Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 60

The correct answer is B, Thomas Munro. Munro, with Captain Alexander Read, worked out the Ryotwari settlement in the Baramahal and Madras region, and extended it widely after he became Governor of Madras in 1820; the state dealt directly with the ryot, the individual cultivator, who held the land so long as he paid the assessment. A is wrong because Holt Mackenzie framed the Mahalwari settlement for the North Western Provinces in Regulation VII of 1822. C is wrong because John Shore advised Cornwallis on the Permanent Settlement and later became Governor-General himself. D is wrong because Robert Mertins Bird carried out the revised Mahalwari settlement of the North Western Provinces under Lord William Bentinck in 1833. Pair each name with its system, since matching questions on these four officers are set almost every year.

The correct answer is B, Indian Opinion. Gandhi started Indian Opinion at Durban in 1903 to put the case of Indians settled in South Africa before the public.

The weekly was printed at the Phoenix Settlement near Durban and came out in English and Gujarati, with Tamil and Hindi sections in its early years. Gandhi later wrote that a struggle such as satyagraha could not be carried on without a journal of its own, and the paper carried his writings on the campaign against the Asiatic Registration Act.

Option A, Young India, was an English weekly Gandhi edited in India from 1919. Option C, Swaraj Hind, is not a paper associated with him. Option D, Navajivan, was his Gujarati weekly, also taken up in India in 1919.

Exam tip: Indian Opinion, 1903, South Africa; Young India and Navajivan, 1919, India.

The correct answer is B, the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act, 1879. After the riots of 1875 the government enquired into peasant indebtedness in the Deccan and passed this Act, which restricted the moneylender's power to have a debtor's land sold in execution of a decree and gave the courts power to look behind the bond. A is wrong because the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 followed the Pabna agitation of 1873 and gave occupancy rights to tenants in Bengal. C is wrong because the Champaran Agrarian Act of 1918 followed Gandhi's satyagraha of 1917 and abolished the tinkathia system of indigo cultivation in Bihar. D is wrong because the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908 followed Birsa Munda's Ulgulan and protected khuntkatti land in the tribal tracts. Learning each rising with the Act that followed it turns this whole chapter into four or five safe marks.

The correct answer is B, Yugoslavia. The first summit of the Non-Aligned Movement was held in September 1961 at Belgrade, then the capital of Yugoslavia, and twenty-five countries took part in it. The movement grew out of the understanding between Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Sukarno of Indonesia, who wanted the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa to keep out of the two Cold War blocs. The Bandung Conference of 1955 in Indonesia had prepared the ground for it. Option A is wrong because India hosted the seventh summit, at New Delhi in 1983, not the first. Option C is wrong because New York is the seat of the United Nations and no summit of the movement was held there. Option D is wrong because Egypt hosted the second summit, at Cairo in 1964. Exam tip: first NAM summit Belgrade 1961, and the five founders were Nehru, Tito, Nasser, Nkrumah and Sukarno.

The correct answer is B, one-eleventh. The settlement required the zamindar to pay ten-elevenths of the rental he collected from the peasants to the state and to retain one-eleventh for himself, which is why the demand pressed so heavily and so many estates changed hands in the early years. A is wrong because a quarter share has no basis in the Bengal settlement. C is wrong because a half share is closer to the proportion of the gross produce the state claimed under the Ryotwari assessment on dry land, a figure candidates often confuse with this one. D is wrong because a third share belongs to older Indian practice, such as the Mughal demand on produce, and not to the Permanent Settlement. Remember the ratio along with the Sunset Law, since the two together explain the ruin of the old zamindari families.

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 B, Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu. The Santhal Hool, the largest tribal rising before 1857, was led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, with Chand and Bhairav beside them, in the Damin-i-Koh tract of the Rajmahal hills. The Santhals rose against moneylenders, zamindars and railway contractors, declared the Company's rule at an end, and were suppressed after a year; the Santhal Parganas were then made a separate district in 1855. A is wrong because Birsa Munda led the Ulgulan of 1899 and Jatra Bhagat the Tana Bhagat movement of 1914. C is wrong because Chakra Bisoi led the Khond uprising in the Odisha hills and Tomma Sora the Koya rising of 1879. D is wrong because Tirot Singh led the Khasi uprising and Gomdhar Konwar the Ahom revolt of 1828.

