The Amara-Nayaka system was a major political innovation of which Indian imperial rulers?

The correct answer is B, Maulavi Ahmadullah Shah. He was called Danka Shah, the drum-beating maulvi, because he moved from place to place with drums announcing his preaching against British rule.

Ahmadullah Shah of Faizabad was one of the most determined leaders of the Revolt of 1857 in Awadh. Even before the revolt he toured northern India calling for a struggle against the British, and he was imprisoned at Faizabad, from where the rebels freed him. He fought in the siege of Lucknow and later led resistance in Rohilkhand. A large reward was placed on his head, and in June 1858 he was killed by the Raja of Powayan, who handed his head to the British.

A is wrong: Shah Mal was a peasant leader who led the revolt in the Baraut area of the upper Doab, near Meerut.

C is wrong: Nana Sahib, adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao II, led the rising at Kanpur.

D is wrong: Tantia Tope, a general of Nana Sahib, fought alongside Rani Lakshmibai in central India.

Exam tip: Danka Shah = Ahmadullah Shah (Faizabad); Kanpur = Nana Sahib; Jhansi = Lakshmibai; Bihar = Kunwar Singh; Lucknow = Begum Hazrat Mahal.

The correct answer is D, Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Gokhale moved the Elementary Education Bill in the Imperial Legislative Council in 1911 to make primary education free and compulsory.

Gokhale had first pressed the demand through a resolution in 1910. His 1911 bill proposed that local bodies could make primary education compulsory for boys aged six to ten in areas where a set share of children were already in school, with the government sharing the cost. The official majority defeated the bill in March 1912. The idea survived: the Baroda state had already introduced compulsory education in 1906, and free and compulsory education for children aged six to fourteen finally became a Fundamental Right under Article 21A in 2002.

A is wrong: Dadabhai Naoroji was known for the drain theory and was never a member of the Imperial Legislative Council.

B is wrong: Tilak was imprisoned in Mandalay from 1908 to 1914.

C is wrong: Sir Harcourt Butler was the government's Education Member, and he opposed the bill.

Exam tip: Gokhale's bill 1911 (defeated 1912); Article 21A by the 86th Amendment, 2002; RTE Act, 2009.

The correct answer is A, 2 and 4. He got the title Vidyasagar from the Sanskrit College, Calcutta, and he argued for widow remarriage precisely on the basis of the scriptures.

Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay (1820–1891) earned the title Vidyasagar, "ocean of learning", from the Sanskrit College in Calcutta in 1839 and later became its principal. He set out to show that the shastras themselves allowed widows to remarry, quoting the Parashara Samhita, and his campaign led to the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856. He worked with Drinkwater Bethune for girls' schools and opened many schools for girls in Bengal. His Bengali primer Barna Parichay and his simplified prose shaped modern Bengali.

Option B is wrong because statement 1 is correct. Option C is wrong because it leaves out statement 2, which is also incorrect. Option D is wrong because statement 3 is correct; he was a strong supporter of women's education.

Exam tip: Vidyasagar = Sanskrit College title, Parashara Samhita, Widow Remarriage Act 1856, Barna Parichay.

The correct answer is D, 3 only. The bombs thrown in the Central Legislative Assembly were meant to make a noise and be heard, not to kill anyone.

On 8 April 1929 Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two low-intensity bombs into an empty part of the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi to protest against the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill. Nobody was killed. They threw leaflets saying that "it takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear", shouted "Inquilab Zindabad" and courted arrest so that the trial would spread their message. Bhagat Singh read Marx and Lenin and was drawn to socialism, and he was a leading member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, renamed from the HRA at Feroz Shah Kotla in 1928.

Option A is wrong because statement 1 is true. Option B is wrong because statement 2 is true. Option C is wrong because it marks a true statement as untrue and leaves out statement 3, which is the false one.

Exam tip: Assembly bomb 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and B. K. Dutt; HRA became HSRA in 1928.

The correct answer is C, Both I and II. Both statements are correct about the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920-22.

The special Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920 accepted Gandhi's programme of non-cooperation, and the Nagpur session in December 1920 confirmed it and changed the Congress creed: its goal became the attainment of Swaraj by all peaceful and legitimate means, replacing the earlier aim of self-government within the Empire by constitutional means. The movement was planned in stages: first the boycott of titles, councils, courts, schools and foreign cloth, and later, if Swaraj did not come within a year and the government turned to repression, civil disobedience including non-payment of taxes. Gandhi withdrew it after the Chauri Chaura incident in February 1922.

A is wrong: statement II is also correct.

B is wrong: statement I is also correct.

D is wrong: both statements are true.

Exam tip: Calcutta (Sept 1920) adopted non-cooperation; Nagpur (Dec 1920) made Swaraj by peaceful and legitimate means the goal.