HISTORY OPTIONAL

PAPER II

DETAILED SYLLABUS

SECTION A MODERN INDIA

1. EUROPEAN PENETRATION INTO INDIA:

The Early European Settlements; The Portuguese and the Dutch; The English and the French East India Companies; Their struggle for supremacy; Carnatic Wars; Bengal -The conflict between the English and the Nawabs of Bengal; Siraj and the English; The Battle of Plassey; Significance of Plassey.

2. BRITISH EXPANSION IN INDIA:

Bengal – Mir Jafar and Mir Kasim; The Battle of Buxar; Mysore; The Marathas; The three Anglo-Maratha Wars; The Punjab.

3. EARLY STRUCTURE OF THE BRITISH RAJ:

• The early administrative structure; From diarchy to direct control; The Regulating Act (1773); The Pitt’s India
• Act (1784); The Charter Act (1833); The voice of free trade and the changing character of British colonial rule;
• The English utilitarian and India.

4. ECONOMIC IMPACT OF BRITISH COLONIAL RULE:

• Land revenue settlements in British India; The Permanent Settlement; Ryotwari Settlement; Mahalwari Settlement; Economic impact of the revenue arrangements; Commercialization of agriculture; Rise of landless agrarian labourers; Impoverishment of the rural society.

• Dislocation of traditional trade and commerce; De-industrialisation; Decline of traditional crafts; Drain of wealth; Economic transformation of India; Railroad and communication network including telegraph and postal services; Famine and poverty in the rural interior; European business enterprise and its limitations.

5. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS:

The state of indigenous education, its dislocation; Orientalist-Anglicist controversy, The introduction of western education in India; The rise of press, literature and public opinion; The rise of modern vernacular literature; Progress of science; Christian missionary activities in India.

6. SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS REFORM MOVEMENTS IN BENGAL AND OTHER AREAS:

Ram Mohan Roy, The Brahmo Movement; Devendranath Tagore; Iswarchandra Vidyasagar; The Young Bengal Movement; Dayanada Saraswati; The social reform movements in India including Sati, widow remarriage, child marriage etc.; The contribution of Indian renaissance to the growth of modern India; Islamic revivalism – the Feraizi and Wahabi Movements.

7. INDIAN RESPONSE TO BRITISH RULE:

• Peasant movements and tribal uprisings in the 18th and 19th centuries including the Rangpur Dhing (1783), the Kol Rebellion (1832), the Mopla Rebellion in Malabar (1841-1920), the Santal Hul (1855), Indigo Rebellion (1859-60), Deccan Uprising (1875) and the Munda Ulgulan (1899 –1900);

• The Great Revolt of 1857 – Origin,character, causes of failure, the consequences; The shift in the character of peasant uprisings in the post-1857 period; the peasant movements of the 1920s and 1930s.

8. FACTORS LEADING TO THE BIRTH OF INDIAN NATIONALISM; POLITICS OF ASSOCIATION; THE FOUNDATION OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS;

The Safety-valve thesis relating to the birth of the Congress; Programme and objectives of early Congress; the social composition of early Congress leadership; the Moderates and Extremists; The Partition of Bengal (1905); The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal; the economic and political aspects of Swadeshi Movement; The beginning of revolutionary extremism in India.

9. RISE OF GANDHI;

Character of Gandhian nationalism; Gandhi’s popular appeal; Rowlatt Satyagraha; the Khilafat Movement; the Non-cooperation Movement; National politics from the end of the Non-cooperation movement to the beginning of the Civil Disobedience movement; the two phases of the Civil Disobedience Movement; Simon Commission; The Nehru Report; the Round Table Conferences; Nationalism and the Peasant Movements; Nationalism and Working-class movements; Women and Indian youth and students in Indian politics (1885-1947); the election of 1937 and the formation of ministries; Cripps Mission; the Quit India Movement; the Wavell Plan; The Cabinet Mission.

10. CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE COLONIAL INDIA BETWEEN 1858 AND 1935.

11. OTHER STRANDS IN THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT.

• The Revolutionaries: Bengal, the Punjab, Maharashtra, U.P, the Madras Presidency, Outside India.
• The Left; The Left within the Congress: Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, the Congress Socialist Party; the Communist Party of India, other left parties.

12. POLITICS OF SEPARATISM;

The Muslim League; the Hindu Mahasabha; Communalism and the politics of partition; Transfer of power; Independence.

13. CONSOLIDATION AS A NATION; NEHRU’S FOREIGN POLICY; INDIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS (1947-1964);

The linguistic reorganization of States (1935-1947); Regionalism and regional inequality; Integration of Princely States; Princes in electoral politics; the Question of National Language.

14. CASTE AND ETHNICITY AFTER 1947;

Backward castes and tribes in postcolonial electoral politics; Dalit movements.

15. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICAL CHANGE;

Land reforms; the politics of planning and rural reconstruction; Ecology and environmental policy in post – colonial India; Progress of science.

SECTION B WORLD HISTORY

1. ENLIGHTENMENT AND MODERN IDEAS:

• Major ideas of Enlightenment: Kant, Rousseau
• Spread of Enlightenment in the colonies
• Rise of socialist ideas (up to Marx); spread of Marxian Socialism.

2. ORIGINS OF MODERN POLITICS:

• European States System.
• American Revolution and the Constitution.
• French revolution and aftermath, 17891815.
• American Civil War with reference to Abraham Lincoln and the abolition of slavery.
• British Democratic Politics, 18151850; Parliamentary Reformers, Free Traders, Chartists.

3. INDUSTRIALIZATION:

• English Industrial Revolution: Causes and Impact on Society
• Industrialization in other countries: USA, Germany, Russia, Japan
• Industrialization and Globalization.

4. NATION-STATE SYSTEM:

• Rise of Nationalism in 19th century
• Nationalism: state-building in Germany and Italy
• Disintegration of Empires in the face of the emergence of nationalities across the world.

5. IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM:

• South and South-East Asia
• Latin America and South Africa
• Australia
• Imperialism and free trade: Rise of neo-imperialism.

6. REVOLUTION AND COUNTER-REVOLUTION:

• 19th Century European revolutions
• The Russian Revolution of 19171921
• Fascist Counter-Revolution, Italy and Germany.
• The Chinese Revolution of 1949

7. WORLD WARS:

• 1st and 2nd World Wars as Total Wars: Societal implications
• World War I: Causes and consequences
• World War II: Causes and consequence

8. THE WORLD AFTER WORLD WAR II:

• Emergence of two power blocs
• Emergence of Third World and non-alignment
• UNO and the global disputes.

9. LIBERATION FROM COLONIAL RULE:

• Latin America-Bolivar
• Arab World-Egypt
• Africa-Apartheid to Democracy
• South-East Asia-Vietnam

10. DECOLONIZATION AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT:

Factors constraining development: Latin America, Africa

11. UNIFICATION OF EUROPE:

• Post War Foundations: NATO and European Community
• Consolidation and Expansion of European Community
• European Union.

12. DISINTEGRATION OF SOVIET UNION AND THE RISE OF THE UNIPOLAR WORLD:

• Factors leading to the collapse of Soviet communism and the Soviet Union, 1985-1991
• Political Changes in Eastern Europe 1989-2001.
• End of the cold war and US ascendancy in the World as the lone superpower.