Q8 · UPPSC PCS Mains 2018 · Essay · 50 marks · ~700 words in the hall · 2 min read

← Q7 Q9 →

The Foreign Policy of India is based upon the principle of Peace and Equality.

Topic: National and international events. Syllabus: Section C — National and International Events; Natural Calamities; National Development programmes and projects. Same official PYQ from year-wise 2018 and National and international events.

Essay map

Opening scene

Anecdote

A Panchsheel plaque and a patrol that did not read it. Foreign policy as peace and equality is a claim India makes in rooms. The essay is whether the claim still organises choices — a UN vote, a trade, a neighbour. Peace and equality are a grammar. A ridge and a neighbour are the exam. Write both, or the sentence is a greeting.

Keep this in every paragraph

One stand

  • Peace: non-use of force as a preference, not a suicide. Equality: sovereign equality in the UN sense, not a sameness of power. Write NAM’s child, then a Quad-era mix without a party.

Use once, in a scene — do not dump names

Quotes to earn

  • Panchsheel / Nehru

    The grammar — then the ridge.

Turn each heading into a full paragraph in the hall

Heading map

What the line is asking

  • Based upon: a foundation, not the only brick.
  • Peace and equality: two principles.

Practice

  • Neighbourhood first that sometimes fails. South-South. A diaspora.

The counter

A peace that cannot name a terror camp is a poster. Equality among nations is mocked by a veto. India’s voice for a reformed UN is the equality-file. Strategic autonomy is the adult form of the old principle.

Grammar and ridge

  • Panchsheel as a method, not a museum.
  • Equality among states is not sameness of power; it is a refusal to be a camp-follower.
  • Neighbourhood first is the hardest peace.
  • A silent human-rights file is also a foreign policy — name the tension.

Drop one peg where it fits — not a data dump

Value addition

  • UN Charter Sovereign equality as a legal cousin.
  • NAM A historical method.
  • Neighbourhood One case — not a tour of ten capitals.
  • UNSC reform Equality as a demand, not a slogan only.

Last 8–10 lines in the exam

Last paragraph

  • India’s foreign policy has a grammar of peace and equality: talk before a camp, a vote that is not rented, a dignity for a smaller flag. Grammar is not the whole weather. A ridge, a neighbour’s collapse, a table where power is unequal — these test whether the grammar still moves a file. Do not write a greeting-card of Panchsheel and then forget the LAC. Do not write only the ridge and forget why a republic refused to be a camp-follower. Keep the method; hold the ground; see the village across the border as a person, not a map colour. Close on a sentence that can sit in South Block and in a border school.

Quick related

Students also ask

PYQ trend

When UPSC asked this

Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.

  1. 2020 · Q7 · UPESS · 50 marks

    India-China Relations and SAARC Politics.

    View answer →

  2. 2020 · Q8 · UPESS · 50 marks

    Corona Pandemic: Disaster to Opportunity.

    View answer →

  3. 2020 · Q9 · UPESS · 50 marks

    "Ayushman Bharat" – Healthy India.

    View answer →

  4. 2019 · Q7 · UPESS · 50 marks

    Changing paradigm of Indian foreign policy.

    View answer →

  5. 2019 · Q8 · UPESS · 50 marks

    Resource management in India.

    View answer →

  6. 2019 · Q9 · UPESS · 50 marks

    Namami Gange Mission.

    View answer →

  7. 2018 · Q7 · UPESS · 50 marks

    The problem of Global Terrorism: causes and remedies.

    View answer →

  8. 2018 · Q9 · UPESS · 50 marks

    The Border Security Forces are the main factor of our National sovereignty.

    View answer →

More from this paper

Q3 · UPSC Mains 2018 · UPESS · 50 marks

Education and Moral values.

Literature, culture, society and polity

Map. Rank factory vs a silenced girl. Stand: equality-values plus skill. Peg RTE. Counter: custom as fake value.

Toppers' copies

Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.