Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 27

The correct answer is B, the army. The Diwan-i-Arz was the military department of the Delhi Sultanate, headed by the ariz-i-mumalik, who recruited soldiers, held the muster, inspected horses and equipment and arranged pay. Balban set it up as a separate department, and Alauddin Khalji strengthened it with the dagh and chehra checks. Option A is wrong because finance and land revenue belonged to the Diwan-i-Wizarat under the wazir, the senior-most officer of the state. Option C is wrong because royal correspondence and the drafting of orders were the work of the Diwan-i-Insha, headed by the dabir-i-khas. Option D is wrong because justice was administered through the Diwan-i-Qaza under the qazi-ul-quzat, while the Diwan-i-Risalat handled religious matters, grants and appeals in the Sultan's name. Questions from this topic usually pair a department with its head, so it is worth fixing the four pairs together: wizarat with the wazir, arz with the ariz-i-mumalik, insha with the dabir-i-khas and qaza with the qazi-ul-quzat.

The correct answer is D, Rajendra Chola I. He took the title Gangaikonda Chola, the one who won the Ganga, after his army marched north about 1022 CE, defeated the Pala ruler Mahipala and carried Ganga water back to the Tamil country. That water was poured into a great tank at his new capital, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, which he raised in place of Thanjavur and where he built a large Shiva temple in his father's style. He also sent a fleet against Srivijaya in South East Asia, a rare overseas campaign for an Indian ruler. A is wrong because Vijayalaya founded the dynasty by seizing Thanjavur in the ninth century. B is wrong because Gandaraditya is remembered for a Tamil devotional hymn, not for a northern march. C is wrong because Parantaka I fought the Rashtrakutas and was beaten at Takkolam. Exam tip: Rajendra I means Gangaikonda Chola, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and the naval raid on Srivijaya.

The correct answer is C, 1336. Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, the sons of Sangama, founded the city and the empire of Vijayanagara in 1336 on the southern bank of the Tungabhadra, at the site now known as Hampi in Karnataka. Tradition links the foundation to the sage Vidyaranya of Sringeri, and the kingdom took Virupaksha as its tutelary deity. Option A is wrong because 1210 falls in the early Delhi Sultanate, the year Qutbuddin Aibak died, and no southern empire was founded then. Option B is wrong because 1315 belongs to the closing years of Alauddin Khalji, when Malik Kafur was raiding the far south; the Deccan then had no independent Hindu empire of this size. Option D is wrong because 1368 is a date after the foundation, by which time the Sangama rulers were already fighting the Bahmanis over the Raichur doab. Remember the pair 1336 for Vijayanagara and 1347 for the Bahmanis.

The correct answer is C, Subhash Chandra Bose. Both slogans belong to Netaji and to the Azad Hind Fauj, the Indian National Army he led from 1943. He gave the call of Dilli Chalo to set the march on Delhi as the army's goal, and asked for blood in return for freedom in his famous appeal to Indians in South East Asia. He also gave the greeting Jai Hind, set up the Provisional Government of Free India at Singapore in October 1943, and formed the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of women soldiers. Option A is wrong because Gandhi's slogans were Quit India and Do or Die, given in 1942. Option B is wrong because Nehru is remembered for his Tryst with Destiny speech, not these slogans. Option D is wrong because Patel, the Iron Man of India, is linked to the Bardoli movement and the merger of the princely states. Exam tip: Dilli Chalo, Jai Hind and Give me blood all point to Subhash Chandra Bose.

The correct answer is A, Alamgir II. The Battle of Plassey was fought in 1757 between Robert Clive of the East India Company and Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal. The Mughal emperor on the throne at Delhi in that year was Alamgir II, who ruled from 1754 to 1759 and was by then a powerless figure controlled by his nobles. Option B is wrong because Siraj-ud-Daulah was the Nawab of Bengal and the defeated party at Plassey, not the Mughal emperor. Option C is wrong because Mir Qasim, usually written Mir Qasim or Mir Kasim, was a later Nawab of Bengal who fought at Buxar in 1764 and never held the imperial throne. Option D is wrong because Shah Alam II became emperor in 1759, two years after Plassey, and it was he who lost Buxar and granted the diwani of Bengal to the Company in 1765.

