Political Science is one optional which is famous and many aspirants opt for it. In Pol.science one should have different approach in the optional as well as quality material .
Paper I
Part 1
We can divide this section into four parts:
- Political Theory,
- Indian Political Thought,
- Western Political Thought
- Political Ideologies.
For Political Theory, We must refer to Andrew Heywood’s “Political Theory” for conceptual clarity in all fundamental topics
O.P.Gauba “Political Theory“has as complicated style of writing, but it fills the gaps in Andrew Heywood
For Political Ideologies, Political Ideologies by Andrew Heywood is most useful.
For Western Political Thought, the book by Brian Nelson is very good.
For Indian Political Thought, V.R.Mehta’s book is a decentsource. Ambedkar and Syed Ahmed Khan are missing in this book which can be covered in IGNOU
Part II
Indian Government and Politics:
The basic texts for this section are
B.L.Fadia,
Spectrum’s Indian Polity,
https://spectrumbooksonline.in/product/indian-polity/
RamachandraGuha
Subhashkashyap: Indian Constitution conflicts and controversies
MadhavKhosla: The Indian Constitution
Bipan Chandra.
This is a current affairs oriented section and Spectrum’s Indian Polity is very useful as they update it every year but we must not ignore the pages of a good newspaper.
Answers in these sections must have contemporary examples and can quote good authors.
Paper II
Part I
Comparative Political Analysis and International Politics:
This can be divided into two sections:
- Comparative Politics
- International Relations.
Comparative Politics section was covered by IGNOU
For International Relations one can refer to V.K.Malhotra’s “International Relations”
International organisations, conferences and treaties by spectrum is very good source
https://spectrumbooksonline.in/product/international-organisations/
”Frontline” is a good Indian magazine to cover international events
Part II
For Indian foreign Policy, you can refer to David Malone’s book.
Gaps in this book can be filled by reading ShashiTharoor OR Rajiv Sikri selectively.
This section can be mastered if you follow The Hindu and good columnists regularly. Some expert foreign policy commentators include C.Rajamohan, Brahma Challaney ,SuhasiniHaidar and SrinathRaghavan.
Our answers for PSIR should
- Introduce the statement in the question, analyse the viewpoints associated with it and conclude it.
- It is important to ensure our answers have a closure to it.
- We must not write like students appearing for graduation exam.Rather, we must write like a bureaucrat submitting a report to a higher official.
- Our answers should have contemporary examples.
- We can quote authors and columnists in answers. It adds to the intellectual weight of our viewpoints.