Question Paper Analysis

History Mains Question Paper Analysis

Question No. 2006 2009 2012 2013
1 Map Map
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2 Discuss the changing approaches to the study of early Indian history. (60 marks)     Historiography 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 marks)
Topic-1 Sources		 (a) Evaluate the significance of seals and sealings in the reconstruction of socio-economic and religious life of the Harappan people.  
Topic-1 Sources		 (a) evaluate various views regarding human settlements is gleaned from the Vedic sources. (15 marks)   Aryans and Vedic Period
      (b) Justify Pliny’s statement the Rome was being drained out of its gold by India during the first century of the Christian era.
Topic-1 Sources		 (b) discuss the water management and its conservation planning in the harappan (Indus-Saraswati) cities. (20 marks)
3. Indus Valley Civilization
        (c) in the absence of a written script, Chalcolithic pottery gives us a fascinating insight into the culture and lifestyle of the people of those times. Comment critically. (15 marks) 2. Pre-history and Proto-history
3 Describe the expansion of the Gupta Empire under Samudragupta. (30 marks)
10. Guptas, Vakatakas and Vardhanas 		(a) Evaluate the various approaches to the understanding of vedic religion. (30 marks)
5.Aryans and Vedic Period		 (a) Discuss the extent, settlement patterns and subsistence economy of the megalithic cultures.
4. Megalithic Cultures		 (a) on the basis of contemporary sources, assess the nature of banking and usuary in ancient India. (15 marks)
10.Guptas, Vakatakas and Vardhanas
    (b) Give an account of the use of gold coins by commoners in the Gupta Period. (30 marks)
10.Guptas, Vakatakas and Vardhanas		 (b) Assess the educational system in early India and identify important educational institutions of the period.
Complete Ancient period		 (b) Social norms for women in the Dharmasastra and Arthasashtra tradition where framed in accordance with the Varnashrama tradition. Evaluate critically. (20 marks)
10.Guptas, Vakatakas and Vardhanas
        (c) The verna concept may always have been largely a theoretical model and never an actual description of society. Comment in context of ancient India. (15 marks)
Topic 7,8 & 10
4 Discuss the major stages in the evolution of architecture during the ancient period.  (60 marks)
Topic 7,8 , 10,11 &12		 Bring out the regional variations in the early South Indian Temple’s architectural styles. (60 marks)
11. Regional States during Gupta Era		 (a) Examine the role of adhyaksha in the Mauryan administration. 7. Mauryan Empire (a) Evaluate the contribution of Puranas in disseminating secular knowledge among the masses in ancient India. (15 marks)
1. Sources
      (b) Analyse the vibrant cultural activities in peninsular India during 550-750 CE. Compare and contrast it with the situation in contemporary North India.
12. Themes in Early Indian Cultural History		 (b) evaluate the ownership of land in ancient India on the basis of literary and epigraphic sources. (15 marks)   Topic-1 Sources
        (c) explain as to how the early Buddhist stupa art, while using motifs and narratives and common cultural symbols, succeeded in transforming these themes for expounding Buddhist ideas. (20 marks)
12. Themes in Early Indian Cultural History
5 Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following: (3×20=60 marks)
(a) The Khalji Revolution
16. The Fourteenth Century 		Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any three of the following: (3×20=60 marks)
  • Applicability of the term ‘Indian Feudalism’ to early Medieval Society.
13. Early Medieval India, 750-1200		 (a) Evaluate Rajtarangini as asource of history.
13. Early Medieval India, 750-1200		 Write short notes in not more than 150 words on each of the following: (10 x 5 =50 marks)
(a) evaluate the Malfuzat texts sources of media history.
17. Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
  (b) Sufism in North India
17. Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries		 (b) Muhammad Tughluq as an agrarian innovator.
16. The Fourteenth Century		 (b) Medieval Indian towns were merely as extension of villages. Comment.
17.Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries		 (b) discuss the state of society and economy of the Bahmani kingdom is gleaned from historical sources.
18. The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century
  (c) Religious tolerance of Akabar 20.Akbar (c) Implications of Akbar’s notion of Sulh-i-kul. (d) Estimates of population of Mughal India.
20.Akbar		 (c) Assess the contribution of the Acharyas in the development of the ideological basis of bhakti.
17. Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries		 (c) Give a catch of Indian trade with Europe during Mughal period. 17. Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
  (d) Dara Shukoh
23. Culture in the Mughal Empire		   (d) Discuss the Cauraoancashika and Jain styles of paintings. Can the Cauraoancashika style truly be called the precursor of pothi format?
23. Culture in the Mughal Empire		 (d) analyze the steps taken Razia Sultan by to strengthen our position as an independent ruler despite various obstacles.
15. The Thirteenth Century
      (e) Give social background to the rice of the Maratha movement during the seventeenth century.
24. The Eighteenth Century		 (e) Bhakti and Mysticism of Lal Ded emerged as a social force in Kashmir. Comment.
23. Culture in the Mughal Empire
6 Bring out the main features of the administration system under Delhi Saltanate during Turko-Afgan Period. (60 marks)
Topic 15 & 16		 (a) How far can the village assemblies or communities under the Cholas be really called democratic. (30 words)
13. Early Medieval India, 750-1200		 (a) What kind of changes were visualised by historians on Indian feudalism?Examine critically.
13. Early Medieval India, 750-1200		 (a) evaluate the condition industries in India from 1200 to 1500 CE (20 marks) Topic 16 & 17
   
