UPSC Mains 2024 History Optional Paper II questions

28 questions from the Civil Services (Main) Examination 2024. Official UPSC paper (PDF) · All History Optional PYQs

1. After the battle of Plassey, the mercenary became the Kingmaker.

2. The values of utilitarianism prompted the Company administration to attempt reform of Indian society.

3. In course of the 9th century, the agenda of social reform was gradually replaced by revivalism.

4. The federal provisions of the Government of India Act of 935 foundered on the rock of princely intransigence.

   10 marks

5. The strength of the Pakistan programme was its vagueness. It meant everything to everyone.

6. The pace of commercialisation of agriculture increased as a result of British revenue policies in India. — Critically examine.

   20 marks

7. Why was the Great Revolt of 857 confined only to North India? How did it change the character of British rule in the subcontinent? Explain.

   20 marks

8. Why did the demand for land reform never become an agenda in national politics after 947? Elucidate.

   10 marks

9. Political extremism in colonial India often converged with cultural nationalism, but not always. - Comment.

   20 marks

10. Regionalism in India after 947 was occasioned by developmental imperatives as much as linguistic particularism. — Elucidate.

    20 marks

11. Twenty years of peace secured by the treaty of Salbai proved very costly to the Marathas in strategic terms. — Elucidate.

12. The Swadeshi movement of 905 anticipated many of the tactics that were later developed during the Gandhian mass movement. — Critically examine.

    20 marks

13. The trade union movement joined forces with the mainstream of nationalist politics to strengthen each other in their struggle against colonial rule. - Comment.

    20 marks

14. India's developmental strategy after independence was influenced by economic imperatives, not ideological considerations. - Comment.

15. The ideas raised by Enlightenment thinkers were profoundly unsettling and challenging to old regime society and political order.

16. The American Civil War was a result of disparity of needs of industrial north and agrarian south.

17. The unification of Germany was as much a product of coal and iron as it was of blood and iron.

18. The new regime in China addressed the peasant question by instituting wholesale land redistribution, which was carried out swiftly and ruthlessly.

19. The revolutions of 989 did not simply destroy governments; they also ended an ideology.

    10 marks

20. The course of the English industrialization was too long drawn to be considered a revolution. Comment.

    20 marks

21. The social and political landscape of Europe after the first world war was uniquely suited to the rise of Fascism. Discuss.

    20 marks

22. The state was the most important factor in the industrialization of Russia. Comment.

23. The second world war was a truly global conflict. Discuss.

    20 marks

24. Trace the different stages of European economic integration.

    20 marks

25. The nature of apartheid regime undermined South Africa's claim of being a democratic polity.

    10 marks

26. The emergence of two power blocs not only symbolised two competing ideologies but also two alternative models of economic growth. Explain.

    20 marks

27. To what extent underdevelopment in Latin America is caused by neo-imperialism?,

    20 marks

28. How did Ho Chi Minh emerge as the central figure in the Vietnamese independence movement?