted’. Explain, and discuss briefly different views
about a sudden end of the Indus Valley civilization. How would you explain the presence of those
elements in Indian culture and civilization which are found to have existed in the Indus Valley
period?
3. Discuss critically the relative importance of the different source for the history of the Mauryan
period.
4. Harsha is described as ‘the lord of the whole of north India’. Determine the extent of his empire and
discuss his political relations with Sasanka, Bhaskaravarman and Pulakesin II.
Section B
5. Marks any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you. Also give brief descriptive
notes on places marked on the map:
(i) Agra
(ii) Ahmadnagar
(iii) Anhilware
(iv) Attock
(v) Bidar
(vi) Cambay
(vii) Champaner
(viii) Chittor
(ix) Chunar
(x) Daultabad
(xi) Dvarasamudra
(xii) Gaurs
(xiii) Gwalior
(xiv) Jaunpur
(xv) Kalinjar
(xvi) Koil
(xvii) Madura
(xviii) Mandu
(xix) Panipat
(xx) Rameshwaram
(xxi) Ranthambhor
(xxii) Sarhind
(xxiii) Sasaram
(xxiv) Sailkot
(xxv) Surat
(xxvi) Tanjore
(xxvii) Thatta
(xxviii) Ujjain
(xxix) Vijayanagara
(xxx) Warangal
6. ‘The period of Delhi Sultans witnessed the emergence of Indo-Persian culture’ Discuss the statement
with reference to developments m the fields of language,
7. Bring out the significance of the reign of Sher Shah in the history of India.
8. Account for the rise of the Marathas as a political power. How did they influence the course of
history?
Paper – II
Section A (Modern India)
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘Upon the whole, then, I conclude that the treaty of Bassein was wise, just and a politic
measure.’
(b) ‘Rammohun thus presents a most instructive and inspiring study for the New India of which
he is the type and pioneer.’
(c) ‘The roots of Moplah discontent were clearly agrarian….’
(d) ‘It is sometimes asked by Ruling Chiefs, as well as by the public in India and in Europe what
our policy towards Native States is. I can tell you that the basis of the policy was laid in
Queen Victoria’s Proclamation of 1858 and repeated in the Coronation message of His
Majesty the King Emperor.’
2. Bring out the pattern of commercialization of agriculture in the 19th century. Was it a forced process
for the vast majority of poorer peasants?
3. Discuss the basic features of the judicial administration under the East India Company. Did the
British introduce the modern concept of the rule of law in India?
4. Account for the rise and growth of Left-wing within the Congress. Did Jawaharlal Nehru believe in a
socialistic approach to Indian and world problems and if so why?
Section B (World History)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘The novelty in sixteenth century mercantilism its extension from city to nation and the
transfer of its chief agency from local guilt to national monarch.’
(b) ‘Napoleon was the child of the Revolution, but in many ways he reversed the aims and
principles of the movement from which he sprang …….
(c) ‘If I could save the Union without freeing-any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by
freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others
alone, I would also do that.’
(d) ‘Under Mustafa Kemal’s dictatorship; Turkey was rapidly natonalized.
6. What is meant by the ‘rediscovery of ancient civilization’? Show how the ‘New Learning’ was a
major element in the beginning of Modern Europe.
7. Discuss the Self-strengthening movement in China.
8. What led to the formation of the Berlin-Rome Tokyo axis? Indicate its impact on international
politics.

1987

Paper -I
Section A
1. Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and give brief descriptive notes
on them:
(i) Aihole
(ii) Amaravati
(iii) Arikmedu
(iv) Bairat
(v) Banawali
(vi) Bodh-Caya
(vii) Burzahom
(viii) Deogarh
(ix) Daimabad
(x) Elephanta
(xi) Ellora
(xii) Fran
(xiii) Hastinapur
(xiv) Kausambi
(xv) Konarak
(xvi) Lauriya Nandangarh
(xvii) Mahabalipuram
(xviii) Maski
(xix) Mathura
(xx) Nalanda
(xxi) Nasik
(xxii) Navdatoli
(xxiii) Piprahwa
(xxiv) Rajagrtha
(xxv) Ropar
(xxvi) Sankisa
(xxvii) Sopara
(xxviii) Tamralipti
(xxix) Vidisha
(xxx) Vikramasila
2. Compare the economic, social and religious life of the Indus Valley (Harappan) people with
that of the early Vedic people and discuss the relative chronology of the Indus and the early Vedic
cultures.
3. Discuss the social & economic factors for the rise of Buddhism How far was it influenced by
Upnisadic thought?
4. ‘Harsha owes his greatness largely not to any real achievements but to formulate descriptions by two
famous men.’ Discuss.
Section B
5. Write short answers of not more than 200 words on any three of the following:
(a) Shankaracharya’s philosophy and its impact
(b) Main sources of information for the history of the 13th century
(c) Significance of the Bhakti Movement
(d) Structure and role of the Maratha Confedency.
6. Critically examine the price control measures of Alauddin Khilji. What was the main objective
behind them and how for was he able to put them into effecter?
7. Discuss the development of art and culture under the Vijayanagar Empire.
8. Bring out the main features of the MANSAB and JAGIR systems with special reference to the reign
of Akbar
Paper – II
Section A (Modem India)
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘The revolution of 1760 (Bengal) was really no revolution.’
(b) ‘The British endeavoured as far as possible to live within a Ring-Fence and beyond that they
avoided intercourse with the chiefs.’
(c) ‘The Ilbert Bill was the most extreme but by no means isolated expression of white racism.’
(d) ‘The national democratic awakening of the Indian people found expression of white racism.’
2. Trace the gradual decline of the Indian town handicrafts between 1757 and 1880. In what way did it
contribute to the economic unification of India?
3. Identify the various forms of ‘rural protest’ in India in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Were they expressions of anti-landlord or anti-foreign discontent?4. How would you explain Gandhiji’s ‘rise to power’ or ‘capture’ of national leadership in the course of
1919-20? Was it a very skilful top-level political game?
Section B (World History)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘By 1861, China may be said to have been fully though grudgingly opened to the Westerner.’
(b) ‘The Unification of Germany was the one thing Bismarck was determined to prevent.’
(c) ‘The international situation that confronted the peacemakers in Pairs was in the brutal
realities of history, the result of a temporary redistribution of the balance of power in the
world.’
(d) ‘One of the last Strongholds – of oil imperialism and European colonualism it (Middle East)
cultivates a fiery nationalism as a weapon against foreign oppression’
6. Account for the emergence of the national monarchies in Europe in the sixteenth century. Did the
monarchs build the national states less by design than by chance?
7. How did Japan develop between 1868 and 1894 ? Did the ‘Restoration of Meiji’ mark a sharp break
with the past?
8. Critically examine the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Did he want to introduce a sort of
socialism?

1988

Paper -I
Section A
1. Write short essays of not more than 200 words each on any three of the following:
(a) Position of women in the Rigvedic society
(b) The intellectual revolution in the Sixth Century B.C.
(c) Mauryan court art as an alien grafting
(d) The Maukharis paving the way for the glory of Harshavardhana
2. “The Indus Civilization had an abrupt end.” Discuss the statement and explain how the Indus
Civilization could influence Indian culture in its later history.
3. Brief out the salient features of the religious development in the Post-Maurya period. How was
contemporary art influenced by it?
4. Evaluate the importance of the contributions of the Pallavas in the history of the development of art
and administration in South India.
Section B
5. 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) Amarkot
(ii) Attock
(iii) Bijapur
(iv) Cambay
(v) Calicut
(vi) Chanderi
(vii) Chaul
(viii) Cuftack
(ix) Diu
(x) Dvarasalnudra
(xi) Fathepur Sikri
(xii) Goa
(xiii) Golkunda
(xiv) Gulbarga
(xv) Hampi
(xvi) Jodhpur
(xvii) Kalpi
(xviii) Kanauj
(xix) Karigra
(xx) Masulipatan
(xxi) Multan
(xxii) Pondicherry
(xxiii) Raichur
(xxiv) Rajmahal
(xxv) Rameshwaram
(xxvi) Rohtas
(xxvii) Satan
(xxviii) Talikot
(xxix) Tanjore
(xxx) Tarain
6. Bring out the salient features of the polity & social structure of the Rajputs. To what extent were they
responsible for the weakness of the to foreign invaders?
7. Was the state in the Sultanate period a theocracy? Discuss the new orientation of state policies and
administrative principles under Muhammad bin Tughluq.
8. “The expansion of Mughal empire in Deccan brought about its decline”. Discuss brought about its
decline”. Discuss.
Paper – II
Section A (Modern India)

1. Comment an any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) “Whatever might have been its original character, it (Rebellion of 1857) soon became 3
symbol of challenge to the mighty British power in India.”
(b) “The impact of government on the people meant essentially the impact of government on the
village.”
(c) “Dyarchy was Introduced with high hopes and it must be said that, oil a theoretical analysis
and if worked under ideal conditions, it is not without merits,”
(d) “The Simla Conference (1945) afforded the last opportunity of the forces of nationalism to
fight a reargued action to preserve the integrity of the country and when the battle was lost,
the waves of communalism quickly engulfed it.”
2. Review the educational policy of the English East India Company. To what extent did it serve the
imperial interests of Great Britain?
3. Discuss briefly the tribal revolts in Eastern India from 1817 to 1857. Were they directed against land
lordism and colonialism ?
4. At different periods and at various levels, the National Movement assumed social, cultural and
economic dimensions. Amplify.
Section B (World History)

5. Comment on any three of the following statement in about 200 words each:
(a) “Attempts to put mercantilist doctrine into practice characterized the history of most of the
nations of Western European in the 16th and 17th centuries.”
(b) “At the news of the Declaration of Independence crowds gathered to cheer, fire guns and
cannon and ring church bells in Philadelphia. Boston and other places, but there were many
people in America who did not rejoice”.
(c) “…… the European nations in emphasizing their solidarity, their European’s
in dealing with Asian countries inevitably gave rise to a feeling of Asianness.”
(d) “The Anglo-Japanese Treaty (1962) marks a milestone in the development of Japan as an
Asiatic power.”
6. Examine the view that the thirty years’ war (1618-1648) was essentially a contest between the
Bourbon and Hapsburg houses for mastery of the Continent of Europe. How for did it settle the
issue?
7. Why is the period from 1842 to 1900 considered as half a century of humiliations
in the history of China? What was the reaction of China?
8. Write a critical note on the process of decolonization accelerated by the second World War.

1989

Paper -I
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
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?

