All Political Science and International Relations optional papers

UPSC Mains 2026 Political Science and International Relations Optional Question Papers with Model Answers

All 56 questions of the 2026 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 2026 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 सिद्धांत का पुनरुत्थान
Practise this question Political Theory and Theories of the State notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(a)
Approach: Explain the context of decline, then the causes and signs of resurgence from the late 1950s, with thinkers and works, ending with its present directions.
In the 1950s, behaviouralists and logical positivists declared normative political theory dead; Peter Laslett wrote in 1956 that, for the moment, political philosophy was dead. The resurgence of political theory refers to its revival from the 1960s onwards.
Early defences: Isaiah Berlin (‘Does Political Theory Still Exist?’, 1962) argued it survives as long as people disagree about ends; Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt and Michael Oakeshott kept the tradition alive. Dante Germino’s Beyond Ideology (1967) spoke of its revival.
Causes: the failure of value-free science to explain the crises of the 1960s, Easton’s 1969 Credo of Relevance, and new movements for civil rights, feminism and ecology.
Landmark: John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice (1971), followed by Nozick, Walzer, Sandel, Taylor and Sen, restored grand normative theory.
Today political theory flourishes in debates on multiculturalism, global justice, recognition and deliberative democracy, and Indian thinkers such as Bhikhu Parekh and Rajeev Bhargava contribute to it.
Q1(b) · Political Theory and Theories of the State · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Post-colonial and Feminist Theories of the State
Post-colonial theory of State
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राज्य का उत्तर-औपनिवेशिक सिद्धांत
Practise this question Political Theory and Theories of the State notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(b)
Approach: Explain the post-colonial theory of the state: its core argument, key theorists (Alavi, Chatterjee, Rudolphs, Myrdal), Indian application and a brief critique.
The post-colonial theory of the state argues that states in Asia and Africa cannot be understood through Western liberal or Marxist models, because they were shaped by colonial rule and inherited its institutions and social structures.
Overdeveloped state: Hamza Alavi (1972), studying Pakistan and Bangladesh, argued that the colonial state was built to dominate the whole society, so after independence the military-bureaucratic oligarchy enjoyed relative autonomy and mediated among three propertied classes.
Other views: Gunnar Myrdal (Asian Drama, 1968) called such states ‘soft states’ unable to enforce laws; Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph described India as both weak and strong; Partha Chatterjee (The Politics of the Governed, 2004) distinguishes civil society from ‘political society’, where the poor negotiate with the state through welfare and patronage.
Critique: it can overstate colonial continuity and underplay democratic agency and economic change.
It nonetheless explains features of the Indian state such as a powerful bureaucracy and developmental role.
Q1(c) · Justice, Equality and Rights · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Equality: Social, Political and Economic; Equality and Freedom
The freedom of the pike is death to the minnows.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पाइक मछली की स्वतन्त्रता छोटी मछलियों की मृत्यु के समान है।
Practise this question Justice, Equality and Rights notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(c)
Approach: Explain the metaphor and its source, show what it says about the relation between liberty and equality (the positive and egalitarian critique of laissez-faire), give Indian illustrations and a balanced close.
The image, associated with R.H. Tawney's egalitarian critique of laissez-faire and used by Isaiah Berlin in Two Concepts of Liberty (1958), means that unlimited freedom for the strong destroys the freedom of the weak.
It attacks the classical liberal view of liberty as mere absence of restraint. In a market of unequal power, freedom of contract for factory owners in the nineteenth century meant child labour and starvation wages for workers.
Tawney (Equality, 1931) and Harold Laski therefore argued that liberty and equality are complementary: without economic equality, liberty becomes the privilege of the few.
Berlin accepted the moral force of the point but warned that restricting the pike should be called justice or equality, not a higher liberty.
In India, minimum wage laws, the abolition of zamindari, competition law against monopolies, and protection of tribal land under the Fifth Schedule all limit the pike to protect the minnows.
The statement captures why liberal democracies regulate power, though excessive regulation can itself become a new pike: the state.
Q1(d) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Power, Hegemony, Ideology and Legitimacy
Legitimacy is always a 'social construct'.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
वैधता हमेशा एक 'सामाजिक रचना' होती है।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(d)
Approach: Explain legitimacy as a belief that societies construct (Weber, Gramsci), then qualify the word 'always' with normative views (Beetham, Habermas) and conclude.
Legitimacy is the quality that makes power rightful in the eyes of those subject to it. Max Weber defined it in terms of belief: a regime is legitimate when people believe it is, whether on traditional, charismatic or legal-rational grounds.
In this sense legitimacy is a social construct. Beliefs are produced through socialisation, rituals, symbols and ideology; Gramsci's hegemony and Althusser's ideological state apparatuses show how ruling groups manufacture consent. Monarchy by divine right was once legitimate and no longer is.
But it is not only a construct. David Beetham, in The Legitimation of Power (1991), argued that power is legitimate when it conforms to rules, the rules are justified by shared beliefs, and there is evidence of consent. Habermas links legitimacy to rational justification, so it can be judged, not just believed.
Legitimacy is thus socially constructed but normatively tested; India's Constitution draws legitimacy both from popular belief and from democratic procedure.
Q1(e) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Socialism and Marxism
Herbert Marcuse turned Freudianism on its head in his critical theory.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
हर्बर्ट मार्क्यूज़ ने अपने आलोचनात्मक सिद्धांत में फ्रायडवाद को पूरी तरह बदल दिया।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(e)
Approach: Explain Freud's view that civilisation requires repression and show how Marcuse inverted it through surplus repression and the performance principle, ending with his influence.
Herbert Marcuse, a member of the Frankfurt School, combined Marx and Freud in Eros and Civilization (1955).
Freud, in Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), held that civilisation requires the repression of instinctual drives; repression is the permanent price of culture. Marcuse inverted this conclusion. He distinguished basic repression, needed for any civilisation, from surplus repression, the extra controls imposed by a particular order of domination, and historicised Freud's reality principle as the performance principle of a society organised around competitive economic performance.
Since modern technology could end scarcity, surplus repression is no longer necessary, and the liberation of Eros and a non-repressive civilisation become possible. Freud's pessimism thus became a theory of liberation. In One-Dimensional Man (1964) he argued that consumer society integrates workers through false needs and repressive desublimation.
He inspired the New Left of the 1960s, though critics found his hopes utopian and his reading of Freud selective.

