UPSC Mains GS 1 Syllabus and PYQs Trends

According to the UPSC, the syllabus of General Studies – I (Paper II) I broadly comprises of 4 major subjects: 

• Indian Heritage and Culture
• History 
• Society
• Geography of the World 

In this write up,  the syllabus and the trends of the question asked for each section of the GS I paper will be discussed separately. 

Indian Heritage and Culture 

Syllabus: 

• Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times. 

There are two things in the syllabus that needs closer attention. First the scope of the syllabus – it mentions Art forms, Literature and Architecture. Secondly, the time period – Ancient to modern times. 

Scope of the Syllabus: 

Though the syllabus mentions only three key topics for this sections of the syllabus, the ‘Art forms’ encompasses many topics which needs to be read and prepared separately. Based on the analysis of past year Mains papers, following topics can be put under the ‘Art forms’ section: 

• Dance (2013) 
• Early Buddhist Stupa-art (2016) 
• Numismatics (2017) 
• Indian Art Heritage (2018) 
• Gandhara Art (2019)

There are other topics under art forms which have not been asked in the Mains examination, but have been asked in the Prelims are mentioned below. Students should prepare these topics as well for the Mains examination. These topics include: 

• Music 
• Paintings

Under the literature and architecture section, following topics have been asked since 2013: 

• Chola architecture (2013) 
• Sangam literature ( 2013) 
• Gandhara sculpture (2014) 
• Mesolithic rock cut architecture (2015) 
• Krishnadeva Raya and Literature (2016) 
• Role of Indian Philosophy in shaping monuments in India (2020) 
• Rock cut architecture (2020)
• Bhakti literature (2021)

In addition to the aforementioned topics, other important topics include – Buddhism, Jainism, Sufi and Bhakti Movement, Education system in Ancient India, Indian Philosophy etc. These topics should also be prepared for the Mains examination. 

Time Period

The syllabus mentions ‘Ancient to Modern’ times. However, it has been observed that most of the questions are from the Ancient or Medieval period. Therefore, the student should focus on these periods while studying Indian Culture and Heritage. 

Following is an overall break-up of the number of questions and marks for Indian Culture and Heritage section: 

History

Syllabus: 

• Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues.
• The Freedom Struggle — its various stages and important contributors/contributions from different parts of the country.
• Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country.
• History of the world will include events from the 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.— their forms and effect on the society. 

This section of the syllabus has the largest syllabus as far as GS 1 paper is concerned. Therefore, maximum weightage is also given to this section in the examination. The history syllabus can be broadly divided into three parts – Modern Indian History including freedom struggle, Post-Independence India and World History. 

Following is the overall breakup (marks wise) for the History section: 

As we can see from the aforementioned table that in the history section, it is Modern India including the Freedom Struggle that gets maximum weightage in the mains examination. Now we will analyse the major topics that are asked from this section since 2013: 

• Significant personalities: 
  • Indian: Mahatma Gandhi (most asked), Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Role of Indian women in freedom movement. 
  • Britishers: Lord Curzon, Lord Dalhousie
• Significant events: Naval Mutiny (2014), Third battle of Panipat, 1761 (2014), Uprising of 1857 (2016 & 2019), Famines in colonial India (2022). 
• Freedom Struggle: 
  • Important polices/acts: Economic policies of Britishers (2014), Government of India Act, 1935 (2015). 
  • Movements: Indian Renaissance of 19^th century (2019), Non-Cooperation Movement and Civil Disobedience Movement (2021). Socio -religious movement – Young Bengal and Brahmo Samaj (2021). 
  • Miscellaneous: Tribal response to British oppression (2023), Role of moderates (2021), Ideological strands (2020)
• Post-Independence: 
  • Emergence of Bangladesh (2013)
  • Tashkent Agreement (2013) 
  • Bhoodan and Gramdan Movement (2013) 
  • Integration of princely states (2021) 
  • Reorganization of states (2022)
• World History: 
  • Great Economic Depression (2013) 
  • American Revolution (2013) 
  • African history/nationalism (2013, 2016) 
  • New Economic Policy, 1921 (2014)
  • World Wars (2015, 2021) 
  • Industrial Revolution (2015) 
  • American and French Revolution (2019) 

The analysis of the major topics reveals that there are certain topics in the syllabus which get more preference than other topics. For instance, in the Modern India section, questions on Mahatma Gandhi are asked almost every other, if not every year. Since 2013, questions on Mahatma Gandhi and his role/contribution to India’s freedom struggle have been asked 7 times. No other personality has been given so much significance. Therefore, while preparing for this paper, all aspects of Gandhi’s contribution to India’s freedom struggle needs to be read thoroughly. 

