CUET Political Science Syllabus 2026: Download PDF, Important Topics

Politics in India Since Independence

Topics

Sub-Topics

The era of One-Party Dominance

• The first three general elections

• Nature of Congress dominance at the national level

• Uneven dominance at the state level

• Coalitional nature of Congress

• Major opposition parties.

Nation-Building and Its Problems

• Nehru’s approach to nation-building: Legacy of partition: the challenge of ‘refugee’ resettlement

• The Kashmir problem.

• Organization and reorganization of states

• Political conflicts over language.

Politics of Planned Development

• Five-year plans

• Expansion of the state sector

• The rise of new economic interests. Famine and suspension of five-year plans.

• Green revolution and its political fallouts.

India’s External Relations

• Nehru’s foreign policy.

• Sino-Indian War of 1962

• Indo-Pak war of 1965 and 1971.

• India’s nuclear programme and shifting alliances in world politics.

Challenge to and Restoration of the Congress System

• Political succession after Nehru. Non-Congressism and the electoral upset of 1967

• Congress split and reconstitution

• Congress’s victory in the 1971 elections

• Politics of ‘garibi hatao’.

Crisis of the Constitutional Order

• Search for ‘committed’ bureaucracy and judiciary.

• Navnirman movement in Gujarat and the Bihar movement.

• Emergency: context, constitutional and extra-constitutional dimensions, resistance to an emergency.

• 1977 elections and the formation of the Janata Party.

• Rise of civil liberties organizations.

Regional Aspirations and Conflicts

• Rise of regional parties.

• Punjab crisis and the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

• The Kashmir situation.

• Challenges and responses in the North East.

Rise of New Social Movements

• Farmers’ movements

• Women’s movements

• Environment, and Development-affected people’s movements.

• Implementation of the Mandal Commission report and its aftermath.

Democratic Upsurge and Coalition Politics

• Participatory upsurge in the 1990s.

• Rise of the JD and the BJP.

• The increasing role of regional parties and coalition politics.

• UF and NDA governments.

• Elections 2004 and the UPA government.

Recent Issues and Challenges

• Challenge of and responses to globalization: new economic policy and its opposition.

• Rise of OBCs in North Indian politics.

• Dalit politics in the electoral and non-electoral arena.

• The challenge of communalism: Ayodhya dispute, Gujarat riots.

Contemporary World Politics

Cold War Era in World Politics

• Emergence of two power blocs after the Second World War.

• Arenas of the Cold War.

• Challenges to Bipolarity: Non-Aligned Movement, the quest for a new international economic order.

• India and the Cold War.

Disintegration of the ‘Second World’ and the Collapse of Bipolarity

• New entities in world politics: Russia, Balkan states, and Central Asian states

• Introduction of democratic politics and capitalism in post-communist regimes.

• India’s relations with Russia and other post-communist countries.

US Dominance in World Politics

• Growth of unilateralism: Afghanistan, the first Gulf War, the response to 9/11, and the attack on Iraq.

• Dominance and challenge to the US in the economy and ideology.

• India’s renegotiation of its relationship with the USA.

Alternative Centres of Economic and Political Power

• Rise of China as an economic power in the post-Mao era, creation, and expansion of the European Union, and ASEAN.

• India’s changing relations with China.

South Asia in the Post-Cold War Era

• Democratisation and its reversals in Pakistan and Nepal.

• Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

• Impact of economic globalization on the region.

• Conflicts and efforts for peace in South Asia.

• India’s relations with its neighbours.

International Organisations in a Unipolar World

• Restructuring and the future of the UN.

• India’s position in the restructured UN.

• Rise of new international actors: new international economic organizations, NGOs.

• How democratic and accountable are the new institutions of global governance?

Security in the Contemporary World

• Traditional concerns of security and the politics of disarmament.

• Non-traditional or human security: global poverty, health, and education.

• Issues of human rights and migration.

Environment and Natural Resources in Global Politics

• Environmental movement and the evolution of global environmental norms.

• Conflicts over traditional and common property resources.

• Rights of indigenous people.

• India’s stand in global environmental debates.

Globalisation and Its Critics

• Economic, cultural, and political manifestations.

• Debates on the nature of the consequences of globalization.

• Anti-globalization movements.

• India is an arena of globalization and struggles against it.

Particulars

Details

Number of Questions

50

Total Marks

250

Duration of the Political Science Exam

60 Minutes

Mode of Exam

Computer-Based Mode

Marking Scheme

+5 marks for each correct answer

-1 for each incorrect answer

0 marks for unanswered questions