RECOMMENDED BOOKS FOR UGC HISTORY

BOOKS ON ANCIENT INDIA

1. Wonder that was India - A.L. Bhasham.
2. Ancient India Social and Culture - Luniya
3. Ancient India - an introductory outline - D.N.Jha.
4. An Advanced History of India - R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Raychaudhurai, - Kalikinkar Datta.
5. Ancient India - L.Mukherjee

BOOKS ON MEDIVAL INDIA

1. Advanced study in the History of Medival India - Volume I, II, III J.L. Mehta
2. Medival India - Volume I & II Satish Chandra
3. Wonder that was India - Rizzvi
4. Medival India - L. Mukherjee

BOOKS ON MODERN INDIA

1. Modern Indian History - Grover and Mehta
2. A struggle for Independence - Bipin Chandra
3. Freedom Struggle - Bipin Chandra
4. Modern India - L. Mukherjee
NCERT BOOKS
VIII, IX, X,XI,XII History

HISTORY BOOKS GUIDE

1. Indian History - Krishna Reddy
2. Indian History - Agnihotri
3. Competition Wizard Workbook.
4. IGNOU Material
5. Y.D.Mishra

REFERENCE BOOKS OVERALL

BOOKS ON ANCIENT INDIA

1-NCERT (11th)

2-The Advanced History of India - Majumdar, Raychaudhuri & Datta

3-The wonder that was India - A. L Basham

4-Indus Civilization - (a) IGNOU booklet no. 2

5-The rise of civilization of India and Pakistan - Bridget and Raymond Allchin

6-Ancient India in historical outline (Revised and enlarged edition - 98) - D.N. Jha

7-Mauryan : Ashoka and the decline of mouryan empire - Romila Thapar

8-Indian Feudalism - R.S. Sharma

BOOKS ON MEDIEVAL INDIA

1-NCERT (11th)

2-The Advanced History of India - Majumdar, Raychaudhuri & Datta

3-Social life and cultural life of both Delhi Sultanate and Mughal India - J.L. Mehta

4-A history of South India - K. A. Nilakanta Shastri

5-IGNOU material (specially on agriculture and agrarian relations and culture)

BOOKS ON MODERN INDIA

1-NCERT (12th)

2-A new look into the modern Indian history - B.L Grover

3-Freedom struggle - Bipin Chandra, Varun Dey and Amlesh Tripathy (NBT)

4-India's struggle for independence - Bipin Chandra

5-Modern India - Sumit Sarkar

6-IGNOU material (specially on freedom struggle)

Kargil War (1999)

 Kargil War took place in the year 1999 betweenIndia and Pakistan from May to July, it was the geo- political conflict which occurred at the Kargil district of Kashmir along the line of control between both the nations. The main cause of the war was the penetration of Pakistanisoldiers on Indian side of the LOC.

Initially, Pakistan didn’t accept the fact and blamed independent Kashmiri rebellions for this illegal act but later the involvement of thePakistan became clear by the statements of Pakistani Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff.

Indian Army bravely fought the war and later on was also supported by Indian Air Force and recaptured most of the infiltrated site and finally in July, Pakistani troops surrendered and withdrew from thepositions along LOC.

 The Kargil conflict resulted into further deterioration of relations between two nations. High Political and Economic tensions were caused in Pakistan as the consequence of this Kargil conflict whileIndia faced the 13th Indian General Elections to the Lok Sabha just after the conflict and undoubtedly NDA govt. was reelected to power

Indo-Pakistan War (1971)

  Illustration showing military units and troop movements during operations in the Eastern sector of the war.

The military war between India and Pakistan is associated with the secession of East Pakistan to form an independent nation of Bangladesh. The war lasted for 14days starting from 3rd December’71 and ended on 16th December’71. 

After the war, around 90,000 West Pakistaniresidents, 54,000 Army officials and 12,000 civilians who were in East Pakistan during partition were all taken by India as the prisoners of War (POW). 

The Indo-Pak war was closely associated or sparkled by the BangladeshLiberation war. The Bangladesh Liberation war was fought in 1970 between the East and West Pakistani troupes over the issue of governance. The war finally resulted in the liberation of East Pakistan that formed Bangladesh on 27th March 1971. 

The Bangladesh Liberation war did not end with the independence ofBangladesh as the West Pakistani Army started to conduct mass-genocide on the population of East Pakistan. Millions of people thus fled towards the Indian state of west Bengal to seek refuge. 

The Then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi expressed her full support to the refugees of East Pakistan and promised to protect them. Many Eastern states of India organized refugee camps for East Pakistanis and even theBangladesh-India border was opened for refugees to come in. 

Finally, under Indira Gandhi’s leadership it was decided that instead of a refuge support, they would strike an armed rebellion against Pakistan. 

The period thereafter saw a series of Ground, Air and Naval operation from both sides that at a point seemed unending. Finally a “Instrument of Surrender” was signed by Pakistani Army to flee away from Bangladesh leaving  it to claim independence.           

Battle of Plassey (1757)

 

Battle of Plassey is the most critical war which is mentioned in the dark pages of Indian history. As, this war turned the country into the slave under the British rule for about long period of two centuries. 

The Battle of Plassey took place on June 23, 1757 at Palashi village of Murshidabad, on the bank of Bhagirathi River between British East India Company and Nawab of Bengal and his French allies. 

The Nawab Siraj Ud Daulah, the last Nawab of Bengal fought the battle to survive as independent ruler from the British rule and was supported by French East India Company.  

The forces of the East India Company under the commander ship of Robert Clive defeated the army of Nawab Siraj-Ud-Daulah from Bengal. The battle was actually the programmed one as Mir Jafar, the army commander of Nawab along with the large number of soldiers from the Nawab’s army were convinced and bribed by East India Company. 

This resulted into the defeat of Nawabs and the major ladder for the ascendancy of British rule in India. The East India Company flourished by winning the battle and strengthened its military by gaining treasure of Bengal and later captures most of the parts of South Asia.

Battle of Buxar (1764)

The Nawab released a `Farman` in 1717 said that the goods for sale locally as well as abroad should be free of duties. Mirqasim took measures to stop the illegal selling of free trading passes (Dastaks) to the Indian businessmen. 

The Zamindars were forced to pay gift or bribes to the Company officials. Mirqasim tried to put a check to this. The English merchants were not ready to accept to consider Indian merchants equal to themselves. Both English and Mirquasim wanted to be the masters of Bengal. The conflict initiated with a clash between an English Chief and a Nawab. 

The Battle of Buxar was fought in 1764 between the British and armies of Mirquasim, Emperor Shah Alam II and Shuja-ud-daula, Nawab of Avadh in Buxar (in Bihar). The battle gave rise to British rule in Bengal. 

Awadh was merged with the company after the battle of Buxar and thus British rule spreaded in Bengal. Nawab of Bengal signed a treaty with the company saying that the Nawab would dissolve most of his army and Bengal would be administered through a deputy Subahdar. 

The Company gained control over the Nizamat of Bengal. The company got the right to Diwani, by which they collected the revenue from Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. As the Diwan, Company was able to collect taxes and also gained administrative power.