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It’s been said, tried and tested multiple times that reading Laxmikant is inevitable for UPSC prep. In Fact we must use this book as the pretext for our preparation for Polity.
We are not going to support or advocate any new source to read Polity. Instead, we are going to tell you the SMARTER way of preparing for Prelims from Laxmikant itself.
Lets see how, read through the Year Wise breakup of questions asked from Polity
| Year | Number of questions |
| 2014 | 11 |
| 2015 | 13 |
| 2016 | 7 |
| 2017 | 19 |
| 2018 | 13 |
| 2019 | 12 |
| 2020 | 17 |
| 2021 | Any guesses? |
With the evolving numbers and inherent uncertainty above, we need to read between the lines and get an idea of the developing trend and pattern where the importance of Laxmikant cannot be ignored.
On an average UPSC has been asking 15-20 Questions each year from the polity section since 2011.
Most of the questions are being asked from a single source which is M Laxmikanth. Lately, a mix of current affairs-based questions has been introduced with associated static knowledge.
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How to start reading Laxmikanth?
Never devote equal importance or time to all sections of Laxmikant as that would turn out to be draining you (Mentally and Physically) at the end with no real outcome. With this extra hard work strategy, you may or may not solve all the polity questions in prelims.
The second strategy is the Hard-work + Smart strategy where even though you will read each and every chapter of Laxmikant but you will give special focus to certain important chapters and information which will help you to solve each and every question of polity in UPSC prelims. We call them “Meaty Areas”. And most importantly, always try to learn chapters from Laxmikant with one or two live examples. There are a sufficient number of them around us.
Some general observations about the book
- It has been written in such a way that you do not need to make any notes out of it
- It is one of the best compilation of various useful resources contained in the constitution
- Its language is simple and easy to understand
- It is way more to easy to comprehend than say, a book like Constitution of India by D .D. Basu
Macro-level suggestions on how we should read from Laxmikant book
#1. Start chronologically with Chapter 1 itself.
Remember the Union and its territories, recent LBA with Bangladesh. Go slowly, reading each and every line (each and every line of this book ought to be read)
#2. Prelims examination not only requires conceptual clarity but also the applied part of it.
The conceptual clarity helps to solve the analytical question asked from this section. (Prelims 2017, 2019 & 2020 was heavily loaded with conceptual questions from Polity).
Example:
1) Consider the following statements:
The Constitution of India defines its ‘basic structure’ in terms of federalism, secularism, fundamental rights and democracy.
The Constitution of India provides for ‘judicial review’ to safeguard the citizens’ liberties and to preserve the ideals on which the Constitution is based.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
2) Consider the following statements:
According to the Constitution of India, a person who is eligible to vote can be made a minister in a State for six months even if he/she is not a member of the Legislature of that State.
According to the Representation of People Act, 1951, a person convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to imprisonment for five years is permanently disqualified from contesting an election even after his release from prison.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
You might be wondering how this is applicable to the current scenario? These questions appear to be directly coming from Laxmikant and that is even true but unlike earlier, they require a lot of conceptual clarity to answer them. Even seasoned aspirants have ended up marking them incorrectly. The interplay of phrases like “India defines” and “India provides” has made many confused.
According to the earlier trends, it was easy to attempt a maximum number of questions from polity because generally questions from this section were direct and based on factual information. But, now the nature of questions has changed.
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#3. Along with factual information, one should cover the current political developments.
Link the “Current Affairs” with “Associated Static”. This eases the pressure on the aspirant and also helps build confidence.
Example:
Q.) With reference to the Parliament of India, consider the following statements
- A private member’s bill is a bill presented by a Member of Parliament who is not elected but only nominated by the President of India.
- Recently, a private member’s bill has been passed in the Parliament of India for the first time in its history.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
UPSC, nowadays does not ask direct current affairs, it asks about background knowledge of any matter/issue.
Correlating things: the bookish knowledge and the practical happenings- is the real essence of preparing for UPSC civil services exam. Try to locate whatever you learned from Laxmikanth book in the day-to-day happenings, history, hypothetical situations, etc.
You may watch Lok Sabha proceedings and can tally whatever you learned from the book. You might read an article in a newspaper about change in name of a state, and revise the procedure for the same from the book. This will make learning interesting.
#4. Most importantly, analyze previous year’s question papers. See what type of question is asked and how they are asked.
Practicing previous year questions will help you to find out the areas where you commit mistakes.
Micro-level suggestions on how you should read the book
Section one: Historical background
What is most important here?
Committees of the Constituent Assembly
What is moderately important?
Composition of the Constituent Assembly
Rest can be ignored or given a mild read.
Section two: Fundamental Rights, Duties, DPSP, Preamble (Very very important)
General Comments
UPSC asks 5-6 Questions every year from this section. In UPSC 2020 most of the polity Questions were asked from this section. You have to read this section multiple times.
