Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 44

The correct answer is C, Zil-Ilahi (Shadow of God). Balban took the title Zil-i-Ilahi to claim that the sultan rules as the shadow of God on earth, a claim that placed him far above his nobles. He had been the real power behind Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud before taking the throne himself, and he was the strongest ruler of the Ilbari or so-called Slave dynasty. He broke the hold of the Chahalgani, the group of forty Turkish nobles, brought in the Persian court customs of sijda, prostration before the sultan, and paibos, kissing his feet, and kept a separate network of spies. He also organised the military department, the diwan-i-arz. A is wrong because Nur-al-Din was never his title. B is wrong because Nur Mahal was a title of Nur Jahan, the queen of Jahangir. D is wrong because Jahan Panah is linked with Muhammad bin Tughlaq, who built a city of that name at Delhi. Exam tip: Balban stands for Zil-i-Ilahi, sijda and paibos, and the diwan-i-arz.

The correct answer is B, Cholas. Puhar, also called Kaveripattinam, was the great port of the early Cholas of the Sangam age.

The town stood where the Kaveri meets the Bay of Bengal, and Karikala, the best known early Chola ruler, is credited with developing it. Sangam poetry and the Tamil epic Silappadikaram describe its warehouses, its separate quarter for foreign merchants and its trade in pepper, pearls and fine cloth with Rome and South East Asia. Uraiyur was the inland capital of the early Cholas while Puhar served as the coastal capital and port.

A is wrong: the Cheras of the Kerala coast used Muziris and Tondi as their ports. C is wrong: the Pandyas ruled from Madurai and their port was Korkai, famous for pearls. D is wrong: the Vakatakas ruled in the Deccan and had no port on this coast.

Exam tip: pair them up, Chola with Puhar and Uraiyur, Chera with Muziris and Vanji, Pandya with Korkai and Madurai.

The correct answer is A, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the Moderate leader whom Gandhi called his political guru. He founded the Servants of India Society at Poona in 1905 to train men who would give their lives to public service on a modest allowance, and he worked through the Imperial Legislative Council on the budget, on primary education and on the conditions of indentured labour. Option B is wrong because M. G. Ranade, Gokhale's own teacher, founded the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and the Indian National Social Conference and died in 1901, before the Society was formed. Option C is wrong because Pherozeshah Mehta, the Lion of Bombay, dominated the Bombay Corporation and the Moderate wing of the Congress but founded no such body. Option D is wrong because Dinshaw Wacha was a Moderate leader and an authority on finance, associated with Naoroji in the economic critique of British rule.

The correct answer is D, Dadabhai Naoroji. Dadabhai Naoroji set up the East India Association in London in 1866 to place Indian questions before the British public and members of Parliament, and branches of it were soon opened in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. He had already started the London Indian Society a year earlier. Called the Grand Old Man of India, he wrote Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, in which he explained the drain of wealth from India to Britain, became the first Indian elected to the British House of Commons in 1892 and presided over the Indian National Congress three times. Option A is wrong because Gopal Krishna Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society in 1905. Option B is wrong because George Yule was the first English president of the Congress, at Allahabad in 1888. Option C is wrong because Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee was the first president of the Congress in 1885. Exam tip: London Indian Society 1865 and East India Association 1866, both of Dadabhai Naoroji.

The correct answer is B, Lahore in 1929. The Lahore session of December 1929, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, declared Purna Swaraj to be the goal of the Congress, authorised the launch of civil disobedience and called upon the people to observe 26 January 1930 as Independence Day, which is why that date was later chosen for the commencement of the Constitution. Option A is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1928 adopted the Nehru Report and gave the government one year to grant dominion status. Option C is wrong because the Karachi session of 1931 endorsed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and passed the resolutions on fundamental rights and the national economic programme. Option D is wrong because the Faizpur session of 1936 is remembered as the first Congress session held in a village, with Jawaharlal Nehru again in the chair.