1990

Paper -I
Section A
1. Write short essays of not more than 200 word each on any three of the following:
(a) The formulation of social system in the later Vedic period
(b) The Maurya policy of regulating and controlling economic activities
(c) Indian participation in the silk trade through Central Asia
(d) The economic prosperity in the Gupta period.
2. ‘The Indus civilization did not have an abrupt appearance.’ Discuss the statement. How does the
Indus civilization stand, in view of its geographical expansion and chronology, in relations to the
Vedic civilization?
3. Trace the rise of Magadhan imperialism up to the times of the Nandas with particular reference to its
policy towards the non-monarchical state. Discuss the factors that contributed to its success.
4. Make a comparative study of the administrative system and development of art under the Pallavas
of Kanchi and the Chalukyas of Vatapi.
Section B
5. 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) Ahmadnagar
(ii) Badaun
(iii) Baran
(iv) Bhatnair
(v) Bidar
(vi) Chunar
(vii) Daman
(viii) Gangaikon-dacholapuram
(ix) Hansi
(x) Jajnagar
(xi) Jaunpur
(xii) Junagadh
(xiii) kalyani
(xiv) Kanhwa
(xv) Lakhnawati
(xvi) Mahoba
(xvii) Madura
(xviii) Malkhed
(xix) Mandu
(xx) Masulipatam
(xxi) Ranthambore
(xxii) Sahasaram
(xxiii) Sandabur
(xxiv) Serampur
(xxv) Srirangapatnam
(xxvi) Talakad
(xxvii) Thatta
(xxviii)Trichinopoly
(xxix) Uttaramerur
(xxx) Warangal
6. ‘Sankaracharya brought about a synthesis of ideas and philosophies.’ Discuss the statement and
analyses the historical significance of his life and throught.
7. ‘Firuz Tugluq has been overshadowed by Muhammad Tughluq.’ In the light of this statement
evaluate the significance of the policies and actions of Firuz Tughluq.
8. ‘In medieval Indian history Akbar is unique for his religiopolitical ideas and policies.’ Discuss the
statement and compare Akbar with Sher Shah in regard to their administrative policies and revenue
administration.
Paper – II
Section A
1. Comment an any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘We have no right to seize Sind, yet we shall do so, and a very advantageous, useful and
human piece of rascality it will be.’
(b) ‘The hey-day of the British power in India was also the high noon of laissez faire’ economic
doctrine.’
(c) ‘The new India was not to be built up, as late nineteenth century patriots had thought, by
copious draught from the past, but rather by frequent injections from the energetic
contemporary west.’
(d) ‘Lord Mountbatten came with an order to orgarlise retreat, in military
parlance an operation.’
2. The roots of the Moplah uprising (1921) were clearly agrarian. Do you agree?
3. What was the Anglicisit-Orientalist controversy about? How was it resolved and with what results?
4. ‘The National Movement has shown concern for problems other than the constitutional one.’ Discuss
the factors that helped the rise of a left wing in the Indian National Congress.
Section B
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘The Renaissance was the discovery of the world arid of man.’
(b) ‘The American war of Independence transformed Europeans as well as America.’
(c) ‘The Industrial Revolution put mobility in the place of stability.’
(d) ‘The comparison between Caviar’s and Bismarck’s achievements reveals ‘striking points of
resemblance and no less striking points of dissimilarity.’
6. What issues involved in the conflict between the King and Parliament in England in the seventeenth
century? Discuss.
7. The treaties made at the Paris Peace conference in 1919-20 were replete with unstable compromises,
reflecting more materialism than idealism. Elucidate.
8. How did the Japanese occupation of South-East Asian countries during the Second World War give a
boost to nationalize in the regions? Explain with examples.

1991

Paper -I
Section A
1. Write brief essays of not more than 200 word each on any three of the following:
(a) External trade of the Harappans
(b) Contents of Asoka’s dhamma and reasons for Asoka’s keenness to propagate dhamma
(c) Origins, chronology, characteristics and geographical spread of Gandhara art
(d) Origins and meaning of the samanta system
2. In what ways does religion as reflected in the Vedic texts differ from the religion of the Gupta
period?
3. In what ways would the period of the Pallavas of the Kanchi and that of the Chalukyas of Badami
mark the beginning of a new historical phase in peninsular India?
4. Discuss the scientific and technological developments in ancient India.
Section B
5. 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) Amber
(ii) Anhilwara
(iii) Asirgarh
(iv) Bayana
(v) Bijapur
(vi) Burhanpur
(vii) Cambay
(viii) Champaner
(ix) Chanderi
(x) Daulatabad
(xi) Fathehpur Sikri
(xii) Gaur
(xiii) Gulbarga
(xiv) Halebid
(xv) Hampi
(xvi) Jalor
(xvii) Kabul
(xviii) kalinjar
(xix) Kanauj
(xx) Lahore
(xxi) Multan
(xxii) Murshidabad
(xxiii) Orchha
(xxiv) Quilon
(xxv) Sambhal
(xxvi) Sirhind
(xxvii) Sonargaon
(xxviii)Surat
(xxix) Tanjore
(xxx) Tarain
6. Critically assess the period of the Cholas in the history of South India.
7. What, in your opinion, was the significance of the extensive military expeditions undertaken during
the time of Alauddin Khalji? Do you think his reign is considered significant in terms of such
expeditions alone?
8. What were the major features of the administrative system of the Mughal State? To what extent did
other Indian powers model their administration on this system in the late medieval period?
Paper – II
Section A
1. Comment any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘This Anglo-Maratha War covering nearly nine years from the murder of Narayan Rao to the
Treaty of Salbye emphatically discloses the vitality of the Maratha nation which had not been
exhausted either by the disaster of Panipat or the death of their great Peshwa Madhavrao.’
(b) ‘The role of the East India Company proved disastrous to the handicraft industry in India for
a number of reasons.’
(c) ‘The tragedy of Cruzan lay in that, with such abundance of trained talent; he was denied the
crowning qualities. He was never an administrator of the first rank:’
(d) ‘The relations of the Native States, however conducted are essentially relations with the
British Crown and not with the Indian Government.’
2. Identify the distinct stages of colonialism in India. How did these stages affect the Indian economy?
3. Discuss ‘the safety valve’ theory. Does it satisfactorily explain the foundation of the Indian National
Congress?
4. Analyses the main contours of Non-Brahmin Movements in Western and South India in the
nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries.
Section B
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘His (Martin Luther’s) rebellion ws essentially popular and national.’
(b) ‘French political writers of the eighteenth century were influenced by Locke and also by the
curious contrast. which they perceived between the government of his country and their
own.’
(c) ‘The Heavenly Land system was significant in that it greatly expanded the idea of equalizing
rich and poor and landowning which the peasant wars had put forward in the past.’
(d) ‘Comparison of the fascist regime in Italy with the National Socialist regime of Germany is
almost inevitable. The similarities are obvious, but there is one point of difference which is
worth mentioning.’
6. Discuss the view that Louis XIV of France was a great king-’the grand monarch.’
7. Examine the issues involved in the American Civil War. Was it a contest between two separate
nations?
8. Show how the Spanish Civil War a prelude to World War II.

1992

Paper -I
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) Aharara
(ii) Aihole
(iii) Alamgirpur
(iv) Amaravati
(v) Anuradhapura
(vi) Aphsad
(vii) Badami
(viii) Bhagbanpura
(ix) Gimar
(x) Jaugada
(xi) Kausambi
(xii) Khandgiri-Udayagiri
(xiii) Kusinagara
(xiv) Kot Diji
(xv) Lumbini
(xvi) Mahabalipuram
(xvii) Nalanda
(xviii) Pratisthana
(xix) Purushapura
(xx) Rajagriha
(xxi) Ratnagiri
(xxii) Sanathi
(xxiii) Sittannavasal
(xxiv) Sravasti
(xxv) Sravanbelgola
(xxvi) Sultanganj
(xxvii) Surkotda
(xxviii)Takshasila
(xxix) Valabhi
(xxx) Vidisa
2. Analyses the differences and similarities between Indus Valley and Vedic Cultures.
3. Give an account of the republics in the pre-Maurya period. Discuss the factors which contributed to
their decline.
4. Analyses the characteristics features of the Gupta art and compare them with those of the Mauryan
art.
Section B
5. Write short essays of not more than 200 word each on any three of the following:
(a) Local self-government under the Cholas.
(b) Indo-Islamic architecture during the Khalji and Tughluq period.
(c) Mughal official histories and auto-biographical works.
(d) Portuguese control of the Indian Ocean and its impact.
6. Discuss the role of the Rashtrakutas for the mastery of Kanauj and assess their contribution to art and
culture.
7. Muhammad Bin Tughlaq’s contradictory qualities were beyond the grasp knowledge and common
sense. Evaluate the significance of his administrative measures and policies in the light of this
statement.
8. Shivaji was a great organizer and builder of civil institutions, examine this statement in the light of
the difficulties of administration and the extent of success achieved by him.
Paper – II
Section A
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘On 23 June 1757, the middle ages of India ended and her modern age began.’
(b) ‘No native state should be left to exist in India which is not upheld by the British power or
the political conduct of which is not under the absolute control’
(c) ‘it was in this almost unrecognizable form that the Ilbert Bill was finally enacted it was
primarily a failure of the Viceroy’
(d) ‘Please remember, in granting separate electorates, we are sowing dragon’s teeth the harvest
will be bitter.’
2. Assess the impact of the utilitarian ideas in molding the British attitude towards India. How did the
utilitarian try to solve the problem of land revenue?
3. Discuss the origins and character of major peasant and tribal uprisings in the late 18th and 19th
centuries’ were these protest movements backwards-looking?
4. Show how the Civil Disobedience was marked by much scattered potentially radical manifestations.
Was the Karachi Congress an indication of certain basic weakness of the entire movement?
Section B
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘The sponsors of the overseas expansion of Europe were national monarchies.’
(b) ‘Napoleon was the child of the Revolution, but in many ways he reversed the aims and
principles of the movement from which he sprang.’
(c) ‘Thus the League sought to achieve to profoundest of all psychological revolutions
to transform the war mentality of man into a peace mentality.’
(d) ‘Nominally the new Turkey was republican and democratic.’
6. From the Thirty Years War finally emerged the modern state system of Europe. Do you agree?
7. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a single revolution which developed two phases. Elucidate.
8. Trace the distinct phases of the Sino-Japanese War. Assess its political economic and cultural impact
on China, both ‘occupied and free.’

