Day: October 7, 2024

Q. “The international situation that confronted the peacemakers in Paris was in the brutal realities of history, the result of a temporary redistribution of the balance of power in the world.” Comment. [UPSC- 1987] Ans: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 assembled after the First World War to reconstruct Europe and establish a more durable […]

Q. Critically examine the main features of the foreign policy of Nazi Germany. [UPSC- 1982] Ans: The foreign policy of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler after 1933 combined the revision of the post-Versailles order with a much more radical project of racial and territorial expansion. Nazi policy aimed not merely to restore Germany’s pre-1914 status, […]

Q. “The nationalist political movements for liberation such as the non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements and their leadership depended heavily on the peasantry.” Comment. [UPSC- 1993] Ans: The emergence of Gandhian mass nationalism after 1919 marked a fundamental transformation of the Indian national movement. Congress could no longer remain primarily an organisation of urban professionals […]

Q. Jawaharlal Nehru was the architect of India’s policy of non-alignment. In the light of this statement discuss India’s relations with the two ‘Power Blocks’ between 1947-1964. [UPSC- 2001] Ans: At independence, India entered an international system already divided between the US-led Western bloc and the Soviet-led communist bloc. Jawaharlal Nehru, simultaneously Prime Minister and, […]

Q. “The Simla Conference (1945) afforded the last opportunity of the forces of nationalism to fight a reargued action to preserve the integrity of the country and when the battle was lost, the waves of communalism quickly engulfed it.” Comment. [UPSC- 1988] Ans: The Simla Conference of June–July 1945, convened by Viceroy Lord Wavell, represented […]

Q. “Dalhousie changed the map of India with speed and thoroughness no campaign could equal.” Comment. [UPSC- 2001] Ans: Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856, presided over one of the most rapid phases of British territorial expansion and administrative consolidation in India. Through a combination of war, the Doctrine of Lapse, annexation […]

Q. After 1757 there grew up a State of Bengal which was a “sponsored state” as well as a “plundered state”. Comment. [UPSC- 1999] Ans: The Battle of Plassey (1757) marked a decisive change in the nature of British involvement in Bengal. The English East India Company did not immediately annex the province; instead, it […]

Q., “The vernacular press in the nineteenth century was both newspaper as well as ‘viewspapers’ that enlightened the dormant masses.” Comment. [UPSC- 2008] OR “The vernacular press in nineteenth century India served not just as newspapers but more importantly as views-papers.” Comment. [UPSC- 2011] Ans: The characterization of the vernacular press in the nineteenth century […]

Q. “Thus the League sought to achieve to profoundest of all psychological revolutions to transform the war mentality of man into a peace mentality.” Comment. [UPSC- 1992] Ans: The League of Nations, created by the Covenant included in the Treaty of Versailles (1919) and formally established in January 1920 at Geneva, was the first permanent […]

Q. The French Revolution (1789) sought to remove both “the religious and secular props of the existing social order.” Elucidate. [UPSC- 1996] Ans: The French Revolution, which began in 1789, set out to destroy what contemporaries later called the ancien régime (Old Regime). This order stood on two closely connected supports: a religious prop: the […]