Maharashtra SSC Social Sciences (MSBSHSE) cheat sheet

Historiography timeline: James Mill (1817) divided Indian history into Hindu, Muslim, British periods; the periodisation was later criticised as communal and arbitrary.

Battle of Plassey (1757): Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah with Mir Jafar's help; Company got diwani rights of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa after Buxar (1764).

Permanent Settlement (1793, Cornwallis): zamindars became owners paying fixed revenue to the Company; ryotwari (Munro) and mahalwari (Holt Mackenzie) were the other land revenue systems.

Revolt of 1857 causes: greased cartridges, Doctrine of Lapse (Dalhousie), annexation of Awadh (1856), heavy land revenue; Mangal Pandey fired at Barrackpore on 29 March 1857.

Revolt leaders: Bahadur Shah Zafar (Delhi), Nana Saheb and Tantia Tope (Kanpur), Rani Lakshmibai (Jhansi), Begum Hazrat Mahal (Lucknow), Kunwar Singh (Bihar).

After 1857: Company rule ended, Crown rule began (Government of India Act 1858), the army was reorganised and the ratio of Indian to European soldiers was reduced.

Socio-religious reform: Raja Ram Mohan Roy (Brahmo Samaj, 1828, sati abolished 1829), Dayanand Saraswati (Arya Samaj, 1875), Jyotirao Phule (Satyashodhak Samaj, 1873).

Tribal and peasant movements: Santhal hool (1855-56, Sidhu and Kanhu), Munda ulgulan (Birsa Munda, 1899-1900), Indigo Revolt (Bengal, 1859), Deccan riots (1875).

Newspaper-press and early nationalism: Bengal Gazette (1780, James Augustus Hicky), Kesari and Maratha by Tilak; the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 (W.C. Bonnerjee, first president).

Partition of Bengal (1905, Curzon) sparked the Swadeshi and Boycott movement; it was annulled in 1911 and the capital moved from Calcutta to Delhi.

Lucknow Pact (1916) allied the Congress and Muslim League; Rowlatt Act (1919) and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (13 April 1919) preceded the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22, withdrawn after Chauri Chaura).

Civil Disobedience Movement began with the Dandi March (12 March-6 April 1930, 240 miles); the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931) and Round Table Conferences followed.

Quit India Movement (8 August 1942, Gowalia Tank, 'Do or Die'); INA led by Subhas Chandra Bose; Cabinet Mission (1946); Mountbatten Plan and Indian Independence Act (1947).

World War I (1914-18): assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the immediate trigger; Treaty of Versailles (1919) imposed reparations on Germany.

Russian Revolution (1917): Bolsheviks under Lenin overthrew the Tsar; the USSR was formed in 1922; Stalin's Five-Year Plans industrialised the economy.

World War II (1939-45): invasion of Poland (1939), Pearl Harbour (1941), atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 1945); the UN was founded in 1945.

Cold War blocs: NATO (1949) versus Warsaw Pact (1955); Non-Aligned Movement founded at Belgrade (1961), with Nehru, Nasser, Tito, Sukarno and Nkrumah.

Decolonisation and contemporary issues: Chinese Revolution (1949, Mao), Vietnam War, apartheid ended in South Africa (1994), globalisation and the information revolution.

Key features of a state: population, territory, government and sovereignty; sovereignty is the supreme and final authority, internally and externally.

Preamble ideals: justice (social, economic, political), liberty, equality, fraternity; the words socialist, secular and integrity were added by the 42nd Amendment (1976).

Fundamental Rights (Part III): six categories, including equality (Articles 14-18), freedom (19-22), against exploitation (23-24), religion (25-28), cultural and educational (29-30) and constitutional remedies (32).

Directive Principles (Part IV) are non-justiciable guidelines for policy; Fundamental Duties (Part IVA, Article 51A) were added by the 42nd Amendment on the Swaran Singh Committee's recommendation.

Union executive: President is elected indirectly by an electoral college and holds office for five years; the real executive is the Council of Ministers led by the Prime Minister (Article 74).

Parliament: Lok Sabha (maximum 552 seats, five-year term) and Rajya Sabha (maximum 250, one-third retire every two years); a Money Bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha.

Judiciary: Supreme Court (Article 124), High Courts (Article 214); judicial review and writs (habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari, quo warranto) protect rights.

