UPSC has so far not asked a question on George Washington, in the world history. We have both American revolution and American constitution in our syllabus explicitly mentioned, yet a question on George Washington remains un-asked.

Would you like to write an answer to the following question and upload here in PDF format? Lets see how many students try to pick this up.

George Washington is often referred to as the "Father of the Nation" in the United States of America. To what extent is this title justified?

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Students, here is the schedule for Week 16 of History Optional Foundation 2025. We'll be continuing with Medieval Indian History in this week.

We'll keep Sundays off so that you can revise previous 6 day's lectures.

Watch lectures here - https://www.youtube.com/@HistoryOptionalforUPSC?sub_confirmation=1

Note: Full History Optional program is available for FREE with classes uploaded daily at 9 am on Youtube channel given above.

Enrol here in HOT 500 - https://www.levelupias.com/upsc-cse-history-optional-through-500-questions/

Is there anyone here from CoEP who is present in Delhi and preparing from ORN? We are trying to arrange a meet up of aspirants from CoEP in Delhi.

We used to have CoEP aspirants group back in 2015 but with many of us getting selected, the group dissipated. If enough people are interested, we are thinking of starting the group again.

If you are in Delhi, please let me know. You can drop me a message or call or come to the LevelUp IAS office tomorrow morning at 10.30 AM. We can meet and chart out further plan.

Nikhil

This is fun... Mazzini vs Marx:

In an interview, Marx described Mazzini as "that everlasting old ass". In turn, Mazzini described Marx as "a destructive spirit whose heart was filled with hatred rather than love of mankind."

With Rudrangshu Mukherjee, one of the best historians of modern India alive today. He is presently the chancellor of Ashoka University.

I have so far read three books by him. Gandhi and Tagore, Nehru vs Bose, Rani and Begum. Also there is Insightful analysis of peasant participation in 1857 that we regularly quote in our answers.

His talk yesterday was titled 'Bose and Bose'. It was on Rashbihari Bose and Subhashchandra Bose. Extremely interesting. Already incorporated those insights in my lecture on Revolutionaries and on INA. They will get reflected in the next round of teaching.

Along with the complete set of Critical Edition of Mahabharata.

One of the toughest and longest tasks taken by Indian intellectuals. Best of the minds worked on this for about 40-50 years at Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI).

I had always read about it's intellectuals feat. Even Pandit Nehru, Zakir Hussain, Dr Radhakrishnan all had visited BORI to see this work being unfolded. Got to see the print copies, touch them and smell them for the first time.

We have started this new playlist on eminent historians of India.

We teach about their views, you read and write about them. But have you seen them speaking?

So, small excerpts of eminent historians on some interesting issues. It will become a very selected and eclectic collectoon over time. Although primarily from History Optional point of view, I am sure every aspirant will definitely find it enriching.

Eminent Historians of India: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRY4mFD-4D6uwIEbduokvjo4Fukg5n_Pu

Dont forget to subscribe to stay tuned.

Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBMfaGYFl3LwC_416k6CpxA

Note: We will keep publishing the lectures even on Diwali days.

Now, we are coming with HOT500 2.0.

To be honest, this has been our most ambitious program ever for history optional. And running of 1.0 batch has given us a lot encouragement about the utility of this program.

This time, we will begin the schedule with Ancient India. And this will be the final batch this year. We will not be able to come up with 3.0.

Although called as HOT500, as I have recently started saying again and again, it should ideally be termed as HOT800. There are about 75+ classes and 8 tests (8 sectional, 2 FLT)

The entire course will be over before the end of February. So, you will be able to complete the optional thoroughly before shifting completely to exclusive Prelims preparation.

The schedule and details are provided on course page. Visit this link for further details.

https://www.levelupias.com/upsc-cse-history-optional-through-500-questions

IMP PS: DO NOT take admission now. I have heard that LevelUp IAS is bringing certain discount for Diwali. Wait for a couple of days.

Fresh episode of BTQ (Behind the Question) is here... this time with a question from 2024 paper.

https://youtu.be/vfVeUkfhvz8

This is our Behind the Question (BTQ) podcast so far. We have released 8 episodes covering the story behind the questions in many UPSC CSE PYQs.

These podcasts are not about discussing the model answers but we are actually trying to dig deeper. Why this question may have been asked, what is the relevance of this topic, how the changing historical narrative makes this topic more appropriate, and what kind of things one should keep in mind while crafting the answer. We try to look behind, and look from above.

I am sure it will be very enriching to all students and history lovers. We have recorded one more episode, slated to be released after Diwali.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRY4mFD-4D6sOarydNTosvlS-LGN3mr0F

Someone has written this comment on latest BTQ podcast. I think this is a wrong interpretation by this anonymous account. Our whole efforts is to try to decode what/why behind the questions asked by UPSC and try to make sense of it.

We may be off the mark, when it comes to our guess. There is no access to the people who really prepare these questions. We will never know their actual intent. We only try to guess as best as we could. It does not mean that we endorse every point of view. One mark of a dispassionate scholar is to try to entertain a thought without necessarily accepting it. Here we have to imagine a thought to exist and then entertain it for 15-20 minutes.

If anyone properly watches the complete video and even watches the entire series of 8 podcasts, he/she would understand and appreciate the efforts rather than attributing the motives.

Besides, there a whole philosophy of history, where terms like 'neutral' are highly debated. We can pardon the person for not knowing about it.

I really don't want leave this impression for future viewers that this is some biased or ideologically motivated video.

I request some of the viewers here to spare a few seconds and comment on that YT video. However, comment only if you have watched the video. Any comment, either positive or negative would do, as long as it is genuine.

Here is the video: https://youtu.be/vfVeUkfhvz8

To find the course details, click here:
https://www.levelupias.com/upsc-cse-history-optional-through-500-questions/

https://youtu.be/AMZFAbImJgA

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https://www.instagram.com/p/DBssjymyHZ2/?igsh=anY0ejNhMzM3cWhw


I am told that instagram would be a better place to reach out to wider audience with interesting books and comments. While Telegram is the platform suitable for UPSC CSE preparation, for more generic history stuff, insta will be better.

So, here I am reviving an old insta page which was laying dormant for many years.

Will gradually try to shift all non UPSC related history updates like some new events, books, reviews, visits and historians to Instagram.

We finished the first phase of HOT500 today. Instead of originally planned 15 lectures on World History, we managed to have about 21 lectures in about three and half weeks. The total number of questions practiced in class easily crossed 200 in number. They include all sorts of questions covering almost every conceivable dimension.

Now, we will have a sectional test on World History coming up by the weekend. And in next week, post Diwali on 4th of November, we will start with Ancient India.

This has been a very intense journey so far. Not only for students but also for teachers. We had never run such a program in the past. Neither does such a model exist anywhere else. But this is already turning out to be very interesting, enriching and comprehensively useful.