Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 5

The correct answer is C, 4:2:1. A Harappan burnt brick was four units long, two units broad and one unit thick, and the same proportion turns up at sites hundreds of kilometres apart. This standardisation is one of the strongest arguments for a common authority or at least a shared set of rules across the civilisation, and it goes with the standard system of weights that runs in multiples of sixteen.

Option A, 1:2:4, is the same three numbers written backwards and is the commonest trap in this question; length is the largest of the three, so the ratio must begin with 4. Options B and D, 2:2:1 and 3:2:1, are simply wrong proportions and do not match any Harappan brick. Read the order of the words in the question stem carefully before choosing.

The correct answer is C, Ahmad Shah Abdali. On 14 January 1761 the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali, also called Ahmad Shah Durrani, crushed the Maratha army at Panipat in present-day Haryana. The Marathas were led by Sadashivrao Bhau, and Vishwasrao, the young son of Peshwa Balaji Bajirao, was killed in the fighting. Abdali was backed by the Rohilla chief Najib-ud-daula and by Shuja-ud-daula, the Nawab of Awadh. The defeat checked Maratha expansion in north India for about a decade and made it easier for the British to rise to power. Option A is wrong because Hemu lost the Second Battle of Panipat to Akbar's forces in 1556. Option B is wrong because Muhammad Ghori fought the battles of Tarain in 1191 and 1192, not at Panipat. Option D is wrong because Babur won the First Battle of Panipat against Ibrahim Lodi in 1526 and founded the Mughal empire. Exam tip: Panipat I 1526 Babur vs Ibrahim Lodi; Panipat II 1556 Akbar vs Hemu; Panipat III 1761 Abdali vs Marathas.

The correct answer is A, village headman. Under the Delhi Sultans, the Muqaddam or Chaudhari was the headman of the village and helped collect land revenue from the peasants. The village was the smallest unit of the Sultanate. Above it came the pargana under an Amil, the shiq under a Shiqdar, and the province, or iqta, under a Muqti or Wali. Along with the Khut, the headmen enjoyed many privileges, and Alauddin Khalji is remembered for cutting them down so that they paid taxes like ordinary peasants. Option B is wrong because revenue officials such as the Amil worked at the pargana level, above the village. Option C is wrong because the village accountant was the Patwari, who kept the land and revenue records. Option D is wrong because the term meant only one post, the headman. Exam tip: Muqaddam or Chaudhari is the headman, Patwari is the accountant, and Alauddin Khalji curbed the Khut, Muqaddam and Chaudhari.

The correct answer is D, Annie Besant. Annie Besant, an Irish-born theosophist, was the first woman to preside over the Indian National Congress, at its Calcutta session in 1917. She had started the Home Rule League in 1916, founded the newspaper 'New India', and set up the Central Hindu College at Banaras, which later grew into Banaras Hindu University. The first Indian woman to become Congress president was Sarojini Naidu, at the Kanpur session of 1925. A is wrong because Indira Gandhi became Congress president much later, in 1959. B is wrong because Sucheta Kripalani was India's first woman Chief Minister, of Uttar Pradesh in 1963, and never headed the Congress. C is wrong because Nellie Sengupta presided over the Calcutta session of 1933, making her the third woman president, not the first. Exam tip: first woman Congress president Annie Besant, Calcutta 1917; first Indian woman Sarojini Naidu, Kanpur 1925.

The correct answer is C, Emperor Akbar. Hamida Banu Begum was the wife of Humayun and the mother of Akbar, who was born to her in 1542 at Amarkot in Sindh. Humayun married her in 1541 while he was on the run after losing his throne to Sher Shah Suri at the battles of Chausa (1539) and Kannauj (1540). Akbar was born during these years of exile, and Humayun won back Delhi only in 1555, a few months before his death. Hamida Banu was honoured with the title Maryam Makani, and she lived on at the court of her son until her death in 1604. A is wrong because Humayun was her husband; his mother was Maham Begum. B is wrong because Jahangir was her grandson, the son of Akbar and Mariam-uz-Zamani. D is wrong because Babur was her father-in-law, the founder of the Mughal empire. Exam tip: Babur, then Humayun, then Akbar, then Jahangir; Akbar's mother = Hamida Banu Begum, born at Amarkot in 1542.