1993

Paper -I
Section A
1. Write brief essays of not more than 200 word each on any three of the following:
(a) The burial customs in the Indus Civilization
(b) The Vedic Gods of the terrestrial region
(c) Similarities and differences between the Maurya columns and Achaemenian pillars
(d) Buddhist writing in Sanskrit in the post-Maurya period
2. Bring out the elements of change and continuity between the Early Vedic and Later Vedic Cultures.
3. Examine the importance of Ashoka’s Rock Edit XIII for determining the extent of the Maurya
Empire. Did Ashoka’s policies and reforms contribute to the fall of the empire?
4. Discuss the military activities of Kharavela of Kalinga. Do you think that his reign is significant for
military expeditions alone?
Section B

5. Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write brief notes only on the
places marked on the map:
(i) Abu
(ii) Balasore
(iii) Belur
(iv) Bhojpur
(v) Chaul
(vi) Chunar
(vii) Gingee
(viii) Golconda
(ix) Janjira
(x) Kalanaur
(xi) Kalpi
(xii) Khajuha
(xiii) Khajuraho
(xiv) Konark
(xv) Kondavid
(xvi) Kumbakonam
(xvii) Mahim
(xviii) Mandasor
(xix) Mandla
(xx) Maner
(xxi) Modhera
(xxii) Pandua
(xxiii) Pulicat
(xxiv) Puri
(xxv) Raigarh
(xxvi) Rajmahal
(xxvii) Rewa
(xxviii)Shivner
(xxix) Sringeri
(xxx) Talikota
6. Discuss the contribution of Rajaraja I find Rajendra I for the expansion of the Chola empire. Analyse
the causes and impact of the naval expeditions of the Cholas.
7. Examine the significance of Alauddin Khalji’s administrative reforms. Was he really successful in
implementing these measures?
8. Analyse the merits and demerits of the Mansabdari System. How did it work under Akbar’s
successors?
Paper – II
Section A
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘The permanent system of Bengal though initiated with best of best of intentions, was a sadly
blundering affairs.’
(b) ‘The treaty of Bassein, by is direct and indirect operations, gave the Company the Empire
of India.’
(c) ‘The nationalist political movements for liberation such as the non-cooperation and civil
disobedience movements and their leadership depended heavily on the peasantry.’
(d) ‘Mountbatten’s task was, therefore, merely to work out details and effect the
partion, demanded by the League and accepted by both British Government and the Congress; and
this the new Viceroy moved commandingly to perform.’
2. What kind of administrative change was introduced in India under the East India Company?
3. Explain the British policy of ‘Subordinate union’ of Indian States with British India from 1858 to
1905. How did the Government of India implement this policy during this period?
4. To what extent did the socio-religious movements contribute to the emancipation of women in the
19th century?
Section B
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘The scale, splendour and organized power of the monarchy of Louis XIV were something
new in Europe.’
(b) ‘For a tired and timid generation Metternich was the necessary man.’
(c) ‘The Treaty of Versailles was merely an armistice for twenty years.’
(d) ‘The Manchurian crisis decided the fate of the league of Nations.’
6. Assess the intellectual quickening which occurred in Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
How did it influence modern society and civilization?
7. What were the obstacles to Italian unification till 1852? How and with what methods was the
unification of Italy achieved?
8. Arab Nationalism and Oil-these were the principal factors complicating the relations of the West
Asian countries with the outside world. Do you agree?

1994

Paper-I
Section A
1. Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short notes on the
answer book on the places marked on the map:
(i) Akhnur
(ii) Arikamedu
(iii) Barabar
(iv) Bagh
(v) Bhumra
(vi) Bodh gaya
(vii) Bhagatav
(viii) Chandraketugrah
(ix) Dhamner
(x) Elephanta
(xi) Eran
(xii) Gop
(xiii) Gyarspur
(xiv) Harappa
(xv) Harwan
(xvi) Karle
(xvii) Mohenjo Daro
(xviii) Martand
(xix) Maski
(xx) Mehendragiri
(xxi) Mukhalingam
(xxii) Nachna
(xxiii) Piprahwa
(xxiv) Rajim
(xxv) Sanghol
(xxvi) Sisupalgarh
(xxvii) Sirpur
(xxviii)Sonkh
(xxix) Sutkagen-Dor
(xxx) Tigwa
2. Discuss the pattern of trade during the Indus Valley civilization. How for did it affect the
nature of contemporary settlements in the Indian sub-continent?
3. Determine- the veracity of Megasthenes’ descriptions of Indian society and economy with the
help of other contemporary evidences.
4. Trace the scientific and technological developments in India up to c. A.D. 750.
Section B
5. Write short essays of not more than 200 words each on any three of the following:
(a) Ziauddin Barani as a historian
(b) Narrative paintings under Jahangir and Akbar
(c) Meaning and features of the Maharshtra Dharma
(d) Mughals and the British East India Company
6. Do you agree with the view that the form and content of temple architecture in South India between
c. A.D. 750 and 1200 were products of a specific economic and political milieu?
7. What light do inscriptions and accounts of European travelers throw on the antecedents and legacy of
the administrative structure of the Vijayanagar Empire?
8. “Aurangzeb is a much maligned monarch.” Argue the case for and against the proposition.
Paper-II
Section A
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) “The Widow Remarriage Act was, in many ways, a logical sequel to the abolition of Sati”
(b) “The new attitude of caution and conservatism can detected in almost every sphere of British
activity in India after the Revolt of 1857.”
(c) “The British Raj had a deeply racist aspect and it ultimately existed to protect colonial
exploitation.”
(d) “To glorify the strength of the Congress and deny that of the League is to be blind.” (P.C.
Joshi, 1945)
2. How did the British establish their control over Maharashtra in the first two decades of the 19th
century? Why did the Maratha challenge ultimately collapse?
3. How do you account of the rise and growth of the Business enterprise in India during the first half of
the 20th century?
4. Gandhi restrained mass-movements yet he retained his popularity among the masses. How do you
explain this paradox?
Section B
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) “The Renaissance was not a political or religious movement. It was a state of mind’
(b) “Protestantism contributed substantially to the rise of capitalism.”
(c) “Asian Nationalism is just a product of Western impact on the Asian intelligentsia in the last
decades of the nineteenth century.’
(d) “The countries in the Middle East became, after 1919, the scene of constant effervescence
and some striking changes.”
6. To what extent were the advances in scientific knowledge in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
a product of the needs of a changing society?
7. “The perpetuation of the economic malaise was the main cause of the political instability of Europe
during the next two decades (191939).” Explain.
8. Show how the presence of a weak and helpless China next door brought about the rise of militarism
and collapse of democracy in Japan.

1995

Paper-I
Section A
1. Write short essays on any three of the following in about 200 words each:
(a) Vedic literature
(b) Essence of -Early Jainism
(c) Inscriptions of Ashoka
(d) Historical significance of the advent of the Arabs in India.
2. Describe the distinguishing features of important archaeological cultures-of the Indian subcontinent
datable between c. 2000 B.C. and c. 500 B.C.
3. “The centuries between c. 200 B.C. and-c. AD. 300 constitute a landmark in the socio-religious
history of India.” Analyses the proposition.
4. How far is it true to say that the strength and vigour of Indian history during c. A.D. 500-750 lay in
the south of the Vindhyas?
5. Mark any 15 of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short notes (about fifty
words each) on the answer book on only the places marked on the map:
(i) Ahrnadnagar
(ii) Anhilawara
(iii) Badgara
(iv) Balasore
(v) Bayana
(vi) Bidar
(vii) Chinsura
(viii) Chittor
(ix) Daman
(x) Dharma
(xi) Dipalpur
(xii) Gangaikon-dacholapuram
(xiii) Gaur
(xiv) Ghargaon
(xv) Kamatapura
(xvi) Katehar
(xvii) Kishangarh
(xviii) Lakhnawati
(xix) Madurai
(xx) Mandu
(xxi) Navsari
(xxii) Orchha
(xxiii) Pandharpur
(xxiv) Panipat
(xxv) Patan
(xxvi) Qamarnager
(xxvii) Raichur
(xxviii)Sirohi
(xxix) Somnath
(xxx) Tirhut
Section B
6. Comment on any three of the following in about 200 words each:
(a) Land charters of north India (c. A-D. 750-1200)
(b) Balban’s theory of kingship
(c) Growth of regional languages arid literature during the medieval pei’iod
(d) Changes in the composition of nobility from Akbar to Aurangzeb
7. Make a comparative review of the agrarian reforms of Alauud-Din Khalji and Sher Shah Sun.
8. Do you agree with the view that the advent of the Turks and the Mughals in India heralded many
changes in the means of production? Give reasons in support of your answer.
Paper-II
Section A
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) “By certain of his actions Clive has marred both the glory and usefulness of his work.”
(b) The Government of India from Canning to Curzon was regarded “as a white man’s burden
rather than as a call to creative effort or the preparation for a new era.”
(c) The Diarchy provided by the Mont ford reforms “certainly created suspicion without the
frictions within.”
(d) ‘Having won political freedom, India had to win economic and cultural freedom.”
2. The British conquest of Sind was both a political and moral sequel to the first afghan war. Comment.
3. Economic changes in India from the late 1920s influenced the course of the country’s politics.
Elucidate.
4. Trace the course and comment on the character of caste movements in south India in the 20th
century. How far was their object achieved?
Section B
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) “The Renaissance and the Reformation are the two springs of modern history, rival sources of
the intellectual and moral freshening of modern life.”
(b) The American Revolution “was a natural and even expected event in the history of colonial
people who had come of age.”
(c) At the end of the battle of Sedan (1870), “Europe lost a mistress and gained a master.”
(d) “There was an element of system in Hitler’s foreign policy His outlook was continental.”
6. The unification of Italy and that of Germany constituted a contrast in respect of the ways they were
affected and impact they left on later international politics. Elucidate.
7. Divided into spheres of influence by foreign powers, Chiri in the 19th century presented a sorry
spectacle. How did China react to it?
8. “Corporate State” was Mussolini’s answer to sociopolitical problems of his country. Elucidate.

