Taxila was the capital of which one among the following Mahajanapadas of ancient India?

The correct answer is D, 1911. King George V announced at the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911 that the capital of British India would move from Calcutta to Delhi. Lord Hardinge II was the Viceroy at the time, and the same Durbar also cancelled the Partition of Bengal of 1905. Delhi was chosen because it was more central, had long been the seat of the Sultans and the Mughals, and was away from the strong nationalist movement in Bengal. The new city of New Delhi was planned by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker and was formally inaugurated in 1931. A is wrong because 1912 is when the move was carried out; the decision was declared in 1911. B is wrong because 1905 is the year of the Partition of Bengal under Lord Curzon. C is wrong because 1910 is the year George V became king. Exam tip: 1905 Partition of Bengal (Curzon); 1911 partition annulled and capital shift announced (Hardinge II, Delhi Durbar); 1931 New Delhi inaugurated.

The correct answer is D, Shah Jahan. The Jama Masjid of Delhi was built by Shah Jahan between 1650 and 1656 as the main mosque of his new capital, Shahjahanabad. It is one of the largest mosques in India, made of red sandstone and white marble, with three great gateways, four towers and two tall minarets. Its courtyard can hold about 25,000 worshippers. Its original name was Masjid-i-Jahan Numa, and it stands facing the Red Fort, which Shah Jahan also built. A is wrong because Humayun died in 1556, almost a century before the mosque was built. B is wrong because Babur founded the Mughal Empire in 1526 and died in 1530. C is wrong because Aurangzeb built the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore and the Moti Masjid inside the Red Fort, not the Jama Masjid. Exam tip: Shah Jahan = Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Jama Masjid (Delhi), Moti Masjid (Agra); Aurangzeb = Badshahi Mosque (Lahore), Bibi ka Maqbara (Aurangabad).

The correct answer is B, indigo. Under the tinkathiya system, European planters forced the peasants of Champaran in Bihar to grow indigo on 3 out of every 20 katthas (one bigha) of their land. Indigo was a blue dye in demand abroad, and the planters paid the farmers very little for it. When cheap German synthetic dye made indigo less profitable, the planters demanded higher rents and illegal dues instead. A local farmer, Raj Kumar Shukla, persuaded Gandhiji to visit Champaran in 1917. This became Gandhi's first satyagraha in India, and the Champaran Agrarian Act of 1918 ended the tinkathiya system. A is wrong because sugarcane was not the crop forced on the peasants under this system. C is wrong because the Champaran planters were indigo planters, and cotton was not imposed there. D is wrong because jute is a crop of Bengal and was not linked with the Champaran struggle. Exam tip: Gandhi's first three struggles in India: Champaran 1917 (indigo), Ahmedabad mill strike 1918 (wages), Kheda 1918 (land revenue).

The correct answer is D, Mahad Satyagraha. On 20 March 1927 Dr B.R. Ambedkar led thousands of people to the Chavdar Tank at Mahad, in today's Raigad district of Maharashtra, and drank its water to assert the right of Dalits to use public water sources. The Bombay Legislative Council had already resolved in 1923 that such public places be open to all, but upper-caste residents still kept Dalits away. The campaign continued at a second conference in December 1927, where copies of the Manusmriti were publicly burnt. Ambedkar followed it with the Kalaram Temple entry satyagraha at Nashik in 1930. A is wrong because the Shahada Movement was a movement of Bhil tribals in Dhule district in the 1970s. B is wrong because peasant uprisings in the Bombay region, such as the Deccan Riots of 1875, were aimed at moneylenders, not caste barriers. C is wrong because the Kheda Satyagraha of 1918 was Gandhi's campaign in Gujarat for remission of land revenue. Exam tip: Mahad 1927 = water (Chavdar Tank); Kalaram 1930 = temple entry; both led by Ambedkar.

The correct answer is B, Kerala. The Moplah (Mappila) Rebellion of 1921 broke out in the Malabar region of present-day Kerala, which was then a district of the Madras Presidency. The Mappilas were Muslim tenant farmers who had long resented the heavy rents of the mostly Hindu landlords (janmis) and the British officials who backed them. In 1921 the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation movements spread into Malabar, and the unrest turned into an armed revolt led by men such as Variyamkunnath Kunhahammed Haji and Ali Musliyar. The British crushed it with martial law. The most tragic event was the Wagon Tragedy of November 1921, when dozens of Mappila prisoners died of suffocation inside a closed railway goods wagon. A is wrong because the uprising had nothing to do with Assam. C is wrong because Punjab's best-known event of that period is the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919. D is wrong because Bengal is linked to revolts such as the Indigo Revolt of 1859–60. Exam tip: Moplah 1921 = Malabar, Kerala = Khilafat link = Wagon Tragedy.