Administration, Society, Religion and Economy from Ancient to Modern India

What the official syllabus says

GPSC Main Examination, Paper IV: General Studies-I, (A) History.

• Important developments in Administration, Social, Religious and Economic conditions, etc. from Ancient to Modern India and Gujarat.

This page covers the India part of the line. The Gujarat part is on Gujarat: Dynasties, Administration and Society up to the Marathas.

Topics in detail

Read this line across time, theme by theme: how states were run, how society was organised, how religion changed and how the economy worked, from the Mauryas to British rule.

Ancient India

• Mauryan administration: the Arthashastra, the council of ministers, provinces, spies, Ashoka's dhamma mahamattas
• Post-Mauryan kingdoms: Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Kushanas, Satavahanas; guilds (shreni) and long-distance trade
• Gupta administration and land grants; the rise of feudal tendencies (samanta system)
• Society: varna and jati, slavery, the position of women; the Dharmashastras
• Religion: Vedic ritual, Puranic Hinduism, Vaishnavism and Shaivism, Jain and Buddhist sanghas
• Economy: agriculture, coinage (punch-marked coins onwards), Indo-Roman trade

Early medieval and South India

• Rajputs and regional kingdoms; land grants and the growth of agrarian settlements
• Chola local self-government: village assemblies (ur, sabha), the Uttaramerur inscriptions
• Temple as an economic and social institution

Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals

• Sultanate administration: the iqta system, Alauddin Khalji's market and revenue measures, Muhammad bin Tughlaq's experiments
• Mughal administration: the mansabdari system, jagirs, subas, sarkars and parganas
• Land revenue under Sher Shah and Akbar; Todar Mal's zabt system
• Society and religion: Sufi orders, Bhakti, Akbar's sulh-i-kul, the composite culture of the period
• Economy: crafts, ports, the textile trade, banking (hundi), European trading companies

British India

• Company administration: Regulating Act (1773), Pitt's India Act (1784), Charter Acts; the civil services and the police
• Land revenue settlements: Permanent Settlement (1793), Ryotwari and Mahalwari
• Economic impact: deindustrialisation, commercialisation of agriculture, famines, the drain of wealth
• Crown rule after 1858: Indian Councils Acts, local self-government (Ripon's resolution, 1882), the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935
• Social and religious change: English education (Wood's Despatch, 1854), the press, reform movements

Regional states of the medieval period

• Vijayanagara: the nayankara system, the ayagar village officials, temple patronage, foreign travellers' accounts
• Bahmani kingdom and its successor Deccan sultanates; Mahmud Gawan's reforms
• Maratha administration under Shivaji: the Ashtapradhan, chauth and sardeshmukhi, forts

Religion and society across periods

• From Vedic ritual to Puranic temple worship, Bhakti and Sufism; the rise of Sikhism
• Caste: from varna to the multiplication of jatis; occupational guilds; changes under colonial census and law
• Women: property rights, purdah, sati and child marriage; reform and education in the 19th century
• Religious policy of rulers: Ashoka's tolerance, Akbar's sulh-i-kul, colonial non-interference and its limits

Themes for analytical answers

• Continuity and change in land revenue from the Mauryas to the British
• Centralised and decentralised models of administration
• Trade and towns as drivers of social change
• How each period's economy shaped its art and religion

Overlaps

• Prelims General Studies asks for major dynasties with their administration and conditions.
• Economic history connects with the economy topics of General Studies-III.