BHIC 113 key facts: June 2026
- Course code: BHIC 113 (printed BHIC-113)
- Subject: History of India-VIII (c. 1857-1950)
- Programme: Bachelor of Arts (Honours) History (BAHIH), Semester VI core course
- Credits: 6
- Units: 21 units listed on eGyanKosh
- Maximum marks: 100 (term-end exam 70 per cent, assignments 30 per cent)
- Duration: 3 hours
- Questions in the paper: 8 numbered questions, 14 answerable items (Q4 and Q8 each offer 4 short notes); attempt any 5, at least 2 from each section
- Expected length: about 400 words per essay, 200 words per short note
- Paper language: bilingual, English and Hindi in one booklet
- Samples shown on this page: 2 (Q2 and Q5); all 14 items in the paid file
BHIC 113 Solved Question Paper for the June 2026 term-end exam gives you the official IGNOU paper of History of India-VIII with every question answered by our history team. Two full answers are open on this page; the complete file of 14 answers comes to you on WhatsApp.
1. What the June 2026 Solved Paper Covers
BHIC 113 History of India-VIII (c. 1857-1950) is a six-credit Semester VI core course of IGNOU's BA (Honours) History programme, and this file solves its June 2026 paper in full.
The paper moves from the economic effects of colonial rule to the Republic of 1950. Section I asks about colonisation, the birth of the Congress and non-cooperation, with short notes on Periyar, de-industrialisation, Maharashtra's reformers and the revolutionaries. Section II turns to Gandhi's religion, labour and peasant politics, Indian capitalists, and four short notes from the INA to Quit India.
Many students download the question paper and then stall, because a 20-mark history answer needs dates, names and an argument, not a list. Our file fills that gap. If you are revising other papers of the same honours course, the BAHIH Question Paper collection follows the same answer style.
2. Two Answers Solved in Full, Twelve Held Back
Below are two complete answers from the June 2026 paper, one from each section, each pitched a little above the 400-word guide so you have room to trim in the exam.
Factors behind the formation of the Indian National Congress
Question 2: Discuss the factors which gave rise to the formation of the Indian National Congress. (20)
The Indian National Congress held its first session at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay, from 28 to 31 December 1885, with 72 delegates and W.C. Bonnerjee in the chair. Its birth was not a sudden event. It grew out of three decades of political, economic and administrative change that had created both a class of Indians able to organise and real grievances for them to organise around.
- Western education and the press. The universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, set up in 1857, produced an English-educated middle class of lawyers, teachers and journalists. Papers such as The Hindu (1878), Kesari (1881) and the Amrita Bazar Patrika spread ideas of representative government and carried criticism of official policy to readers across provinces, giving them a shared political vocabulary.
- Economic critique of British rule. Dadabhai Naoroji's drain theory, developed from the late 1860s, argued that India's wealth was being transferred to Britain through home charges, salaries and profits. M.G. Ranade questioned the ruin of Indian industry. The famine of 1876 to 1878 and the removal of import duties on British cotton cloth between 1879 and 1882 made these arguments feel urgent.
- Pre-Congress associations. Regional bodies prepared the ground: the British Indian Association (1851), the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha (1870), the Indian Association (1876) of Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose, the Madras Mahajan Sabha (1884) and the Bombay Presidency Association (1885). The Indian Association even held an all-India National Conference in Calcutta in 1883 and again in 1885.
- Reactionary policies under Lytton. The maximum age for the civil service examination was cut from 21 to 19 in 1876, which shut most Indians out. The Vernacular Press Act and the Arms Act of 1878 curbed Indian newspapers and disarmed Indians, while the lavish Delhi Durbar of 1877 was held as famine spread. Each measure fed a sense of common humiliation.
- The Ilbert Bill controversy (1883). Ripon's proposal to let Indian judges try Europeans in certain cases met a fierce, organised European agitation that forced the government to dilute it. Educated Indians drew a clear lesson: united, all-India agitation works, and they needed a national platform of their own.
- The role of A.O. Hume. The retired civil servant appealed to Calcutta University graduates in 1883 and formed the Indian National Union in 1884, which was renamed the Indian National Congress at the suggestion of Dadabhai Naoroji. Hume's contacts with officials made a national meeting possible without immediate hostility.
- The historians' debate. The safety-valve theory, drawn from William Wedderburn's 1913 biography of Hume, held that the Congress was meant to release Indian discontent harmlessly. Later historians, notably Bipan Chandra, argued the reverse: Indian leaders used Hume as a lightning conductor, letting his presence shield a young organisation from official suspicion.
