Which Sikh guru established the Khalsa Panth?

The correct answer is B, 1855. The Santhal rebellion, known as the Hul, broke out on 30 June 1855 in the Rajmahal hills of the Santhal Parganas, in what is now Jharkhand. It was led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, along with Chand and Bhairav, who gathered thousands of Santhals against the moneylenders, traders, zamindars and Company officials who had taken over their land and pushed them into bonded labour. The rising was put down with heavy force by 1856, but it forced the British to carve out a separate Santhal Parganas district with special rules barring outsiders from buying tribal land. Option A is wrong because no Santhal rising took place in 1876. Option C is wrong because 1896 is close to but not the year of the Munda ulgulan of Birsa Munda, which began in 1899. Option D is wrong because by 1860 the rebellion had already been crushed. Exam tip: Santhal Hul 1855 under Sidhu and Kanhu; Munda Ulgulan 1899 to 1900 under Birsa Munda.

The correct answer is D. The Battle of Plassey was fought on 23 June 1757 on the bank of the Bhagirathi near Palashi in Bengal, and Robert Clive's small Company force defeated Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah there. The victory owed less to fighting than to treachery: the Nawab's commander Mir Jafar kept his troops out of the battle after a secret bargain, and the bankers of Murshidabad backed the plot. Mir Jafar was made Nawab, and the Company won a hold over the trade and revenue of Bengal, which is why 1757 is treated as the start of British political power in India. Option A is wrong because the Nizam of Hyderabad was not a party to Plassey. Option B is wrong because Madras was already a Company settlement and Plassey was fought in Bengal. Option C is wrong because there was no Battle of Berar, and Oudh came under Company influence later. Exam tip: Plassey 1757 against Siraj-ud-daulah, Buxar 1764 against Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-daula and Shah Alam II.

The correct answer is D, Shah Jahan. The Moti Masjid, or Pearl Mosque, inside the Agra Fort was built by Shah Jahan in white marble between 1648 and 1654, and it takes its name from the pearl-like glow of the stone. Shah Jahan rebuilt much of the red sandstone Agra Fort in marble, adding the Diwan-i-Khas, the Khas Mahal and the Sheesh Mahal; his reign from 1628 to 1658 is called the golden age of Mughal architecture and gave us the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid of Delhi. Option A is wrong because Aurangzeb built the small Moti Masjid inside the Red Fort at Delhi and the Bibi ka Maqbara at Aurangabad. Option B is wrong because Akbar raised the original Agra Fort in red sandstone and built Fatehpur Sikri. Option C is wrong because Humayun built Dinpanah at Delhi, and his own tomb was raised after his death. Exam tip: Moti Masjid at Agra Fort is Shah Jahan's, the one in Delhi's Red Fort is Aurangzeb's.

The correct answer is A, Pataliputra. Pataliputra, today's Patna, stood where the Son joins the Ganga, and it was the capital of the Mauryan empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya in about 322 BCE with the help of Chanakya. Megasthenes, the envoy sent by Seleucus to Chandragupta's court, described it in his account Indica as a long city guarded by a wooden palisade with sixty-four gates and five hundred and seventy towers. Ashoka held the third Buddhist council there in about 250 BCE. Option B is wrong because Vaishali was the capital of the Lichchhavi republic and the seat of the second Buddhist council. Option C is wrong because Indraprastha is the ancient name of the Delhi region in the Mahabharata, not a Mauryan capital. Option D is wrong because Kushinagar is the place where the Buddha attained mahaparinirvana. Exam tip: Pataliputra served as capital of the Haryankas, the Nandas, the Mauryas and later the Guptas.

The correct answer is B, 1651 CE. The English East India Company opened its first factory in Bengal at Hugli in 1651, after Mughal permission to trade in the province in return for a yearly payment. A factory in this sense was a walled warehouse with living quarters for the Company's agents, not a place of manufacture. From Hugli the English spread to Kasimbazar, Patna and Dacca, and in 1690 Job Charnock settled at Sutanuti, the village that grew into Calcutta and was guarded by Fort William. Their earlier factories were at Masulipatnam in 1611 and Surat in 1613, both far from Bengal. Option A is wrong because in 1641 the Company was still working out of the Coromandel and Gujarat coasts. Option C is wrong because by 1671 the Hugli factory was twenty years old. Option D is wrong because 1661 is the year Bombay came to the English crown as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry. Exam tip: Masulipatnam 1611, Surat 1613, Hugli 1651, Calcutta 1690.