Every candidate who is preparing for the UPSC exam will always search for the best books for IAS Preparation. You need the best books because they carry trust and knowledge. In today’s time, information is readily available at your fingertips but who to trust is very confusing.
There are numerous books and websites which claim to be best and no one is wrong either but everyone has a different learning method so which books will suit you, it’s entirely up to you. Here, in this article, we have tried to compile the list of the best books which are very popular amongst IAS students.
If you are one such individual who always prefers to choose the quality books to readout for your UPSC exam, then you are in the right place.
As a candidate, when you search on the search engines to get the list of Must-Read IAS Books for UPSC exam preparation, you will find hundreds of books to purchase.
Do you think those kinds of websites which are showing the hundreds of IAS Exams? Maybe or maybe not. There is competition in everything in India and there are many publication houses which are selling the books. You need to decide which books to use.
Why need to choose Must-Read Books?
Many candidates who are all starting to prepare for the IAS examination first time will have no idea about the quality of the books, so they go and purchase some cheap books to start the training for the IAS exam. This is one of the big mistakes new aspirants make in common, so if you are a newbie reading this article, then it’s time to wake up.
Only the Must-read books available for the IAS exam preparation will only help every candidate to clear the examination in an easy way. These must-read books will have the updated syllabus with the proper explanation from the experienced teachers for better understanding. Clearing the IAS exam always depends on your hard and smart work. These books can surely help you a lot:
How a Quality Book Helps the IAS Aspirants?
Each and every mark is very crucial for the IAS exam preparation, so aspirant who is preparing for the IAS exam will also look for every possible way to score more. Although hard work and smart work, both are required to clear this exam.
You need to design a strategy to clear the exam, quality books from the standard publications will give hands to the students to score more.
In the standard author books, you can find previous year solved questions and answers, sample questions and answers, the complete guide for the prelims and mains exam, and much more inside one book.
Also, the books will be easy to understand because of the simple language uses, so a candidate will find it easy to study without any one’s help from day one.
To help you in the best way, here we bring you the Top10 Must-Read Books for IAS exam. If you want to clear the exam, then these books will surely help you.
List of Top 10 Books for IAS Exam Preparation
- India after Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha
- NCERT books: The Complete Package
- Indian Polity by Laxmi Kanth:
- Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
- Introduction to the Constitution of India by D.D. Basu
- India’s Struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra
- 2nd ARC Reports
- The Wonder That Was India by AL Basham
- Majid Hussain – Indian Geography
- IGNOU material on Disaster Management
# 1 India after Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha:
Without knowing the Indian Politics from the beginning, it is not easy to understand the other concepts. This book gives readers the connection in Indian Politics plays the biggest role in your exam.
When you take the most number of history books, the content will not have any connection with our modern India, but Ramachandra Guha has written the book very well which explains from the olden days to modern India.
Every reader will get a clear idea about how the country India has completely changed after getting independence. This book consists of 900 pages in total, so candidates cannot complete the reading in one sitting. Reading one chapter in a week will help everyone.
You can buy a hard copy or ebook as well. I prefer a hard copy of this book for my studies.
You can buy it from anywhere in the market or Amazon – Click here to buy Online.
# 2 NCERT books: The Complete Package
No matter whatever books you refer to or wherever you go for the IAS exam coaching preparation, the NCERT Books are the must one to have in your books list when you start to prepare for the exam.
Reading NCERT BOOKS alone cannot help you, so when you read other books, read the NCERTs in parallel during your exam preparation. For example, if you are reading the geography subject, read the relevant NCERTs available. Make sure you do not mix up too many subjects in a single day. You have limited energy throughout the day. You need to be wise in investing those energies. Focus on what works best.
You Can Buy the NCERT Books set online for your UPSC preparation – Click here to Buy Now
Useful Articles:
- Best IAS Coaching in Delhi
- Best Online Coaching for UPSC/IAS in India
- Top 10 IAS Coaching in Bangalore
- UPSC Civil Services (IAS) Preparation: Is Self-study better than coaching?
# 3 Indian Polity by Laxmikanth:
Polity is one of the vast subjects and every aspirant has to study this subject for the IAS exam. Therefore, every IAS exam aspirant should read this book by Laxmikanth. If you need to clear your exam with good marks, then you need this book for sure in your books list. The writer Laxmikanth wrote in a simple way for every reader to understand easily, so reading this book will help you learn Polity in the best way.
