UPSC Mains ENGLISH-COMPULSORY 2018

Write an essay in about 600 words on any one of the following topics: (a) Impact of westernization on the Indian Family (b) Literature Mirrors Society (c) Women in Indian Politics (d) Rural Urban divide in India

Read carefully the passage given below and write your answers to the Questions that follow in clear, correct and concise language:

It is often said that the Ghaznavid and Ghurid soldiers regarded death in a war against infidels as martyrdom in the cause of Islam. But it is more likely that the real draw was the attraction of plunder, the likes of which they had not seen in campaigns in more arid lands. For Indian Commanders, apart from plunder, battles incorporated the niceties of a sport with its own rules of play. Immortalizing the heroism of kings in battle, the poets and bards emphasized the rules of war and chivalry. To apply the chivalric code in minor campaigns may have relieved the tedium of war, but the campaigns against the Ghurids were of an entirely different nature and this may not have been realized initially. Notions of honour and devotion were often placed above expediency, and gradually the astrologically determined auspicious moment for attack took precedence over strategy and tactics. Inflated claims to valour, such as the hero who could defeat a thousand warriors simultaneously, began to enter the rhetoric of courtly literature.

The organization of Indian armies added to their weakness. Each army had as its permanent core the standing army, but many of the soldiers were local levies or soldiers supplied by Samantas where this was part of the latter's obligation to the suzerain. In addition, mercenaries were a visible section of the armies of these times. Such a collection of soldiers had not always been trained to fight as a consolidated army. It was possibly also the dispersed character of the army that gave it a license to plunder indiscriminately. Villagers were harassed and looted by armies on the march, particularly if the campaign coincided with the harvesting of the crop, as it often did. For peasants and merchants, war was a nightmare that disrupted the routine of earning a livelihood. Laying waste vast tracts of inhabited and cultivated land, merely because it was part of the enemy's territory, was a proud boast attributed to Prithviraja Chauhan on defeating the Chandella ruler.

Historians have sometimes commented, perhaps more from hindsight, on why Indian rulers did not make a conjoint effort through the centuries to defend the North-Western passes. Time and again invaders came through these passes, yet little was done to prevent this, the defence of the region lying arbitrarily in the hands of the local rulers.

Invasions by outsiders are known in many parts of the world: the Huns attacking Rome, the Arabs invading Spain or the Spanish and Portuguese conquering Latin America. The potentialities of invasions were recognised only in Hindsight. These invasions were mounted by alien peoples who were little known, if at all, to the societies they invaded. But the Turks had been a contiguous people, familiar from trade in horses and other commodities and from the Turkish mercenaries employed in some Indian Armies. However, the historical scene in Central Asia and West Asia had now changed, with new political ambitions after the rise of Islam. For the rulers of Northern India, to recognize this would have required an understanding of a wider range of politics beyond the areas enclosed by the immediate frontiers. This does not appear to have been an Indian concern. Indians who travelled to different parts of Asia on a variety of assignments wrote little about what they observed, remaining silent on the politics of other lands. It was almost as if the exterior landscape was irrelevant. Political interests therefore tended to be parochial. This marks a striking contrast to the world of the Chinese and the Arabs, both made aware of distant places through the detailed accounts of travellers and traders. The Arabs had a fascination for the geography of other lands and the Chinese were wary of happenings in their neighbourhood in Central Asia.

Alberuni, in the opening chapter of his book, suggests other reasons for this lack of recording observations concerning the wider perception of the world, which one may or may not agree with: "The Hindus believe that there is no country but theirs, no nation like theirs, no king like theirs, no religion like theirs, no science like theirs They are by nature niggardly in communicating what they know, and they take the greatest possible care to withhold it from men of another caste from among their own people, still more of course from any foreigner".

What was the nature of campaigns against Ghurids?

According to the passage "the Indian rulers did not find it necessary to fortify the North-Western Pass". Why?

Explain the statement "The potentialities of invasions were recognised only in hindsight".

Give your critical observations on Alberuni's comments on Hindus.

Enumerate the major view points of the given passage.

Make a Précis of the following passage in about one-third of its length. Do not give a title to it. The Précis should be written in your own words:

He died with fever.

Ram acted with my proposal.

She Quarreled against me over the property issue.

Be careful for your mother's health.

A Sikh, tall than any of his comrades, rushed forward.

They cheated each another.

Old father looks to his children.

Many a man have been ruined by speculation.

Let him and I go together.

The priest was very kind for all of us.

The boy cannot cope the pressure in the school.

Do not take law your own hands.

The criminal was whisked to the court.

I want to push as soon as I finish my work.

The girl into depression two years ago.

Her path was with flowers. (strew)

He had his speech before we arrived. (begin)

The book has the test of time. (stand)

Recently the price of petrol has up. (go)

The old beggar was by a mad dog. (bite)

Sagacious

Attenuate

Bawdy

Dormant

Dunce