Books for UGC preparation

First of all a general talk:

Year 1996: A person claimed to have used following set of books for clearing the NET.
In those days, you could easily skip preparing the World History section and concentrate wholly on Indian History.

For Indian History he used B. A. course books by A. C. Arora written in Hindi and Kundra Bawa of Neelam Publication (now they are being reprinted in new form and do not appear with the contents as they appeared till 1990.)

For General Studies, He based his preparation wholly on Swaran B.Ed entrance guide. (I am personally strongly against the books published by this Publication of Patiala because the contents are really "outrageous".)

For research methods, he only depended on Research Methodology notes which he had studied for his B.Ed before joining post graduation of history. He did not studied any thing about the Philosophy of History.

He further claimed that he first stressed upon developing complete understanding of political history and then stressed upon the social and economic history aspect.

Could it have been possible? Yes, I assure you that it could have been possible. However, in the new paper structure, you can not be that selective. You have to attempt one question in Paper III and four questions in Paper II from all the sections. Therefore, it is not easy to skip any portion.

(A personal note: When I cleared UGC, I did not attempt any question on the World History. At that time, I was equally comfortable with eighteenth and nineteenth century European history. However, I attempted questions only from Indian history.)
Regardless of the above talk My selection of books are as follows:

Ancient Indian History:Wonder That Was India by A. L. Basham.
Ancient Indian History and Civilization by Dr. S. Sen.
Cultural History of India by B. N. Luniya (Regardless of the diction and numerous spelling and other types of mistakes.)
Medieval History:
My basic book during my graduation was two volumes on Medieval History by A. L. Srivastva. It has been republished without any change.
However, I will strongly recommend Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India by J. L. Mehta (three volumes; The third volume is just the repetition of what has been said in the first two volumes, even then, it is good to read it in its compiled form. It saves time.)
Kundra and Bawa of pre 1990. Yes, I mean it. In the new pattern of Paper III, there is going to be a write up on which there will be questions. You can not read all the authorities. Kundra Bawa, when alive had written books giving extensive quotations at appropriate place. Those quotation will help to identify any small essay that could be asked from some authoritative book. It is with the same idea that J. L. Mehta is recommended.

For Modern India:

Bipin Chandra and four authors, Freedom Struggle of India.
Modern India by Sumit Sarkar.
The earlier N.C.E.R.T. book. (Not the present one by S. C. Mittal. I have full regards for him but his work is not up to the requirement. Rather refer to a link which I have suggested for period 1885 to 1947. The contents itself will speak for themselves.)

For Philosophy of History.

Well there will be no need to fully prepare it now but I will strongly recommend B. Sheik Ali Philosophy of History and Methodology.

Apart from these books, One must prepare political history from the beginning to end. A candidate should be able to give the major history topics and events from 3000 B. C. to 1947 without interruption. The above set of books will help you to write and prepare for the finer questions except a small portion of the syllabus suggested by the commission. But, you can only develop confidence and make good preparation if you are able to recollect whole of Indian history without interruption. For example.

You should will be able to tell that After there Ghori, their was Aibak 1205, Ittumish, 1235, Razia 1237, Badrudin, Nizamudin, Balaban, Jalaludin, Alauddin, Giasudin etc upto to Lodhi dynasty. Then from Babar to at least upto to Mohammad Shah till 1747.

Similarly, all the major happeinings of Gandhi period should be recollected without any flaw from 1915 to 1948.
For this, I strongly recommend the Agnihotri’s book for Prelims in its new form. You just keep it by your side.
In addition to that all the three volumes of V. D. Mahajan now being republished by S. Chand and Co. He had the knack for giving long quotations. This would help you a lot. Secondly, it is still a very good reference book. You find something on every topic in his books. In case of Sangam literature, I think instead of reading Nilkant Shastri, remain confine to his chapter in the latest edition. That is enough.

In case of other options which are quite famous, I feel that the IGNOU notes are the best options. They are amazing.

The next write up will be General studies. From March 17 onwards, the detailed notes will be posted.