Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 64

The correct answer is C, Sohgaura. Sohgaura, in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh, is known for a Mauryan-period copper plate inscription, not for Harappan remains.

The Sohgaura copper plate, written in Prakrit in the Brahmi script, is one of the earliest copper plate records of India and is usually dated to the Mauryan age. It records an order about storehouses (koshthagaras) to be used for relief in times of famine, which shows early state concern for famine relief. The Harappan sites in the list are spread over Sindh and Gujarat: Chanhudaro and Kot Diji in Sindh, and Desalpur in Kutch.

A is wrong: Chanhudaro in Sindh is a Harappan town known for bead-making workshops; it had no citadel.

B is wrong: Kot Diji in Sindh shows a pre-Harappan phase followed by a mature Harappan settlement.

D is wrong: Desalpur in Kutch, Gujarat, is a fortified Harappan site.

Exam tip: Sohgaura (Gorakhpur) and Mahasthan (Bangladesh) = Mauryan inscriptions on famine relief; Chanhudaro = bead factory without citadel.

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 D, 1, 2 and 3. All three are marks of Mahayana Buddhism, the 'Great Vehicle' that grew from around the beginning of the Common Era.

Mahayana treated the Buddha as a divine saviour rather than only a human teacher, so he came to be worshipped as a god. It placed the bodhisattva ideal at its centre: a bodhisattva is a being who has earned enlightenment but delays nirvana to help others reach it, and followers aim to tread that path. Images of the Buddha and bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteshvara and Maitreya, along with rituals and devotion, became central, which helped the growth of the Gandhara and Mathura schools of sculpture. The Fourth Buddhist Council under Kanishka is linked with the rise of Mahayana, and Nagarjuna was its leading thinker.

A is wrong: it leaves out statements 2 and 3.

B is wrong: it leaves out image worship.

C is wrong: it leaves out the deification of the Buddha.

Exam tip: Mahayana = Buddha as god, bodhisattva ideal, image worship, Sanskrit texts; Hinayana or Theravada = Buddha as teacher, Pali texts.

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, it was considered a source of income for the State, a sort of tax paid by the people. Vishti was unpaid labour that subjects owed to the king, so it worked like a tax paid in work instead of money or grain.

Vishti, or forced labour, is mentioned in the Arthashastra and in many inscriptions of the Gupta and post-Gupta age. Villagers could be made to carry goods for the army and officials, build or repair works and serve passing royal officers. Land grants to Brahmanas and temples often listed exemption from vishti among the privileges handed over, which shows that the right to demand it had value to the State. The practice is recorded in central India and western India, including Kathiawar, during this period.

B is wrong: inscriptions from Madhya Pradesh and Kathiawar mention vishti, so it was not absent there.

C is wrong: vishti was by nature unpaid; no weekly wage was due.

D is wrong: no rule said the eldest son had to be sent as the labourer.

Exam tip: vishti = forced, unpaid labour for the State; exemption from it was a common privilege in Gupta-period land grants.

The correct answer is B, Arikamedu. 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. Excavations there have brought out Roman amphorae that carried wine and olive oil, red glazed Arretine ware, glass and stone beads, lamps and Roman coins, along with the local rouletted pottery, which is why the site is identified with the Poduke named in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. A is wrong because Badami in Karnataka was the inland capital of the Chalukyas, known for its rock cut cave temples. C is wrong because Lothal in Gujarat is a Harappan site with a dockyard, far older and on the western coast. D is wrong because tulapurushadana was a ritual of weighing oneself against gold and giving it away, not a place at all. Exam tip: Arikamedu near Puducherry is the Poduke of Roman trade; Lothal is the Harappan dock in Gujarat.

The correct answer is C, Both 1 and 2. The English East India Company was chartered in 1600 and the Dutch company in 1602, and Vasco da Gama landed near Calicut in May 1498.

Queen Elizabeth I granted the charter to the English East India Company on 31 December 1600. The Dutch East India Company, the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie), was formed two years later, in 1602, by merging several Dutch trading companies. Long before both, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed round the Cape of Good Hope and reached Kappad near Calicut on 20 May 1498, where the Zamorin ruled; this opened the direct sea route from Europe to India.