Question 2 (50 marks)

Q2(a) · Justice, Equality and Rights · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Rights: Meaning, Theories and Kinds; Human Rights
"Rights of the man are separate and independent of the State." Critically analyze the perspective of Laski.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"व्यक्ति के अधिकार राज्य से पृथक् और स्वतन्त्र होते हैं।" लास्की के दृष्टिकोण का आलोचनात्मक विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Practise this question Justice, Equality and Rights notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: Explain Laski's theory of rights, show in what sense he regarded rights as independent of and prior to the State and in what sense he did not, then critically analyse the view.
Harold Laski, in A Grammar of Politics (1925), defined rights as those conditions of social life without which no man can seek, in general, to be himself at his best.
Rights independent of the State: Laski rejected the legal-positivist view, from Bentham and Austin, that rights are merely what the State creates by law. He wrote that the State does not create rights but recognises them, and that a State is known by the rights it maintains. Rights are thus prior to the State in validity: they are the standard by which its legitimacy is judged, and citizens may resist a State that persistently denies them.
Not natural rights: yet Laski rejected Lockean natural rights existing before society. Rights are social and historical: they arise from the needs of persons living in society, are tied to their function in contributing to the common good, and change with circumstances. Rights are correlated with duties.
Content: he included political rights (vote, speech, association) and economic rights (work, adequate wages, reasonable hours, education), arguing that without economic equality political liberty is a sham.
Critical analysis: the view rightly limits State power and anticipates modern human rights. But rights claims without legal recognition and institutions to enforce them remain moral demands; T.H. Green and the idealists argued that rights need social recognition, often through the State. Laski's own later Marxist turn admitted that in a class-divided State rights serve the propertied.
The statement thus captures Laski only partly: rights are independent of the State's will, not of society. The Indian doctrine of basic structure (Kesavananda Bharati, 1973) and the recognition of privacy as inherent to dignity (Puttaswamy, 2017) reflect this moderate position.
Q2(b) · Western Political Thought · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Machiavelli
"Fortune favours the brave." In the light of this statement, discuss Machiavelli's concepts of 'virtue' and 'fortune'.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"भाग्य बहादुर का साथ देता है।" इस कथन के आलोक में मैकियावेली की 'सद्गुण' एवं 'भाग्य' अवधारणाओं की विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Western Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: Discuss virtù and fortuna as Machiavelli defines them in The Prince (especially chapter 25), use the statement to show how bold action masters fortune, and evaluate the idea.
Machiavelli's political thought revolves around the contest between virtù and fortuna. In chapter 25 of The Prince he argues that fortune governs perhaps half of our actions but leaves the other half to us, rejecting both fatalism and the Christian idea of providence.
Fortuna is chance, the uncontrollable flow of events. Machiavelli compares it to a violent river that floods the plains, but which can be checked if men build dykes and embankments in calm times. He also likens fortune to a woman who favours the young and bold rather than the cautious, which is the sense of the statement that fortune favours the brave.
Virtù is not Christian virtue but the qualities that let a ruler found and preserve a state: energy, courage, foresight, flexibility and the readiness to do evil when necessary. Its essence is adapting one's conduct to the times; rulers fail because they cannot change their nature when circumstances change. Founders like Moses, Cyrus, Romulus and Theseus owed to fortune only the opportunity.
Evaluation: the pairing marks the birth of a secular, human-centred politics. Critics note that it glorifies boldness that may become recklessness, and its gendered imagery reflects his time. Yet the lesson that prepared, adaptable leadership shapes events remains relevant to statecraft and crisis management.
Q2(c) · Indian Political Thought · 15 marks≈ 11 min
B.R. Ambedkar
Discuss B. R. Ambedkar's views on democracy and State socialism.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
लोकतंत्र तथा राज्य समाजवाद पर बी० आर० अंबेडकर के विचारों की विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Indian Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Discuss both parts: Ambedkar's conception of democracy (social democracy, constitutional morality, conditions for success) and his scheme of State socialism in States and Minorities, then link the two and evaluate.
B.R. Ambedkar saw democracy not merely as a form of government but as a way of life. He described it as a method of bringing about revolutionary changes in the economic and social life of people without bloodshed.
On democracy: political democracy, one person one vote, would not last unless it rested on social democracy, which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity as principles of life. Caste denied fraternity, so India entered a life of contradictions in 1950. He listed conditions for democracy's success: no glaring inequalities, a strong opposition, equality before law and administration, constitutional morality, and avoidance of the grammar of anarchy and hero-worship.
On State socialism: in States and Minorities (1947) he proposed that key industries and agriculture be owned by the state, with land let out to village collectives cultivating cooperatively, and that this be written into the Constitution itself, so that a change of majority could not undo it. Economic exploitation, he argued, could not be ended by parliamentary democracy alone, but he insisted on achieving it through law, not dictatorship.
The two are linked: economic democracy was the content that would give political democracy meaning. The final Constitution placed such goals in the Directive Principles (Articles 38, 39) rather than in enforceable rights.
Ambedkar's synthesis of liberal democracy and socialism remains central to India's idea of transformative constitutionalism.

