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[Strategy] Political Science for UPSC Mains Exam with Booklist and tips by toppers Question Quest ion from f rom a reader reader I’m from from chennai. I have choosen my optionals as geography and poli tical science. But when I approac hed hed the coachi ng centres, they told told me that t hey are not offering offering political science as it is i s not a g ood ood optional i n terms terms of scoring and po pularity pulari ty .They .They are manipulating manipul ating me that pub ad is better and I need to join only pub ad coaching. What should i do.
You ask t hem, IfIf Political science science is not scoring, then ho w did Abhiram Abhiram and Kart Kartik ik Iyer Iyer got 4t h and 7t h Rank respect respectivel ively y with wit h t his same same opt o pt ional subject, in UPSC UPSC 2010 Exam?! Exam?! Anyways, here here goes t he strat st rategy egy and boo klist klist f or Political Science. Science. (Geography strat egy was given given in previous art icle, icle, click me) me) 1. Ab Abhiram hiram (AIR 4/CSE 2010) 2010) 2. Bo Booklist oklist f f o r Po Po lilitt ical Sci Science ence 3. Pa Paper per 1 4. Paper 2 5. Karthik Iyer (AIR 7 / CSE 2010) 6. Re Related lated Art icl icles es on Bookli Booklist st / Study plan f or Mains Optional Opt ional Subj Subjects ects
Abhiram (AIR 4/CSE 2010) In response to queries regarding my political science preparation, i’ve decided to put up this post. Please Please not e that t hat I o bt ained 326 in in pol.sci pol.sci (138+188), (138+188), which clearly clearly shows show s my strengt h (paper 2) & weakness (paper 1). For paper 1, please please do no t regard my met met hod as f inal. inal.
The list of books I followed: 1. Political theory – O P Gauba 2. Int nterna ernatt ional relations relations – V K Malhot Malhot ra 3. Const itut ion by D.D. D.D. Basu 4. Indian govt & poli po litt ics by Fadia Fadia 5. Indian political t hought by V.R. V.R.Meht Mehta a 6. India’s st ruggle fo f o r independence by Bipan Bipan Chandra
(not a must must )
7. Modern Indian histo ry by Spectrum 8. Political t hought & t heory – Printed not es from several sources provided by my teacher, Balalatha madam 9. Cosmos book hives vol.1 & vol.3 10. World f ocus magazine 11. Civil service t imes 12. Hindu & f ront line 13. International & bilat eral issues – Self -made not es from Int ernet, M.o.External Af f airs website & the Hindu.
For paper 1 I could not prepare as well as I wanted to, because of t he lack of t ime (start ed reading t hinkers & t hought only aft er UPSC Preliminary Examinat ion). I read & re-read OP Gauba for the concept s like ustice, equalit y, hegemony, rights, ideology et c. Even t hough “ideologies” part is good in gauba, I’d suggest you go for Andrew Heywood’s ideologies (take a phot ocopy if you f ind t he book expensive). I’ve always fo und Indian political tho ught conf using f or t he most part, even in VR Mehta. For thought & t hinkers, I mainly depended on Cosmos boo k-hives publication (vol. 1) and printed no t es from various sources provided by my teacher balalat ha madam. I also depended on t he internet f or some thinkers like gramsci & arendt. (Unfort unately, none of t he major t hinkers I prepared were asked in t he mains!) As far as Indian nat ionalism is concerned, I stuck to Bipan Chandra & spectrum’s history of modern India. IGNOU material is ok, but I never got t ime t o read the same. Also, I combined the preparation f or certain t opics like radical humanism w/ MN Roy, dalit perspective wit h Ambedkar etc. Which I believe helped me save t ime.You can depend on DD Basu & Fadia f or Indian const itut ion & po lit ics. But f adia is bit out dated wit h regard to examples, so bet t er find out recent ones f or political issues if possible. For the various national commissions (nhrc/sc/st/women etc), I totally depended on t heir respective websit es. I went t hrough t he recent election analyses in The Hindu (by Yogendra Yadav’s team) f or understanding election t rends.
