All Political Science and International Relations optional papers

UPSC Mains 2019 Political Science and International Relations Optional Question Papers with Model Answers

All 56 questions of the 2019 Civil Services Main Examination, PSIR Paper I and PSIR Paper II, with marks and a suggested time per part. Solve each part on paper first, then open the model answer, or send it to answer-writing practice for evaluation.

UPSC Mains 2019 Political Science and International Relations PSIR Paper I

Question 1 (50 marks)

Q1(a) · Political Theory and Theories of the State · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Decline and Resurgence of Political Theory
Resurgence of political theory.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राजनीतिक थियोरी का पुनरुत्थान ।
Practise this question Political Theory and Theories of the State notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(a)
Approach: Briefly recall the decline, then explain the factors and thinkers behind the resurgence, and its new themes.
After being declared dead by positivists and behaviouralists in the 1950s, normative political theory revived from the 1960s; this is called the resurgence of political theory.
Factors: behaviouralism’s failure to address the Vietnam war, racial injustice and poverty; Easton’s own post-behavioural Credo of Relevance (1969), which readmitted values; and new social movements that raised questions of rights and recognition.
Thinkers: Isaiah Berlin’s ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ (1958) and ‘Does Political Theory Still Exist?’ (1962), Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss kept theory alive. The decisive moment was John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice (1971), followed by Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) and the communitarian replies of Sandel, MacIntyre, Taylor and Walzer.
New themes: justice, multiculturalism, feminism, environmentalism, global justice and deliberative democracy (Habermas).
In India, debates on secularism, affirmative action and minority rights show that theory is alive and relevant to public life.
Q1(b) · Political Theory and Theories of the State · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Marxist and Pluralist Theories of the State
Pluralist theory of the State.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राज्य की बहुवादी थियोरी ।
Practise this question Political Theory and Theories of the State notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(b)
Approach: Explain the pluralist view of sovereignty and the state, its main proponents and arguments, and its limitations.
Pluralism arose in early twentieth-century Britain as a revolt against the monistic theory of sovereignty of Bodin, Hobbes and Austin. It sees the state as one association among many rather than the sole source of authority.
Arguments: associations such as churches, guilds and trade unions arise naturally and command loyalty in their own right (Figgis, Maitland); sovereignty is therefore divided, and the state’s role is to coordinate them. Harold Laski (Studies in the Problem of Sovereignty, 1917; A Grammar of Politics, 1925) argued that the state’s claim to obedience must be earned by its performance.
Neo-pluralism: in the USA, Robert Dahl described democracy as competition among many groups, and later admitted, with Charles Lindblom, the privileged position of business.
Limitations: someone must arbitrate conflicts among associations, so pluralism quietly restores sovereignty to the state; Laski himself later moved towards Marxism. Elite theorists and Marxists argue that groups are unequal.
Pluralism nevertheless strengthened decentralisation and civil society, values visible in India’s 73rd and 74th Amendments.
Q1(c) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Power, Hegemony, Ideology and Legitimacy
End of Ideology debate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
विचारधारा का अंत्य वादविवाद ।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(c)
Approach: Explain the origin and argument of the end of ideology thesis, its critics, its revival by Fukuyama, and its present status.
The end of ideology thesis arose in the 1950s, when Western scholars argued that ideological conflict between left and right had exhausted itself.
Edward Shils and Raymond Aron raised it, Daniel Bell's The End of Ideology (1960) gave it its name, and S.M. Lipset in Political Man (1960) agreed. Their reason was that the welfare state, the mixed economy and rising affluence had settled the great questions, leaving only technical management.
The New Left and student movements of the 1960s, and later feminism and environmentalism, disproved it. Critics such as C. Wright Mills called the thesis itself an ideology of the status quo. After 1989, Francis Fukuyama's end of history revived the claim as the final victory of liberal democracy.
The rise of political Islam, populism, identity politics and Hindutva in India shows that ideology has changed form rather than ended.
Q1(d) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Models of Democracy: Representative, Participatory and Deliberative
Deliberative democracy.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
विमर्शी लोकतंत्र ।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(d)
Approach: Define deliberative democracy, give its main thinkers and features, cite examples and end with a critique.
Deliberative democracy is a model in which political decisions draw their legitimacy from reasoned public discussion among free and equal citizens, rather than from voting or bargaining alone.
Jürgen Habermas grounds it in communicative rationality and the public sphere, where the force of the better argument should prevail. John Rawls's idea of public reason requires citizens to justify laws on grounds others can accept, while Joshua Cohen, and Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, set out its conditions: equality, reason-giving and openness.
Its features include inclusion of all affected, reasoned justification, freedom from coercion and the transformation of preferences through discussion. It appears in citizens' assemblies, deliberative polls and, in India, in the Gram Sabha, social audits and parliamentary committees.
Iris Marion Young and Chantal Mouffe criticise it for privileging educated speakers and suppressing conflict. Even so, it enriches democracy by making decisions more informed, inclusive and legitimate.
Q1(e) · Indian Political Thought · 10 marks≈ 7 min
M.K. Gandhi
M. K. Gandhi's concept of Swaraj.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
एम के गाँधी की स्वराज की संकल्पना ।
Practise this question Indian Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(e)
Approach: Explain the dual meaning of Swaraj in Hind Swaraj (self-rule over oneself and political freedom) and its institutional form, with a brief evaluation.
Gandhi set out his concept of Swaraj in Hind Swaraj (1909), written as a dialogue between a Reader and an Editor. He rejected the idea of English rule without the Englishman, that is, independence with the same modern civilisation, parliaments and industry.
First, Swaraj is self-rule in the moral sense: rule over one's own mind and passions. When individuals learn to rule themselves, the nation becomes free. Second, it is political independence, but this is meaningless unless it reaches the poorest. Third, it includes economic freedom through swadeshi and khadi, and social freedom through removal of untouchability and communal unity.
Institutionally, Swaraj means decentralised self-governing villages, Gram Swaraj, and a minimal state, achieved through satyagraha, never through violence.
Critics found it anti-modern, but its emphasis on self-discipline, decentralisation and the last person in society remains influential.

