UPPSC 2020 (Mains General Studies Paper-1)

Ans. One of the most remarkable features of the Harappan Civilization is its town planning. It is marked by considerable uniformity, though one can notice some regional variations as well. The uniformity is noticed in the lay-out of the towns, streets, structures, brick size, drains etc. Almost all the major sites (Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Kalibangan and others), are divided into two parts-a citadel on higher mound on the western side and a lower town on the eastern side of the settlement. The citadel contain large structures which might have functioned as administrative or ritual centres. The residential buildings are built in the lower town. The streets intersect each other at right angles in a criss-cross pattern. It divides the city in several residential blocks. The main street is connected by narrow lanes. The doors of the houses opened in these lanes and not the main streets.

Ans. Gandhi was a proponent of the Varna system and belief in the varna-ashrama system was a cardinal qualification to be a Hindu according to Gandhi. However, Gandhi’s Varna system had internal flexibility and the varnas were mutually tradable in the Hindu society. In Gandhi’s Varna system, a shudra must perform his hereditary duty and if he is capable of performing priestly duties he must perform them without sacrificing or rejecting his ancestral duties. This flexibility is true for all the varnas in Gandhi’s scheme of the Varnashrama system. For Gandhi, the ‘varna’ system was not hierarchical. All the four varnas were equal in status and functional to the society. The four varnas were placed horizontally and mutually replaceable. To Gandhi, the rigid ‘varna’ system and the social and religious disabilities imposed by Manusmiriti were not acceptable.

Ans. Mussolini’s foreign policy from when he came into power after the March on Rome 1922 until the beginning of World War Two in September 1939 was motivated by three main aspects. The first was his egotistical attitude and unattainable aims for foreign expansion after easy victories in 1934 and 1936. He refused to accept that Italy did not have the power for excessive

foreign expansion and refused to believe that Italy was a third rate European power. The second was his obsessive need to surpass Nazi Germany as he could not allow himself to be overshadowed by a new fascist power lest it reflect badly on him. The third was that Mussolini needed to distract the Italian people from the failures of fascism. A ‘short, sharp war’ was needed to convince the Italian people that Fascism was a success. Throughout the 1920s and 30s until the start of World War Two, this is what motivated the achievements and failures in his foreign policy.

Ans. Composite culture is a heterogeneous mixture of multiple cultures meeting and co-existing in one single region. India has been the birth-land of a dozen of religions. The teachings of each religion are based on the concept of dharma (moral duty) and karma (action). Religions are a part of Indian value system which provides direction to the way of living. India provides the right to choose whichever religion its citizen wants to follow and change into other religions that suit themselves at that point of time.

This general tolerant nature of the society which finds its roots in the concept of secularism makes it easier to accept each other’s religion and live in peace and stability. Still prevalent Joint Family structure and the diversity in festivals, clothing, cuisine, dialects, traditions, customs, music and dance forms has made Indian composite culture even richer.

Ans. The contemporary women’s movement in India (1975–present) has played an important role in bringing gender issues to the forefront of development planning and defining feminist politics. There are different strands of thought and activism that have come together to create the contemporary women’s movement in India. The women’s groups associated with class based political parties and mass organizations present a somewhat different picture from that presented by the ‘autonomous’ stream arguing for an undivided women’s movement.

From the mid- to late 1980s women’s groups concentrated on providing services to individual women to enable them to gain advantages already given in law. The earlier groups sought amelioration; the new groups sought recognition and realization of rights.

Women’s movement and the state have had areas of both collaboration and conflict. Regarding legal reforms, gender budgeting and providing institutional support to women survivors of violence, the women’s movement has worked with the state (specifically the criminal justice system).

Ans. Poverty is influenced by – and influences – population dynamics, including population growth, age structure, and rural-urban distribution. All of this has a critical impact on a country’s development prospects and prospects for raising living standards for the poor. Investments in better health, including reproductive health, are essential for individual security and for reducing mortality and morbidity, which in turn improve a country’s productivity and development prospects.

Poverty and population are two factors which mutually complement each other in each other’s growth causing serious repercussions on the development of states and nations. Rapid growth of population aggravates the poverty of the people. The growth of population exceeds the rate of growth in national income. Population growth not only creates difficulties in the removal of poverty but also lowers the per capita income which tends to increase poverty. Population growth at a faster rate increases labour supply which tends to lower the wage rate.

Ans. Uttar Pradesh can be divided into three distinct physiographical regions:

1.Bhabarand Terai Belt 2. The Gangetic Plain 3.Plateau Region of Sand Geographical features of Bhabhar and Terai regions:- The transitional belt running along the Sub-Himalayan Terai region is called the Terai and Bhabar belt. This region covers the districts of Saharanpur in the West to Deoria in the East. Bhabar and Terai Belt regions are discussed below:

Bhabar Region:- It is the Northern most part of Uttar Pradesh. This region is extended from Saharanpur to Kushinagar (Padrauna). It is located in the North of Terai region. It is around 34-35 km broad in the Western part and becomes narrower towards East. The land of this region is very rugged. This area covers Saharanpur, Bijnor, Shahjahanpur, Lakhimpur-Kheri and Pilibhit districts.

