GS 1 Books: Important Books for IAS Mains General Studies 1 (Paper 2)

General Studies-1 (GS 1 Books-Syllabus) : Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society

GS 1 Books on Culture & Heritage of India

Syllabus:

• Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
  • Spectrum: Facets of Indian Culture
  • Indian Art and Culture by Nitin Singhania

GS 1 Books on Ancient & Medieval Indian History:

• Ancient History (R. S. Sharma ): Download PDF (Out of Print)
• Medieval History (Satish Chandra): Download PDF  (Out of Print)

GS 1 Books on Modern Indian History

Syllabus:

• Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues.
• The Freedom Struggle — its various stages and important contributors/contributions from different parts of the country.
  • Modern History (Bipin Chandra): Download PDF  | Hard Book
  • Spectrum:  A Brief History of Modern India

• Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country.
  • Bipin Chandra: India Since Independence

GS 1 Books on World History

Syllabus:

• History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.— their forms and effect on the society.

Books: 

• History of The Modern World From AD 1500 to AD 2011: B V Rao 

GS 1 Books on Social Aspects

Syllabus:

• Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.
• Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
• Effects of globalization on Indian society.
• Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.

Books:

• NCERT: Introducing Sociology: Class XI 
• NCERT: Social Change and Development in India: Class XII

GS 1 Books on World Geography

Syllabus:

• Salient features of world’s physical geography.
• Distribution of key natural resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian sub-continent); factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India).
• Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Books:

• Indian and World Geography by Majid Hussain
• Physical and Human Geography by GC Leong