Question 2 (50 marks)

Q2(a) · Western Political Thought · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Plato and Aristotle
Explain Aristotle's critique of Plato's Idealism.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्लैटो के आदर्शवाद पर अरस्तू की मीमांसा को स्पष्ट कीजिए ।
Practise this question Western Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: Set out Plato's idealism (Forms, philosopher-king, communism, ideal state), then explain Aristotle's point-by-point critique and his realist alternative, ending with a balanced judgement on their relationship.
Plato's idealism, set out in the Republic, rests on the theory of Forms and seeks a perfect state ruled by philosopher-kings, with communism of property and family for the guardians and justice defined as each class performing its own function. Aristotle, Plato's student, criticised this in Book II of the Politics, famously preferring truth to his teacher.
Critique of the Forms: Aristotle held that universals exist within particular things, not in a separate world; political knowledge must therefore begin from the study of actual constitutions.
Critique of excessive unity: Plato wanted the state to be as unified as a single person. Aristotle replied that a state is by nature a plurality, and pushing unity too far turns the state into a family and then an individual, destroying it.
Critique of communism: common property leads to neglect, since what belongs to all is cared for by none; private ownership with common use is better and permits virtues such as generosity. Communism of wives and children dilutes affection, so that love becomes watery.
Critique of the philosopher-king: permanent rule by one class excludes others from honour and breeds discontent. Aristotle preferred the rule of law and a mixed constitution, polity, based on the middle class.
Aristotle's method is empirical and inductive, Plato's speculative and deductive; Aristotle seeks the best practicable state, Plato the best ideal state.
Yet the two are not opposites. Aristotle shared Plato's view that the state exists for virtue and the good life, and his own best state in Books VII and VIII is also an ideal. Together they founded the dialogue between idealism and realism in political thought.
Q2(b) · Justice, Equality and Rights · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Communitarian and Other Critiques of Rawls
Examine communitarian perspectives on justice.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
न्याय पर समुदायवादी परिप्रेक्ष्यों का परीक्षण कीजिए ।
Practise this question Justice, Equality and Rights notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: Define communitarianism, present the main communitarian views on justice (Sandel, MacIntyre, Walzer, Taylor) with their common themes, and evaluate them against liberal objections.
Communitarianism emerged in the 1980s as a critique of Rawlsian liberalism. It holds that individuals are formed by their communities, so justice must be grounded in shared understandings and the common good rather than in abstract, universal principles.
Sandel (Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, 1982) rejects the priority of the right over the good. Justice is not the first virtue of every institution; in a family, love and solidarity make it secondary, a remedial virtue.
MacIntyre (After Virtue, 1981; Whose Justice? Which Rationality?, 1988) argues there is no tradition-free standpoint: rival conceptions of justice belong to rival traditions, and justice is an Aristotelian virtue tied to practices.
Walzer (Spheres of Justice, 1983) holds that each good, such as money, office, medical care or education, has its own social meaning and distributive criterion. Justice is complex equality: dominance in one sphere must not convert into dominance in another.
Taylor argues that rights presuppose a society that cultivates the capacities they protect, so citizens have obligations to sustain it.
Liberals reply that communities can be oppressive and that appeals to shared meanings can entrench caste or patriarchy, as Susan Okin warned. Yet the communitarian stress on social context, civic virtue and plural goods has enriched theories of justice, and Rawls' later political liberalism partly absorbed it.
Q2(c) · Justice, Equality and Rights · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Equality: Social, Political and Economic; Equality and Freedom
Compare negative and positive concepts of liberty.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
स्वतंत्रता की नकारात्मक और सकारात्मक संकल्पनाओं की तुलना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Justice, Equality and Rights notes
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Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Define both concepts with their main exponents, compare them on key points, note Berlin's warning and its critics, and conclude with Indian constitutional practice.
Isaiah Berlin's lecture Two Concepts of Liberty (1958) distinguished freedom from and freedom to, a distinction that organises much of the debate on liberty.
Negative liberty is the area within which a person can act without interference by others. Hobbes, Bentham, J.S. Mill (On Liberty, 1859), Hayek and Nozick belong here.
Positive liberty is self-mastery, being one's own master and able to realise one's capacities. Rousseau's general will, Hegel, T.H. Green's freedom as a positive power of doing something worth doing, and Marx's emancipation are examples. The state may remove obstacles through education, health and welfare.
Comparison: (i) absence of restraint versus presence of capacity; (ii) minimal versus enabling state; (iii) liberty and equality in tension versus complementary; (iv) individual choice versus a rational or true self.
Debate: Berlin warned that positive liberty can be twisted into forcing people to be free in the name of their real self, as in totalitarian regimes. Critics such as Charles Taylor (What's Wrong with Negative Liberty, 1979) argue that freedom requires the capacity to choose well. Gerald MacCallum (1967) showed that both are versions of one triadic concept: an agent free from some constraint to do something.
The Indian Constitution blends both: Article 19 protects freedoms against state interference, while Article 21's expansion into rights to livelihood, education and dignity, and the Directive Principles, reflect positive liberty.

