UPHESC Assistant Professor Political Science 2025 PYQs

Concept: Tamil Nadu gets most of its rain in Oct–Dec (retreating/north-east monsoon) from depressions and cyclones formed over the Bay of Bengal.

1. The NE winds pick up moisture over the Bay; tropical depressions and cyclones crossing the Coromandel coast give heavy rain → cyclonic rainfall.
2. Anticyclones bring dry, stable weather, not rain; convectional rain is typical of hot summer afternoons/equatorial areas.

Short trick: Coromandel coast winter rain = Bay of Bengal cyclones.

Concept: Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded the Atmiya Sabha in Calcutta in 1815 (forerunner of the Brahmo Sabha, 1828).

1. Vivekananda – Ramakrishna Mission (1897); Dayananda – Arya Samaj (1875).
2. Radha Kant Dev – orthodox leader of the Dharma Sabha (1830), which opposed Roy.

Short trick: Roy: Atmiya Sabha 1815 → Brahmo Sabha 1828.

Concept: Bose was elected Congress President at Haripura (1938), re-elected at Tripuri (1939) defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya, and resigned in April 1939 after differences with Gandhi; Dr. Rajendra Prasad was then elected President.

1. Bose did not resign in 1938, so the event the question asks about (an election after a 1938 resignation) never happened.
2. Dr. Rajendra Prasad (option D) fits only if the printed year is changed to 1939; Patel, Nehru and Annie Besant do not fit at all.
3. As printed, therefore, no option is correct and the question is treated as a bonus. The fact to remember: Bose resigned in April 1939 → Rajendra Prasad became President.

Short trick: Haripura 1938 (Bose elected) → Tripuri 1939 (re-elected, then resigned) → Rajendra Prasad.

Concept: Match each leader with the movement he led.

1. Tilak – a leader of the Swadeshi movement (1905–07) → III.
2. Shaukat Ali – with Mohammad Ali, led the Khilafat movement → I.
3. Gandhi – Non-Cooperation movement (1920–22) → IV; Bahadur Shah Zafar – nominal leader of the 1857 revolt → II.

Short trick: Tilak-Swadeshi, Ali-Khilafat, Gandhi-NCM, Zafar-1857 → III-I-IV-II.

Concept: The Election Commission of India (Art. 324) is a permanent, independent constitutional body set up on 25 January 1950.

1. (B) Wrong – CEC and ECs are appointed by the President (on the recommendation of a selection committee under the 2023 Act).
2. (C) Wrong as a general power – disqualification of members is decided by the President/Governor on the EC’s opinion; the EC only advises (Art. 103/192).
3. (D) Wrong – it functions all the time (rolls, party recognition, symbols, etc.).

Short trick: ECI = permanent constitutional body (Art. 324), not a seasonal one.

Concept: The core feature of the parliamentary system is the collective responsibility of the executive to the legislature.

1. In India, the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha (Art. 75(3)) and stays in office only while it enjoys its confidence.
2. The judiciary is independent and not responsible to either organ.

Short trick: Parliamentary = executive answerable to Parliament; Presidential = fixed-term executive.

Concept: The Estimates Committee has 30 members, all from the Lok Sabha, elected by proportional representation.

1. Rajya Sabha has no representation on it (unlike the PAC: 15 LS + 7 RS, and the CoPU: 15 LS + 7 RS).
2. A minister cannot be a member; it is called the ‘continuous economy committee’.

Short trick: Estimates = 30, all Lok Sabha.

Concept: Classic economics books and their authors.

1. Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations (1776) → I.
2. Thomas Malthus – An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) → IV.
3. W. Arthur Lewis – The Theory of Economic Growth (1955) → II; Samir Amin – Imperialism and Unequal Development (1977) → III.

Short trick: Smith-Wealth, Malthus-Population, Lewis-Growth, Amin-Imperialism → I-IV-II-III.

Concept: Budget 2025-26 (1 Feb 2025) announced a Makhana Board in Bihar to improve production, processing, value addition and marketing of makhana (fox nut).

1. Bihar (Mithilanchal – Darbhanga, Madhubani, Purnia) produces about 85–90% of India’s makhana.
2. Mithila Makhana has a GI tag (2022).

Short trick: Makhana = Mithila = Bihar.

Concept: ‘Rupee comes from’ (BE 2025-26): borrowings & other liabilities 24 paise, income tax 22, GST 18, corporation tax 17, non-tax revenue 9, union excise 5, customs 4, non-debt capital receipts 1.

1. Among the given options income tax (22 paise) is the largest.
2. GST is 18 paise; excise (5) and customs (4) are much smaller.

Short trick: 2025-26 order: Borrowing 24 > Income tax 22 > GST 18 > Corporate 17.

