Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 47

The correct answer is D, 1918. Gandhi led the Kheda satyagraha in 1918, asking the government to remit land revenue after the crops failed in that district of Gujarat. The rules allowed a remission when the yield fell below a quarter of the normal crop, but the officials refused, so Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel urged the peasants to withhold revenue, and the government finally suspended collection from the poorer cultivators. The same year brought the Ahmedabad mill strike, where Gandhi used a hunger strike for the first time in India, and it followed Champaran in 1917. A is wrong because 1916 is the year of the Lucknow Pact and of Gandhi's speech at Banaras Hindu University. B is wrong because the Non-Cooperation Movement began in 1920. C is wrong because 1919 saw the Rowlatt satyagraha and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Exam tip: keep the early movements in order - Champaran 1917, then Ahmedabad and Kheda in 1918.

The correct answer is D, He was the first recipient of the Padma Shree Award. C. Rajagopalachari was one of the first three recipients of the Bharat Ratna in 1954, along with C. V. Raman and S. Radhakrishnan, not of the Padma Shri, so this statement is not true. Known as Rajaji, he took charge in 1948 as the last Governor General of India and the only Indian to hold that post, after Lord Mountbatten left. He had earlier been Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal, Union Home Minister and Chief Minister of Madras State. A is true, since no other Indian held the office. B is true, because he founded the Swatantra Party in 1959 to oppose Nehru's policy of state control and land ceilings. C is true, as he was a close associate of Gandhi and a senior Congress leader. Exam tip: the first Bharat Ratna went to Rajaji, Raman and Radhakrishnan in 1954.

The correct answer is A, V. D. Savarkar. Savarkar had founded a youth body called Mitra Mela at Nasik in 1899 and converted it into the Abhinav Bharat Society in 1904, which spread in Maharashtra and later had branches in London through India House. Option B is wrong because Prafulla Chaki was a Bengal revolutionary who, with Khudiram Bose, attacked a carriage at Muzaffarpur in 1908 and shot himself to avoid arrest. Option C is wrong because Sachindra Nath Sanyal founded the Hindustan Republican Association at Kanpur in 1924 and wrote the memoir Bandi Jivan. Option D is wrong because Rash Behari Bose organised the Delhi bomb action of 1912 and later worked from Japan, where he helped form the Indian Independence League. Fix the year 1904 with Savarkar and Abhinav Bharat.

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 B, Edwin Montague. Edwin Montagu, the Secretary of State for India, issued the declaration of August 1917 promising the gradual development of self-governing institutions, and together with the Viceroy Lord Chelmsford produced the report of 1918 on which the Act of 1919 was based. Option A is wrong because Lord Elgin served as Viceroy in the nineteenth century and had nothing to do with these reforms. Option C is wrong because Charles I was a seventeenth century English king, associated with the early charters of the East India Company, not with twentieth century Indian reform. Option D is wrong because Lord Linlithgow came later: he chaired the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Bill that became the Act of 1935 and was Viceroy during the Second World War. Keep the chain in mind: Montagu's declaration of 1917, the report of 1918, the Act of 1919 and its enforcement in 1921.

The correct answer is A, Badruddin Tyabji. The Bombay Presidency Association was founded in 1885 by Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta and Kashinath Trimbak Telang, three lawyers of Bombay who are often called the city's triumvirate.

The body was formed to press Indian political demands before the British Parliament, especially after the anger caused by the Ilbert Bill, and it came up in the very year the Indian National Congress was founded. Badruddin Tyabji later became the third president of the Congress at its Madras session in 1887, the first Muslim to hold that office.

Option B, Behramji M Malabari, was a social reformer and journalist who campaigned against child marriage. Option C, AK Fazlul Haq, was a Bengal leader who moved the Lahore Resolution in 1940. Option D, Zakir Husain, was the third President of India.

Exam tip: Bombay triumvirate — Tyabji, Mehta and Telang; Bombay Presidency Association 1885.

The correct answer is B, Tej Bahadur Sapru. The Liberal leader Tej Bahadur Sapru, working with M. R. Jayakar, brought Gandhi and Viceroy Lord Irwin to the table and is remembered as the mediator of the pact. The agreement was signed in Delhi on 5 March 1931 and is also called the Delhi Pact. Gandhi agreed to suspend the Civil Disobedience Movement and to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London, while the government agreed to release political prisoners not convicted of violence, to return confiscated property and to allow people on the coast to make salt for their own use. A is wrong because Motilal Nehru had died in February 1931, before the pact. C is wrong because Annie Besant led the Home Rule movement and had no part in it. D is wrong because C. Y. Chintamani was a Liberal editor and politician, not the mediator here. Exam tip: Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 5 March 1931, Delhi Pact, just before the Second Round Table Conference.

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 B, the magistrate Kingsford. Kingsford had passed harsh sentences on young Swadeshi workers as a magistrate at Calcutta and had been transferred to Muzaffarpur. Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki attacked a carriage they believed carried him, but it carried two British women, who were killed. Chaki shot himself and Khudiram Bose was hanged in August 1908, becoming one of the youngest martyrs of the movement. Option A is wrong because Lord Curzon had left India in 1905 and was never a target of this action. Option C is wrong because Curzon Wyllie was shot by Madan Lal Dhingra in London in 1909, a separate episode. Option D is wrong because Saunders, a police officer at Lahore, was shot in 1928 by Bhagat Singh and his comrades to avenge the assault on Lala Lajpat Rai. Keep the three targets and their years distinct.

