IAS Mains History 2000
Paper-I

Time Allowed: Three Hours Maximum Marks: 300

Instructions

Each question is printed both in Hindi and in English.

The 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

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:

Aizawl

Amritsar

Arikamedu

Bangalore

Bharukachha

Bhaja

Gangotri

Itanagar

Jaugada

Jhansi

Kalsi

Kanchivaram

Kanheri

Kumrahar

Konarak

Mathura

Madurai

Nalanda

Nasik

Palitana

Rajagriha

Sasan Gir

Shrinagar

Udayagiri-Khandagiri

Uchh

Ujjain

Valabhi

Vidisha

Vaishali

Vatapi

How did Ashoka contribute to the moral and administrative welfare of his people?

Who were the Maukharis? Discuss their political relations with the Later Guptas of Magadha.

Give an account of the struggle for supremacy in South India between the Chalukyas of Badami and the Pallavas.

Section ‘B’

Write short essays in not more than 200 words each on any tree of the following topics:

Architecture of the Vijayanagara empire.

Amir Khusro was an eminent poet not a historian.

During the reign of Jaliangir Mughal painting reached its zenith.

The Sufi Movement and its role in promoting communal harmony.

Were the Chola village assemblies democratic in nature? Give reasons for your answer.

Form an estimate of the personality of Firoz Shah Tughlaq with special reference to his religious policy and public works.

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?

History-2000 (Main) (Paper-II)

Time Allowed: Three Hours Maximum Marks: 300

Instructions

Each question is printed both in Hindi and in English.

The 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’

Continent on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:

The battle of Plassey was not a great battle but a great betrayal.

Towards the Princes, Canning adopted a policy of punishing resistance and rewarding obedience.

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. ‘’

The 1921 Moplah rebellion was in essence an expression of long-standing agrarian discontent which was intensified by the religious and ethnic identity.

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.

Discuss the important social reform legislation passed in the 19th century. And elucidate the reaction of Indian leaders to the measures adopted.

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’

Comment on any three of the following statements in about 200 words each:

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.

The Crimean War was the most useless war ever waged.

Until December 1941 the battlefield of the Second World War was exclusively European and Atlantic; thereafter it became also Asiataic and Pacific.

The simultaneous expansion of European powers overseas during the last quarter of the 19th century brought them into frequent collisions ata remote points all over Africa and Asia.

How did Napoleon Bonaparte heal the wounds of France inflicted by the Revolution and correct the errors perpetrated by its leaders?

To what extent did the Western powers bring China under their domination without annexation?

Analyse the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 and examine the validity of Germany's objections to the treaty.