The third battle of Panipat was fought in the year _______.

The correct answer is B, 1858. The Government of India Act of 1858, passed after the revolt of 1857, ended the rule of the East India Company and placed India directly under the British Crown. It abolished the Court of Directors and the Board of Control and created the office of Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet, assisted by a Council of India of fifteen members. The Governor General was now also styled Viceroy, and Lord Canning was the first to hold both titles. Queen Victoria's Proclamation, read out at Allahabad on 1 November 1858, promised that treaties with the princes would be honoured and that Indians would be admitted to office without regard to race or creed. A is wrong because 1878 is the year of the Vernacular Press Act. C is wrong because 1868 saw no transfer of power. D is wrong because 1888 has no such event. Exam tip: 1858 means Company rule ends, Crown rule begins, Canning is the first Viceroy.

The correct answer is D, Karnataka. Hampi stands on the south bank of the Tungabhadra river in the Vijayanagara district of Karnataka, and it was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire founded by Harihara and Bukka in 1336. At its height in the sixteenth century under Krishnadeva Raya it was among the largest cities in the world; the Persian envoy Abdur Razzaq and the Portuguese traveller Domingo Paes both wrote of its crowded bazaars and its ring of fortifications. The city was sacked after the battle of Talikota in 1565 and never recovered. Its ruins, including the Virupaksha temple and the Vittala temple with its stone chariot and musical pillars, were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. A is wrong because Tamil Nadu holds the great Chola temples instead. B is wrong because Kerala lay outside the Vijayanagara heartland. C is wrong because the medieval capital in Telangana was Warangal of the Kakatiyas. Exam tip: Hampi is on the Tungabhadra in Karnataka, a UNESCO site since 1986.

The correct answer is D, Vijayalaya. Vijayalaya founded the line known as the Imperial Cholas around 850 CE by taking Thanjavur from the Muttaraiyar chiefs, who held it as feudatories of the Pallavas. He built a temple to the goddess Nishumbhasudini in the captured town, and Thanjavur stayed the Chola capital until Rajendra I shifted to Gangaikonda Cholapuram. The dynasty he began reached its height under Rajaraja I, who raised the Brihadeshwara temple, and under Rajendra I, who carried Chola arms to Sri Lanka and across the sea to Srivijaya. A is wrong because Dantidurga founded the Rashtrakuta dynasty of the Deccan. B is wrong because Simhavishnu was an early Pallava king of Kanchipuram. C is wrong because Upendrarai has no place in the Chola genealogy. Exam tip: Vijayalaya founded the Cholas at Thanjavur around 850 CE, Rajaraja I built the Brihadeshwara temple, and Rajendra I founded Gangaikonda Cholapuram.

The correct answer is A, 1896 INC session. Vande Mataram was first sung on a political occasion at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1896, and it was Rabindranath Tagore who set the tune and sang it there. The song had been written earlier by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in Sanskritised Bengali and placed in his novel Anandamath, published in 1882. After the partition of Bengal in 1905 it became the cry of the Swadeshi movement, and the Constituent Assembly later gave it the status of the national song, to be honoured equally with the national anthem. B is wrong because the 1903 session came seven years after that first singing. C is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1911 is remembered for the first singing of Jana Gana Mana. D is wrong because the 1900 session has no such first to its name. Exam tip: Vande Mataram was written in 1882 in Anandamath and first sung in 1896; Jana Gana Mana was first sung in 1911.

The correct answer is A, 1928. The Bardoli Satyagraha began in February 1928 in Bardoli taluka of Surat district in Gujarat, after the Bombay government raised the land revenue by about twenty-two per cent in a year when the crop had already been poor. Vallabhbhai Patel led the peasants, who refused to pay a single rupee, held together across castes and communities, and faced the seizure of land, cattle and carts without answering back. The government at last appointed the Broomfield and Maxwell enquiry, which found the increase unjustified and cut it to roughly six per cent. It was the women of Bardoli who gave Vallabhbhai the title Sardar. B is wrong because 1934 is the year the Congress Socialist Party was founded. C is wrong because 1919 is the year of the Rowlatt Satyagraha and Jallianwala Bagh. D is wrong because 1943 is the year of the Bengal famine. Exam tip: Bardoli 1928, Sardar Patel, a no-tax satyagraha, Broomfield and Maxwell enquiry.