Concept: Liberal democracy combines civil liberties, competitive multi-party elections and a market economy with limited government.

1. Free speech, freedom to form parties and free elections under a neutral body (e.g. Election Commission) are its core features.
2. Centralised (command) planning belongs to socialist/communist (people's) democracies, where the state controls the economy.
3. Liberal democracy prefers market/decentralised decision-making.

Short trick: Liberal = liberty + market; Centralised planning = Soviet model.

Concept: Pluralists (Laski, MacIver, Barker, Figgis, Duguit, Krabbe) attacked Austin's monistic, absolute sovereignty.

1. They held that power is shared among many associations (church, trade unions, guilds), so the state is only one association among many.
2. Laski: 'It would be of lasting benefit to political science if the whole concept of sovereignty were surrendered.'
3. Idealism and Fascism glorify the sovereign state; Marxism wants the state itself to wither away, not just the concept.

Short trick: Laski = 'surrender the concept of sovereignty' = Pluralism.

Concept: In a presidential system (USA) the President is both head of state and head of government, has a fixed term and the three organs are separated.

1. Single executive – no distinction between head of state and government: feature.
2. Fixed tenure (4 years, removal only by impeachment): feature.
3. Separation of powers with checks and balances: feature.
4. The legislature is NOT weak – the US Congress is among the most powerful legislatures (controls budget, treaties, appointments).

Short trick: Presidential = strong, independent Congress, not a limited one.

Concept: The liberal (classical) theory treats democracy as government by consent of free individuals, so civil and political rights come first.

1. Rights to vote, contest, speak, associate and to change government peacefully are central to liberal democracy (Locke, Bentham, J. S. Mill).
2. Elitist theory stresses rule by a minority; pluralist theory stresses competition of groups.
3. Marxist theory gives priority to economic/social equality over formal political rights.

Short trick: Political rights first = Liberal; economic equality first = Marxist.

Concept: Reinhold Niebuhr (Moral Man and Immoral Society) is a founding classical realist – only code (A) begins with a – ii.

1. Fareed Zakaria (From Wealth to Power) works in the structural/neo-classical realist tradition that grew out of neo-realism → b – i.
2. Joseph Nye (with Keohane, Power and Interdependence; 'soft power') represents the liberal tradition → c – iv.
3. Stephen D. Krasner edited International Regimes (1983), the key text of regime theory associated with neo-liberal institutionalism → d – iii.

Short trick: Fix the sure pair first: Niebuhr = classical realism → code (A).

Concept: Alfred Zimmern treated nationality as subjective and psychological – 'a form of corporate sentiment', a way of thinking, feeling and living together.

1. J. S. Mill defined nationality through 'common sympathies' and the wish to be under the same government.
2. Lord Acton argued that multinational states are better (nationality as a threat to liberty).
3. Tagore was a critic of aggressive nationalism.

Short trick: Zimmern = 'corporate' (collective) sentiment.

Concept: Max Weber (Economy and Society): 'A nation is a community of sentiment which would adequately manifest itself in a state of its own; hence a nation is a community which normally tends to produce a state of its own.'

1. The stress on 'sentiment' + striving for its own state is Weber's.
2. Giddens linked the nation to the modern bureaucratic nation-state with defined borders; Deendayal Upadhyaya used the idea of 'chiti' (national soul).

Short trick: Weber: nation = sentiment seeking its own state.

Concept: Classic works and authors.

1. The Discourses (on Livy) – Machiavelli → ii.
2. De Corpore Politico (Elements of Law, 1640/1650) – Hobbes → iii.
3. A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) – Locke → iv.
4. Emile (1762) – Rousseau → i.

Short trick: M-H-L-R order: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau = ii, iii, iv, i.

Concept: Tilak's 'four-fold programme' (Calcutta 1906): Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education, with passive resistance/strikes.

1. So (A) is correct.
2. Ambedkar pursued social justice through constitutional means, education, organisation, legal safeguards and agitation (Mahad, Kalaram), not through Swadeshi-boycott; he even rejected 'methods of anarchy' like civil disobedience after independence.
3. Hence (R) is wrong.

Short trick: Tilak = Swadeshi-Boycott; Ambedkar = 'Educate, Agitate, Organise' + Constitution.

Concept: Ambedkar treated basic human rights as inherent in the dignity of every human being – rights that belong to a person as a person, prior to any caste or state.

1. This is the natural-rights premise behind his demand for Fundamental Rights and equal citizenship (Statement I).
2. Because they are inherent, he wanted them to be inalienable/indissoluble – not to be taken away by the majority or by social custom; hence Article 32 (constitutional remedies) as 'the heart and soul' of the Constitution (Statement II).
3. Both statements are true and consistent.

Short trick: Inherent rights → inalienable rights → Art. 32 guarantee.