Conclusion. The Congress was the product of an Indian political awakening shaped by education, economic grievance and local organisation. Lytton's measures and the Ilbert Bill agitation sharpened the need for unity, and Hume acted as a catalyst rather than a creator. That is why the 1885 session could speak, however cautiously, for India as a whole.
Gandhi's ideology, with special reference to religion
Question 5: Give an analytical account of Gandhi's ideology with special reference to religion. (20)
For Gandhi, religion was not ritual or dogma but the search for Truth and a code of moral conduct, and this idea sat at the centre of his politics, his non-violence and his vision of a plural Indian nation. To analyse his ideology, we need to see where his religious ideas came from, how he used them in public life, and why they drew both support and sharp criticism.
- Sources of his religious thought. Gandhi grew up in a Vaishnava home in Porbandar, shaped by his mother Putlibai's fasts and vows. The Jain thinker Raychandbhai deepened his interest in ahimsa. He read the Bhagavad Gita as a guide to selfless action, valued the Sermon on the Mount, and was moved by Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You and Ruskin's Unto This Last, which he read in 1904.
- Truth is God. Gandhi first said that God is Truth, but by the early 1930s he preferred to say that Truth is God, so that even an honest atheist could share his quest. Since every person sees only part of the truth, he argued, no faith could claim the whole of it. Tolerance and dialogue followed logically from this position.
- Religion and politics cannot be separated. In his autobiography Gandhi wrote that anyone who claims religion has nothing to do with politics does not understand religion. By religion he meant ethics: politics without morality was, for him, a trap. Hind Swaraj (1909) attacked modern industrial civilisation as irreligious because it put material desire above self-control.
- Ahimsa and satyagraha as a religious method. Non-violence was the practical form of truth. Satyagraha, or soul force, asked the resister to accept suffering rather than inflict it, hoping to change the opponent's heart. This turned fasting, prayer meetings and self-discipline into instruments of mass politics, from Champaran in 1917 to the Salt March of 1930.
- Equal respect for all faiths. Gandhi stood for sarva dharma samabhava. He backed the Khilafat cause between 1919 and 1922 to bring Hindus and Muslims together, fasted for 21 days in Delhi in 1924 for communal peace, and undertook his last fast in January 1948. His Ram Rajya meant a just and moral government, not a Hindu state.
- Reform within Hinduism. He called untouchability a sin against God, founded the Harijan Sevak Sangh in 1932 and started the weekly Harijan in 1933. Yet he defended varna as a division of duties, which brought him into conflict with B.R. Ambedkar, especially over the Poona Pact of 1932.
- Critical assessment. Ambedkar argued that Gandhi's reformism left caste intact. The Muslim League saw Hindu idioms such as Ram Rajya and bhajans as alienating, and Nehru and the socialists were uneasy with religious language in politics. Supporters reply that this idiom carried nationalism to villages that secular programmes never reached.
Conclusion. Gandhi's ideology was deeply religious yet firmly anti-sectarian. He used faith to give politics a moral core and to mobilise millions, but his religious vocabulary also had limits in a divided society. His assassination on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse, who opposed his conciliation with Muslims, showed how high the stakes of that vision were.
3. Questions Answered Only in the Full File
The remaining 12 items of the June 2026 paper are listed below exactly as printed. Their answers are not on this page.
Section I
Question 1: Critically examine the effect of colonisation on India. (20)
Question 3: Why was the call for the non-cooperation movement given? How did it mobilise the masses? (20)
Question 4: Write short notes on any two of the following. (10 + 10)
(i) E.V. Ramaswami Naicker
(ii) De-industrialisation
(iii) Social reforms in Maharashtra
(iv) The revolutionaries
Section II
Question 6: Discuss the rise of trade union and peasant movements in India during the nationalist struggle. (20)
Question 7: What was the contribution of the Indian capitalist class in the growth of the economy in the first half of the 20th century? (20)
Question 8: Write short notes on any two of the following. (10 + 10)
(i) Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army)
(ii) Royal Indian Navy Revolt, 1946
(iii) Nationalist sentiment and Indian literature
(iv) Quit India Movement
Three of these, the Periyar note, the naval revolt note and the non-cooperation essay, were asked in June 2024 as well, so the full file covers the topics examiners clearly like to come back to.
4. Unit-Wise Syllabus
The BHIC 113 course book runs to 21 units, from the effects of imperialism to the democratic polity of 1950.