In the Post-Independence section, UPSC generally asks one question at best. In fact, between 2014 – 2020, no questions were asked from this section. In the last three years, one question has been asked each year. 

As far as World History is concerned, at least one question has been asked each year except 2020 and 2022. The topics like African history/nationalism, World Wars, anti-colonial struggles in other countries has been asked more than once. These topics should be given extra attention while preparing the subject. 

Indian Society 

Syllabus: 

• Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.
• Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
• Effects of globalization on Indian society.
• Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism 

Recently, this section of the syllabus has gained enormous significance as far as marks allotted to the section is concerned. In 2013, only 30 marks worth questions were asked from this section. In 2023, it increased to 90 marks. Following table will give a more clear picture: 

Following is the overall breakup (marks wise) for the Society section:

Let’s go through the major topics that have been asked from this section since 2013: 

• Features of Indian Society including communalism, regionalism & secularism
• Regionalism (2013, 2016, 2020) 
• Secularism (2013, 2018, 2019, 2022) 
• Caste system in India (2015, 2018, 2020, 2023) 
• Communalism (2018, 2023)
• Tribes/Tribal issues ( 2015, 2016, 2017, 2021)

• Issues related to women
  • Women’s organization (2013) 
  • Sex Ratio ( 2014) 
  • Feminization of agriculture (2014)
  • Women’s movement (2018)
  • Women empowerment ( 2019, 2021) 

• Effects of globalization
  • Impact on aged population (2013) 
  • Effect on Women (2015)
  • Cultural homogenization (2018)
  • Impact on local identity (2019) 

• Poverty and population 
  • Migration (2015) 
  • Poverty ( 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020) 
  • Urbanization (2018, 2023) 
  • Population (2015, 2021) 

• Urbanization
  • Growth of cities (2013, 2021, 2022)
  • Smart City (2015) 
  • Urban Floods ( 2016, 2020) 
  • Urban Transport ( 2019) 

As we can observe from the above bifurcation, there are many topics which have been asked more than once. Questions related to ‘poverty’, ‘caste system’ and ‘secularism’  have been asked at least 4 times each since 2013. In addition to the aforementioned topic, questions related to the ‘family system’ and ‘marriages’ are also asked frequently in the mains examination. Over the years, we have witnessed both an increase in questions and marks allocation to this section of the paper. Therefore, the students should put proportional time and effort in the section. 

Geography 

Syllabus: 

• Salient features of world’s physical geography.
• Distribution of key natural resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian sub- continent); factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India).
• Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Though Geography as a discipline has many subparts like Human Geography, Economic Geography, Political Geography, in the mains examination it is Physical Geography which is given substantial weightage. Following table presents subtopic wise break up of questions asked since 2013:    

Following is the overall breakup (marks wise) for the Geography section:

Following are the major topics that have been asked from this section since 2013: 

• Physical Geography 
  • Theory of Continental Drift (2013) 
  • Fold Mountains (2014) 
  • Formation of archipelagos ( 2014) 
  • Origin and evolution of earth (2017) 
  • Ocean Currents (2022) 

• Climatology 
  • South West Monsoon ( 2015, 2017, 2023) 
  • Temperature Inversion (2013) 
  • Urban Heat Islands (2013) 
  • Climate Change – effects on Himalayan glaciers, El Nina, Coral life, arctic, food security. 

• Location of Industries
  • Cotton textile industries and Sugar Industries (2013) 
  • Iron and Steel Industries (2014, 2020) 
  • Petroleum refineries (2017) 
  • Agro-based food processing industries (2019) 

• Distribution of resources 
  • Shale oil and gas (2013) 
  • Atomic Energy (2013) 
  • Ocean resources (2014) 
  • Resources in  arctic region ( 2015, 2018) 
  • Forest resources (2020) 
  • Water resources (2016, 2020) 
  • Resource potential of coastline (2023)
• Disasters 
  • Cyclones (2013, 2014, 2022) 
  • Floods (2017) 
  • Landslides (2013, 2016, 2021) 
  • Volcanoes (2021) 

Among all the sections of the Geography, climatology is one section which has been asked each year since 2013. In the disasters section, topics are more often repeated. It may be  because disasters which are in the news are asked in the examination. Since India is prone to landslides and cyclones, they have been asked multiple times. 

In addition to this, ‘climate change and its impact’ has been asked various times in recent years.