History Optional Question Paper 2017 - Paper 1 & 2

The History Optional Question Paper 2017 was set for UPSC Civil Services Mains 2017. Both papers are reproduced below exactly as UPSC asked them, with the official mark distribution, followed by a unit-wise breakdown of what the paper tested, what the 2017 pattern tells you about how the Commission frames History questions, and how to work through these questions instead of only reading them.

Examination	UPSC Civil Services Mains 2017 — History Optional
Papers	Paper I (Ancient and Medieval India) and Paper II (Modern India and World History)
Marks	250 per paper — 500 total
Duration	3 hours per paper
Structure	Section A and Section B, four questions each. Q1 and Q5 are compulsory; one question from the remaining three in each section.
Map question	Paper I Q1 — 20 locations at 2.5 marks each, 50 marks, given as locational hints rather than place names.

Every question on this page, already answered

Reading a past paper tells you what UPSC asked. It does not tell you what a 16-plus answer to it looks like — and in History Optional that gap is the whole difference between knowing the period and scoring on it. The History Optional PYQ Master Pack carries a written model answer for every question the Commission has set since 1985, including every question on this 2017 paper.

PYQs from 1985 to 2025, arranged topic-wise — Ancient India, Medieval India, Modern India, Post-Independence and World History, every question solved
Model answers with the structure written out — the historians named and cited, the argument sequenced, diagram and timeline suggestions in place
Map section solutions included — the full 50-mark section most aspirants give up on, at no extra cost
PDF download plus online access — both included, on any device, permanently rather than for the length of a subscription

₹1,499 (regular ₹2,500) for all of it. One-time payment, no subscription, instant access.

See the 2017 paper solved

History Optional Question Paper-1 (2017)

Paper I covers Ancient India in Section A and Medieval India in Section B. Q1 and Q5 are compulsory, and Q1 is the map question — 50 marks, a fifth of the paper.

Paper I — Section A (Ancient India)

Q1. Identify the following places marked on the map supplied to you and write a short note of about 30 words on each of them in your Question-cum-Answer Booklet. Locational hints for each of the places marked on the map are given below seriatim (2.5 × 20 = 50)

(i) A prehistoric cave-paintings site
(ii) A Neolithic-Chalcolithic site
(iii) An early Harappan site
(iv) A Harappan site
(v) An ancient capital city
(vi) A Painted Grey Ware site
(vii) A Neolithic site
(viii) A site of Ashokan inscriptions
(ix) An ancient port and trade centre
(x) A Harappan site
(xi) A Chalcolithic site
(xii) An ancient capital city
(xiii) A rock-cut cave site
(xiv) An early fortified city
(xv) A rock-cut temple site
(xvi) An ancient temple site
(xvii) An ancient capital city
(xviii) An ancient temple site
(xix) A Palaeolithic site
(xx) An ancient capital city

UPSC History Optional 2017 Paper I map question

Q2. (15 + 20 + 15 = 50)

(a) Art and culture are reflected to a far greater extent than political history in the epigraphic sources. Comment. (15)
(b) The second urbanisation gave rise to the organised corporate activities that reached their zenith during the Gupta period. Discuss. (20)
(c) The emergence of non-Harappan Chalcolithic cultures in Central India and the Deccan marks a change not only in the subsistence pattern of people but an overall transition from the pre- to the proto-historic period. Critically analyse. (15)

Q3. (15 + 15 + 20 = 50)

(a) Critically examine various views regarding the Vedic-Harappan relationship in the light of the latest discoveries. (15)
(b) “The concept of Ashoka’s Dhamma as found through his inscriptions had its roots in Vedic-Upanishadic literature.” Discuss. (15)
(c) The period of Indian history from the third century B.C.E. to the fifth century C.E. was a period of innovation and interaction. How will you react? (20)

Q4. (20 + 15 + 15 = 50)

(a) Trace the origin and development of temple architecture in India with reference to regional styles and variations. (20)
(b) Buddhism and Jainism were social movements under the umbrella of religion. Comment. (15)
(c) The accurate picture of the complex socio-cultural milieu of peninsular India is presented in the early Sangam literature. Delineate. (15)

Paper I — Section B (Medieval India)

Q5. Answer the following questions in about 150 words each (10 × 5 = 50)

(a) The eleventh and twelfth centuries C.E. saw eventful progression in the cultural history of India. Discuss.
(b) Evaluate the accounts of foreign travellers about the Vijayanagara Empire.
(c) Critically examine the ‘blood and iron’ policy of Balban.
(d) Do you consider the Rajatarangini of Kalhana to be a reliable source of the political history of Kashmir? Why?
(e) The religion of the Sikhs was the main force of their unity. Comment.

