PAPER-III

HISTORY

Note This paper is of two hundred marks containing four sections. Candidates are required to attempt the questions contained in these sections according to the detailed instructions given therein.


Note This section consists of two essay type questions of twenty marks each, to be answered in about five hundred words. ×20 40 marks)


1. Analyse the evolution of social institutions in the Vedic period.

2. Write an essay on the standard of living of the medieval Indian ruling class.

3. Account for the English success in establishing their rule over India compared to the failure of other contending European powers.

4. Discuss in detail the importance of the sources for the reconstruction of the history of the Mauryas.

5. Write an essay on rural credit system in medieval India with reference to relations with the peasants.

6. How has the de-industrialization theory been recently revised


Note This section contains three questions from each of the electives/specializations. The candidate has to choose only one elective/specialization and answer all the three questions from it. Each question carries fifteen marks and is to be answered in about three hundred words. ×15 45 marks)

7. Bring out the salient features of the religious development in the 6th century B.C.

8. Discuss the main features of the Stupa architecture with special reference to Sanchi

9. Give an account of the contribution of Ramanuja to the religion and philosophy.

10. Write a note on Razia Sultan as a symbol of empowerment of woman in the sultanate period.

11. How Islam came and influenced the indigenous people in South India

12. How did Rishi Sufis play a role in creating composite culture in Kashmir

13. How did the Permanent Settlement affect the peasantry in Eastern India

14. Comment on the response of the educated elite to the early English critique of Indian

15. Would you argue that nationalism in India was a 'derivative discourse' from the West


This section contains nine questions of ten marks each, each to be answered
in about fifty words. ×10 90 Marks)


16. Underline the religious features of the Indus Valley Civilization.

17. Examine the duties assigned to mahamatras by the Emperor Ashoka.

18. Write a note on the technique of coin making in ancient India.

19. How Sama was perceived by conservative Ulema and liberal Sufis

20. What is Ain-i-Iradat-i-Ghazinan

21. Define Mashrut rank.

22. What do you mean by the 'Home charges'

23. State the basic ideological differences between the moderates and the extremists.

24. Why and when did Bardoli become a national issue


SECTION IV ÖÓ›ü IV

Note This section contains five questions of five marks each based on the following passage. Each question should be answered in about thirty words. ×5 25 Marks)

25. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow, based on your understanding of the passage.

Recent sociological work on caste has increasingly emphasized that the meaningful units here are not the somewhat abstract varnas (the theoretical all-India hierarchy as described in Sanskrit texts) but the mass of diverse local jatis, united by a varying degree of occupational identity, common rites and customs and taboos on marriages or eating outside the group. The old assumption of an absolutely rigid and unchanging hierarchy of castes has also been rejected and numerous instances are being discovered, in the recent and not-so-recent past, of what M.N. Srinivas called 'Sanskritizing' tendencies jatis asserting a higher status for themselves through borrowing customs, manners and taboos from groups traditionally superior to them. In pre-British India, caste mobility had been facilitated by a fluid political system and a land-surplus permitting easy migration. The Sadgops of medieval Bengal, for instance, rose as farmers and traders from out of the originally pastoral Gop community. Migrated into virgin lands along the Bengal-Bihar border, and sometimes also carved out local principalities. The colonial period closed or reduced some of these avenues, but opened up others. Carving out new kingdoms was now impossible and virgin land was increasingly scarce. But improved communications made wider combinations possible, English education increasingly provided a new ladder to social promotion for small but growing minorities, and colonial exploitation did involve (as we have seen) a process of differentiation which benefited some Indian groups at the expense of others. From the 1901 census onwards, the British also made a direct contribution by trying every ten years to classify castes on the basis of 'social precedence as recognized by native public opinion' an attempt which immediately encouraged a flood of claims and counter-claims as jati leaders jostled for pre­ eminence, organized caste associations and invented mythological caste 'histories'.


How has the old notion of caste as a social unit been recently revised

26. What does Sanskritization actually refer to

27. What did actually facilitate the caste mobility in pre-British India

28. How did colonial rule change the means of social mobility

29. How did British use the question of caste identity to further their political ends