1996

Paper-I
Section A
1. Write short essays of not more than 200 word each on any three of the following topics:
(a) The Religion of the Indus Civilization
(b) Social and economic conditions of North India during the Pre-Mauryan period (600-325
B.C.)
(c) Mauryan municipal administration
(d) Factors that led to the Rise and Fall of the Gupta Empire
2. “Of all the events that had a singular being on the history of India, Harsha’s death in 647 A.D. is
significant.” Why? Explain.
3. “Ancient Indians had no taste for historiography; their scholars cared more for religious, spiritual and
philosophical studies. Indian historiography is essentially an Islamic heritage “Comment upon this
statement with special reference to the contemporary writers and their works which help us in the
reconstruction of history of the early medieval period of Indian history.
4. Give a account of the Society in Northern and Central India since the death of Harsha to the Muslim
conquest of North India.
Section B

5. Mark and fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write brief notes on the
places marked on the map:
(i) Ajmer
(ii) Attock
(iii) Benares
(iv) Bhatner
(v) Champaner
(vi) Cutch
(vii) Daulatabad
(viii) Delhi
(ix) Devagiri
(x) Diu
(xi) Ellichpur
(xii) Ellora
(xiii) Ghazni
(xiv) Ghor
(xv) Gwalior
(xvi) Hampi
(xvii) Hissar
(xviii) Jodhpur
(xix) Kabul
(xx) Katni
(xxi) Khyber Pass
(xxii) Lahore
(xxiii) Peshawar
(xxiv) Rameswaram
(xxv) Ranthambore
(xxvi) Sialkot
(xxvii) Thaneswar
(xxviii)Thatta
(xxix) Uttaramerur
(xxx) Warangal
6. Give an estimate of Ghiasuddin Balban.
7. Assess the importance of the Cholas in the history of South India.
8. Shivaji’s rise to power cannot be treated as an isolated phenomenon in Maratha history. It was as
much the result of his personal daring and heroism as of the peculiar geographical situation of the
Deccan country and the unifying religious influences that were animating the people with new hopes
and aspirations in the 15th and 1.6th centuries. Explain.
Paper-II
Section A
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) “The verdict of Plessey was confirmed by the English victory at
Buxar.”
(b) The British policy towards Indian States in 1818-1858 was one of “isolation and noninterference
tempered by annexation.”
(c) “The religious reform movements of the 19th century were “endeavours to recast the old
religion (Hinduism) into a new form suited to meet the needs of the new society.”
(d) “India after 1905 had new interests and objectives and compelled new lines of policy.”
2. The changing life in Indian village marked best the impact of the British administration on the Indian
people. Explain, identifying the process and the extent of the change.
3. Trace the course of the people’s movement in Indian States after 1937. How did the Congress
leadership react to it?
4. The Pakistan movement converted a cultural and religious entity of a people into a separatist political
force. Elucidate.
Section B
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each: –
(a) “The era of discovery and exploration was but another aspect of the Renaissance interest in
the world and man.”
(b) The Industrial Revolution “Changed England in character and culture.”
(c) “The Communist international and the League of Nations both announced the end of the
Balance of Power.”
(d) The Great Depression (1929-34) was “attended by momentous consequences in the economic
as well as in the political sphere.”
6. The French Revolution (1789) sought to remove both “the religious and secular props of the existing
social order.” Elucidate.
7. Trace the stages in the partition of Africa after 1870. How did it affect international relations?
8. Turkish renaissance guided by Kemal Pasha revolutionized the Turkish life a many levels. Amplify.

1997

Paper-I
Time Allowed : Three Hours Maximum Marks : 300
Candidates should attempt Questions 1 and 5 which are compulsory, and any three of the remaining questions selecting at least one question from each Section . All questions carry equal marks.
Section A
1. Write short essays of not more than 200 words each on any three of the following topics :
(a) Vedic rituals
(b) The architectural and artistic features of the great stupa at Sanchi
(c) Skandagupta’s war with the Hunas
(d) Nalanda Mahavihara
2. “The continuity of the Indus Civilization into later ages was not confined to the religious and spiritual fields alone.” Analyse the statement.
3. Assess the achievements of the Pallavas in administration and art.
4. How did Indian culture spread in the South-east Asiatic countries during the Gupta Age ?
Section B
5. Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write brief historical notes on the places marked by you on the map.
(1) Amarkot(2) Asirgarh (3)Aurangabad (4) Belur (5) Burhanpur (6) Chanderi (7) Chandernagar (8) GoIkunda (9) Hansi
(10) Janjira (11) Jaunpur (12) Junagarh (13) Kanchi (14) Kandahar (15) Kannauj (16) Kara (17) Kaveripattinam (18) Konark
(19) Multan (20) Mursidabad (21) Nagpur (22) Nasilk (23) Puri (24) Rajahmundry (25) Ratnagiri (26) Satara (27) Talikota
(28) Tiruchirapalli (29) Vatapi (30) Vengi
6. “Achieving dominance in the south of the Vindbyas did not satisfy the ambitions of the Rashtrakutas, they also wanted to achieve dominance over the Gangetic PIains.”Elaborate and comment.
7. Discuss the implications of Khilji imperialism with reference to administration and economic regulations on the State and peopIe of India.
8. Highlight the catholicity of Akbar’s regime with suitable examples.
Paper-II
Time Allowed : Three Hours Maximum marks : 300
Candidates should attempt Questions 1 and 5 which are compulsory, and any three of the remaining questions selecting at least one question from each Section .
All questions carry equal marks.
Section A (Modern India)
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each :
(a) The British conquered India “in a fit of absent mind ness”.
(b) The Permanent settlement was a “bold, brave and wise measures.”
(c) Curzon’s partition of Bengal gave the unwitting initiative to events of magnitude and returned many years later to port with the cargo of freedom.”
(d) India broke her British fetters with western hammers.
2. The 19th century Indian renaissance was both an acceptance
and rejection of western values. Do you agree ?
3. Tribal movements should be viewed as “History from below”. Discuss the objects and nature of the movements in 19th century
India.
4. Account for the rise and growth of leftism in the Coogress movement. What impact did it have on contemporary
Indian politics ?
Section B (World History)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each :
(a) “The Peace of Westphalia the region of theology over the European mind and left the road obstructed but passable for the
tentative of reason.”
(b) “If monarchical misrole ignited the French revolution, lofty ideas both inspired and
sustained it.”
(c) “The Bill of Rights (1688) set the seal on Parliamentary supremacy in England.”
(d) “The unification of Italy completed…the destruction of the European order.”
6. Isolation of France constituted the keystone of Bismarck’s foreign policy. Elucidate.
7. President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal” had the wit to start the political economy in a fresh, more promising direction”. Do you agree ?
8. Trace the growth of militarism in Japan in the inter-war years. What international reaction did it provoke ?

1998

Paper-II
Time Allowed : Three Hours Maximum Marks : 300
Candidates should attempt Questions 1 and 5 which are compulsory, and any three of the remaining questions selecting at least one question from each Section. All questions carry equal marks.
Section -A (Modern India)
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each :
(a) The British “fought the First Maratha War in a period when their fortunes were at the lowest ebb”.
(b) The Arya Samaj ” did not; however, succeed in capturing the imagination of modern India as a whole”.
(c) The Montague Declaration (20 August 1917) was observed more closely in the “realm of imperial relations” than anything else.
(d) “Both freedom and partition were the work of Indian middle classes.”
2. How did the British conquer Bengal in the 18th century ? What circumstances helped them ?
3. Examine the nature of the Revolt of 1857 and indicate the manifold changes in British civil and military administration of India after 1857.
4. Explain the attitude of the Indian National Congress towards the constitutional changes of 1909, 1919 and 1935.
Section – B (World History)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each :
(a) One great effect of the geographical discoveries of the 15th century was ” the growing belief that America, Asia and Africa were to be used extensively for the benefit of Europeans”.
(b) The American War of Independence “deprived Great Britain of one empire, but it strengthened the foundations of another” .
(c) Lord Beaconsfield after his return from the Congress of Berlin (1878) boasted : ” I have brought peace with
honor”.
(d) One of the most important impacts of the Second world war was the ” division of Europe”, eastern and western.
6. The Industrial Revolution brought about great changes in the social and economic life of Europe. Explain.
7. The years 1853-1894 witnessed the transformation of Japan. Explain.
8. In Russia, Lenin was ” the father of socialism, organizer of the revolution and the founder of the new Russian society. ” Examine the statement .

1999

Paper-I
Time Allowed : Three Hours Maximum Marks : 300
Candidates should attempt Question 1 and 5 which are compulsory, and any three of the remaining questions selecting at least one question from each Section. All questions carry equal marks.
Section -A
1. Mark any 15 of the following on the map supplied to you and write short descriptive notes on the places plotted by you on map :
(1) Ambek (2) Kanyakubj (3) Kishkindha (4) Kundalvan (5) Khajuraho (6) Gihlot (7) Gokul (8) Chidamberum
(9) Jahazpur (10) Jaisalmer (11) Takshila (12) Dwarka (13) Jalalabad (14) Nalanda
(15) Panchwati (16) Pataliputra (17) Fatehpur Sikri (18) Badrinath (19) Behmanabad (20) Balbrahmeshwar
(21) Bijapur (22) Burhanpur (23) Bairat (24) Bhadrawati (25) Bheetargaon (26) Warangel
(27) Vilaspur (28) Shatrunjai (29) Sripur (30) Kargil
2. Discuss salient features of the indus Valley Civilization. Mention important places from where relics of civilization have been recovered so far. Examine causes of its decline.
3. ‘Harshvardhan was himself great, but he has been made greater by Ban and Yuan Chiang. ‘ Critically examine the statement.
4. Examine sources of information for Mauryan dynasty. Throw light on historical significance of Ashoka’s inscriptions.
Section -B
5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following topics :
(a) Alauddin Khilji was a typical despot
(b) Sher Shah combined in himself qualities of lion and fox
(c) Rana Pratap’s patriotism was his only offence
(d) Spanish ulcer ruined Napoleon Bonaparte, the Deccan ulcer ruined Aurangzeb
6. Critically evaluate the contribution of Rashtrakutas to art and culture.
7. Examine circumstances leading to rise of Shivaji. Throw light on his legacy.
8. Trace influence of Islam on Indian culture and civilization.
Paper-II
Candidates should attempt Question 1 and 5 which are compulsory, and any three of the remaining questions selecting at least one question from each Section. All questions carry equal marks.
Section A (Modern India)
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each :
(a) After 1757 there grew up a State of Bengal which was a ‘sponsored state” as well as a “plundered state”.
(b) The British Indian State experienced the ‘wind of change’ with the arrival of Lord William Bentinck.
(c) The Christian Missionary propaganda from 1813 onwards was “often insensitive and wounding”.
(d) The Indian Middle Class firmly believed that “Britain had imposed a colonial economy on India which had impoverished the country.”
2. Do you believe that the uprising in 1857 was nationalist in nature ? If not, what was its character?
3. Trace the origin and growth of the Indian Muslim League.
4. “Gandhi’s mystique consisted of a union of original ideas with a remarkable flair for tactics and an uncanry insight m the mass mind.” Elucidate.
Section B (World History)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each :
(a) Portugal and Spain, the pioneers in world exploration, were also first in the race to conquer overseas countries
(b) To some extent, the American War of Independence inspired the French Revolution
(c) The political unification of Germany was accomplished solely by Bismarck
(d) With the proclamation in Nanking of a Chinese Republic with Sun-Yat-Sen as the President in 1911, “the old China wilted rapidly.”
6. Trace the rise and growth of the New European Society in the inter-war period.
7. “Stalinist Russia was a despotic regime.” Critically examine this view.
8. In the post -Second World War scenario friends in war did not remain friends in peace. Examine the truth of this view in the period of your study.