The correct answer is C, Lord Chelmsford. Chelmsford was Viceroy from 1916 to 1921, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre happened on 13 April 1919, the day of Baisakhi, in Amritsar. A peaceful crowd protesting the Rowlatt Act and the arrest of Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal was fired upon on the orders of General Dyer, with Michael O'Dwyer as Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab. Rabindranath Tagore returned his knighthood in protest, and the Hunter Commission was set up to inquire into the firing. The Montagu–Chelmsford reforms of the same year and the Government of India Act 1919 are also from his term. A is wrong because Lord Irwin (1926–31) is linked with the Simon Commission boycott, the Dandi March and the Gandhi–Irwin Pact. B is wrong because Dalhousie (1848–56) was a Governor-General famous for the Doctrine of Lapse. D is wrong because Ripon (1880–84) is remembered for local self-government and the Ilbert Bill. Exam tip: 1919 means Rowlatt Act, Jallianwala Bagh and Montagu–Chelmsford reforms, all under Chelmsford.

The correct answer is B, Lord Cornwallis. Lord Cornwallis, Governor-General from 1786 to 1793, introduced the Permanent Settlement on 22 March 1793 in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. It made the zamindars the owners of the land and fixed the land revenue permanently: the zamindar kept one-eleventh and paid ten-elevenths to the Company, and under the 'sunset law' his estate was auctioned if the money was not paid by sunset of the due date. Cornwallis also issued the Cornwallis Code of 1793, separated revenue and judicial work, reorganised the police under darogas, and is called the father of the Indian civil services. Option A is wrong because Warren Hastings (1774 to 1785) was the first Governor-General of Bengal and used annual and five-year revenue farming. Option C is wrong because Sir John Macpherson was only the acting Governor-General in 1785 to 1786. Option D is wrong because Sir John Shore helped design the scheme but became Governor-General only after Cornwallis, in 1793 to 1798. Exam tip: Permanent Settlement 1793 = Cornwallis, Ryotwari = Munro (Madras), Mahalwari = Holt Mackenzie (North-West Provinces).

The correct answer is A, Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla. Both were sentenced to death in the Kakori case and hanged in December 1927. On 9 August 1925, members of the Hindustan Republican Association stopped a train at Kakori near Lucknow and took away government money to fund their fight. Four of them were hanged: Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh, while Chandrashekhar Azad escaped arrest. The friendship of Bismil, a Hindu, and Ashfaqulla, a Muslim, is still remembered as a symbol of unity. Option B is wrong because Vasudev Chapekar was hanged for the 1897 killing of the plague commissioner Rand in Pune, and Savarkar was sent to the Cellular Jail, not hanged. Option C is wrong because Khudiram Bose was hanged in 1908 for the Muzaffarpur bomb attack in Bihar, and Prafulla Chaki shot himself at Mokama to avoid arrest. Option D is wrong because Surya Sen was hanged for the Chittagong armoury raid and Udham Singh for killing Michael O'Dwyer in London. Exam tip: Kakori 1925 means Bismil, Ashfaqulla, Lahiri and Roshan Singh.

The correct answer is B, 1814. Raja Ram Mohan Roy set up the Atmiya Sabha, the 'Society of Friends', in Calcutta in 1814. It was a small circle for discussion that preached one formless God and attacked idol worship, caste rigidity, sati and child marriage. It was the first step of a chain that papers love to test: Atmiya Sabha 1814, then Brahmo Sabha 1828, which later became the Brahmo Samaj, then the ban on sati by Lord William Bentinck in 1829, which Roy strongly backed. A is wrong because Roy died at Bristol in England in 1833, so nothing he founded dates from 1845. C is wrong because 1839 is the year Debendranath Tagore founded the Tattvabodhini Sabha, which later joined the Brahmo movement. D is wrong because 1828 is the year of the Brahmo Sabha, Roy's second and larger body, not the Atmiya Sabha. Exam tip: Roy's timeline is Atmiya Sabha 1814, Brahmo Sabha 1828, sati banned 1829, died 1833.

