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Topic Historiography
Asked 3 times across 2 UPSC exams over 3 years (2016–2019), peaking in 2017.
Key insights
- Most tested in CDS — 2 of 3 PYQs
- Most asked in 2017
- Recurs across 3 years (2016–2019)
How it travelled across exams
First appearance in each exam — the same idea, reframed.
EPFO 2016 → CDS 2017
How the concept evolved
Rising — more than half its appearances (3 of 3) are since 2016.
Sample questions
You've seen the pattern — here are a few of the actual PYQs.
CDS2019
Match List-I with List-II and select the correct answer using the code given below the Lists
| List I (Author) | List II (Book) |
|---|
| A. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay | 1. Jawaharlal Nehru : A Biography, Vol-I, 1889-1947 |
| B. Sarvepalli Gopal | 2. From Plassey to Partition : A History of Modern India |
| C. David Hardiman | 3. The Ascendancy of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, 1926-1934 |
| D. Gyanendra Pandey | 4. Gandhi in His Time and Ours |
Codes:
- A A-2 B-4 C-1 D-3
- B A-2 B-1 C-4 D-3 ✓
- C A-3 B-1 C-4 D-2
- D A-3 B-4 C-1 D-2
✓ Correct answer: (B)
History › Freedom Struggle (1857–1947)
CDS2017
With regard to nature of Mughal State, who among the following scholars argued that "the peculiar feature of the State in Mughal India was that it served not merely as the protective arm of the exploiting classes, but was itself the principal instrument of exploitation"?
- A Irfan Habib ✓
- B Satish Chandra
- C Athar Ali
- D J. F. Richards
✓ Correct answer: (A)
History › Medieval India
EPFO2016
Which one of the following is not a characteristic of the Mughal chronicles?
- A They present a continuous chronological record of events.
- B They were a repository of factual information about the Mughals.
- C They allow us to understand how imperial ideologies were created and disseminated.
- D They contain brief biographies of the authors of the chronicles. ✓
✓ Correct answer: (D)
History › Medieval India
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