Indian History Previous Year Questions (PYQ) with Answers – Page 3

The correct answer is D, 1928. On 8 and 9 September 1928, young revolutionaries met secretly at the ruins of Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi and renamed the Hindustan Republican Association as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. Chandrashekhar Azad became its commander, with Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Bhagwati Charan Vohra among the key members. The word 'Socialist' showed that the group now wanted not just freedom but a society free from exploitation. The HRA itself had been founded in 1924 at Kanpur by Sachindranath Sanyal and others, and it had carried out the Kakori train action in 1925. Option A is wrong because 1927 is the year Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan and others were hanged in the Kakori case. Option B is wrong because 1930 saw the Chittagong armoury raid, not the birth of the HSRA. Option C is wrong because 1929 is the year Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly. Exam tip: HRA 1924 at Kanpur, HSRA 1928 at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi.

The correct answer is B, Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq. The Bahmani kingdom was born in 1347 out of a revolt against his rule in the Deccan. Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq ruled from 1325 to 1351 and tried to control the far south from Delhi, even shifting his capital to Daulatabad for a while. His nobles in the Deccan rebelled, and one of them, Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah (Hasan Gangu), founded the Bahmani kingdom with its first capital at Gulbarga. Harihara and Bukka had set up Vijayanagara in 1336 in the same reign, so both great southern kingdoms rose under this one Sultan. Option A is wrong because Iltutmish ruled from 1211 to 1236, long before any Deccan kingdom of this kind. Option C is wrong because Ibrahim Lodi was the last Delhi Sultan, defeated at Panipat in 1526. Option D is wrong because Alauddin Khalji died in 1316; his general Malik Kafur raided the south, but no Bahmani state existed then. Exam tip: Vijayanagara 1336 and Bahmani 1347, both in Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq's reign.

The correct answer is A, Vigraharaj IV. Vigraharaja IV, also known as Visaladeva or Bisaldev, ruled the Chauhan kingdom of Shakambhari and Ajmer in the middle of the 12th century. He took Delhi from the Tomaras, and his inscription of 1164 on the Delhi-Topra Ashokan pillar records his wide conquests. He was also a scholar-king: he wrote the Sanskrit play Harakeli Nataka and built a Sanskrit college at Ajmer, which was later turned into the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque. The court poet Somadeva wrote the play Lalit Vigraharaj in his honour, and Bisalpur in Tonk is linked with his name. Option B is wrong because Arnoraja, his father, is remembered for building the Anasagar lake at Ajmer after defeating the Turks. Option C is wrong because Ajayaraja founded the city of Ajmer, then called Ajayameru. Option D is wrong because Prithviraj III, the famous Prithviraj Chauhan, came later and inherited Delhi rather than first conquering it. Exam tip: Ajayaraja founded Ajmer, Arnoraja built Anasagar, Vigraharaja IV won Delhi.

The correct answer is C, Panch Mahal. The Panch Mahal is a five-storeyed open pavilion in which each floor is smaller than the one below, ending in a single domed kiosk at the top. This stepped, pyramid-like plan recalls the Buddhist vihara, which is why it is described as following Buddhist architecture. It stands on 176 carved pillars and has no walls on its floors, so it catches the breeze, and it was used by the royal ladies for leisure and to watch the palace courtyards. The mix of Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic styles in Fatehpur Sikri reflects Akbar's open-minded taste. Option A is wrong because Shaikh Salim Chishti's tomb is a white marble Sufi shrine famous for its fine stone screens, or jalis. Option B is wrong because the Buland Darwaza is a huge gateway built to mark Akbar's conquest of Gujarat. Option D is wrong because the Turkish Sultana's palace is a small pavilion known for the rich carving on its walls, not for a Buddhist plan. Exam tip: Panch Mahal = five storeys, Buddhist vihara style; Buland Darwaza = Gujarat victory.

The correct answer is D, 1905. Gopal Krishna Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society in Pune on 12 June 1905. Its members took a vow to serve the country for life on a modest allowance, and they worked in education, famine relief, the uplift of backward classes and public life. Gokhale was a leading Moderate in the Congress; he presided over its Benares session in 1905, and Gandhi regarded him as his political guru. After Gokhale's death in 1915, V. S. Srinivasa Sastri led the society. The year is easy to fix because 1905 was also the year of the Partition of Bengal. Option A is wrong because 1907 was the year of the Surat split, when the Congress divided into Moderates and Extremists. Option B is wrong because 1906 saw the founding of the Muslim League at Dhaka. Option C is wrong because 1904 was the year of the Indian Universities Act passed under Lord Curzon. Exam tip: Servants of India Society, Pune, 1905, founded by Gokhale, Gandhi's political guru.

