BSEB Intermediate Political Science study plan

Outline the origins and phases of the Cold War (1945-1991), naming at least six turning points such as the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Blockade, Cuban Missile Crisis, détente and the Soviet collapse.

Explain the founding logic of the Non-Aligned Movement (Bandung 1955, Belgrade 1961) and identify the roles of Nehru, Nasser, Tito, Sukarno and Nkrumah.

Summarise India's strategy of non-alignment in practice, distinguishing it from neutrality and from isolationism, with two concrete case examples.

Map the chronology of India's integration of princely states (Hyderabad, Junagadh, Kashmir, Junagadh plebiscite issue) and the linguistic reorganisation of states up to 1956.

Compare the Nehruvian model of nation-building with the alternative visions of the Jana Sangh and the Communists.

Trace the Congress system from 1952 to 1967, listing the social coalition it rested on and the reasons for its dominance in the first three general elections.

Analyse the 1967 'syndicate' split, the 1969 Congress split and the rise of Indira Gandhi's personalised leadership.

Explain the 1971 general election mandate and the political meaning of the slogan 'Garibi Hatao'.

Describe the pattern of coalition politics from 1977 (Janata) through the National Front and United Front governments to the NDA and UPA eras.

Distinguish one-party dominance, coalition politics and hung parliament as analytical categories with Indian examples.

Reconstruct the sequence of events from the Allahabad High Court judgment in June 1975 to the lifting of the Emergency in March 1977, including the proclamation, censorship and arrests.

Evaluate the constitutional and civil-liberties consequences of the Emergency and the corrective amendments that followed (42nd and 44th).

Explain the causes and course of the Punjab crisis, including the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, Operation Blue Star and the 1985 Rajiv-Longowal Accord.

Outline the Assam movement, the 1985 Assam Accord and the Bodo and other North-East autonomy arrangements.

Summarise the anti-Mandal agitation, the Mandal Commission recommendations and the debate over reservation as a social movement.

Explain the internal and external causes of the Soviet collapse, including Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika, the 1991 August coup and the dissolution of the USSR.

Define the 'new world order' and assess whether the post-1991 system is unipolar, multipolar or a hybrid.

Analyse the components of US hegemony: military reach, economic weight, dollar role, alliance architecture and cultural influence.

Evaluate the limits of US hegemony using at least three contemporary counterexamples, such as the rise of China, the Ukraine war and the expansion of BRICS.

Distinguish hegemony from unipolarity and from imperialism with reference to at least two theorists or schools of thought.

Describe the structure and functions of the UN principal organs (General Assembly, Security Council, ECOSOC, ICJ, Secretariat, Trusteeship Council) and the veto mechanism.

Explain the composition, voting and reform debate around the Security Council, including India's claim to permanent membership and the G4 position.

Outline the mandates of at least five UN agencies and bodies, such as WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO and the World Bank or IMF, noting which are specialised agencies.

Define security in traditional and non-traditional terms, covering terrorism, migration, health pandemics, cyber threats and environmental stress.

Explain the science and politics of climate change: the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

Define freedom in the negative and positive senses and explain the harm principle and the idea of justifiable constraints on liberty.

Distinguish equality of opportunity from equality of outcome and apply both to the reservation debate.

Explain Rawls's veil of ignorance and the difference principle, and contrast them with a libertarian account of justice.

Classify rights into natural, moral, legal, civil, political and socio-economic categories, and explain the relationship between rights and duties.

Compare civic, ethnic and cultural nationalism, and distinguish secularism as equal respect from secularism as strict separation, using the Indian constitutional context.

Explain citizenship as legal status versus citizenship as practice, including the debates around the Citizenship Amendment Act and the NRC.

Trace the evolution of India's foreign policy from non-alignment through the post-Cold War shift to multi-alignment, naming the Gujral Doctrine and the Look East or Act East policy.

Explain the India-US civil nuclear deal of 2005-2008 and the Nuclear Suppliers Group waiver as a turning point in India's nuclear diplomacy.

Outline the history of India's nuclear programme from the 1948 Atomic Energy Act through Pokhran-I (1974), Pokhran-II (1998) and the No First Use doctrine.

Explain globalisation, its drivers and its effects on the Indian economy after 1991, including liberalisation, privatisation and the debate on inequality.

Assess the political consequences of development policy, including displacement, environmental costs and the debate over the 'development versus environment' framing.

Revise all twelve domains through spaced retrieval, spending the most time on the three heaviest domains: Cold War and NAM, nation-building, and one-party dominance and coalitions.

Practise 60 objective questions across all domains and log every error by domain.

Write two timed long-answer responses of 250 words each, one from the world-politics half and one from the Indian-politics half.

Re-test only the error log until every logged item is answered correctly twice.

Build a one-page list of dates, treaties and names that recur across domains, such as 1945, 1955, 1961, 1971, 1975, 1977, 1991, 1998 and 2008.