  • Assess Kalhana’s views on History. (30 marks)
14. Cultural Traditions in India, 750-1200		 (b) Analyse the social composition and the role of mobility under the successors of Iltutmish. How did it affect the contemporary politics?
15. The Thirteenth Century 		(b) on the basis of contemporary sources evaluate the system of agriculture and irrigation of the Vijaynagar kingdom (15 marks)
18. The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth
        (c) critically evaluate the educational development during Sultanate period
(15 marks) 17. Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
7 Write a short Essay on the development of Literature during Mughal Period.  (60 marks)
23. Culture in the Mughal Empire		 (a) Identify the main factors that sustained the expansion of urban economy in the Delhi Sultanate. (30 marks)
17. Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries		 (a) Evaluate the role of nadu and magaram in the growth of urbanisation under the Cholas.
13. Early Medieval India, 750-1200		 (a) on the basis of the accounts of Europeans being outside agrarian crisis during the 17th century India. (20 marks)
22. Economy and Society in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
   
  • Give an estimate of Akbar as a promoter of technology. (30 marks)
23. Culture in the Mughal Empire		 (b) How did theMongol invasions affect the Delhi Sultanate and the north-western frontier policy of the Delhi Sultans ?
Topic 15 & 16		 (b) evaluate critically the conditions of labour from 1200 to 1500 CE on the basis of historical sources. (15 marks)
17. Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
        (c) discuss and evaluate critically various times in the historiography of Bhakti. (15 marks)
17. Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
8 Write a short Essay on the development of Literature during Mughal Period. (60 marks)
23. Culture in the Mughal Empire		 (a) Give a critical assessment of the contributions of Amir Khusarau and Barani to Indo – Persian Literature. (30 marks)
17. Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries		 (a) State the structure of medieval village society in Northern India. What were the passive forms of resistance of the peasants in the medieval period?
22. Economy and Society in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries		 (a) analyse how the political processes of state information of Mewar, from 10th to 15th century CE was challenged in the 16th century CE by imperialist policy of Akbar. (15 marks)  
20.Akbar
    (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 marks)
22. Economy and Society in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries		 (b) How was the Afghan nobility responsible for the decline of the Afghan empires ? Discuss.   18. The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth (b) Assess the Lekhapaddhati as an important source for evaluating the society and economy of the 13th century CE with special reference to Gujarat. (20 marks) 17. Society, Culture and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
        (c) assess the development of science and technology in the Mughal period. (15 marks)
23. Culture in the Mughal Empire
PAPER – II

