Hello everyone,
Today it’s the second part of Indian Political thought–Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Sri Aurobindo, M. K. Gandhi, B. R. Ambedkar, and M. N. Roy. UPSC has asked 8 ten-mark, 7 fifteen-mark, and 3 twenty-mark questions in total in last 12 years.
1. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (1817–1898)
Context & Influencers – interacts with Muhammad Iqbal · Muhammad Ali Jinnah · Abul Kalam Azad · Badruddin Tyabji · Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk · Theodore Beck; responds to British policy after 1857.
| Phase | Key actions & ideas | Essential texts / bodies |
| Early career (pre-1857) | Service in Company courts (Sadr Amin) while compiling Asar-us-Sanadeed on Delhi monuments; stresses Indo-Islamic heritage. | – |
| Revolt of 1857 & reconciliation | Protects Europeans during revolt; family tragedy shapes view that armed resistance is futile. Writes Asbāb-i-Baghawat-i-Hind arguing British ignorance of Indian opinion → urges Indian inclusion in councils (foreshadows Indian Councils Act 1861). | Pamphlets to British press |
| Educational & social reform | Scientific Society (1863) → Urdu translations of science; Aligarh Institute Gazette (1866); monthly Tahzib-ul-Akhlaq crusades against polygamy, ban on widow-remarriage, social rigidity. Founds Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College (1875) → later Aligarh Muslim University; Hindu pupils welcomed, cow-slaughter banned on campus. | Collaboration with Hindu scholars; link to Darul Uloom Deoband contrasts |
| Political thought – Phase I (≤ 1887) | “Hindus and Muslims are the two eyes of the beautiful bride.” Works in Aligarh British India Association, pleads for United Nation of India; separate religion from politics. | Legislative speeches |
| Political thought – Phase II (˃ 1887) | Urdu-Hindi controversy & Indian National Congress birth shift him to communal separatism: majority-rule democracy will “enslave Muslims” → supports nominated representation; urges Muslims to remain loyal to Crown; denounces Congress agitations. | Letters, speeches at Lucknow (1887) and Meerut (1897) |
| Legacy | Pioneered modern Muslim education, Urdu scientific prose, cautious pragmatism toward Raj. Later separatist note contested by Badruddin Tyabji & many Congress-minded Muslims. | – |
- Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872–1950)
Sources blended – Homer → Goethe (West) + Vedānta · Tantra · Swami Vivekananda · Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Early links with Bal Gangadhar Tilak · Bipin Chandra Pal · Lala Lajpat Rai.
| Stage | Political-spiritual milestones | Core writings / events |
| Formative (1879-1893, England) | Classical scholar at King’s College, Cambridge; inspired by Irish nationalists. | – |
| Preparatory (1893-1905, Baroda) | Studies Sanskrit, Bengali; seeds secret networks in Bengal–Maharashtra. | Essays in Indu Prakash |
| Extremist phase (1905-1910) | Leads Swadeshi after Bengal partition; edits Bande Mataram; defines Spiritual Nationalism: nation = Shakti / Mother-Goddess. Arrested in Alipore Bomb (Maniktala) Case 1908; acquitted. | Pamphlets “Bhavani Mandir”, speeches at Calcutta Congress; “Doctrine of Passive Resistance” series |
| Withdrawal & Ashram phase (1910 →) | Moves to French Pondicherry; evolves Integral (Pūrṇa) Yoga—synthetic Karma · Bhakti · Jñāna · Rāja + Tantra. | The Life Divine · The Synthesis of Yoga · Savitri |
| Socio-political philosophy | Nation & Swaraj – independence prerequisite for rational, moral, spiritual unfoldment. Programme: boycott, national education, parallel arbitration, possible force “as last resort”. | *Passive resistance vs Gandhi’s non-violence debate |
| Later universalism | Three social stages: Spontaneity → Conscious Reason → Spiritual Unity. Foresees a World-Union of cultural nations, complex oneness of humanity; India to pioneer. | Essays “The Ideal of Human Unity”, War and Self-Determination |
Critique & appraisal
Religious or spiritual? – charged with Hindu bias; defenders cite inclusive Sanātana Dharma universalism.