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.

The correct answer is C, the Permanent Settlement. Under its rules the revenue instalment had to reach the treasury before sunset on the appointed day; if it did not, the estate was liable to be sold at public auction, and many old families lost their zamindaris to Calcutta merchants in the first two decades. A is wrong because the Ryotwari settlement dealt with the individual cultivator and its hardship came from the high assessment and its rigid collection, not from any sunset rule. B is wrong because the Mahalwari settlement made the village jointly responsible and the lambardar collected the sum, with no such auction rule attached. D is wrong because the farming system auctioned the right to collect revenue in advance for a term of years, which is a different arrangement that the Permanent Settlement was designed to replace.

The correct answer is B, Marathi. Jyotiba Phule wrote Gulamgiri, which means slavery, in Marathi in 1873, the same year in which he founded the Satyashodhak Samaj at Pune. The book attacks the caste order and the priestly domination it rested on, and Phule dedicated it to the people of the United States who had worked to end the slavery of Black people, drawing a direct parallel with the condition of the lower castes in India. With his wife Savitribai Phule he had already opened some of the first schools for girls and for Dalit children in the country, and his other well known work is Shetkaryacha Asud. Option A is wrong because Phule wrote in his own language and the English translations of Gulamgiri came much later. Option C is wrong because Hindi was not the language of his region. Option D is wrong because Phule, who lived and worked in Pune in the Bombay Presidency, never wrote in Gujarati. Exam tip: Phule wrote Gulamgiri in Marathi in 1873 and founded the Satyashodhak Samaj the same year.

The correct answer is A, great tumult. Ulgulan is the Mundari word for a great upheaval or tumult, and it is the name the Mundas gave to the rising Birsa Munda led in Chhotanagpur from 1899 to 1900 against landlords, moneylenders, contractors and missionaries. Birsa was called Dharti Aba, the father of the earth, and the rising forced the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908. B is wrong because the rising, though it had a religious side in Birsa's new faith, was never described as a holy war. C is wrong because the share of three parts, or two-thirds of the produce, is the demand of the Tebhaga movement of Bengal in 1946. D is wrong because the Mundas' land claim was expressed in the specific word khuntkatti, the right of the family that first cleared the land.

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 C, the village or mahal. The word mahal means an estate or a village, and in this settlement the demand was fixed for the whole mahal; the village headman, called the lambardar, collected the shares from the co-sharers, and the village as a body was jointly responsible for the full amount. A is wrong because assessment field by field on the individual cultivator is the mark of the Ryotwari system of Munro. B is wrong because a settlement made with the zamindar as proprietor of an estate describes the Permanent Settlement of 1793, although Mahalwari villages too sometimes had a dominant co-sharer. D is wrong because no revenue system in British India assessed a whole district as one unit; the district was only the administrative area under a Collector who supervised the settlement.

The correct answer is C, China. The Panchsheel agreement was signed on 29 April 1954 between India and China, as part of the treaty on trade between India and the Tibet region of China. Jawaharlal Nehru and Zhou Enlai gave it the name Panchsheel, the five principles: respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. The slogan Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai belongs to those years, and the five principles later shaped the Non-Aligned Movement. The war of 1962 showed how little the agreement held. Option A is wrong because India's main agreements with Pakistan are the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 and the Simla Agreement of 1972. Option B is wrong because Bangladesh came into being only in 1971. Option D is wrong because the India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship was signed in 1950. Exam tip: Panchsheel - India and China, 29 April 1954, five principles.