Question 3 (50 marks)

Q3(a) · Western Political Thought · 20 marks≈ 14 min
John Stuart Mill
Mill's work was crucial to the development of liberalism, because it straddled the divide between classical and modern theories. Analyze.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मिल का लेखन उदारवाद के विकास के लिए महत्त्वपूर्ण था, क्योंकि इसने शास्त्रीय और आधुनिक सिद्धांत के बीच की खाई को पाटा। विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Practise this question Western Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: Analyse how Mill retained classical liberal elements (individual liberty, limited state, market) while opening the way to modern liberalism (qualitative utilitarianism, development, social reform, women's rights, state role), and conclude on his transitional significance.
Classical liberalism (Locke, Adam Smith, Bentham) saw liberty as absence of restraint, the state as a necessary evil and the market as self-regulating. Modern or welfare liberalism (T.H. Green, Hobhouse, later Rawls) saw liberty as the capacity for self-development, which may require state action. John Stuart Mill (1806 to 1873) stands on the bridge between them.
Classical elements: On Liberty (1859) defends the individual against the state and society through the harm principle: power may be exercised over a person against his will only to prevent harm to others. He defended free thought and discussion, individuality, and generally preferred laissez-faire as the rule in the Principles of Political Economy.
Modern elements: first, he revised Bentham's utilitarianism into a qualitative one, valuing higher pleasures of intellect, so that liberty became a means to the development of human faculties, a theme Green took further. Second, he recognised exceptions to laissez-faire: education, protection of children and factory regulation. Third, his later writings were sympathetic to cooperative production and he described himself as moving towards a qualified socialism. Fourth, he championed women's equality in The Subjection of Women (1869) and moved an amendment for women's suffrage in 1867. Fifth, he distinguished the laws of production, fixed by nature, from those of distribution, which human institutions can change, opening the door to redistribution.
Tensions: his plural voting and fear of the uneducated majority, and his justification of despotism for so-called backward peoples, show the limits of his democratic liberalism.
The statement is therefore accurate: by keeping the priority of individual liberty while making self-development, equality and reform its aims, Mill carried liberalism from its classical to its modern form.
Q3(b) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Fascism, Gandhism and Feminism
Wollstonecraft developed first systematic feminist critique. Discuss her main ideas.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
वोलस्टोनक्राफ्ट ने पहली बार व्यवस्थित नारीवादी आलोचना विकसित की। उनके प्रमुख विचारों की चर्चा कीजिए।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: Discuss Wollstonecraft's main ideas by placing her work in context, setting out her arguments on reason, education, marriage and rights (including her critique of Rousseau), and assessing her legacy.
Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is regarded as the first systematic feminist critique and a founding text of liberal feminism. Written in the spirit of the French Revolution, it was dedicated to Talleyrand, who had proposed only a domestic education for girls.
Her main ideas are: (i) women are rational beings, equal to men in their capacity for reason and virtue, and their apparent inferiority results from upbringing, not nature; (ii) she attacked Rousseau, who in Emile (1762) wanted Sophie educated only to please men, arguing that this kept women dependent and weak; (iii) she demanded a national, co-educational system of education for both sexes.
(iv) She criticised marriage based on women's economic dependence as a kind of legal prostitution and called for marriage as companionship between equals; (v) she argued that rights and duties are inseparable, so women denied rights cannot fulfil their duties as mothers and citizens; and (vi) she hinted that women should have political representation.
Critics note that she accepted women's domestic role as mothers and wrote mainly for middle-class women. Yet she laid the foundation for J.S. Mill's The Subjection of Women (1869) and the suffrage movement; in India, Savitribai Phule pursued similar goals through girls' education.
Q3(c) · Indian Political Thought · 15 marks≈ 11 min
M.K. Gandhi
Discuss Gandhi's approach to property in relation to trusteeship.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
न्यासिता के संबंध में सम्पत्ति के प्रति गाँधी के दृष्टिकोण की विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Indian Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: Explain Gandhi's view of property (non-possession and limits on accumulation), then show how trusteeship applies it to the rich and to the economy, ending with critique and relevance.
Gandhi's approach to property grew from the ethical ideal of aparigraha (non-possession), drawn from the Gita, Jain thought, Ruskin's Unto This Last and Tolstoy. He held that everything ultimately belongs to God, and that a person who holds more than he needs is in a sense a thief.
He rejected both capitalist accumulation and the violent abolition of property by the state. Capitalism bred greed and exploitation; forcible expropriation, as in Soviet communism, rested on violence and would destroy the energy of individuals who create wealth.
Trusteeship was his middle path. The rich may keep their wealth, or the talent that produces it, but must treat what exceeds their reasonable needs as a trust held for society, using it for the common good. Change was to come by persuasion and moral conversion; if owners refused, non-violent non-cooperation by workers and society could be used. The practical trusteeship formula drafted with colleagues in the 1940s accepted that the state could regulate the right of ownership and that private ownership would be allowed only as society permitted.
Critics, including socialists, called trusteeship utopian and a defence of the status quo, since few owners became trustees voluntarily.
Yet its ideas survive in Corporate Social Responsibility under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, in Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan, and in debates on ethical capitalism.