The correct answer is A, Nizam Shahis : Bijapur, which is the mismatched pair. The Nizam Shahis ruled from Ahmadnagar, founded by Malik Ahmad in 1490, while Bijapur belonged to the Adil Shahis of Yusuf Adil Shah. All five Deccan Sultanates grew out of the break-up of the Bahmani kingdom between about 1490 and 1518, and four of them joined hands to crush Vijayanagara at the battle of Talikota in 1565. Bijapur is remembered for the Gol Gumbaz, Golconda for its fort and diamonds, and Ahmadnagar for Chand Bibi’s defence against the Mughals. Option B is a correct pair, because the Barid Shahis held Bidar, the last Bahmani capital. Option C is a correct pair, because the Qutb Shahis of Quli Qutb Shah ruled Golconda and later founded Hyderabad. Option D is a correct pair, because the Imad Shahis held Berar, the first province to break away and the first to be annexed by Ahmadnagar. Exam tip: Ahmadnagar Nizam Shahi, Bijapur Adil Shahi, Golconda Qutb Shahi, Bidar Barid Shahi, Berar Imad Shahi.

The correct answer is A, Germany. Bhikaji Cama unfurled a flag of Indian independence at the International Socialist Congress held at Stuttgart in Germany in 1907, and appealed to the delegates to support the Indian cause. The flag, designed with the help of Shyamji Krishna Varma and S. R. Rana, carried the words Vande Mataram and is treated as an early version of the national flag. Option B is wrong because Belgium is not connected with this episode, though Brussels hosted other socialist gatherings of the period. Option C is wrong because Poland was not an independent state in 1907 and had no such congress. Option D is wrong because Sweden is sometimes offered as a distractor by confusing Stuttgart with Stockholm, which is exactly the trap in this question. Remember the chain: Stuttgart, 1907, Bhikaji Cama, and her base in Paris with the paper Vande Mataram.

The correct answer is D, Kakatiya. Rudramadevi ruled the Kakatiya kingdom from Warangal, called Orugallu then, in what is now Telangana, in the second half of the thirteenth century. Her father Ganapatideva had no son and named her his successor, so she governed in her own right, took the male title Rudradeva in inscriptions and led her armies herself, holding off rebel nobles and the Yadavas of Devagiri. She was followed by her grandson Prataparudra II, the last Kakatiya ruler, whose Warangal fell to the armies of Delhi in the fourteenth century. Option A is wrong because the Cholas ruled from Thanjavur in the Tamil country. Option B is wrong because the Vakatakas were an early Deccan dynasty of the third to fifth centuries, linked to the Guptas by marriage. Option C is wrong because the Western Gangas ruled from Talakad in Karnataka and built the Gommateshwara statue at Shravanabelagola. Exam tip: Kakatiyas means Warangal, Ganapatideva, Rudramadevi and the thousand-pillar temple at Hanamkonda.

The correct answer is B, Government of India Act of 1935. This Act abolished dyarchy in the provinces and made them autonomous units, with ministries responsible to elected provincial legislatures; the first elections under it were held in 1937 and Congress ministries took office in most provinces. Option A is wrong because the Indian Councils Act of 1892 only enlarged the councils, allowed budget discussion and permitted questions to the executive. Option C is wrong because the Charter Act of 1853 belongs to Company rule and is remembered for separating legislative and executive functions and for introducing open competition for the civil service. Option D is wrong because the Indian Independence Act of 1947 did not reform provinces; it ended British rule and created the dominions of India and Pakistan. Remember the pair: 1919 brought dyarchy to the provinces, and 1935 replaced it with provincial autonomy.

The correct answer is B, Nagabhata-I. Nagabhata I founded the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty in the middle of the eighth century, with his power centred on Avanti and Ujjain in western India. He is remembered mainly for stopping the Arab armies that pushed in from Sindh, a check that the Pratiharas were praised for long after. His successors Vatsaraja, Nagabhata II and Mihira Bhoja made the dynasty one of the three great powers of the age, and the Pratiharas, the Palas of Bengal and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan fought the long tripartite struggle for Kannauj, which the Pratiharas finally held. A is wrong because Narasimhadeva I was an Eastern Ganga ruler of Odisha who built the Sun Temple at Konark. C is wrong because Harshavardhana belonged to the Vardhana dynasty of Thanesar and Kannauj. D is wrong because Ramachandra was the last important Yadava king of Devagiri. Exam tip: Nagabhata I founded the Pratiharas; Mihira Bhoja was their greatest ruler.