Make sure that you also take reference from other books. Don’t rely on just one book for any subject but always go subject wise. You need to plan your time well. Giving 2-3 weeks on this book will help you a lot in UPSC preparation. This book will help you get insight into polity questions. Try to read this book very early during your preparation. You could buy this book by clicking on this link.
# 4 Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
Indian Economy book is one of the most comprehensive in the current day market. Due to vast geography and multiple government norms make it a difficult subject to master.
You can read Ramesh Singh’s book. He has tried to simplify things for the students in every possible way.
Along with this book, you should frequently read the newspaper and all economics-related articles. You will get a good sense of the subject. You can either download this book from any book website or buy it from the nearby bookshops OR Amazon. Click Here
# 5 Introduction to the Constitution of India by D.D. Basu
The constitution is the pillar of Indian democracy and by cleaning the IAS exam, you are going to be part of it. Mastering this subject is very much needed to clear the IAS exam.
After you study everything about the history, economy and polity subjects, then you can jump a little deeper to know more. You can do this by choosing the Introduction to the Constitution of India book written by D.D. Base to study more.
This book will help you to know more about how the constitution of India took shape and also about some of the important constitutional issues. Do not read this book so fast because understanding the information is very important. If possible note down the key points to recall it later. Making notes is a must to do things for cleaning any exams.
Buy this book by clicking here.
# 6 India’s Struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra
This book will fall under the must-read books list for the UPSC exam preparation, so you need to surely read this before attending your IAS exams.
This book gives the entire details about Modern Indian History and Bipin Chandra wrote this book in an excellent way, so any reader will find it very interesting to read. Do not forget to memorize the explanations for the various events to recall it in the exam. You could check the book details and can also buy them from clicking here.
# 72nd ARC Reports
One of the finest ways to get immersed in the policymaking world is possible with the 2nd ARC Reports book. Every candidate after understanding the basic concepts of politics and economics should read this book. It will help you to think about how to change the country with the new plan and systems. This will help you in an IAS interview as well.
Make sure you understand each and every issue discussed in the book very well. After you understand the chapter’s concerns, try to develop your own recommendations for the issues after you know the chapter’s affairs. This will help you build constructive thinking which is an integral part of the IAS job.
Check out the book details, price & you could also buy it by clicking here.
Useful Information to check
- Best Cities for IAS Exam Preparation in India
- Best IAS Coaching in Lucknow
- Top IAS Coaching Institutes in Guntur
# 8 The Wonder That Was India by AL Basham
You will come to know some lovely things about our Country India. AL Basham wrote this book in a prolific way with the detailed pieces of information about the beautiful ancient history. As an IAS aspirant, you will feel proud to be an Indian while reading this book. Reading this book along with the spectrum culture book will help you even more.
In the spectrum culture book, mark the syllabus areas and try to identify the portions covered in the AL Basham’s book. While you prepare for your exam with this book, largely concentrate on the arts and cultural aspects. You could buy this clicking here.
# 9 Majid Hussain – Indian Geography
The reason every IAS aspirant needs to read this book is it was very well prepared than the NCERT BOOKS. This book will turn out to be a precious book that you’d buy for UPSC preparation. Because it contains all the important characteristics and problems of India’s geographical landscape in a methodical and complete manner.
Some of the important topics covered in the books are different types of resources in India, various types of irrigation, cropping patterns followed in India, the complete transport and free distribution system available in modern society and food security. Students who are all preparing for the IAS exam must read this book quickly. Click here to buy this amazing book.
# 10 IGNOU material on Disaster Management
In addition to the list of other books, you should also have this book in your books list for better results in the IAS exam. This book explains well about Natural disasters, environmental emergencies, complex emergencies, and pandemic emergencies. Therefore, every reader should go through this book entirely. You should understand how the disaster is affecting a country and how to make the management steps to control it in possible ways. This is going to be your every day of life after clearing the IAS exam.
Read out the management techniques slowly so that you will get deep knowledge about the topics.
Well, we have now come to the end. All the Top 10 must-read books for IAS preparation mentioned above will help you during your preparation. If you study and understand each book (without ignoring the newspapers) properly, then you will easily get a chance to clear the prelims, mains exam, interviews and beyond. Always remember, you are the X-factor for clearing the exam. Don’t let your mind get cluttered. Make a simple and persistence plan for your studies.
All the best!