History Optional Question Paper 2021 - Paper 1 & 2

The History Optional Question Paper 2021 was set for UPSC Civil Services Mains 2021. 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 2021 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 2021 — 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 2021 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 2021 paper solved

History Optional Question Paper-1 (2021)

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 Palaeolithic site
(ii) A Mesolithic site
(iii) A Neolithic site
(iv) A Neolithic-Chalcolithic site
(v) A Harappan site
(vi) A proto-historic and historic site
(vii) An inscriptional site
(viii) A Jain monastic site
(ix) A coin hoard
(x) A Palaeolithic site
(xi) A terracotta site
(xii) Rock-cut caves
(xiii) An ancient learning centre
(xiv) A political and cultural centre
(xv) A Buddhist site
(xvi) An ancient port
(xvii) An early historic site
(xviii) An ivory hoard
(xix) A Buddhist monastic centre
(xx) A temple complex

UPSC History Optional 2021 Paper I map question

Q2. (20 + 15 + 15 = 50)

(a) Do you agree that ecological factors influenced the flow and ebb of the Harappan civilization? Comment. (20)
(b) Do you consider that the Upanishadic principles embody the high point of Vedic religious thought? Comment. (15)
(c) Analyse the significance of external influences and indigenous development on post-Mauryan art. (15)

Q3. (15 + 20 + 15 = 50)

(a) Will it be proper to consider the megaliths to represent a single, homogeneous or contemporaneous culture? What kind of material life and cultural system is revealed in the megalithic cultures? (15)
(b) How would you characterise the nature of the Mauryan state on the basis of Kautilya’s Arthashastra? (20)
(c) How did the Varnashrama Dharma manifest the increasing social complexities in the Gupta and post-Gupta period arising from social and economic developments? (15)

Q4. (20 + 15 + 15 = 50)

(a) “The political and economic needs of rulers, combined with the economic and status needs of the merchant class, together provided the receptive cultural milieu in which Buddhism flourished.” Comment. (20)
(b) A large number of land grants in hitherto non-arable tracts invariably meant expansion of agriculture in early medieval India. How did the management of hydraulic resources (different types of irrigation works) facilitate the expansion of agriculture in this period? (15)
(c) Discuss the relationship between the emergence of literature in vernacular languages and the formation of regional identities in early medieval India. (15)

Paper I — Section B (Medieval India)

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

(a) Discuss the different stages of Indian feudalism and analyse its impact on the Indian political system.
(b) Do you consider Sultan Iltutmish to be the real founder of the Delhi Sultanate? Discuss.
(c) Identify the different categories of Persian literature which emerged during the Delhi Sultanate.
(d) Examine the causes of Babur’s success against Ibrahim Lodi in the First Battle of Panipat.
(e) Discuss the attitude of the Chishti saints towards the state. How were the Suhrawardi saints different in their attitude towards the government?

Q6. (15 + 15 + 20 = 50)

(a) Discuss the transformation of the Sikh community from a nirguna Bhakti sect into a politico-military organisation. (15)
(b) Give your assessment of Bahlul Lodi’s relations with his nobility. (15)
(c) Examine the basic features of Mughal tomb architecture with special reference to the Taj Mahal. (20)

Q7. (15 + 15 + 20 = 50)

(a) Discuss the importance of the iqta system. How did it help in the centralisation of the administration of the Delhi Sultanate? (15)
(b) Why is the reign of the Khaljis known as the ‘Khalji Revolution’? (15)
(c) The late seventeenth century in Mughal India is considered to be a period of jagirdari crisis. Discuss. (20)

Q8. (15 + 15 + 20 = 50)

(a) “The Chola rulers were not only mighty conquerors and efficient administrators but also builders of fine temples.” Comment. (15)
(b) Discuss with relevant illustrations the relations between Akbar and the Rajput states. (15)
(c) How far is it justified to consider states like Bengal, Awadh and Hyderabad as ‘successor states’ of the Mughal state? (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 2021 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 (2021)

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 introduction of Western education transformed India in unforeseen ways.
(b) Tipu Sultan had little success in setting forth a course of change significantly different from the general experience of the eighteenth century crisis of Indian politics and society, where public life tended over and over to become a system of plundering.
(c) The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was designed for better control of the vernacular press and to empower the government with more effective means of punishing and repressing seditious writings.
(d) The rise of the communist movement in India in the 1920s lent a militant and revolutionary content to the trade union movement.
(e) In the first decade of the twentieth century, the atmosphere was ripe for the emergence of revolutionary groups to fill up the vacant space in the political map of the country.