Question 3 (50 marks)

Q3(a) · Western Political Thought · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci
According to Gramsci, 'hegemony is primarily based on the organisation of consent.' Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
ग्रामसी के अनुसार, "प्राधान्य मुख्यतः सहमति के आयोजन पर आधारित है ।" टिप्पणी कीजिए ।
Practise this question Western Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: Comment by explaining Gramsci's concept of hegemony (consent organised in civil society, backed by coercion), the role of intellectuals and the war of position, its departure from classical Marxism, and its contemporary relevance and limits.
Antonio Gramsci, writing in Mussolini's prisons (Prison Notebooks, 1929 to 1935), asked why the proletarian revolution succeeded in Russia but failed in Western Europe. His answer was hegemony: the ruling class rules not mainly by force but by intellectual and moral leadership that wins the consent of the ruled.
Organisation of consent: Gramsci divided the superstructure into political society (the state's coercive apparatus: army, police, courts) and civil society (church, schools, media, family, trade unions, parties). Consent is organised in civil society, where the values of the ruling class are spread as common sense, so that subordinate classes accept the existing order as natural. The integral state is thus political society plus civil society, or hegemony armoured by coercion. Force is used only when consent fails, in a crisis of authority.
Agents: intellectuals, both traditional (clergy, academics) and organic (those each class produces), manufacture consent.
Strategy: in the West, where civil society is dense like a system of trenches, revolution requires a war of position, building a counter-hegemony through cultural and political work, rather than a war of manoeuvre, a frontal assault on the state as in Russia in 1917.
Significance: Gramsci broke with economic determinism by giving ideas and culture relative autonomy. His concept influenced cultural studies, Subaltern Studies in India (Ranajit Guha), and analyses of media and nationalism.
Limits: the concept can overstate consent and underplay coercion and resistance; James C. Scott argued that subordinate groups often only appear to consent.
The statement is therefore accurate: for Gramsci, power in modern societies rests primarily on organised consent, which makes culture a central arena of politics.
Q3(b) · Indian Political Thought · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Dharmashastra and Arthashastra Traditions
Discuss Kautilya's views on the elements of the State.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राज्य के तत्त्वों पर कौटिल्य के विचारों की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Indian Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: Discuss Kautilya's seven elements (Saptanga) of the state, their ranking and interdependence, and evaluate the theory against modern ideas of the state.
Kautilya, minister to Chandragupta Maurya, set out in the Arthashastra the Saptanga or seven-limbed theory of the state.
The seven elements are: swami, the king, who must possess learning, self-control and energy; amatya, ministers appointed after tests of integrity; janapada, a fertile, populous territory; durga, fortifications; kosha, a treasury filled by just revenue; danda, the army and power to punish; and mitra, reliable allies.
Kautilya ranks them in this order and argues that the loss of a higher element is more serious, which is why the king is central. Yet each limb, like a part of the body, supports the others, and the state is healthy only when all function. Wealth is the base of the army, the army protects territory, and the territory yields wealth.
The theory has notable features. It is secular in method, treating the state as a human institution for welfare and security. It anticipates modern elements of the state (population, territory, government) and adds foreign relations through mitra, which links it to the Mandala theory.
Critics note that sovereignty rests in the king rather than the people, that the people appear as a resource, and that the theory ignores rights.
Still, as an analysis of the capacities a state needs, Saptanga remains one of the most coherent theories produced in the ancient world.
Q3(c) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Fascism, Gandhism and Feminism
Distinguish between liberal feminism and radical feminism.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उदारतावादी नारी-अधिकारवाद और उग्रवादी नारी-अधिकारवाद के बीच विभेदन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: Distinguish the two strands by explaining each with its thinkers, then comparing them on the cause of oppression, the sphere of struggle and the method, with Indian examples.
Both strands seek to end women's subordination but differ in diagnosis and remedy.
Liberal feminism, from Mary Wollstonecraft and J.S. Mill to Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963), holds that women are rational individuals denied equal rights and opportunities by law and custom. The remedy is reform within the existing system: equal education, suffrage, equal pay and anti-discrimination laws. It accepts the public-private divide and the liberal state.
Radical feminism, developed in the late 1960s by Kate Millett (Sexual Politics, 1970), Shulamith Firestone (The Dialectic of Sex, 1970) and others, sees patriarchy as the most basic and pervasive system of oppression, rooted in the family, sexuality and reproduction. Its slogan is 'the personal is political', and it seeks a transformation of gender relations, not merely legal equality; some radicals favour separatism.
Thus they differ on the cause of oppression (denial of rights versus patriarchy), the sphere of struggle (public versus personal), the method (legal reform versus cultural transformation) and their view of men and the state. Radicals call liberals reformist; liberals call radicals essentialist.
In India, the demand for women's reservation reflects the liberal strand, while campaigns against dowry and marital rape reflect the radical one.