The correct answer is C, Both A and B. India's village iron smelters were ruined by two pressures at once. Cheap iron and steel made in British factories was brought into India in large quantities from the middle of the nineteenth century, and local smiths could not match its price, so demand for their metal fell away. At the same time the colonial forest laws of the later nineteenth century turned large tracts into reserved forest and shut smelting communities out. They could no longer cut wood to make the charcoal their furnaces ran on, and without charcoal the furnaces went cold. Some paid heavy fees to enter, and many families gave up the craft and turned to farming or labour. A alone and B alone are incomplete, because each names only one of the two causes. D is wrong because both statements are correct. Exam tip: cheap British imports plus forest laws that cut off charcoal ended village iron smelting.

The correct answer is D, Vijayalaya. Vijayalaya founded the line known as the Imperial Cholas around 850 CE by taking Thanjavur from the Muttaraiyar chiefs, who held it as feudatories of the Pallavas. He built a temple to the goddess Nishumbhasudini in the captured town, and Thanjavur stayed the Chola capital until Rajendra I shifted to Gangaikonda Cholapuram. The dynasty he began reached its height under Rajaraja I, who raised the Brihadeshwara temple, and under Rajendra I, who carried Chola arms to Sri Lanka and across the sea to Srivijaya. A is wrong because Dantidurga founded the Rashtrakuta dynasty of the Deccan. B is wrong because Simhavishnu was an early Pallava king of Kanchipuram. C is wrong because Upendrarai has no place in the Chola genealogy. Exam tip: Vijayalaya founded the Cholas at Thanjavur around 850 CE, Rajaraja I built the Brihadeshwara temple, and Rajendra I founded Gangaikonda Cholapuram.

The correct answer is B, 1855. The Santhal rebellion, known as the Hul, broke out on 30 June 1855 in the Rajmahal hills of the Santhal Parganas, in what is now Jharkhand. It was led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, along with Chand and Bhairav, who gathered thousands of Santhals against the moneylenders, traders, zamindars and Company officials who had taken over their land and pushed them into bonded labour. The rising was put down with heavy force by 1856, but it forced the British to carve out a separate Santhal Parganas district with special rules barring outsiders from buying tribal land. Option A is wrong because no Santhal rising took place in 1876. Option C is wrong because 1896 is close to but not the year of the Munda ulgulan of Birsa Munda, which began in 1899. Option D is wrong because by 1860 the rebellion had already been crushed. Exam tip: Santhal Hul 1855 under Sidhu and Kanhu; Munda Ulgulan 1899 to 1900 under Birsa Munda.

The correct answer is A, Charles Cornwallis. Cornwallis, Governor General from 1786 to 1793, introduced the Permanent Settlement in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha in 1793, with John Shore doing much of the groundwork. It recognised the zamindars as owners of the land and fixed for all time the revenue they had to pay the Company, so any later rise in output went to the zamindar and not to the state. The sunset clause meant that a zamindar who had not paid by sunset on the appointed day lost his estate at auction, which ruined many old families and created a new class of landlords, while the peasant got no security of tenure. B is wrong because Bentinck came in 1828 and is remembered for abolishing sati. C is wrong because Mountbatten was the last Viceroy, in 1947. D is wrong because Ripon, in the 1880s, is known for local self-government. Exam tip: Permanent Settlement 1793 Cornwallis, Ryotwari Munro and Read, Mahalwari Holt Mackenzie.

The correct answer is D, Pala. The Palas ruled eastern India, that is Bengal and Bihar, so their capital was never in the south. The line was founded by Gopala around 750 CE, who was chosen by the chiefs of Bengal to end a long spell of disorder. Dharmapala and Devapala after him ruled from Pataliputra and Monghyr, and they built and endowed the great Buddhist monastery at Vikramashila, which drew students from Tibet. A is wrong because the Cholas ruled the Tamil country, with their capital first at Thanjavur and later at Gangaikonda Cholapuram. B is wrong because the Cheras held the Malabar coast of present-day Kerala and had their seat at Vanji, usually identified with Karur. C is wrong because the Pallavas ruled from Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu and gave India the shore temples of Mahabalipuram. Exam tip: Chola at Thanjavur, Chera at Vanji and Pallava at Kanchipuram are all southern; the Pala kingdom of Bengal and Bihar is the odd one out.