1		 Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each: (3×20=60 marks)  
(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”.
2. British Expansion in India		 Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each : (3×20=60 marks)
  • “Though the Permanent Settlement had serious defects, it gave tranquility to the countryside and stability to the government”.
4. Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule		 Critically examine the following statements in about 150 words each:-
(a) “The current practice of categorisation of ‘Early Modern India’ is based on a shift from the old imperialist periodization of ‘Muslim India’ – ‘British India’ to the more secularist one of ‘Medieval India’ – ‘Modern India’, which puts Indian history in a universalist chronological structure.
3. Early Structure of the British Raj		 critically examine the following statement in about 150 words each (10 x 5 =50 marks)
(a) Dupleix made a cardinal blunder in looking for the key to India in Madras: Clive sought and found it in Bengal.
British Expansion in India
  (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.”
4.Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule		 (b) “The Arya Samaj may quite logically be pronounced as the outcomes of conditions imported into India by the west.” (Lala Lajpat Rai)
6. Social and Religious Reform movements in Bengal and Other Areas		 (b) “Compared to their English counterpart, the French ‘East India Company enjoyed little discretionary power and had to always look up to Paris for all major decisions. This partly explains the failure of the French in India.”
3. Early Structure of the British Raj		 (b) Swami Vivekananda opine that “we should give our ancient spirituality and culture and get in return Western science, technology, methods of raising the standards of life, business integrity and technique of collective effort.”
6 . Social and Religious Reform movements in Bengal and Other Areas
  (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”.
4. Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule		 (c) “Please remember, in granting separate electorates we are sowing the dragons’s teeth and harvest will be bitter.” (Morley)
10. Constitutional Developments in the Colonial India between 1858 and 1935		 (c) “The peasant movements of the second half of the nineteenth century lacked a positive conception which would unite the people in a common struggle on a wide regional and all-India plane and help develop long-term political developments.”
7. Indian Response to British Rule		 (c) Ryotwari falls into three stages – early, middle and late, and the only description common to all is that it is a mode of settlement with small farmers, so small, indeed, that their average holding is, on recent figures, only about 6.5 acres.
4.Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule
  “(d) ‚I felt that If we did not accept partition, India would be split into many bits and would be ruined.”
12. Politics of Separatism the Muslim League		 (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.”
7. Indian Response to British Rule		 (d) “Plantations and mines, jute, banking, insurance, shipping and export-import concerns in India were run through a system of interlocking managing agencies.”
4. Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule		 (d) Many of us who work for the Congress program lived in a kind of intoxication during the year 1921. We were full of excitement and optimism… We had a sense of freedom and pride in that freedom
9. Rise of Gandhi, Character of Gandhian nationalism
      (e) “Nehru’s policy of Non-Alignment came to symbolised the struggle of India and other newly independent nations to retain and strengthen their independence from colonialism.
13. Consolidation as a Nation		 (e) Gandhi’s body is in jail but his soul is with you, India’s prestige is in your hands, you must not use any violence under any circumstances. You will be beaten but you must not exist; you must not raise a hand to ward off blows.
9. Rise of Gandhi, Character of Gandhian nationalism
2 Examine the circumstance which led to the third Mysore War. Could Cornwallis have avoided it.  (60 marks)
2. British Expansion in India 		(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 marks)
2. British Expansion in India		 (a) “The forces of free trade and the British determination to create a political and administrative environment conductive to trade and investment had shaped the British policy towards India in the first half of the nineteenth century”. – Elucidate.
2. British Expansion in India		 (a) “Weaving”, says R. C. Dutt, “was the national industry of the people and spinning was the pursuit of millions of women.” Indian textiles went to England and other parts of Europe, to China and Japan and Burma and Arabia and Persia and parts of Africa. Elucidate. (25 marks) 4. Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule
   
  • How did the East India Company became the dejure power in India? (30 marks)
2. British Expansion in India		 (b) “The contact of the new Indian middle class with the West proved to be a catalyst. The social and religious movements launched by Rammohan or Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar have to be understood in this context.” – Elucidate.
6. Social and Religious Reform movements in Bengal and Other Areas		 (b) “The first point to note is the continuing importance of religion and philosophy as vital ingredients in the modern Indian Renaissance. Indeed, there is as much reason for regarding it as a reformation as there is for treating it as a Renaissance.” Critically examine. (25 marks)
6 . Social and Religious Reform movements in Bengal and Other Areas
3 What is the mean by commercialization of Indian Agriculture? Discuss its result. (60 marks)   4. Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule
  • How did social legislation in the nineteenth century improve the condition of women in India? (30 marks)
  6. Social and Religious Reform movements in Bengal and Other Areas
  • “The railways, instead of serving as the catalyst of an industrial revolution as in Western Europe and the USA, acted in India as ‘the catalyst of complete colonization’.”- Examine.
4. Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule
  • “At the dawn of the twentieth century Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, was full of hostility towards the Indian National Congress and he confidentially reported to the Secretary of State in November 1900 : My own belief is that the Congress is tottering to its fall, and one of my greatest ambitions while in India is to assist it to a peaceful demise.” Examine. (25 marks)
8. Factors leading to the birth of Indian Nationalism
   