Question 4 (50 marks)

Q4(a) · Western Political Thought · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Hannah Arendt
Critically examine Hannah Arendt's conceptual triad of labour, work and action.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
हन्ना आरेन की श्रम, कार्य और कर्म (क्रिया) की संकल्पनात्मक तिकड़ी का समालोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए ।
Practise this question Western Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: Critically examine: explain each element of the triad and its hierarchy, Arendt's thesis on modernity and the rise of the social, then assess strengths and the main critiques (rigid distinctions, exclusion of the social question, feminist and Marxist objections).
Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition (1958) analyses the vita activa through a triad of labour, work and action, each corresponding to a basic condition of human life.
Labour sustains biological life: endlessly repeated activity whose products are consumed, performed under necessity by animal laborans. Work creates a durable, artificial world of objects through the instrumental activity of homo faber, giving human life stability. Action, through speech and deeds among equals in the public realm, discloses the unique identity of each actor; it rests on plurality and natality, the capacity to begin anew, and is the essence of politics and freedom.
Arendt ranks action highest, drawing on the Greek polis, where the household was the realm of necessity and the polis the realm of freedom. Her thesis is that modernity inverted this order: the rise of the social turned public life into the administration of needs, labour and consumption became society's central concern. Mass society thus lost the space for genuine action.
Strengths: the triad offers a powerful critique of consumerism, bureaucratic politics and the decline of citizenship, and it grounds a participatory view of power later developed in On Revolution (1963).
Critique: first, the categories are too rigid; most activities combine all three. Second, critics such as Hanna Pitkin argue that excluding economic and social questions from politics empties it of content and ignores the poor; Third, feminists such as Seyla Benhabib note that relegating labour to the private household devalues work historically done by women.
Nonetheless, the triad reminds democracies, including India's, that politics is more than economic management: it is the shared space where citizens act together, as in social movements and gram sabhas.
Q4(b) · Justice, Equality and Rights · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Rights: Meaning, Theories and Kinds; Human Rights
Discuss the doctrine of 'rights as trumps'.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
'सर्वोत्तम युक्ति के रूप में अधिकार' के सिद्धान्त की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Justice, Equality and Rights notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Explain Dworkin's doctrine of rights as trumps, its target (utilitarian majoritarianism), its basis in equal concern and respect, then discuss criticisms and Indian relevance.
The doctrine of rights as trumps was developed by Ronald Dworkin in Taking Rights Seriously (1977) and his essay of 1984 titled Rights as Trumps. Like a trump card in a game, an individual right overrides ordinary considerations of collective welfare.
Target: Dworkin attacked utilitarianism and legal positivism. If policy is decided only by aggregate preferences, majorities may count external preferences, their wishes about how others should live, and thereby deny minorities equal standing. Rights block such calculations.
Basis: the fundamental right is to equal concern and respect. A right exists when a policy, even if beneficial overall, would treat some people as less worthy. Rights are not absolute, but they can be overridden only for a compelling reason, not just a marginal gain in welfare.
Criticisms: Jeremy Waldron argues that leaving rights to judges is undemocratic, since citizens reasonably disagree about rights; communitarians say trumps encourage an adversarial, individualistic culture; others note that rights conflict with each other, so trumps cannot settle every case.
India: fundamental rights act as trumps against majoritarian legislation, as in Navtej Singh Johar (2018) decriminalising homosexuality, where the Court held that constitutional morality prevails over popular morality.
The doctrine remains a powerful defence of minorities in democracy, though in practice courts balance rights through proportionality.
Q4(c) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Socialism and Marxism
What is the contemporary relevance of Marxism?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मार्क्सवाद की समकालीन प्रासंगिकता क्या है ?
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: Acknowledge the post-1991 claim that Marxism is dead, then set out the areas where it remains relevant, its limits, and a balanced conclusion.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Marxism was declared dead. Yet its analytical tools remain widely used in the 21st century.
It is relevant because: (i) rising inequality, documented in Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013), confirms the tendency of capital to concentrate; (ii) the 2008 financial crisis revived interest in Marx's theory of capitalist crises; (iii) globalisation and the gig economy show new forms of exploitation and alienation, as workers lose control over their labour; (iv) the Communist Manifesto (1848) anticipated capitalism's global expansion; (v) neo-Marxist ideas such as Gramsci's hegemony, dependency theory, Wallerstein's world-systems theory and critical theory inform studies of culture, media and North-South relations.
Its limits are also clear: the proletariat has not become revolutionary in advanced states, communist regimes became authoritarian, and class analysis neglects gender, caste, race and ecology.
In India, Marxist analysis shapes debates on agrarian distress, labour rights and the Naxalite problem.
Marxism survives less as a blueprint for revolution than as a critique of capitalism and a method of social analysis.

Question 5 (50 marks)

