UPHESC Assistant Professor Philosophy 2025 PYQs

Concept: Match each wetland to its actual state.

1. Sakhya Sagar (Shivpuri) – Madhya Pradesh (2022) ✔.
2. Sirpur Wetland (Indore) – Madhya Pradesh, not Tripura ✘.
3. Pala Wetland (Saiha) – Mizoram, not Meghalaya ✘.
4. Sur Sarovar / Keetham Lake (Agra) – Uttar Pradesh (2020) ✔ → 1 and 4.

Short trick: Indore has two Ramsar sites – Sirpur and Yashwant Sagar; Mizoram's only one is Pala.

Concept: The Aihole inscription (634 CE) of Chalukya king Pulakeshin II was composed by the Jain poet Ravikirti.

1. In it Ravikirti claims to have attained the fame of Kalidasa and Bharavi – the earliest dated mention of both poets.
2. Prayag Prashasti (Harishena) praises Samudragupta; Bhitari pillar is of Skandagupta; Ayodhya inscription is of Dhanadeva (Shunga).

Short trick: Aihole → Ravikirti → "Kalidasa-Bharavi"; also records Pulakeshin II defeating Harsha.

Concept: During the Zulu (Bambatha) Rebellion of 1906 in Natal, Gandhi raised an Indian Stretcher-Bearer Corps.

1. For the duration of service he was given the temporary rank of Sergeant Major (his autobiography, Part IV).
2. He and his men mostly nursed wounded Zulus, an experience that pushed him towards brahmacharya and Satyagraha.
3. In the Boer War (1899) he had led the Indian Ambulance Corps.

Short trick: Boer War 1899 – Ambulance Corps; Zulu Revolt 1906 – Sergeant Major.

Concept: Babur wrote his memoirs, Tuzuk-i-Baburi (Baburnama), in his mother tongue Chagatai Turkish.

1. It was translated into Persian by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan in 1589 at Akbar's order.
2. English translations: Leyden & Erskine (1826), A. S. Beveridge (1922).

Short trick: Babur – Turki original; Rahim – Persian translation.

Concept: Public Interest Litigation originated in the USA in the 1960s (civil-rights and legal-aid movements), where it was used to represent unrepresented interests.

1. In India it was developed in the late 1970s–80s by Justices P. N. Bhagwati and V. R. Krishna Iyer by relaxing locus standi.
2. Landmark Indian cases: Hussainara Khatoon (1979), S. P. Gupta (1981).

Short trick: PIL – born in the USA, popularised in India by Bhagwati & Krishna Iyer.

Concept: The Constituent Assembly met for the first time on 9 December 1946 in the Constitution Hall (Central Hall), New Delhi.

1. Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha was the temporary (oldest) President; Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected President on 11 December 1946.
2. Objectives Resolution moved by Nehru on 13 December 1946; Constitution adopted on 26 November 1949.

Short trick: 9-12-1946 first sitting → 26-11-1949 adoption → 26-1-1950 commencement.

Concept: Article 326: elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies shall be on the basis of adult suffrage.

1. Voting age reduced from 21 to 18 years by the 61st Amendment Act, 1988.
2. Art. 324 – Election Commission; Art. 325 – single general electoral roll, no exclusion on religion, race, caste or sex; Art. 327 – Parliament's power to make election laws.

Short trick: 324 Commission, 325 one roll, 326 adult vote, 327 Parliament's law.

Concept: As per FAO world production statistics available when the paper was set, China was the largest producer of rice (paddy) and India the second.

1. India is, however, the largest exporter of rice (about 40% of world trade).
2. Note for later readers: USDA estimates for 2024-25 placed India's milled-rice output (~150 Mt) above China's (~145 Mt), so later sources call India No. 1.

Short trick: Rice: China 1st producer (FAO), India 2nd producer but No. 1 exporter.

Concept: The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme (2020–21) gives incentives on incremental sales of goods made in India in 14 key sectors.

1. Sectors include large-scale electronics/mobile manufacturing, automobiles & auto components, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, telecom, food processing, textiles, solar modules, ACC batteries, specialty steel, drones, white goods, IT hardware.
2. All three given sectors are covered, so "None of the above".

Short trick: PLI started with mobiles, medical devices and pharma (2020), then expanded to 14 sectors.

Concept: Post-1947 land reforms aimed at social justice and higher productivity by giving land to the tiller.

1. Measures: abolition of zamindari/intermediaries, tenancy reforms, land ceiling and redistribution of surplus land to the landless, consolidation of holdings.
2. Real estate, agro-industries or privatisation were never the primary aim.

Short trick: "Land to the tiller" – abolish zamindari, fix ceiling, redistribute surplus.

Concept: Vaiśeṣika divides sāmānya (universal) into para (highest, widest), apara (lowest) and parāpara (intermediate).

1. Sattā (existence/being) is present in all dravya, guṇa and karma – it is the widest, hence para-sāmānya.
2. Dravyatva, guṇatva, karmatva cover only one category each – they are parāpara (intermediate).
3. Ghaṭatva etc. are apara (narrowest).

Short trick: Para = widest = Sattā.

