Which subject should you kick start your UPSC preparation with? Well, most Aspirants, from diverse educational backgrounds, often have one answer — Indian Polity. Why? Is it interesting? Is it more relevant to current affairs? Is a single source/book enough to master the subject? Whatever your reason may be, the fact remains that this popular subject can also be tricky. UPSC Past Year Questions (PYQs) are a testimony to this. Jatin Verma, our subject expert, talks to Manas Srivastava and takes up some essential queries on strategies to prepare for Indian Polity and validates his points with PYQs.

About our Expert: Jatin Verma is an educator & mentor for aspirants preparing for UPSC Civil Services Examination. An expert on subjects like Polity & Governance, Public Administration and Current Affairs, he has been guiding civil service aspirants for more than 10 years. He also writes on various aspects of UPSC Civil Services Exam.

Manas: One of the most popular subjects among aspirants, Indian Polity, has both troubled and acted as a saviour sometimes. What are your comments on recent trends in questions related to Polity in UPSC exams?

Jatin Verma: Let’s answer this question for Prelims and Mains separately.

The number of questions from the Polity section hovers around 15-20 in Prelims. What has changed is the areas from where these questions are being framed.

Quality of questions

The questions in prelims are framed correlating static theory with the current affairs of national importance. To cite certain examples, questions related to Aadhar, the Election Commission of India’s powers, and the Power of Contempt of Court.

Static questions

Another trend that is discernible since the 2011 pattern change is that even the static questions in prelims are from a wide range of topics (unlike the conventional Parliament, Panchayati Raj institutions, Fundamental rights and Schedule V and VI themes dominating the polity section in the pre-2011 pattern).

Questions based on deep understanding

Nowadays, the questions are framed based on deep understanding derived from a thorough reading of editorials, remarks made by S.C. judges in landmark judgments like Aadhar, Triple Talaq, the jurisdiction of CBI, Citizenship Amendment Act, NGOs in news, minute details about the Representation of Peoples’ Act like candidate’s right to contest from multiple constituencies and power of the speaker to label a bill as a money bill. These types of questions have become more common, especially since 2017.

SO WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT THE TREND…

The good side of this way of asking questions is that there is more synchronicity between preparation for prelims and mains, which is quite helpful for sincere aspirants, given the reduced time gap between prelims and mains. That is why, I always recommend aspirants to prepare for UPSC prelims and mains in an integrated manner to increase their chances of acing both prelims and mains.

Questions from almost all the broad sub-topics mentioned in the official UPSC mains syllabus for GS Mains paper 2 are being asked in a balanced manner. There has been a question almost every year from one of these subtopics-Historical underpinnings & evolution, Features, amendments, significant provisions, and basic structure– every year from 2013 to 2023.

To illustrate, “constitution as a living document”, “Constitutional morality”, adjectives attached to the word republic in the preamble, freedom of speech and expression, Section-66A, Khap Panchayats etc.

Likewise, the questions are being asked from other sub-topics- Transparency, Accountability, RPA, Role of civil services in a democracy as well as in a balanced manner. However, as I said earlier, the probability of a question being asked from a given topic in a particular year increases depending upon the national discourse (recent controversy, S.C. judgement, Govt’s policy interventions) around that topic during that year.

For instance, the Uniform Civil Code question was asked in 2016 when this topic was one of the burning issues in 2015-16. Similarly, Section 66A of the I.T. Act was asked in 2013 because there was a S.C. judgement on it in 2013. The same logic applies to Aadhar-related questions in Prelims 2018 and 2020. This way to logically guesstimate can be easy and one can make a list of highly probabilistic topics and prepare them thoroughly.

Having said that, there are some evergreen topics which a sincere UPSC aspirant must be prepared with at all times.

Manas: Is it right to say that this subject is vast in its syllabus and has evolving content?

Jatin Verma: What is colloquially referred to as “Indian Polity” has two tenets to it- “Indian Constitution” and “Indian Democracy at Work” with the former being about the letter or the theory of the Constitution and the latter being about the spirit, the actual working of the Constitution.

The dynamic and static parts of the syllabus

Understanding the basics of the Constitution has become easier, thanks to the availability of books like M.Laxmikanth and D.D. Basu. However, a sincere aspirant needs to be abreast of the latest interpretations/amendments of the constitution by the judiciary and parliament as the constitution itself is an organic and ever-evolving document.

When it comes to the more dynamic and ever evolving section, i.e. “Indian democracy at work”, it is important for an aspirant to update herself with all the politico-legal developments which are relevant from the examination point of view- powers of various constitutional and non-constitutional bodies as those are evolving, recent trends in Centre-state relations to enlist a few. Also, this part includes governance-related topics like the role of SHGs and NGOs, Electoral reforms, the role of media, and regulatory bodies.

Over the last 7-8 years, the number of questions from the dynamic section has increased which is what makes the work cut out for the aspirants. Even as this is happening, the candidates are also being tested on their gasp over the static “Indian Constitution” part by framing the questions in the prelims in such a manner that static knowledge is being blended with the awareness of current affairs.

To illustrate the point with the help of a question-

Consider the Following statements:

1. The Election Commission of India is a five-member body.

2. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs decides the election schedule for the conduct of both general elections and by-elections.

3. The Election Commission resolves the disputes relating to splits/mergers of recognized political parties.

Statements 2 and 3 were specifically inserted owing to

a. by-election in Anantnag constituency during that year

b. disputes in political parties- AIADMK and Samajwadi party related to allocation of election symbols.