2000

Paper-I
Time Allowed : Three Hours Maximum Marks : 300
Instruction
Each question is printed both in Hindi and in English. Answers must be written in the medium specified in the Admission Certificate issued to you, which must be stated clearly on the cover of the answer-book in the space provided for the purpose. No mark will be given for the answers written in a medium other than that specified in the Admission Certificate.
Candidates should attempt questions 1 and 5 which are compulsory, and any THREE of the remaining questions selecting at least
one question from each Section. All questions carry equal marks.
Section ‘A’
Q. 1. Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short descriptive notes on the places marked by you on the map :
(1) Aizawl (16) Mathura (2) Amritsar (17) Madurai (3) Arikamedu (18) Nalanda
(4) Bangalore (19) Nasik (5) Bharukachha (20) Palitana (6) Bhaja (21) Rajagriha (7) Gangotri (22) Sasan Gir
(8) Itanagar (23) Shrinagar (9) Jaugada (24) Udayagiri-Khandagiri (10) Jhansi (25) Uchh
(11) Kalsi (26) Ujjain (12) Kanchivaram (27) Valabhi (13) Kanheri (28) Vidisha (14) Kumrahar (29) Vaishali
(15) Konarak (30) Vatapi
Q. 2. How did Ashoka contribute to the moral and administrative welfare of his people ?
Q. 3. Who were the Maukharis ? Discuss their political relations with the Later Guptas of
Magadha.
Q. 4. Give an account of the struggle for supremacy in South India between the Chalukyas of Badami and the
Pallavas.
Section ‘B’
Q. 5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any tree of the following topics :
(a) Architecture of the Vijayanagara empire.
(b) Amir Khusro was an eminent poet not a historian.
(c) During the reign of Jaliangir Mughal painting reached its zenith.
(d) The Sufi Movement and its role in promoting communal harmony.
Q. 6. Were the Chola village assemblies democratic in nature ? Give reasons for your answer.
Q. 7. Form an estimate of the personality of Firoz Shah Tughlaq with special reference to his religious policy and public works.
Q. 8. Describe the Rajput policy of the Mughal emperors. Do you agree with the view that the reversal of Akbar ‘s Rajput policy by Aurangzeb was responsible for the disintegration of the Mughal empire ?
Paper-II
Time Allowed : Three Hours Maximum Marks : 300
Instruction
Each question is printed both in Hindi and in English. Answers must be written in the medium specified in the Admission Certificate issued to you, which must be stated clearly on the cover of the answer-book in the space provided for the purpose. No mark will be given for the answers written in a medium other than that specified in the Admission Certificate.
Candidates should attempt questions 1 and 5 which are compulsory, and any THREE of the remaining questions selecting at least ONE question from each Section.
All questions carry equal marks.
Section ‘A’ (Modern India)
Q. 1. Continent on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each :
(a) The battle of Plassey was “not a great battle but a great betrayal.”
(b) Towards the Princes, Canning adopted a policy of “punishing resistance and rewarding obedience.”
(c) Sir Charles Napier said, “We have no right to seize Sind, yet we shall do so, and a very advantageous, useful, humane piece of rascality it will be.”
(d) The 1921 Moplah rebellion was “in essence an expression of long-standing agrarian discontent which was intensified by the religious and ethnic identity.”
Q. 2. Discuss the view that the British rule brought about economic changes in India to serve the needs of the imperial economy and establish a dependent form of underdevelopment in this country.
Q. 3. Discuss the important social reform legislation passed in the 19th century. and elucidate the reaction of Indian leaders to the measures adopted.
Q. 4. To what extent was the emergence of the Congress in 1885 the culmination of a process of political awakening that had its beginning in the 1870s ?
Section ‘B’ (World History)
Q. 5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each :
(a) “Of all forms assumed by the Protestant Reformation, Calvinism has been the most far- reaching in its scope and the most profound in its influence. ”
(b) “The Crimean War was the most useless war ever waged.”
(c) “Until December 1941 the battlefield of the Second World War was exclusively European and Atlantic; thereafter it became also
Asiatic and Pacific.”
(d) “The simultaneous expansion of European powers overseas during the last quarter of the 19th century brought them into frequent collisions
at a remote points all over Africa and Asia.”
Q. 6. How did Napoleon Bonaparte heal the wounds of France inflicted by the Revolution and correct the errors perpetrated by its leaders ?
Q. 7. To what extent did the Western powers bring China under their domination without annexation ?
Q. 8. Analyze the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 and examine the validity of Germany’s objections to the treaty.

2001

Paper-I
Section A
1. Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short descriptive notes
on the places plotted by you on the map:
(i) Ajmer
(ii) Ahmednagar
(iii) Allahabad
(iv) Badami
(v) Bhubaneshwar
(vi) Chitrakuta
(vii) Chittor
(viii) Chandigarh
(ix) Dehradun
(x) Dhara
(xi) Elephanta
(xii) Ellora
(xiii) Guwahati
(xiv) Hyderabad
(xv) Harappa
(xvi) Indraprastha
(xvii) jagannathpuri
(xviii) Kalyan
(xix) Kaveripattanam
(xx) Lothal
2. Analyse the causes of the success of the Magadhan imperialism upto the reign of Ashoka the Great.
3. Did the triangular conflict between the Rashtrakutas, Gujara Pratiharas and Palas create a political
vaccum in northern India which facilitated the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni?
4. “The inferior cavalry of the Rajputs was not the only cause of their defeat at the hands of
Turko- Afghans and Mughal.” Comment.
Section B
5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following topics:
(a) The Vedanta of Sankaracharya
(b) Hemu vikramaditya
(c) The zenith of Mughal architecture under Shahjehan
(d) Savai jai Singh, the astronomer
6. Assess the impact of the market reforms of Alauddin Khilji on contemporary economy and society.
7. Evaluate the impact of the Sufi and Bhakti Movements on vernacular languages and life and thought
of the common people.
8. Were the Marathas restricted by their geopolitical limitations from becoming the paramount power
of India?
Paper-II
Section A
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘Dalhousie changed the map of India with speed and thoroughness no campaign could equal.’
(b) ‘The tribal and peasant rebellion laid the foundation of the revolt of 1857’.
(c) ‘The British industrial policy in the nineteenth century ruined the Indian handicrafts’.
(d) The Quit India Movement was a spontaneous revolt of the people against British rule.
2. Discuss the main features of the ‘Raiyatwari Settlement’ in South India. Did it satisfy the aspirations
of the peasantry?
3. Examine the economic and social factors which led to he rise of Indian nationalism in the second
half of the nineteenth century.
4. Jawaharlal Nehru was the architect of India’s policy of non-alignment. In the light of this statement
discuss India’s relations with the two ‘Power Blocks’ between 1947-1964.
Section B
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘Marxian Communism is primarily the offspring of German Hegelianism and French
Socialism.’
(b) “Besmirch created a new Germany with the policy of ‘blood and iron’”.
(c) ‘There was not only a difference of principles at Paris (Peace Conference) but a clash of
personalities’.
(d) ‘The decolonization led to the break-up of empires.’
(6) ‘The Napoleonic Empire was doomed because of its inherent and self-defeating contradictions’.
Elucidate.
(7) Trace the various stages of European imperialism in Africa in the nineteenth century.
(8) Discuss the aims of the establishment of the Arab League and assess it role in safeguarding the
interests of the Arab nations.

2002

Paper-I
Section A
1. Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short descriptive notes
on the places plotted by you on the map:
(i) Ajanta
(ii) Bodh Gaya
(iii) Dholavira
(iv) Dwarka
(v) Girnar
(vi) Hastinapur
(vii) Kanchipuram
(viii) Kosambi
(ix) Madurai
(x) Malkhed
(xi) Mohanjodaro
(xii) Nalanda
(xiii) Purushpur
(xiv) Ropar
(xv) Sanchi
(xvi) Sravanbelgola
(xvii) Sravasti
(xviii) Tanjore
(xix) Thaneswar
(xx) Varanasi
2. Analyze the elements of urban civilization in the harappan Culture. What factors were responsiblefor its decline?
3. Examine the nature of the mauryan State. Bring out the features of their administrative system.
4. Examine the proficiency of the ancient Indians in various crafts, science and mathematics.
Section B
5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following topics:.
(a) Origin of the Bhakti Movement
(b) Babarnama as a source of history
(c) Mansabdari System
(d) Consequences of the Third Battle of Panipat
6. Discuss balban’s concept of kingship. How was it modified by Aluddin
Khalji?
7. Trace the evolution of the religious views of Akbar. Write a note on his policy of
Sulh-i-kul.
8. Explain the principal features of architecture during Akbar’s rule. What changes were made in them
by Shahjahan ?
Paper-II
Section A
1. Comment on any Three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) “The verdict at Plassey was confirmed by the English victory at Buxar”.
(b) “India broke her British fetters with Western hammers”.
(c) “Gandhi restrained mass movements, yet he retained his popularity among the masses.
(d) “The ideology of Subhash Chandra Bose was a combination of nationalism, fascism and
communism.”
2. “The rise and expansion of British empire was an accident rather than the result of a deliberate policy
and design.” Critically examine this statement.
3. “The recurring famines in the 19th century were the inevitable consequence of the British policy and
expose the real character of the paternal solicitude for the peasantry on the part of the British
administration.” Examine this statement critically.
4. Discuss the nature of the leadership and programme of the Congress Socialist party.
Section B
5. Comment on any Three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) The Renaissance was the discovery of the world and of man.
(b) If monarchical misrule ignited the French Revolution, lofty ideas both inspired and sustained
it.
(c) The Great Depression (1928-34) was attended by momentous consequences in the economic
as well as in the political sphere.
(d) “One of the most important consequences of the Second World War was ‘division of
Europe’, eastern and western.”
6. “Napoleon kindled the national sentiment, but German unity was achieved by Bismarck.” Discuss.
7. Examine the circumstances in china in the years 1945-49. What did the United States do to resolve
the conflict between the Nationalists and the Communists there?
8. Discuss the main factors leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

