CBSE Class 10 Social Science Sample Paper 2026 (with Solutions) — Free PDF
This is a full-length CBSE Class 10 Social Science paper built to the current board blueprint: 41 questions across six sections for 80 marks in 3 hours, dr
TL;DR: This is a full-length CBSE Class 10 Social Science paper built to the current board blueprint: 41 questions across six sections for 80 marks in 3 hour…
Written & reviewed by the Syllab.in Academic Team (CBSE/NCERT subject experts) · Updated
This is a full-length CBSE Class 10 Social Science paper built to the current board blueprint: 41 questions across six sections for 80 marks in 3 hours, drawing on History, Geography, Political Science and Economics in the proportions the board uses. Sections A to E run from objective to case-based, and Section F covers the map skill, phrased so that you can name each location and then mark it on any outline map of India. Every question is followed by a full model answer.
Board: CBSE · Class: Class 10 · Subject: Social Science · Total: 80 marks · Time: 3 hours
Section A — Objective (1 mark each) — 20 marks
Questions 1–18 are multiple choice. Questions 19 and 20 are Assertion–Reason: mark (a) if both A and R are true and R explains A, (b) if both are true but R does not explain A, (c) if A is true and R is false, (d) if A is false and R is true.
Q1. Who was the founder of the secret society 'Young Italy'? (1 mark)
Answer: Giuseppe Mazzini. He founded Young Italy in Marseilles in 1831 to work for a unified Italian republic.
Q2. The Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised the independence of (1 mark)
Answer: Greece. Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire was recognised by this treaty.
Q3. The Non-Cooperation Movement was withdrawn by Gandhiji after the incident at (1 mark)
Answer: Chauri Chaura, in February 1922, where a crowd set fire to a police station; Gandhiji called off the movement because it had turned violent.
Q4. The Simon Commission was boycotted in India because (1 mark)
Answer: It had no Indian member. Every one of its members was British, so it was met with the slogan 'Simon Go Back'.
Q5. Which soil type is most widespread in India and best suited to agriculture? (1 mark)
Answer: Alluvial soil. Deposited by the rivers of the northern plains, it is rich in potash and lime and supports intensive cultivation.
Q6. Bamboo, in the Indian context, is classified as (1 mark)
Answer: A grass, not a tree — although it is widely used as timber and is an important minor forest produce.
Q7. Which of these is a rabi crop: rice, wheat, or cotton? (1 mark)
Answer: Wheat. Rabi crops are sown in winter, around October to December, and harvested in summer.
Q8. The Bhakra Nangal project is built on which river? (1 mark)
Answer: The Sutlej. It serves both irrigation and hydroelectric generation.
Q9. Which mineral is the 'backbone of industry' and is found in Kudremukh? (1 mark)
Answer: Iron ore. The Kudremukh mines in Karnataka hold one of the largest deposits in the world.
Q10. Power resources such as coal, petroleum and natural gas are called (1 mark)
Answer: Conventional and non-renewable sources of energy — they were formed over geological time and cannot be replenished on a human timescale.
Q11. A federal government means (1 mark)
Answer: Power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units, each with its own jurisdiction, and the division is written into the constitution.
Q12. Which is the third tier of government in India? (1 mark)
Answer: Local self-government — panchayats in rural areas and municipalities in urban ones, given constitutional status by the 73rd and 74th amendments in 1992.
Q13. The Belgian model of power sharing is often described as (1 mark)
Answer: Community government — an arrangement in which a separate government is elected by people belonging to one language community, holding power over cultural, educational and language matters.
Q14. A political party that seeks to control power through constitutional means is characterised by which three components? (1 mark)
Answer: Leaders, active members and followers. A party also needs a recognised set of policies and programmes to pursue in the collective good.
Q15. The tertiary sector is also known as the (1 mark)
Answer: Service sector. It does not produce goods but supports the primary and secondary sectors — transport, banking, trade, communication, education and health.
Q16. Which sector employs the largest share of India's workforce? (1 mark)
Answer: The primary sector, chiefly agriculture, even though it contributes a much smaller share of GDP — an imbalance that gives rise to widespread underemployment.
Q17. The main function of the Reserve Bank of India in the credit system is to (1 mark)
Answer: Supervise the functioning of formal sources of loans — it monitors bank lending, sets the terms on which credit is given, and requires banks to report on their lending to different sectors.
Q18. Globalisation has been mainly driven by (1 mark)
Answer: Multinational corporations, along with rapid improvements in transport and information technology and the removal of trade barriers.
