GS Paper I 2021

Bhakti began with the Alvars and Nayanars of Tamil Nadu around the sixth century and, over a thousand years, reached every regional tongue. Its nature explains its reach and its limits.

Nature of Bhakti literature

• Personal devotion: love and surrender to God placed above ritual, priests and rank by birth.
• Saguna and nirguna: Tulsidas sang of Rama in form; Kabir praised a formless God in the sant bhasha of nirguna poets.
• People's languages: Jnaneshwar wrote in Marathi, Akka Mahadevi composed Kannada vachanas, Mirabai sang in Rajasthani.
• Protest: Basavanna's vachanas mocked those who pour milk on a stone serpent yet kill a living one.

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Rammohun Roy, versed in Sanskrit and Persian, cited ancient texts against sati, and in 1829 sati was banned. Reform thus began in Bengal by arguing with tradition, then grew across India.

Rise of reform

• New ideas: English education, print and Western rationalism let an urban middle class question idolatry, caste and women's status.

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Princely States covered one-third of the British Indian Empire's land area. When paramountcy lapsed in 1947, all 565 could become legally independent, so integration raised hard administrative and social questions.

Administrative issues

• Limited accession: the Instrument of Accession ceded only defence, external affairs and communications; full merger needed fresh bargaining.
• Fragmentation: Saurashtra alone had 14 big and 119 small states, grouped into unions or merged with provinces.
• Fusing systems: separate laws, revenue rules, courts, police and armies had to be unified.
• Price of consent: privy purses for rulers lasted until the Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971).

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GSI places about 12.6% of India's land in the landslide-prone category, including 0.14 million sq. km in the North-West Himalaya and 0.09 million sq. km in the Western Ghats and Konkan hills. Both fail in the monsoon, but for different reasons.

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Himalaya: geology-driven

• Young, active ranges: sedimentary rock and unconsolidated deposits fail on very steep slopes.
• Water and ice: cloudbursts, snowmelt and freeze-thaw add to rain; rivers cutting gorges undercut slopes.
• Human pressure: road widening, tunnels, dams and crowded hill towns load fragile slopes, as Joshimath's subsidence (since then) showed.

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As a Gondwanaland fragment, peninsular India holds coal in Gondwana rocks and ancient ores of iron, manganese, bauxite and mica. Yet mining and quarrying gave only about 2.1 per cent of GVA in FY20 (Economic Survey 2020-21).

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Why the share stays small

• Exploration gap: deep-seated deposits remain under-explored for want of advanced technology and risk capital.
• Policy uncertainty: discretionary allocation and the 2014 coal-block cancellations stalled investment until auction reforms under the MMDR amendments of 2015 and 2021.
• Clearances and land: forest approvals, land acquisition and mining in Fifth Schedule tribal areas delay projects and provoke conflict.
• Illegal mining: the Shah Commission's findings led to bans and hardened public opposition.
• Weak structure: small, poorly mechanised mines, weak rail and port links and little value addition cap output.
• Import dependence: coking coal and critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt are largely imported.

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Bengaluru once had around 1,000 lakes; urbanisation cut them to about 200, many fouled by sewage. Reclaiming water bodies for urban use carries a heavy environmental cost.

Environmental implications, with examples

• Urban flooding: filled lakes lose storage, so runoff overwhelms drains; MoEFCC guidelines call reclamation of urban lakes in Bangalore and Chennai a major cause of urban flooding.
• Falling groundwater: paved lake beds stop recharge; Bengaluru's wells dried up as its lakes shrank.
• Pollution: shrunken lakes become sewage sinks; Bellandur and Varthur foamed, released toxic gases and even caught fire.
• Biodiversity loss: birds, fish and amphibians lose habitat; the sewage-treating East Kolkata Wetlands face strain.
• Heat and coasts: lost evaporative cooling intensifies urban heat islands; reclaimed mangroves remove storm-surge buffers.

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Eruptions in 2021 spanned the Atlantic, the Caribbean, Central Africa, Iceland and the Pacific Ring of Fire, with sharp but mostly regional environmental effects.

Major eruptions of 2021

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• Others: Fagradalsfjall, Iceland (from March), after about 800 years dormant; pumice rafts from Japan's Fukutoku-Okanoba (August); deadly Semeru, Indonesia (December).

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A subcontinent is a large, distinct part of a continent. Bounded by the Himalaya and the Indian Ocean, India and its neighbours form a great geographic entity within Asia, with India at its core.