The correct answer is B, Tax. In the Later Vedic age, bali had become a regular tax collected by the king. In the Rig Vedic period, bali was a voluntary offering that the people or defeated tribes gave to the chief, often in the form of cattle or grain. As kingdoms grew larger after about 1000 BCE and settled farming spread in the Ganga plains, this gift turned into a compulsory payment. The texts of this period name royal officers linked to it, such as the bhagadugha, who collected the king's share, and the sangrihitri, the treasurer. With this income the king could maintain a court and a standing force. Option A is wrong because a sacrifice was called a yajna, and bali in this context was a payment to the ruler. Option C is wrong because bali never meant a person; it refers to what was paid. Option D is wrong because 'income' is too general, while bali was specifically the share paid to the king. Exam tip: Rig Vedic bali was a voluntary gift; Later Vedic bali became a compulsory tax, and the bhagadugha collected it.

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 B, 2 and 3 only. Shakyamuni and Tathagata are titles of the Buddha, while Nayaputta is a name of Mahavira. Shakyamuni means 'the sage of the Shakyas', the clan of Kapilavastu into which Siddhartha was born. Tathagata means 'the one who has thus gone', and the Buddha used it for himself in the Pali texts. Nayaputta (Nataputta) means 'son of the Naya or Jnatrika clan', and Buddhist texts call Mahavira Nigantha Nataputta. Option A is wrong because Nayaputta is the one name in the list that does not belong to the Buddha. Option C is wrong because it adds Nayaputta to the two real epithets. Option D is wrong because two of the three names are genuine epithets of the Buddha. Other titles of the Buddha include Sugata and Bhagavat, while Mahavira is also called Jina and Vardhamana. Exam tip: Shakyamuni and Tathagata for the Buddha, Nigantha Nataputta for Mahavira.

The correct answer is A, a police station at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh was set on fire by a mob. Gandhi withdrew the movement because it had turned violent, against his principle of non-violence. On 5 February 1922 at Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur district, a crowd of protesters set fire to a police station after the police fired on them, and 22 policemen died. Gandhi called the incident a warning from God, went on a five-day fast, and the Congress Working Committee at Bardoli on 12 February 1922 suspended the movement that had been launched in 1920 on the Khilafat and Punjab wrongs. Leaders such as Motilal Nehru and C. R. Das disagreed and later formed the Swaraj Party. B is wrong because Gandhi was not ill; the decision was a moral one. C is wrong because Swaraj had not been achieved when the movement was stopped. D is wrong because Gandhi was arrested only in March 1922, after the movement had already been called off. Exam tip: Chauri Chaura 5 February 1922, Bardoli resolution 12 February 1922, Non-Cooperation ended.

The correct answer is A, Ajatashatru. He was Bimbisara's son and took the throne of Magadha after him in the Haryanka dynasty. Bimbisara, a contemporary of the Buddha, built Magadha's power through marriage alliances and the conquest of Anga, with Rajagriha as his capital. Ajatashatru pushed it further: he fought Kosala, defeated the Vajji confederacy of the Licchavis, and built a fort at the village of Pataligrama on the Ganga. The First Buddhist Council was held at Rajagriha in his reign, soon after the Buddha's death. B is wrong because Udayin was Ajatashatru's son, who came later and made Pataliputra the capital. C is wrong because Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya dynasty around 322 BCE, nearly two centuries later. D is wrong because Ashoka was Chandragupta Maurya's grandson. Exam tip: Haryanka order, Bimbisara, then Ajatashatru, then Udayin; Rajagriha first, Pataliputra later.

