Hello students,

Most of you have come to this channel through the Youtube channel dedicated History Optional. This channel was started by LevelUp IAS merely 6-7 months ago. As it appears, it is about touching 9000 subscribers and it is already India's largest channel exclusively for History Optional students.

(For those who don't know, here is the link to the History Optional YT Channel)

Please understand that we both, Vishal sir and me, are teachers. We are not content creators or podcasters. Our main objective is to restrict ourself to UPSC CSE demand, although occasionally we end up going perilously close to the limits of its requirement. But I am sure this only helps in deepening our understanding of History as a subject. I am also told that there are many students from various Universities pursuing their BA/MA in History, who also have joined this channel. Some students are also preparing for UGC exam or for state PCS exams. We are only happy to be useful.

Coming to the main point, I guess you all understand the courage it took us to put our entire Optional Foundation course on youtube for everyone. I have been teaching for last 10-11 years now and Vishal sir also almost similar duration. Before coming to LevelUp IAS, he taught in at least half a dozen states to a vast number of students. I used to teach in Vajiram and Ravi and then joined LevelUp IAS. In 2024, we decided to go on Youtube with the entire course. Our idea was two-fold. (1) To reach maximum number of students across India who dont have access to good quality of teaching (self presumptuous..:)) and (2) Refocus our efforts on students at the level of skill building of answer writing, content enrichment, tests and mentorship which requires more time. Daily Foundation classes were not allowing us time to do that earlier. But now we have time for it.

Both Vishal sir and I were also able to come in touch with many new students in this last 6 months. From every nook and corner of India. It was immensely rewarding journey to both of us as well. At personal level, we are also able to read more history books and enrich our content now with more time at disposal.

Now it is almost the end of January 2025. Our entire Foundation course is in public domain. The remaining lectures will be broadcasted in next few days. In this last 6-7 months, except for 2 days where we delayed the posting of the lectures by an hour, there was not a single miss. It was an immense amount of background work and I thank everyone at LevelUp IAS for their relentless, disciplined and creative support.

As most of you are watching these lectures on YT every day, I only request that you like/share and most importantly write comments, either positive, negative, doubts, whatever. Consider this as token of appreciation or guru dakshina of kind. If you write at least one comment for every video you watch, it helps us reach more students. Although we are not podcasters or youtubers, we still cannot escape the rules of Youtube platform.

As our Foundation lectures are coming close, we are planning newer projects for the channel. And in that, wider reach is going to help us a lot. Please consider the request favourably.

Thank you,
Nikhil Sheth
LevelUp IAS

https://theprint.in/feature/around-town/indias-pathshalas-were-inclusive-institutions-dalits-brahmins-studied-together/2461038/?amp


This topic is mentioned in our optional syllabus of Modern India. It is generally not covered in usual books.

Please take proper notes.

This is my most favourite series of books called Very Short Introduction (VSI) published by Oxford. These are little knowledge enrichment capsules.

So far, Oxford has published over 600-700 titles on various topics. I have collected about 65-70 of them, mostly related to History. Today I added a few more titles after visiting the World Book Fair, Delhi.

Tomorrow (9th Feb) is the last day of the book fair. If you are in Delhi, take out some time and visit. Entry is free and it is open from 10AM to 9PM.

#bookreview

This book by Sumit Sarkar was published literally yesterday. And I found it in the World Book Fair.

After a long time his book has hit the market. Almost after a decade I guess. Here are some old uncollected articles. Extremely eager to read.

I am not any way close to being a Marxist. Still, his intellect, insights and pointed writing have been a source of great joy and amazement over the years. Except for 1 or 2 may be, I have almost all the books written by him. This is a new addition now.

(PS: Not required for history optional students. If there is any new relevant thing I find, rest assured it will be added to our upcoming test series and crash course. It is my job as a teacher to read and distill it for you so that you can do value addition without efforts. As a student, you don't practically get time to read all the latest books.)

#bookreview

Two new books. Just arrived. World Book Fair doesn't mean you don't buy books outside it.

Let's hope they are good...:)

#bookreview

If you want to get personal guidance from Nangia sir, who has been one of the longest serving UPSC interview panelists (he served at Dholpur house for about 12-13 years), this is a good opportunity.

Call the institute to book your slot.

https://youtu.be/Nb-QIBLGW4M

Out of about 8 hours of wandering in the World Book Fair, these are about 9 mins of glimpses. This year, I bagged around 45 books. Some of them are directly useful for our preparation.

Credits: I was feeling very awkward with a camera and mic moving around. Camera in classroom ki aadat ho gayi hai Covid ke baad, lekin this is something of a new experience. Still our Ravi sir did manage to get this footage without a hint of awkwardness.

Understand the latest Iron Age debate. Was South India more advanced than North India during the prehistoric era? Or it is merely a political stance??

https://youtu.be/WL4llKeR8tU

https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/science/story/did-sanskrit-originate-in-india-its-roots-trace-back-to-modern-day-russia-2677523-2025-02-10

Yamnaya thesis (Aryan Homeland) is getting modified a bit. To multiple nearby locations and multiple waves of migration.

For UPSC CSE 2025 Preliminary examination, we are starting our Free Daily Telegram MCQ Practice for History and Culture.

1. Find here the schedule for the next 11 weeks with theme-wise syllabus.
2. Every day, you will receive 5 MCQs for practice on our telegram channel.
3. At the end of the week, we will also release weekly compilations.

This is the Youtube video describing features of the initiative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ozw0eVOCeg

2025 is the third year of our initiative. For practicing earlier questions, press on #MCQ and #PYQ. You will be able to find the archive of more than 1700 questions and all PYQs here.

Telegram Channel Link: https://t.me/nikhilhistoryculture

Nikhil

With this, humanity will enter a new stage. The age old struggle to cope with death and to conquer death.. through philosophies and pyramids, are nothing in front of it. This is the conquest of death. Society will change, emotions will change, even religions will have to change with this technology.

Humans are one step closer to become immortal with this. What will be the next step afterwards - to become Gods?

Nikhil.

https://youtu.be/uBL61kbhwNI


Some of you were inquiring about how to prepare art and culture separately for Mains. It is a matter of fact that if you see PYQs properly, we realize that AnC for GS1 is sometimes deeper and more profound that that in History Optional. It needs a different preparation for GS.

So here is the approach. I think this orientation will provide proper direction with regards to that. Do watch it completely.

https://youtu.be/-6D517EXbxA

Nikhil is trying to be a podcaster with such heavy topics. Feedback in the form of YT Comments will be most appreciated.

Telegram initiative of Daily MCQ Practice in History, Art and Culture

This is the schedule of Topics for Week 2.

For attempting daily questions, join @nikhilhistoryculture

#MCQ

It's Buddha time. Three books purchased in last 3 days on Buddhism.

#bookreview

In light of the latest Sati debate, here are some FAQs.

Were there Satis in ancient India - Yes

How commonly prevalent it was - we cannot quantify.

Was it only symbolic in ancient past - only sometimes.

Did Sati incidence increase in medieval time - probably yes on Rajathan and MP side.

Did it increase after British zamindari system - definitely yes on Bengal side

Did the Company and Missionaries have vested interest in taking benefit of Sati practice debate- unambiguously yes.

Did Missionaries exaggerate Sati incidences in Bengal - Yes

Did it mean that we didn't have Sati tradition - No. We Did have it. The extent can be disputed.

Did Sati stop after Bentinck and RRM Roy - Not completely.