GS Paper - I Model Answers (2021)- 1 | UPSC Mains Answer Writing: Practice PDF Download

Q1: Evaluate the nature of Bhakti Literature and its contribution to Indian culture.
Ans: The development of the Bhakti movement took place in Tamil Nadu between the seventh and twelfth centuries. Originally began in South India in the 9th century with Shankaracharya spread over all parts of India and by the 16th century was a great spiritual force to reckon with, especially after the great wave made by Kabir, Nanak and Shri Chaitanya.
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• Nature of Bhakti Literature
• Inter-religious Harmony: Bhakti and Sufi supported each other and various sufi saints recitation found place in Sikhs’ religious canons. Shri Guru Granth Sahib incorporated teachings of Kabir.
• Spread of Bhakti cult due to adoption of vernacular languages which was easi to be understood by masses.
• Inclusive Literature: It preached for removal of sectarianism and casteism. The Bhakti literature called for inclusion of?castes and out-castes.
• Against unorthodox rituals of the traditional society.
• Muslim poets Daulat Kazi and Sayed Alaoal wrote poems that were a cultural synthesis of Hinduism and Islam.
• Contribution of Bhakti literature
• Growth of Vernacular languages: The Bhakti literature promoted the growth of vernacular language in different parts of the country.
• In eastern Uttar Pradesh Sufi saints, such as Mulla Daud, the author of ‘Chandayan’, Malik Muhammad Jaisi, the author of ‘Padmavati’ wrote in Hindi and put forward Sufi concepts in a form which could be easily understood by the common man.
• Amongst the eastern group of languages, Bengali was used by Chaitanya and by the poet Chandidas, who wrote extensively on the theme of the love of Radha and Krishna.
• It was also a Bhakti leader Shankaradeva, who popularized the use of the Assamese in the Brahmaputra valley in the 15th century. He used an entirely new medium to spread his ideas.
• In today’s Maharashtra, Marathi reached its apogee at the hands of saints like Eknath and Tukaram.
• Other prominent saints like Kabir, Nanak, and Tulsidas contributed enormously to regional literature and language with their captivating verses and spiritual exposition.
• Emergence of a new cultural tradition with the influence of Bhakti and sufism.
• Also emergence of new sects like Sikhism, Kabir panth etc.
• As a literary movement, it liberated poetry from singing the praises of kings and introduced spiritual themes. From a style point of view, it introduced simple and accessible styles like vachanas (in Kannada), saakhis, dohas and other forms in various languages and ended the hegemony of Sanskrit metrical forms.
• The ideas of Bhakti movement continued to permeate the cultural ethos of the society through the enormous body of literature left by them. The congruence in their ideas not only saved us from the likely internecine conflicts but also built the spirit of tolerance. To appeal to the common masses, their messages were composed into songs, proverbs, and stories that led to the development of Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Maithili and a number of other languages.

Q2: Trace the rise and growth of socio-religious reform movements with special reference to Young Bengal and Brahmo Samaj. (UPSC GS 1  2021)
Ans: The dawn of the 19th century witnessed the birth of socio-religious reform movements.
Brahmo Samaj:

• Founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy with aim to worship the eternal God.
• Focused on prayers, meditation and reading of the scriptures.
• Attacked social evils like superstitions, casteism and untouchability.
• Worked for respectable status of women.
• Just centered in Calcutta

Young Bengal Movement:

• A young Anglo-Indian, Henry Vivian Derozio (1809-31) was the leader and inspirer of this progressive trend.
• French Revolution was inspiration to the youth.
• Supported women’s rights and education.
• Carried forward Ram Mohan Roy’s tradition of public education on social, economic and political questions.
• Way ahead of its time

Q3: Assess the main administrative issues and socio-cultural problems in the integration process of Indian Princely States. (UPSC GS1 2021)
Ans: Rulers of the princely states were not uniformly enthusiastic about integrating their domains into independent India.
Administrative issues:

• Bhopal, Travancore and Hyderabad announced that they did not intend to join either dominion.
• Princely States started negotiating with Pakistan or European countries to either accede or remain independent.

Socio-cultural problems:

• Several princely states had diverse population. Some of the states that had Muslim population were ruled by a Hindu king while others that had Hindu majority population were ruled by a Muslim leader.
• Efforts put by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and V.P. menon

Q4: Differentiate the causes of landslides in the Himalayan region and Western Ghats. (UPSC GS1 2021)
Ans: Landslides are the movement of mass of debris, earth or rock, sliding down under the effect of gravity. Landslides are a common problem across the Himalayas and Western Ghats. 
However, the factors for the two differ, as seen in the following table:

Landslide as a challenge has grown in the recent years, due to anthropogenic activities. In this light, along with sustainable development policies, indigenous knowledge should be leveraged. Construction in eco-sensitive zones need to be checked. Recommendations of Kasturirangan/ Madhav Gadgil reports and guidelines of NDMA on landslides need to be followed.

