Indian History Quiz: Caste Reform and Depressed Classes Movements

The correct answer is A, Jyotirao Phule. He founded the Satyashodhak Samaj, or Truth Seekers Society, at Pune in 1873, the same year in which his book Gulamgiri appeared. The Samaj conducted marriages without Brahmin priests, opened schools for Shudra and ati-Shudra children and demanded that government service be opened to the lower castes; Phule received the title Mahatma in 1888. B is wrong because Harichand Thakur, often written Haridas, led the Namashudra and Matua movement in Bengal, not a Maharashtrian body. C is wrong because B. R. Ambedkar founded the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha in 1924, the Independent Labour Party in 1936 and the Scheduled Castes Federation in 1942, and was born in 1891, long after 1873. D is wrong because Guru Ghasidas founded the Satnami movement among the Chamars of Chhattisgarh in the early nineteenth century.

The correct answer is A, Pandit. The fourfold varna order of classical texts consists of Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. Pandit is not a varna at all; it is a term of respect for a learned man, used in practice for certain Brahmin groups, so it describes an occupation and a status within a varna rather than one of the four divisions. B is wrong because Vaishya is the third varna, associated with trade, agriculture and cattle rearing. C is wrong because Shudra is the fourth varna, assigned service occupations, and the castes treated as untouchable were placed even outside this group. D is wrong because Kshatriya is the second varna, associated with rule and warfare. Remember that varna is the fourfold scheme of the texts while jati is the actual working unit of caste society.

The correct answer is D, Joothan. Omprakash Valmiki published Joothan in 1997, and it is the best known Dalit autobiography in Hindi; the title refers to the leftover food that upper-caste households gave to Dalit families, and the book records humiliation in school, in the village and at work. It is prescribed reading in school textbooks on caste and social reform, which is why teaching examinations ask it. A is wrong because Achhut is a general Hindi word for an untouchable person and not the title of this work. B is wrong because Tiraskar means rejection or contempt and names no autobiography by Valmiki. C is wrong because Pichhra simply means backward. Along with Joothan, remember Daya Pawar in Marathi and the writings of Bama in Tamil as classics of Dalit life writing.

The correct answer is A, the right to draw water from the Chavdar tank. In March 1927 Ambedkar led thousands of people to the Chavdar tank at Mahad in the Kolaba district of Bombay Presidency and drank its water, asserting that a public tank opened by a municipal resolution belonged to every citizen. Later in the same year, at a conference at Mahad, the Manusmriti was publicly burnt. B is wrong because the Kalaram temple entry satyagraha took place at Nashik in 1930. C is wrong because the roads around the Vaikom temple were the issue of the Vaikom Satyagraha of 1924 and 1925 in Travancore, led by T. K. Madhavan, K. Kelappan and E. V. Ramasamy. D is wrong because reserved seats came from the Poona Pact of 1932, a negotiated settlement and not a satyagraha.

The correct answer is B, Sree Narayana Guru. The SNDP Yogam was founded in 1903 in Travancore under his inspiration, with Dr Palpu as the organiser and the poet Kumaran Asan as its first secretary, to work for the Ezhava community through schools, temples open to all and the slogan of one caste, one religion and one God for man. He had already consecrated a Siva temple at Aruvippuram in 1888. A is wrong because Ayyankali organised the Pulayas, led the Villuvandi march of 1893 and the Kallumala agitation of 1915, and founded the Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham. C is wrong because Vitthal Ramji Shinde founded the Depressed Classes Mission at Bombay in 1906. D is wrong because Mangoo Ram led the Ad Dharm movement in Punjab from 1926.

The correct answer is B, reserved seats within joint electorates. The Communal Award announced by Ramsay MacDonald in August 1932 gave the depressed classes separate electorates. Gandhi began a fast unto death in Yerwada jail against this separation, and the agreement of 24 September 1932 withdrew separate electorates and gave the depressed classes a larger number of seats reserved in the general constituencies, filled by all voters together after a primary selection. A is wrong because separate electorates were exactly what the pact gave up. C is wrong because reservation in services came later through administrative orders and then the Constitution, not through this pact. D is wrong because untouchability was abolished in law only by Article 17 of the Constitution in 1950, backed by the Act of 1955.