Physical separation

• Mountain wall: the Himalaya and other ranges formed a formidable barrier, crossed only through passes such as Khyber, Bolan, Shipkila, Nathula and Bomdila.
• Seas on three sides: the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean frame the peninsula.

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Scheduled Tribes formed 8.6 per cent of India's population in 2011 (Census). Their knowledge is oral, experiential and community-held, which sets it apart from the written, certified knowledge of the mainstream.

What makes tribal knowledge unique

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• Sacred ecology: nature worship has preserved sacred groves as near-pristine forests, conservation without a statute.
• Folk science: tribal communities tell edible from poisonous mushrooms by folk taxonomy; Apatani wet-rice-cum-fish farming joins two food systems.
• Art as record: Warli painting of Maharashtra and Pithoro of Gujarat carry myth and memory.

Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 16 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.

NITI Aayog's 2022 report (after this exam) estimated 77 lakh gig workers in 2020–21, rising to 2.35 crore by 2029–30. For women, this flexible platform work opens doors, but on uneven terms.

How gig work empowers women

• Flexible entry: low barriers and flexible hours suit women with care duties: delivery, beauty services, tutoring, online selling.
• Income and voice: own earnings raise bargaining power, savings and say in household decisions.
• Reach: home-based producers and SHG members sell online; small-town women find work without migrating.

✏️ Diagram to draw in your answer

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When 72 delegates met at Bombay in December 1885 to found the Indian National Congress, its early leaders, among them Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Badruddin Tyabji, W.C. Bonnerji and Surendranath Banerji, chose petitions and reasoned argument over agitation. Their two decades of work laid much of the base for the wider struggle, though not all of it.

Foundations the Moderates laid

• All-India platform: annual sessions brought leaders of different regions, languages and faiths together, turning scattered grievances into one national voice.
• Economic nationalism: Naoroji's Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901) and R.C. Dutt's economic history showed how Indian wealth was drained to Britain.
• Constitutional gains: their demand for larger councils was met in part by the Indian Councils Act, 1892, which enlarged the legislatures and let members question the government.
• Political education: newspapers, public meetings and memorials spread ideas of civil rights, representative government and Indianisation of the services.
• Leaders and method: the Moderate Gopal Krishna Gokhale was Gandhi's acknowledged political mentor, and his patient, fact-based advocacy shaped Gandhi's style.
• Goal of self-rule: the 1906 Calcutta session, with Naoroji as president, declared Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education as Congress goals.

✏️ Timeline to draw in your answer

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For Gandhi, swaraj had to be built from below. Every campaign of protest therefore ran alongside constructive work in khadi, unity, education and social reform, which gave Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience their depth.

During Non-Cooperation

• Khadi and swadeshi: hand-spinning and weaving replaced mill-made cloth, and the charkha became the emblem of economic self-reliance.
• Boycott with substitutes: bonfires of foreign cloth, seen as the symbol of Western domination, went with the use of Indian goods.
• National education: students left government schools for national institutions such as Gujarat Vidyapith, founded by Gandhi on 18 October 1920.
• Unity and arbitration: village panchayats settled disputes outside British courts, and the Khilafat alliance built Hindu-Muslim unity.
• Social reform: temperance through picketing of liquor shops and a campaign against untouchability.

Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 16 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.

The First World War ended with the fall of empires and a wave of new republics; Britain's Representation of the People Act, 1918 even gave the vote to women over 30 who met a property qualification. Yet within two decades much of Europe had turned to dictatorship, so the statement is largely, though not wholly, valid.

Why the challenge arose

• Fragile foundations: new states had weak institutions, border and minority disputes, and bitterness over the Paris peace settlement.
• Economic collapse: the 1929 Wall Street crash began the Great Depression; by 1932, 12 million Americans were out of work.
• Ideological assault: fascism and communism mocked parliaments as weak, and fear of revolution pushed the middle class towards strongmen.
• Weak collective security: the League of Nations could not restrain aggressive dictatorships.

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Temperature falls with height at a normal lapse rate of 6.5°C per 1,000 m, and moist air forced up a slope cools until its vapour condenses. A range's alignment to the prevailing winds therefore decides where rain falls and how local weather behaves.

Alignment of major ranges

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The Arctic is an ocean capped by floating sea ice; Antarctica is a continent buried under an ice sheet. The IPCC's ocean and cryosphere report finds September Arctic sea ice shrinking about 12.8% per decade (1979-2018), while the Antarctic Ice Sheet lost about 155 Gt a year in 2006-2015. The two melts therefore act through different channels.

