Note : This paper is of two hundred (200) marks containing four (4) sections. Candidates
are required to attempt the questions contained in these sections according to the
detailed instructions given therein.
SECTION – I
Note : This section consists of two essay type questions of twenty (20) marks each, to be
answered in about five hundred (500) words each.
(2 × 20 = 40 marks)
1. Do you think human evolution and development of Palaeolithic stone tools are
complimentary to each other ?
How did royal women during the Mughal period negotiate for political space ?
Gandhi restrained mass movements yet he retained his popularity among the masses.
How would you explain this paradox ?
2. Did Ashoka use his Policy of Dhamma as an instrument to administer his empire
smoothly ?
Assess the significance of overseas trade in the economy of the Mughal empire.
What was more responsible for the downfall of the Maratha power – internal strife or
British aggression ?
SECTION – I
This section contains three (3) questions from each of the electives/specializations. The
candidate has to choose only one elective/specialization and answer all the three questions
from it. Each question carries fifteen (15) marks and is to be answered in about three
hundred (300) words. (3 × 15 = 45 marks)
Elective – I
3. Examine the diverse subsistence practices of the Neolithic period.
4. Discuss the changes of the Indian society during the Kushana period.
5. Explain the economic conditions of the Post-Kushan period.
Elective – II
3. Discuss the salient features of Indo-Islamic architectures during Sultanate period.
4. What were the limitations on the growth of merchant capital in Mughal India ?
5. What was the nature of Maratha resistance to the Mughals after the death of Shivaji ?
Elective – III
3. Discuss the nature of the tribal movements in the nineteenth century India.
4. Trace the various phases through which Muslim Communalism passed from 1906 to 1940
5. To what extent did the socio-religious reform movements contribute to the
emancipation of women in the nineteenth century. Discuss.
SECTION – III
Note : This section contains nine (9) questions of ten (10) marks, each to be answered in
about fifty (50) words. (9 × 10 = 90 marks)
6. Assess the significance of literary sources for writing ancient Indian history.
7. Write on the position of women during the Gupta period.
8. Examine the main features of the Dravida style of temple architecture.
9. Who were Qalandars ?
10. Which section of the Zamindars was characterised as Zortalab by the Mughals ?
11. Explain the dadni system during the Mughal period.
12. Explain the ‘Drain Theory’ of Dadabhai Naoroji.
13. State the basic features of the policy of non-alignment.
14. Do you agree with the view that ‘all history is contemporary’ ?
Note : This section contains five (5) questions of five (5) marks each based on the following
passage. Each question should be answered in about thirty (30) words.
(5 × 5 = 25 marks)
There has been a debate for a long time, certainly since Bernier (travels, 1656-
68), as to whether the Mughal empire was a state in the same sense as contemporary
European states. Bernier believed that while European states had as their main
function the protection of private property, in India, and indeed in Asia in general, the
sovereign being himself the proprietor, the destruction of all private property
appeared to be the chief function of the state. To this he attributed all the ills from
which the Asian economies and societies suffered, notably the intense oppression
committed by those whose own capacity to extort was only temporary, since it was
derived from the sovereign who might deprive them of it any moment. Although the
Mughal sovereign did not actually make the claim to universal landownership
attributed to him by Bernier and others, the size of the land tax was indeed such as to
absorb the larger part of the surplus. The practical result was that for tax collection
purposes alone the state had to acquaint itself with conditions of agriculture in detail
and attempt its improvement, a situation that had no parallel in contemporary
European states, these tasks being performed there by the large estate owners. Marx,
therefore, perceived in the Mughal empire a system of ‘Asiatic despotism’, based on
tax rent, which was essentially different from the laissez-faire state principally
because of its concern for protection of agriculture by irrigation and other means. Yet
we must remember that outside the fiscal system the Mughal state interfered little
with the structure of property rights subsisting on secondary claims to the agrarian
surplus, or with urban property and commerce.
15. State Bernier’s perception of the Mughal state.
16. What difference Bernier saw between European states and the Mughal empire ?
17. According to the author what was the role of Mughal state in agricultural production ?
18. Author quotes Marx to lay emphasis on which aspect of the Mughal empire ?
19. Give author’s view on the nature of property rights of the Mughal state in land.
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