The correct answer is C, Vakataka Dynasty. Chandragupta II married his daughter Prabhavatigupta to the Vakataka king Rudrasena II, whose kingdom lay in the Deccan, south of the Gupta lands. When Rudrasena died young, Prabhavati ruled as regent for her minor sons, so the Guptas had a friendly power guarding their southern flank. This alliance helped Chandragupta II in his campaign against the Shaka Kshatrapas of western India, whom he defeated to win Gujarat and Malwa. Her copper-plate grants, such as the Poona plates, are an important source for this period. Option A is wrong because the Lichchhavi link belongs to Chandragupta I, who married the Lichchhavi princess Kumaradevi. Option B is wrong because the Kadambas of Karnataka claimed marriage ties with the Guptas, but Prabhavati was not married into that family. Option D is wrong because the Naga link is Chandragupta II's own marriage to the Naga princess Kuberanaga, who was Prabhavati's mother. Exam tip: Kumaradevi (Lichchhavi) with Chandragupta I; Prabhavati to the Vakatakas under Chandragupta II.

The correct answer is C, Jagatpati Joshi. Surkotada, a Harappan site in the Kutch district of Gujarat, was discovered by the archaeologist Jagatpati Joshi in 1964, and he later excavated it in 1971-72. The site is best known for bones identified as those of the horse, a rare claim for a Harappan settlement, and for its fortified citadel and residential area built with stone and mud-brick. Joshi also discovered Dholavira in Kutch in 1967-68, the great Harappan city that was later excavated by R. S. Bisht. Option A is wrong because S. R. Rao is known for excavating Lothal, the Harappan dockyard town in Gujarat. Option B is wrong because B. B. Lal is linked with the excavation of Kalibangan in Rajasthan, along with B. K. Thapar. Option D is wrong because Y. D. Sharma is associated with the excavation of Ropar (Rupnagar) in Punjab. Exam tip: Kutch sites Surkotada and Dholavira were both found by Jagatpati Joshi; Lothal belongs to S. R. Rao; Kalibangan to Lal and Thapar.

The correct answer is A, 12 and 63. Tradition counts 12 Alvars, the Vaishnava saint-poets devoted to Vishnu, and 63 Nayanars, the Shaiva saints devoted to Shiva, both from the Tamil country. Between about the 6th and 9th centuries these saints sang in Tamil rather than Sanskrit, travelled from temple to temple and welcomed devotees of every caste, laying the base of the Bhakti movement in South India. The hymns of the Alvars were collected in the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, and those of the Nayanars in the Tevaram, part of the Tirumurai. Andal was the only woman among the Alvars, while Karaikkal Ammaiyar is the best-known woman among the Nayanars. Option B is wrong because it cuts the Nayanar count to 53. Option C is wrong because it raises the Alvar count to 23. Option D is wrong because both of its numbers are wrong. Exam tip: 12 Alvars for Vishnu, 63 Nayanars for Shiva, and Andal the lone woman Alvar.

The correct answer is B, Surat. The Congress split into Moderates and Extremists at its Surat session of December 1907. The two groups had clashed over the choice of president and over how far to push the Swadeshi and boycott programme started after the Partition of Bengal in 1905. The Moderates, led by Pherozeshah Mehta and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, backed Rash Behari Ghosh as president, while the Extremists, led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal, wanted to keep the stronger resolutions of 1906. The session broke up in chaos, and the Extremists returned only at the Lucknow session of 1916. Option A is wrong because Bombay hosted the first session in 1885, not the split. Option C is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1906 under Dadabhai Naoroji avoided a split and first adopted the goal of Swaraj. Option D is wrong because the Nagpur session of 1920 approved the Non-Cooperation programme. Exam tip: Surat 1907 split, Lucknow 1916 reunion, with Tilak at the centre of both.

The correct answer is C, Anti-slavery activists of American Civil War. Phule saw the condition of India's 'lower' castes as a form of slavery, so he dedicated his book to the Americans who had fought to free slaves. The book is Gulamgiri, which means slavery, published in 1873. Eight years earlier, in 1865, the American Civil War had ended with slavery abolished in the United States. By this dedication Phule linked the struggle against racial slavery in America with the struggle against caste in India. In the same year, 1873, he founded the Satyashodhak Samaj to work for caste equality. A is wrong because the book was not dedicated to India's anti-colonial nationalists. B is wrong because the Bhakti saints were poets of an earlier age, not the people Phule honoured in this book. D is wrong because the Brahmo Samaj reformers of Bengal were not the ones he dedicated it to. Exam tip: Gulamgiri (1873) and Satyashodhak Samaj (1873), both by Jyotirao Phule.