Social neglect? – prioritised freedom first, then reform.
Violence tag? – approved force only against unjust domination; aimed at a spiritualised anarch (self-governed humanity).
Contributions – Injected mystic depth into nationalism, anticipated methods of non-co-operation, revived esteem for Indian metaphysics, projected a future spiritual world-commonwealth.
- Gandhi’s Political Thought
| Core idea / argument | Essential texts & watch-words | Key interlocutors | |
| 1. Method & corpus | A “practical philosopher–actionist” (Bondurant): thinking unfolds in action → inevitable inconsistencies. | Hind Swaraj (1909) · An Autobiography · Satyagraha in South Africa · 90-plus journals (Young India, Harijan, Navajivan). | Joan V. Bondurant · Dennis Dalton |
| 2. Intellectual springs | • Western moral critics of industrialism → John Ruskin (Unto This Last), Leo Tolstoy (Sermon on the Mount → love-force), Henry David Thoreau (Civil Disobedience), Plato / Socrates. • Indian lineage → Bhagavad Gītā re-read against B. G. Tilak, Ramkrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda. | “Good of the individual lies in good of all” · equality of labour · soul-force. | Edmund Burke · T. H. Green (common good) |
| 3. Foundations | Satya (truth) + Ahimsa (non-violence) + Dharma (duty) → moral law above state; ends ≈ means. | “My life is my message.” | |
| 4. Satyagraha | Public, non-violent, conscience-based law-breaking to convert, not coerce, opponent; rooted in self-suffering & fearlessness. | Ahmedabad mill strike 1918 · Rowlatt Satyagraha 1919 · Salt March 1930. | Compare J. Locke, T. Jefferson (right of resistance); analytic frame: John Rawls (civil disobedience). |
| 5. Swaraj (self-rule) | Three interlocking layers (Dalton): inner liberation → civil liberties → political independence. Real swaraj = capacity of all to resist abused power. | Key maxim: “Independence begins at the bottom.” | |
| 6. State & Ramrajya | State = “concentrated violence”, to be minimised; ideal = decentralised federation of village republics (Gram Swaraj). Echoes of anarchist thrust yet retains minimal coordination. | Critiques John Austin’s absolute sovereignty. | Richard Sklar (over-developed post-colonial state) |
| 7. Constructive Programme | Tools to build Poorna Swaraj: communal harmony · abolition of untouchability · khadi & cottage industry · Nai Talim basic education · women’s uplift · village sanitation · Hindustani lingua franca. | Pamphlet Constructive Programme: Its Meaning & Place (1941). | J. C. Kumarappa (Villagism, “cycle of life”). |
| 8. Economic stance | Rejects large-scale industrialism; favors decentralised, human-scale technology; ownership under trusteeship ideal (rich hold wealth for public weal). | Hind Swaraj critique of Thomas B. Macaulay, railways & mills; “Khadi mentality”. | John Ruskin · Karl Marx (shares egalitarian end, rejects violent means). |
| 9. Citizenship & civil duties | Citizen = moral agent bound to satya-ahimsa-dharma. Civil disobedience a “sacred duty” against unjust law; must remain strictly non-violent. | Ahmedabad & Salt satyagrahas demonstrate mass citizenship in action. | |
| 10. Nationalism | India a nation before British arrival; unity forged by pilgrimage sites & saints. Nationalism is spiritual–humanitarian, not exclusive; embraces Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Christians. | Debate with Rabindranath Tagore (who feared rural pastoralism); Gandhi’s reply: “Let all cultures blow freely through my house.” | |
| 11. Gram Swaraj & critique of industrialism | Village economy = nucleus; cities must stop draining rural “blood”. Industrial civilisation breeds exploitation; solution is Sarvodaya (“welfare-of-all”) via self-sufficient villages & appropriate tech. | Analysed by Rabindranath Tagore (Swadeshi Samaj 1904) & embraced by Kumarappa (“Villagism vs Capitalism vs Socialism”). | |
| 12. Equality & social justice | Three pillars: Hindu–Muslim unity · eradication of untouchability · village uplift. Renames ‘untouchables’ Harijans; opposes Poona Pact’s separate electorates; campaigns for women’s emancipation. | Fast at Yeravda 1932; Noakhali peace march 1946–47. | |