Question 4 (50 marks)

Q4(a) · Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Models of Democracy: Representative, Participatory and Deliberative
"Representative democracy is not an absolute principle, rather a question of time, place and circumstances." Analyze the statement. Mention the major challenges to representative democracy.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"प्रतिनिधि लोकतंत्र कोई निरपेक्ष सिद्धांत नहीं है, बल्कि यह समय, स्थान और परिस्थितियों का विषय है।" इस कथन का विश्लेषण कीजिए। प्रतिनिधि लोकतंत्र की मुख्य चुनौतियों के बारे में बताइए।
Practise this question Democracy, Power and Political Ideologies notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: The question has two parts: first analyse the statement through J.S. Mill's conditions for representative government and comparative experience, then list the major challenges it faces today, ending with a balanced judgement.
Representative democracy is a system in which citizens elect representatives to make laws and hold them accountable through periodic elections. The statement means that it is not a universal formula to be applied everywhere in the same form; its success depends on social, economic and historical conditions.
J.S. Mill, in Considerations on Representative Government (1861), called it the ideally best form of government but added that a people must be willing to accept it, able to maintain it and ready to perform the duties it requires; where these conditions are absent, it fails. Montesquieu had earlier argued that laws must suit the spirit and circumstances of a people.
History supports the point. Representative institutions grew slowly in Britain, collapsed in Weimar Germany amid economic crisis, and have struggled in many post-colonial states. Their forms also vary with circumstance: parliamentary or presidential, first-past-the-post or proportional, unitary or federal. India adapted the model to a poor and diverse society through universal adult franchise from the start and reserved seats for SCs and STs.
Its major challenges today are: a crisis of representation, with falling trust in parties and legislatures; money power and criminalisation in elections; populism and majoritarianism that claim to speak for 'the people' against institutions; disinformation and polarisation on social media; executive dominance and fewer legislative sittings; and under-representation of women, which India's 2023 constitutional amendment reserving one-third of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats for women seeks to correct.
Representative democracy is therefore best seen as a flexible principle that must be deepened by participation and deliberation and adapted to local conditions, not abandoned.
Q4(b) · Justice, Equality and Rights · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Equality: Social, Political and Economic; Equality and Freedom
What is capability approach? Elaborate the distinctive features of the capability theory of equality.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सामर्थ्य उपागम से आप क्या समझते हैं? समानता के सामर्थ्य सिद्धांत के विशेष लक्षणों को विस्तारपूर्वक वर्णित कीजिए।
Practise this question Justice, Equality and Rights notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Define the capability approach (Sen, Nussbaum), then elaborate its distinctive features as a theory of equality in contrast to welfare and resource equality, and end with critiques and Indian application.
The capability approach was developed by Amartya Sen in his Tanner Lecture Equality of What? (1979) and later in Development as Freedom (1999), and extended by Martha Nussbaum. It holds that equality should be judged by people's real freedoms to achieve valuable beings and doings.
Key terms: functionings are what a person actually is or does, such as being nourished or literate; capabilities are the set of functionings a person can choose from, their effective freedom.
Distinctive features: (i) Space of equality: unlike utilitarian welfare (which suffers from adaptive preferences, as when deprived people learn to want little) and Rawls' primary goods (which ignore conversion), it focuses on what people can do with resources. (ii) Human diversity: a disabled person or a pregnant woman needs more resources to reach the same capability, so equal resources do not mean equal freedom. (iii) Agency and choice: it values freedom, not imposed outcomes. (iv) Pluralism: Sen leaves the list open to public reasoning, while Nussbaum (Women and Human Development, 2000) proposes ten central capabilities as a threshold of justice. (v) It inspired the Human Development Index (1990).
Critiques: it is hard to measure and to weight capabilities; Nussbaum's list is criticised as paternalistic, and Sen's openness as vague.
In India its logic informs rights to education and food, and disability-friendly design. It remains the most influential account of equality of real freedom.
Q4(c) · Indian Political Thought · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Dharmashastra and Arthashastra Traditions
Analyze Kautilya's Saptanga theory. How do you explain its significance in present-day politics?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
कौटिल्य के सप्तांग सिद्धांत का विश्लेषण कीजिए। समकालीन राजनीति में आप इसके महत्त्व को कैसे समझाएँगे?
Practise this question Indian Political Thought notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: The question has two parts: analyse the seven elements of the state in Kautilya's Arthashastra and their inter-relation, then show their relevance to contemporary governance with examples.
Kautilya's Arthashastra (Book VI) describes the state as an organism of seven limbs, the Saptanga theory: swami (ruler), amatya (ministers), janapada (territory and people), durga (fortified capital), kosha (treasury), danda (army and coercive power) and mitra (ally).
Analysis: the limbs are ranked, and Kautilya argues that a calamity to a higher limb is graver than to a lower one, yet all are interdependent like parts of a body. Kosha, for instance, is called the root of danda, since without wealth no army survives. Mitra extends the state outward and links Saptanga to the Mandala theory of inter-state relations.
The theory is organic rather than mechanical, but it is not absolutist in the Hobbesian sense: the king's happiness, Kautilya says, lies in the happiness of his subjects, and his rajadharma binds him.
Present-day significance: the elements map onto modern ideas of state capacity. Swami and amatya correspond to political executive and a merit-based bureaucracy; janapada to territory and population; durga to internal security and critical infrastructure; kosha to fiscal capacity; danda to defence and the rule of law; mitra to strategic partnerships such as the Quad or India's ties with Russia.
Limits: the theory assumes monarchy, ignores popular sovereignty and rights, and treats the people largely as a resource.
Thus Saptanga remains useful as a checklist of state capacity, provided it is read through constitutional democracy rather than kingship.