Concept: In the Brahmasūtra-bhāṣya Śaṅkara calls Sāṁkhya the pradhāna-malla (chief wrestler/opponent).

1. Sāṁkhya comes closest to Vedānta (it too claims śruti support) but makes unconscious pradhāna the cause of the world.
2. Hence Śaṅkara refutes it first and says that once the chief wrestler is defeated, the others (Vaiśeṣika, Buddhist etc.) fall by the pradhāna-malla-nibarhaṇa-nyāya.
3. Rāmānuja came after Śaṅkara, so he cannot be Śaṅkara's opponent.

Short trick: Pradhāna-malla = the school of Pradhāna = Sāṁkhya.

Concept: Sāṁkhya evolution (pariṇāma of prakṛti) is teleological and cyclic.

1. Purposive: prakṛti evolves for the sake of puruṣa – for bhoga (experience) and apavarga (liberation).
2. Cyclic: sṛṣṭi (evolution) and pralaya (dissolution) follow each other endlessly – not a one-way linear process.
3. Not mechanical: though prakṛti is unconscious, its evolution is directed to a purpose.

Short trick: Sāṁkhya evolution = Purposive + Cyclic (P + C).

Concept: Syādvāda holds that every judgement is true only conditionally, from a particular standpoint (naya).

1. ‘Syāt’ = ‘in some respect / from some point of view’ – it qualifies every judgement, giving seven-fold predication (saptabhaṅgī).
2. It is not scepticism: each conditional judgement is accepted as true from its standpoint.
3. It is the opposite of absolutism (ekāntavāda); with anekāntavāda it is called the Jain theory of relativity of knowledge.

Short trick: Syāt = ‘relatively’ → Relativism.

Concept: Each school explains illusion (e.g. shell seen as silver) by its own khyāti theory.

1. Yogācāra (only consciousness real) → Ātmakhyāti: the inner idea is projected outside.
2. Śūnyavāda (Mādhyamika) → Asatkhyāti: the non-existent appears.
3. Nyāya → Anyathākhyāti: a real object perceived otherwise (silver seen elsewhere appears here).
4. Prabhākara Mīmāṁsā → Akhyāti: non-discrimination of perception and memory; no false cognition at all.

Short trick: Vijñāna → Ātma; Śūnya → Asat; Nyāya → Anyathā; Prabhākara → A-khyāti (no error).

Concept: Śaṅkara is the systematiser of Advaita (non-dualism) and Brahma-vivartavāda.

1. b – True: he wrote bhāṣyas on the Upaniṣads, Gītā and Brahmasūtra (Prasthānatrayī).
2. d – True: abādhitatva (non-contradiction/non-sublation) is his test of truth – what is never sublated is real.
3. a – False: Bhedābheda belongs to Bhāskara, Nimbārka etc.
4. c – False: Śaṅkara holds vivartavāda (apparent change), not pariṇāmavāda (real transformation).

Short trick: Śaṅkara = Vivarta + Abādhita; Bhedābheda and Pariṇāma belong to others.

Concept: Sautrāntikas are realists: both mind (citta) and external objects are real.

1. They hold bāhyānumeyavāda – external objects exist but are known only by inference from their forms in consciousness.
2. Yogācāra accepts citta only (vijñānavāda); Mādhyamika accepts neither (śūnyavāda).
3. Vaibhāṣika also accepts both, but holds external objects are directly perceived.

Short trick: Mādhyamika 0, Yogācāra 1 (mind), Sautrāntika & Vaibhāṣika 2 (mind + world).

Concept: Radhakrishnan examines Māyā and asks whether the world is a ‘cosmic error/illusion’ in his interpretation of Advaita.

1. He explains Māyā in several senses (dependence of the world on Brahman, mystery of creation, power of God, partial truth etc.).
2. He discusses the Advaitic doctrine of the world as a cosmic error (viśva-bhrānti) and interprets it so that the world is not a mere illusion but a less-than-ultimate reality.
3. Vivekananda's well-known line is that Māyā is a ‘statement of fact’ (see next question); Tagore rejects world-negation altogether.

Short trick: Cosmic error discussion → Radhakrishnan's reinterpretation of Māyā.

Concept: In ‘The Concept of Philosophy’ K. C. Bhattacharya speaks of four grades of theoretic consciousness.

1. Empirical thought (science – fact).
2. Pure objective thought (philosophy of the object – self-subsistence).
3. Spiritual thought (philosophy of the subject – reality).
4. Transcendental thought (philosophy of truth).

Short trick: E-P-S-T: Empirical, Pure-objective, Spiritual, Transcendental = 4.

Concept: For Sri Aurobindo creation is the self-manifestation of Saccidānanda out of delight (ānanda) – a cosmic play (līlā).

1. In The Life Divine the world is a real, joyous self-expression of the Divine, not an illusion.
2. He compares creation to the dance of Śiva (Naṭarāja) – the Divine taking delight in its own manifestation.
3. Krishnamurti rejects all such metaphysical images; Vivekananda stresses Māyā.

Short trick: Aurobindo = Ānanda → creation as delightful dance/līlā.