| 13. Influence | Inspired Martin Luther King Jr., Bertrand Russell, Corazon Aquino, Petra Kelly, Václav Havel; influenced Jawaharlal Nehru’s Non-Alignment doctrine. |
Sarvodaya – Gandhi’s “uplift-all” blueprint
| Core idea | 1-Line cue | |
| Meaning | Sarva + udaya – welfare of every being, material and moral, via Satya & Ahimsa | “No one rises until the last does.” |
| Inspirations | Bhagavad Gītā, Gospels; Tolstoy, Thoreau, and above all John Ruskin (Unto This Last → Gandhi’s Gujarati Sarvodaya) | service, civil disobedience, dignity of labour |
| 6 economic-ethical planks | Swadeshi · Bread-labour (Sharirāshram) · Aparigraha (non-possession) · Trusteeship · Non-exploitation · Samabhāva (equality) | self-reliant villages; wealth held “in trust” |
| Polity frame | Swaraj = bottom-up self-rule; Sarvodaya-democracy participatory; ideal Rāmarājya (justice without hierarchy) | power diffused to gram-panchayats |
| ↔ Communism | same goal (classless equity); diverges on means → non–violent, trustee, heart-change | “no bayonets, only conscience” |
| Constructive Programme | communal harmony, anti-untouchability, Khadi, Nai Tālim, sanitation, women’s rise | rebuild from the village up |
| People-centred economy | “production by the masses”, khadi/village industries, appropriate tech, farm-craft linkage | cottage > combine |
| Post-1948 carriers | Vinoba Bhave – Bhoodan & Gramdan land-gift crusade; Jayaprakash Narayan – Sampoorna Kranti (“Total Revolution”) | moral persuasion for land, anti-corruption wave |
| Eco-dimension | small-scale, soil-friendly, low-consumption; tech that empowers, not enslaves | proto-sustainability |
| Realistic utopia | open-ended, stepwise; termed so by Thomas Vettickal | hope + doable praxis |
| Global network | scores of Sarvodaya groups (HQ Bangalore) pursuing grassroots justice | movement lives on |
- B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956)
| Essential points | Key texts / events | Interlocutors & targets | |
| 1 Life-trajectory | Untouchable Mahar child – humiliation → Columbia M.A., PhD; LSE D.Sc. | Mahad Satyagraha 1927 · Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha 1924 · Independent Labour Party 1936 · Draft-chair, Constitution 1946-49 · Buddhist conversion Nagpur 1956 | |
| 2 Core ideals | Freedom = positive capability; Equality = moral & material; Fraternity = social glue; Democracy must be social & economic, not just political. | Annihilation of Caste 1936 | Critiques: Liberalism (Locke-Mill stream) for tolerating vast inequality; Marxism for determinism, vanguard violence; Brahmanism for “graded inequality”. |
| 3 View of caste | Caste = division of labourers (birth), enforced by endogamy. Mechanisms: sati, child-marriage, widow-hood to police marriage circle. | Who Were the Shudras? 1946 · The Untouchables 1948 | Rebuts Émile Senart, H. H. Risley, J. Nesfield; expands S. V. Ketkar |
| 4 Untouchability analysis | Religious sanction (Rig-Veda, Manusmriti), economic exploitation, but chiefly social degradation of ex-Buddhist indigenous groups by Brahmanism. | Poona Pact debate 1932 | Opposes Mahatma Gandhi’s paternalistic “Harijan” reform; denounces Orthodox Congressmen |
| 5 Programme for annihilating caste | ① Inter-caste marriage (fusion of blood) ② Scrapping scriptural sanctity – reject Vedas/Shastras ③ Rational education ④ Moral fraternity | Burning of Manusmriti 1927 | |
| 6 Economy & class | Agrees with class struggle reality but rejects Marxian inevitabilism & dictatorship. Advocates state-led redistribution, nationalisation of key industries, but through constitutional means. | States and Minorities 1947 draft | Engages Karl Marx, Fabian socialism |
| 7 Religion re-imagined | Hinduism = incoherent, hierarchical. Chooses Navayāna Buddhism: rational, this-worldly, no God/soul permanence, ethics of compassion & equality. | The Buddha and His Dhamma 1957 | Critiques Bhagavad Gītā as Brahmanic counter-revolution; notes authoritarian drift in Islam & Christianity |