The Keywords in the Syllabus

Given the broad nature of keywords mentioned in the official UPSC syllabus for G.S. Mains paper 2, I would say that the scope of expansion and extrapolation of each keyword is immense. For instance, most of the aspirants interpret the term “Accountability” in a narrow sense and limit it to the executive’s accountability to parliament (parliamentary standing committee, CAG etc.) but, said unsaid, it includes the accountability of all the organs in all the possible ways- accountability to/of– media, judiciary and independent regulators. This is clear from the previous years’ questions–

Discuss the role of the Competition Commission (a regulator) of India in containing the abuse of dominant position by the Multinational Corporations in India. Refer to the recent decisions.(UPSC CSE MAIN, 2023)

Similarly, another question-

Though the Human Rights Commissions have contributed immensely to the protection of human rights in India, they have failed to assert themselves against the mighty and powerful. Analysing their structural and practical limitations, suggest remedial measures. (UPSC CSE MAIN, 2021)

The same applies to other sub-topics like federalism, the role of civil services in a democracy, ministries, and departments, appointment to constitutional positions from wherein the UPSC is asking questions like fiscal federalism and finance commission, the role of governor in a state, civil service neutrality, cadre based civil services.

It is this generic nature of the broad topics which makes the Indian Polity and Governance, as a subject, vast and enriching. So, what makes its syllabus vast is the dynamic nature- wherein the depth of the coverage of a topic varies depending upon the context in which it is being prepared as the aspirant is required to cite the recent examples to substantiate the point while answering the question.

Manas: What are some of the common challenges that aspirants face while studying Indian Polity, and what solutions do you suggest?

Jatin Verma: While studying for Indian polity and governance, many budding aspirants face the following challenges:

My solution: Candidates are not required to memorise Article numbers, per se, What is required of an aspirant is to understand the underlying essence of an article as UPSC is interested in that only. Article numbers do have a citational value in the Mains exam.

The same applies to constitutional amendments. One need not remember all the amendments and their year(s) of passage. Only the salient amendments like the 42nd and 44th Constitutional amendments and the recent ones like GST Constitutional Amendment Act and EWS Reservation Amendment Act or the ones which appear in the news are to be thoroughly memorised.

My solution: For making notes, apply the 1/10th formula, until and unless you have revised anything so many times that you can reduce 100 words to 10 words, don’t jump to notes-making as, then, you would end up reproducing the book itself. The idea is to make crisp and concise notes only for those things which you are prone to forget.

Manas: Polity, as we all know, sees a lot of interplay with law. Law we know is evolving. How to keep this aspect in mind while studying. Also, how important are the legal language and terminology to be studied for this paper?

Jatin Verma: In so far as UPSC CSE is concerned, we are only required to be thorough with basic nuances of constitutional terminologies, and recent updates on amendments and bills. There is no need to burden oneself with legal jargon and terminologies for one or two obscure questions in recent years.

Always keep the cost-benefit ratio in mind, while delving deeper into any topic as the probability of something being asked in prelims is 1:10,000.

So, whenever an aspirant gets confused, refer to PYQs and syllabus to reboot her compass.

Manas: The Constitutional framework is very complex, with so many amendments and judicial interpretations. How to tackle it?

Jatin Verma: One need not burden herself with every constitutional amendment. Just understand the salient amendments from 1951- 1973 and the judicial pronouncements on them, from one source. For this, you can refer to the editorials from the archives of any good newspaper website as many books don’t cover it in a “story-telling” manner.

Manas: Aspirants are often seen to begin with Polity picking up one popular book– Indian Polity by M. Laxmikanth and staying limited to it. Do you think that suffice, looking at the dynamic and sometimes shocking nature of the questions?

Jatin Verma: I would say Indian Polity by M. Laxmikanth is a good source to begin with. But considering the way the UPSC is framing questions by mixing up the information from a polity related current event and an underlying concept, it is not sufficient to just confine oneself to it.

One, it does not sufficiently explain conceptual terms like secularism, communalism, parliamentary form of government, liberty, etc. in the depth in which UPSC is framing the question. Take, for example, the question of

Prelims 2023:

1. In essence, what does ‘Due Process of Law’ mean?

(a) The principle of natural justice

(b) The procedure established by law

(c) Fair application of law

(d) Equality before law

Every year, there are 3-4 questions like the one above. For example, the 2019 Prelims question on “Liberty.”

Second, Laxmikanth, or for that matter, any polity book cannot cater to the UPSC’s requirement of asking questions about recent events. Most of the renowned books are in a “catch-up” mode on this front i.e. these books are updated right after the UPSC prelims with the previously “missing” information to give the new entrants the feeling of the book being a comprehensive one.

As we are in the age of the internet, it would not be proper to confine oneself to just one or two books for such a dynamic subject as Polity and Constitution, more so for Mains preparation. UPSC is checking candidates on these three accounts-

[1] Knowledge of Indian Polity since Independence- Eg. Questions on Swatantra party, H.N. Sanyal Committee on Contempt of Court Law, Santhanam Committee recommendations, First ARC- salient recommendations, Bhuria commission on PESA,

[2] Conceptual clarity on generic terms- Questions around Freedom, liberty, Secularism, communalism

[3] Awareness of polity current affairs– which is relevant for both prelims & mains.

To conclude, I would say Indian Polity by M. Laxmikanth is a good compendium on Indian polity for beginners especially for mains but it is not enough.

Manas: So, what is the book list you want to suggest?

Jatin Verma: Supplement of Indian Polity by M. Laxmikanth with the Fundamental Rights chapter of Introduction to the Constitution of India by D.D. Basu. The best source for having command over the current affairs related to Indian Polity is the newspaper. Read the newspaper regularly and make notes out of it. If an aspirant finds newspaper reading to be tedious, refer to the class notes of any reputed polity teacher.

Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com

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