Programme syllabus
Optional Subject Coaching — Sociology, Anthropology, PSIR Syllabus
Each optional carries 500 marks across two papers. Our optional batches cover the complete UPSC syllabus for both papers, with thinker-wise notes, previous-year question analysis and weekly evaluated answer writing.
How the programme covers the syllabus
Paper I coverage
Theory, thinkers and concepts.
- Topic-wise classes
- Thinker and concept notes
- Weekly tests
Paper II coverage
Indian application of theory with current examples.
- Indian society / tribal India / India and the world
- Case studies and data
Answer-writing and revision
Previous-year papers and full-length tests.
- PYQ analysis
- Full-length tests with evaluation
Mains
Mains Papers VI & VII — Optional Subject
250 marks each · 500 marks total
Official scope: One optional subject chosen from the UPSC list of 48 subjects, including literature of 23 languages.
Optional
Choosing and preparing the optional · 4 subtopics
- Overlap with GS and graduation background
- Availability of guidance and material
- Previous-year question analysis
- Answer-writing practice with evaluation
Optional
Sociology (Optional)
Paper I + Paper II · 250 marks each
Official scope: Paper I: Fundamentals of Sociology. Paper II: Indian Society — Structure and Change.
Paper I — Fundamentals of Sociology
Sociology — the discipline · 3 subtopics
- Modernity and social changes in Europe and emergence of sociology
- Scope and comparison with other social sciences
- Sociology and common sense
Sociology as science · 3 subtopics
- Science, scientific method and critique
- Major theoretical strands of research methodology
- Positivism and its critique; fact, value and objectivity; non-positivist methodologies
Research methods and analysis · 3 subtopics
- Qualitative and quantitative methods
- Techniques of data collection
- Variables, sampling, hypothesis, reliability and validity
Sociological thinkers · 6 subtopics
- Karl Marx — historical materialism, mode of production, alienation, class struggle
- Emile Durkheim — division of labour, social fact, suicide, religion
- Max Weber — social action, ideal types, authority, bureaucracy, Protestant ethic
- Talcott Parsons — social system, pattern variables
- Robert K. Merton — latent and manifest functions, conformity and deviance, reference groups
- Mead — self and identity
Stratification and mobility · 4 subtopics
- Concepts — equality, inequality, hierarchy, exclusion, poverty, deprivation
- Theories — structural functionalist, Marxist, Weberian
- Dimensions — class, status groups, gender, ethnicity and race
- Social mobility — types, sources and causes
Works and economic life · 3 subtopics
- Social organisation of work in slave, feudal and industrial/capitalist society
- Formal and informal organisation of work
- Labour and society
Politics and society · 4 subtopics
- Theories of power
- Power elite, bureaucracy, pressure groups and political parties
- Nation, state, citizenship, democracy, civil society, ideology
- Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution
Religion and society · 3 subtopics
- Sociological theories of religion
- Types of religious practices — animism, monism, pluralism, sects, cults
- Religion in modern society — science, secularisation, revivalism, fundamentalism
Systems of kinship · 5 subtopics
- Family, household, marriage
- Types and forms of family
- Lineage and descent
- Patriarchy and sexual division of labour
- Contemporary trends
Social change in modern society · 5 subtopics
- Sociological theories of social change
- Development and dependency
- Agents of social change
- Education and social change
- Science, technology and social change
Paper II — Indian Society: Structure and Change
Introducing Indian society · 2 subtopics
- Perspectives — Indology (G.S. Ghurye), structural functionalism (M.N. Srinivas), Marxist sociology (A.R. Desai)
- Impact of colonial rule — social background of Indian nationalism, modernisation of Indian tradition, protests and movements, social reforms
Social structure · 6 subtopics
- Rural and agrarian social structure — idea of the Indian village, agrarian social structure, land tenure, land reforms
- Caste system — perspectives (Ghurye, Srinivas, Dumont, Béteille), features, untouchability
- Tribal communities — definitional problems, geographical spread, colonial policies, integration and autonomy
- Social classes — agrarian class structure, industrial class structure, middle classes
- Systems of kinship — lineage, family types, marriage, household, patriarchy
- Religion and society — religious communities, problems of minorities
Social changes in India · 7 subtopics
- Visions of social change — planning, Constitution, law, education
- Rural and agrarian transformation — community development, cooperatives, green revolution, migration
- Industrialisation and urbanisation — informal sector, slums, child labour
- Politics and society — nation, democracy, citizenship, political parties, elite
- Social movements — peasants, women, backward classes, Dalit, environmental, ethnicity
- Population dynamics — size, growth, composition, policy, family planning
- Challenges of social transformation — crisis of development, poverty, violence against women, caste conflicts, ethnic conflicts, illiteracy
Optional
Anthropology (Optional)
Paper I + Paper II · 250 marks each
Official scope: Paper I: Physical, Social-Cultural and Archaeological Anthropology. Paper II: Indian Anthropology and Tribal India.
