Optional — History for UPSC CSE

History is not the past; it is an argument about the past built from fragmentary evidence, and the paper is scored on three things — evidence with its type named, the historiographical disagreement, and a position you defend. A candidate who has read less and writes that way outscores one who has read everything and writes narrative. Prepare four debates in full for each paper: the Mauryan state, Indian feudalism, the Mughal state and its crisis, and the eighteenth century for Paper I; the character of 1857, the drain and deindustrialisation, the movement read from above against from below, and the origins of the Cold War for Paper II. Build the map file by category from the first month and practise on blank outlines, because the map question is scored almost mechanically and is forfeited every year by candidates who prepared everything else. And give world history the preparation share its marks warrant — it is a quarter of the optional and the least prepared block in the syllabus.