Unlock Elite Access: Level Up Your Preparation with Exclusive Content

History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Critically examine whether it was true that after a century of dependency on Europeans, Africans were ill prepared for the task of nation-building.

  • UPSC 2020
  • Decolonization and Underdevelopment

The claim that decades of colonial dependency left Africans unequipped for nation-building was a common explanation offered for post-independence Africa's instability, but it is also a thesis that itself demands scrutiny rather than acceptance at face value.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the History Optional PYQ Master Pack.

What the full answer covers

  • The Case For: Genuine Colonial Deficits
  • Deliberate Neglect of Higher Education and African Administrators
  • Artificial Borders and the Absence of Self-Government Experience
  • The Case Against: Interrogating the Thesis
  • Pre-Colonial African Polities Had Sophisticated Governance Traditions
  • The Thesis as a Colonial-Apologist Alibi
  • …and 3 more sections, with a conclusion

Unlock this answer and 1,350+ more

  • 1,350+ solved UPSC History Optional PYQs from 1985 to 2025, Paper-1 and Paper-2
  • Topic-wise across Ancient, Medieval, Modern, Post-Independence and World History
  • Model answers with a clear structure and historian citations
  • Map section solutions included, at no extra cost
  • Read online on lotusarise.com, plus PDF download

₹1,499₹2,50040% off

Get History Optional PYQ Master Pack @ ₹1,499 →

One-time payment · No subscription · Instant access · UPI, cards, RuPay

See every Decolonization and Underdevelopment question (11 solved) →Already enrolled? Log in