In the Battle of Swally (1612) the British fought against the ______.
- A.Danish
- B.Portuguese
- C.Dutch
- D.French
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Portuguese. The Battle of Swally was fought in November 1612 off Suvali, a village near Surat on the Gujarat coast. A small English squadron under Captain Thomas Best defeated a larger Portuguese fleet, and the victory ended the belief that the Portuguese could not be beaten at sea in Indian waters. Jahangir's officers watched the fight from the shore, and soon after the English were allowed to open a factory at Surat, their first real foothold on the western coast, confirmed by an imperial farman. Sir Thomas Roe's embassy of 1615 built on this opening. A is wrong because the Danes came later, setting up at Tranquebar in 1620, and took no part in this battle. C is wrong because the Dutch fought the English elsewhere, most bitterly over the spice trade at Amboyna in 1623. D is wrong because the French East India Company was founded only in 1664. Exam tip: Swally 1612, Thomas Best beat the Portuguese, and the Surat factory followed.
Practice Questions
View allThe Ryotwari experiment in land revenue was started by
- A.Henry Dundas
- B.Alexander Reed
- C.David Ricardo
- D.Mountstuart Elphinstone
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Captain Alexander Read (the name is also spelt Reed) began the Ryotwari experiment in 1792 in the Baramahal region, which the Company had taken from Tipu Sultan, with Thomas Munro as one of his assistants.
Read the full explanation →Who deciphered the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts?
- A.Piyadassi
- B.Colin Mackenzie
- C.Alexander Cunningham
- D.James Prinsep
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Prinsep, an official of the East India Company's mint and secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, deciphered the Brahmi script in 1837 and also made the key breakthrough in reading Kharoshthi.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements about the Justice Party is not correct?
- A.It clamoured for the same kind of separate communal representation for the Non-Brahmins as had been granted to the Muslims by the Morley-Minto Reforms.
- B.It was patronized mainly by richer landowning and urban middle class Non-Brahmins.
- C.It succeeded in getting the provision for 28 reserved seats for the Non-Brahmins in the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms.
- D.It supported the call given by the Congress to boycott elections in 1920.
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The Justice Party did not join the Congress boycott of the 1920 elections; it contested them, won a majority in the Madras Legislative Council and formed the first ministry under the new reforms.
Read the full explanation →Which organization was started at the Haridwar Kumbh Mela in 1915?
- A.Sanatan Dharma Sabha
- B.Dev Samaj
- C.Brahmin Sabha
- D.Hindu Mahasabha
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The All-India Hindu Mahasabha held its founding session at Haridwar during the Kumbh Mela of 1915, bringing together the provincial Hindu Sabhas that had grown up, first in Punjab, since 1909.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements about the All India Depressed Classes Association is not correct?
- A.The All India Depressed Classes Association was formed in Nagpur with M. C. Rajah as its first elected President.
- B.The All India Depressed Classes Association was not attended by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in 1926.
- C.Ambedkar resigned from the All India Depressed Classes Association and formed his own All India Depressed Classes Congress in 1930.
- D.The All India Depressed Classes Association favoured Ambedkar's demand for separate electorate for the depressed classes.
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The All India Depressed Classes Association did not back Ambedkar's demand for a separate electorate; under M. C. Rajah it supported joint electorates with seats reserved for the depressed classes.
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