https://m.thewire.in/article/politics/archaeologist-padma-vibhushan-awardee-b-b-lal-passes-away

His work included: (topics which are related to our exam)

1. Excavation at Delhi, Mathura etc cities - Epic Archaeology during Second Urbanization?
2. Vedic People as Indigenous People? - Archaeological evidences for locating the origin of Aryans
3. Calling Harappa as Sindhu Saraswati civilization?

#archaeology #historyinnews
@nikhilhistoryoptional

Last day reminder for answer submission.

This year, I feel the topic of decolonization is very important. For two reasons - the Queen is now dead, she was the head of Commonwealth for so long. More importantly, the prime minister has given the call for Pancha-Prana during his 15th August speech which included "Get rid of any signs of slavery" by which he meant mental and cultural decolonization.

Moreover, disintegration of USSR was nothing but the final phase of political decolonization in the previous century and recently its architect, Gorbachev, has passed away.

Decolonization as a topic is important everywhere, in Essay, in GS and also in Optional. Questions could be thematic, cause-consequence type or specific to individual nations.

Prepare that thoroughly. The best source for this is still Arjun Dev NCERT. Revise it from there. Additionally, I am attaching a short PDF for value addition. These 5-6 pages will definitely provide you rich content and requisite depth of analysis.

#decolonization
@nikhilhistoryoptional

Daily Answer Writing and Mentorship Program - Micro Schedule and Study Plan

Would it be okay that instead of writing, I give audio comments to everyone? It will reduce some pressure on my side. As the total number of answers to evaluate is much more than earlier, it would take much longer for me to type.

To answer the question:

I have shared the Daily micro plan already above. You can refer to that.

The idea is to divide the entire syllabus into daily study goals. Four months in all. And there will be two questions daily, one for evaluation and one for practice. One question at least would have historiographical context and other one analytical at least.

I will provide a detailed discussion video everyday, that will explain the topic/theme, cover a few PYQs on the similar topic very briefly, discuss various Historians' opinions and approach to the answer in that context.

Also, there will be month end test, in all four sectional tests. Thus around 70-80 questions of each section, and total around 300 questions would be covered in four months. If you really write 300 questions in four months you can imagine what would be your level of preparation.

Apart from that I am also planning to provide handouts for reading on certain topics, for value addition. These handouts would be filled from various books, and will fill the gap between upsc expectation and our regular text books.

There would obviously be weekly zoom doubt solving sessions.

If there is a demand from students side, we can think of adding another component to it - weekly practice map test. In 16 weeks, we can cover 16 themes of maps that would be good to cover a large amount of sites. However, this component depends on the demand of the students. I am not committing to it because I will need to put in more resources into it and i my hands are already full with above commitments. So, i am still thinking whether it would be possible for me to include it or not.

I think except for Aditya's who would re-submit the answers, all other answers are evaluated. Done and dusted. Keep writing, so much so that one day, your thumb/fingers should grow grey matter (read: brain) for ready thinking-writing.

Answer Writing Practice

This time, questions are little more difficult. All the four are very standard and UPSC-like questions. Try to attempt at least one.

Question 23: Ancient India
Analyze the political, economic and social impact of land grants in the post-Gupta era. (15m)

Question 24: Medieval India
Discuss the peculiarity of the Mughal foreign policy in context of relations with contemporary powers of Safavids, Uzbegs and Ottoman empire. (10m)

Question 25: Modern India
Even after Orientalism was replaced by Utilitarianism, it continued to serve the same purpose. Do you agree? Justify. (10m)

Question 26: World History
If Rousseau revealed that man is everywhere in chains, it was Karl Marx who gave a clue to break free of them. Discuss. (15m)

PS1: Submit your answers by the end of 20th September.
PS2: Reply here in the comment section with your answers (scanned image) for evaluation.

#AnswerWritingPractice
@nikhilhistoryoptional

Has anyone here attended the Live Stream feature on Telegram? Will it be useful for our purpose here to discuss some doubts/issues regarding history optional??

The recent debate that is happening about the origin of urbanization in South India - when did it begin and how old it is... So far the narrative has been that second urbanization began in Ganga valley during Buddha age and then spread to other parts of India during Maurya and post-Maurya.

Sangam literature says otherwise and paints an urban picture. We didnt agree with it and thus put the dates of Sangam literature to post-Mauryan era.