Q19. Assertion (A): Democracies are better at accommodating social diversity. Reason (R): Democracy involves competition among various political parties. (1 mark)
Answer: (b) Both are true but R does not explain A. Democracies accommodate diversity through power sharing and respect for minority rights; party competition alone can as easily sharpen divisions as reconcile them.
Q20. Assertion (A): Consumers have the right to be informed about the goods they buy. Reason (R): The Consumer Protection Act 1986 provides for consumer rights. (1 mark)
Answer: (a) Both true and R explains A. The right to information — details of price, quantity, ingredients and expiry — is one of the rights that COPRA gives statutory force to.
Section B — Very Short Answer (2 marks each) — 8 marks
Answer all 4 questions. Each carries 2 marks.
Q1. What was the Zollverein? State one of its effects. (2 marks)
Answer: The Zollverein was a customs union formed in 1834 under Prussian leadership, which abolished tariff barriers between most German states and reduced the number of currencies. It bound the states into a single economic zone, and that economic unity became a powerful force behind political unification.
Q2. Distinguish between subsistence farming and commercial farming. (2 marks)
Answer: Subsistence farming is practised on small holdings with simple tools and family labour, and the produce is grown mainly to feed the farmer's own household. Commercial farming uses modern inputs — high-yielding seeds, fertilisers, irrigation and machinery — on larger holdings, and the produce is grown for sale in the market.
Q3. What is meant by 'majoritarianism'? Give one example. (2 marks)
Answer: Majoritarianism is the belief that the majority community should be able to rule a country as it wishes, disregarding the wishes of minorities. In Sri Lanka the Sinhala-speaking majority adopted measures such as making Sinhala the sole official language and giving Buddhism state preference, which alienated the Sri Lankan Tamils.
Q4. Why are banks required to keep only a small proportion of deposits as cash? (2 marks)
Answer: Because on any given day only a small fraction of depositors come to withdraw money, and their withdrawals are largely offset by fresh deposits. Banks therefore keep about 15 per cent as cash to meet demand and lend out the rest, which is how they earn income and how credit is created in the economy.
Section C — Short Answer (3 marks each) — 15 marks
Answer all 5 questions. Each carries 3 marks.
Q1. Explain any three causes of the growth of nationalism in Europe after 1815. (3 marks)
Answer: First, the ideas of liberalism spread by the French Revolution — equality before the law, the end of privilege, and government by consent — gave people a common political identity beyond the local one. Second, the conservative order imposed at Vienna in 1815, which restored monarchies and censored the press, provoked secret revolutionary societies such as Young Italy that were explicitly national in aim. Third, economic change bound regions together: customs unions like the Zollverein, and later railways, created a single market and made the nation a practical unit as well as an idea.
Q2. Describe any three features of the Civil Disobedience Movement. (3 marks)
Answer: It began with Gandhiji's Dandi March in March 1930, when he broke the salt law by making salt from seawater — salt was chosen because it was consumed by rich and poor alike and its taxation was resented by all. Unlike Non-Cooperation, it asked people not merely to refuse cooperation but to break colonial laws: to boycott foreign cloth, refuse taxes, and picket liquor shops. Its participation was very wide — rich peasants such as the Patidars, poorer tenants, business classes seeking protection against imports, and above all large numbers of women who came out to protest for the first time — although the Depressed Classes largely stayed away.
Q3. Why is conservation of resources essential? Suggest any two ways of conserving mineral resources. (3 marks)
Answer: Minerals form over millions of years and are finite, while the rate of extraction is rapid, so unchecked use will exhaust the reserves and leave nothing for future generations; extraction also damages land, forests and water. Two ways to conserve them are recycling scrap metal so that the same material is used repeatedly instead of mining fresh ore, and using substitutes and improved technologies that lower waste during mining and processing — for example using fibre optics in place of copper wire.
Q4. Explain any three merits of democracy. (3 marks)
Answer: A democracy is accountable: rulers must face the people at regular elections, so they have to explain their decisions and can be removed. It is better at handling differences and conflicts, because it provides a peaceful and institutional way of negotiating between groups rather than suppressing them. And it enhances the dignity of the citizen: every adult has one vote of equal value, which gives even the poorest a political weight equal to the richest, and this legitimacy makes democratic decisions more acceptable.
