We have started a new Youtube channel exclusively for History Optional. All our History videos will now go on this channel. Please subscribe and share.

https://www.youtube.com/@HistoryforUPSC-xd3nb?sub_confirmation=1

Nikhil

We will start releasing Foundation our lectures from 1st of July. This is the schedule for the first week.

Subscribe to the following channel, specially created for History for UPSC: https://www.youtube.com/@HistoryforUPSC-xd3nb?sub_confirmation=1

Our classroom videos will be made live from today. The first video will go live now. The schedule for the entire week is already announced. We are starting with World History. I am as excited as you all are.

As promised, the videos will remain on YT. They will not be deleted. This is not some gimmick. We want to ensure that this YT channel emerges as one stop repository for all the History content you need to prepare for UPSC CSE. We will bring many more activities on this channel, apart from the foundation classroom videos.

Please understand that for all material download, handouts, personal mentoring and doubt resolution, future updates in historiography and weekly answer writing sessions, you need to be registered separately to Sunday Live. In this, handouts are immediately downloadable from the student portal. Moreover, the weekly sessions will start from the first week of August.

Although the videos are made freely available, we need to ensure the viability of the whole project and that is why the Sunday Live is not kept free. It is at the minimal and affordable cost for annual subscription. This is a new model we are trying and we are hopeful that it turns out to be successful.

Nikhil

https://youtu.be/GHBv7Kxqv7k

This is the first lecture. The journey starts today.

Hello,

I have already pointed out multiple times. The video lectures are on Youtube for everyone. All of them, about 180, will be published on YT and will remain there. They cover the entire syllabus comprehensively.

But for all handouts, future value added material, personal mentoring, question answers practice there is a subscription required. It is a single subscription for one entire year and it is kept at minimal fees. It gives you access to student portal from where you can download the handouts. There will also be weekly answer writing practice starting from first week of August. Both Vishal sir and Me will be available for all guidance. We believe in personal mentoring and answer writing practice as the most important aspect. Collectively it is termed as Sunday Live.

Making all the videos public is in itself a big decision. But the Sunday Live is kept at minimal annual fee. It is mentioned in the videos in scrolling strips also. You can subscribe and download the handouts from the student portal.

You can find all the details here. https://www.levelupias.com/upsc-history-optional/

We have started with Enlightenment today. There will be three lectures on Enlightenment.

Believe me, it is the most difficult part of the World History. Because it is abstract and there is no background of it in our syllabus, it is just a slice of time. So it becomes little difficult to grasp.

I have gathered from my students that most teachers either don't cover it properly or wrap it up in 1 lecture. However, every year there is one question at least in the upsc paper. Thus doing it is must. We have planned total 3 lectures on Enlightenment to cover it properly.

Once it is understood, the rest of the world history becomes a cakewalk. But even if you don't understand it properly, be patient. Try to watch the lectures again. And once entire World History is over, come back to these 3 lectures again. It is at that time things will definitively fall in line.

Rest of the world history syllabus is not as abstract and difficult. So, be assured.

Nikhil

How did you find Enlightenment lecture today? Are the basics clear?

Today we have made public the third and final lecture on Enlightenment. It is on Rousseau and Kant.

Perhaps the most important one for tje exam. Generally every year one question comes in the paper.

And the most difficult one as well as it is a purely philosophical one...

Everyone is requested to join this channel
https://t.me/nikhilhistoryoptional

I see some students are directly joining the discussion group without joining the parent channel. Please note that this is our parent channel where all the things related to history optional are shared.

This is the schedule for the second week of the World History section. Video lectures will be available at 9 AM everyday.

Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/@HistoryforUPSC-xd3nb?sub_confirmation=1

This is a clip from my brief discussion on approach to answer writing in History Optional.

https://youtu.be/hJVfePp3Oig

We have finished Enlightenment. In next few days, I will also try to post some related practice questions from our DAMP course.

Meanwhile, we will proceed further with the daily lecture coverage. Now begins the topic of American Revolution, Constitution and Civil War. Although it seems very familiar, the questions that UPSC asks are so peculiar that they need some important conceptial as well as factual understanding.

Even if you have read this part from anywhere else in the past, I am sure you will benefit immensely by these lectures.

It appeared in Today's TheHindu.

"There has never been a single, pure Western or European culture. So called western values like freedom, rationality, justice and tolerance are not originally western, and the West itself is in large part a product of long-standing links with a much larger network of societies, to south and north as well as east."

This is the exact thing we tried to understand when we studied the global history of Renaissance or that of Enlightenment. Try to recall...

This is a lecture from our History Optional Crash Course for Mains 2024. From medieval India section.

https://youtu.be/Y9SmxyyI8C4

Hello students,

I want to make a personal appeal. If you are finding the Youtube initiative helpful, and the quality of lectures useful, do recommend it to your friends and post it's link in various channels and groups that you are a part of.

As I had pointed out earlier, this is a new and bold initiative from our side. We have never experimented with this before. It's success will determine it's longevity. Only if we are able to reach relevant students in more number, it can become succesful and we can think of bringing more such initiatives in future.

So, please share with anyone who might be benefited by this initiative. Every single share counts.

Nikhil.