  • Analyze the social composition of the early Congress leadership. (30 marks)
8. Factors leading to the birth of Indian Nationalism		 (b) “The Santhal hool began in July 1855. The core of the movement was economic, the basic cause of the uprising was agrarian discontent.” – Elucidate.
 
7. Indian Response to British Rule		 (b) “Though the Act of 1919 was superseded by that of 1935, the preamble to the former was not repealed—the preservation of the smile of the Cheshire cat after its disappearance, and the latter said nothing about Dominion Status.” Elucidate. (25 marks)
10. Constitutional Developments in the Colonial India between 1858 and 1935

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 marks) 11. Other strands in the National Movement The Revolutionaries (a) Discuss as to why the congress accepted the partition of India in 1947. (30 marks)   12. Politics of Separatism the Muslim League (a) “Nehru favored the policy of integrating the tribal people in Indian society, of making them as integral part of the Indian nation even while maintaining their distinct identity and culture.” -Elaborate with special reference to Northeastern India.
14. Caste and Ethnicity after 1947		 (a) “Notwithstanding the quest for .modernity and the antagonism that guided Nehru’s attitude towards the inequalities inherent in the social structure in rural India, the Congress Party did not carry out a concerted campaign against discrimination based on caste. Nehru’s own perception was that industrial growth was bound to break the stranglehold of this feudal remnant. This, however, did not happen in India.” Examine. (25 marks)
13. Consolidation as a Nation
    (b) Do you think that Quit India movement was a Spontaneous Revolution ? (30 marks)
9. Rise of Gandhi, Character of Gandhian nationalism		 (b) “The Chipko became famous as the first major environmental movement in post-colonial India and gave to the understanding that environment issues are often women’s issues because they suffer most from its deterioration.” – Explain.
15.Economic development and political change		 (b) “The reorganization resulted in rationalizing the political map of India without seriously weakening its unity. If anything, its result has been functional, in as much as it removed what had been a major source of discord, and created homogeneous political units which could be administered through a medium that the vast majority of the population understood. Indeed, it can be said with the benefit of hindsight that language, rather than being a force for division,has proved a cementing and integrating influence.” Examine.  (25 marks)
13. Consolidation as a Nation
5 Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each. (3×20=60 marks)
(a) “No Taxation without representation”.
17. Origins of Modern Politics		 Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each : (3×20=60 marks)
(a) “The capitalism which gave the European empires their apparent solidarity and permanence also hastened their downfall.”
18. Industrialization		 Critically examine the following statements in about 150 words each:-
(a) “The despotic rulers of Europe were influenced by the philosophy of Enlightenment and begun to follow a benevolent policy towards their subjects.”
17. Origins of Modern Politics		 Critically examine the following statements in about 150 words each : (10×5=50 marks)
(a) “For Kant, Enlightenment is mankind’s final coming of age, the emancipation of the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance and error.” 17. Origins of Modern Politics
  (b) “Colonies are like fruits which cling to the tree only till they ripen”. 20. Imperialism and Colonialism (b) “In all the long annals of Imperialism, the partition of Africa is a remarkable freak.” 20. Imperialism and Colonialism (b) “The American Revolution was essentially as economic conflict between American capitalism as British mercantilism.”
17. Origins of Modern Politics		 (b) “Six hundred thousand men had died. The Union was preserved, the slaves freed. A nation ‘conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal’ had survived its most terrible ordeal.”
17.Origins of Modern Politics
  (c) “Treaty of Versailles contained the seeds of future conflicts”. 22. World Wars (c) “Hitler did not really want a world War. His intention was only a short war with Poland.” (A. J. P. Taylar)
21. Revolution and Counter-Revolution		 (c) “The connection between the philosophers’ iseas and the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) is somewhat remote and indirect.”
17.Origins of Modern Politics		 (c) “Colonialism not only deprives a society of its freedom and its wealth, but of its very character, leaving its people intellectually and morally disoriented.”