Terai Region:-This region is extended from Saharanpur in North-West to Deoria in the East. It is located South of Bhabar region. It is around 80-90 km wide in the Eastern Uttar Pradesh and becomes narrower towards the West. The Terai region covers certain parts of Saharanpur, Bijnor, Rampur, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur-Kheri, Bahraich, Gonda, Basti, Gorakhpur and Deoriadistricts.

Ans. The Smart Cities Mission is an innovative and new initiative by the Government of India, launched on June 25, 2015 to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local development and harnessing technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens.

Under the Centre’s ‘smart city’ plan, Uttar Pradesh is entitled to have 13 of its cities developed as smart cities, in which four cities Allahabad, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Ayodhya fall under eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. The region is characterised by the economy where agriculture is the main stay of the people. The process of urbanisation has, thus, been very slow. The population has grown faster after 1951 during independence period. The urbanization grew by 24.46 percent only during 2001-11 which is a little less than earlier decade. The economic linkages such as industrialization, commercialization, trade and transport and services have not taken off.

Bundelkhand is a mountain range located in central India. Popularly called as the Bundelkhand Circuit, this region is divided between Madhya Pradesh and some parts of Uttar Pradesh. Bundelkhand circuit is flooded with monuments which hold stories of great kings and warriors, rivers, majestic forts, sacred temples, pilgrimage sites and many other historic places and sculptures. The circuit consists of five major cities namely, Bithoor, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Kalinjar and Mahoba.

The Bundelkhand region boasts of sites like Jhansi fort and several monuments in the vicinity, including temples, the Kalinjar fort in Banda treasuring the best from ancient and medieval architecture, the Charkhari fort and Sun Temple in Kalpi in Mahoba, the Deogarh fort in Lalitpur district with temples dating back to the Gupta period and also Jain temples, and the forts and temples in Chitrakoot.

The region is not only connected to the Gupta period, but also the country’s struggle for independence.Rugged palaces and forts.

Ans. A frontier is a wide tract of border land which by virtue of its ruggedness or other difficulty, served as a buffer between two states. A boundary is a clearly defined line expressed either as verbal description (delimited), or as a series

of physical marks on the ground. Borders get established, even when claims are very rigid, for trade and passage.

Existence of boundaries shows that a political community has reached a relative degree of maturity, orderliness and being law abiding. Frontiers and boundaries are products of socio-political forces and are, thus, subjective and not objective.

The Line of Actual Control (LAC) with Tibet and Line of Control (LOC) with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir are classic examples of borders even though the latter was created as a result of partition and three wars.

Ans. There was no doubt that the new education broadened the horizon of knowledge. Specially the establishment of printing press and easy availability of books removed the traditional barriers and made education accessible to more people. The ideas of the western thinkers influenced the younger generation of the indigenous society and they began to question the existing traditional values. A new spirit of rationalism developed. However, these positive contributions have to be balanced against the grave limitations of the educati system that developed under colonial sponsorship. The English education system totally ignored the importance of mass education. In the indigenous system the elementary schools provided basic education to a wide section of society. But in the new education the emphasis was to educate a selected few. The Anglicists idea of filtering down education from elites to masses did not work in practice. This system did not provide equal access to education to all and this led to the perpetuation of the backwardness of socially backward castes and communities. The existing divisions in the society widened. Secondly, in spite of advocacy of western science and technology, in the curriculum of schools and alleges the ernphasis was on western literature, philosophy and humanities. Technology and natural science were neglected and without such knowledge the intellectual advancement as well as economic development of a country was hampered.

Ans. The large-scale expansion of British rule in India occurred during the Governor Generalship of Lord Wellesley who came to India in 1798 at a time when the British were locked in a life and death struggle with France all over the world. Till then, the British had followed the policy of consolidating their gains and resources in India and making territorial gains only when this could be done safely without antagonising the major Indian powers. Lord Wellesley decided that the time was ripe for bringing as many Indian states

as possible under British control. By 1797 the two strongest Indian powers, Mysore and the Marathas, had declined in power. Political conditions in India were propitious for a policy of expansion: aggression was easy as well as profitable. Moreover, the trading and industrial classes of Britain desired further expansion in India.

To achieve his political aims Wellesley relied on three methods: the system of Subsidiary Alliances, outright wars, and assumption of the territories of previously subordinated rulers. While the practice of helping an Indian ruler with a paid British force was quite old, it was given a definite shape by Wellesley who used it to subordinate the Indian States to the paramount authority of the Company.