Q5: Despite India being one of the countries of the Gondwanaland, its mining industry contributes much less to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in percentage. Discuss.
Ans:

• India being a part of Gondwanaland, is richly endowed with mineral wealth such as coal, iron, mica, aluminium etc., however, mining sector of India contributes only 2.2% to 2.5% to the GDP of the country. 
• Reasons for low contribution are as under: Minerals are located in forested tribal areas. Democratic polity with a mandate for welfare creates conflicting priority of mineral exploitation and tribal development. 
• Multiple clearances and Legal hurdles: The mining sector ails from the requirement of multiple clearances, which makes the sector unviable/unprofitable. For example, Environmental/forest clearances. The mining sector is also susceptible to various legal pronouncements. For example, SC judgement on coal block allocation affected coal mining output. 
• High levies: Mining sector in India is subjected to much higher levies than other mining geographies. For example, high royalties, double taxation etc. Poor exploration: Highly restricted licensing regimes, disincentivises private players to indulge in mineral exploration. Monopoly of PSUs: Mining sector suffers from problem of unproductive usage of assets, due to monopoly of PSUs. For example, coal India’s monopoly in coal sector. 
• Slow modernisation: India’s mining sector has been slow in adopting productive global trends. For example, smart mines etc. The mining sector of India, hold immense potential to reduce import dependence and hurl industrial development. In this light faster administrative clearances need to be ensured and security challenges like Naxalism etc., in the mining belt need to be checked.

Q6: What are the environmental implications of the reclamation of water bodies into urban land use? Explain with examples. (UPSC GS1 2021)
Ans: Land reclamation is one of the most consequential fields of human induced environmental transformation. In this light reclamation of water bodies into urban land use has following environmental consequences:

• Damage to water ecology: Urban land transformation leads to creation of residential, commercial buildings, such as houses, restaurants around water bodies, causing degradation of water ecology and influx of nutrients. For example, Dal Lake in Sri Nagar.  
• Increased incidence of flooding: Water bodies act as sponges for extra rainfall, reclamation of water bodies, has led to higher incidences of floods. A case in point is Mumbai, which lost 71% of its wetlands between 1970 to 2014.  
• Species extinction: Land reclamation of Hussain Sagar Lake in Telangana, have increased the BOD to 116 mg/l. It is detrimental for not only aquatic species but also for aerial fauna.  
• Drinking water pollution: Water bodies have purifying effect through buffering out contaminants. Encroachment of water bodies lead to concentration of harmful chemicals such as arsenic, copper, chromium in the water table. For example, encroachment of water bodies in West Bengal have led to high level of arsenic pollution.  
• Environmental hazards: Water reclamation for urban land use in the coastal areas may aggravate the incidents of earthquakes etc., due to soil liquefaction and land subsidence. 

Water bodies play an important part in sustaining the ecology. In this light their conservation through waste water treatment, non-encroachment, reduced anthropogenic stress etc., is an imperative.

Q7: Mention the global occurrence of volcanic eruptions in 2021 and their impact on Regional environment. (UPSC GS1 2021)
Ans: A volcano eruption is when lava and gas are released from an active volcano, often explosively. Volcanoes have significant  impact on the regional environment, as can be seen from the examples of following volcanoes in 2021:

• Hunga Tonga-Hunga Hapai: The submarine volcano erupted in December, 2021.  
• Taal volcano: The volcano near Manila, experienced eruptions in 2021.  
• Nyiragongo: The violent/explosive eruption of this volcano in Democratic Republic of Congo affected the local population, as it killed dozens of people.  
• Iceland: The volcanic system of Iceland, erupted in 2021. It filled the valley with dark black lava for months before the eruption ceased.  
• La-Palma: The volcanic system in the canaries to saw eruption of an explosive volcano in 2021.

Impacts on  local environment:

• Plumes of volcanic ash can spread over the large areas of the sky, reducing visibility.  
• Volcanic eruptions are often accompanied with events of volcanic lightning.  
• Volcanic ash reflects incoming solar radiation leading to a localised cooling effect in the temperature.  For example, Mt. Krakatau brought mini ice age. 
• The volcanic ashes are known to increase the soil productivity of the region.  
• Carbon di oxide and fluorine gas can get collected in volcanic ash, and can pollute the regional environment, making it difficult for animals and humans to breathe. 
• Volcanic eruptions are also known to stimulate earthquakes in the region.