2003

Paper-I
Section A
1. Mark any FIFTEEN of the following places on the map Supplied to you and write short descriptive
notes on places plotted by you on the map
(1) Kot Digi
(2) Banamali
(3) Tiruclirapalli
(4) Tamralipti
(5) Vaisali
(6) Kundagrama
(7) Puri
(8) Ujjain
(9) Badami
(10) Guggara
(11) Sarnath
(12) Amarravati
(13) Janguda
(14) Kolhapur
(15) Nagarjunkonda
(16) Calicut
(17) Haldighati
(18) Golconda
(19) Somnath
(20) Mathura.
2. Assess the pattern of settlement, economy social organization and religion of India during C 200 to
500 BC from archaeological evidences.
3. “The Sixth century B.C. was a period of religious and economic unrest in India.” Comment.
4. Examine the information of Fahien about the political, religious, social and economic conditions of
India. Make a comparative study of his account with that of Yuan Chawang.
Section B
5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any THREE of the following:
(a) Kalhan as a historian
(b) Experiments of Mohammad Tughluq
(c) Sufi Movements
(d) Chauth and Sardeshmukhi.
6. Attempt a critical essay of the Indian Science and Civilization in the light of Alberuni’s writings.
What merits and drawbacks, do you find in his account?
7. What impact did kabir and Nanak leave on Indian Society and Culture?
8. ‘Akbar built the Moghul Empire by enlisting the support Rajputs.’ Do you agree?
Paper-II
Section A
1. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘Absentee landlordism was a consequential feature of Bengal’s Permanent land settlement.’
(b) ‘India underwent suffering and mortality in the wake of recurring famines’ in the later half of
the 19th century.
(c) ‘In the summer of 1942 Gandhi was in a strange and uniquely militant mood’.
(d) ‘Rabindranath Tagores’s nationalism was based on a Catholic internationalism.’
2. What was the impact of early British land policy in the village communities of North India?
3. Trace the factors which led to a split in the Indian national Congress in 1907. What was its impact on
the course of the nationalist movement?
4. Examine the causes of the rise and progress of revolutionary movements in India from 1905 to 1931.
Section B
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
(a) ‘The French Revolution attacked privileges and not property’.
(b) ‘The roots of the rise of Fascism lay in Peace Treaties.’
(c) ‘The Security Council is the heart of the United nations’.
(d) ‘The Brussels Treaty of 17 March, 1948 paved the way for the formation of NATO’.
6. Bismarck united Germany not by majority of votes and speeches but by a policy of “Blood and iron”.
In the light of this statement assess the contribution of Bismarck to the unification of Germany.
7. Examine the causes of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and indicate its significance in world history.
8. Analyze the factors leading to the end of the Cold war and account for the U.S. ascendancy in the
world.

2004

SECTION – A
Q1.Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short descriptive notes on the places plotted by you on the map:
4×15=60
(i) Achichhatra
(ii) Amaravati
(iii) Bhimbaitka
(iv) Champa
(v) Kalibangan
(vi) Kanauj
(vii) Kapilvastu
(viii) Karle
(ix) Mahabalipuram
(x) Mathura
(xi) Mehrgarh
(xii) Paithan
(xiii) Pataliputra
(xiv) Sarnath
(xv) Siddapura
(xvi) Somnath
(xvii) Tamralipti
(xviii) Taxila
(xix) Tripuri
(xx) Udaigiri
Q2.Describe the social life of the later Vedic people. How was it different from the Rig-Vedic life?60
Q3.Explain the social aspects of Buddhism and account for its decline in India.60
4. Give an account of the rise of the Chalukyas of Vatapi and their struggle with other rulers. Write a note on their patronage of arts.60
SECTION – B
5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following topics:
3×20=60
(a) The ‘Corps of Forty’ and its relations with the Sultans.
(b) The Token Currency System introduced by Muhammad Tughlaq.
(c) Was Din-i-Ilahi ‘a monument of Akbar’s folly’ ?
(d) The system of the collection of Chauth and Sardeshmukhi by the Maratha rulers.
6.The Cholas are said to have established a strong and well organized administration with an element of selfgovernment at the local level. Do you agree? Give reasons.60
7.Discuss the growth of the Niguna School of Bhakti Movement emphasising the contribution of Kabir and Nanak to it.60
8.In what ways were Aurangzeb’s Rajput and religious policies different from those of his predecessors? What were the consequences of the changes made by him?60
2004-Paper II
HISTORY
Paper II
SECTION – A
(Modern India)
Q1.Comment on any THREE of the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) ‘The Treaty of Salbai (1782) was neither honorable to the English nor advantageous to their interests.’
(b) ‘The object of the Act (Regulating) was good, but system that it established was imperfect.
(c) ‘Permanent Settlement disappointed many expectations and introduced there results that were not anticipated.’
(d) ‘We are therefore unable to advise the British Government that the power which at present resides in British hands should be handed over to two entirely separate sovereign States.’
Q2.Discuss the causes that led to the ‘economic drain’ in Bengal following the Battle of Plassey.60
Q3.Examine the impact of British rule on Indian Society in the 19th Century.60
4. Analyse Indian foreign policy of Non-alignment between 1947 and 1964.60
SECTION – B
(World History)
5. Comment on any THREE of the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) ‘Rousseau’s political philosophy contains the seeds of Socialism, Absolutism and Democracy.’
(b) ‘Napoleon was the child of the Revolution, but in many ways he reversed the aims and principles of the movement from which he sprang’
(c) ‘To Bismarck the conclusion of the Treaty of May 20, 1882, was the culmination of this system.’
(d) ‘The most important single factor … in the years following 1919 was the French demand for security.’
6.Review the background of the Chartist Movement. Despite its failure how had their demands been met in the succeeding years?60
7.What were the weaknesses and difficulties of the Weimer Republic? How did Hitler succeed in establishing his dictatorship?60
8.Analyse the factors for the collapse of Soviet Communism and Soviet Union during 1985-1991.
60

2005

SECTION – A
Q1.Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short descriptive notes on places plotted by you on the map:
4×15=60
(i) Mohenjodaro
(ii) Burzahom
(iii) Inamgaon
(iv) Kaveripattinam
(v) Anuradhapura
(vi) Chittagong
(vii) Pratishthana
(viii) Hampi
(ix) Diu
(x) Debal
(xi) Bijapur
(xii) Sannathi
(xiii) Sisupalgarh
(xiv) Karnasuvarna
(xv) Chitore
(xvi) Vidisa
(xvii) Warangal
(xviii) Seringapatam
(xix) Fatehpur Sikri
(xx) Sasaram
Q2.Determine the extent of the Mauryan empire.60
Q3.Assess the status of women in India from c. 4th century BC to AD 6th century.60
4. What are the salient features of the administrative system of the Guptas ?60
SECTION – B
5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following:
3×20=60
(a) The Samanta system
(b) The Bahmani kingdom
(c) Mughal painting
(d) Chaianyadeva and Vaishnavism
6.Give your opinion on the urban development in India during the Mughal times.60
7.”The tenets of Hindu and Muslim mystics were similar enough that the ground was ripe for syncretic movements involving adherents of both religious.” Elucidate.60
8.How would you like to characterize the eighteenth century in Indian history?60
2005-Paper II
HISTORY
Paper II
SECTION – A
(Modern India)
Q1.Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) ‘Upon the whole, then, I conclude that the treaty of Bassein was wise, just and a politic measure.’
(b) ‘Whatever might have been its original character, it (Rebellion of 1857) soon became a symbol of challenge to the mighty British power in India ‘
(c) ‘The impact of government on the people meant essentially the impact of government on the village.’
(d) ‘The national democratic awakening of the Indian people found expression also in the religious sphere.’
Q2.Examine the essential principles of the Subsidiary Alliance system. How far did it contribute in making the British Company the supreme sovereign authority in India?60
Q3.Trace the development of the famine policy of the British in India 1876 and 1921. Did it provide relief to the people?60
4. Analyse the factors responsible for the Civil Disobedience movement (1930-31). How far were its aims realised in the Government of India Act of 1935 ?60
SECTION – B
(World History)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) ‘Though reform was inevitable, the Act (1832) by which it was accomplished was open to grave criticism.’
(b) ‘The writings of the philosophers had a tremendous influence on the minds of the people and created a revolutionary awakening in their minds and formed the intellectual creed of the French Revolution.’
(c) ‘They have stopped me from making Italy by diplomacy from the North, I will make it by revolution from the South.’
(d) ‘The Russian Revolution (1917) was an economic explosion hastened by the stupidities of the autocratic Government’
6.’What were the factors that worked in the drafting of the American Constitution? Do you agree with Beard’s view of the constitution being an Economic Document?60
7.Discuss the circumstances leading to the Chinese Revolution of 1949 and analyse its significance.60
8.Critically examine the various dimensions and phases of the cold war between 1947 and 1962.60

2006

SECTION – A
Q1.Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short descriptive notes on places plotted by you on the map:
4×15=60
(i) Konark
(ii) Taxila
(iii) Talikota
(iv) Somnath
(v) Kalinjar
(vi) Mandu
(vii) Murshidabad
(viii) Nalanda
(ix) Tanjore
(x) Amber
(xi) Anegondi
(xii) Chanderi
(xiii) Arikmedu
(xiv) Kalibangan
(xv) Nagarjunakonda
(xvi) Eran
(xvii) Kausambi
(xviii) Pattadakal
(xix) Halebid
(xx) Dvarsamudra
Q2.Discuss the changing approaches to the study of early Indian history.60
Q3.Describe the expansion of the Gupta Empire under Samudragupta.30
4. Discuss the major stages in the evolution of architecture during the ancient period.60
SECTION – B
5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following:
3×20=60
(a) The Khalji Revolution
(b) Sufism in North India
(c) Religious tolerance of Akabar
(d) Dara Shukoh
6.Bring out the main features of the administration system under Delhi Saltanate during Turko-Afgan Period.60
7.Write a short Essay on the development of Literature during Mughal Period.60
8.Examine the factors which were responsible for opening and development of European trade in India during the 16th and 17th centuries.60
2006-Paper II
HISTORY
Paper II
SECTION – A
(Modern India)
Q1.Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) “Neither Alexender the Great nor Napoleon could have won the empire of India by starting from Pondicherry as a base and contending with a power which held Bengal and command of the Sea”.
(b) “A self-sufficient village, based on agriculture carried on with the primitive plough and bullock-power, and handicraft by means of simple instruments, was a basic feature of pre-British Indian economy.”
(c) “So Long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance , I hold every man a traitor who having been educated at their expense, pay not the least need to them.”
(d) “I felt that If we did not accept partition , India would be split into many bits and would be ruined.”
Q2.Examine the circumstance which led to the third Mysore War. Could Cornwallis have avoided it.60
Q3.What is the mean by commercialization of Indian Agriculture? Discuss its result.60
4. Account for the emergence of the left-wing within the congress. How far did it influence the programme and policy of the congress.60
SECTION – B
(World History)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each.
3×20=60
(a) “No Taxation without representation”.
(b) “Colonies are like fruits which cling to the tree only till they ripen”.
(c) “Treaty of Versailles contained the seeds of future conflicts”.
(d) “A cleaver conquer will always impose his demands on the conquered by installments.”
6.“The Renaissance scholars laid the eggs which Luther; the father of the reformation later on hatched “Discuss.60
7.Critically analysis the cause and the results of the Chinese revolution of 1949.60
8.Give a brief account of the struggle against “Apartheid” in South Africa.60