Q6. (15 + 15 + 20 = 50)

(a) To what extent was the Caliphate the source and sanction to the legal authority of the Sultans of Delhi? (15)
(b) “Bhakti and Sufi movements served the same social purpose.” Discuss. (15)
(c) Delineate non-agricultural production and urban economy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries C.E. (20)

Q7. (15 + 15 + 20 = 50)

(a) Do you agree that the schemes of Muhammad bin Tughluq were correctly conceived, badly executed and disastrously abandoned? Discuss. (15)
(b) Do you think that Akbar’s Rajput policy was a conscious attempt to incorporate the Indian ruling elite within the Mughal imperial system? (15)
(c) “The political disintegration was responsible for the socio-economic decline in India during the eighteenth century.” Comment. (20)

Q8. (15 + 15 + 20 = 50)

(a) “Mughal paintings reflect social harmony in contemporary society.” Discuss. (15)
(b) Assess the condition of peasants during the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries C.E. (15)
(c) How will you view the Maratha policy of expansion? Delineate. (20)

Could you actually write these answers — in 12 minutes each?

That is the honest test of a History past paper. Most aspirants can recognise every question above and still score 10 to 13 on them, because the marks do not sit in knowing what happened. They sit in naming the historian whose reading you are using, sequencing the argument instead of narrating it, and closing with a judgement rather than a summary. The PYQ Master Pack gives you the written form of each of these 2017 answers, so you are studying a structure instead of inventing one under pressure.

Paper II is reproduced below. Before you scroll on, mark the three questions above where you could name the events but not a single historian — those are the answers to read first.

See how a 16-plus answer is written

History Optional Question Paper-2 (2017)

Paper II covers Modern India in Section A and World History in Section B. Q1 and Q5 are compulsory, and both are sets of five statements to examine critically in about 150 words each.

Paper II — Section A (Modern India)

Q1. Critically examine the following statements in about 150 words each (10 × 5 = 50)

(a) “The Maratha polity disintegrated through internal stress.”
(b) “The chief value of Raja Rammohan Roy’s labours seems to lie in his fight against the forces of medievalism in India.”
(c) “The British railway construction policy in India benefited the British economy in the nineteenth century.”
(d) “The Arya Samaj may quite logically be pronounced as the outcome of conditions imported into India from the West.”
(e) “Sri Narayana Guru’s was a major intervention in the social reform movement from a subaltern perspective.”

Q2. (20 + 20 + 10 = 50)

(a) Explain the factors responsible for the recurrence of famines in the nineteenth century. What remedial measures were adopted by the British Indian Government? (20)
(b) Assess the role of the press in arousing awareness on important social issues in the second half of the nineteenth century. (20)
(c) Underline the major considerations of the British imperial power that led to the annexation of Punjab. (10)

Q3. (20 + 20 + 10 = 50)

(a) Trace the origin of the Ghadar movement and discuss its impact on the revolutionaries in India. (20)
(b) Explain why the efforts at finding a solution to India’s constitutional impasse failed during 1942–1946. (20)
(c) Discuss the nature of peasant movements under the Kisan Sabhas during 1920–1940. (10)

Q4. (20 + 20 + 10 = 50)

(a) Discuss how the satyagrahas of Gandhi removed the spell of fear among Indians and thus knocked off an important pillar of imperialism. (20)
(b) How far did the developments in science and technology in the post-independence period put India on the path of modernity? (20)
(c) Throw light on the nature of the ‘Instrument of Accession’ and the ‘Standstill Agreement’ signed by the princely states with the Indian Union. (10)

Paper II — Section B (World History)

Q5. Critically examine the following statements in about 150 words each (10 × 5 = 50)

(a) “Kant’s redefinition of reason and his rehabilitation of conscience marked a high point in the intellectual reaction against the dominant rationalism of the Enlightenment.”
(b) “The spirit behind the great reforms of Napoleon’s Consulate at home was the transference of the methods of Bonaparte the general to the task of Bonaparte the statesman.”
(c) “The roots of the Chartist movement in Great Britain were partly political and partly economic.”
(d) “18 January 1871 had been a day of triumph for the strength and pride of Germany and 28 June 1919 was the day of chastisement.”
(e) “The collapse of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 brought new meaning to the idea of cooperation in Europe.”