Unit titles below are taken from the official eGyanKosh collection for BHIC-113, which lists the units without block headings.
| Unit | Unit title | Core topics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Effects of Imperialism | Drain of wealth; ruin of handicrafts and de-industrialisation; commercialisation of agriculture |
| 2 | Social and Religious Reforms in Nineteenth-Century India | Brahmo Samaj and Rammohun Roy; Prarthana Samaj and Arya Samaj; widow remarriage and women's education |
| 3 | The Non-Brahman Movements in Western and Southern India | Jotirao Phule and the Satyashodhak Samaj (1873); Justice Party; Periyar and the Self-Respect Movement |
| 4 | Formation of Indian National Congress | Pre-Congress associations; A.O. Hume and the 1885 Bombay session; the safety-valve debate |
| 5 | Moderates and Extremists | Moderate petitions and economic critique; Tilak, Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal; Surat split of 1907 |
| 6 | The Swadeshi Movement | Partition of Bengal (1905); boycott and national education; samitis and mass mobilisation |
| 7 | Non-cooperation and Khilafat Movements: 1919-1922 | Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh; the Khilafat question; Chauri Chaura and withdrawal in 1922 |
| 8 | Civil Disobedience Movement: 1930-34 | Dandi March; Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931); Round Table Conferences |
| 9 | The Revolutionaries | Bengal and Maharashtra groups; Ghadar Party; HSRA and Bhagat Singh |
| 10 | Constitutional Reforms | Indian Councils Acts of 1892 and 1909; Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms (1919); Government of India Act 1935 |
| 11 | Quit India Movement | Failure of the Cripps Mission; the August 1942 resolution; underground networks and parallel governments |
| 12 | Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) | Mohan Singh and the first INA; Subhas Chandra Bose in Singapore (1943); Red Fort trials of 1945 |
| 13 | Popular Struggles in the Princely States | Praja mandals; All India States People's Conference (1927); struggles in Hyderabad state |
| 14 | Mahatma Gandhi: His Perspectives and Methods | Satyagraha and ahimsa; Hind Swaraj (1909); the constructive programme |
| 15 | Nationalism and Culture: Nationalist Literature | Bankim's Anandamath; nationalist poetry in Bengali, Tamil and Urdu; Premchand's fiction |
| 16 | Left-wing Movements | Rise of the Communist Party; Congress Socialist Party (1934); Meerut Conspiracy Case |
| 17 | Growth of Trade Union and Peasant Movements | AITUC (1920); Bardoli Satyagraha (1928); All India Kisan Sabha (1936) |
| 18 | The Capitalist Class and the Freedom Struggle | FICCI (1927); Indian business and swadeshi enterprise; Bombay Plan (1944) |
| 19 | Towards Independence: 1945-1947 | INA trials and the Royal Indian Navy Revolt; Cabinet Mission (1946); Mountbatten Plan |
| 20 | Communalism and the Partition of India | Muslim League and the two-nation idea; Direct Action Day (1946); partition violence |
| 21 | Emergence of Independent India: The Establishment of Democratic Polity | Constituent Assembly debates; the Constitution in force on 26 January 1950; integration of princely states |
If you want unit notes alongside the solved paper, our BHIC 113 Study Material follows the same 21-unit order, so you can move from an answer to its unit without searching.
5. Exam Pattern and Marks Distribution
The paper has 8 questions in two sections, and you answer any 5, with at least 2 from each section, for 100 marks in 3 hours.
| Part of paper | What it asks | Marks | Expected length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section I, Q1 to Q3 | Long essays on colonisation, Congress formation and non-cooperation | 20 each | About 400 words |
| Section I, Q4 | Short notes: choose 2 of 4 (Periyar, de-industrialisation, Maharashtra reforms, revolutionaries) | 10 + 10 | About 200 words each |
| Section II, Q5 to Q7 | Long essays on Gandhi, labour and peasants, Indian capitalists | 20 each | About 400 words |
| Section II, Q8 | Short notes: choose 2 of 4 (INA, 1946 naval revolt, nationalist literature, Quit India) | 10 + 10 | About 200 words each |
| Overall rule | Attempt any 5 questions, at least 2 from each section | 100 in 3 hours | 5 answers of equal weight |
Assignments carry 30 per cent of the final result and the term-end exam 70 per cent. That makes the five exam answers the deciding factor in your grade.
Comparing the June 2026 paper with earlier sessions shows a steady pattern: one economic question, one Congress question and one Gandhi question nearly every time. You can open older sessions from our IGNOU Previous Year Question Paper section.