The correct answer is D, Santhal Revolt. The Santhal rebellion, called the Hool, was led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu. It broke out in 1855 in the Rajmahal hills of the Damin-i-Koh tract, in what is now Jharkhand, when Santhal peasants rose against moneylenders, zamindars, contractors and the police who had taken their land and pushed them into bonded debt. Thousands gathered at Bhagnadih, declared their own rule and marched on the plains; the British put the rising down by 1856 after heavy fighting, and Sidhu and Kanhu were killed. The government then created the separate Santhal Parganas district with special protective rules. Option A is wrong because the Bhil risings of Khandesh were led by Sewaram and later Govind Guru. Option B is wrong because the Khasi revolt in the Meghalaya hills was led by Tirot Sing. Option C is wrong because the Munda rebellion, the Ulgulan of 1899, was led by Birsa Munda. Exam tip: Hool 1855 means Sidhu and Kanhu; Ulgulan 1899 means Birsa Munda.

The correct answer is B, Bombay. The Indian National Congress held its first session in Bombay from 28 to 31 December 1885, at the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College. Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee presided, 72 delegates from across India attended, and the retired British official A.O. Hume played the key role in organising it. The session had first been planned for Poona but was shifted to Bombay because of a cholera outbreak there. Paper setters also ask about the next few sessions, so link each place with its president. A is wrong because Lahore hosted the famous 1929 session under Jawaharlal Nehru, which adopted the Purna Swaraj resolution. C is wrong because Calcutta hosted the second session in 1886, presided over by Dadabhai Naoroji. D is wrong because Allahabad hosted the fourth session in 1888 under George Yule, the first British president of the Congress. Exam tip: 1885 Bombay, W.C. Bonnerjee, 72 delegates; 1886 Calcutta, Dadabhai Naoroji; 1929 Lahore, Purna Swaraj.

The correct answer is A, Satyendra Prasanna Sinha. The 1915 session of the Indian National Congress, held at Bombay, was presided over by Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, later Lord Sinha of Raipur. He was the first Indian appointed to the Governor-General's Executive Council, in 1909, and went on to become Under-Secretary of State for India and Governor of Bihar and Orissa, the first Indian to govern a province. His presidency came in the year Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta died and Gandhi returned from South Africa, so the session marks a turning point for the party. Option B is wrong because Ambica Charan Mazumdar presided at Lucknow in 1916, where the Congress and the Muslim League signed their pact and the moderates and extremists reunited. Option C is wrong because Bhupendra Nath Bose presided at Madras in 1914. Option D is wrong because Madan Mohan Malaviya presided at Lahore in 1909 and at the Delhi special session in 1918. Exam tip: 1914 Madras Bose, 1915 Bombay Sinha, 1916 Lucknow Mazumdar.

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 D, B R Ambedkar. On 20 March 1927 Dr B R Ambedkar led thousands of Dalits to the Chavdar tank at Mahad in Maharashtra and drank its water, asserting the right of the depressed classes to use a public water source. Upper-caste groups later purified the tank with cow dung and curd, and in December that year Ambedkar returned to Mahad and publicly burnt the Manusmriti. The day is remembered as Social Empowerment Day, and Mahad is called the first collective act of Dalit assertion in modern India. Option A is wrong because Jyotirao Phule died in 1890, long before 1927, though his Satyashodhak Samaj of 1873 prepared the ground. Option B is wrong because E V Ramaswamy Naicker, called Periyar, led the Self-Respect Movement and the Vaikom Satyagraha in the south. Option C is wrong because K Kelappan, known as Kerala Gandhi, led the Guruvayur Satyagraha of 1931. Exam tip: Mahad 1927 and Kalaram temple 1930 — both led by Ambedkar.

