Who among the following was India's first Woman Chief Minister ?

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.

The correct answer is D, a system of tribunals and a ban on strikes.. The Trade Disputes Act, 1929 set up machinery of courts of inquiry and boards of conciliation and banned certain strikes.

The colonial government passed the Act in response to the wave of strikes of 1928 led by communist-led unions such as the Girni Kamgar Union in Bombay. It created courts of inquiry and boards of conciliation to settle industrial disputes, and it made strikes in public utility services illegal without prior notice, while also banning strikes and lock-outs meant to coerce the government. Along with the Public Safety Ordinance and the Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929), it was part of the British attack on the rising labour movement.

A is wrong: the Act did not give workers any share in managing industries.

B is wrong: it did not hand arbitrary powers to employers; disputes went to official tribunals.

C is wrong: disputes were not referred to any British court.

Exam tip: 1929 = Trade Disputes Act, Public Safety Ordinance and Meerut Conspiracy Case, all aimed at the labour and communist movement.

The correct answer is D, Neither 1 nor 2. Neither statement is correct; both mismatch saints of very different centuries.

Nimbarka was a Vaishnava philosopher of about the twelfth or thirteenth century who taught Dvaitadvaita (dualistic non-dualism) and devotion to Radha and Krishna. Akbar ruled from 1556 to 1605, several centuries later. Kabir lived in the fifteenth century in Varanasi and taught devotion to a formless God, rejecting both Hindu and Muslim rituals. Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi was a Naqshbandi Sufi of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, who opposed Akbar's liberal religious policy, so he could not have influenced Kabir, who died long before him.

A is wrong: Nimbarka lived centuries before Akbar.

B is wrong: Sirhindi came about a century after Kabir.

C is wrong: both statements are false.

Exam tip: Nimbarka = Dvaitadvaita; Ramanuja = Vishishtadvaita; Madhva = Dvaita; Sirhindi = Naqshbandi, time of Akbar and Jahangir.

The correct answer is A, Indian handicrafts were ruined.. The Industrial Revolution in Britain ruined Indian handicrafts in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Machine-made British cloth was cheaper than hand-woven Indian cloth. After the Charter Act of 1813 ended the East India Company's trade monopoly, British goods flooded Indian markets with almost no duty, while Indian goods faced high duties in Britain. Weavers and artisans lost their markets, famous textile towns such as Dacca and Murshidabad declined, and many craftsmen were pushed back to agriculture. Historians call this deindustrialisation. India turned into a supplier of raw cotton and a buyer of British manufactures.

B is wrong: Indian textile mills with machines came only later; the first successful cotton mill opened in Bombay in 1854.

C is wrong: the first railway line, Bombay to Thane, opened only in 1853, and the network spread in the second half of the century.

D is wrong: British goods entered India almost duty-free, which is exactly why handicrafts suffered.

Exam tip: Charter Act 1813 + free entry of British goods = ruin of Indian handicrafts (deindustrialisation).

The correct answer is B, district-level administration. The Pradeshika, the Rajuka and the Yukta were officers of district-level administration in the Mauryan empire.

Ashoka's Third Major Rock Edict orders the Yuktas, the Rajukas and the Pradeshikas to go on tours of inspection every five years to teach dhamma along with their regular work. The Pradeshika was the head of the district, in charge of revenue and order. The Rajuka handled land measurement and also had judicial powers, which Ashoka widened (Pillar Edict IV). The Yukta was a subordinate officer who kept accounts and records and assisted them. Together they formed the link between the provinces and the villages.

A is wrong: villages were run by the gramika (village headman), not these officers.

C is wrong: provinces were headed by princes called kumaras or aryaputras.

D is wrong: the central level had the mantriparishad and heads of departments such as the samaharta and sannidhata.

Exam tip: Pradeshika, Rajuka, Yukta = district officers, named in Major Rock Edict III; gramika = village headman.