CBSE Class 12 History Syllabus 2025 | New Syllabus

Themes in Indian History Part-III

• Familiarize the learner with early urban centres as economic and social institutions.
• Introduce the ways in which new data can lead to a revision of existing notions of history
• Illustrate steps of making archaeological reports.

Broad overview: Political and economic history from the Mauryan to the Gupta period

Story of discovery: Inscriptions and the decipherment of the script. Shifts in the understanding of political and economic history.

Excerpt: Asokan inscription and Gupta period land grant

Discussion: Interpretation of inscriptions by historians.

• Familiarize the learner with major trends in the political and economic history of the subcontinent.
• Introduce inscriptional analysis and the ways in which these have
  shaped the understanding of political and economic processes.

Broad overview: Issues in social history, including caste, class, kinship and gender

Story of discovery: Transmission and publications of the Mahabharata

Excerpt: from the Mahabharata, illustrating how it has been used by
historians.

Discussion:Other sources for reconstructing social history.

• Familiarize the learner with issues in social history.
• Introduce strategies of textual analysis and their use in reconstructing social history.

Broad overview:

a. A brief review of religious histories of Vedic religion, Jainism, Vaishnavism, Shaivism (Puranic Hinduism).

b. Focus on Buddhism.

• Discuss the major religious developments in early India.
• Introduce strategies of visual analysis and their use in reconstructing histories of religion.

Broad overview: Outline of social and cultural life as they appear in travellers’ accounts.

Story of their writings: A discussion of where they travelled, why they travelled, what they wrote, and for whom they wrote.

Excerpts: from AlBiruni, Ibn Battuta, Francois Bernier

Discussion: What these travel accounts can tell us and how they have been interpreted by historians

• Familiarize the learner with the salient features of social histories
  described by the travellers.
• Discuss how travellers’ accounts can be used as sources of social
  history

Broad overview:
a. Outline of religious developments during this period
b. Ideas and practices of the Bhakti-Sufi saints

Story of Transmission: HowBhakti-Sufi compositions have been preserved.

Excerpt: Extracts from selected BhaktiSufi works

Discussion: Ways in which these have been interpreted by historians.

• Familiarize the learner with religious developments.
• Discuss ways of analyzing devotional literature as sources of history.

Broad overview:
a. Outlineofnewbuildingsduring Vijayanagar period-temples, forts, irrigation facilities.
b. Relationship between architecture and the political system

Story of Discovery: Account of how Hampi was found.

Excerpt: Visuals of buildings at Hampi

Discussion: Ways in which historians have analyzed and interpreted these structures.

• Familiarize the learner with the new buildings that were built during the time.
• Discuss the ways in which architecture can be analyzed to reconstruct history

Broad overview:
a. Structure of agrarian relations in the 16thand 17thcenturies.Patterns of
change over the period.

Story of Discovery: Account of the compilation and translation of Ain-i-Akbari

Excerpt: from the Ain-i-Akbari

Discussion: Ways in which historians have used the text to reconstruct history.

• Discuss developments in agrarian relations.
• Discuss how to supplement official documents with other sources.

Broad overview:
a. Outline of political history15th-17th centuries
b. DiscussionoftheMughal court and politics

Story of Discovery: Account of the production of court chronicles, and their subsequent translation and transmission.

Excerpts: from the Akbarnama and Padshahnama

Discussion: Ways in which historians have used the texts to reconstruct political histories.

• Familiarize the learner with the major landmarks in political history.
• Show how chronicles and other sources are used to reconstruct the histories of political institutions.

Broad overview:
a. Life of zamindars, peasants and artisans in the late 18thcentury
b. East India Company, revenue settlements in various regions of India
and surveys
c. Changes over the nineteenth century Story of official records: An account of why official investigations into rural societies were undertaken and the types of records and reports produced.

Excerpts: From Fifth Report, Accounts of Frances Buchanan-Hamilton, and Deccan Riots Report.

Discussion: What the official records tell and do not tell, and how they have been used by historians

• Discuss howcolonialism affected zamindars, peasants and artisans.
• Comprehend the problems and limits of using official sources for
  understanding the lives of people.

Broad overview:
a. The events of 1857-58
b. Vision of Unity
c. How these events were recorded and narrated.
Focus: Lucknow
Excerpts: Pictures of 1857. Extracts from
contemporary accounts
Discussion: How the pictures of 1857 shaped British opinion of what had
happened.

• Discuss how the events of 1857 are being reinterpreted.
• Discuss how visual material can be used by historians.

Broad overview: History of towns in India, colonization and cities, hill stations, town planning of Madras, Calcutta and Bombay.

Excerpts: Photographs and paintings. Plans of cities. Extract from town plan reports.
Focus on Calcutta town planning

Discussion: How the above sources can be used to reconstruct the history of towns. What these sources do not reveal.

• Familiarize the learner with the history of modern urban centres.
• Discuss how urban histories can be written by drawing on different types of sources.

Broad overview:
a. The Nationalist Movement 1918 -48.
b. The nature of Gandhian politics and
leadership.

Focus: Mahatma Gandhi and the three movements and his last days as “finest hours”

Excerpts: Reports from English and Indian language newspapers and other contemporary writings.

Discussion: How newspapers can be a source of history

• Familiarize the learner with significant elements of the Nationalist Movement and the nature of Gandhian leadership.
• Discuss how Gandhi was perceived by different groups.
• Discuss how historians need to read and interpret newspapers, diaries and letters as historical source.

• Discuss the last decade of the national movement, the growth of
  communalism and the story of partition.
• Understand the events through the experience of those who lived
  through these years of communal violence.
• Show the possibilities and limits of oral sources.

Broad overview:
a. Independence and the new nation state.
b. The making of the Constitution

Focus: The Constitutional Assembly debates
Excerpts: from the debates
Discussion: What such debates reveal and how they can be analyzed.

Map Work on Units 1-15

• Familiarize students with the history of the early years after independence.
• Discuss how the founding ideals of the new nation state were debated and formulated.
• Understand how such debates and discussions can be read by historians.