Question 5 (50 marks)

Q5(a) · Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Political Strategies of the Freedom Struggle: Constitutionalism to Mass Satyagraha
How did Swadeshi grow into a demand for Swaraj?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
स्वदेशी की भावना स्वराज की माँग में कैसे परिवर्तित हुई?
Practise this question Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Trace how the Swadeshi movement against the Partition of Bengal widened from economic boycott into a political demand for self-rule, through its methods, leaders and the 1906 Calcutta Congress.
Swadeshi, the use of goods made in one’s own country, began as a protest against Curzon’s Partition of Bengal (announced in July 1905, effective 16 October 1905). The boycott of British goods was adopted at a meeting in Calcutta Town Hall on 7 August 1905.
From economics to politics: the Moderate drain theory of Dadabhai Naoroji had already shown that colonial rule impoverished India. Swadeshi turned this critique into action: boycott of foreign cloth, swadeshi enterprises (P.C. Ray’s Bengal Chemicals), national schools and samitis. Once Indians tried to build their own economy and education, they confronted the political power that controlled both.
Extremist leadership: Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lajpat Rai and Aurobindo, who advocated ‘passive resistance’ (1907), argued that only self-government could secure swadeshi. Under their pressure the Calcutta Congress of 1906, presided over by Naoroji, declared Swaraj its goal along with swadeshi, boycott and national education.
Swadeshi thus taught that economic self-reliance required political freedom, an idea Gandhi later revived through khadi.
Q5(b) · The Constitution and the Organs of Government · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Duties, and Directive Principles
The Constitution of India was secular even before the word was included in the Preamble. Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत का संविधान प्रस्तावना में 'धर्मनिरपेक्ष' शब्द जोड़े जाने से पहले भी धर्मनिरपेक्ष था। टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question The Constitution and the Organs of Government notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: The question asks whether secularism was part of the original Constitution, so the answer sets out the secular provisions of 1950, how the courts read them, and what the 42nd Amendment actually added.
The word secular entered the Preamble only through the 42nd Amendment (1976), but the Constitution of 1950 was secular in substance; the Assembly omitted the word, not the idea.
Secular design of 1950: Articles 14–16 forbid religious discrimination; Articles 25–28 guarantee freedom of conscience, denominational autonomy, no tax to promote any religion and no religious instruction in wholly state-funded institutions; Articles 29–30 protect minorities; Article 325 rules out separate electorates by religion.
Judicial view: in Kesavananda Bharati (1973), three years before the amendment, judges listed the secular character of the Constitution among its basic features, and S.R. Bommai (1994) confirmed secularism as part of the basic structure.
Indian secularism is principled distance (Rajeev Bhargava): the state respects all faiths yet may reform them, as with temple entry under Article 25(2)(b).
The statement is correct. The 42nd Amendment only named a principle already embedded in the text and the Assembly's vision, a view the Supreme Court reaffirmed in November 2024 when it dismissed challenges to the word.
Q5(c) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Caste, Religion and Ethnicity in Indian Politics
Identity has become an important phenomenon in the modern politics in India. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत की आधुनिक राजनीति में पहचान एक अहम विषय बन गई है। विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: Discuss why identity (caste, religion, region, language, tribe) has become central to Indian politics, using theory and examples, and weigh its democratic effects.
Identity politics is the mobilisation of people on the basis of shared ascriptive or cultural attributes such as caste, religion, language, region or tribe. In India it has grown with the deepening of democracy itself.
Causes: universal franchise made numbers count, so leaders mobilise the largest available solidarities; Rajni Kothari, in Caste in Indian Politics (1970), called this the politicisation of caste. The Mandal moment of 1990, the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, linguistic and regional movements, and tribal demands for autonomy made identity the main idiom of politics. Paul Brass explains it as elite-led instrumental mobilisation for resources.
Effects: Yogendra Yadav's idea of a second democratic upsurge shows how lower castes, Dalits and women entered politics through identity, broadening representation. Yet identity can also produce polarisation, communal violence and vote-bank politics.
Identity is not opposed to development: groups use it to claim recognition and a share of development. The task is to keep it within constitutional values of equality and fraternity.
Q5(d) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Panchayati Raj, Municipal Government and the 73rd and 74th Amendments
Ending proxy leadership in Panchayati Raj is a necessary step towards true grassroots democracy. Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पंचायती राज में परोक्ष नेतृत्व का अंत करना वास्तविक आधारिक लोकतंत्र की दिशा में एक आवश्यक कदम है। टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: The question asks for a comment on proxy leadership (sarpanch-pati) in Panchayati Raj; explain the problem, why ending it matters for grassroots democracy, and the limits of a purely punitive approach.
Proxy leadership means that an elected woman or Dalit sarpanch holds office while a husband, relative or patron actually exercises power, the familiar sarpanch-pati or pradhan-pati.
It defeats Article 243D, which reserves at least one-third of seats and chair posts for women and proportional seats for SCs and STs so that excluded groups gain a real voice; a proxy turns reservation into a family privilege and reproduces patriarchy and elite capture.
An advisory committee of the Panchayati Raj Ministry (2025) recommended exemplary penalties for proven proxy cases, women-only consultations and better training.
Yet punishment alone is not enough: proxy rule grows out of low literacy, household dependence, control of information by officials and rotation of reserved seats every term, which prevents experience from building up.
Ending proxy rule is thus necessary, but true grassroots democracy also needs capacity building, longer rotation cycles, an active Gram Sabha and real devolution of funds and functions.
Q5(e) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Green Revolution, Land Reforms, Agrarian Relations and Liberalisation
Discuss the impact of liberalization on agriculture sector in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में कृषि क्षेत्र पर उदारीकरण के प्रभाव की विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: Discuss both the gains and the costs of liberalisation for agriculture, organised around markets, state support and farmers' welfare, and end with a balanced view.
The reforms of 1991 were aimed mainly at industry, trade and finance, but agriculture was reshaped indirectly through trade opening, the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (1995) and changes in public spending.
Positive impact: removal of export curbs and a cheaper rupee opened markets for rice, cotton, spices and marine products; horticulture, dairy and poultry grew; and private investment entered seeds, cold chains and food processing.
Negative impact: public investment in irrigation and research slowed in the 1990s, rural credit initially shrank, and input costs rose as subsidies were rationalised. Exposure to world prices increased volatility, while small holdings could not reap economies of scale. The result was the agrarian distress seen in indebtedness and farmer suicides.
Politically, the partial and stalled nature of agricultural reform showed in the repeal of the three farm laws in 2021 after a year of farmers' protest. Liberalisation thus brought diversification and new markets, but without public investment and safety nets it widened the gap between commercial and smallholder farming.