A is wrong: statement 2 is also correct, so "1 only" is incomplete.

B is wrong: statement 1 is also correct, because the Dutch company came in 1602, after the English one.

D is wrong: both statements are correct.

Exam tip: order of arrival: Portuguese 1498, English company 1600, Dutch company 1602, Danish 1616, French company 1664.

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 C, Taking control of the law and order machinery of the State by the Congress Working Committee. The movement was a non-violent withdrawal of cooperation, not an attempt to seize the government's machinery.

The Non-Cooperation Movement was approved at the Calcutta special session in September 1920 and confirmed at the Nagpur session in December 1920. Its programme asked Indians to surrender titles and honours, boycott government schools, colleges, law courts, legislative councils and foreign cloth, and to set up national schools, panchayats for settling disputes and promote khadi. At Nagpur the Congress also reorganised itself: provincial committees on linguistic lines, and units reaching down to villages and mohallas, with a Working Committee to run its affairs.

A is wrong: carrying the Congress organisation to the village and mohalla level was part of the Nagpur reforms.

B is wrong: boycott of government-affiliated schools and colleges was a central item.

D is wrong: surrender of titles was the first step of the programme; Gandhi returned his Kaisar-i-Hind medal.

Exam tip: Calcutta special session (Sept 1920) adopted Non-Cooperation; Nagpur session (Dec 1920) ratified it.

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, Malavikagnimitra. This play by Kalidasa tells the love story of Agnimitra, son of Pushyamitra Sunga, and Malavika, a maid in the queen's household.

Pushyamitra Sunga founded the Sunga dynasty around 185 BCE after killing Brihadratha, the last Mauryan ruler. His son Agnimitra governed from Vidisha, and Kalidasa's Malavikagnimitra, his first play, shows Agnimitra falling in love with Malavika, a skilled dancer who turns out to be a princess. The play also refers to a war with the kingdom of Vidarbha and to a clash between Pushyamitra's grandson Vasumitra and the Yavanas (Greeks) on the Sindhu river, which makes it a useful historical source for the Sunga period.

A is wrong: Swapnavasavadatta is a play by Bhasa about King Udayana of Vatsa and Queen Vasavadatta.

C is wrong: Meghadoota is Kalidasa's lyric poem in which an exiled yaksha sends a message to his wife through a cloud.

D is wrong: Ratnavali is a play by King Harshavardhana about Udayana and Ratnavali.

Exam tip: Kalidasa's three plays = Malavikagnimitra (Sunga king Agnimitra), Vikramorvashiyam, Abhijnana Shakuntalam.

The correct answer is B, Sir William Jones. Jones, a judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta and a scholar of many languages, founded the Asiatic Society on 15 January 1784 to study the history, languages and culture of Asia. He translated Kalidasa’s Abhijnanashakuntalam into English in 1789, which made Sanskrit literature famous in Europe, and in 1786 he pointed out the family link between Sanskrit, Greek and Latin. Governor-General Warren Hastings supported the society as its patron but declined to be its president in favour of Jones. Option A is wrong because Jonathan Duncan founded the Sanskrit College at Benares in 1791. Option C is wrong because Warren Hastings was only the patron; his own foundation was the Calcutta Madrasa of 1781. Option D is wrong because William Bentinck, Governor-General from 1828 to 1835, is remembered for abolishing sati in 1829, not for this society. Exam tip: Calcutta Madrasa 1781 (Hastings), Asiatic Society 1784 (Jones), Benares Sanskrit College 1791 (Duncan).

The correct answer is A, Santals. Damin-i-koh was the tract in the Rajmahal hills that the British marked out in 1832 for settling the Santals.

The Santals had moved into the Rajmahal hills area in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, clearing forests and taking up settled farming. The British, keen on land revenue, demarcated a large area, called Damin-i-koh, and declared it Santal land. Soon, however, heavy revenue demands, moneylenders and zamindars squeezed the Santals. This anger led to the Santal rebellion (Hul) of 1855-56 under Sidhu and Kanhu, after which the British created the Santal Parganas district.

B is wrong: the Mundas of Chotanagpur rose under Birsa Munda in the Ulgulan of 1899-1900; Damin-i-koh was not made for them.