Q6. (20 + 20 + 10 = 50)

(a) Explain why England became the harbinger of the Industrial Revolution. Also throw light on its social consequences. (20)
(b) Why was the First World War termed the first ‘total’ war in modern history? (20)
(c) Discuss how agrarian crisis accompanied by severe industrial depression triggered the Revolutions of 1848. (10)

Q7. (20 + 20 + 10 = 50)

(a) What determinant factors, along with diplomatic ones, shaped the process of German unification? (20)
(b) Examine the statement that “the danger of ‘Bolshevism’ dominated not only the history of the years immediately following the Russian Revolution of 1917 but the entire history of the world since that date.” (20)
(c) Examine why Bolivar’s efforts failed to fructify in bringing about a united stand of the Latin Americans. (10)

Q8. (20 + 20 + 10 = 50)

(a) Examine the circumstances which led to the overthrow of democracy and the establishment of Fascist dictatorship in Italy. (20)
(b) “By the 1980s, the Communist system of the Soviet Union was incapable of maintaining the country’s role as a superpower.” Substantiate. (20)
(c) Examine the nature of Dutch imperialism in Indonesia. (10)

What the 2017 History Optional paper actually tested

Mapping the questions onto the syllabus shows the shape of the paper at a glance — and shows which units the Commission chose to spend its marks on.

Paper I — unit-wise spread (2017)

Syllabus unit	Questions
Map (Ancient sites, 50 marks)	Q1
Sources and epigraphy	Q2(a), Q5(d)
Period of Mahajanapadas and the second urbanisation	Q2(b), Q4(b)
Megalithic and Chalcolithic cultures	Q2(c)
Aryans and the Vedic Period	Q3(a)
Mauryan Empire	Q3(b)
Post-Mauryan Period and the Guptas	Q3(c)
Themes in Early Indian Cultural History	Q4(a)
Early State and Society in South India	Q4(c)
Cultural Traditions, 750–1200 (Bhakti and Sufi)	Q5(a), Q6(b)
The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century (Vijayanagara)	Q5(b)
The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries	Q5(c), Q6(a), Q6(c), Q7(a)
Culture in the Mughal Empire	Q5(e), Q8(a)
Akbar	Q7(b)
Economy and Society, 13th–17th centuries	Q8(b)
The Eighteenth Century	Q7(c), Q8(c)

Paper II — unit-wise spread (2017)

Syllabus unit	Questions
The Eighteenth Century (Maratha polity)	Q1(a)
Social and Religious Reform Movements	Q1(b), Q1(d), Q1(e)
Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule	Q1(c), Q2(a)
Social and Cultural Developments	Q2(b)
British Expansion in India	Q2(c)
Other Strands in the National Movement	Q3(a), Q3(c)
Politics of Separatism and the transfer of power	Q3(b)
Rise of Gandhi and the Gandhian Era	Q4(a)
Economic Development and Political Change	Q4(b)
Consolidation as a Nation	Q4(c)
Enlightenment and Modern Ideas	Q5(a)
Revolution and Counter-Revolution	Q5(b), Q6(c), Q7(b), Q8(a)
Origins of Modern Politics	Q5(c)
Nation-State System and the world wars	Q5(d), Q6(b), Q7(a)
Disintegration of the Soviet Union	Q5(e), Q8(b)
Industrialization	Q6(a)
Liberation from Colonial Rule	Q7(c)
Imperialism and Colonialism	Q8(c)

