Indian History is one of the unavoidable subjects for your IAS preparation. A lot of IAS aspirants may find Indian History as a hard nut to crack when compared to the rest of the subjects since the subject is vast and includes more facts, names and dates to remember. Keep reading to know about how to study History for the IAS exam.
Indian History is divided into three major sections, such as:
- Ancient Indian History
- Medieval Indian History
- Modern Indian History
How to Study Ancient Indian History
There is more emphasis on the historical sources that are available for ancient Indian History and this has gained prevalence in the new syllabus. Therefore students are advised to prepare notes on those sources available to record ancient History. Within various sources, the most important source for investigation of Ancient India is the archaeological source. This source mainly covers topics from the ancient times until the Iron age, and so you should always keep tabs on the latest discoveries of this source.
Your preparation should start right from the Indus valley civilisation to the post-Gupta period. When it comes to Indus valley civilisation, cover important details such as economic, cultural and social activities during that period. You need to focus on Empire/kingdoms and important kings during ancient times.
The other relevant areas that you need to focus on are the schools in Antiquated India and Major Philosophical scholars. Here, prepare notes on Jain, Brahmanical and Buddhist philosophical schools.
How to Study Medieval Indian History
Even though the questions from Medieval Indian History is comparatively less, still you can’t skip it.
- Give more prominence to Delhi Sultanate.
- Likewise, comprehensively cover the Mughal rule and also the time of Akbar.
- From the assessment perspective, there are a few significant segments, such as the Vijayanagara empire, the rashtrakuta empire and the Pala empire- their administration, rise and fall, and economic and political developments.
Another important areas are society during medieval occasions, such as
- Bhakti development in South India
- Bhakti development- Chaitanya, Sankaracharya, Kabir and Ramanuja
- Sufi movement
- Maharashtra dharma
- Various sculptures and buildings from this period
- Terms related to this period
You must have a transformative methodology while covering these areas.
How to Study Modern Indian History
The lion’s share of questions is asked from Modern Indian History. Therefore it will be wise to start the subject sequential and unit-wise.
British Monetary Strategy
The substantial part of British colonisation was both Financial exploitation of India, and how it badly affected the Indian culture. You need to consider its radical and nationalistic ideological perspectives while making notes from this topic.
British Success and Indian response
Here there are references to Marathas, Punjab and Mysore, and their resistance against the frontier control. You need to ponder over the local state’s protection from the British victory. Next cover the economic, social and political conditions that gave rise to the 1857 revolt. Also, prepare notes on various uprisings, for instance, common, inborn and worker’s revolt.
Socio-social Angles
It mainly includes sub-topics such as:
- Christian evangelist exercises
- Indian renaissance
- Development of social and instructive arrangements
- The role of development of social and instructive arrangements in the ascent of Patriotism in India
Other subjects are on artistic characters, such as S Bharati, Premchand, Rabindranath Tagore and others. Accentuate on the social development in present-day India. From such a point of view, you need to make notes.
Follow this study strategy to enhance your understanding and learning of this great subject.
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