The correct answer is C, which is the statement that is not correct. The Kushana gold coins were struck on the same weight standard as the Roman aureus of the time, not on a different one, because the dynasty traded briskly with the Roman world and found it convenient to match that standard. The other three statements are sound. The Indo-Greeks issued the first Indian coins that carry the ruler’s name along with his portrait, a sharp change from the earlier punch-marked coins, which bore only symbols. The Kushanas, from Vima Kadphises and Kanishka onwards, issued the first gold coins in India in any quantity, with deities such as Shiva and the Buddha on the reverse. And their gold coins have indeed been found at many sites across north India and Central Asia, which is the clearest proof of how far their trade reached. Exam tip: punch-marked coins are the earliest, Indo-Greek coins the first with royal portraits, Kushana coins the first gold, and the Guptas issued the most gold coins.

The correct answer is A, Linlithgow. The White Paper of 1933 on Indian constitutional reform was examined by a Joint Select Committee of the British Parliament chaired by Lord Linlithgow, and the Bill drafted on its report became the Government of India Act of 1935; Linlithgow later served as Viceroy of India from 1936 to 1943. Option B is wrong because Ramsay MacDonald was the British Prime Minister who convened the Round Table Conferences and announced the Communal Award of 1932. Option C is wrong because Winston Churchill was the loudest opponent of the reforms in Parliament, not the chairman of the committee. Option D is wrong because Clement Attlee belongs to the end of the story: as Prime Minister he made the announcement of February 1947 on the transfer of power and sent the Cabinet Mission in 1946. Sort these four by the decade in which each acted.

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 D, Chauri - Chaura Incident. Gandhi called off the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movement after a crowd at Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur district set fire to a police station on 5 February 1922, in which about twenty-two policemen died. Gandhi held that the people were not yet trained in non-violence, and the Congress Working Committee withdrew the movement at Bardoli on 12 February 1922. Many leaders, among them Motilal Nehru, C. R. Das and Subhas Chandra Bose, were unhappy with the decision, and the dispute led to the forming of the Swaraj Party in 1923. Gandhi was soon tried for sedition and sentenced to six years in the Great Trial at Ahmedabad. A is wrong because the Rowlatt Act of 1919 set off the earlier Rowlatt satyagraha. B is wrong because Tilak died in August 1920, before the movement had properly begun. C is wrong because the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 1919 was one of the causes of Non-Cooperation, not its end. Exam tip: Chauri Chaura 5 February 1922, movement withdrawn at Bardoli on 12 February 1922.

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, the Hindustan Republican Association. The HRA had been founded at Kanpur in 1924 by Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee and Ram Prasad Bismil, and it needed money for arms, so its members stopped a train near Kakori in the United Provinces and took the government treasury it carried. The trial that followed led to the hanging of Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh in 1927. Option B is wrong because the HSRA was formed only in 1928, when the HRA was reorganised at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi with a socialist aim. Option C is wrong because the Ghadar Party worked from North America and its plan of 1915 was a wartime one. Option D is wrong because the Anushilan Samiti was a Bengal body of the earlier phase. Note the order: HRA in 1924, Kakori in 1925, HSRA in 1928.

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 C, 1947. The Indian Independence Act was introduced in the British Parliament in July 1947 on the basis of the Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947, received royal assent on 18 July 1947 and came into effect on 15 August 1947, creating the dominions of India and Pakistan. Option A is wrong because 1945 is the year of the Wavell Plan and the Simla Conference, which failed over the Muslim League's claim to nominate all Muslim members. Option B is wrong because 1942 saw the Cripps Mission and the Quit India Movement, not a transfer of power. Option D is wrong because 1946 is the year of the Cabinet Mission, the elections to the Constituent Assembly and the formation of the interim government. Keep the final sequence in order: Wavell Plan 1945, Cabinet Mission 1946, Mountbatten Plan and the Act in 1947.

The correct answer is D, Jawaharlal Nehru. Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested on 31 October 1940 for individual satyagraha against India being dragged into the Second World War without the consent of its people, and he was sentenced to four years in prison.

Gandhi had launched individual satyagraha in October 1940 after the government's August Offer failed to promise freedom. Vinoba Bhave was chosen as the first satyagrahi, Nehru as the second and Brahma Datt as the third. The protest was kept individual rather than mass, so that the demand stayed alive without a countrywide campaign.

Option A, Subhas Chandra Bose, had resigned as Congress president in 1939 and left India in 1941. Option B, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, did not offer this satyagraha. Option C, Saifuddin Kitchlew, is remembered for the Jallianwala Bagh period of 1919.

Exam tip: individual satyagraha 1940 — Vinoba Bhave first, Nehru second, Brahma Datt third.

The correct answer is B, Curzon Wyllie. Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie was a political aide to the Secretary of State for India, and Madan Lal Dhingra, who belonged to the India House circle of Shyamji Krishna Varma, shot him at a meeting in London in 1909 and was hanged the same year. Option A is wrong because Lord Hardinge was the Viceroy attacked by a bomb in Delhi in 1912 and he survived. Option C is wrong because Kingsford was the magistrate the Muzaffarpur bomb of 1908 was aimed at. Option D is wrong because General Dyer, responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919, was shot in London in 1940 by Udham Singh, who is often confused with Dhingra in such questions because both acted in London. Remember Dhingra in 1909 and Udham Singh in 1940.

The correct answer is B, Lord Canning. The Act of 1858 gave the Governor-General the additional title of Viceroy, making him the direct representative of the Crown in India, and Lord Canning, who was Governor-General during the Revolt of 1857, became the first to hold the title. Option A is wrong because Lord Dalhousie left India in 1856, before the Revolt, and is remembered for the doctrine of lapse and for the first railway line. Option C is wrong because Lord Lytton came much later and is associated with the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 and the Delhi Durbar of 1877. Option D is wrong because Lord Ripon, often called the father of local self-government in India, served in the 1880s and repealed the Vernacular Press Act. The chain to remember is Canning in 1858, then the gradual expansion of the councils under his successors.