Ans. The Jacobins were members of an influential political club during the French Revolution. The official name of the political club was the Society of Friends of the Constitution. The club became known by the nickname the “Jacobin Club” after the Jacobin monastery where the club met in Paris.

At the start of the French Revolution in 1789, the Jacobins were a fairly small club. The members were like-minded deputies of the National Assembly. However, as the French Revolution progressed, the club grew rapidly. At the height of their power, there were thousands of Jacobin clubs throughout France and around 500,000 members.

One of the most powerful members of the Jacobins was Maximilien Robespierre. Robespierre used the influence of the Jacobins to rise in the new revolutionary government of France.

In 1793, the new French government was facing internal civil war and was being attacked by foreign countries. The Jacobins were afraid that the revolution was going to fail. Behind the leadership of Robespierre, the Jacobins instituted a state of “Terror.” Under this new rule of law, they would arrest, and often execute, anyone suspected of treason. Thousands of people were executed and hundreds of thousands were arrested.

Eventually, the people realized that the state of terror could not continue. They overthrew Robespierre and had him executed. The Jacobin Club was banned and many of its leaders were executed or jailed.

Ans. At the simplest level, a nation is a sort of large-scale community – it is a community of communities. Citizenship refers to a full and equal membership of a political community, i.e. a political identity to an individual by its

state. Citizens can find the institutional and political space to identify with both their country and their other cultural identities, to build their trust in common institutions and to participate in and support democratic politics. All of these are key factors in consolidating and deepening democracies and building enduring “state nations”. Members of a nation share the desire to be part of the same political collectivity. This desire for political unity usually expresses itself as the aspiration to form a state.

There is no necessary relationship between any specific form of community and the modern form of the state. Any of the many bases of community identity (like language, religion, ethnicity and so on) may or may not lead to nation formation – there are no guarantees. But because community identities can act as the basis for nation-formation, already existing states see all forms of community identity as dangerous rivals. That is why states generally tend to favour a single, homogenous national identity, in the hope of being able to control and manage it.

Ans. Liberalisation is a method in which a state raises limitations on some private individual ventures. The liberalisation was aimed at ending the licence-permit raj by decreasing the government intervention in the business, thereby pushing economic growth through reforms. The policy opened up the country to global economy. It discouraged public sector monopoly and paved the way for competition in the market. India began a process of economic liberalization in 1991. This had far reaching impacts on all spheres of life in India. The liberalization process has impacted the conditions of Indian labour in the organized and unorganized sectors, both big and small, with regard to factors such as wages, labour welfare, trade unionism, social security, employability, labour utilization, job security, labour flexibility, employment growth and industrial disputes.

Liberalisation accelerated migration to urban areas. This in turned created array of social problems associated with urbanization. It fundamentally changed pattern of Indian Society.

On Social front India’s performance is deplored all over the world and it is probably behind all important developing economies. This lacuna has been recognized and government has taken the charge.

Viewed from the Indian context, some studies have stated that the crisis that erupted in the early 1990s was basically an outcome of the deep-rooted inequalities in Indian society and the economic reform policies initiated as a response to the crisis by the government, with externally advised policy package, further aggravated the inequalities.

Ans. It is observed that the maximum cropped area is irrigated by tube wells and wells and further the use of tube wells and wells has increased over the years. The canals are used for irrigation in the second place and it has shown declining trend during the same period in the state. Thereafter, tanks and lakes are the main source of irrigation in the Uttar Pradesh. Currently, about 80 percent of irrigation work is being done by tube wells and wells and 19 per cent by canals and remaining 1 per cent is done by tanks, lakes and other sources in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

There are inequalities in the cost of irrigation among social groups in both regions of Uttar Pradesh. The farmers of Bundelkhand region are suffering from water and using pond water for irrigation purpose while the farmers of western region are using tube wells for irrigation purpose in the state. On the other hand, irrigation facilities of western region are highly developed compare to Bundelkhand region. It is observed that the poor classes farmersare suffering from lack availability of own irrigation inputs in both regions. It is found that farmers are suffering from lack of irrigation facility, lack of irrigation inputs, and lack of regular supply of irrigation water, increasing irrigation cost, and poor technology. The government must improve the efficiency of irrigation inputs, provide low cost irrigation inputs, promote maximum use of rainfall water, control wastage of water, improve awareness of irrigation, and develop efficient irrigation technology in both regions of Uttar Pradesh.

Ans. Volcanoes are formed by eruptions of lava and ash when magma rises through cracks or weak-spots in the Earth’s crust. A build up of pressure in the earth is released, by things such as a plate movement which forces molten rock to exploded into the air causing a volcanic eruption.