Q5(a) · Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Making of the Constitution: Legacies of British Rule and Social and Political Perspectives
Unity and integrity of India was perhaps the single uppermost factor in the minds of the Constitution makers. Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
संविधान निर्माताओं के मन में शायद भारत की एकता और अखण्डता अकेला एक सर्वोच्च कारक थी । टिप्पणी कीजिए ।
Practise this question Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Comment by showing why unity and integrity dominated the framers’ thinking (Partition, princely states, diversity), the provisions that reflect it, and the counter-balancing commitments.
The Constitution was framed amid Partition, communal violence, the integration of princely states and the war in Kashmir. Granville Austin identified national unity and integrity as one of the three strands of its seamless web.
Shift after Partition: the Cabinet Mission plan (1946) had proposed a weak centre; once Partition removed the need to accommodate the Muslim League, the Union Powers Committee recommended a strong centre.
Provisions: Article 1 calls India a ‘Union of States’; Parliament can alter state boundaries (Article 3); the Union List is longer and residuary powers lie with the centre; emergency provisions (Articles 352, 356, 360); single citizenship, an integrated judiciary, all-India services (Article 312) and a single Election Commission.
Counter-balance: the same framers protected rights, minority safeguards and federal autonomy, and Ambedkar described the system as flexible, unitary in war and federal in peace.
Unity was the uppermost concern, but it was pursued through accommodation.
Q5(b) · Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Perspectives on the National Movement: Liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Radical Humanist and Dalit
Dalit perspective on Indian national movement. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारतीय राष्ट्रीय आन्दोलन में दलित परिप्रेक्ष्य । विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: Discuss the Dalit perspective: its critique of upper-caste nationalism, Ambedkar’s position on Swaraj and separate electorates, and its significance.
The Dalit perspective holds that the national movement, led largely by upper castes, focused on freedom from British rule while ignoring the internal colonialism of caste.
Critique: Phule argued that Brahmanical domination was older and harsher than British rule. Ambedkar asked what Swaraj would mean for the untouchables if power passed to those who practised untouchability; he saw Gandhi’s defence of varna and his paternalistic ‘Harijan’ approach as inadequate.
Political demands: at the Round Table Conferences Ambedkar demanded separate electorates. Gandhi’s fast against the Communal Award led to the Poona Pact (1932), which secured reserved seats in joint electorates, a compromise Ambedkar later criticised.
Significance: the Dalit struggle made social justice a condition of national freedom and shaped the Constitution’s guarantees, including Articles 15, 16(4), 17 and political reservation.
It shows that nationalism must be judged by what it offers the most marginalised.
Q5(c) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Federalism: Constitutional Provisions and Changing Centre-State Relations
Despite constitutional mandate the Inter-State Council has not come of age. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सांविधानिक अधिदेश के बावजूद, अन्तर-राज्य परिषद का पर्याप्त विकास नहीं हो पाया है । व्याख्या कीजिए ।
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: Discuss why the Inter-State Council has not matured despite Article 263: state the mandate, the reasons for its weakness, and reforms.
Article 263 allows the President to set up an Inter-State Council to inquire into disputes, investigate subjects of common interest and recommend policy coordination; it was created only in 1990, four decades after the Constitution, on the Sarkaria Commission's advice.
Chaired by the Prime Minister, with all Chief Ministers and six Union ministers, it was meant to be the apex forum of cooperative federalism.
It has not come of age because it has met only rarely, eleven times by 2016, and depends on the Centre's will to convene it; the 1990 order excluded dispute resolution from its functions; and its recommendations are advisory.
The Planning Commission's National Development Council and later NITI Aayog's Governing Council and the GST Council took over much of its role.
Making it effective requires regular meetings, a permanent secretariat, a role in disputes and in preparing legislation on Concurrent List subjects, as the Punchhi Commission suggested.
Q5(d) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Panchayati Raj, Municipal Government and the 73rd and 74th Amendments
Political decentralization has not been matched by administrative decentralization at the grass roots level. Explain
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राजनीतिक विकेन्द्रीकरण के मुकाबले तृणमूल स्तर पर प्रशासनिक विकेन्द्रीकरण नहीं हुआ है । व्याख्या कीजिए ।
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: Explain the gap between political and administrative decentralisation: define both, show how elections came without devolution of functions, staff and funds, and suggest remedies.
Political decentralisation transfers authority to elected representatives chosen by local people, while administrative decentralisation transfers functions, staff and decision-making over service delivery to those bodies.
The 73rd and 74th Amendments secured the political side firmly: regular elections through State Election Commissions, reservation for SCs, STs and women, and a fixed five-year term.
The administrative side was left to state discretion: Article 243G says states "may" devolve the 29 Eleventh Schedule subjects, so most departments retain control over schools, health centres and irrigation.
Functionaries such as teachers, health workers and engineers remain on state department rolls; panchayats often have only a secretary, and the block development officer controls approvals; this is deconcentration rather than devolution.
The 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission (2007) and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj's devolution index have repeatedly shown that only a few states, such as Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, have devolved substantially.
The remedy lies in clear activity mapping, transfer of staff under panchayat control, untied funds, and capacity building, so that elected local governments can actually govern.
Q5(e) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Social Movements: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Women's and Environmental Movements
Write short note on the significance of Chipko Movement.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
चिपको आन्दोलन के महत्व पर एक संक्षिप्त टिप्पणी लिखिए ।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: A short note: state what Chipko was, its leaders and events, and then its significance for policy, ecology, gender and social movements.
The Chipko movement began in 1973 in Chamoli district of the Garhwal Himalaya, when villagers organised by Chandi Prasad Bhatt's Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh resisted the felling of trees allotted to a sports goods company. In 1974, at Reni, women led by Gaura Devi hugged trees to stop loggers; Sunderlal Bahuguna later carried the message nationally.
Policy significance: in 1980 the Union government imposed a 15-year ban on green felling in the Uttar Pradesh Himalaya, and the movement helped shift forest policy from revenue extraction towards conservation and local needs.
Wider significance: Ramachandra Guha's The Unquiet Woods (1989) presents it as a peasant movement defending customary rights, the prototype of the environmentalism of the poor. Vandana Shiva read it as ecofeminist, highlighting women's role. It used Gandhian non-violence and inspired Appiko in Karnataka.
Chipko thus linked ecology with livelihoods, gender and democracy, shaping Indian environmentalism.