Question 6 (50 marks)

Q6(a) · Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Political Strategies of the Freedom Struggle: Constitutionalism to Mass Satyagraha
From passive resistors to armed revolutionaries, the Indian Freedom Struggle has a strong imprint of women freedom fighters. Elucidate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
निष्क्रिय प्रतिरोधियों से लेकर सशस्त्र क्रान्तिकारियों तक, भारतीय स्वतंत्रता संग्राम में महिला स्वतंत्रता सेनानियों की गहरी छाप है। प्रकाश डालिए।
Practise this question Indian Nationalism and the Making of the Constitution notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: Elucidate with examples the full range of women’s participation, from passive resistance and mass satyagraha to revolutionary action and the INA, and assess its significance and limits.
Women took part in every strategy of the freedom struggle, and their participation turned it into a mass movement while also raising the question of women’s own rights.
Early and Swadeshi phase: women in Bengal observed arandhan (not lighting the hearth) on the day of partition in 1905 and boycotted foreign goods. Bhikaiji Cama unfurled an Indian flag at the Stuttgart Socialist Congress in 1907, and Annie Besant led the Home Rule League (1916) and presided over the 1917 Congress.
Passive resistance and satyagraha: Gandhi saw women as natural satyagrahis because non-violence relies on moral strength. In the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience movements thousands picketed liquor and foreign-cloth shops and broke the salt law. Sarojini Naidu, Congress president in 1925, led the Dharasana salt raid in 1930; Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was arrested for selling salt.
Quit India: Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the flag at Gowalia Tank on 9 August 1942; Usha Mehta ran the underground Congress Radio; Matangini Hazra was shot leading a procession at Tamluk.
Armed revolutionaries: Santi Ghosh and Suniti Choudhury shot the Comilla magistrate (1931); Bina Das fired at the Bengal Governor (1932); Pritilata Waddedar led the attack on the Pahartali European Club (1932); Kalpana Dutt joined Surya Sen’s group; Durgawati Devi aided Bhagat Singh. Rani Gaidinliu led a Naga revolt, and Lakshmi Sahgal commanded the INA’s Rani of Jhansi Regiment.
Significance and limits: participation legitimised women’s public role and led to commitments such as equal rights in the Karachi Resolution (1931) and universal adult franchise. But leadership remained largely male, and many women were mobilised in roles that echoed domestic virtues.
Women were thus not auxiliaries but makers of the national movement across its full spectrum.
Q6(b) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Party System, Coalition Politics and Pressure Groups
When there are multiple stakeholders of power, conversation and consensus become the natural ingredients of governance. Analyze with respect to coalition politics.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
जब सत्ता में कई हितधारक शामिल होते हैं, तो संवाद और सहमति शासन के स्वाभाविक तत्त्व बन जाते हैं। गठबंधन राजनीति के संदर्भ में विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: Analyse the claim that power-sharing makes dialogue and consensus necessary, using coalition theory and Indian coalition experience, and note where consensus has failed.
A coalition government is one in which several parties share executive power because none commands a majority alone. Arend Lijphart's model of consensus democracy argues that where power is dispersed among many stakeholders, governance must rest on bargaining, compromise and inclusion rather than majority rule.
Indian experience supports this. From 1989 to 2014 no single party won a Lok Sabha majority. Coalitions institutionalised conversation through common programmes: the NDA's National Agenda for Governance (1998) and the UPA's Common Minimum Programme (2004), along with coordination committees and, under the UPA, the National Advisory Council.
Consensus shaped policy: the BJP set aside contentious issues such as Article 370 and the uniform civil code to keep allies; the UPA's welfare laws, MGNREGA (2005) and RTI (2005), reflected Left and civil society pressure.
Even in a one-party-led coalition, as after 2024 when the BJP's 240 seats made allies like the TDP and JD(U) pivotal, consultation over budgets and bills has become necessary again.
Limits: consensus can turn into paralysis or veto, as when the Left withdrew support over the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008 or when a regional ally blocked the Teesta water agreement in 2011.
Conversation and consensus are thus natural ingredients of coalition governance, but they work best when backed by clear programmes and institutional rules.
Q6(c) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Federalism: Constitutional Provisions and Changing Centre-State Relations
Evaluate the Centre-State relation with reference to Article 293 and analyze its implications for the Indian federal structure.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
अनुच्छेद 293 के संदर्भ में केन्द्र-राज्य सम्बन्ध का मूल्यांकन करते हुए भारतीय संघवादी ढाँचे पर उसके प्रभावों का विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: Evaluate Article 293 and its use: explain the provision, show how it shapes Centre-state fiscal relations today, weigh fiscal discipline against state autonomy, and conclude on its federal implications.
Article 293 lets a state borrow within India on the security of its Consolidated Fund within limits set by its legislature, but clause (3) requires the Union's consent for any new loan while a loan from, or guaranteed by, the Union is outstanding; clause (4) allows conditions to be attached.
Since every state owes money to the Union, the consent requirement applies to all, so the Centre in effect fixes each state's annual net borrowing ceiling, recently around 3 percent of state GDP in line with Finance Commission advice.
The Centre has used this power to steer policy: in 2020 extra COVID-era borrowing was tied to reforms such as one nation one ration card and power sector changes, and from 2022 off-budget borrowings by state entities were counted within the ceiling.
Kerala challenged these limits in an original suit under Article 131; in 2024 the Supreme Court declined interim relief but referred the questions on the scope of Article 293 to a Constitution Bench.
Implications: the provision promotes fiscal discipline and protects macroeconomic stability, but it creates an asymmetry, since the Union's own borrowing faces no comparable check by states, and conditional consent can intrude into state subjects.
A rule-based, transparent borrowing framework negotiated in a forum such as the Inter-State Council or a fiscal council would reconcile prudence with fiscal federalism.