| 8 Rights architecture | Rights = civil + political + social + economic, guaranteed by constitutional democracy & backed by state power. Emphasis on group rights (SC/ST). | Constitution arts 14-17, 23, 330-35, 338 | |
| 9 Social-justice praxis | Reservation in legislature & services; land reforms; labour protections as Executive-Councillor (1942-46). | Loan-dependency abolition, maternity benefit, eight-hour day. | |
| 10 Ambedkar vs Gandhism | Disagrees with Swaraj, trusteeship, khadi, non-violence as creed; calls them romantic, ruralist; insists on modern industrial polity, legal safeguards, agitation politics. | What Congress & Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables 1945 | Mahatma Gandhi |
| 11 Democracy theoretical | Democracy = “a mode of associated living” rooted in liberty-equality-fraternity; requires constitutional morality, public conscience, ethical state. | Constituent Assembly speeches (Nov 1948) | Draws on J. S. Mill (constitutional morality), Walter Bagehot |
| 12 Legacy points | Dalit-Bahujan movement; affirmative-action jurisprudence; neo-Buddhist revival; global social-justice discourse. | Scholars: Gail Omvedt, Anand Teltumbde, Kancha Ilaiah, Christophe Jaffrelot |
| Theme | Ambedkar’s Core Position | Key Points / Scholars & Cases Cited |
| British Rule | Colonial administration preserved caste oppression. | • Ignored untouchability → no reforms • School policy favoured upper-castes → “educational neglect” • “Expensive & inefficient” Raj; public welfare sidelined • Wanted self-government with Dalit safeguards lest power pass to Hindu elite |
| Democracy = social + economic | Ballot-box liberty is hollow without equality & fraternity. | Pre-conditions: strong opposition, neutral civil service, moral citizenry, minority rights, end of caste Four premises of Parliamentary democracy: individual as end; inalienable rights; no trade-off of rights for privilege; no private delegation of state power |
| State Socialism | Constitutional, democratic socialism—not Leninist dictatorship. | • Public ownership of basic industry & finance • Agriculture as a state industry – collective farms • Measures to be placed in Constitution (immutable clauses) • State = welfare agency & protector of the marginalised |
| Social Democracy (Indian variant) | Equality + state socialism + ethical community. | • Democracy = “one man, one value” • Extends to workplace & village, not just Parliament • Balances liberty with social justice; avoids both laissez-faire & dictatorship |
| Equality as prime value | Liberty & fraternity flow from equality. | Hindu order rests on graded inequality, hereditary jobs, fixity of status → negates democracy |
| Fundamental Rights & Remedies | Rights real only with enforcement & social conscience. | • Articles 14–17, 32, 226 + reservations (Arts 330-35) • Dalit rights = minority rights; special provisions essential |
| Struggle for Democratic Society | Society = associated living; caste fragments it. | SCF manifesto: equality before law, opportunity for historically denied, liberty-equality-fraternity, parliamentary govt |
| Constitutional Morality | Loyalty to constitutional values over party or hero-worship. | Warnings: party > nation; hero worship; political ≠ social democracy Judicial use: Kesavananda, Navtej Johar, Joseph Shine Scholars: G. Grote, A. Béteille, K. K. Venugopal |
| Social Justice | Casteless society built on liberty, equality, fraternity. | • Abolish caste, extend education & property rights • Land reforms; inclusive legal education; political agency via reserved seats • Religion: Hinduism perpetuates inequality; Buddhism aligns with justice |
| Analysts of Ambedkar | Vivek Kumar – 5 principles (individual core, ELF, comprehensive democracy, constitutionalism, empowerment) Valerian Rodrigues – state intervention & transformed social relations Kanta Kataria – Buddhist roots, centrality of fraternity |
Representative quotes
- “Democracy is not merely a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living.”