The correct answer is A, June 3, 1947. Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, announced his partition plan on 3 June 1947, which is why it is also called the June Third Plan. It offered the provinces a choice: British India would be divided into India and Pakistan, both as Dominions, the legislatures of Bengal and Punjab would vote on splitting those provinces, a referendum would be held in the North-West Frontier Province and Sylhet, and the princely states were left free to join either Dominion. The plan was given legal shape by the Indian Independence Act, passed on 18 July 1947. B is wrong because the All India Congress Committee accepted the plan on 14 June 1947, which was not the date of its announcement. C is wrong because no such announcement was made on that date. D is wrong because 20 February 1947 is Prime Minister Attlee's statement that Britain would leave India by June 1948. Exam tip: 20 Feb 1947 Attlee statement, 3 June 1947 Mountbatten Plan, 18 July 1947 Indian Independence Act.

The correct answer is D, Chin Khilich Khan. Chin Qilich Khan, better remembered by his title Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, was a Mughal noble appointed governor of the Deccan by Muhammad Shah. Tired of court intrigue at Delhi, he returned to the south, defeated his rival Mubariz Khan at Shakar Kheda in 1724 and from then on ruled the Deccan as an independent prince in all but name, founding the Asaf Jahi or Nizam dynasty of Hyderabad that lasted until 1948. He kept the forms of Mughal loyalty, struck coins in the emperor’s name, yet appointed his own officers and made war and peace on his own. Option A is wrong because Asaf Jah II, that is Nizam Ali Khan, was a later ruler of the same line, not its founder. Option B is wrong because Bahadur Shah was the Mughal emperor who ruled from 1707 to 1712. Option C is wrong because Alivardi Khan made himself independent in Bengal, not Hyderabad. Exam tip: Hyderabad 1724 Chin Qilich Khan, Awadh 1722 Saadat Khan, Bengal Murshid Quli Khan.

The correct answer is A, 1948. The Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, refused to sign the Instrument of Accession and signed only a standstill agreement in 1947, so in September 1948 the Indian government sent in the army in a police action code-named Operation Polo and the state joined the Indian Union. The operation lasted about five days and followed the violence of the Razakar militia against the people of the state. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, as Home Minister, and V. P. Menon handled the merger of the princely states, of which Hyderabad, Junagadh and Kashmir were the difficult ones. B, C and D are wrong because by those years Hyderabad was already part of India; its Telugu areas went into Andhra Pradesh in 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act. Exam tip: Junagadh and Hyderabad both came in 1948, Junagadh by plebiscite and Hyderabad by Operation Polo.

The correct answer is C, 17. Mahmud of Ghazni, who ruled the Ghaznavid kingdom from 998 to 1030, is recorded as having led seventeen raids into India between about 1000 and 1027. His aim was plunder and not permanent rule, so he carried away treasure and left no settled administration east of the Punjab. The best known of the raids destroyed the Somnath temple in Gujarat in 1025; earlier he had defeated Jayapala of the Hindu Shahi dynasty in 1001 and sacked the rich temple towns of Mathura, Thanesar and Kanauj. The scholar Al-Beruni, who wrote the Kitab-ul-Hind, and the poet Firdausi belonged to his court. A is wrong because five is far short of the recorded total. B is wrong because fifteen is the figure most often confused with the right one. D is wrong because seven is not the accepted count either. Exam tip: Mahmud of Ghazni made 17 raids and struck Somnath in 1025, while Muhammad Ghori's win at Tarain in 1192 began Turkish rule.

The correct answer is A, uzhavar. In the Tamil region of ancient India the ordinary ploughmen, the men who actually tilled the fields, were called uzhavar.

Inscriptions and Sangam poems show a graded village society there. At the top stood the vellalar, the large landowners; below them came the uzhavar, the ploughmen or small cultivators; and at the bottom were the landless labourers, including slaves. These words come from early Tamil literature of roughly the third century BCE to the third century CE, the Sangam age, whose poems describe the chiefdoms of the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas and call their rulers the muvendar, the three crowned kings.

B is wrong: adimai means slaves, people owned by others. C is wrong: kadaisiyar were the landless labourers who worked in other people's fields. D is wrong: vellalar were the large landowners, the richest group in the village.

Exam tip: the Tamil village order was vellalar as big landowners, uzhavar as ploughmen, and kadaisiyar and adimai as landless labourers and slaves.

