ISC 2026 History Question Paper for Class 12

About this paper

This is the ISC Class 12 History paper (code 851) from the 2026 board examination. It carries 80 marks, runs for three hours plus fifteen minutes of reading time, and has 13 compulsory questions in three sections. Section A is sixteen one-mark items on the Quit India Movement, the 1967 elections and the Truman Doctrine. Section B has eight four-mark questions, with an internal choice in two, using a Hitler–Mussolini cartoon, Martin Luther King's “I have a dream” speech, and a 1962 cartoon of Kennedy and Khrushchev. Section C has four eight-mark questions, with an internal choice in two: the 1947–48 Indo-Pak war or the Sino-Indian War, the Emergency of 1975, the collapse of communism, and the Suez War or the Camp David Accord. This copy has the questions only.

Exam

ISC Class 12

Subject

History

Year

2026

Paper code

851

Maximum marks

80

Time allowed

3 hours + 15 min reading

Questions

13

Pages

8

Answers included

No, questions only

Paper pattern

• Section A

  16 marks

  Question 1 with 16 one-mark parts, mixing multiple-choice items, one assertion–reason item and very short answers

• Section B

  32 marks

  Questions 2–9, four marks each; three are based on a cartoon or a quoted speech; internal choice in Questions 2 and 9

• Section C

  32 marks

  Questions 10–13, eight marks each; Questions 10, 12 and 13 are in two parts of four marks; internal choice in Questions 10 and 13

Topics covered

• Quit India Movement and the INA
• General elections of 1967 and 1977
• Lal Bahadur Shastri
• Appeasement and Mussolini
• Civil Rights Movement in the United States
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Kwame Nkrumah
• Great Leap Forward
• Indo-Pak war of 1947–48
• Sino-Indian War of 1962
• Emergency of 1975
• End of communism and the Suez Crisis

Questions from this paper

1. Discuss any four steps taken by Subhash Chandra Bose to revive and reorganise the Indian National Army after he took over as its Supreme Commander.
2. In the context of India's first general elections in 1952, discuss any four steps the Election Commission followed while preparing to establish India's first democratic government.
3. Enumerate any four contributions of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri towards a socialist, democratic and prosperous India.
4. Discuss any four measures adopted by the non-Congress government that came to power in 1977 to restore the civil liberties of the people of India.
5. With reference to Kashmir, analyse any four causes of the first Indo-Pak war of 1947–48.
6. Discuss any four events leading to the downfall of communism in East Germany between August 1988 and December 1991.