However, the archaeological discoveries are now hinting that southern cities may be as old as cities in ganga valley, there is a possibility of it having independent basis. So, if it is proven (may be in next few decades), the Mahajanapada era chapter in out textbooks will then have two sub-parts - North Indian urbanization (Mahajanapada) and South Indian urbanization (Sangama Era)....

I am summarizing some recent archaeological findings in the image here.

@nikhilhistoryoptional

In the context of recent Navy flag, these are the some factoids of Indian navies in Medieval times.

1. Cholas in Bay of Bengal against Srilanka and SE Asia and also in Arabian sea against Maldives. But this was just a great logistical exercise and not naval warfare.

2. Marakkars against Portuguese. There is a movie on it. Extremely brave but sadly less known.

3. Marthanda Varma against Dutch
The famous battle of Colachel.

4. Marathas against Portuguese, Dutch British etc. Best known for Kolhapur campaigns against Portuguese, and 1678 Khanderi campaign. Plus the capture of EIC ship Derby, it was ghe single biggest instance of a British ship capture in India ever. Then there was a 1754 battle against Dutch where in the Dutch changed the trade routes themselves because of fear of Angres.

#navy
@nikhilhistoryculture

2022 GS Paper - History Questions

Q1. How will you explain that medieval Indian temple sculptures represent the social life of those days. (10m, 150 words)
Q2. Why did the armies of the British East India Company - mostly comprising of Indian soldiers - win consistently against the more numerous and better equipped armies of the then Indian rulers? Give reasons. (10m, 150 words)
Q3. Why was there a sudden spurt in famines in colonial India since the mid-eighteenth century? Give reasons. (10m, 150 words)

Q11. The political and administrative reorganization of states and territories has been a continuous ongoing process since the mid-eighteenth century. Discuss with examples. (15m, 250 words)
Q12. Discuss the main contributions of Gupta period and Chola period to Indian heritage and culture. (15m, 250 words)
Q13. Discuss the significance of lion and bull figures in Indian mythology, art and architecture. (15m, 250 words)

We will discuss all the questions with trend analysis, sources, approach and future plan in next two days on Youtube. The details will be announced soon.

@nikhilhistoryculture

https://www.deccanherald.com/national/south/it-s-raining-artefacts-as-curtains-set-to-draw-on-excavations-in-tamil-nadu-1144881.html

#south #sangam #urban
@nikhilhistoryculture

https://youtu.be/N43w8agep3U

Analytical, practical and no non-sense discussion of History and Culture questions asked in CSE Mains GS 1, 2022 paper.

Do watch it for takeaways and mental frameworks for attempting future GS History and Culture questions in UPSC.

PS: For optional, we follow a different approach which is more informed by primary sources and historiography. The present video discussion is done primarily from the GS point of view.

@nikhilhistoryculture

Reminder

Today is the last date of the answer submission for Q23 to Q26.

In this question on the social composition of Indian National Congress, (Q21) I missed one point in the comments.

Its composition doesn’t have to be a limiting factor only in our answer. Cambridge historians focus a lot on this from their own negative view. But we should remember that it was crème de la crème of Indian society (to use a phrase used by Irfan Habib in one of his writings on Congress formation). Also, considering the earlier traditional feudal leadership of India, this was a new type of western educated professional middle class elite that had emerged which carried the western modern ideas of India.

Point is - if you compare it with later Indian leaders, it seems a limitation. If you compare it with the earlier era, it seems like a modern thing. So, it is both good and limited at the same time.

So then which benchmark to choose? It depends on the tenor of the question.

https://youtu.be/eFzg7MAhMBs

This is video prepared by the Team. I am sharing it for its eerie musical effect..:)

@nikhilhistoryoptional

Answer Writing Practice

These are four standard, UPSC-like questions for this round. Try to attempt at least one.

Question 27: Ancient India
Is Ashoka's policy of Dhamma relevant in the present era? Give arguments in support of your view.(10m)

Question 28: Medieval India
Comment on the growth of regional languages and literature during the 1400-1550 CE. (10m)

Question 29: Modern India
Examine the factors that encouraged communalism in Indian politics after 1937. (15m)

Question 30: World History
The British empire didn't go away, it merely transformed into the Commonwealth of Nations. Do you agree? (15m)

PS1: Submit your answers by the end of 27th September.
PS2: Reply here in the comment section with your answers (scanned image) for evaluation.

#AnswerWritingPractice
@nikhilhistoryoptional