The correct answer is C, Razia Sultana. Razia was the only woman to sit on the throne of Delhi, so she was both the first and the last woman ruler of the Sultanate. She was the daughter of Iltutmish, who chose her over his sons, and she ruled from 1236 to 1240. She held court unveiled, rode an elephant and took the title Jalalat-ud-din Razia. The Turkish nobles of the Chalisa resented a woman on the throne, and she was overthrown and killed in 1240. A is wrong because Chand Bibi was a regent of Ahmednagar and Bijapur in the Deccan in the sixteenth century, not a Delhi sultan. B is wrong because Nur Jahan was the wife of the Mughal emperor Jahangir and wielded influence through him, but never ruled as sovereign. D is wrong because Rani Durgavati ruled Gondwana and fought Akbar’s general Asaf Khan in 1564. Exam tip: remember the pair - Iltutmish named his daughter Razia, who ruled Delhi from 1236 to 1240.

The correct answer is C, Prithviraja III. Prithviraja III, the Chahamana or Chauhan ruler of Ajmer and Delhi, defeated Muhammad Ghori in the First Battle of Tarain in 1191; he is the Prithviraj Chauhan of popular memory. Tarain, now Taraori, lies near Thanesar in Haryana on the old route to Delhi, and the same ground saw the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192, in which Ghori returned, defeated Prithviraja and opened north India to Turkish rule. Chand Bardai, who wrote the Prithviraj Raso, and Jayanaka, who wrote the Prithviraja Vijaya, are linked with his court. A is wrong because Vigraharaja III ruled the Chahamanas long before Ghori appeared in India. B is wrong because Ajayaraja II is remembered for founding Ajmer in the twelfth century, not for this battle. D is wrong because Durlabharaja III also belongs to the earlier line of Ajmer rulers. Exam tip: First Tarain 1191 Prithviraja wins, Second Tarain 1192 Ghori wins.

The correct answer is B, shalabhoga. Chola inscriptions use the word shalabhoga for land set apart to maintain a school.

The Cholas, who ruled from Thanjavur between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries, left hundreds of inscriptions on temple walls recording grants of land, and each kind of grant carried its own name. Besides shalabhoga there was brahmadeya, land given to Brahmanas; devadana and tirunamattukkani, land given to temples; pallichchhandam, land given to Jaina institutions; and vellanvagai, the land of ordinary non-Brahmana peasant proprietors. These records are the main source for Chola village administration, with its assemblies such as the ur, the sabha and the nagaram.

A is wrong: tirunamattukkani was land gifted to a temple. C is wrong: pallichchhandam was land donated to Jaina institutions, a palli being a Jaina shrine. D is wrong: vellanvagai was land held by non-Brahmana peasant proprietors.

Exam tip: shalabhoga for a school, brahmadeya for Brahmanas, devadana and tirunamattukkani for temples, pallichchhandam for Jaina institutions.

The correct answer is B, 19 December 1929. The Lahore session of the Indian National Congress passed the Purna Swaraj resolution on 19 December 1929 and declared complete independence to be the goal of the Congress.

The session met on the bank of the Ravi and was presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru. On the midnight of 31 December 1929 the tricolour was hoisted there, and the Congress asked people to observe 26 January 1930 as the first Independence Day. The same resolution cleared the way for a civil disobedience programme, which Gandhi began with the Dandi March in March 1930.

Option A, 21 December 1929, is not linked with any decision of the session. Option C, 26 December 1929, is also a wrong date. Option D, 15 December 1929, falls before the session opened.

Exam tip: Lahore session 1929 — resolution 19 December, flag 31 December, first Independence Day 26 January 1930.

The correct answer is D, Bhulabhai Desai. Bhulabhai Desai led the defence at the Red Fort trials of the Indian National Army officers, and his argument that the soldiers of a recognised army were fighting for their country's freedom turned the trials into a public cause. The first trial, held from November 1945, was of Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, charged with waging war against the King. The Congress set up an INA Defence Committee whose members included Jawaharlal Nehru, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Asaf Ali and Kailash Nath Katju. The men were convicted but the sentences were remitted after countrywide protests. A is wrong because Sardar Patel organised relief and funds, and did not appear in court. B is wrong because Aruna Asaf Ali was a leader of the 1942 movement, not a lawyer in the case. C is wrong because K. M. Munshi, though a lawyer, is remembered for his work in the Constituent Assembly. Exam tip: Red Fort trials 1945-46, defence led by Bhulabhai Desai.