The correct answer is B, Travancore. Vaikom lies in the former princely state of Travancore, in present-day Kottayam district of Kerala, and the satyagraha of 1924 and 1925 demanded that the lower castes be allowed to use the public roads around the Mahadeva temple there. T. K. Madhavan and K. Kelappan led it with Congress support and E. V. Ramasamy came from Tamil Nadu to join, for which he is remembered as Vaikom Veerar. Travancore went on to issue the Temple Entry Proclamation in 1936. A is wrong because Mysore under its own rulers is associated with early reservation for backward classes, not with Vaikom. C is wrong because Kolhapur is where Shahu Maharaj reserved half the state posts in 1902. D is wrong because Hyderabad under the Nizam saw other movements, including the later Telangana peasant struggle.

The correct answer is B, E. V. Ramasamy Periyar. He left the Congress in 1925 and launched the Self-Respect Movement, which rejected priestly ritual, conducted marriages without Brahmin priests and without religious ceremony, campaigned for widow remarriage and for women rights, and later turned into the Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944. A is wrong because C. Rajagopalachari was a Congress leader who became Chief Minister of Madras and later Governor-General, and Periyar opposed his education policy. C is wrong because T. M. Nair, with P. Theagaraya Chetty, was a founder of the South Indian Liberal Federation, the Justice Party, in 1916, which is an earlier non-Brahmin party and not the Self-Respect Movement. D is wrong because M. C. Rajah was a depressed classes leader of Madras known for the Rajah-Moonje pact of 1932.

The correct answer is A, Jyotirao Phule. Gulamgiri, meaning slavery, was published in 1873 in Marathi and compared the condition of the lower castes in India with that of enslaved people in the United States, dedicating the work to those who fought slavery there. Phule also wrote Shetkaryacha Asud on the distress of peasants and Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak. B is wrong because Ambedkar wrote Annihilation of Caste in 1936, Who were the Shudras in 1946 and The Buddha and His Dhamma. C is wrong because Sree Narayana Guru is remembered for devotional and philosophical works such as Atmopadesa Satakam, and for his slogan on one caste and one religion. D is wrong because Periyar wrote and spoke mainly through the journals Kudi Arasu and Viduthalai rather than a book of this name.

The correct answer is A, Mangoo Ram. After years of work in the United States, Mangoo Ram returned to Punjab and founded the Ad Dharm movement in 1926, arguing that the so-called untouchable castes were the original inhabitants of the land and formed a religion of their own; the census of 1931 recorded lakhs of people as Ad Dharmi. B is wrong because Guruchand Thakur, son of Harichand Thakur, built the Namashudra and Matua movement in Bengal. C is wrong because Guru Ghasidas founded the Satnami movement among the Chamars of Chhattisgarh in the early nineteenth century. D is wrong because Ayyankali worked among the Pulayas of Travancore and led the Villuvandi march of 1893. Keep these four regional pairs separate: Punjab, Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Kerala.

The correct answer is B, Mooknayak, meaning leader of the voiceless, which Ambedkar started as a Marathi fortnightly in 1920 with financial help from Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur. He later ran Bahishkrit Bharat from 1927, Samata and Janata, which became Prabuddha Bharat. A is wrong because Harijan was the weekly Gandhi began in 1933 after the Poona Pact, as part of his anti-untouchability work through the Harijan Sevak Sangh. C is wrong because Kudi Arasu was the Tamil journal of E. V. Ramasamy Periyar, started in 1925 for the Self-Respect Movement. D is wrong because Kesari was the Marathi newspaper founded by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1881, a nationalist paper of an earlier generation and not a depressed classes journal. Learn the four journals as a set, because examiners pair a journal with the wrong leader and expect the candidate to miss it.