The prehistoric period in the early development of human beings is commonly known as the ______.

The correct answer is C, Lord Linlithgow. Linlithgow was Viceroy from 1936 to 1944, so the Second World War, the resignation of the Congress ministries, the August Offer of 1940, the Cripps Mission of 1942 and the suppression of the Quit India Movement all fall in his tenure. Option A is wrong because Lord Irwin, Viceroy from 1926 to 1931, is remembered for the Dandi March, the First Round Table Conference and the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 1931. Option B is wrong because Lord Willingdon, Viceroy from 1931 to 1936, is remembered for the Communal Award, the Poona Pact and the Government of India Act of 1935. Option D is wrong because Lord Wavell became Viceroy in 1944 and is remembered for the Wavell Plan and the Simla Conference of 1945 and for the Cabinet Mission of 1946.

The correct answer is A, indigo cultivators. At Champaran in Bihar the peasants were compelled under the tinkathia system to grow indigo on a part of their holding for the European planters. Gandhi, invited by Rajkumar Shukla, went there in 1917, defied the order to leave the district and secured a government committee of inquiry on which he served, after which the system was abolished. Option B is wrong because the mill workers were the subject of the Ahmedabad struggle of 1918, in which Gandhi used his first hunger strike to win a wage rise. Option C is wrong because the plantation workers of Assam were not the subject of a Gandhian satyagraha of this kind. Option D is wrong because the salt law was the target of the Dandi March of 1930, thirteen years later, and not of the Champaran struggle.

The correct answer is B, Lahore in 1929. The Lahore session of December 1929, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, declared Purna Swaraj to be the goal of the Congress, authorised the launch of civil disobedience and called upon the people to observe 26 January 1930 as Independence Day, which is why that date was later chosen for the commencement of the Constitution. Option A is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1928 adopted the Nehru Report and gave the government one year to grant dominion status. Option C is wrong because the Karachi session of 1931 endorsed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and passed the resolutions on fundamental rights and the national economic programme. Option D is wrong because the Faizpur session of 1936 is remembered as the first Congress session held in a village, with Jawaharlal Nehru again in the chair.

The correct answer is B, Dr B. R. Ambedkar. The Poona Pact was signed on 24 September 1932 while Gandhi was on a fast unto death in Yerwada jail against the separate electorates granted to the depressed classes by the Communal Award. Under the pact the separate electorates were given up and a larger number of seats was reserved for the depressed classes within a joint electorate. Option A is wrong because Lord Willingdon was the Viceroy at the time but was not a party to the agreement, which was between Indian leaders. Option C is wrong because Jinnah signed the Lucknow Pact of 1916 with the Congress and had no part in the Poona Pact. Option D is wrong because Ramsay MacDonald, the British Prime Minister, announced the Communal Award in August 1932, and the pact was the Indian answer to that award, not an agreement with him.

The correct answer is C, 1931. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact, also called the Delhi Pact, was signed on 5 March 1931 between Gandhi and the Viceroy Lord Irwin. By it the government agreed to release political prisoners not convicted of violence and to permit the making of salt for domestic use in coastal areas, and the Congress agreed to suspend civil disobedience and to attend the Second Round Table Conference. Option A is wrong because 1929 is the year of the Lahore session and the Purna Swaraj resolution. Option B is wrong because 1930 is the year the movement began with the Dandi March and of the First Round Table Conference, which the Congress boycotted. Option D is wrong because 1932 is the year of the Communal Award and of the Poona Pact with Dr Ambedkar, by which time civil disobedience had already been resumed and Gandhi was again in prison.