6. Most Repeated Topics Across Official Papers
The impact of colonialism, Gandhian ideology and trade union or peasant movements appeared in all four official BHIC 113 papers we checked.
We counted topics in the official IGNOU papers of December 2023, June 2024, June 2025 and June 2026. Short-note options are counted along with long questions. Papers for June 2023, December 2024 and December 2025 could not be retrieved, so this table covers four sessions, not five years.
| Topic | Where it appeared | Sessions (of 4) |
|---|---|---|
| Impact of colonialism and de-industrialisation | Dec 23 Q1; Jun 24 Q1; Jun 25 Q1; Jun 26 Q1 and Q4(ii) | 4 |
| Gandhian ideology | Dec 23 Q5; Jun 24 Q7; Jun 25 Q6; Jun 26 Q5 (Sample 2) | 4 |
| Trade union and peasant movements | Dec 23 Q7 and Q8(c); Jun 24 Q8(c); Jun 25 Q7; Jun 26 Q6 | 4 |
| Formation of the Indian National Congress | Jun 24 Q2; Jun 25 Q2; Jun 26 Q2 (Sample 1) | 3 |
| Non-Brahman movements and Periyar | Jun 24 Q4(a); Jun 25 Q4(a); Jun 26 Q4(i) | 3 |
| Revolutionaries, Ghadar and HSRA | Dec 23 Q4(a); Jun 25 Q3 and Q4(d); Jun 26 Q4(iv) | 3 |
| Nationalism and literature | Jun 24 Q6; Jun 25 Q8(b); Jun 26 Q8(iii) | 3 |
| Events of 1945-47 and the naval revolt | Dec 23 Q6; Jun 24 Q8(a); Jun 26 Q8(ii) | 3 |
| Moderates, Extremists and the Surat split | Dec 23 Q8(b); Jun 24 Q4(d); Jun 25 Q4(b) | 3 |
| Non-cooperation and Khilafat | Jun 24 Q3 and Q4(c); Jun 26 Q3 | 2 |
| Azad Hind Fauj and the INA trials | Jun 25 Q8(a); Jun 26 Q8(i) | 2 |
| Quit India Movement | Jun 25 Q5; Jun 26 Q8(iv) | 2 |
| Indian capitalists and the Congress | Dec 23 Q4(c); Jun 26 Q7 | 2 |
| Social reform and Jotirao Phule | Dec 23 Q3 and Q4(d); Jun 26 Q4(iii) | 2 |
Two June 2026 questions are near copies of June 2024 ones: the non-cooperation essay changes only one verb, and the Gandhi essay drops the words on non-violence. For a ranked list built from these trends, see our IGNOU Solved Guess Paper page.
7. How Our Answers Are Written and Checked
Each BHIC 113 answer is drafted against its eGyanKosh unit, checked for every date and Act, and trimmed to the word limit printed on the paper.
Drafting. Each answer is written from the matching unit, then the dates and names examiners look for are added, such as the 1907 Surat split or the 1946 Cabinet Mission. Long answers use an introduction, numbered points and a conclusion; short notes use a definition, three or four facts and a closing line.
Review. Every fact is checked against the course units and standard texts on modern India, anything that cannot be confirmed is removed, and analytical questions like Q5 are checked to make sure they include criticism as well as description. Answers that mention historians' debates, such as the safety-valve theory, present both sides.
8. Solved File Index for June 2026
The file answers all 14 items of the June 2026 paper; 2 are shown here and 12 are only in the full file.
BHIC 113 is a theory-only course with no practical or record work, so this index maps every question to its course unit instead.
| Item | Topic | Unit | Where the answer is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | Effect of colonisation on India | Unit 1 | Full file |
| Q2 | Formation of the Indian National Congress | Unit 4 | Sample 1 above |
| Q3 | Non-cooperation movement and mass mobilisation | Unit 7 | Full file |
| Q4(i) | E.V. Ramaswami Naicker | Unit 3 | Full file |
| Q4(ii) | De-industrialisation | Unit 1 | Full file |
| Q4(iii) | Social reforms in Maharashtra | Unit 2 | Full file |
| Q4(iv) | The revolutionaries | Unit 9 | Full file |
| Q5 | Gandhi's ideology and religion | Unit 14 | Sample 2 above |
| Q6 | Trade union and peasant movements | Unit 17 | Full file |
| Q7 | The Indian capitalist class and the economy | Unit 18 | Full file |
| Q8(i) | Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) | Unit 12 | Full file |
| Q8(ii) | Royal Indian Navy Revolt, 1946 | Unit 19 | Full file |
| Q8(iii) | Nationalist sentiment and Indian literature | Unit 15 | Full file |
| Q8(iv) | Quit India Movement | Unit 11 | Full file |
9. Programmes That Include BHIC 113
BHIC 113 is a core course in the sixth semester of IGNOU's BAHIH programme.