2007

SECTION – A
Q1.Mark any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short descriptive notes on the places marked.
4×15=60
(i) Kot digi
(ii) Kalibangan
(iii) Ahicchatra
(iv) Bhimbaitka
(v) Kanauj
(vi) Siddapura
(vii) Udayagiri
(viii) Kaveripoompattinam
(ix) Tiruchirapalli
(x) Sisupalgarh
(xi) Anuradhapura
(xii) Hampi
(xiii) Srirangapatnam
(xiv) Puri
(xv) Kolhapur
(xvi) Haldighati
(xvii) Golconda
(xviii) Chittagong
(xix) Chitore
(xx) Calicut
Q2.”Reconstruction of Early Indian history is hardly possible without the help of inscriptions and coins.” Discuss.60
Q3.Write what you know of the rise and spread of Buddhism before the first century A.D.60
4. Throw light on the condition of common man in the Gupta period.60
SECTION – B
5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following:
3×20=60
(a) Alberuni on science in India
(b) The Bahamani Kingdom
(c) Mughal painting
(d) Chauth and Sardeshmukhi of the Maratha rulers
6.Show that the administrative system in India reached a very high level during the Chola period.60
7.”The tenets of Hindu and Muslim mystics were similar enough that the ground was ripe for syncretic movements involving adherents of both the religions.” Elucidate.60
8.”Akbar built the Mughal Empire by enlisting the support of the Rajputs; Aurangzeb destroyed it by alienating the Rajputs.” Discuss critically.60
2007-Paper II
HISTORY
Paper II
SECTION – A
(Modern India)
Q1.Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) “The Revolt of 1857 seemed to call the very presence of the British into question. What it did not do was reverse these change”.
(b) “Of the evils which corroded Indian society in the nineteenth century were probably those which stunted its womanhood.”
(c) “At Karachi in 1931 , the congress defined what Swaraj would mean for the masses”.
(d) “There is no other instance in the history of mankind of a poet and philosopher working such as a miracle in shaping the destiny of his people” (A Tribute to M. Iqbal)
Q2.Examine the major factors shaping the British land-revenue policy in India. How It affected Indian society?60
Q3.Explain the circumstances leading to the alliance between the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements. Was it a politically wise step on the part of the Congress?60
4. “With great skill and masterful diplomacy and using both persuasion and pressure, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel succeeded in integrating the hundreds of princely states with the Indian Union.” Discuss.60
SECTION – B
(World History)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) “No event as encompassing as the French Revolution occurs in an intellectual vacuum.”
(b) “New imperialism was a nationalistic, not an economic phenomena.”
(c) “The War’s (First World War’s) most permanent contribution to the spirit or the post-War years was disillusion.”
(d) “NATO in many ways symbolized the key role that the United States had come to play in Europe”
6.Give reasons for the origin of the Renaissance in Italy.60
7.Discuss the main characteristics of Fascism.60
8.”By the 1980s, the Communist system of the Soviet Union was incapable of maintaining the country’s role as a Superpower.” Explain this statement.60

2008

SECTION – A
Q1.Mark any FIFTEEN of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short descriptive notes on the places marked by you:-
4×15=60
(i) Burzahom
(ii) Banawali
(iii) Ahar
(iv) Girnar
(v) Chandraketugarh
(vi) Brahmagiri
(vii) Bayana
(viii) Gangai Kondachelapuram
(ix) Tamralipti
(x) Muziris
(xi) Amban
(xii) Modhera
(xiii) Devnimori
(xiv) Bhadreshwar
(xv) Bundi
(xvi) Gingee (Jinjee)
(xvii) Antichak
(xviii) Gaur
(xix) Sasaram
(xx) Mahasthamgarh
Q2.Discuss the distribution and significance of farming cultures outside the Indus system.60
Q3.How justified are we in characterizing the post-Mauryan five centuries as the “Dark Period” of Indian History? Give reasons in support of your answer.60
4. How do recent archaeological findings and Sangam literary texts enlighten us about the early state and society in South India?60
SECTION – B
5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any THREE of the following:
3×20=60
(a) The Ahom Kingdom
(b) Significance of the arrival of the Portuguese in India
(c) The ‘Corps of Forty’ and its relations with the Sultan
(d) Evolution of the Khalsa Panth
6.What are the manifestations of Tamil devotional cults? How do you account for their growth between C. 750 and C. 1200 CE?60
7.Delineate the striking features of agricultural and craft production during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in India. How did they impact the social fabric of the country?60
8.Delineate the striking features of agricultural and craft production during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in India. How did they impact the social fabric of the country?60
2008-Paper II
HISTORY
Paper II
SECTION – A
(Modern India)
Q1.Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) “Sprung from paternalism, the English Utilitarian philosophy as introduced in India rejected its human warmth between rulers and the ruled.”
(b) “The vernacular press in the nineteenth century was both newspaper as well as ‘views-papers’ that enlightened the dormant masses.”
(c) “Is moral law the laws of conscience, higher than the law of the state, which is oppressive?”
(d) “In exercising its exclusive power the Parliament additionally enacted the Untouchability (Offences) Act in 1955.”
Q2.Critically examine the impact of the famine policy on rural India. Describe the official remedial measures undertaken.60
Q3.Write a critique on the impact of the Drain Theory of Dadabhai Nauroji in the growth of economic nationalism.60
4. Describe the changing nature of revolutionary activities in India between 1905 – 1946.60
SECTION – B
(World History)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) “France was more fertile than Britain in producing new Socialist theories and movements, though they bore less concrete results in France than in Britain.”
(b) “Most of the European Revolutions of 1848 were nationalist as well as popular insurrection against foreign rule and repressive policy of Metternich.”
(c) “In the long run, the Locarno Treaty (December 1925) was descriptive both of the Treaty of Versailles and of the Covenant.”
(d) “After World War II, the strategy of the West towards Soviet bloc crystallized as a ‘policy of containment’.”
6.“The Enlightenment represented alternative approaches to modernity, alternative habits of mind and heart, of conscience and sensibility.” Discuss.60
7.Account for the factors that brought about the end of the Cold War.60
8.Assess the significance of the political developments that took place in Eastern Europe during 1989-2001.60

2009

SECTION – A
Q1.Marks any fifteen of the following places on the map supplied to you and write short descriptive notes on these places marked by you.
4×15=60
(i) Koldihwa
(ii) Kuchai
(iii) Utnar
(iv) Patne
(v) Semthan
(vi) Bagasra
(vii) Balatha
(viii) Hallur
(ix) Kandahar
(x) Ter
(xi) Uchh
(xii) Gyaraspur
(xiii) Uttaramerur
(xiv) Lalkot
(xv) Sittanavasal
(xvi) Mansura
(xvii) Jaunpur
(xviii) Daojali Hading
(xix) Machilipatnam
(xx) Mahisadal
Q2.In what ways are the accounts of the Graeco Romans and the Chinese helpful in reconstructing the social history of India ? How far is their information corroborated by other Contemporary sources.60
Q3.(a) Evaluate the various approaches to the understanding of vedic religion.30
(b) Give an account of the use of gold coins by commoners in the Gupta Period.30
4. Bring out the regional variations in the early South Indian Temple’s architectural styles.60
SECTION – B
5. Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following:
3×20=60
(a) Applicability of the term ‘ Indian Feudalism’ to early Medieval Society.
(b) Muhammad Tughluq as an agrarian innovator.
(c) Implications of Akbar’s notion of Sulh-i-kul.
(d) Estimates of population of Mughal India.
6.(a) How far can the village assemblies or communities under the Cholas be really called democratic.30
(b) Assess Kalhana’s views on History.30
7.(a) Identify the main factors that sustained the expansion of urban economy in the Delhi Sultanate.30
(b) Give an estimate of Akbar as a promoter of technology.30
8.(a) Give a critical assessment of the contributions of Amir Khusarau and Barani to Indo – Persian Literature.30
(b) The major cause of revolts against the Mughal Empire during the latter half of the 17th century were economic, rather than religious.” Discuss.30
2009-Paper II
HISTORY
Paper II
SECTION – A
Q1.Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each :
3×20=60
(a) “Though the Permanent Settlement had serious defects , it gave tranquility to the countryside and stability to the government”.
(b) “The Arya Samaj may quite logically be pronounced as the outcomes of conditions imported into India by the west.” ( Lala Lajpat Rai)
(c) “Please remember, in granting separate electorates we are sowing the dragons’s teeth and harvest will be bitter.” (Morley)
(d) “The annexation of Awadh shook the loyalty of the Sepoy’s , as it was for them an ultimate proof of untrustworthiness of the British.”
Q2.(a) Why was Mysore considered a threat by the British to their possessions and mercantile interests in the south ? Do You think that Tipu Sultan’s posturing became his undoing?30
(b) How did the East India Company became the dejure power in India?30
Q3.(a) How did social legislation in the nineteenth century improve the condition of women in India?30
(b) Analyze the social composition of the early Congress leadership.30
4. (a) Discuss as to why the congress accepted the partition of India in 1947.30
(b) Do you think that Quit India movement was a Spontaneous Revolution ?30
SECTION – B
(World History)
5. Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each :
3×20=60
(a) “The capitalism which gave the European empires their apparent solidarity and permanence also hastened their downfall.”
(b) “In all the long annals of Imperialism , the partition of Africa is a remarkable freak.”
(c) “Hitler did not really want a world War. His intention was only a short war with Poland.” (A. J. P. Taylar)
(d) “Arab nationalism and oil – these were the principal Factors in complicating the relations of middle eastern countries with the outside world.”
6.(a) Discuss the emergence of neo-imperialism in the late nineteenth century.30
(b) What was the extent of industrilisation in western Europe by the end of the nineteenth century?30
7.(a) How did Nepoleon Bonapart fuse the old France with the new ?30
(b) Why did Vietnam go through thirty years of war after the second world war?30
8.(a) Account for the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in Russia.30
(b) Examine the peace keeping efforts of the United Nations Organization.
30

