In order to overturn the British rule through arms, the Kakori train incident was planned by the members of the ______ in 1925.

The correct answer is C, Ibrahim Lodi. Khatoli, fought in 1517 near Bundi in present-day Rajasthan, was the first clash between Rana Sanga of Mewar and Ibrahim Lodi, who had just succeeded to the throne of Delhi, and the Rajputs won. Rana Sanga, or Rana Sangram Singh, ruled Mewar from 1509 to 1528 and made it the strongest Rajput power of its time, defeating the Lodis again at Dholpur in 1518 and the Malwa forces at Gagron in 1519. His career ended at Khanwa in 1527, where Babur's guns defeated him. A is wrong because Sikandar Lodi died in 1517 before the battle and had made peace with the Rajputs. B is wrong because Babur reached India only in 1526. D is wrong because Mahmud Lodi, Ibrahim's brother, fought later at Ghaghra in 1529. Exam tip: Rana Sanga's run goes Khatoli 1517, Dholpur 1518, Gagron 1519 and Khanwa 1527.

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, Sayyid. Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi wrote the Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi in the reign of Mubarak Shah and claimed that Khizr Khan, who founded the dynasty in 1414, descended from the Prophet, which is how the line came to be called Sayyid. The word sayyid itself means a descendant of the Prophet through his daughter Fatima. Khizr Khan took Delhi after Timur's invasion and ruled as a deputy rather than a sultan, striking coins and reading the Friday prayer in Timur's name. The dynasty lasted till 1451, when Bahlul Lodi set it aside. B is wrong because the Mamluk or Slave dynasty was founded by Qutbuddin Aibak in 1206. C is wrong because the Lodi dynasty, the first Afghan line, began with Bahlul Lodi in 1451. D is wrong because the Khalji dynasty was founded by Jalaluddin Khalji in 1290. Exam tip: the five Sultanate dynasties run Slave, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid, Lodi.

The correct answer is A, 1948. The Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, refused to sign the Instrument of Accession and signed only a standstill agreement in 1947, so in September 1948 the Indian government sent in the army in a police action code-named Operation Polo and the state joined the Indian Union. The operation lasted about five days and followed the violence of the Razakar militia against the people of the state. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, as Home Minister, and V. P. Menon handled the merger of the princely states, of which Hyderabad, Junagadh and Kashmir were the difficult ones. B, C and D are wrong because by those years Hyderabad was already part of India; its Telugu areas went into Andhra Pradesh in 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act. Exam tip: Junagadh and Hyderabad both came in 1948, Junagadh by plebiscite and Hyderabad by Operation Polo.

The correct answer is D, b, a, c, d. The right order is the First Battle of Panipat in 1526, Khanwa in 1527, Ghaghra in 1529 and Chausa in 1539. At Panipat Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last Lodi sultan, and founded the Mughal empire with the help of guns and the tulughma formation. At Khanwa he beat Rana Sanga of Mewar, breaking Rajput resistance, and at Ghaghra he defeated the Afghan chiefs of Bihar and Bengal, his last major battle before his death in 1530. Chausa came in his son's reign, when Sher Shah Suri defeated Humayun and drove him towards exile in Persia. A, B and C are wrong because each breaks this sequence, placing a later battle before an earlier one. Exam tip: Babur's three battles run 1526, 1527 and 1529, and Humayun's defeats at Chausa and Kannauj follow in 1539 and 1540.