HISTORY Optional : Modern India & World History

History Optional Paper II

Modern India & World History

Max Marks 250                                                                                Max Time : 180 min

Q1 and Q5 are compulsory. Answer any other three questions, by taking at least one question from each part

PART A

Q1 Write notes/Comment on the following in about 150 words each [10x5=50]

a.     Role of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar in Indian society

b.     “Often rendered an exemplary form of epistemological violence wrought by British colonial rule in much postcolonial inquiry, the 1872 census was conducted by analyzing several major reports following its implementation in the context of wider 19 th century conversations about the so-called science of statistics”

c.     Four broadly conceived historiographical schools and their interpretations of Anticolonial Nationalism : nationalist, Marxist, Cambridge, and Subaltern Studies.

d.     The 18th century in Indian history marks it relevance by two crucial developments - the decline of Mughal Empire and the expansion of British Empire. These two events changed India's social, economic and political structure.

e.     The Construction of Ascetic Masculinity in Vivekananda’s Photographs and Posters

Q2a Can it be said that Bhagat Singh was a revolutionary with a vision while Jatindranath Mukherjee was a revolutionary terrorist?

Q2b Examine the monetary foundation of the Raj.

Q2c In contrast to the Muslim Ulemas tracing their spiritual lineage from the Wahabi movement who dubbed India under the non-Muslim British rule as a daarul harb (land of war) where jihad (religious war) should become continuous, Sir Syed considered the same not only as daarul aman (land of peace) but also offered a new interpretation of jihad. Sir Syed’s approach was relatively modern. Critically discuss

[20+15+15=50]

Q3a Modern India is also a test of two middle-ground philosophies. As an early proponent of non-alignment in international politics, India has attempted to establish a [middle] position between Western and [communist] oriented states. Over the years, its leadership in carving out a Third World posture demonstrated that there is a viable route for nations who did not want to take sides in Cold War politics, an approach which many other nations in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East have followed and hope to sustain. Comment.

Q3b Did science and technology in India develop during British colonial rule from 1858 onwards?

Q3c Posit a critique of the Sanyasi and Fakir rebellion of the 1770s.

[20+15+15=50]

Q4a A radical educational change in the early nineteenth century, an imperial civil society movement promoted modern elementary 'schools for all'. This movement included British, American and German missionaries, and Indian intellectuals and social reformers. They organised themselves in non-governmental organisations, which aimed to change Indian education. Deiberate.

Q4b Gandhi was not doctrinally opposed to violence as he had enlisted soldiers for the British during the first world war. He had also stated that he felt morally bound to help, using non-violent means, those who further a just cause even if they do not shun violence. Analyse critically.

Q4c How poets and litterateurs contributed to India’s national struggle. Cite instances. Were they gender biased?

[20+15+15=50]

PART B

Q5 Write notes/Comment on the following in about 150 words each [10x5=50]

a.     We are 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in 100 years.

b.     Reign of Terror during the French Revolution

c.     Role of Leon Trotsky in the Bolshevik Revolution and after

d.     Post-Tito Yugoslavia

e.     Role of individual leaders in eradicating apartheid in South Africa

Q6a Would you agree that the Continental System of Napoleon led to his undoing?

Q6b Can it be said that the American Revolution confirmed the economic theory and practice of capitalism?

Q6c Describe the formation of the state of Australia. [20+20+10=50]

Q7a Has the United Nations achieved its stated objective? Discuss.

Q7b Hitler solely was not responsible for this hatred against the Jews. Do you agree?

Q7c By the time the foreign ministers of the four victorious powers met in Moscow in March 1947, there was no doubt about the fragile state of the wartime alliance. That month President Truman proclaimed the doctrine, which bore his name, of a global US anti-Communist ideology. Discuss.  [15+15+20=50]

Q8a How did the first world war come to an end? Why the Weimar republic failed?

Q8b Map the contest between China and Japan post 1905 till 1945.

Q8c Bring out the commonalities between Africa and Latin America post decolonisation.

[20+15+15=50]

Modern India [Paper II] [11 Aug 2019]

Max Marks : 250                                                   Max Time : 180 min

All questions are compulsory

Q1 Comment in about 150 words each [5x10=50]

a.   Rumours and conspiracies made up the uprising of 1857

b.   Resistance to partition signalled the beginning of the swadeshi movement

c.    The Bengalees formed just over 50 per cent of the population of undivided Pakistan, but were poorly represented

d.   Bombs and pistols do not make a revolution. The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting-stone of ideas.

e.    The 1919 agitaion had many remarkable features.

2a    Were Gandhi and Nehru the two visions of India?

2b    Note the advancement of education in post-independent India till 1964.

2c     Has forests dwindled and water gone scarce post-independence? Critically analyse.        [20+10+20=50]

3a     How did Ram Krishna Mission help in awakening Indian society in the 19^th century?

3b     Mention the measures taken by the social reformers to uplift the position of women in Indian society.

3c     Did Gandhi express the ideals of the Moderates? [15+20+15=50]

4a     Present an unbiased assessment of British administrative practices

4b     Posit on the development of science and technology during the British colonial era.

4c     What is ‘history from below’?  [15+20+15=50]

5a     Identify features that show the importance of spirituality in Indian culture.

5b     Why the Marathas were unable to form a stable pan-India Empire?

5c     How did the British drain India’s wealth to England? [20+15+15=50]

 

World History [Paper II] [18 Aug 2019]

Max Marks : 250                                                   Max Time : 180 min

All questions are compulsory

Q1 Comment in about 150 words each [5x10=50]

a.   On Monday 16 August 1819, 60,000 men, women and children gathered for a mass rally in Manchester. They had progressed to St Peter’s Field on the southern edge of the town from the city’s working-class districts.

b.   Starvation and disease killed millions in British India during the Second World War.

c.    Vietnam was a war that never ended

d.   1917 shows how revolutions incubate extremes

e.    ‘Revolution is not a dinner party’, Mao said

2a  After the Second World War, why did Japan abolish its armed forces?

2b    Napoleon had his work cut out; several of the measures he introduced continue to influence French life today, from the Code Napoléon, France’s civil code, to the baccalauréat, the French equivalent of A-Levels. Discuss.

2c     Found guilty of fraud, the French chemist Lavoisier was executed on 8 May 1794. Critically analyse.        [10+20+20=50]

3a     Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became a lightning rod for the mass protests which overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979, but the causes of the Iranian Revolution lay elsewhere. Discuss.

3b     Enumerate the causes of the American Civil War.

3c     Can we say that there were two Industrial Revolutions? [15+15+20=50]

4a     Did Socialism exist before ‘The Communist Manifesto’?

4b     How did Netherlands and USA spread their influence over South-East Asia?

4c     Is African history correlated with the ‘scramble by the Europeans’ for it?  [15+15+20=50]

5a     Do you agree with Samuel Huntington’s 1999 thesis that USA was the only superpower in the post-Cold War era?

5b     Sketch the three steps towards Italian unification.

5c     Was Stalin responsible for the collapse of USSR in 1991? Critically analyse. [15 +15+20=50]