Q2. (20 + 15 + 15 = 50)

(a) India had been the world leader in the field of hand-spun and hand-woven yarn and cloth for many centuries. Many nationalist and Marxist critiques considered that the British dominion deliberately shattered the traditional and world-famous handicrafts of India. Comment. (20)
(b) What were the various ways in which nationalism manifested itself in India during colonial rule? (15)
(c) The East India Company had thought that they had found an ideal puppet in Mir Kasim. Mir Kasim, however, belied the expectation of the Company. Examine critically. (15)

Q3. (20 + 20 + 10 = 50)

(a) How did English utilitarian thinking impact India in the British era? (20)
(b) The same Gandhiji who withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement on the issue of violence at Chauri Chaura refused to condemn people’s violence during the Quit India Movement. Do you think that he was losing his faith in the efficacy of non-violence and was willing to deviate from this path? Elucidate. (20)
(c) While individually the Marathas were clever and brave, they lacked the corporate spirit so essential for national independence. Discuss with reasons. (10)

Q4. (20 + 20 + 10 = 50)

(a) Discuss the major constitutional developments in India after 1858 and their impact on society and polity. (20)
(b) Discuss the changing nature of Dalit assertion in India in the twentieth century. (20)
(c) How were the princely states integrated into the Indian Union after the partition? What role did Sardar Patel play in it? (10)

Paper II — Section B (World History)

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

(a) There were many reasons why the Industrial Revolution first happened in England.
(b) Napoleon’s continental system may be reckoned as the greatest blunder and may be described as a “monument of misdirected energy”.
(c) The Chartist movement failed to achieve its stated objectives, but succeeded in seeding the idea that a representative democracy should include all citizens.
(d) During the Cold War, some important leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement wanted to keep the movement away from the military blocs.
(e) The Arab countries looked up to Nasser as a leader who could withstand the pressure exerted by Western countries on Egypt to make peace with Israel.

Q6. (50)

(a) What was “enlightened” about the Age of Enlightenment?
(b) What were the causes and consequences of the revolutionary upsurge of the 1840s in Europe?
(c) The white-minority government of South Africa treated the natives very badly by denying them fundamental rights and made apartheid an official policy. How were the people able to end the apartheid policy and establish a transitional rule?

Q7. (20 + 20 + 10 = 50)

(a) The rise of nationalism across nations shattered the chains which held together the empires of modern Europe. Discuss. (20)
(b) In the American Civil War, the victory of the North had many consequences. Some of them were direct and obvious. However, its indirect effects on American development were perhaps even more important. Comment. (20)
(c) Revolutions, whether in Russia (1917) or in China (1949), are a disastrous way of transforming a country. Comment. (10)

Q8. (20 + 20 + 10 = 50)

(a) Europe was at war with itself in the first half of the twentieth century, with a long ceasefire. Comment. (20)
(b) The impact of the end of the Cold War and the emergence of the US as the lone superpower has been both good and bad. Discuss. (20)
(c) Do you think that the United Nations Organisation has played a significant role in resolving international disputes and ensuring peace in the world? (10)

What the 2021 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 (2021)

Syllabus unit	Questions
Map (Ancient sites, 50 marks)	Q1
Indus Valley Civilization	Q2(a)
Aryans and the Vedic Period	Q2(b)
Post-Mauryan Period (art)	Q2(c)
Megalithic Cultures	Q3(a)
Mauryan Empire	Q3(b)
Guptas and post-Gupta society	Q3(c)
Period of Mahajanapadas (Buddhism and merchants)	Q4(a)
Early Medieval India, 750–1200	Q4(b), Q4(c), Q5(a), Q8(a)
The Thirteenth Century	Q5(b), Q7(a)
Society, Culture and Economy (Persian literature)	Q5(c)
The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century	Q5(d), Q6(b)
Cultural Traditions (Chishti, Suhrawardi, Sikh)	Q5(e), Q6(a)
Culture in the Mughal Empire	Q6(c)
The Fourteenth Century	Q7(b)
Mughal Empire in the Seventeenth Century	Q7(c)
Akbar	Q8(b)
The Eighteenth Century	Q8(c)

