Amir Khusro was a famous musician in the court of which emperor?

The correct answer is B, Part-C States. Under the Government of Part C States Act, 1951, Delhi got its own Legislative Assembly and Council of Ministers. The first election was held in 1952, and Chaudhary Brahm Prakash became Delhi's first Chief Minister. The 1950 Constitution had sorted the units of India into Part A, B, C and D, and Part C covered small areas once run by Chief Commissioners, such as Delhi, Ajmer and Coorg. This arrangement ended when the States Reorganisation Act made Delhi a Union Territory from 1 November 1956, and its Assembly was abolished. Option A is wrong because Part B States were former princely states or their unions, headed by a Rajpramukh. Option C is wrong because Part D had only one unit, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Option D is wrong because Part A States were the former British provinces such as Bombay and Madras, headed by Governors. Exam tip: Delhi became a Part C State in 1951, a Union Territory in 1956, and an NCT with an Assembly under the 69th Amendment of 1991.

The correct answer is C, Lal Kot. Lal Kot was built by the Tomara Rajputs before the Delhi Sultanate began. The Tomara king Anangpal is credited with raising this fort in the 11th century, and it is counted as the first of the 'cities of Delhi'. Later the Chauhans under Prithviraj Chauhan enlarged it into Qila Rai Pithora. When Qutbuddin Aibak took Delhi, the Sultans first ruled from here, and the Qutb Minar complex in Mehrauli stands inside this old fort area. Option A is wrong because Siri was built by Alauddin Khalji around 1303 as a garrison city against the Mongols. Option B is wrong because Jahanpanah was built by Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq, who walled in the area between Qila Rai Pithora and Siri. Option D is wrong because Tughlakabad was built by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, the founder of the Tughlaq dynasty, in the 1320s. Exam tip: Lal Kot (Tomara) → Siri (Khalji) → Tughlakabad (Ghiyasuddin) → Jahanpanah (Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq).

The correct answer is D, 1928. On 8 and 9 September 1928, young revolutionaries met secretly at the ruins of Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi and renamed the Hindustan Republican Association as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. Chandrashekhar Azad became its commander, with Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Bhagwati Charan Vohra among the key members. The word 'Socialist' showed that the group now wanted not just freedom but a society free from exploitation. The HRA itself had been founded in 1924 at Kanpur by Sachindranath Sanyal and others, and it had carried out the Kakori train action in 1925. Option A is wrong because 1927 is the year Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan and others were hanged in the Kakori case. Option B is wrong because 1930 saw the Chittagong armoury raid, not the birth of the HSRA. Option C is wrong because 1929 is the year Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly. Exam tip: HRA 1924 at Kanpur, HSRA 1928 at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi.

The correct answer is B, Sultan Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah Tughluq. He was the Delhi Sultan when Timur invaded India in 1398. Timur, the Turko-Mongol ruler of Samarkand, crossed the Indus, defeated Mahmud Shah's army near Delhi in December 1398 and sacked the city for several days. The Sultan fled to Gujarat, and the Tughluq state never recovered. Timur left his supporter Khizr Khan in charge of Multan, and this link later helped Khizr Khan found the Sayyid dynasty in 1414. Option A is wrong because Nusrat Shah was a rival Tughluq claimant who held Firozabad for a few years; he was not the recognised Sultan at Delhi. Option C is wrong because Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad Shah III, a son of Firuz Shah, ruled earlier, from 1390 to 1394. Option D is wrong because Khizr Khan became the ruler of Delhi only in 1414. Exam tip: Timur's raid of 1398 ended Tughluq power in practice; the Sayyid dynasty began in 1414.

The correct answer is A, Richard Wellesley. Lord Richard Wellesley was Governor-General from 1798 to 1805, and in 1801 he forced Nawab Saadat Ali Khan of Awadh to hand over about half of his kingdom to the Company. The Nawab had failed to pay the rising cost of the British troops kept in his state, and Wellesley took rich lands such as Rohilkhand and the lower Doab in payment. This was a classic use of Wellesley's Subsidiary Alliance, under which an Indian ruler paid for British troops, accepted a British Resident and could make no treaty without the Company's approval. Hyderabad was the first state to accept it, in 1798. Option B is wrong because Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of Bengal, had left India in 1785. Option C is wrong because Cornwallis, known for the Permanent Settlement of 1793, had left by then; he returned only briefly in 1805. Option D is wrong because Robert Clive, the victor of Plassey, died in 1774. Exam tip: Subsidiary Alliance means Wellesley; Awadh lost half its land in 1801 and was annexed by Dalhousie in 1856.