The correct answer is B, Khan Bahadur Khan. When the sepoys at Bareilly rose on 31 May 1857, Khan Bahadur Khan, a grandson of the Rohilla chief Hafiz Rahmat Khan, took charge of the town and of much of Rohilkhand. He had served as a judge under the Company and was living on a British pension, yet he set up his own government, raised an army of several thousand men and ruled in the name of the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, who recognised him as governor. The British recaptured Bareilly in May 1858; Khan Bahadur Khan fled to Nepal, was handed over and was hanged at Bareilly in 1860. Option A is wrong because Nana Saheb, the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao II, led the revolt at Kanpur. Option C is wrong because Begum Hazrat Mahal led the rising at Lucknow in the name of her son Birjis Qadr. Option D is wrong because Kunwar Singh led the revolt at Jagdishpur near Arrah in Bihar. Exam tip: Kanpur–Nana Saheb, Lucknow–Hazrat Mahal, Bareilly–Khan Bahadur Khan, Jhansi–Lakshmibai, Arrah–Kunwar Singh.

The correct answer is D, San Francisco. The Ghadar Party was formed in 1913 by Indian immigrants on the Pacific coast of the USA and Canada, most of them Punjabi Sikh farmers and workers. Sohan Singh Bhakna was its president and Lala Har Dayal its leading thinker. Its office, called the Yugantar Ashram, was in San Francisco, and from there it brought out the weekly paper ‘Ghadar’ from 1 November 1913 in Urdu and Punjabi, calling for armed revolt against British rule. When the First World War began, thousands of members sailed home, but the planned rising of February 1915 was betrayed, and many were tried in the Lahore Conspiracy Cases. Option A is wrong because Delhi became the capital of British India in 1911 but was never the party’s base. Option B is wrong because Lahore is linked to the trials of the Ghadar revolutionaries, not to their headquarters. Option C is wrong because Calcutta was the base of Bengal groups such as the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar. Exam tip: Ghadar Party, 1913, Yugantar Ashram, San Francisco; president Sohan Singh Bhakna.

The correct answer is B, Nagasena. The Pali text Milindapanho, ‘The Questions of King Milinda’, records a long question-and-answer session between the Buddhist monk Nagasena and King Milinda. Milinda is the Indo-Greek king Menander I, who ruled in the second century BCE from Sakala, today’s Sialkot. Nagasena answers his doubts on the soul, rebirth and karma with simple examples; the best known is the chariot, which is only a name for its parts, just as a ‘self’ is only a name for changing parts. Buddhist tradition says Menander became a follower of the Buddha. Option A is wrong because Nagarjuna was the Mahayana thinker of about the second century CE who founded the Madhyamika school. Option C is wrong because Kumarila Bhatta was a Mimamsa philosopher of the seventh or eighth century who defended Vedic ritual. Option D is wrong because Nagabhata was a king, the founder of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, not a monk. Exam tip: Milinda = Menander (Indo-Greek, capital Sakala); his teacher in the text = Nagasena.

The correct answer is C, Pavnar, Maharashtra. Vinoba Bhave lived in his ashram at Pavnar near Wardha and began the individual Satyagraha from there on 17 October 1940. Gandhiji launched this limited protest after rejecting the August Offer of 1940, to show that India had not agreed to be dragged into the Second World War. Only chosen individuals would make an anti-war speech and court arrest, so that the war effort was not disturbed by a mass movement. Gandhiji picked Vinoba Bhave as the first satyagrahi and Jawaharlal Nehru as the second. Option A is wrong because Punnapra-Vayalar in Travancore saw a communist-led uprising in 1946. Option B is wrong because Nadiad in Kheda is linked with the Kheda Satyagraha of 1918. Option D is wrong because the individual Satyagraha began from one place, Pavnar. Exam tip: August Offer 1940, then individual Satyagraha from Pavnar; Vinoba first, Nehru second.

The correct answer is C, Holt Mackenzie. Holt Mackenzie, a Company official, devised the Mahalwari system in 1822 for the North-Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency. Under it, the whole village or estate, called a mahal, was treated as one unit, and the revenue was fixed with the village community or its headmen, who were jointly responsible for paying it. Unlike the Permanent Settlement, the demand was revised from time to time. Under Lord William Bentinck the system was improved and spread to Agra and Awadh, and later to Punjab and parts of Central India. Option A is wrong because Lord Hastings was the Governor-General of the time, known for the Anglo-Nepal and Third Anglo-Maratha Wars, not for designing this system. Option B is wrong because Lord Cornwallis brought the Permanent Settlement of 1793 in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. Option D is wrong because only Holt Mackenzie devised the Mahalwari system. Exam tip: Permanent Settlement is Cornwallis 1793, Ryotwari is Munro and Read, Mahalwari is Holt Mackenzie 1822.

