History Optional Syllabus (Paper 1 + Paper 2) for UPSC Mains

History is one of the most detailed and important subjects in UPSC optional as it has some overlaps in prelims and mains GS paper 1. Being one of the popular, high-scoring exams, it also has a vast syllabus. Students taking history as a History Optional Syllabus for UPSC Mains need to cover a lot of topics and sub-topics to clear paper 1 and paper 2 of the optional subject. So, here is the complete history syllabus details:

Paper 1- History Optional

Here is the syllabus of history optional for paper 1:

Sources Archaeological sources:

• Exploration, excavation, epigraphy, numismatics, and monuments
• Literary sources
• Indigenous: Primary and secondary; poetry; scientific literature; literature in regional languages; religious literature.
• Foreign accounts: Greek, Chinese, and Arab writers

Pre-history and Proto-history:

• Geographical factors; hunting and gathering (paleolithic and Mesolithic); Beginning of agriculture (neolithic and Chalcolithic).

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Indus Valley Civilization:

• Origin, date, extent, characteristics-decline, survival, and significance
• Art and Architecture

Megalithic Cultures:

• Distribution of pastoral and farming cultures outside the Indus,
• Development of community life, Settlements, agriculture, Crafts, Pottery, and Iron industry.

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Aryans and Vedic Period:

• Expansions of Aryans in India
• Vedic Period: Religious and philosophical literature
• The transformation from the Rig Vedic period to the later Vedic period;
• Political, social and economic life;
• Significance of the Vedic Age
• Evolution of Monarchy and the Varna system.

Period of Mahajanapadas:

• Formation of States (Mahajanapada): Republics and monarchies; Rise of urban centers; Trade routes; Economic growth; Introduction of coinage; Spread of Jainism and Buddhism; Rise of Magadha and Nandas.
• Iranian and Macedonian invasions and their impact.

Mauryan Empire:

• Foundation of the Mauryan Empire,
• Chandragupta, Kautilya and Arthashastra;
• External contacts;
• Religion; Spread of religion;
• Literature.
• Ashoka; Concept of Dharma; Edicts;
• Polity, Administration, Economy;
• Art, architecture and sculpture;
• The disintegration of the empire;
• Sungas and Kanvas.

Post-Mauryan Period (Indo-Greeks, Sakas, Kushanas, Western Kshatrapas):

• Contact with the outside world;
• Growth of urban centers, economy, coinage, development of religions, Mahayana, social conditions, art, architecture, culture, literature and science.

Early State and Society in Eastern India, Deccan and South India (Kharavela, The Satavahanas, Tamil States of the Sangam Age):

• Administration, Economy, land grants, coinage, trade guilds and urban centres;
• Art and architecture.
• Buddhist centres.
• Sangam literature and culture.

Guptas, Vakatakas and Vardhanas:

• Polity and administration, Economic conditions, Indian feudalism, Coinage of the Guptas, Land grants, Caste system, Position of women, Decline of urban centres, Education and educational institutions; Nalanda, Vikramshila and Vallabhi, Literature, scientific literature, art and architecture.

Regional States during the Gupta Era:

• The Kadambas, Pallavas, and Chalukyas of Badami; Polity and Administration, Trade guilds, Literature; growth of Vaishnava and Saiva religions.
• Tamil Bhakti movement, Shankaracharya, Vedanta;
• Institutions of temple and temple architecture;
• Palas, Senas, Rashtrakutas, Paramaras, Polity and administration; Cultural aspects.
• The Chalukyas of Kalyani, Cholas, Hoysalas, and Pandyas: Polity and Administration; Local Government; Growth of art and architecture, religious sects, Institution of temples and Mathas, Agraharas, education and literature, economy, and society.
• Arab conquest of Sind; Alberuni;

Themes in Early Indian Cultural History:

• Languages and texts, major stages in the evolution of art and architecture, major philosophical thinkers and schools, ideas in Science and Mathematics

Early Medieval India, 750-1200:

• Polity: Major political developments in Northern India and the peninsula, origin and the rise of Rajputs.
• The Cholas: administration, village economy, and society “Indian Feudalism”.
• Agrarian economies and urban settlements
• Trade and commerce.
• Society: the status of the Brahman and the new social order
• Condition of women.
• Indian science and technology.

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Cultural Traditions in India, 750-1200:

•  Philosophy: Shankaracharya and Vedanta, Ramanuja and Vishishtadvaita, Madhva and BrahmaMimansa.
• Religion: Forms and features of religion, Tamil devotional cult, growth of Bhakti, Islam and its arrival in India, Sufism.
• Literature: Literature in Sanskrit, growth of Tamil literature, literature in the newly developing languages, Kalhan’s Rajtarangini, Alberuni’s India.
• Art and Architecture: Temple architecture, sculpture, painting.