Volcanoes are a natural phenomenon. Most of the  active volcanoes are around the Pacific rim of fire. Though, volcanoes cannot be avoided, steps can be taken to mitigate their effects.

Q8: Why is India considered as a sub-continent? Elaborate your answer. (UPSC GS1 2021)
Ans: A subcontinent is a part of a continent that has distinct geographical, political and cultural identity. India is considered as a subcontinent because:

• Geography: India is seventh largest country in the world. Indian landmass is bounded by Himalayas in the north and Indian ocean in the south that gives it a distinct identity. A long coast line, a large desert (Thar), highest mountains ranges and large plains (India-Ganga-Brahmaputra plains) gives a physiological diversity that can be observed only on continental scale.  As per plate tectonics, India is a separate plate which collided with Eurasian plate leading to formation of Himalayas. 
• Population: Indian has second largest population in the world (much higher than any other continent, except for Asia and Africa)  
• Unity in diversity: India has multiple races, religions, castes etc. speaking different languages, practicing different customs but a certain element of unity is visible in all.   
• Political identity: India is the largest democracy with independent institutions. Commitment to socialism and secularism makes it different from any other country in its vicinity.  
• Diversity in flora and fauna: India has wide range vegetation ranging from evergreen forests to deciduous forest to alpine meadows. Many of the animal species found in India are endemic and not found in any other part of the world.    

Historically, even ancient people considered India a separate unit identifying entire land mass lying south of Indus (Sindhu) as India or Jambudweep. So, we can say that Identity of India as a subcontinent is well accepted even from ancient times.

Q9: Examine the uniqueness of tribal knowledge systems when compared with mainstream knowledge and cultural systems. (UPSC GS1 2021)
Ans: Tribal knowledge systems represent inter-generational wisdom in band societies passed on to the present times through centuries of experience and learnings. While similar characteristics can be seen in evolution of mainstream knowledge and culture, tribal knowledge systems are unique due to following reasons: Tribal societies have contemporary knowledge of nature due to continued closeness to forests, flora and fauna. 

• Mainstream societies have moved on to agricultural basis of society, and their cultural knowledge represents impressions of their tribal past, which no longer exists. While mainstream knowledge systems are based on rigorous refining and questioning of ideas through discussions and scientific verification, tribal methods are based on conservation of knowledge. 
• For example, the awareness among tribals of Andaman & Nicobar about a wall of sea helped them against Tsunami in 2004. Tribal knowledge systems are stored in songs and stories, while mainstream knowledge is preserved in books and recordings. Tribal knowledge systems promote integrated learning for the community. 
• In mainstream society, knowledge and traditions have bifurcated, with traditions becoming a subject of study instead of mode of studying. Tribal knowledge systems are non-exclusionary and marked by equity. Mainstreams knowledge systems are mired in barriers like cost of education, patent protections, social exclusion etc. 
• Tribal and mainstream societies are not mutually exclusive systems. Constant interaction and mutual dependence have enriched both. The way forward should be based on mixture of mutual learning and preservation through salad bowl model instead of assimilation. Recent initiatives like India’s Traditional Knowledge Didital Library initiative or the Nehruvian model of Tribal Panchsheel are some other approaches.

Q10: Examine the role of ‘Gig Economy’ in the process of empowerment of women in India. (UPSC GS1 2021)
Ans: A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations hire independent workers for short-term commitments.
Gig economy can help in process of empowerment of women in India in following ways:

• Gig employment allows part-time work and flexible working hours which allows women to balance their traditional roles (homemakers and care giver) with employment.   
• Gig employment complemented by work-from-home (WFH) and technology has addressed the issue of safety during travel and night shifts. Also, new employment opportunities for women in tier 2 and 3 cities have emerged.   
• It provides women with on-demand work allowing her join and drop-out of work force as per her own will.  
• Gig employment helps women earn extra income, boosted her confidence and gives decision making power all of which are important component of women empowerment. 

However, gig economy comes with its own set of constraints such as:

• Gig economy works purely on market principle of demand and supply. It views humans just as another resource. Easily replaceable low skill gig laborers are exploited by employers. There is also lack of certainty regarding availability of work and stability of career.   
• Lack of benefits: Flexi-workers usually are not entitled to minimum wages, insurances, PF, retirement plans, paid leave, maternity benefits, etc.   
• Pay difference: Permanent employees have a grade-pay plus benefits like travel allowance, etc. Gig workers are paid strictly as per the amount of work.   
• Restricted growth: Low skill gig workers cannot move-up the organizational hierarchy and not considered for promotions.

In short term, gig economy can be a step towards increasing female labour force participation and women empowerment. But, in long run, predictable and formal employment with opportunities of upskilling is required.