The correct answer is C, the Munda Ulgulan. The rising led by Birsa Munda from 1899 to 1900 compelled the government to pass the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act in 1908, which recognised the khuntkatti right by which a Munda family held the land its ancestors had cleared and prohibited beth begari, the practice of forced unpaid labour. A is wrong because the Santhal Hool of 1855 produced a different measure, the creation of the Santhal Parganas as a separate district closed to outsiders. B is wrong because the Kol uprising of 1831 to 1832, led by Buddhu Bhagat, led only to administrative changes in the south-west frontier agency. D is wrong because the Tana Bhagat movement of 1914, begun by Jatra Bhagat among the Oraons, was a non-violent reform movement that later merged with the Congress and produced no such Act.

The correct answer is A, 1905. 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. The reason given in public was that Bengal had grown too large to administer, but the real aim was to weaken the nationalist movement there by dividing Hindus and Muslims. The protest against it began the Swadeshi and boycott movement, in which foreign cloth was burnt and Indian goods, schools and banks were promoted, and Rabindranath Tagore's song Amar Sonar Bangla belongs to those days. The anger was so wide that the partition was finally cancelled in 1911, when the capital was also moved from Calcutta to Delhi. B is wrong because 1901 is the year Queen Victoria died. C is wrong because 1907 is the year of the Surat split in the Congress. D is wrong because 1911 is the year the partition was revoked, not made. Exam tip: announced in 1905 by Curzon, revoked in 1911 under Hardinge.

The correct answer is B, the Ryotwari system. It was applied in the Madras and Bombay Presidencies and in parts of Assam and Coorg, which together made up about half of British India, the largest share of the three settlements. A is wrong because the Permanent Settlement, though the earliest and the most famous, covered only about a fifth of British India, chiefly Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, the Benaras division and the northern districts of Madras. C is wrong because the Mahalwari settlement covered roughly thirty per cent, in the North Western Provinces, the Central Provinces and Punjab. D is wrong because the taluqdari arrangement of Awadh and parts of Gujarat was a local variant of landlord settlement and never a system of all-India extent. The order to remember is Ryotwari, then Mahalwari, then the Permanent Settlement.

The correct answer is C, the Bardoli Satyagraha. In 1928 the peasants of Bardoli in Surat district refused to pay a land revenue enhancement of about thirty per cent. Vallabhbhai Patel organised the refusal, an enquiry by Broomfield and Maxwell followed, and the enhancement was cut to about six per cent; the women of Bardoli gave Patel the title Sardar. A is wrong because the Kheda Satyagraha of 1918, in which Patel also took part, was led by Gandhi and sought remission of revenue after a crop failure. B is wrong because the Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was Gandhi's first satyagraha in India and concerned the tinkathia indigo system of Bihar. D is wrong because the Mappila rising of 1921 in Malabar was a tenants' revolt against janmi landlords, joined to the Khilafat agitation.

The correct answer is B, moneylenders. The cotton boom of the American Civil War years ended, prices fell, the revenue demand was raised, and the Deccan ryot who had borrowed heavily turned on the Marwari and Gujarati sahukars, burning their bonds and account books in 1875. The government appointed the Deccan Riots Commission and passed the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act in 1879 to limit the transfer of land for debt. A is wrong because the revolt against indigo planters was the Indigo Revolt of 1859 and 1860 in Bengal. C is wrong because the grievances of Assam tea garden labour produced a different kind of protest over recruitment and penal contracts. D is wrong because agitation against Bengal zamindars took the form of tenancy movements such as the Pabna agrarian unrest of 1873.

The correct answer is B, Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. The All India Kisan Sabha was founded at Lucknow in April 1936, and Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, who had built the Bihar Kisan Sabha, was elected its first president. A, N. G. Ranga, is the trap in this question: the peasant leader from Andhra was the organisation's first general secretary, not its president. C is wrong because Baba Ramchandra led the Awadh Kisan Sabha of 1920 in the United Provinces and was not the president of the national body. D is wrong because Indulal Yagnik worked with Gandhi and Patel in the Kheda Satyagraha of 1918 and in Gujarat's peasant politics, but he did not head the All India Kisan Sabha at its founding. Remember also that the body was renamed the All India Kisan Sabha and met alongside the Congress session at Faizpur the same year.