General Studies 1 Paper Syllabus for UPSC Civil Services Mains Exam consists of the below major areas: Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society. Detailed syllabus is given below:
General Studies 1 Paper Syllabus for UPSC Civil Services Mains
- Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
- 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.
- Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country.
- 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.
- 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.
- Salient features of world’s physical geography.
- Distribution of key natural resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian subcontinent);
- 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.
Reference Books for General Studies Paper 1 [Suggestions by ClearIAS.com]

- The Wonder That Was India – A.L. Bhasham. (Culture)
- India’s Ancient Past – R.S. Sharma. (Culture)
- Indian Art and Culture – Nitin Singhania. (Culture)
- History Of Modern India – Bipan Chandra. (History)
- India’s Struggle For Independence – Bipan Chandra. (History)
- India After Gandhi – Ramchandra Guha (History – GS1)
- Norman Lowe OR History of Modern World – Jain and Mathur (World History – GS1)
- Social Problems In India – Ram Ahuja. (Indian Society – GS1)
- Geography of India – Majid Husain. (Geography)
- Oxford School Atlas – Oxford. (Geography)
- Certificate Physical and Human Geography – Goh Cheng Leong. (Geography)