Q5. What is the informal sector of credit? Why do poor households remain dependent on it? (3 marks)
Answer: The informal sector of credit consists of moneylenders, traders, employers, relatives and friends, whose lending is supervised by no organisation and who charge whatever rate they choose — often very high. Poor households remain dependent on it because banks demand collateral and documentation that the poor rarely possess, and the paperwork is difficult for those without literacy or formal employment records. The consequence is a debt trap: a large part of what they earn goes to repaying interest, so borrowing that was meant to help ends up deepening poverty.
Section D — Long Answer (5 marks each) — 20 marks
Answer all 4 questions. Each carries 5 marks.
Q1. Describe the process of unification of Germany between 1848 and 1871. (5 marks)
Answer: The liberal middle classes attempted unification in 1848 through the Frankfurt Parliament, which offered the crown of a united Germany to the Prussian king; he refused it, the assembly was dissolved, and the liberal initiative failed. Leadership then passed to Prussia and to its chief minister Otto von Bismarck, who pursued unification through the state, its army and its bureaucracy — the policy of 'blood and iron'. Over seven years Prussia fought three wars: against Denmark in 1864, against Austria in 1866, which removed Austria from German affairs, and against France in 1870–71. Each victory drew the German states closer around Prussia. In January 1871 the Prussian king William I was proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. The new empire placed strong emphasis on modernising the currency, banking, legal and judicial systems, but it was unified from above by a conservative monarchy rather than by the liberal revolution of 1848.
Q2. What is meant by sustainable development? Explain any four ways in which water resources can be conserved and managed in India. (5 marks)
Answer: Sustainable development means development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs — using resources so that they remain available. Water can be conserved in several ways. Rainwater harvesting collects and stores rain from rooftops and open areas so that it recharges groundwater instead of running off; in Rajasthan underground tankas store rooftop rainwater for drinking. Multi-purpose river projects and dams store water for irrigation, generate electricity and control floods, though they must be planned carefully because they displace people and disturb aquatic life. Watershed development treats a whole drainage area — building check dams, contour bunds and planting vegetation — so that runoff slows and infiltrates. Finally, efficient irrigation such as drip and sprinkler systems delivers water directly to the roots and greatly reduces the losses of flood irrigation, and treating and recycling industrial and domestic wastewater reduces the demand for fresh water.
Q3. 'Democracy is better than any other form of government.' Evaluate this statement with reference to its outcomes on economic growth, inequality and dignity. (5 marks)
Answer: On economic growth the record is mixed: within poor countries dictatorships have sometimes posted marginally higher growth rates than democracies, so democracy cannot be defended on growth alone. When the difference is small, the other advantages of democracy make it the preferable choice. On economic inequality democracies have a poor record — most sustain great disparities of income, and the poor, though equal at the ballot box, remain unequal in wealth; democracies have not been able to reduce this as much as was hoped. Where democracy clearly outperforms every alternative is in accommodating social diversity and in upholding dignity. It provides institutional channels for negotiating differences, so conflicts are resolved rather than suppressed, and it grants every citizen an equal vote, which makes the citizen the source of authority rather than the subject of it. Democracy also permits the correction of its own mistakes: bad decisions can be exposed by a free press and reversed at the next election, which no closed system allows. Judged as a whole, therefore, it is better than the alternatives even where its economic record disappoints.
Q4. What is globalisation? Explain any four factors that have enabled globalisation, and state one positive and one negative effect on India. (5 marks)
Answer: Globalisation is the rapid integration of the economies of different countries through the freer movement of goods, services, investment, technology and, to a lesser extent, people. Four factors have enabled it. Rapid improvement in transport technology, especially containerisation, has cut the cost and time of shipping goods over long distances. Advances in information and communication technology — telephones, the internet and satellite communication — allow services to be delivered instantly across continents. The liberalisation of trade and investment policies, in India from 1991, removed the barriers and licensing that had restricted imports and foreign investment. And multinational corporations, seeking cheap labour and new markets, have set up production across many countries and linked them into single supply chains. In India the positive effect has been greater choice and quality for consumers, new employment in services such as IT and BPO, and higher standards among firms that met foreign competition. The negative effect has been the pressure on small domestic producers — many small manufacturing units in toys, tyres and dairy could not match imported prices and shut down, costing jobs — while the gains have not been shared evenly between the skilled and the unskilled.
Section E — Case-based questions (4 marks each) — 12 marks
Answer all 3 case-based questions. Each has sub-parts totalling 4 marks.
