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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

A number of scholars considered Alexander as ‘The Great’, although long term impacts of Alexander’s invasion on India need to be re-evaluated. Comment.

  • UPSC 2020
  • Period of Mahajanapadas

The epithet "The Great" attached to Alexander of Macedon rests overwhelmingly on his military genius and the sweep of his Eurasian conquests rather than on any transformation he wrought inside India. When the Indian campaign of 326 BCE is examined on its own terms — its brevity, its failure to touch the subcontinent's principal power,…

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What the full answer covers

  • Why Contemporaries and Later Scholars Called Him "The Great"
  • The Case for Re-Evaluation: A Border Raid, Not a Conquest
  • Reassessing the Longer-Run, Indirect Consequences
  • Conclusion

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