Paper 2 Comparative politics was & remains a puzzle to me. So I read only Cosmos book-hives (vol. 3) for t he topic. But some seniors in the f ield recommended Ronald chilkot e for t his topic, whose book I could never lay my hands on. For IR theories (power, natl security, approaches to IR study et c.), Vinay Kumar Malhotra’s International relations is really good. For some topics like globalization, international economic order etc., it ’s better to add contemporary issues that you may read in periodicals & newspapers t o the answer you write. Also, try to t ake stands on issues like ‘do we need NAM?’ (Bet t er to stick t o “yes” with reasons), UN/IMF/World bank reforms etc. During the days of preparation itself. Write these down in point f orm along with subst antiat ing reasons, so t hat it’s easier to revise before t he mains. Tapan biswal’s boo k is good f or t he internat ional economy part, but again i’ve not read t he book due to time shortage. Use the int ernet t o t he maximum when you’re studying about int ernat ional & regional organizat ions like UN, ASEAN, OAS, AU, EU, and SAARC etc. At t he same t ime, understand t he pros & co ns of such organizat ions as well as intra-group relat ions of various countries (India’s big brot her att itude t o sout h asia, Thailand-cambodia clashes, eastern vs. Western Europe et c.) & how t hey aff ect t he cohesion of t he groupings. For cont emporary world concerns like environment, t errorism, gender issues etc. I depended on Hindu, fro ntline & Civil Service Times. For India & the world part, I depend on wikipedia, world f ocus, Hindu & min. Of external aff airs websit e. I prepared my own not es fo r these topics. Anot her thing I did was to no te the + & – o f our relations with every major country. For t his I t oo k a paper, divided it into t wo columns, one f or t he +ves & t he ot her fo r –ves. Jot down points you pick up f rom the newspaper daily in t he columns, & you’ll get a very good idea of our bilateral t ies. Try to read the Nov-Dec annual issue of world focus cover to cover as it covers bilateral t ies with almost all import ant nations. Also understand the background dynamics of issues so t hat you may be able to voice clear opinions. Eg: india’s role in a post-taliban Afghanistan & its ties with US & Pakistan in this perspective, India vs China in Af rica, india’s st and vis-à-vis iran’s nuclear opt ion et c. PS – I don’t t hink int ernat ional relat ions can be mastered in a short span of time. So bett er start reading current af f airs magazines & the Hindu as early as possible to build up your base. There is no bet t er source for IR than the internet , but only if you have regular access to it . Regards & all the best, Abhiram.
Karthik Iyer (AIR 7 / CSE 2010)
Abhiram has already given a good out line of his st rategy fo r Polit ical science and im af raid i have not hing more to add there,but i am still posting on how i went about preparing my opt ional f or mains. A Backgrounder-i finished my graduation and sat at home,preparing f ull t ime.i joined IGNOU (MA pol sci) and University of Pune (MA hist ory) to keep me sane (studying at ho me drives me insane,used as i am to being a hostelite).so had plenty of time in my hand,and access to a great library,a personal collection of my own relat ive whos a prof essor of some renown in the subject s i chose as opt ionals. I had chosen po lit ical science as my prelim opt ion and began preparing with t hat .I had a f riend who did Raus classes in delhi in 2006-7 and cleared ,and i began by buying his stack of not es he had scribbled while att ending class. Befo re i made much headway there my IGNOU MA books came,and took my fancy and so i gave them a detailed reading.(by this time i had finished of f t hat guys not es once,they covered the portion,but lef t me feeling not satisfied) I f ound t hem a lit t le to o advanced (despit e my BA in Pol sci) and so went t o t he BA boo ks of IGNOU. Both BA and MA books done after a painful ordeal,i really could not make my mind up whether there was enough bang for buck in t hem. Then (around december) i start ed borrowing and reading original boo ks likeThe Prince,Politics among nat ions,Polit ical t heory,Das Kapital explained and a long list of original books.Western Political Thought in part icular was something i spent a lot of t ime understanding.The story of philosophy is a good book for that. Burke,Ebenstein,Rosseau,Bentha m,Mill,Locke,Hobbes,Easton,Alm ond,Coleman,Powell,Deustch,hey wood,rawls,amartya sen are some authors that readily come t o mind.Indian Political tho ught i read in Sanskrit in original t hen English and made extensive notes (as my other optional was history,this overlaps).I scanned what parts i liked and thought import ant (and these scanned pages,when collat ed became my not es).OP Gauba was a book i frequently turned to f or f low. I paid special att ention t o Marxist thought and it s development,dependency theorist s,and newish development s t hanks t o Globalization. Writ ing practice i carried on along with each topics initial study (which i did as they are list ed in the syllabus).In writing passages,id consciously t ry including somet hing from all my sources in each para,so t hat my answers were more rounded and had mult iple points of view. I made no distinction in study f or prelimns and mains till april 2010,and lat er only started paying more att ention t o f actual details. Indian Polit y i did from Laxmikant and DD Basu,and again not ed the dry bones(f acts expected from every aspirant like article no for emergency,important court cases in SC) down
in my not es. Once my not es were done (around 800 pages in all) i kept revising and re-revising it i had some conf idence that anything asked from it ,id put in a fair answer. I was lucky everything was asked from t hat only,and so i could answer,tho ugh not t o my expectat ions or satisfaction. For remaining topics like Feminism, i used net extensively and kept a view on current trends (like formation of UNW).
Paper 2 As far as paper 2 was concerned, my preparat ion was current af f airs(newspapers and magazines) and internet based.I did not read any special book for it and this might have cost me heavy as my score is not up t o scratch in this paper,as is t he case in GS2 where a heavy dose of Internat ional Relations is seen.But based on t he same,i could ace my int erview which was based solely on IR.so i do not know t he eff icacy of my preparation,or maybe my writing style or handwrit ing itself co st me heavy. EPW is a great magazine,fro nt line is indispensible,and i used to surf websites of BBC,CNN,AlJazeera for import ant events. Writing practice was done extensively, and simultaneously with ot her t hings. This is all i have done for Political Science-made notes and read them,and i was lucky to get the marks i did f or it .
Related Articles on Booklist / Study plan for Mains Optional Subjects 1. Pub.Ad Mains 2. Geography Mains 3. Economics 4. Ant hropo logy 5. Sociology (Mains) May 26th, 2012 | Category: strategy