Five things the 2017 paper tells you about UPSC’s pattern

The Commission asked what a class of evidence can prove. Epigraphy reflecting art and culture more than politics; the Vedic-Harappan relationship “in the light of the latest discoveries”; Sangam literature as a picture of peninsular society; Kalhana’s reliability. Four separate questions on the standing of the sources.
Thirteenth and fourteenth century India carried Section B. Balban’s blood and iron, the Caliphate and Sultanate legal authority, non-agricultural production and the urban economy, Muhammad bin Tughluq’s schemes. Four slots, and the marks sit in institutions and economy rather than in a dynastic sequence.
Religion was asked as a social force, not a doctrine. Buddhism and Jainism as social movements under the umbrella of religion; Bhakti and Sufi movements serving the same social purpose; the religion of the Sikhs as the main force of their unity. The Commission wants the sociology of religion.
Paper II Section A was dominated by reform and its critics. Rammohan Roy, the Arya Samaj as a Western import, Sri Narayana Guru from a subaltern perspective. Three of the five compulsory statements sat in social reform, and one explicitly asked for the subaltern reading.
World History spanned 1789 to 1991 with no soft centre. Kant, Napoleon’s Consulate, Chartism, 1871 and 1919, the Berlin Wall, industrial Britain, total war, 1848, German unification, Bolshevism, Bolivar, Italian fascism, the Soviet 1980s, Dutch Indonesia. Breadth is the requirement.

How to use this paper (rather than just read it)

Do the map question first, from a blank outline. Fifty marks, twenty categories and no names. It is the largest single block in either paper and the one where preparation converts most directly into marks.
Prepare source criticism as its own topic. Inscriptions, Sangam literature, Kalhana, foreign travellers on Vijayanagara. What each is good for, what it distorts, and who has said so.
Learn the Sultanate as institutions, not as a king list. The Caliphate and legal authority, urban economy, market and revenue measures, the nobility. This is where the Commission has put its marks year after year.
Keep a subaltern-perspective note. Sri Narayana Guru, tribal uprisings, Kisan Sabhas, Dalit movements. UPSC names the perspective explicitly, and an answer that does not engage it reads as dated.
Compare your answer against a model answer, not against the syllabus. The gap you need to close is a writing gap. Reading more sources does not close it; seeing the finished shape of a high-scoring answer does.

Two ways to prepare for the papers above

Past papers are the syllabus UPSC actually examines. What you do next with them decides the marks. Two LotusArise systems are built for the two different gaps History aspirants have at this stage.

	PYQ Master Pack	Mains Master Kit 2027
Best for	You know the content and your gap is answer writing	You are starting History Optional and want one complete system
Core content	Every PYQ from 1985 to 2025, solved and arranged topic-wise across Ancient, Medieval, Modern, Post-Independence and World History	Complete Notes PDF — Ancient, Medieval, Modern, Post-Independence, World History and Mapping, 4,500+ pages
Also inside	Historian citations inside each answer, diagram and timeline suggestions, and the full 50-mark map section solved	Mapping with PYQ-integrated practice; 12 months premium article access, continuously updated
Access	PDF download plus online access, permanently	12 months, all devices, offline
Price	₹1,499 (regular ₹2,500)	₹1,770 (regular ₹5,000)

Both are one-time payments with instant access and no subscription. If you are unsure, start with the PYQ Master Pack — for most aspirants who have already read the syllabus once, answer writing is the constraint, not content.

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History Optional Question Paper 2017 — FAQs

250 marks per paper, 500 marks for the optional as a whole. Each paper runs three hours and has two sections of four questions each. Q1 and Q5 are compulsory; you choose one of the remaining three questions in each section.

50 marks — 20 locations at 2.5 marks each, in Paper I Q1. It is the single largest block in either paper, and the paper gives only a category for each point, not a name.

In Paper I, the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries took four Section B slots, and source evaluation took four questions across both sections. In Paper II, social and religious reform took three of the five compulsory statements, and World History ranged across fourteen distinct topics from Kant to Dutch Indonesia.

It asks you to read the event from below — from the position of peasants, tribals, Dalits or other subordinated groups — rather than through elite leadership and formal politics. The 2017 paper used the phrase directly about Sri Narayana Guru, and the approach is associated with Ranajit Guha and the Subaltern Studies collective.

Yes. The 2017 paper uses the current format throughout, and its topics — the second urbanisation, Ashoka’s Dhamma, temple architecture, Akbar’s Rajput policy, nineteenth-century famines, the Ghadar movement, German unification — remain squarely on the syllabus and recur in reframed form.

The History Optional PYQ Master Pack carries written model answers for every previous-year question from 1985 onwards, arranged topic-wise rather than year-wise, with historians cited inside the answers and the full 50-mark map section solved.