Preparing Political Science for UPSC/IAS Prelims

Political Science is almost as popular as Public Administration as an optional and where political science scores over other optionals is that it covers a very scoring segment of General studies in Mains as well.My very good friend Vivek took political science as his first optional despite coming from an engineering background and he has appeared in interview twice and awaiting the result of mains.Here he is sharing his views on preparing political science and general studies for UPSC/IAS prelims...

I(Vivek Tripathi) have a background of computer science and yet i was lucky enough to qualify prelims and mains in my both attempts with political science(prelims) and psychology as optional subjects.The result of mains for 3rd time is awaited by me. The strategy followed by me in both general studies as well as political science was simple-Rotate/Twist all the information which you encounter in books or newspapers.Neither too much nor too little thinking on particular topic is required.I will explain this by few examples-

General studies-Everyone knows that Sam Pitroda is head of NKC.The UPSC will never ask this question. Rather we should ask to ourselves that why Sam Pitroda was made head of NKC.It is he who pionereed telecom revolution (C-DOT exchanges) in India. It is this critical information that we must know. Similarly, we can see Sulabh Toilets outside every railway stations.Thus, we should know who is behind this movement( Bindeshwar Pathak!) .Also, we are facing the problem of naxalism these days. As an intelligent citizen, we should know when,how and where this problem started-1967-Naxalbari village(darjeeling district,west bengal).The early leaders were Charu Mazumdar and Kanu Sanyal.In this way we can approach toward the general studies.The paper of general studies in prelims is,now, too general to need any coaching.In my opinion,a regular and intelligent reading of newspapers alongwith efficient use of wikipedia,if possible, is sufficient enough to provide cutting edge in prelims paper.

Political science- I never took any any coaching or guidance for political science.One can easily score 85-90+(after negative marking) in this paper with certain degree of conceptual clarity.For begineers, I would recommend following books-
1.The Constitution Of India- D.D.BASU
2.An Introduction To Political Theory-O.P.Gauba
3.Spectrum's Political science for Prelims
4.The Constitution Of India-P.M.Bakshi
The thorough study of O.P.Gauba may help you in getting basics entrenched in your mind.This subject is so wide that it is difficult to make a list of all the books that are required.I can only suggest the approach through which one should/may go toward the subject. For instance,
Art 1 of the Constitution states that India that is Bharat shall be union of states.This article gives us several important information-
a) The use of word 'union' rather than 'federal' ;The word federal is nowhere used in the consitution.This point is explained in all the major books on the subject.
b) What about Union Territories??? This means that India can exist without Union Territories but not without states.Of course, the boundaries, name and ,in fact, new states can be created. But States in some form must exist.India can not exist without states. You will not found this point in many popular books on the subject.It is this ability of extracting hidden information from the common information that comes when one go repeatative and of course, focused study of the subject.The 'common sense' of any person actually unravels the effort person put on the suject.
c)What about panchayats?????Think about it!
Important point-The term 'states' here do not have the same meaning as the word 'state' in Art 12 of the constitution.

I hope all this strategy/approach etc. become redundant for you once you actually start putting effort for the examinations because you will develop your own method of qualifying this examination! Best of luck !!!

Vivek Tripathi