View answer copy →Shagun KaushalRank 145CSE 2025
Answered a closely related question
Their question: “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history”
The topper's essay on humanity failing to learn from history (and history therefore repeating) shares the same narrow theme as this PYQ and even deploys the exact 'tragedy then farce' line, so its causal-arc approach transfers directly.
Key learnings from their answer
- ›Structures Essay 2 as a single tight cause-and-effect arc (UK need-turns-to-greed -> colonisation -> World Wars -> Pax Britannica to Pax Americana) and names the academic scaffolding - Hegemonic Stability Theory and Modelski's '100-year rule' -> Drive a history/IR essay with one causal spine and label it with a recognised framework; the named theory raises analytical altitude above mere event-listing.
- ›Refuses a single verdict by arguing the counter-case - ruler-biased chronicles and human cognitive bias mean history can entrench status-quo conservatism - before landing an India-positive close (learn from the colonial past and 1991 crisis but 'modify as per situations' using dialectics and data-analytics) -> Build in a genuine counter-argument, then resolve it forward-looking; the dialectical turn plus a constructive, nation-grounded conclusion is what separates a balanced essay from a one-note one.
What they cited: Pax Britannica to Pax Americana; USA's break from Britain; COVID-19 as a chance for global collaboration
Quotes used: “'History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce' (Marx — author not named in copy)”