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
Elucidate the prominent trends in voting behaviour in contemporary India, and discuss how astroturfing affects the scenario.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
समकालीन भारत में मतदान व्यवहार की प्रमुख प्रवृत्तियों को स्पष्ट कीजिए, और विवेचन कीजिए कि एस्ट्रोटर्फिंग इस परिदृश्य को कैसे प्रभावित करती है।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Two demands: elucidate the main trends in contemporary voting behaviour with evidence, then explain astroturfing and how it distorts electoral choice, ending with regulatory responses.
Voting behaviour is the study of why people vote as they do. Classical models stress social group identity (the Columbia school), party identification (the Michigan model) and rational calculation of benefits (Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy, 1957).
Trends: first, high and rising participation, with women's turnout now equal to or above men's in many states, making women a distinct constituency targeted through cash transfers and welfare. Second, the rise of the beneficiary voter: direct transfers, housing, gas connections and free grain create a link between welfare delivery and votes.
Third, caste remains important but coalitions have widened: Lokniti-CSDS surveys show the BJP's gains among non-dominant OBCs and Dalits, while the SP's PDA formula in 2024 showed caste counter-mobilisation. Fourth, religious polarisation and nationalism shape choices, especially in the Hindi belt. Fifth, leader-centred voting has grown.
Astroturfing is the creation of fake grassroots support: coordinated bot networks, paid influencers, fake accounts and messaging groups that make a narrative look spontaneous and popular.
Effects: it manufactures a bandwagon effect and false consensus, spreads misinformation and polarising content faster than corrections, and in 2024 deepfakes added a new layer. It weakens informed choice and favours those with money and data.
Responses: the Model Code of Conduct and ECI monitoring of social media, the IT Rules 2021, disclosure of political advertising on platforms, and the ECI's 2024 directions to parties to remove deepfake content quickly. But enforcement lags behind technology.
Voting behaviour in India is thus becoming more welfare-driven, leader-centred and digitally mediated; protecting electoral integrity now requires platform accountability, transparency in political advertising and digital literacy among voters.
Q7(b) · The Constitution and the Organs of Government · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Union Executive and Parliament: Envisaged Role and Actual Working
Highlight any five constitutional provisions that restrain the powers of the executive, and evaluate their effectiveness in current times.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
कार्यपालिका की शक्तियों पर अंकुश लगाने वाले किन्हीं पाँच संवैधानिक उपबन्धों को रेखांकित करते हुए वर्तमान समय में उनकी प्रभावशीलता का मूल्यांकन कीजिए।
Practise this question The Constitution and the Organs of Government notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: The question asks for five constitutional checks on the executive and an evaluation of each, so the answer takes them one by one with current examples and closes with an overall judgement.
India's parliamentary system fuses executive and legislature, so the Constitution relies on several institutional restraints to keep executive power accountable.
1. Collective responsibility (Article 75(3)): the Council of Ministers is responsible to the Lok Sabha and can be removed by a no-confidence motion. With stable majorities and party whips, this works mostly through debate rather than removal.
2. Financial control (Articles 112–117, 265, 266): no tax can be levied or money withdrawn without law. Its force is diluted when demands are guillotined without discussion and the money bill route bypasses the Rajya Sabha.
3. Limits on ordinances (Article 123): ordinances lapse six weeks after Parliament reassembles; Krishna Kumar Singh (2017) held re-promulgation a fraud on the Constitution. Yet ordinances are still used to bypass debate.
4. Judicial review (Articles 13, 32, 226): courts strike down unconstitutional executive action, as in the electoral bonds judgment (2024). It remains the most effective check, though delays weaken it.
5. Comptroller and Auditor General (Articles 148–151): audit reports on 2G spectrum and coal allocation shaped national debate, but reports depend on Parliament's Public Accounts Committee for follow-up.
These provisions are sound, but their effectiveness depends on a vigilant opposition, independent institutions and a strong committee system.
Q7(c) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Caste, Religion and Ethnicity in Indian Politics
Map the different types of ethnic conflicts that have emerged in 21st century India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
21वीं सदी के भारत में उभरे विभिन्न प्रकार के नृजातीय संघर्षों को रेखांकित कीजिए।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Map the main types of ethnic conflict in India since 2000 with examples (ethno-national, inter-ethnic, nativist, communal, quota-related, tribal), and conclude with their common causes and management.
Ethnic conflict is conflict between groups defined by shared descent, culture, language, religion or territory. In twenty-first-century India such conflicts have become less secessionist and more about land, quotas, citizenship and recognition.
Ethno-national and autonomy conflicts: the Naga issue continues despite the 2015 Framework Agreement; the Bodo movement ended in the 2020 accord creating the Bodoland Territorial Region; Gorkhaland agitations recurred in 2017; Kashmir saw unrest and the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
Inter-ethnic conflict: the violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo communities in Manipur from May 2023 was triggered by the question of Scheduled Tribe status for Meiteis and rooted in land and hill-valley divides.
Nativist and anti-migrant conflict: in Assam, the NRC (final list 2019) and protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act (2019) reflected fears of demographic change, echoing Myron Weiner's sons of the soil thesis.
Communal conflict: Gujarat 2002, Muzaffarnagar 2013 and Delhi 2020. Quota conflicts among dominant agrarian castes: the Patidar (2015), Jat (2016) and Maratha agitations. Tribal resistance to displacement in central India overlaps with Left-wing extremism.
Ted Gurr's relative deprivation and the competition for land and jobs link these types. Management requires constitutional devices such as the Sixth Schedule, negotiated accords, fair resource sharing and impartial policing.