- “Democracy is another name for equality; liberty swallowed equality, making democracy a farce.”
- M. N. Roy (1887-1954)
| Theme / Phase | Roy’s Central Ideas & Propositions | Key Texts / Events | Interlocutors & Targets |
| 1 • Militant-Nationalist Origins (< 1919) | Anti-colonial liberation by armed conspiracy; influence of Bengal revolutionaries; soon doubts utility of violence. | Jugantar network • Indo-German plot (1915) • Flights to Java → USA → Mexico | British Raj • Moderate Congress leadership |
| 2 • Turn to Marxism (1919-mid-30s) | Accepts historical materialism; links Asian anti-imperial revolts to world revolution; insists communist vanguard must root itself in colonial masses. | Co-founds Mexican Communist Party 1919 • Second Comintern Congress 1920 – Thesis on Colonial Revolution • Communist University of the Toilers 1921-23 | Lenin & Comintern (collaboration) • Later clash with Zinoviev/Bukharin; expelled 1929 |
| 3 • Colonial-Revolution Thesis | European proletariat cannot triumph while colonies feed imperial capital; Asian revolutions strategic detonators. Tactic: short-term bloc with bourgeois nationalists, but Communist Party must lead peasants & workers. | Supplementary Theses 1920 (adopted with Lenin) | Orthodox Comintern “Euro-centric” line |
| 4 • Marxist Reading of Indian History | British rule catalysed capitalism yet crushed its growth; 1857 = feudal last gasp; INC = bourgeois reform lobby; socialism in India needs agrarian revolution + industrial build-up under democracy. | India in Transition 1922 | Indian liberal-national historiography |
| 5 • Debate on Dictatorship of Proletariat | Rejects DP for agrarian India; warns of party autocracy; state will not “wither” but must be democratically re-shaped. | The Russian Revolution essays | Leninist orthodoxy |
| 6 • Humanist Critique of Marxism (late-30s) | Class struggle over-subordinates individual; middle class a creative force; revolutions must be educative, not catastrophic; surplus value indispensable even in socialism. | New Humanism – A Manifesto (1947 draft) | Dogmatic Marxism • Economic determinism |
| 7 • Radical Humanism (1940s-54) | Man the measure: individual primary; reason + freedom = cooperative individualism • Political form: radical democracy, decentralised councils, abolition of party-power politics • Economy: planned, anti-exploitation, federated cooperatives • Change: “revolution by consent” through mass scientific education, not violence. | Reason, Romanticism & Revolution 1952 • Radical Democratic Party 1940-48 • Indian Renaissance Association 1946 | Fascism & Stalinism • Gandhian romantic ruralism • Parliamentary party system |
| 8 • Analysis of Indian Polity | Authoritarian drift likely: hero-worship, charismatic infallibility, weak democratic tradition; warns of fascist tendencies. | Essays in Independent India (1946-50) | Congress high command culture |
| 9 • War, Peace & World Government | Wars serve no people; UN positive but inadequate; durable peace needs supra-national federal world state built on humanist ethics. | People’s Plan 1944 • UN speeches (as observer) | Realist nationalism, balance-of-power doctrines |
| 10 • Ethics & “Moral Man” | Politics inseparable from ethics; morality arises from rational human nature; aims to purge power-politics and substitute cooperative civic virtue. | Science and Superstition 1950 | Machiavellian realpolitik; religious obscurantism |
| 11 • Educational Revolution | Mass, scientific, secular education is the true revolutionary lever; equips citizens to exercise sovereignty in decentralised councils. | Radical Democratic Party programme 1944 | Marxist “short-cut” via seizure of state power |
| 12 • Legacy | Early architect of global communist strategy; later pioneer of secular, rational-humanist thought; inspiration for post-Marxist democratic socialism and Indian libertarian-humanist circles. | Roy Memorial Lectures • Publications by Sibnarayan Ray, Dhruba Gupta, V. M. Tarkunde | – |
Signature maxims
• “Man is the measure of everything.”
