Given below are two statements, one is labeled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R). Assertion A. : Turkish invasions on India were successful. Reason (R) : There was no political unity in North India. Select the correct answer from the codes given below:

The correct answer is A. Both the assertion and the reason are true, and the reason explains the assertion.

The Turkish invasions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries succeeded because North India was politically fragmented. Rajput kingdoms such as the Chahamanas, Gahadavalas, Chandelas and Paramaras fought one another, and no ruler could bring together the combined strength of the north. Prithviraj Chauhan lost at Tarain (1192) after failing to secure support from other Rajput rulers, and Muhammad Ghori then defeated Jaichandra of Kannauj at Chandawar (1194), the same pattern again.

Option B is wrong because the reason is the cause of the success, not merely a related point. Option C is wrong because political disunity is well documented. Option D is wrong because the assertion is historically true: Turkish rule was established in Delhi and the Delhi Sultanate followed.

The core concept is the failure of collective defence in a fragmented polity. For Mains, this links to medieval history under GS-1 and to the broader question of why decentralised kingdoms struggled against centralised military states.

Trap: candidates reject the assertion because Rajput resistance to Mahmud of Ghazni was real, but the question concerns the eventual success of the invasions, which culminated in Turkish rule.