Paper II — unit-wise spread (2021)

Syllabus unit	Questions
Social and Cultural Developments	Q1(a), Q1(c)
The Eighteenth Century and British Expansion	Q1(b), Q2(c), Q3(c)
Other Strands in the National Movement	Q1(d), Q1(e)
Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule	Q2(a)
Early Indian Nationalism	Q2(b)
Early Structure of the British Raj (utilitarianism)	Q3(a)
Rise of Gandhi and the Gandhian Era	Q3(b)
Constitutional Developments, 1858–1935	Q4(a)
Caste and Ethnicity after 1947	Q4(b)
Consolidation as a Nation	Q4(c)
Industrialization	Q5(a)
Revolution and Counter-Revolution	Q5(b), Q6(b), Q7(c)
Origins of Modern Politics	Q5(c)
Decolonization and Underdevelopment	Q5(d)
Liberation from Colonial Rule	Q5(e), Q6(c)
Enlightenment and Modern Ideas	Q6(a)
Nation-State System	Q7(a), Q7(b)
World Wars	Q8(a)
Disintegration of the Soviet Union	Q8(b)
The World after World War II	Q8(c)

Five things the 2021 paper tells you about UPSC’s pattern

Early medieval India took four questions in Paper I. Land grants and hydraulic management, vernacular literature and regional identity, the stages of Indian feudalism, and the Cholas. This is the hinge unit between the ancient and medieval halves of the paper, and it is consistently the most heavily examined stretch in Paper I.
The Commission asked about the economics of religion. Q4(a) put the political and economic needs of rulers alongside the status needs of merchants as the milieu in which Buddhism flourished. The expected answer is a material explanation of a religious phenomenon, not a doctrinal one.
Sufi orders were asked comparatively. The Chishti attitude to the state against the Suhrawardi attitude to the government. Comparative framing of this kind rewards a table in your notes and punishes a single undifferentiated “Sufism” entry.
Paper II Section A ran from the eighteenth century to the twentieth in a single line. Tipu, Mir Kasim, the Marathas, utilitarianism, the Vernacular Press Act, communists and trade unions, Gandhi at Chauri Chaura and in 1942, Dalit assertion, the princely states. The paper expects continuity, not islands.
World History asked for judgement, not narrative. Was the continental system a monument of misdirected energy? Did Chartism fail? Are revolutions a disastrous way of transforming a country? Has the UN mattered? Five of the fourteen slots were explicit verdict questions.

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.
Give early medieval India its own fortnight. Feudalism, land grants, irrigation, regional languages, the Cholas, temple economies. Four questions here and heavy weight in almost every recent paper.
Tabulate the Sufi orders. Chishti and Suhrawardi, attitude to the state, attitude to wealth, principal figures, regions. 2021 asked for exactly that comparison.
Practise verdict answers. Take a 2021 World History statement, decide your position in one sentence, then build three supporting points and one honest concession. That shape is what a 20-marker rewards.
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 2021 — 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.

Broadly, the Chishtis kept their distance from rulers and refused state grants and offices, while the Suhrawardis accepted royal patronage, held office and saw proximity to government as compatible with their mission. The 2021 paper asked for exactly this comparison, which is why a single undifferentiated note on “Sufism” is not enough.

Early medieval India, with four questions: land grants and hydraulic management, vernacular literature and regional identities, the stages of Indian feudalism, and the Cholas. It is the hinge between the ancient and medieval halves of the paper and is consistently the heaviest stretch in Paper I.

State your position in the first sentence, then give three supporting points with evidence and at least one named historian, and close with an honest concession or qualification. 2021 had five such verdict questions in World History alone, and narrating the topic without taking a position is the commonest way to score 10 rather than 16.

Yes. The 2021 paper uses the current format throughout, and its topics — Harappan ecology, Kautilya’s state, Indian feudalism, the iqta system, the jagirdari crisis, the Vernacular Press Act, Chartism, apartheid — 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.