Different ice, different mechanism

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Oil follows geology, not demand: it collects in old sedimentary basins such as the Persian Gulf, while the largest consumers lie elsewhere. Since then, OPEC's end-2024 count puts OPEC members at 1,241 of the world's 1,567 billion barrels of proven reserves, so a few regions shape everyone's energy security.

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Geopolitical and strategic implications

• Chokepoints: Gulf crude passes the Strait of Hormuz and Malacca, so sea-lane security and naval reach become oil policy.
• Cartel power: OPEC and allied producers set output quotas, moving prices and shifting wealth between regions.
• Conflict and coercion: oil-rich West Asia has drawn repeated wars, foreign intervention and sanctions; energy supply becomes a weapon.

Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 16 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.

NCERT notes that the IT hubs of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune have made the industry a major source of employment. In MeitY's 2025 note (since then), industry revenue rose from US$ 118 billion (2014-15) to a projected US$ 283 billion (2024-25, NASSCOM figures), and the cities hosting it have changed in both economy and society.

Economic implications

• Jobs and multiplier: the industry employs an estimated 5.43 million professionals (FY 2023-24, since then), and each job sustains drivers, guards, cooks and retailers.
• Exports and forex: export revenue, projected at US$ 224 billion in 2024-25, cushions the current account.
• Land and rents: housing costs soar, and peri-urban farmland turns into tech parks, enriching some farmers and displacing others.
• Regional imbalance: jobs concentrate in a few metros, widening the gap with tier-2 cities and poorer States.
• Dual economy: well-paid formal employees live beside informal service workers who lack social security.

✏️ Diagram to draw in your answer

Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 16 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.

Population education helps learners understand how population size, growth and structure link with resources, environment and quality of life, so that they make informed, uncoerced choices. With NFHS-5 (2019-21) putting the total fertility rate at 2.0, below replacement, its focus has moved from numbers to quality of life.

Main objectives

• Demographic literacy: grasp population growth, structure and distribution, and their bearing on development.
• Responsible reproductive choice: awareness on age at marriage, birth spacing and family size by informed choice.
• Gender equality: value daughters, girls' education and women's say in fertility decisions.
• Adolescent health: knowledge of nutrition, reproductive health, substance misuse and mental health.
• Population and environment: link numbers and consumption with water, land and forests.
• Emerging issues: migration, urbanisation, ageing and the demographic dividend.

✏️ Diagram to draw in your answer

Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 16 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.

A cryptocurrency is a privately issued digital token, secured by cryptography and recorded on a decentralised ledger, the blockchain, with no central bank or sovereign behind it; Bitcoin is the best-known. Its spread raises questions for societies everywhere, India included.

✏️ Flowchart to draw in your answer

How it affects global society

• Cheaper transfers: cross-border payments and remittances without banks, and access for the unbanked.
• Innovation: smart contracts, tokenised assets and decentralised finance open new business models.
• Volatility and fraud: speculative bubbles, Ponzi schemes and exchange collapses wipe out household savings.
• Crime and security: pseudonymity aids ransomware, dark-web trade, money laundering, terror financing and sanctions evasion.
• Monetary sovereignty: private money outside official control can weaken central banks' grip on money supply and capital flows.
• Energy cost: proof-of-work mining consumes large amounts of electricity.
• Divided responses: states range from adopting it as legal tender to banning it outright.

Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 16 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.

Indian society changes by adaptation rather than rupture. M.N. Srinivas's Sanskritisation and Westernisation, and Robert Redfield's great and little traditions, show old frames absorbing new content, so continuity and change run side by side.

How continuity is maintained

• Family and kinship: socialisation passes on duty, respect for elders and interdependence; NCERT cites A.M. Shah that the joint family actually increased after Independence as life expectancy rose.
• Religion and ritual: festivals, rites of passage, pilgrimage and the epics renew shared values across generations.
• Caste and community: endogamy, jati networks and village bodies enforce norms through approval and sanction.
• Great and little traditions: textual, elite traditions and oral, village-level ones keep feeding each other.
• Adaptive reworking: groups take up new customs through Sanskritisation, and caste finds new roles in democratic politics, as the Rudolphs' title The Modernity of Tradition (1967) suggests.
• Technology as carrier: matrimonial sites still match by community, and festivals and rituals are streamed online.

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