The correct answer is D, San Francisco. The Ghadar Party was formed in 1913 by Indian immigrants on the Pacific coast of the USA and Canada, most of them Punjabi Sikh farmers and workers. Sohan Singh Bhakna was its president and Lala Har Dayal its leading thinker. Its office, called the Yugantar Ashram, was in San Francisco, and from there it brought out the weekly paper ‘Ghadar’ from 1 November 1913 in Urdu and Punjabi, calling for armed revolt against British rule. When the First World War began, thousands of members sailed home, but the planned rising of February 1915 was betrayed, and many were tried in the Lahore Conspiracy Cases. Option A is wrong because Delhi became the capital of British India in 1911 but was never the party’s base. Option B is wrong because Lahore is linked to the trials of the Ghadar revolutionaries, not to their headquarters. Option C is wrong because Calcutta was the base of Bengal groups such as the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar. Exam tip: Ghadar Party, 1913, Yugantar Ashram, San Francisco; president Sohan Singh Bhakna.

The correct answer is C, Samudragupta. The Prayaga Prashasti, better known as the Allahabad Pillar Inscription, is a long Sanskrit poem in his praise. It was composed by Harishena, his court poet and minister, and engraved on an old Ashokan pillar now kept in the Allahabad (Prayagraj) Fort. It lists the kings Samudragupta defeated in the north and the south, the frontier states and forest kingdoms that paid him tribute, and praises him as a poet and a player of the veena, which his coins also show. His wide conquests led the historian V. A. Smith to call him the Napoleon of India. A is wrong, because the same pillar carries Ashoka's own edicts, not a prashasti praising him. B is wrong, because Harshavardhana is praised in Banabhatta's Harshacharita, not in this inscription. D is wrong, because no prashasti at Prayaga praises Bindusara, the Mauryan king who was Ashoka's father. Exam tip: Prayaga Prashasti, Harishena, Samudragupta; Aihole inscription, Ravikirti, Pulakeshin II.

The correct answer is D, The Charter Act of 1833. This Act turned the Governor-General of Bengal into the Governor-General of India, with full civil and military powers over all British territory in India. Lord William Bentinck became the first Governor-General of India under it. The Act was the high point of centralisation: it took away the law-making powers of the Bombay and Madras governments, ended the East India Company's commercial activities so that it became a purely administrative body, and added a Law Member, Macaulay, to the Governor-General's Council. Option A is wrong because the Regulating Act of 1773 created the post of Governor-General of Bengal, first held by Warren Hastings. Option B is wrong because Pitt's India Act of 1784 set up the Board of Control and the system of dual control. Option C is wrong because the Charter Act of 1793 mainly renewed the Company's charter for twenty years. Exam tip: 1773 Governor-General of Bengal (Hastings), 1833 Governor-General of India (Bentinck), 1858 Viceroy (Canning).

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 C, Kashmir. Rajatarangini, meaning the river of kings, is a Sanskrit verse chronicle of the rulers of Kashmir written by Kalhana around 1148–1150 CE. It runs to about 8,000 verses arranged in eight books called tarangas, or waves, and traces Kashmir's kings from legendary times down to Kalhana's own day in the reign of Jayasimha. Because Kalhana used inscriptions, coins, older records and his own judgement, it is often called the first real work of history written in India. Later authors Jonaraja, Srivara and Prajyabhatta continued the story into the Mughal period. A is wrong because Bengal's rulers are recorded in works like Ramacharita of Sandhyakara Nandi, not in Rajatarangini. B is wrong because Bihar was the seat of Magadha and the Palas, who are not the book's subject. D is wrong because the Delhi Sultans are covered by Persian chronicles such as Tabaqat-i-Nasiri. Exam tip: Kalhana, Rajatarangini, Kashmir, 12th century, eight tarangas.

The correct answer is C, Meluha. Mesopotamian texts list Meluha among the lands that sent ships carrying carnelian beads, ivory, timber and copper, and the goods named there match what Harappan sites produced. The trade was carried on by barter, since no Harappan coins have ever been found, and seals of Harappan type have turned up in Mesopotamia itself.

Option A, Dilmun, is identified with Bahrain and Option B, Magan, with Oman; both lay on the sea route between Mesopotamia and the Indus, and served as halting points rather than as names for India. Option D, Sindon, is not a Mesopotamian word at all: it is the later Greek name for cotton, taken from the Indus, and it recalls that the Harappans were the first people to grow the crop.