The correct answer is A, Chahamana. The Bijolia rock inscription, at Bijolia in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, is dated to 1170 CE, in the reign of Someshvara, and it sets out the family line of the Chahamanas, the Chauhans of Shakambhari. Written in Sanskrit, it was engraved near a Parshvanatha temple by the Jain merchant Lolaka, and it names the rulers from Samantaraja down to Someshvara, the father of Prithviraj Chauhan. Historians value it because it calls the Chahamanas Brahmins of the Vatsa gotra and gives the old names of places such as Ajayameru for Ajmer. Option B is wrong because the Chandelas of Bundelkhand, builders of Khajuraho, are known from the Khajuraho and Mau inscriptions. Option C is wrong because the Paramaras of Malwa appear in the Udaipur Prashasti. Option D is wrong because the Gahadavalas of Kannauj are known from the Chandrawati and other copper plates. Exam tip: Bijolia - Chahamanas; Khajuraho - Chandelas; Udaipur Prashasti - Paramaras.

The correct answer is C, 1991. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics broke up in 1991: a failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in August that year destroyed the centre's authority, the republics declared independence one after another, and on 25 December 1991 Gorbachev resigned. The next day the Soviet flag came down from the Kremlin and fifteen separate countries took the place of the USSR, with Russia as its successor state. Most of them joined the Commonwealth of Independent States formed by the Alma-Ata declaration of December 1991. Option A is wrong because 1990 saw only the reunification of Germany and the first stirrings of sovereignty in the republics. Option B is wrong because 1989 was the year the Berlin Wall fell and eastern Europe turned away from communism, while the Soviet Union itself stayed intact. Option D is wrong because by 1992 the break-up was already complete. Exam tip: Berlin Wall falls 1989 → Germany reunited 1990 → USSR dissolved 1991, ending the Cold War.

The correct answer is A, Ibrahim Lodi. Ibrahim Lodi was the last ruler of the Lodi dynasty and the last Sultan of Delhi; he was killed in the First Battle of Panipat in 1526, where Babur defeated him and began Mughal rule in India. The Lodis were the third and final dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate and the first Afghan line to hold Delhi. Bahlul Lodi set it up in 1451, his son Sikandar Lodi shifted the capital to Agra in 1504, and Ibrahim, who came to the throne in 1517, quarrelled with his Afghan nobles. Daulat Khan Lodi, the governor of Punjab, then invited Babur, and the Sultanate ended on the field of Panipat. B is wrong because Sikandar Lodi ruled before Ibrahim and died in 1517. C is wrong because Barbak Shah was a Lodi prince who governed Jaunpur, not Delhi. D is wrong because Bahlul Lodi was the founder. Exam tip: Bahlul 1451, Sikandar 1489, Ibrahim 1517, Panipat 1526.

The correct answer is B, Krishna Devaraya. Krishnadevaraya of the Tuluva dynasty ruled from 1509 to 1529 and his reign is treated as the golden age of Vijayanagara: the Raichur doab was won back, Odisha's Gajapati ruler was humbled, Telugu literature flourished under the eight court poets called the Ashtadiggajas, and the Vitthalaswamy and Hazara Rama temples were raised. He himself wrote the Telugu work Amuktamalyada. Option A is wrong because Vira Narasimha, his half-brother and predecessor, ruled only briefly from 1505 to 1509 and spent that time putting down rebellions. Option C is wrong because Sadashiva Raya was a figurehead of the later Tuluva line in whose name Aliya Rama Raya ruled, and the disaster of Talikota in 1565 falls in his reign. Option D is wrong because Achyuta Deva Raya, who ruled from 1529 to 1542, was the weaker successor of Krishnadevaraya and saw the empire begin to slip.

The correct answer is D, Akbar. The town on the Bhagirathi that later became Murshidabad was founded as Maksudabad in the reign of Akbar, and it kept that name until the Bengal governor Murshid Quli Khan shifted his seat there in the early eighteenth century and renamed it after himself. Murshidabad then served as the capital of Bengal under the Nawabs until the British moved power to Calcutta after Plassey. Option A is wrong because Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last emperor, ruled only at Delhi in the nineteenth century and founded no city. Option B is wrong because Shah Jahan built Shahjahanabad at Delhi, not Maksudabad. Option C is wrong because Humayun spent much of his reign fighting Sher Shah Suri and in exile in Persia, and the city is not credited to him. Remember the pair Maksudabad and Murshidabad together with Akbar.