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Indian HistoryMediumAsked in: CDS · CDS (I) 2023, 16 Apr 2023

Name the battle in which the Travancore King defeated the Dutch in 1741.

  1. A.The Battle of Porto Novo
  2. B.The Battle of Colachel
  3. C.The Battle of Pollilore
  4. D.The Battle of Changanacherry

Correct answer

B. The Battle of Colachel

Explanation

The correct answer is B, The Battle of Colachel. At Colachel in August 1741, Marthanda Varma of Travancore defeated the Dutch East India Company. It was one of the rare times an Indian ruler decisively beat a European power in open battle, and it ended Dutch hopes of expanding on the Malabar coast. The Dutch commander Eustachius De Lannoy was captured, joined Travancore's service, trained its army on European lines and rose to be its chief commander. Colachel lies on the coast of today's Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu. A is wrong, because at Porto Novo in 1781 the British under Eyre Coote defeated Hyder Ali in the Second Anglo-Mysore War. C is wrong, because the battles of Pollilore were fought in 1780 and 1781 between Hyder Ali and the British in that same war. D is wrong, because Changanacherry is a town in central Kerala, not the scene of the 1741 fight with the Dutch. Exam tip: Colachel 1741, Marthanda Varma beat the Dutch; Porto Novo 1781, Eyre Coote beat Hyder Ali.

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The Ryotwari experiment in land revenue was started by

  1. A.Henry Dundas
  2. B.Alexander Reed
  3. C.David Ricardo
  4. D.Mountstuart Elphinstone
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Alexander Reed

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.

Q2.Indian HistoryAsked in: CDS · CDS-I 2018, GKEasy

Who deciphered the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts?

  1. A.Piyadassi
  2. B.Colin Mackenzie
  3. C.Alexander Cunningham
  4. D.James Prinsep
Show answer
Correct answer: D. James Prinsep

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.

Q3.Indian HistoryAsked in: CDS · CDS-I 2017, GKHard

Which one of the following statements about the Justice Party is not correct?

  1. 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.
  2. B.It was patronized mainly by richer landowning and urban middle class Non-Brahmins.
  3. C.It succeeded in getting the provision for 28 reserved seats for the Non-Brahmins in the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms.
  4. D.It supported the call given by the Congress to boycott elections in 1920.
Show answer
Correct answer: D. It supported the call given by the Congress to boycott elections in 1920.

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.

Q5.Indian HistoryAsked in: CDS · CDS-I 2017, GKHard

Which one of the following statements about the All India Depressed Classes Association is not correct?

  1. A.The All India Depressed Classes Association was formed in Nagpur with M. C. Rajah as its first elected President.
  2. B.The All India Depressed Classes Association was not attended by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in 1926.
  3. C.Ambedkar resigned from the All India Depressed Classes Association and formed his own All India Depressed Classes Congress in 1930.
  4. D.The All India Depressed Classes Association favoured Ambedkar's demand for separate electorate for the depressed classes.
Show answer
Correct answer: D. The All India Depressed Classes Association favoured Ambedkar's demand for separate electorate for the depressed classes.

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.