Class 12 Political Science Notes: Chapter-wise CBSE Guide

This page is the chapter-wise map of Class 12 Political Science notes. The subject is taught from two NCERT textbooks, and this page lists every chapter of both — Contemporary World Politics and Politics in India Since Independence — each with a short description of what it teaches. Find the chapter you are revising and open it.

One structural trap matters from the start: both books number their chapters from 1, so chapter numbers repeat across the two books. The book labels below settle which is which, so read them before you pick a chapter. For the rest of this class’s subjects, the Class 12 CBSE notes index is the wider map.

Class 12 Political Science: Chapter-wise Directory

The table below is the complete chapter list of Class 12 Political Science — every chapter of both NCERT textbooks. After the list, the chapters are described book by book, so you can match a chapter to what your teacher actually covered.

Contemporary World Politics

• Chapter 1 — The End of Bipolarity: The opening chapter explains how the bipolar structure of world politics came to an end and what the post-bipolar order looks like.
• Chapter 2 — Contemporary Social and Economic Centres of Power: Argues that the post-Cold War world did not simply become unipolar: the European Union, ASEAN and a rising China emerged as alternative centres of power that limit American dominance. Covers EU integration, the ‘ASEAN Way’, China’s economic rise and Asia’s other centres.
• Chapter 3 — Contemporary South Asia: A region-by-region chapter: the seven countries of South Asia, their uneven record with democracy, the region’s big conflicts, and the cooperation bodies — SAARC and SAFTA — that try to hold it together.
• Chapter 4 — International Organisations: The United Nations from its founding to its present structure, why it stands in need of reform, and India’s claim to a permanent seat on a reformed Security Council.
• Chapter 5 — Security in the Contemporary World: Explores what security means in world politics today: the traditional military way of thinking about threats and the wider understanding the contemporary world requires.
• Chapter 6 — Environment and Natural Resources: Treats the environment and natural resources as live issues in world politics: the big picture, the core concepts in teaching order, and the key data points the chapter expects you to quote.
• Chapter 7 — Globalisation: Defines globalisation as flows of ideas, capital, commodities and people that create worldwide interconnectedness. Covers its causes, its political, economic and cultural consequences, India’s experience since the 1991 reforms, and the resistance it has provoked.

Politics in India Since Independence

• Chapter 1 — Challenges of Nation Building: The three challenges of India’s first decade: living with the Partition, integrating 565 princely states, and reorganising the map of India on a linguistic basis.
• Chapter 2 — Era of One-Party Dominance: Why independent India chose democracy and how the Congress came to dominate it: the first general election of 1952, the numbers behind Congress dominance, the opposition parties of the 1950s, and the Kerala exception of 1957.
• Chapter 3 — Politics of Planned Development: Why development is a political question: the Planning Commission, the Bombay Plan, and what each of the first three Five Year Plans tried to do, with the key dates and data.
• Chapter 4 — India’s External Relations: India’s foreign policy as it took shape after 1947: Non-Alignment and the birth of NAM, the wars with China and Pakistan, and the evolution of India’s nuclear policy.
• Chapter 5 — Challenges to and Restoration of the Congress System: From the succession crisis after Nehru to the 1967 ‘political earthquake’, the era of defections, the split in the Congress, and Indira Gandhi’s 1971 comeback.
• Chapter 6 — The Crisis of Democratic Order: The chapter that examines the gravest crisis in India’s democratic order.
• Chapter 7 — Regional Aspirations: A chapter on the aspirations of India’s regions, the movements they produced, and how the Indian state responded to them.
• Chapter 8 — Recent Developments in Indian Politics: India’s politics from the 1990s onward: the Mandal and Ayodhya issues, the shift from the Congress system to a coalition era, and the new consensus that most parties now share.

One warning makes this directory easy to misread: both books number their chapters from 1, so every number from 1 to 7 names two chapters — one in each book. When someone says “Chapter 3”, check the book column: the two Chapter 3s are Contemporary South Asia and Politics of Planned Development. That book-check is the key navigation insight on this page.

How to Use These Notes

This directory is the starting point for a Class 12 Political Science revision session: find the chapter, open it, revise. Three routes work, depending on your situation.

• Full pass in book order — work through Contemporary World Politics, chapters 1 to 7, then Politics in India Since Independence, chapters 1 to 8.
• Pass by book — when the revision target is one textbook, work only inside that book’s group of chapters.
• Pass by weakness — scan the descriptions, pick the chapter that keeps slipping your memory, and open it directly instead of reading the whole syllabus first.

One practical rule for active recall: read the chapter in the textbook once, close the book, and test yourself from the notes page — definitions, dates, data. To verify the official textbook and chapter order, open the official NCERT textbook portal; to move to another subject, return to the CBSE notes home.

What’s Inside the Chapter Notes

The notes pages linked below are revision walkthroughs built from the textbook’s own sections. Each follows the chapter’s argument in teaching order and pulls out the definitions and terms you must use correctly, the dates and data the chapter expects you to quote, and worked answers for the questions most often asked.

Because chapters differ, the mix inside a notes page differs too. Some are timeline-heavy, some data-heavy, some centred on definitions — each takes the shape of its own chapter, so you revise what that chapter actually demands.

Use a notes page as a closed-book self-test: after a first read of the chapter, cover the answers, recall the term or the number, then check yourself.

FAQs: Class 12 Political Science Notes

How many chapters are there in Class 12 Political Science?

There are 15 chapters across two NCERT books: 7 in Contemporary World Politics and 8 in Politics in India Since Independence.

Which chapters cover world politics and which cover India?

The first book (chapters 1-7) covers the end of bipolarity, social and economic centres of power, South Asia, international organisations, security, environment and natural resources, and globalisation. The second book (chapters 1-8) covers nation building, one-party dominance, planned development, external relations, the Congress system, the crisis of democratic order, regional aspirations, and recent developments.

Do these notes follow the rationalised NCERT syllabus?

Yes — the notes are written for the rationalised NCERT textbooks for the current session.

Both books start from Chapter 1 — how do I tell the chapters apart?

Check the book column first. When a teacher or a question says “Chapter 3”, the two possibilities are Contemporary South Asia (Contemporary World Politics) and Politics of Planned Development (Politics in India Since Independence) — completely different chapters. The two pages are Contemporary South Asia and Politics of Planned Development.

Reference: NCERT textbooks (CBSE).