Federalism and local government: the 73rd and 74th Amendments (1992) gave constitutional status to Panchayati Raj and urban local bodies; elections are conducted by the Election Commission.

Election machinery: Election Commission (Article 324) supervises elections; voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 by the 61st Amendment (1988); EVMs and VVPAT are used at polling stations.

Location: 8°4'N-37°6'N latitude and 68°7'E-97°25'E longitude; the Tropic of Cancer (23°30'N) passes through 8 states; the standard meridian is 82°30'E.

Physiographic divisions: Himalayas, Northern Plains, Peninsular Plateau, Indian Desert, Coastal Plains and Islands; the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats meet at the Nilgiris.

Himalayan ranges north to south: Trans-Himalaya (Karakoram), Greater Himalaya (Himadri), Lesser Himalaya (Himachal) and Shiwaliks; the Himalayas are young fold mountains.

Rivers: Himalayan rivers are perennial (Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra systems); peninsular rivers are seasonal (Godavari is the largest peninsular river, called the Dakshin Ganga).

Climate: the monsoon is caused by differential heating of land and sea, the shift of the ITCZ and the Tibetan plateau; the southwest monsoon gives most of India's rainfall (June-September).

Soils: alluvial (most extensive, fertile), black (regur, cotton, Deccan trap), red (crystalline rocks), laterite (heavy rain, leaching) and arid soils.

Natural vegetation and wildlife: tropical evergreen, deciduous (most widespread), thorn, montane; Project Tiger (1973) and biosphere reserves conserve biodiversity.

Population: the 2011 Census recorded about 1.21 billion people; the sex ratio was 943 females per 1000 males and the literacy rate was 74.04 per cent.

Settlement and migration: rural settlement patterns include compact, scattered and linear; urbanisation and rural-to-urban migration are the main drivers of population change.

Resource classification: natural versus human-made, renewable versus non-renewable, and potential, developed, stock and reserve resources; sustainable use is the guiding principle.

Soil and water conservation: contour ploughing, terracing, strip cropping and shelter belts check soil erosion; rainwater harvesting and watershed management recharge groundwater.

Mineral belts: the north-eastern plateau (Chhotanagpur, iron ore, coal, mica), the central belt (Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh) and the south-western plateau (Karnataka, Goa, iron and manganese).

Energy: conventional sources are coal, petroleum, natural gas and hydel power; non-conventional sources are solar, wind, tidal, geothermal and biogas; India has large wind potential in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

Agriculture: kharif crops are sown with the monsoon (rice, cotton, jowar), rabi in winter (wheat, gram, mustard) and zaid in summer; plantation crops include tea, coffee and rubber.

Industries: agro-based (cotton textile, sugar) and mineral-based (iron and steel, cement, aluminium); the iron and steel industry uses iron ore, coking coal, limestone and manganese.

Transport: roads are classified as national highways, state highways, district and village roads; the Golden Quadrilateral links Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Map reading: scale is the ratio of map distance to ground distance; a large-scale map shows more detail; contours join points of equal height and close loops indicate hills.

Map symbols and directions: conventional signs show rivers, roads, railways and settlements; north is at the top of the map; latitude and longitude give absolute location.

Micro versus macro: microeconomics studies individual units (household, firm, price of a good); macroeconomics studies aggregates (national income, general price level, unemployment).

Central problems of an economy: what to produce, how to produce and for whom to produce; these are solved by market, command or mixed mechanisms.

Demand and supply: the law of demand states an inverse relation between price and quantity demanded; equilibrium price occurs where demand equals supply.

National income concepts: GDP (within the domestic territory), GNP (GDP plus net factor income from abroad), NNP at factor cost equals national income.

Money and banking: money acts as medium of exchange, measure of value, store of value and standard of deferred payment; the Reserve Bank of India (1935) controls credit and issues currency.

Inflation: a sustained rise in the general price level; demand-pull and cost-push are the main types; it reduces the purchasing power of money.

Indian economy sectors: primary (agriculture), secondary (industry) and tertiary (services); the tertiary sector contributes the largest share of GDP.

Poverty and unemployment: poverty line is estimated from calorie norms and consumption expenditure; types of unemployment include seasonal, disguised, educated and cyclical.

Planning and reform: the Planning Commission was set up in 1950 and the First Five-Year Plan began in 1951; the New Economic Policy of 1991 introduced liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation.