Indian History: Modern Period (Early 19th Century to 2000)

What the official syllabus says

RPSC, RAS/RTS Preliminary Examination, General Knowledge and General Science, under “Indian History”, Modern Period (from early 19th century to 2000):

• British Imperialism and Resistance – Maratha, Mysore, Sikh. Revolt of 1857. British Political, Economic and Administrative policies. Emergence of Nationalism, Socio religious movements
• The Freedom Struggle & Indian National Movement - Evolution, stages and major events. Revolutionary and various regional movements towards freedom and partition.
• Post Independent Nation Building (up to 2000), Reorganization of state, Institutional building during Nehruvian age, Planning & Economic reforms, development of Science and Technology.

Topics in detail

British expansion and Indian resistance

• Anglo-Mysore wars (Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan), Anglo-Maratha wars, Anglo-Sikh wars and the annexation of Punjab
• Instruments of expansion: subsidiary alliance (Wellesley), doctrine of lapse (Dalhousie), annexation on grounds of misrule
• Peasant and tribal uprisings before 1857 (Santhal, Kol, Bhil, Faraizi)

Revolt of 1857

• Causes: political, economic, military, social and religious
• Course and centres: Meerut, Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi, Bihar; leaders
• Reasons for failure; consequences: the Government of India Act, 1858 and the Queen’s Proclamation

British political, economic and administrative policies

• Constitutional development: Regulating Act 1773 to the Government of India Act, 1935; Indian Councils Acts; Montagu-Chelmsford and the 1935 Act
• Land revenue systems: Permanent Settlement, Ryotwari, Mahalwari
• Drain of wealth, de-industrialisation, commercialisation of agriculture, famines; railways and the colonial economy
• Civil services, police, judiciary, education policy (Macaulay’s minute, Wood’s Despatch), press laws
• Policy towards the princely states: paramountcy, residents and agents, the Chamber of Princes (1921)

Socio-religious movements and the rise of nationalism

• Brahmo Samaj (Raja Rammohan Roy), Prarthana Samaj, Arya Samaj (Dayanand Saraswati, who also worked in Rajasthan), Ramakrishna Mission, Theosophical Society, Aligarh movement, Satyashodhak Samaj, Singh Sabha
• Causes of nationalism; early associations; founding of the Indian National Congress (1885)

Stages of the national movement

• Moderates and extremists; partition of Bengal and the Swadeshi movement (1905); Surat split (1907); Muslim League (1906); Morley-Minto reforms
• Home Rule leagues; Gandhi’s early campaigns (Champaran, Kheda, Ahmedabad); Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh (1919)
• Non-Cooperation and Khilafat (1920-22); Swarajists; Simon Commission; Nehru Report; Purna Swaraj (Lahore, 1929)
• Civil Disobedience (1930-34), Round Table Conferences, Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Poona Pact
• Provincial ministries of 1937; Quit India (1942); INA and Subhas Chandra Bose; Cripps Mission, Cabinet Mission, Mountbatten Plan and partition (1947)
• Revolutionary movements: Ghadar party, Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad), Chittagong armoury raid, revolutionaries abroad
• Regional movements: peasants’ and workers’ movements, tribal movements, princely states’ people’s movements and the All India States People’s Conference

Nation building after independence (to 2000)

• Integration of the princely states (Sardar Patel, V.P. Menon); the making of the Constitution
• Reorganisation of states: the Dhar Commission, JVP Committee, States Reorganisation Commission and the Act of 1956; later new states (including those of 2000)
• Institution building in the Nehru years: Planning Commission, public sector, IITs, AIIMS, Atomic Energy Commission, CSIR laboratories, Election Commission at work, non-alignment
• Five-Year Plans; Green Revolution; bank nationalisation (1969); the Emergency (1975-77); the economic reforms of 1991
• Science and technology: atomic energy (Homi Bhabha), space (Vikram Sarabhai, ISRO, Aryabhata satellite 1975), the Pokhran tests of 1974 and 1998 (Rajasthan), the White Revolution, telecom and IT growth

Overlaps

Mains Paper I (Unit I, Part B and Part C) covers modern India and the modern world. Rajasthan’s own freedom movement is on Rajasthan: History.