20. Imperialism and Colonialism
  (d) “A cleaver conquer will always impose his demands on the conquered by installments.” (d) “Arab nationalism and oil – these were the principal Factors in complicating the relations of middle eastern countries with the outside world.” (d) “The process of industrialisation in some other countries of Europe was different from that in England.” 18. Industrialization (d) “If the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia (that resulted in the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union) inaugurated an international competition for the hearts and minds of people all over the globe, the Chinese Revolution raised the stakes of that struggle.”
21. Revolution and Counter-Revolution
      (e) “With the Cold War over and the Soviet Union gone, the face of international diplomacy has undergone a metamorphosis.
27. Disintegration of Soviet Union and the Rise of the Unipolar World		 (e) “Decolonization has finished. It definitely belongs to the past. Yet somehow it has refused to become history.” 25. Decolonization and Underdevelopment
6 “The Renaissance scholars laid the eggs which Luther; the father of the reformation later on hatched Discuss”. (60 marks) (a) Discuss the emergence of neo-imperialism in the late nineteenth century. (30 marks) 20. Imperialism and Colonialism (a) “The impact of the French Revolution (1789) was initially confined the Europe, but, that of the Russia Revolution (1917) was global.” – Critically review.
Topic-17 &21		 (a) “In spite of the careful framing of the Charter, the role of UNO as peacekeeper and international mediator has been somewhat lacklustre and muted and that continues to be so even after the end of Cold War.” Elucidate. (25 marks)
23. The World after World War II
    (b) What was the extent of industrilisation in western Europe by the end of the nineteenth century? (30 marks) 18. Industrialization (b) “Any single explanation for the outbreak of the First World War likely to be too simple. An amalgam of factors intellectual, social, economic as well as political and diplomatic contributed to this horrifying conflict of monumental propositions.” – Explain.
23. The World after World War II		 (b) “Change in Britain came comparatively peacefully through democratic process in the first half of the nineteenth century and a model of a functioning democracy through ballot box was successfully put in place.” Elaborate. (25 marks) 19. Nation-State System
7 Critically analysis the cause and the results of the Chinese revolution of 1949.  (60 marks) 21. Revolution and Counter-Revolution (a) How did Nepoleon Bonapart fuse the old France with the new ? (30 marks) 17. Origins of Modern Politics (a) How did Napoleon fuse the French of the ancient regime with the France of the post-revolutionary ear?
17. Origins of Modern Politics		 (a) “New imperialism was a nationalistic, not an economic phenomena.” Critically examine. (25 marks)
20. Imperialism and Colonialism  
    (b) Why did Vietnam go through thirty years of war after the second world war? (30 marks)23. The World after World War II (b) Was German unification achieved more by ‘coal and iron’ than by ‘blood and iron ? 21. Revolution and Counter-Revolution (b) “By the 1980s, the Communist system of the Soviet Union was incapable of maintaining the country’s role as a Superpower.” Elucidate. (25 marks)
21. Revolution and Counter-Revolution
8 Give a brief account of the struggle against ‚Apartheid‛ in South Africa. (60 marks)   24. Liberation from Colonial Rule (a) Account for the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in Russia. (30 words) 21. Revolution and Counter-Revolution (a) “The announcement of the creation of the Peoples’ Republic of China on October1, 1959 by Mao Zedong ended the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Party (KMT).” – Elaborate.
21. Revolution and Counter-Revolution		 (a) “The European Union is the new sick man of Europe.” Critically evaluate.   26. Unification of Europe
    (b) Examine the peace keeping efforts of the United Nations Organization.  (30 marks)
23. The World after World War II		 (b) “The Arab nationalism had a peculiar character. It stood for nation independence for separate Arab States as well as for the unity of all Arabs irrespective of their state boundaries.” – Examine.
24. Liberation from Colonial Rule		 (b) “There must be an end to white monopoly on political power, and a fundamental restructuring of our political and economic systems to ensure that the inequalities of apartheid are addressed and our society thoroughly democratized.” Discuss.
24. Liberation from Colonial Rule