The Thirteenth Century:

•  Establishment of the Delhi Sultanate: The Ghurian invasions – factors behind Ghurian Success
• Economic, social, and cultural consequences.
• Foundation of Delhi Sultanate and early Turkish Sultans.
• Consolidation: The Rule of Iltutmish and Balban

The Fourteenth Century:

• “The Khalji Revolution”.
• Alauddin Khalji: Conquests and territorial expansion, agrarian and economic measures
• Muhammad Tughluq: Major projects, agrarian measures, and the bureaucracy of Muhammad Tughluq.
• Firuz Tugluq: Agrarian measures, achievements in civil engineering and public works, decline of the Sultanate, foreign contacts, and Ibn Battuta’s account.

Society, Culture, and Economy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries:

• Society: composition of rural society, ruling classes, town dwellers, women, religious classes, caste and slavery under the Sultanate, Bhakti movement, and Sufi movement.
• Culture: Persian literature, literature in the regional languages of North India, literature in the languages of South India, Sultanate architecture and new structural forms, painting, the evolution of a composite culture
• Economy: Agricultural Production, the rise of the urban economy, non-agricultural production, trade, and commerce

The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century-Political Developments and Economy:

• Rise of Provincial Dynasties: Bengal, Kashmir (Zainul Abedin), Gujarat.
• Malwa, Bahmanids.
• The Vijayanagara Empire
• Lodis.
• Mughal Empire, first phase: Babur, Humayun
• The Sur Empire: Sher Shah’s administration
• Portuguese colonial enterprise, Bhakti, and Sufi movements

The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century- Society and Culture:

• Regional cultural specificities
• Literary traditions.
• Provincial architecture.
• Society, culture, literature, and the arts in Vijayanagara Empire

Akbar:

• Conquests and consolidation of empire
• Establishment of Jagir and Mansab systems
• Rajput policy.
• Evolution of religious and social outlook
• Theory of Sulh-i-kul and religious policy
• Court patronage of art and technology

Mughal Empire in the Seventeenth Century:

• Major administrative policies of Jahangir, Shahjahan, and Aurangzeb
• The Empire and the Zamindars.
• Religious policies of Jahangir, Shahjahan, and Aurangzeb
• Nature of the Mughal State.
• Late Seventeenth Century crisis and the revolts
• The Ahom kingdom.
• Shivaji and the early Maratha Kingdom

Economy and Society in the 16th and 17th Centuries:

• Population, agricultural, and craft production.
• Towns, commerce with Europe through Dutch, English and French companies: a trade revolution.
• Indian mercantile classes. Banking, insurance and credit systems.
• Conditions of peasants, Conditions of Women.
• Evolution of the Sikh community and the Khalsa Panth.

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Culture during the Mughal Empire:

• Persian histories and other literature.
• Hindi and religious literature
• Mughal architecture.
• Mughal painting.
• Provincial architecture and painting.
• Classical music.
• Science and technology.

The Eighteenth Century:

• Factors for the Decline of the Mughal Empire
• The regional principalities: Nizam’s Deccan, Bengal, and Awadh
• Maratha ascendancy under the Peshwas.
• The Maratha fiscal and financial system.
• Emergence of Afghan Power, Battle of Panipat, 1761.
• State political, cultural, and economic—on the eve of the British conquest.

Paper 2- History Optional

Paper 1- History Optional

Here is the list of the syllabus for history optional paper 2:

European Penetration into India:

• The Early European Settlements;
• The Portuguese and the Dutch;
• The English and French East India Companies, their struggle for supremacy; Carnatic Wars;
• Bengal-The conflict between the English and the Nawabs of Bengal; Siraj and the English; The Battle of Plassey; Significance of Plassey

British Expansion in India:

• Bengal-Mir Jafar and Mir Kasim; The Battle of Buxar;
• Mysore;
• The Marathas, The three Anglo-Maratha Wars;
• The Punjab.

Early Structure of the British Raj:

• The Early administrative structure; From diarchy to direct Control
• The Regulating Act (1773);
• The Pitt’s India Act (1784);
• The Charter Act (1833);
• The Voice of free trade and the changing character of British colonial rule;
• The English utilitarian and India.

Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule:

• Land revenue settlements in British India;
• The Permanent Settlement, Ryotwari Settlement, Mahalwari Settlement;
• The economic impact of the revenue arrangements;
• Commercialisation of agriculture;
• Rise of landless agrarian labourers;
• The impoverishment of rural society.
• Dislocation of traditional trade and commerce;
• De-industrialisation; Decline of traditional crafts;
• Drain of wealth;
• The economic transformation of India; Railroad and communication network, including telegraph and postal services;
• Famine and poverty in the rural interior;
• European business enterprise and its limitations.

Social and Cultural Developments:

• The state of indigenous education, its dislocation;
• Orientalist-Anglicist controversy,
• The introduction of Western education in India;
• The rise of press, literature and public opinion; The rise of modern vernacular literature;
• Progress of Science;
• Christian missionary activities in India.

Social and Religious Reform Movements in Bengal and Other Areas:

• Ram Mohan Roy, The Brahmo Movement;
• Devendranath Tagore;
• Iswarchandra Vidyasagar;
• The Young Bengal Movement;
• Dayanada Saraswati;
• The social reform movements in India, including Sati, widow remarriage, child marriage etc;
• The contribution of the Indian Renaissance to the growth of modern India;
• Islamic revivalism-the Feraizi and Wahabi Movements.