Extrusive igneous rocks cool at the surface. Volcanoes are one type of feature that forms from extrusive rocks. Several other interesting landforms are also extrusive features. Intrusive igneous rocks cool below the surface. These rocks do not always remain hidden. Rocks that formed in the crust are exposed when the rock and sediment that covers them is eroded away.

Volcanoes and Vents: The most obvious landforms created by lava are volcanoes. These are mostly cinder cones, composite volcanoes, and shield volcanoes. Eruptions also take place through other types of vents, commonly from fissures. The eruptions that created the entire ocean floor are essentially fissure eruptions.

Lava Domes: When lava is thick, it flows slowly. If thick lava makes it to the surface, it cannot flow far from the vent. It often stays right in the middle

of a crater at the top of a volcano. Here the lava creates a large, round lava dome. Lava flows often make mounds right in the middle of craters at the top of volcanoes.

Lava Plateaus: A lava plateau is made of a large amount of fluid lava. The lava flows over a large area and cools. This creates a large, flat surface of igneous rock. Lava plateaus may be huge. The Columbia Plateau covers over 161,000 square kilometers (63,000 square miles). It makes up parts of the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Ans. The Indian Ocean region (IOR) have been providing a unique ecosystem and connectivity routes to the resources for centuries now. Almost all the countries bordering the Indian ocean are developing countries. Their major sources of revenue is agriculture, industry, and in some countries also mining. The effects of pollution in the marine environment began to be felt very recently, although these activities are continuing for a long time.

Around the Indian Ocean, coastal development for ports, aquaculture, roads, buildings, and urban infrastructure is destroying or diminishing mangroves, coral reefs, wetlands, and other habitats. Pollution, destructive fishing practices such as the use of dynamite and poisons, coral mining for construction materials, and coral bleaching endanger two-thirds of the Indian Ocean’s 12,070 km² of coral reefs and fourfifths of the 3,175 km² of corals in the Red Sea. By one estimate, some 40-trillion liters of sewage and 4-trillion liters of industrial wastes enter the region’s coastal waters every year. Agricultural runoff, and domestic and industrial effluents dumped in the sea can cause eutrophication (blooms of phytoplankton resulting from the added nutrients in the effluents) and attendant hypoxia (depletion of oxygen in the water), or act as toxic substances, killing local flora and fauna. Eutrophication and hypoxia can engender effective dead zones in coastal areas. Eight such zones now blot the Indian Ocean.

Ans. Reverse Migration refers to the situation when labourers, workers and people start migrating back to their native place in the backdrop of non-availability of livelihood and job opportunities. The corona virus pandemic has triggered a massive reverse migration from the “destination” to “source” in large parts of the country.

More than 1.2 million migrants returned to Uttar Pradesh since the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25, 2020. The return of migrant workers

to their home states in the backdrop of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has set in motion a plethora of challenges for the state governments. The pressure of this reverse migration is going to be felt in the fields of agriculture and allied activity and will put immense pressure on a system.

Uttar Pradesh- the most populous state in the country and that sees maximum exodus of migrant workforce is grappling with two major challenges: Providing livelihood to the migrants and dealing with a sudden spurt in cases positive to the novel coronavirus.

This short-term shift in demographic numbers is likely to lead to several possible consequences in rural areas. Every household in rural areas will likely have a few extra members at home who will have to be fed and taken care of. The remittance economy is likely to remain depressed for some time, as job loss has been extensive and, in all likelihood, the persons responsible for the remittance money may not return to work soon. A large unoccupied workforce entering local labor markets could also take work away from the more marginalized and impoverished segments of the population.

Ans. Glaciers cover about 10 percent of the land surface near Earth’s poles and they are also found in high mountains. During the Ice Ages, glaciers covered as much as 30 percent of Earth. Around 600 to 800 million years ago, geologists think that almost all of the Earth was covered in snow and ice, called the Snowball Theory.

Glaciers are solid ice that moves extremely slowly along the land surface. They erode and shape the underlying rocks. Glaciers also deposit sediments in characteristic landforms. The two types of glaciers are: continental and alpine. Continental glaciers are large ice sheets that cover relatively flat ground. These glaciers flow outward from where the greatest amount of snow and ice accumulate. Alpine or valley glaciers flow downhill through mountains along existing valleys.

Glaciers erode the underlying rock by abrasion and plucking. As glaciers flow, mechanical weathering loosens rock on the valley walls, which falls as debris on the glacier. Glaciers can carry rocks of any size, from giant boulders to silt. These rocks can be carried for many miles over many years and decades. These rocks that are different in type or origin from the surrounding bedrock are glacial erratics. Melting glaciers deposit all the big and small bits of rocky material they are carrying in a pile. These unsorted deposits of rock are called glacial till. Glacial till is found in different types of deposits. Linear rock deposits are called moraines and are named by their location relative to the glacier. Geologists study moraines to figure out how far glaciers extended and how long it took them to melt away.

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