Students of the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) History programme study it as the sequel to BHIC 110, which covers 1757 to 1857, so the two courses together carry IGNOU's account of modern India up to the Republic. It carries 6 credits and three tutor-marked assignments.
The paper is bilingual, so Hindi-medium BAHIH students sit the same questions. Students of the general BA history stream study a different course, BHIC 134, which covers 1707 to 1950 in one paper; its questions and pattern differ from this one.
10. How to Get the Full Solved Question Paper
Message WhatsApp 9899436384 with the text "BHIC 113 June 2026" and our team will share the complete file of 14 answers.
The full file holds the 2 answers above plus the 12 answers listed in the index, including every short-note option, so you can pick whichever two you are most confident about in the exam hall.
Mention your programme and exam session in the message so we can confirm you have the right paper before you start revising.
11. BHIC 113 History of India-VIII FAQs
Quick answers to the questions BAHIH students ask most about BHIC 113.
What does the solved paper for June 2026 contain?
It contains complete answers to the official June 2026 BHIC 113 paper. That means 6 essay answers and all 8 short-note options from Q4 and Q8, so 14 answers in total. Each answer follows the word limit printed on the paper and is tagged to its eGyanKosh unit, so you can revise the matching unit of the course book straight after reading the answer.
How do I get the full solved paper on WhatsApp?
Send a message to WhatsApp 9899436384 with the text BHIC 113 June 2026. Our team replies with the details and shares the complete file. It has 14 answers: the 2 shown on this page (Q2 and Q5) and the 12 that are only in the full file, including every short-note option. We do not post those 12 answers anywhere on the website.
How many questions must I attempt in the BHIC 113 exam?
You attempt any 5 questions out of 8, with at least 2 from each section. Every question carries 20 marks, so the paper totals 100 marks in 3 hours. Q4 and Q8 are short-note questions where you choose 2 of 4 options and write about 200 words each, while long answers need about 400 words.
Which BHIC 113 topics repeat most often?
Across the four official papers we checked (December 2023, June 2024, June 2025 and June 2026), three topics appeared every time: the impact of colonialism, Gandhian ideology, and trade union or peasant movements. Congress formation, Periyar and the non-Brahman movement, the revolutionaries, nationalist literature and the 1945 to 1947 events each appeared three times. Prepare these first.
Which units does the June 2026 paper draw from?
The June 2026 paper draws on 13 of the 21 units. Section I leans on Units 1 to 9, covering imperialism, reform movements, Congress formation, non-cooperation and the revolutionaries. Section II draws on Units 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18 and 19, covering Quit India, the INA, Gandhi, literature, labour and peasants, Indian capitalists and the 1946 naval revolt.
Is the question paper the same for Hindi-medium students?
Yes. The June 2026 paper is printed in both English and Hindi in the same booklet, and the Hindi section carries the same eight questions with the same marks. The Hindi version uses Devanagari equivalents, for example Azad Hind Fauj and Bharat Chhodo Andolan. So the question list and file index on this page apply to Hindi-medium BAHIH students as well.
How long should a BHIC 113 answer be?
The paper itself sets the length. Long questions need about 400 words each and short notes about 200 words each. In practice, a strong 20-mark answer has a short introduction, five to seven dated points and a brief conclusion. Our two sample answers on this page follow exactly that shape, so you can use them as a model.
Who wrote and checked the answers in this file?
The answers were drafted by Prateek Talwar and reviewed by Sheetal Kirola of Unnati Educations. The review checks every date, Act, organisation and name against the IGNOU course units and standard modern Indian history texts. Answers are written in simple exam English, so a student can understand each point and reproduce it under exam conditions without memorising long passages.
12. Who Wrote and Checked the BHIC 113 Answers
The BHIC 113 answers were written by Prateek Talwar and reviewed by Sheetal Kirola.
Prateek Talwar, founder of Unnati Educations, leads the IGNOU solved-paper series and prepares answers from the course units and the official term-end paper. Sheetal Kirola, Academic Head (M.Ed.), checks every date, Act, organisation and name against the course units before release.