Factors leading to the birth of Indian Nationalism;

• Politics of Association;
• The Foundation of the Indian National Congress;
• The Safety-valve thesis relating to the birth of the Congress;
• Program and objectives of Early Congress; the social composition of early Congress leadership; the Moderates and Extremists;
• The Partition of Bengal (1905);
• The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal; the economic and political aspects of Swadeshi Movement;
• The beginning of revolutionary extremism in India.

Indian Response to British Rule:

• Peasant movement and tribal uprisings in the 18th and 19th centuries, including the Rangpur Dhing (1783), the Kol Rebellion (1832), the Mopla Rebellion in Malabar (1841-1920), the Santal Hul (1855), Indigo Rebellion (1859-60), Deccan Uprising (1875) and the Munda Ulgulan (1899-1900);
• The Great Revolt of 1857 – Origin, character, causes of failure, the consequences;
• The shift in the character of peasant uprisings in the post-1857 period; the peasant movements of the 1920s and 1930s.

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Rise of Gandhi;

• The character of Gandhian nationalism; Gandhi’s popular appeal;
• Rowlatt Satyagraha; the Khilafat Movement; the Non-cooperation Movement;
• National politics from the end of the Non-cooperation movement to the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement; the two phases of the Civil Disobedience Movement;
• Simon Commission;
• The Nehru Report; the Round Table Conferences;
• Nationalism and the Peasant Movements;
• Nationalism and Working class movements;
• Women and Indian youth and students in Indian politics (1885-1947); the election of 1937 and the formation of ministries;
• Cripps Mission; the Quit India Movement; the Wavell Plan;
• The Cabinet Mission.

Constitutional Developments in Colonial India between 1858 and 1935.

Other strands in the National Movement.

• The Revolutionaries: Bengal, the Punjab, Maharashtra, U.P. the Madras Presidency, Outside India.
• The Left; The Left within the Congress: Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, the Congress Socialist Party; the Communist Party of India, other left parties.

Politics of Separatism; the Muslim League; the Hindu Mahasabha;

• Communalism and the politics of partition;
• Transfer of power; Independence.

Consolidation as a Nation:

• Nehru’s Foreign Policy;
• India and her neighbors (1947-1964);
• The linguistic reorganization of States (1935-1947);
• Regionalism and regional inequality;
• Integration of Princely States;
• Princes in electoral politics; the Question of National Language.

Caste and Ethnicity after 1947:

• Backward Castes and Tribes in post-colonial electoral politics;
• Dalit movements.

Economic development and political change:

• Land reforms; the politics of planning and rural reconstruction;
• Ecology and environmental policy in post-colonial India;
• Progress of Science.

Origins of Modern Politics:

• European States System.
• American Revolution and the Constitution.
• French Revolution and Aftermath, 1789-1815.
• American Civil War concerning Abraham Lincoln and the abolition of slavery.
• British Democratic politics,
• 1815-1850: Parliamentary Reformers, Free Traders, and Chartists.

Enlightenment and Modern Ideas:

• Major Ideas of Enlightenment: Kant, Rousseau.
• Spread of Enlightenment in the colonies.
• Rise of socialist ideas (up to Marx); spread of Marxian Socialism.

Industrialisation:

• English Industrial Revolution: Causes and Impact on Society.
• Industrialization in other countries: USA, Germany, Russia, Japan.
• Industrialization and Globalization.

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Nation-State System:

• Rise of Nationalism in the 19th Century.
• Nationalism: State-building in Germany and Italy.
• The disintegration of Empires in the face of the emergence of nationalities across the World.

Imperialism and Colonialism:

• South and South-East Asia.
• Latin America and South Africa.
• Australia.
• Imperialism and free trade: Rise of neo-imperialism.

Revolution and Counter-Revolution:

• 19th Century European revolutions.
• The Russian Revolution of 1917-1921.
• Fascist Counter-Revolution, Italy and Germany.
• The Chinese Revolution of 1949.

World Wars:

• 1st and 2nd World Wars as Total Wars: Societal Implications
• World War I: Causes and Consequences.
• World War II: Causes and Consequences.

The World after World War II:

• The emergence of Two power blocs.
• The emergence of Third World and non-alignment.
• UNO and the global disputes.

Decolonization and Underdevelopment:

• Factors constraining Development; Latin America, Africa.

Unification of Europe:

• Post-War Foundations; NATO and European Community.
• Consolidation and Expansion of the European Community
• European Union.

Liberation from Colonial Rule:

• Latin America-Bolivar.
• Arab World-Egypt.
• Africa-Apartheid to Democracy.
• South-East Asia-Vietnam.

The Disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Rise of the Unipolar World:

• Factors leading to the collapse of Soviet Communism and the Soviet Union, 1985-1991.
• Political Changes in East Europe (1989-2001).
• End of the Cold War and US Ascendancy in the World as the lone superpower.

Conclusion

These are complete details of the history optional subject syllabus that aspirants need to cover for the UPSC exam. History being a high-scoring and overlapping subject is popular among aspirants. So, these are the details that aspirants need to cover for history as UPSC optional subject.

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