Paper I
Foundations · 3 subtopics
- Meaning, scope and development of anthropology
- Relationship with other disciplines
- Main branches — social-cultural, biological, archaeological, linguistic
Human evolution and emergence of man · 4 subtopics
- Biological and cultural factors in human evolution
- Theories of organic evolution — Lamarck, Darwin, synthetic theory
- Primates — characteristics, living major primates
- Fossil evidence — Australopithecines, Homo erectus, Neanderthal, Homo sapiens
Biological basis of life · 3 subtopics
- Cell, DNA, RNA, chromosomes, cell division
- Principles of prehistoric archaeology; chronology
- Cultural evolution — Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Copper-Bronze, Iron age
Culture and society · 9 subtopics
- Nature of culture and society; civilisation
- Marriage — definition, forms, functions, incest taboo
- Family and kinship — descent, alliance, terminology
- Economic organisation — exchange, reciprocity, redistribution
- Political organisation and social control
- Religion — theories, magic, science
- Anthropological theories — evolutionism, diffusionism, functionalism, structuralism, culture and personality, neo-evolutionism, cultural materialism, postmodernism
- Culture, language and communication
- Research methods in anthropology
Human genetics and variation · 7 subtopics
- Mendelian genetics; methods of study
- Hardy–Weinberg law; mutation, selection, drift
- Chromosomal aberrations
- Race and racism; biological basis of morphological variation
- Age, sex and population variation; growth and development; nutrition
- Demographic theories; epidemiological anthropology
- Applications of biological anthropology — forensic, ergonomics, genetic engineering
Paper II
Indian civilisation · 3 subtopics
- Prehistoric, protohistoric (Indus) and Vedic dimensions
- Palaeo-anthropological evidence from India — Narmada man
- Ethno-archaeology in India
Demographic and social structure of India · 7 subtopics
- Racial and linguistic elements in Indian population
- Varnashrama, purushartha, karma, rina and rebirth
- Caste system — structure, theories, dominant caste, caste mobility
- Sacred complex, nature–man–spirit complex
- Impact of Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity
- Emergence of anthropology in India — contributions of Indian anthropologists
- Little and great traditions; Sanskritisation and Westernisation; village studies
Tribal India · 7 subtopics
- Ethnographic profile — distribution, problems of tribal communities
- Land alienation, poverty, indebtedness, education, health
- Developmental projects, displacement and rehabilitation
- Constitutional safeguards — Fifth and Sixth Schedules, PESA, Forest Rights Act
- Tribal movements, ethnicity and regionalism
- Tribal development plans and their evaluation; role of NGOs
- Role of anthropology in tribal and rural development
Optional
Political Science and International Relations (Optional)
Paper I + Paper II · 250 marks each
Official scope: Paper I: Political Theory and Indian Politics. Paper II: Comparative Politics and International Relations; India and the World.
Paper I — Political Theory and Indian Politics
Political theory · 5 subtopics
- Meaning and approaches
- Theories of the state — liberal, neo-liberal, Marxist, pluralist, post-colonial, feminist
- Justice — Rawls and communitarian critiques
- Equality, rights, liberty, democracy, power, hegemony, ideology, legitimacy
- Political ideologies — liberalism, socialism, Marxism, fascism, Gandhism, feminism
Thinkers · 2 subtopics
- Indian political thought — Dharmashastra, Arthashastra, Buddhist traditions, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Sri Aurobindo, Gandhi, Ambedkar, M.N. Roy
- Western political thought — Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, J.S. Mill, Marx, Gramsci, Hannah Arendt
Indian government and politics · 8 subtopics
- Indian nationalism — perspectives on the freedom struggle
- Making of the Constitution; salient features
- Principal organs of Union and State government
- Grassroots democracy; statutory institutions
- Federalism; planning and economic development
- Caste, religion and ethnicity in politics
- Party system and electoral behaviour
- Social movements
Paper II — Comparative Politics and IR
Comparative politics · 4 subtopics
- Approaches — political economy, political sociology
- State in comparative perspective
- Politics of representation and participation
- Globalisation — responses from developed and developing societies
International relations · 7 subtopics
- Approaches — idealist, realist, Marxist, functionalist, systems theory
- Key concepts — national interest, security, power, balance of power, deterrence
- Changing international political order — Cold War, non-alignment, unipolarity
- Evolution of the international economic system — Bretton Woods to WTO
- United Nations — structure, agencies, reform
- Regionalisation of world politics — EU, ASEAN, APEC, SAARC, NAFTA
- Contemporary global concerns — democracy, human rights, environment, gender justice, terrorism, nuclear proliferation
India and the world · 8 subtopics
- Indian foreign policy — determinants, institutions, continuity and change
- India and the Non-Aligned Movement
- India and South Asia; Look/Act East
- India and the global South
- India and global centres of power — USA, EU, Japan, China, Russia
- India and the UN system
- India and the nuclear question
- Recent developments in Indian foreign policy