C is wrong: the Oraons of Chotanagpur are linked with the Tana Bhagat movement, not Damin-i-koh.

D is wrong: the Saoras are a tribe of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, far from the Rajmahal hills.

Exam tip: Damin-i-koh (1832, Rajmahal hills) → Santal Hul (1855-56, Sidhu and Kanhu) → Santal Parganas.

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 A, W. W. Hunter, who led the Indian Education Commission appointed in 1882 to review the working of Wood's Despatch; it urged attention to primary education given in the vernacular, the transfer of schools to local boards and support for private schools through grants. Option B is wrong because Michael Sadler headed the Calcutta University Commission of 1917 to 1919, which proposed a twelve-year school course, intermediate colleges and a three-year degree. Option C is wrong because Philip Hartog chaired the committee of 1929 that reported wastage and stagnation in primary schools and asked for consolidation instead of expansion. Option D is wrong because John Sargent gave the plan of 1944 for post-war educational development. The Hunter Commission is also remembered for recommending that secondary education be given two sides, one preparing students for the university and the other for employment.

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 C, 1911. Jana Gana Mana, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, was sung for the first time on 27 December 1911 at the Calcutta session of the Congress, and the first stanza was adopted as the national anthem by the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950. A is wrong because it was at the Calcutta session of 1896, under Rahimtulla Sayani, that Tagore sang Vande Mataram for the first time at a Congress gathering. B is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1906 under Dadabhai Naoroji is remembered for the first demand for swaraj. D is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1917 is remembered for Annie Besant becoming the first woman president of the Congress, not for the anthem. Candidates should also remember that the song was sung on the second day of that session and that the Constituent Assembly adopted Vande Mataram as the national song on the same day it adopted the anthem.

The correct answer is A, Singapore. Bose reached South-East Asia in 1943, took charge of the Indian Independence League and the Indian National Army at Singapore on 4 July 1943, and on 21 October 1943 proclaimed the Provisional Government of Free India, the Azad Hind Government, in the same city. He became its Head of State, Prime Minister and Minister of War and Foreign Affairs, and the government soon declared war on Britain and the United States.

Option B, Russia, is wrong: Bose only passed through Moscow in 1941 on his way to Germany and got no help there. Option C, Japan, was the ally that recognised the Azad Hind Government first, and Bose reached Tokyo in May 1943, but the proclamation was not made there. Option D, Germany, is where he spent 1941 and 1942, setting up the Free India Centre and the Indian Legion, two years before the Provisional Government was formed.

The correct answer is B, Sarojini Naidu. She presided over the Kanpur session of the Congress in 1925 and was the first Indian woman to hold the office; she is also remembered as the Nightingale of India and as the leader of the Dharasana salt satyagraha of May 1930. Option A is wrong because Annie Besant, who presided at Calcutta in 1917, was the first woman President of the Congress but was Irish by birth, so she does not answer a question that asks for the first Indian woman. Option C is wrong because Nellie Sengupta, English by birth, presided over the Calcutta session of 1933, the third woman to hold the post. Option D is wrong because Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit never presided over the Congress; her distinction is that she became the first woman President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1953.

The correct answer is D, 1, 2 and 3. All three organisations are correctly paired with the leaders who founded or led them.

Mahatma Gandhi founded the All India Anti-Untouchability League in September 1932, soon after the Poona Pact; it was renamed the Harijan Sevak Sangh in 1933. The All India Kisan Sabha was formed at the Lucknow session in April 1936 with Swami Sahajanand Saraswati as its first president and N.G. Ranga as general secretary. The Self-Respect Movement was started in 1925 in Tamil Nadu by E.V. Ramaswami Naicker, known as Periyar, to fight caste discrimination and Brahmin dominance and to promote rational thought.

A is wrong: it leaves out pairs 2 and 3, which are also correct.

B is wrong: it leaves out pair 3, Periyar and the Self-Respect Movement.

C is wrong: it leaves out pair 1, Gandhi and the Anti-Untouchability League.

Exam tip: 1925 Self-Respect (Periyar); 1932 Anti-Untouchability League, later Harijan Sevak Sangh (Gandhi); 1936 AIKS, Lucknow (Sahajanand).