Learning Indian Polity through shortcuts

Indian Polity is one of the main topics of UPSC and APSC exams (both prelims & Mains stages). Every year some questions are asked from this topic, thus making it extremely important. However, the Indian Constitution has several Parts, Schedules and Articles which need to be memorized by the aspirants. Some small memorizing techniques can be helpful here.

One must also know that the Commission understands that it is not humanly possible to remember all the 400+ Articles, however the important ones must be memorized. For instance the articles related to Fundamental Rights, DPSP, Union & State, President & Governor, from where questions are asked regularly, must be learnt. Also, if any particular Polity related topic is in the news, then those related articles must be remembered. For example, the Citizenship Amendment Bill has been in the news recently, hence learning the citizenship related articles becomes automatically important. In this way, some smart study can be planned out.

You should also buy the chart on Indian Polity Articles and paste it on the wall in your room. You should try to remember the important articles from the chart, which is regularly pasted in front of you. Being pasted in front of you, you will frequently observe the articles, which can help boost your memory. These small memory hacks come very handy in this preparation.

Remembering the 12 schedules of the Indian Constitution is important, however some aspirants may find it difficult to memorize these 12 schedules. Here’s a small mnemonic to remember the Schedules in 5 minutes:

‘TEARS OF OLD PM’

1. T – Territory

2. E – Emoluments

3. A – Affirmations/Oaths

4. R – Rajya Sabha

5. S – ScheduledAreas

6. O – Other Scheduled Areas

7. F – Federal Provisions (3 Lists)

8. O – Official Languages

9. L – Land Reforms

10. D – Defection

11. P – Panchayats

12. M – Municipalities

The Indian Constitution has many Parts, all of which need not be remembered. However, one must try to memorize at least the first 11 Parts which are the most important ones. So, here’s a mnemonic to remember the first 11 parts of the Indian Constitution:

‘YOU (U) CAN FLY DIRECTLY FROM UNITED STATES USING PARA MILITARY SPECIAL ROCKET’

1. U– Union & its territory

2. C – Citizenship

3. F – Fundamental Rights

4. D – DPSP 4 (A) F – Fundamental Duties

5. U – Union

6. S – States

7. (Deleted)

8. U - UTs

9. P – Panchayats 9 (A) M - Municipalities

10. S – Scheduled & Tribal Areas

11. R – Relation Between Union & State

Using these short cuts to memorize the Constitution provisions can be a big help in scoring good marks in the Polity questions.