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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

The British conquered India “in a fit of absent mindedness.” Comment.

  • UPSC 1997
  • British Expansion in India

The phrase, coined by the historian John Seeley in The Expansion of England (1883), argues that British dominion over India grew not from a deliberate imperial design but from a long sequence of unplanned, reactive decisions.

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What the full answer covers

  • The Case for "Absent-Mindedness"
  • The Case Against
  • Reconciling the Two Views

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