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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Was it the weakening of the Mughal empire or the rise of regional power that led to British conquest of India? Discuss.

  • UPSC 2016
  • The Eighteenth Century

Framing this as an either/or question misses how tightly the two processes were bound together — the British conquest of India resulted from the interaction of Mughal collapse and regional fragmentation, neither of which alone would have produced colonial paramountcy.

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 Weakening of Mughal Authority as Structural Precondition
  • The Rise of Regional Powers and Its Ambivalent Consequences
  • British Strategy: Exploiting Fragmentation Rather Than Merely Inheriting It
  • Assessing the Relative Weight

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