The correct answer is A, village headman. Under the Delhi Sultans, the Muqaddam or Chaudhari was the headman of the village and helped collect land revenue from the peasants. The village was the smallest unit of the Sultanate. Above it came the pargana under an Amil, the shiq under a Shiqdar, and the province, or iqta, under a Muqti or Wali. Along with the Khut, the headmen enjoyed many privileges, and Alauddin Khalji is remembered for cutting them down so that they paid taxes like ordinary peasants. Option B is wrong because revenue officials such as the Amil worked at the pargana level, above the village. Option C is wrong because the village accountant was the Patwari, who kept the land and revenue records. Option D is wrong because the term meant only one post, the headman. Exam tip: Muqaddam or Chaudhari is the headman, Patwari is the accountant, and Alauddin Khalji curbed the Khut, Muqaddam and Chaudhari.

The correct answer is A, Cyril Radcliffe. The British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe chaired both the Punjab and the Bengal Boundary Commissions in 1947. Each commission had four judges, two named by the Congress and two by the Muslim League, and when they could not agree the final decision fell to Radcliffe. He had never been to India before and was given only about five weeks for the job. His award was made public on 17 August 1947, two days after independence, and the line he drew is still called the Radcliffe Line on India's borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Option B is wrong because Moon was a British civil servant in Punjab who later wrote about Partition; he did not head the commissions. Option C is wrong because A. V. Alexander came to India in 1946 as a member of the Cabinet Mission. Option D is wrong because one person, Radcliffe, headed both commissions. Exam tip: Cabinet Mission 1946 was Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps and Alexander; the 1947 border was Radcliffe's.

The correct answer is C, Bahadur Shah. The Sultan of Gujarat let the Portuguese take Diu in return for their help against the Mughal emperor Humayun. By the Treaty of Bassein (1534) Bahadur Shah handed Bassein to the Portuguese, and in 1535, with Humayun invading Gujarat, he allowed them to build a fort at Diu. Relations soon turned sour, and Bahadur Shah was killed in 1537 on a Portuguese ship off Diu. The Portuguese then held Diu, along with Daman and Goa, until India took them back in December 1961 through Operation Vijay. Option A is wrong because Ahmad Shah I founded Ahmedabad in the fifteenth century, long before the Portuguese arrived. Option B is wrong because Mahmud Begarha fought the Portuguese, joining the Egyptian fleet at Chaul (1508) and losing the Battle of Diu (1509). Option D is wrong because Muhammad Shah is not linked with the grant of Diu. Exam tip: Bahadur Shah, the Humayun threat, Diu fort to the Portuguese in 1535.

The correct answer is D, The Charter Act of 1833. This Act turned the Governor-General of Bengal into the Governor-General of India, with full civil and military powers over all British territory in India. Lord William Bentinck became the first Governor-General of India under it. The Act was the high point of centralisation: it took away the law-making powers of the Bombay and Madras governments, ended the East India Company's commercial activities so that it became a purely administrative body, and added a Law Member, Macaulay, to the Governor-General's Council. Option A is wrong because the Regulating Act of 1773 created the post of Governor-General of Bengal, first held by Warren Hastings. Option B is wrong because Pitt's India Act of 1784 set up the Board of Control and the system of dual control. Option C is wrong because the Charter Act of 1793 mainly renewed the Company's charter for twenty years. Exam tip: 1773 Governor-General of Bengal (Hastings), 1833 Governor-General of India (Bentinck), 1858 Viceroy (Canning).

The correct answer is A, Seleucus Nicator. Seleucus, a general of Alexander who came to rule the eastern part of his empire, sent Megasthenes as his ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya's court at Pataliputra. This followed their war around 305 BCE, after which Seleucus gave up the regions around Kandahar and Kabul and received 500 war elephants in return. Megasthenes wrote 'Indica', a description of Mauryan India, its capital and its people; the book itself is lost and survives only in quotations by later Greek writers such as Strabo and Arrian. B is wrong because Amyntas II was an early king of Macedon, long before the Mauryas. C is wrong because Amyntas III was a Macedonian king and the father of Philip II. D is wrong because Philip II was the king of Macedon and the father of Alexander the Great, and he died in 336 BCE. Exam tip: Seleucus sent Megasthenes to Chandragupta, and Megasthenes wrote 'Indica'.