Specific Suggestions
- Salient features of the Indian Constitution (Moderately important. The topics mentioned in this chapters are covered extensively in later chapters)
- Preamble to the Constitution (Very very important) UPSC simply loves Preamble. It has asked questions on the preamble in 2015 and this year also. Read carefully about different words mentioned in the preamble (example fraternity) and what do they exactly mean.
- Union and its territory (Moderately important). Aspirants should be aware of the process through which states are created and also they should be aware of the sequence of new states creation).
- Fundamental rights, DPSP and Fundamental duties (Very very important) FR, FD, DPSP etc are difficult as they have laws and bylaws.
- Some are explicit while others are implicit. It is thus important to get the concept and soul of them. UPSC won’t ask petty details or facts. It will exploit the conceptual part.
- You should be able to connect dots with recent happenings. For example, in 2017 UPSC asked a question related to privileges after use of red beacons was abolished by the government for ministers/officers.
- Amendment of the constitution (Read carefully about different types of majorities and which majority is used in which case for example in which cases two-third majority is required and in which cases simple majority is required.)
- Read very carefully about basic terms of polity like Cabinet form of Government, Judicial review, President System, Prime Minister System, Federalism, First past the post system, Proportional representation, rights and duties etc.
In the last few years UPSC has been asking lots of questions to test the conceptual clarity of the aspirant.
Section three: Similar topics
Union and state Executive / Centre and State Relations
Given the nature of evolving polity in India and ever powerful state govts, the conceptual clarity with respect to the Centre and State relations and constitutional bodies / protocols have ( PM Modi rebuking CM Kejriwal for airing the live meeting).
Almost 90% of powers and functions of President and Governor are the same. With respect to Delhi the introduction of the recent GNCT Act, with more power to the office of Lt Governor of Delhi is another aspect of development, important for both Prelims and Mains.
If you cover topics which are similar like President and governor, Prime Minister and Chief Minister, Parliament and state legislature, supreme court and high court together it will save your time and will be easy to memorize and link them. Smart work!
How President and Vice President are elected and removed
Read very carefully the Comparison table of powers of Governor and President mentioned in the Governor Chapter in Laxmikanth.
Always read trivial information very carefully, you can also make notes of the titbits information mentioned in any chapter since UPSC loves to ask trivia based questions, for example, the President can pardon a death convict, however, the Governor cannot.
Parliament and state legislature
Every year 1-3 questions are asked from it in prelims.
What is most important in this chapter?
- Read both chapters simultaneously. Look for differences between the powers of parliament and state legislature example privilege power of parliament is much wider than state legislature. (Very important)
- Different committees and its composition and various kinds of motions and resolutions.
- Different types of bills
- Different types of discussions
- Powers of speakers,deputy speakers,Chairman and Vice Chairman.
- Comparison between powers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and Rajya Sabha and legislative council.
- Budget.
Supreme court and High court
What is most important here?
- Comparison between writ powers of High court and Supreme court. Master of Roaster, Conflict of interest, Corona crisis, you name it and Courts are into it. Especially use of art 142 by SC also needs to be inspected carefully.
- Appointment and removal process of SC and HC judges(There is some trivial differences in that process)
- Original powers of SC and HC
Section 4: Constitutional/statutory and Executive bodies
What should you read very carefully?
- Whether the body is constitutional, statutory or executive. Example SC/ST commission is constitutional body but backward commission and women commission are Statutory Bodies.
- Who appoints the chairman and member of the commission and how they are removed.
- Focus on trivial issues
- Usually, except for appointment and removal, most of the functions and details of Central commissions and state commissions are similar.
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Section 5: Special status of different states and union territories
What should you read very carefully?
- Read carefully the role of Governor and president in these states as already emphasised.
- Read carefully the powers of L.G. and president in union territories. President has some extraordinary power in some union territories.
Section 6: Local Bodies
These third tier of Govts are not considered the most important pillars of basic governance and their empowerment is must going forward. Aspirants need to devote a decent amount of time understanding the constitutional mandates and powers of Panchayati raj and Municipality.
14th and 15th Finance Commissions and their views of local governance and their development needs a mention here. There are now direct allocations to local bodies from Consolidated fund of India suggested by these Finance Commissions.
Read carefully different committees of Panchayati raj.
Regarding powers and functions of local bodies read carefully about which clause is mandatory (mandated by 73rd and 74th amendment) and which is optional (depends on whims and fancies of state government).
Example SC/ST reservation in local bodies is mentioned in 73rd and 74th amendment but OBC reservation is optional.
Section 7: Miscellaneous items
This will include remaining topics:
- In this most important chapters are anti-defection law, the official language, political parties and elections.
- The anti-defection chapter closely read about differences in the 52nd amendment and 85th amendment (it is bit tricky).
- In the political party chapter extensively read about criteria for granting any political party national or regional status.
Rest of the chapters should be read but they are not very important from an exam perspective.
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