Question 6 (50 marks)

Q6(a) · Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Perspectives on the National Movement: Liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Radical Humanist and Dalit
National movement in India was anti-imperialist and increasingly radical in its socio-economic and political programmes. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में राष्ट्रीय आन्दोलन साम्राज्य विरोधी था जो अपने सामाजिक-आर्थिक एवं राजनीतिक कार्यक्रमों में अधिकाधिक उग्रवादी हो रहा था । स्पष्ट कीजिए ।
Practise this question Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: Discuss both claims: the movement’s anti-imperialism (economic critique, mass struggle, goal of independence) and its growing radicalism in socio-economic and political programmes, then note the limits highlighted by Marxist, Dalit and subaltern critics.
This statement reflects the view of Bipan Chandra and his colleagues (India’s Struggle for Independence, 1988) that the Indian national movement was a broad, popular, anti-imperialist movement whose goals and programme became steadily more radical.
Anti-imperialist: the Moderates’ economic critique, Naoroji’s drain theory and R.C. Dutt’s economic history, exposed colonialism as a system of exploitation. The goal moved from reform to Swaraj (1906) and Purna Swaraj (Lahore, 1929). Congress also opposed imperialism abroad, sending Nehru to the League against Imperialism (Brussels, 1927) and opposing the use of Indian troops abroad.
Political radicalism: methods moved from petitions to mass satyagraha, from limited franchise to the demand for universal adult suffrage and a Constituent Assembly elected by the people (demanded from 1934). Quit India (1942) was an open call for the British to leave.
Socio-economic radicalism: the Karachi Resolution (1931) promised fundamental rights, a living wage, rent reduction and state control of key industries; the Faizpur programme (1936) took up agrarian reform; the National Planning Committee (1938) planned an industrial economy. Socialists, kisan sabhas and trade unions pushed Congress leftward, and Gandhi’s constructive programme attacked untouchability.
Limits: Marxists such as R.P. Dutt argued that bourgeois leadership restrained class struggle; Ambedkar argued that caste questions were subordinated; Subaltern Studies historians said peasants’ autonomous politics was contained. Zamindari abolition was promised but not pursued during the struggle.
On balance, the movement was consistently anti-imperialist and its programme did grow more radical, laying the foundation of India’s democratic and welfare-oriented Constitution, though its radicalism was tempered by the need to keep all classes united.
Q6(b) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Green Revolution, Land Reforms, Agrarian Relations and Liberalisation
What has been the political fallout of the Green Revolution in India? Explain.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में हरित क्रांति का राजनीतिक परिणाम क्या हुआ है ? स्पष्ट कीजिए ।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: Explain the political consequences of the Green Revolution: rise of rich peasants, farmers' movements and parties, regional and class inequalities, and later agrarian politics.
The Green Revolution of the mid-1960s, based on high-yielding wheat and rice seeds, irrigation, fertilisers and assured procurement, made India self-sufficient in food. Francine Frankel, in India's Green Revolution: Economic Gains and Political Costs (1971), warned that its political effects would be as large as its economic ones.
Rise of a rural middle class: owner-cultivators of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh became prosperous; Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph, in In Pursuit of Lakshmi (1987), called them bullock capitalists. These largely backward and intermediate castes, such as Jats and Yadavs, became politically assertive.
New parties and leaders: Charan Singh's Bharatiya Kranti Dal and later the Lok Dal drew on this base, contributing to the end of Congress dominance in the north in 1967 and 1977.
New farmers' movements: in the 1980s Mahendra Singh Tikait's Bharatiya Kisan Union and Sharad Joshi's Shetkari Sanghatana mobilised for remunerative prices and cheaper inputs; Joshi framed it as Bharat against India.
Inequality and conflict: gains concentrated in irrigated regions and among larger farmers, widening regional and class gaps and sometimes provoking conflicts with landless labourers. In Punjab, agrarian and identity grievances fed into the Akali agitation of the 1980s.
The politics of MSP, subsidies and farm loan waivers, and the farmers' protest of 2020-21, are later fruits of the same agrarian mobilisation.
Q6(c) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Electoral Behaviour and the Socio-economic Profile of Legislators
The changing socio-economic profile of our legislators does not augur well for the health of Indian democracy. Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
हमारे विधिकर्ताओं का बदलता सामाजिक-आर्थिक चरित्र-चित्रण भारतीय लोकतंत्र के स्वास्थ्य के लिए शुभ नहीं है । टिप्पणी कीजिए ।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: Comment by describing the changes in legislators' profile (wealth, criminal records, occupation, caste, gender, dynasty) with evidence, assessing their implications for democracy, and noting positive changes.
The socio-economic profile of legislators, their wealth, occupation, caste, gender, education and criminal record, indicates who holds representative power. Data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) from candidates' affidavits allow this to be tracked.
Wealth: ADR's analysis of the 2019 Lok Sabha found that about 88 percent of MPs were crorepatis, up from 82 percent in 2014. Elections have become very expensive, favouring the rich and business-linked candidates. Criminalisation: about 43 percent of MPs elected in 2019 had declared criminal cases, many of them serious, up from 34 percent in 2014.
Occupation and dynasty: the share of lawyers and freedom-movement professionals has fallen, and businesspeople, real estate interests and political dynasts have grown, as Kanchan Chandra's Democratic Dynasties (2016) shows.
Why it does not augur well: legislatures risk becoming a club of the wealthy, conflicts of interest grow, the poor and honest find entry hard, and public trust in Parliament declines.
But there are positive changes: Christophe Jaffrelot and Sanjay Kumar's Rise of the Plebeians? (2009) shows the rise of OBC and lower-caste legislators; the number of women MPs reached 78 in 2019, the highest so far; and educational levels have risen.
The statement is largely valid; reforms such as state funding of elections, faster trials of legislators, and intra-party democracy are needed so that the democratisation of social background is not offset by plutocracy.