Question 8 (50 marks)

Q8(a) · Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Integrationist Tendencies, Regional Aspirations and Inter-State Disputes
Discuss the causes and consequences of inter-State water disputes in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में अंतर-राज्यीय जल विवादों के कारणों एवं परिणामों की विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Grassroots Democracy, Statutory Institutions and Federalism notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: Discuss causes and consequences: give the constitutional and legal framework briefly, analyse the causes (constitutional, hydrological, political, institutional), then the consequences, with examples, and end with reforms.
Most of India's major rivers cross state boundaries; water is a State subject (Entry 17, List II) but subject to Union regulation of inter-state rivers (Entry 56, List I), and Article 262 with the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 provides for adjudication by tribunals whose awards bind like a Supreme Court decree.
Causes: rising demand for irrigation, drinking water and industry, combined with variable monsoons and climate change, turns sharing into a zero-sum contest, especially in deficit years; upstream states control flows while downstream states claim prior use, as in the Cauvery between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Water is also an emotive regional issue, so parties compete to appear as defenders of the state, which makes compromise costly; the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal remains unbuilt because Punjab's politics resists Supreme Court decrees.
Institutional causes include the absence of reliable shared data, the lack of river basin organisations, and tribunals that take decades, as the Cauvery tribunal took 17 years (1990-2007) to give its final award.
Consequences: violence and agitation, such as the anti-Tamil riots in Karnataka in 1991 and the protests in Bengaluru in 2016; prolonged uncertainty that delays dams and canals; and farmer distress in deficit years.
Federal trust is eroded, states defy or delay awards, and the Supreme Court is drawn in repeatedly, as in its 2018 Cauvery judgment, which modified the allocation and led to the Cauvery Water Management Authority.
Reforms include a single permanent tribunal with fixed timelines (proposed in a 2019 amendment bill), river basin authorities, a national water data system and cooperative water governance through bodies like the Inter-State Council, treating water as a shared resource rather than a state possession.
Q8(b) · The Constitution and the Organs of Government · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Union Executive and Parliament: Envisaged Role and Actual Working
Critically comment on the shifts in the functioning of the Indian Parliament in the last two decades.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पिछले दो दशकों में भारतीय संसद की कार्यप्रणाली में आए बदलावों पर आलोचनात्मक टिप्पणी 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 for a critical comment on how Parliament's functioning has changed since the mid-2000s, so the answer identifies the main shifts with evidence, notes positive changes, and suggests reforms.
Parliament is meant to make laws, hold the executive accountable and represent the nation's debate. Over the last two decades its working has shifted in ways that many scholars describe as a decline of Parliament, though the picture is not one-sided.
Fewer sittings and more disruption: sessions have become shorter, and the 17th Lok Sabha (2019–24) sat for fewer days than any earlier full-term Lok Sabha. Entire sessions have been lost to disruptions, from the 2G controversy to recent stand-offs, and the suspension of over a hundred opposition MPs in December 2023 sharpened the confrontation.
Weaker scrutiny of law-making: the share of bills sent to committees fell sharply after 2014; major laws, such as the farm laws of 2020, passed with little debate. The money bill route, used for the Aadhaar Act (2016), bypassed the Rajya Sabha, and the Deputy Speaker's post stayed vacant throughout the 17th Lok Sabha.
Executive dominance: large majorities and the anti-defection law turned MPs into party voters, and ordinances and delegated legislation grew.
Positive shifts: the 2024 election produced a stronger opposition and a recognised Leader of the Opposition after ten years; joint committees examined the Waqf and simultaneous-elections bills; and the 106th Amendment (2023) reserved seats for women.
Reforms such as a minimum number of sitting days, mandatory committee referral and an independent Speaker can restore Parliament as the forum of deliberation.
Q8(c) · Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Social Movements: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Women's and Environmental Movements
"The lack of political will in preventing environmental degradation is one of the major challenges that India is experiencing." Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"पर्यावरणीय अवक्रमण को रोकने में राजनीतिक इच्छाशक्ति में कमी भारत के समक्ष मौजूद बड़ी चुनौतियों में से एक है।" टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Planning, Social Cleavages, Party System and Social Movements notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: Comment by showing evidence of weak political will (dilution of laws, weak enforcement, growth-first politics), explaining why it arises, noting counter-evidence, and suggesting how to build will.
India has strong environmental laws, Article 48A and Article 51A(g), the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, the Forest Rights Act 2006 and the National Green Tribunal (2010), yet air, water and land degradation continue. The gap between law and outcome points to a deficit of political will.
Evidence: severe winter air pollution in Delhi recurs despite the National Clean Air Programme (2019), because stubble burning, construction and vehicle rules are enforced half-heartedly across states. Ganga cleaning has been attempted since the Ganga Action Plan (1985). Environmental clearance rules have been diluted through amendments, and the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act 2023 drew criticism for narrowing protection. Himalayan disasters such as the Joshimath subsidence (2023) followed warnings that were ignored.
Why: the environment rarely decides elections; growth and jobs dominate; costs fall on the poor and future generations who have little voice; and pollution control boards are understaffed and politically dependent.
Counterpoint: courts and the NGT have often filled the gap, as in M.C. Mehta cases; India has expanded renewable energy, committed to net zero by 2070 and launched Mission LiFE.
The statement is largely valid. Building will requires empowered regulators, environmental democracy through public hearings and gram sabhas, and making clean air and water electoral issues.

UPSC Mains 2026 Political Science and International Relations PSIR Paper II