• “Revolutions are made by educating people, not by the sword.”
• “Freedom is not a goal attained once for all; it is a continuous process of removing obstacles to individual growth.”
Scholars Index;
B. R. Ambedkar | Corazon Aquino | John Austin | Abul Kalam Azad | Walter Bagehot | Theodore Beck | Kesavananda Bharati | Vinoba Bhave | Joan V. Bondurant | Bukharin | Edmund Burke | A. Béteille | Bankim Chandra Chatterjee | Dennis Dalton | Sri Aurobindo Ghosh | T. H. Green | G. Grote | Dhruba Gupta | Václav Havel | Homer | Kancha Ilaiah | Muhammad Iqbal | Christophe Jaffrelot | Thomas Jefferson | Muhammad Ali Jinnah | Navtej Singh Johar | Kanta Kataria | Petra Kelly | S. V. Ketkar | Sir Syed Ahmed Khan | Martin Luther King Jr. | Vivek Kumar | J. C. Kumarappa | Lenin | John Locke | Thomas B. Macaulay | Karl Marx | John Stuart Mill | Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk | Jayaprakash Narayan | Jawaharlal Nehru | J. Nesfield | Gail Omvedt | Bipin Chandra Pal | Plato | Lala Lajpat Rai | John Rawls | Sibnarayan Ray | H. H. Risley | Valerian Rodrigues | M. N. Roy | John Ruskin | Bertrand Russell | Émile Senart | Joseph Shine | Richard Sklar | Socrates | Rabindranath Tagore | V. M. Tarkunde | Anand Teltumbde | Henry David Thoreau | Bal Gangadhar Tilak | Leo Tolstoy | Badruddin Tyabji | K. K. Venugopal | Thomas Vettickal | Swami Vivekananda | Zinoviev
Practice Questions (Write before 4 p.m.)
Question 1. According to Sri Aurobindo, Swaraj is a necessary condition for India to accomplish its destined goal. Comment. [2017/10m]
Question 2. “When a nation becomes devoid of arts and learning, it invites poverty.” (Sir Syed Ahmad Khan). In the light of this statement, assess the role of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as a in as a reformer in modern India. [2021/15m]
Question 3. ‘Political democracy could not last unless social democracy lay at its base’. (BR Ambedkar). Comment. [2017/20m]
📌 Model answers drop this evening on the Telegram channel: https://t.me/psirbyamitpratap – keep notifications on.
See you tomorrow on Day 12. Keep practicing!
—Amit Pratap Singh & Team
A quick note on submissions of copies and mentorship
- 2025 Mains writers: Cohort 1 of O-AWFG kicks off 12 June and ATS on 15 June. The above practice set will serve as your revision tool, just do not miss booking your mentorship sessions for personalised feedback especially for starting tests. Come with your evaluated test copies.
- 2026 Mains writers – keep uploading through your usual dashboard. Act on the feedback and improve consistently.
- Alternate between mini-tests (O-AWFG) and full mocks (ATS) has been designed to tackle speed, content depth, and structured revision—line-by-line evaluation pinpoints your weaknesses and errors. Follow your PSIR O-AWFG & ATS schedule and use the model answers to enrich your content, as rankers recommended based on their own success.
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