2010

SECTION – A
Q1.Mark the following places on the map provided and write short descriptive notes on them.
3×20=60
(i) Korkai
(ii) Eran
(iii) Birbhanpur
(iv) Rakhigarhi
(v) Sannathi
(vi) Isipattan
(vii) Dhanyakataka
(viii) Junnar
(ix) Edakkal
(x) Paithan
(xi) Pandu Rajar Dhibi
(xii) Karle
(xiii) Vatapi
(xiv) Porkalam
(xv) Kalanjar
(xvi) Multan
(xvii) Bairat
(xviii) Chanhudaro
(xix) Rajim
(xx) Tripuri
Q2.(a) To what extent archaeological materials are useful in understanding the progress of neolithic man in India?30
(b) Examine the significance of the deities depicted on coins of the Kushanas.30
Q3.(a) Examine the view that sacrifice was a ritual and a form of social exchange in Vedic India.30
(b) Assess the role of guilds and trade organizations in the development of early Indian economy.30
4. What light do early inscriptions and literature throw on the status of women in politico-socio-economic spheres?60
SECTION – B
5. Write short notes in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following:
3×20=60
(a) Provide a comparative analysis of the development of Arabic and Persian historiography.
(b) Discuss the social dynamics in the Vijayanagara empire.
(c) Discuss the different types of Karkhanas in Mughal India. How was the production organized in the different Karkhanas?
(d) Critically evaluate various approaches to study medieval Indian towns.
6.(a) Examine the increasing importance of maritime trade of India during thirteenth to fifteenth centuries.30
(b) To what extent ‘monetary anaemia’ afflicted the erstwhile commercial economy during the early medieval period?30
7.(a) Comment on the Turko-Mongol theory of sovereignty. To what extent was it adopted by Babur and Humayun?30
(b) How did Shivaji organize his administration and finances to consolidate his power?30
8.(a) What was the Indian response to European Technology?30
(b) How far do you agree with the view that temples in early medieval period were catalysts in spreading education?30
2010-Paper II
HISTORY
Paper II
SECTION – A
Q1.Critically evaluate the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) “The educated middle class in the 19th century often found the domain of reason to be oppressive, as it implied the historical necessity of ‘civilizing’ colonial rule”.
(b) “Railway development in India provides an interesting instance of private enterprise at public risk”.
(c) “The active participation of Aruna Asaf Ali in 1942 movement symbolized the role of women in India’s freedom struggle”.
Q2.(a) “In terms of administrative structure, the Government of India act of 1858, … meant more continuation than change.” Do you agree? Substantiate.20
(b) “Punjab’s fate after Ranjit Singh was foredoomed as the impulse of neo-Victorian Imperialism was bound to overwhelm it”. Elucidate.20
(c) “The developments during 1937-39 greatly undermined the ability of the Indian National Congress to push through the agenda of national unity.” Comment.20
Q3.(a) What role did economic ideas play in the early phase of the British rule in the shaping of land tenure policy?30
(b) Discuss the extent to which the Indian Renaissance movement contributed towards the rise of nationalist consciousness.30
4. (a) To what extent did the process of commercialization of agriculture affect the rural scene in India?30
(b) Discuss the factors that lead to the growth of Dalit consciousness and mention the major movements aimed at their empowerment.30
SECTION – B
(World History)
5. Critically evaluate the following statements in about 200 words each:
3×20=60
(a) “…he (Voltaire) was living in the Age of Enlightenment … . The age itself was not enlightened.” —E. Kant.
(b) “All long marches begin with small steps”.
(c) “The essence of Perestroika is for people to feel they are the country’s master.” —Gorbachev.
6.(a) “How far is it correct to say that every feature of the American Constitution was ultimately of English Origin?20
(b) What do you understand by imperialism? State briefly its unique features in the case of Africa?20
(c) To what extent did Napoleon’s economic war with England become his undoing?20
7.(a) Critically examine the Dutch colonial policy in Indonesia.30
(b) “Europe faced peace in 1945 politically disorganized and economically crippled.” Elaborate.30
8.(a) “The Eastern Question has always been an international question”. Elucidate.30
(b) Explain the circumstances leading to the emergence of Third World and analyze its impact on world affairs.30

2011

Paper – I
Section ‘A’
1. Mark the following places on the map supplied to u and write short descriptive notes on them. 3×20=60
(i) Chirand
(ii) Kargil
(iii) Basohli
(iv) Lalitgiri
(v) Mandu
(vi) Penukonda
(vii) Samugarh
(viii) Vilinam
(ix) Sigiria
(x) Vikramasila
(xi) Mukhalingam
(xii) Halebid
(xiii) Sanghol
(xiv) Kumbharia
(xv) Sirpur
(xvi) Pangudaria
(xvii) Amarkantak
(xviii) Kibbanhalli
(xix) Jorwe
(xx) Badaun
2. Trace the development of urbanization from the third millennium B.C.E. to 6th century B.C.E. 60
3. (a) Evalute the conceptual basis of the vedic delities. 30
(b) Assess the importance of Jain tenets and their revelance to humanity. 30
4. (a) Evalute the introduction of iron technology in the developement of human history of ancient India. 20
(b) Discuss the types of lands and the Science of agriculture mentioned in the literature and epigraphs of ancient india. 20
(c) Assess Ellora as a unique art centre of the different cultural streams. 20
Section ‘B’
5. Write short notes in not more than 200 words on the following : 20 x 3= 60
(a) Assess the contribution of Iltutmish for the expansion and consolidation of the Delhi Sultanate.
(b) Examine critically the agrarian and economic reforms of Alauddin Khalji. How did it strengthen the Sultanate ?
(c) What is your assessment of Ibn Batutah’s Rehla as an important source of indian history.
6. Evaluate the socio economic conditions from the Gupta Period to 1200 C.E. as gleaned from the various types of grants or dana shasana. 60
7. (a) Mughal paintings reflect the contemporary socio-political conditions. – Discuss 30
(b) Examine the mansab and jagir system by Akbar and its subsequent failure in the 18th century. 30
8. (a) Discuss the causes of the rise and growth of regional kingdoms with special reference to Deccan in the 18th century.
(b) Assess the contribution of the Cholas in the expansion of Indian culture outside India. 30
Paper II
Section A
(Modern India)
1. Critically evaluate the following statements in about 200 words each : 20 x 3= 60
(a) “The need for a unilateral transfer of funds to Britain was constant factor and, in fact, progressively increased over time.”
(b) “Yound Bengal left little distinctive or permanent impression on the plane of religion and philosophy.”
(c) “The emergence of left-wing group in the congress redicalized its social economic agenda.”
2. (a) “The Charter Act of 1833 rung down the curtain on the company’s trade and introduced a new concept of government in India.” Substantiate. 20
(b) “Orientalism produced a knowledge of the past to service the needs of the Colonial States.” Elucidate. 20
(c) “The vernacular press in nineteenth century India served not just as newspapers but more importantly as views-papers.” Comment. 20
3. (a) “In 1857, the rebel sepoys showed a remarkable centripetal tendency to congregate at Delhi.” Do you agree ? Substantiate. 30
(b) “Tribals revolted more often and far more violently than any other community including peasants in india.” Elaborate 30
4. (a) “Nehru’s ‘temple of Modern India’ consisted not only of steel and power plants, irrigation dams, but included institutions of higher learning.
particularly in the scientific field.” Elaborate. 30
(b) Would you agree that India’s effort to pursue an independent foreign policy was a highlight of post-1947 politics ? 30
Section ‘B’
(World History)
5. Critically evaluate the following statements in about 200 words each: 20 x 3= 60
(a) “The promptings of the heart are more to be trusted than the logic of the mind.” Rousseau.
(b) “The peace of Versailles lacked moral validity from the start.”
(c) “The Collapse of Berlin Wall in 1989 brought new ideas of co-operation in Europe.”
6. (a) “The roots of Chartism are partly political and partly economic.” Elaborate. 20
(b) “Whoever says Industrial Revolution, says cotton.” Comment. 20
(c) “By 1914, the sick man of Europe was no longer just Turkey : it was Europe itself.” Explain. 20
7. (a) Explain how American imperialism in Philippines differed with European imperialism in Indonesia and Indo-China. 30
(b) How did the policy of appeasement escalate the problem of Nazi aggrandizement ? 30
8. (a) Would you argue that the Non-Aligned Movement played a crucial role in promoting a climate of peace ? 30
(b) Examine the challenges confronted by the proponents of European unity after the collapse of Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe. 30

39 Comments

dibyajyoti bora 25/04/2016 at 7:01 am - Reply

thank you so much sir it is vary useful for us
sir.I am read in class 10 …bt i hav no idea abut optnl subjct..plz hlp me sir… ? i focsd on prepr my nots…plz hlp me
Dibyajyoti Bora 25/04/2016 at 7:17 am - Reply

sir…….im from cls 10…..i wnt 2 crck ias in my 1st atmpt ! …indian polity m lxmikant ,histry-modrn indian by bipn chndra,indian culture NIOS(MRUNL) ,economics 11th and 12th std. ,scinc 10 levl nd maths 10 th levl alrdy cmpltd..i always prepring notes from newspaper THE HINDU.bt i hav a prblm..my backgrund is assamese medum…so i cant talk in english..plz hlp me…how can i cmplt english languag ?……nd how can i selct optnl subjct ?
Ravishankar Chavan 06/12/2016 at 3:24 pm - Reply

Sir,
Mujhe civil service ke (before 2010 old pattern)history, polity aur geography optional ke question paper kaha milenge?
parvathi kumari 19/12/2016 at 8:04 pm - Reply

Parvathi kumari
Sir,
Mujhay foundation course-1contemporary India:economy,polity and society (effect ftom 2010-2011) on wards(2014 aur 2015 ka question paper cha heya sir plz
Saurabh singh meena 16/08/2021 at 7:45 am - Reply

Sir , History previous year paper download nhi ho rhe