Q1. CASE STUDY 1 — In 1885 the Indian National Congress was founded; by 1920 it had become a mass movement under Gandhiji, drawing in peasants, workers, students and women who had earlier stood outside politics. (i) Name the movement that first made the Congress a mass organisation. (ii) State any two reasons why people joined it. (iii) Why did Gandhiji regard the charkha as important? (4 marks)
Answer: (i) The Non-Cooperation Movement, launched in 1920. (ii) People joined for varied reasons: the towns saw students leave government schools and lawyers give up practice as a matter of national honour, while in the countryside peasants joined to protest against high rents and begar, understanding swaraj as an end to their own oppression; the Khilafat issue also brought large numbers of Muslims into a common cause. (iii) The charkha stood for self-reliance and the dignity of labour. Khadi could be made in every home, which gave the poor work and kept money in the village instead of sending it to Manchester's mills, so it turned an economic boycott into an act every Indian could perform daily.
Q2. CASE STUDY 2 — India's total geographical area is about 3.28 million sq km. Of this, roughly 43 per cent is plains, 30 per cent mountains and 27 per cent plateaus. Land is put to different uses, and the pattern is determined by both physical and human factors. (i) Name any two physical factors determining land use. (ii) Name any two human factors. (iii) Why is the net sown area declining in some states? (4 marks)
Answer: (i) Topography, climate, soil type and the availability of minerals are the physical factors — level, fertile, well-watered plains support cultivation, while steep or arid land does not. (ii) Population density, technology, capital and human skill are the human factors that decide how the available land is actually used. (iii) The net sown area is falling in several states because farmland is being converted to non-agricultural uses — housing, roads, industry and urban expansion as cities grow — and because land degradation from overgrazing, waterlogging and salinity has made some areas unfit for cultivation.
Q3. CASE STUDY 3 — In a village, a small farmer borrows ₹5,000 from a moneylender at 5 per cent interest per month to buy seed, promising to repay after the harvest. The crop fails. (i) Calculate the annual rate of interest. (ii) What is likely to happen to the farmer? (iii) Name this situation. (iv) Suggest one measure that would help. (4 marks)
Answer: (i) At 5 per cent a month the simple annual rate is 5 × 12 = 60 per cent. (ii) With the crop failed, the farmer has no income to repay and must borrow again to pay the interest, so the debt grows; he may have to sell land or cattle, or work for the lender to clear it. (iii) This is a debt trap, in which borrowing leaves the borrower worse off than before. (iv) Expanding formal credit through cooperative societies and self-help groups would help, because these lend at far lower rates and without collateral; SHGs in particular allow poor women to pool savings and borrow from the group itself, and their record of repayment is good enough for banks to lend to them.
Section F — Map skill (5 marks) — 5 marks
Answer all 5 questions. Each carries 1 mark. Take any outline map of India and mark each place you name — the answers below give the location so you can check your marking.
Q1. Name the place in Gujarat where Gandhiji broke the salt law in 1930, and the district it lies in. (1 mark)
Answer: Dandi, on the coast of Navsari district in southern Gujarat. Gandhiji reached it on 6 April 1930 after marching about 240 km from Sabarmati.
Q2. Name the city in Uttar Pradesh where the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League held their joint sessions in 1916 and signed a pact. (1 mark)
Answer: Lucknow, on the river Gomti in central Uttar Pradesh. The Lucknow Pact of 1916 brought the Congress and the Muslim League together on a common demand for self-government.
Q3. Name the state in which the Bhakra Nangal dam is situated and the river it impounds. (1 mark)
Answer: The dam is on the river Sutlej at Bhakra in Bilaspur district, Himachal Pradesh, with the Nangal barrage just downstream in Punjab.
Q4. Name the iron-ore mining area of Karnataka that lies in the Western Ghats. (1 mark)
Answer: Kudremukh, in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka, in the Western Ghats — one of the largest iron-ore deposits in the world.
Q5. Name the major software technology park located in Karnataka. (1 mark)
Answer: Bengaluru, in south-eastern Karnataka on the Deccan plateau, the largest of India's software technology parks.
FAQs
What topics are covered in Class 10 Social Science?
History, Geography, Political Science (Civics), and Economics are all integrated in the syllabus.
How should I prepare for the map-based questions?
Practice drawing maps of India showing states, capitals, important cities, and geographical features regularly.
Are there questions on current affairs?
Yes, questions based on recent national and international events are often included in the exam.
All sample papers → · Previous-year questions → · Chapter-wise MCQs →