KSEAB SSLC Social Science cheat sheet

Advent of Europeans in India: Portuguese (Vasco da Gama, 1498, Calicut), Dutch, English (1600 East India Company charter), French (1664 Colbert's Compagnie des Indes).

Battle of Plassey 1757: Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah with the help of Mir Jafar; gave the British political power in Bengal.

Battle of Buxar 1764: British under Hector Munro defeated the combined forces of Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-Daulah and Shah Alam II; led to the Treaty of Allahabad 1765 and Diwani rights.

Permanent Settlement 1793 (Cornwallis/Zamindars, Bengal), Ryotwari (Munro, Madras), Mahalwari (North-Western Provinces); all were land revenue systems.

Revolt of 1857: began at Meerut on 10 May 1857; leaders include Mangal Pandey, Rani Lakshmibai, Nana Saheb, Tantia Tope, Kunwar Singh; ended the Company's rule, Government of India Act 1858.

Indian National Congress founded 1885 in Bombay; first session presided over by W. C. Bonnerjee; Moderates vs Extremists split at Surat 1907.

Gandhian movements: Non-Cooperation 1920-22 (withdrawn after Chauri Chaura), Civil Disobedience 1930 (Dandi March, 12 March 1930), Quit India 1942 ('Do or Die').

Partition of Bengal 1905 by Lord Curzon; annulled 1911; triggered the Swadeshi movement.

Key acts: Regulating Act 1773, Pitt's India Act 1784, Indian Councils Act 1892, Morley-Minto 1909 (separate electorates), Montagu-Chelmsford 1919 (dyarchy), Government of India Act 1935 (provincial autonomy).

Latitude lines run east-west and measure distance north or south of the equator (0° to 90°); longitude lines run north-south and measure east or west of the Prime Meridian (0° to 180°).

Standard time: 1° of longitude equals 4 minutes; IST is based on 82°30'E, 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT.

Earth's rotation (west to east, ~24 hours) causes day and night; revolution (365¼ days) with a 23½° axial tilt causes seasons and solstices/equinoxes.

Monsoon: southwest monsoon (June-September) brings rain; northeast monsoon (October-December) gives rain to Tamil Nadu coast; retreating monsoon affects the Coromandel coast.

Soil types of India: alluvial (most fertile, northern plains), black/regur (cotton, Deccan), red (iron-rich), laterite (heavy rain, leaching), arid and mountain soils.

Himalayan rivers are perennial (snow-fed) and form gorges; peninsular rivers are seasonal and form deltas, e.g., Godavari and Krishna.

Climate factors: latitude, altitude, distance from sea, ocean currents, relief and prevailing winds; the Himalayas block cold Central Asian winds.

India's physiographic divisions: Himalayas, Northern Plains, Peninsular Plateau, Coastal Plains, Islands (Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep).

Preamble declares India a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic; ideals are Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

Fundamental Rights (Part III, Articles 12-35) include equality, freedom, against exploitation, religion, cultural/educational, and constitutional remedies (Art. 32).

Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV, Articles 36-51) are non-justiciable guidelines for government policy.

Fundamental Duties (Part IVA, Article 51A) were added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976; originally ten duties.

Parliament: Lok Sabha (max 552) and Rajya Sabha (max 250); money bills can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha.

President is elected indirectly by an electoral college; the Vice-President is ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Judiciary: Supreme Court is the guardian of the Constitution; judicial review and writs (habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari, quo warranto).

Elections: Election Commission conducts elections; voting age is 18 (61st Amendment, 1988); EVMs and VVPAT used.

Panchayati Raj: 73rd Amendment (1992) for rural bodies, 74th for urban; three-tier structure at village, block and district levels.

GDP is the money value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a year; GNP = GDP + net factor income from abroad.

Sectors: primary (agriculture, mining), secondary (manufacturing), tertiary (services); India's economy is service-dominated.

Inflation is a sustained rise in the general price level; measured by CPI (consumer) and WPI (wholesale).

Money functions: medium of exchange, measure of value, store of value, standard of deferred payment; RBI issues currency and controls credit.

Types of unemployment: seasonal, structural, disguised, cyclical; disguised unemployment is common in Indian agriculture.

Budget: revenue and capital receipts/expenditure; deficit financing; fiscal policy is government's tool, monetary policy is RBI's tool.

Poverty line: based on calorie norms (2,400 rural, 2,100 urban); measures include headcount ratio and poverty gap.

Human Development Index (HDI) combines life expectancy, education (mean years and expected years of schooling) and per capita income.

Five-Year Plans: First Plan 1951-56 focused on agriculture; NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission in 2015.

Society is a web of social relationships; primary groups are small and intimate (family), secondary groups are large and impersonal (office).

Family types: nuclear vs joint; patrilineal vs matrilineal; endogamy (marriage within group) vs exogamy (outside group).

Social stratification: caste, class, gender and race; caste is hereditary and traditionally endogamous; class is achieved and mobile.

Social change factors: education, urbanization, industrialization, migration, legislation and social movements.

Sanskritization (M. N. Srinivas): lower castes adopting upper-caste practices to raise status; Westernization and modernization are other change processes.

Social problems: child labour, dowry, gender inequality, communalism, alcoholism, unemployment, illiteracy and corruption.

Social reform: Raja Ram Mohan Roy (Sati abolition, Brahmo Samaj), Jyotiba Phule (Satyashodhak Samaj), Ambedkar (anti-caste struggle), Arya Samaj (Dayanand Saraswati).

Demographic terms: birth rate, death rate, literacy rate, sex ratio, density of population, migration (push and pull factors).

Map scale: statement (1 cm = 10 km), representative fraction (1:1,000,000) and graphic (bar) scale; large scale shows more detail.

Contour lines join points of equal elevation; closely spaced contours mean steep slope; hachures and spot heights show relief.

Grid references: eastings are read before northings; four-figure grid gives a square, six-figure gives a point.

Direction: north is conventionally up; compass bearings are measured clockwise from north (0°-360°).

Conventional signs: blue for water bodies, green for vegetation, brown for contour/relief, black for man-made features, red for roads.

Latitude and longitude coordinates locate a place; India lies between 8°4'N-37°6'N and 68°7'E-97°25'E.

Physical map shows relief and rivers; political map shows boundaries; thematic maps show rainfall, population, soil or crops.

Distance on map = map distance × scale denominator; convert units consistently (1 km = 100,000 cm).