Question 7 (50 marks)

Q7(a) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Electoral Behaviour and the Socio-economic Profile of Legislators
Development has overshadowed the influence of caste in electoral behaviour in recent elections. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
हाल के चुनावों में, विकास ने जाति के प्रभाव को मतदान व्यवहार में आच्छादित कर दिया है । विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Discuss both sides: evidence that development and welfare shaped recent elections (2014, 2019), evidence that caste still matters in new forms, and conclude on their interaction.
Caste has long been seen as the main determinant of Indian voting, captured in M.N. Srinivas's idea of the vote bank. The Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019, in which the BJP won majorities with support across castes, have led some to argue that development now overshadows caste.
Case for development: the 2014 campaign centred on governance, growth and anti-corruption, attracting young and aspirational voters. In 2019, welfare delivery, toilets, cooking gas under Ujjwala, housing, bank accounts and PM-KISAN transfers, created a cross-caste beneficiary class. State leaders re-elected on delivery, such as Nitish Kumar in 2010 and Naveen Patnaik repeatedly, point the same way.
Case for caste: Lokniti-CSDS data show that the BJP's success rested on building a coalition of upper castes, non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dalits, which is itself caste engineering. In Uttar Pradesh in 2019, the SP-BSP alliance was built on caste arithmetic, and caste-based parties remain strong in many states. Ticket distribution is still done on caste lines.
Other factors: nationalism after the Balakot strikes, leadership and religious consolidation also shaped the 2019 verdict, so neither caste nor development alone explains it.
Interaction: caste and development are not opposites; voters judge development through the lens of their group's share, and parties use welfare to reach specific castes. Yogendra Yadav argues that caste is being re-formed rather than dissolved.
Thus development has gained weight, but it has not overshadowed caste; the recent elections show caste being absorbed into wider social coalitions built around leadership, welfare and identity.
Q7(b) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Election Commission, CAG, Finance Commission and UPSC
The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India enhances the accountability of the Government and serves as the watchdog of the finances of the Government. Explain.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत का नियंत्रक और महालेखापरीक्षक सरकार की जवाबदेही को बढ़ाता है एवं सरकार के वित्तों के प्रहरी के रूप में कार्य करता है । स्पष्ट कीजिए ।
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: Explain how the CAG enhances accountability and acts as financial watchdog: constitutional safeguards, types of audit, the link with the Public Accounts Committee, examples, and limitations, with a short conclusion.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (Articles 148-151) audits all receipts and expenditure of the Union and the states; Ambedkar described the CAG as probably the most important officer under the Constitution because he guards the public purse.
Independence: the CAG is appointed by the President, holds office for six years or until 65, is removable only like a Supreme Court judge, his salary is charged on the Consolidated Fund, and he is barred from further government office.
Accountability chain: the CAG's reports are laid before Parliament and state legislatures and examined by the Public Accounts Committee, for which the CAG acts as friend, philosopher and guide; executive spending thus answers to the legislature.
Audit has expanded from compliance (legality and regularity) to propriety and performance audit, which asks whether money was spent economically, efficiently and effectively.
Reports on the 2G spectrum allocation (2010), Commonwealth Games (2011) and coal block allocation (2012) exposed serious irregularities, triggered investigations and court rulings, and showed the CAG's watchdog role.
Limits: audit is after the event; reports are often delayed and the PAC acts slowly; the CAG must accept executive certificates for secret service expenditure; and critics said presumptive loss estimates strayed into policy.
The CAG thus strengthens accountability effectively when its reports are timely and acted upon; real-time audit, a statutory follow-up mechanism and a transparent appointment process would make the watchdog stronger.
Q7(c) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 15 marks≈ 11 min
National Commissions: SCs, STs, Women, Human Rights, Minorities and Backward Classes
Discuss, in brief, the role of the National Commission for women. Do you think it is a toothless organization?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राष्ट्रीय महिला आयोग की भूमिका का संक्षेप में विवेचन कीजिए । क्या आप सोचते हैं कि यह एक दंत विहीन संस्था है ?
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Two parts: briefly describe the NCW's role, then evaluate the "toothless" charge by weighing its limitations against its real contributions, and conclude.
The National Commission for Women, a statutory body set up in 1992 under the NCW Act, 1990, is meant to safeguard women's constitutional and legal rights and advise the government on policy.
Role: it reviews laws and recommends amendments, investigates complaints and takes suo motu notice of atrocities, inspects custodial institutions, funds litigation, and runs Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalats and an NRI marriage cell; during inquiries it has civil court powers.
Why it is called toothless: its recommendations are not binding and governments are slow to act on them; its chairperson and members are nominated by the Union government, often with political links, which affects perceived neutrality.
It has no investigative machinery of its own and must rely on the police; its budget and staff are small relative to the scale of crimes against women, and its rural reach is weak.
On the other hand, its suo motu interventions, public hearings and reports keep violence against women on the agenda, and courts and activists use its findings, so it is not entirely powerless.
The NCW is better described as a body with soft power rather than a toothless one; constitutional status, binding powers in defined cases, an independent selection process and stronger state commissions would give it teeth.

