30 Topics.
0 of 11 Concepts Done
What to Study: Did Indian nationalism grow only as a response to British rule, or also as a reaction against it? Understand why it is better seen as a product of several factors. Remember the four broad factors, starting with what the French Revolution contributed.
What to Study: Why did Indians come to see colonial rule as the main cause of India's economic backwardness? Understand why this brought very different classes (from peasants to capitalists) to see their interests as common, and why that gave rise to the nationalist movement.
What to Study: Know how far British rule extended, how it compared with the Mauryan and Mughal states, and the difference between direct and indirect rule. Understand what the civil service, the judiciary and the laws added to India's older cultural unity. Why did the British build railways, roads and the telegraph, and what two effects did nationalists draw from them?
What to Study: Why did the rulers introduce English education, and what did it actually lead to? Remember the European writers whose ideas Indians absorbed (Milton, Shelley, Mill, Rousseau, Paine, Spencer, Voltaire) and the kinds of ideas they spread. Understand how the English language and study in England helped nationalist leaders.
What to Study: Remember how the Indian-owned press grew in the later 19th century despite restrictions, and the approximate 1877 figures for vernacular newspapers and their circulation. Understand the roles the press played: criticising policy, urging unity, spreading new political ideas and linking leaders of different regions.
What to Study: Remember the European and Indian scholars whose work shaped a new picture of India's past (Max Mueller, Monier Williams, R.G. Bhandarkar, R.L. Mitra, Vivekananda). Know what that picture showed. Understand how the Indo-Aryan theory raised the self-respect of educated Indians and helped them challenge colonial myths.
What to Study: How did the removal of social evils help the growth of nationalism? Understand the link between social reform and the coming together of different sections of society.
What to Study: Understand how British administrative and economic changes created a new urban middle class, and why it came to the forefront and led the Congress at every stage. Remember how Percival Spear described this class.
What to Study: Which struggles abroad inspired Indian nationalists? Remember the regions and countries involved, and the one singled out for particular influence.
What to Study: Remember the four measures of Lytton that provoked opposition: the change to the age limit for the I.C.S. examination (from which age to which age), the Delhi Durbar held during a famine, the Vernacular Press Act and the Arms Act. Know the year of each. Understand how British racial discrimination and segregation formed the background.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 1998UPSC 2003UPSC 2004UPSC 2013
What to Study: Under which Viceroy did the Ilbert Bill come, and what change did it seek for Indian members of the covenanted civil service? Understand why the Bill had to be modified. You should be able to explain the two lessons nationalists drew: one about fair play and one about methods of agitation.