Set 34 of the Indian History mixed quiz has 20 multiple-choice questions from 10 different topics of the subject: Advent of the Europeans, Viceroys of India (1858–1947) and Major Events, British Expansion and the Governors-General and more. 8 of them were asked in real previous-year papers. A topic quiz checks one chapter; this set revises the whole subject at once, the way an exam paper does, where the next question can come from any chapter. Every question carries an explanation of why the correct option is right and why the others are wrong. Keep to the timer, read the explanations at the end, and go back to the notes of any topic where you slipped.
20 questions with answers and explanations
The Dutch East India Company was formed in which year?
The Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, usually called the Dutch East India Company, was created in 1602 when the States General of the Netherlands merged several competing trading ventures and gave the new body a monopoly of eastern trade.
Read the full explanation →In which year was the partition of Bengal carried out by the British Viceroy Lord Curzon?
Lord Curzon announced the partition of Bengal on 19 July 1905 and it came into effect on 16 October 1905, splitting the province into a Muslim-majority eastern half and the rest of Bengal.
Read the full explanation →Which Indian ruler was the first to accept the Subsidiary Alliance of Lord Wellesley?
He signed the Subsidiary Alliance in 1798, the first year of Wellesley's term, agreeing to disband his French-trained troops and to maintain a British force at his own expense.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following was a fishing colony that was used as a port for trading with the Romans and the Greco-Romans in ancient India?
Arikamedu, on the Ariyankuppam river near Puducherry on the Coromandel coast, began as a small fishing settlement and grew into a busy port that traded with the Romans and the Greco Roman world in the first centuries of the common era.
Read the full explanation →Who founded the French settlement of Pondicherry in 1674?
He obtained the site from the ruler of Bijapur and founded Pondicherry in 1674, and it became the headquarters of the French in India, holding that position until 1954.
Read the full explanation →The category of 'erstwhile princely states' were those states A. whose prince agreed to merger with India B. whose prince agreed to merger with Pakistan C. which were retained as administrative units until statehood D. which were retained as European colonies such as Goa and Pondicherry.
When the British left in 1947, India had, besides the provinces under direct British rule, about 565 princely states whose rulers had accepted British paramountcy.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following states was NOT annexed under the Doctrine of Lapse?
Awadh was annexed by Lord Dalhousie in 1856, but the ground given was alleged misgovernment by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, not the absence of a natural heir.
Read the full explanation →'Piklihal' and 'Utnur' are important ______ sites.
Piklihal and Utnur are South Indian Neolithic settlements, famous for the ash mounds their cattle-keeping people left behind.
Read the full explanation →The English East India Company received its first royal charter from:
She granted the charter on 31 December 1600 to a body formally called the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies, giving it an exclusive right for fifteen years to trade east of the Cape of Good Hope.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following statements about 'the Charter Act of 1813': 1. It ended the trade monopoly of the East India Company in India except for trade in tea and trade with China. 2. It asserted the sovereignty of the British Crown over the Indian territories held by the Company. 3. The revenues of India were now controlled by the British Parliament. Which of the statements given above are correct?
The Act of 1813 broke the Company's trade monopoly and asserted the Crown's sovereignty, but left the revenues where they were, so the first two statements stand and the third does not.
Read the full explanation →The practice of sati was legally abolished in India in 1829 during the term of:
Regulation XVII of 4 December 1829 declared sati illegal in the Bengal Presidency and punishable by the criminal courts, and it was extended to Madras and Bombay in 1830.
Read the full explanation →Which of the movements against caste discrimination is correctly linked with the region of their influence?
Jyotirao Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj, the Truth Seekers' Society, at Pune in 1873 to fight caste rank and priestly control in Maharashtra.
Read the full explanation →The Battle of Wandiwash, fought in 1760, was a contest between:
Wandiwash, fought in January 1760 during the Third Carnatic War, saw Sir Eyre Coote defeat the Comte de Lally, and the French never recovered their position in India.
Read the full explanation →Nkrumah was one of the five leaders, who comprised the core of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). He was the leader of which country in Africa?
Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana and was one of the five founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. He took Ghana to independence in 1957, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to break free of colonial rule, and served first as its Prime Minister and then as its President.
Read the full explanation →India's first railway line, opened in 1853, ran between which two places?
The first passenger railway line in India, about thirty-four kilometres long, was opened on 16 April 1853 during the term of Lord Dalhousie, who had set out the plan for an Indian railway network in his Railway Minute of 1853.
Read the full explanation →Chola inscriptions describe Tirunamattukkani as '________'.
Chola inscriptions use a separate term for every kind of land grant, and tirunamattukkani is the land whose produce was set apart for a temple.
Read the full explanation →How did Bombay come into the possession of the English East India Company?
Portugal gave Bombay to Charles II of England in 1661 as part of the dowry when he married the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza, and in 1668 the King transferred the islands to the East India Company on an annual rent of ten pounds.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first Viceroy of India?
The Government of India Act of 1858 ended the rule of the East India Company and transferred power to the British Crown, so the Governor-General was additionally styled Viceroy, the personal representative of the Crown.
Read the full explanation →Who came to the court of Jahangir as the ambassador of King James I of England?
He reached India in 1615 as the accredited ambassador of James I and stayed until 1619, travelling with the Mughal court and obtaining a farman that allowed the English to trade and to set up factories in several parts of the empire.
Read the full explanation →The Charter Act of 1833 is important because it:
The Charter Act of 1833 made the Governor-General of Bengal the Governor-General of India with authority over the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, took away their power to make laws, and added a law member to the Council, a post first held by Lord Macaulay.
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