PAPER-II General Studies- I

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(Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society)

(A) Indian Heritage and Culture, History

1. Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
2. Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues
3. The Freedom Struggle - its various stages and important contributors /contributions from different parts of the country.
4. Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country.
5. History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.- their forms and effect on the society.

• Books to refer : 
• NCERTs are the basic building blocks for the study of civil services. We can't risk to ignore them. New NCERTs can be downloaded from here or you can buy it from here. Old NCERTs for History i.e (a) History of Modern India, India's Struggle for Independence (1857-1947) by Bipan Chandra will cover most of the syllabus of modern India. For contemporary India you may refer again Bipan Chadra's India Since Independence. For quick revision of facts and for the preparation of prelims you can refer A Brief History of Modern India by Rajiv Ahir( for Hindi, click here). 
• To know India's cultural history we should study the Indian Cultural evolution from the ancient times. Ancient India by R S Sharma is a good book to look into the ancient past of the Indian Civilization(for Hindi edition, click here)
• A History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra will cover most of the medieval Indian history.
• For world history you may refer History of the World by Arjun Dev
• However, there is no fix pattern or evidence that UPSC will asks questions only from these books. Everyone has his viewpoint to look at history. So the history can be different from everyone's point of view. But there is something common to all these views. Above books is a good mixture of these views though slightly inclined to one side. This gives you the chance to think in your own way and the UPSC only needs that.

(B) Indian Society

1. Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.
2. Role of women and women's organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
3. Effects of globalization on Indian society
4. Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.

(C) Geography

1. Salient features of world's physical geography.
2. Distribution of key natural resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian sub-continent); factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India)
3. Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location- changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.