Question 8 (50 marks)

Q8(a) · The Constitution and the Organs of Government · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Judicial Review and the Basic Structure Doctrine
"The basic structure doctrine is implicit in the Indian Constitution; the Supreme Court has only given it an explicit form." Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"आधारिक संरचना का सिद्धान्त भारत के संविधान में अंतर्निहित है; उच्चतम न्यायालय ने इसे केवल एक सुस्पष्ट रूप प्रदान किया है ।" टिप्पणी कीजिए ।
Practise this question The Constitution and the Organs of Government notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: The question asks for comment on whether the basic structure doctrine is inherent in the Constitution or a judicial creation, so the answer presents the arguments for implicitness, the arguments for judicial invention, and a reasoned judgement.
The basic structure doctrine, laid down in Kesavananda Bharati (1973), holds that Parliament's power under Article 368 cannot be used to destroy the essential features of the Constitution. Whether the Court discovered this limit or invented it is a central debate in Indian constitutionalism.
Arguments that it is implicit: Justice H.R. Khanna reasoned that the power to ‘amend’ means to change within the existing framework, not to abrogate; a Constitution that creates Parliament cannot allow its creature to destroy it. The Preamble sets out an identity of a sovereign democratic republic committed to justice and liberty. The German jurist Dietrich Conrad's lecture on implied limitations of the amending power, invoked by counsel in Golaknath (1967), drew on Germany's Basic Law, which expressly makes some principles unamendable.
Justice J.R. Mudholkar asked in Sajjan Singh (1965) whether basic features could be changed. The special procedures in Article 368, requiring state ratification for federal provisions, show that the framers saw some parts as more fundamental than others.
Arguments that it is judge-made: Article 368 contains no express limit, and the framers, including Nehru, wanted a flexible Constitution. Shankari Prasad (1951) and Sajjan Singh (1965) upheld unrestricted power. Kesavananda was decided 7:6 without a single agreed list, and the features have been added case by case: free and fair elections (Raj Narain, 1975), judicial review (Minerva Mills, 1980), secularism and federalism (S.R. Bommai, 1994), independence of the judiciary (NJAC case, 2015).
The truth lies between. The idea of limited amending power is implicit in a written, supreme Constitution, but its content and reach are the Court's construction. The doctrine proved its worth against the Emergency amendments and has been adopted by courts in Bangladesh, Kenya and elsewhere.
Q8(b) · The Constitution and the Organs of Government · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Union Executive and Parliament: Envisaged Role and Actual Working
Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has emerged as the most powerful institution in India. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रधानमंत्री का कार्यालय (पी.एम.ओ.) भारत में सर्वाधिक शक्तिशाली संस्था के रूप में उभर कर आया है । चर्चा कीजिए ।
Practise this question The Constitution and the Organs of Government notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(b)
Approach: The question asks to discuss whether the PMO is the most powerful institution, so the answer traces its growth, gives the sources of its power, and then the limits before concluding.
The Prime Minister's Office began in 1947 as the Prime Minister's Secretariat, a small support staff, and was renamed in 1977. It is not a constitutional body, yet it has become the nerve centre of government.
Growth: under Indira Gandhi, P.N. Haksar turned the Secretariat into a policy hub. Under Vajpayee, Brajesh Mishra was both Principal Secretary and National Security Adviser. Under Manmohan Singh power was shared with the party leadership and the National Advisory Council. Since 2014 the PMO has directly monitored ministries and projects through platforms such as PRAGATI.
Sources of power: the Prime Minister chairs the cabinet and its key committees, including the Appointments Committee, controls the allocation of portfolios, and directs foreign and security policy. The PMO coordinates ministries, vets files and drives flagship schemes.
Limits: the Constitution vests executive power in the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister (Articles 74 and 75), so the PMO's power is derivative and rests on the Prime Minister's political authority. Coalition partners, Parliament, courts, the Election Commission and states also constrain it.
The PMO is the most powerful executive institution when the Prime Minister is politically dominant, reflecting the shift towards prime-ministerial government, but its pre-eminence must be balanced with cabinet collegiality.
Q8(c) · The Constitution and the Organs of Government · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Duties, and Directive Principles
Comment on the relevance of the Directive Principles of State Policy in an era of liberalization and globalization.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उदारीकरण एवं वैश्वीकरण के युग में, राज्य की नीति के निदेशक तत्त्वों की प्रासंगिकता पर टिप्पणी कीजिए ।
Practise this question The Constitution and the Organs of Government notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: The question asks whether the Directive Principles still matter after 1991, so the answer weighs the claim that they are outdated against evidence of their continuing use and ends with a balanced view.
The Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV) set the goals of a welfare state: equitable distribution of resources, a living wage, health, education and protection of the weak. After liberalisation in 1991, with privatisation and a smaller role for the state, critics argued that these goals, drafted in a Nehruvian era of planning, had lost their relevance.
Argument of decline: Articles 39(b) and (c), on preventing concentration of wealth, sit uneasily with disinvestment and market reforms. Ivor Jennings had earlier dismissed the Directives as Fabian socialism without the socialism.
Continuing relevance: globalisation widened inequality and informality, making Part IV a corrective. Key welfare laws of the reform era draw on it: MGNREGA (2005) on the right to work (Article 41), the National Food Security Act (2013) on nutrition (Article 47), the RTE Act (2009) from Article 45, and the 73rd and 74th Amendments on Article 40. The Codes on wages and social security relate to Articles 39 and 43.
New directions: Article 48A anchors environmental regulation of industry, and Article 44 drives the uniform civil code debate. Courts read the Directives into Article 21.
Directive Principles have changed in method, from state ownership to regulation, targeted welfare and rights-based entitlements, not in purpose. In a market economy they serve as the conscience of the state, in line with Amartya Sen's view that growth must expand human capabilities.

UPSC Mains 2019 Political Science and International Relations PSIR Paper II