Who among the following was the founder of Phoenix Settlement?
- A.Mahatma Gandhi
- B.B. R. Ambedkar
- C.Rabindranath Tagore
- D.Swami Vivekananda
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi founded the Phoenix Settlement near Durban, South Africa, in 1904.
Gandhi set up the settlement after reading John Ruskin's Unto This Last, which convinced him that the life of labour, of the tiller and the craftsman, is the life worth living. At Phoenix, residents shared manual work and lived simply, and the weekly newspaper Indian Opinion, which Gandhi had started in 1903, was printed there. In 1910 he founded a second community, Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg, to house the families of satyagrahis. These experiments shaped his later ashrams at Sabarmati and Sevagram in India.
Option B is wrong because Dr B. R. Ambedkar founded the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha and the newspaper Mook Nayak, not any settlement in South Africa. Option C is wrong because Tagore founded the school at Santiniketan that grew into Visva-Bharati. Option D is wrong because Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897.
Exam tip: Phoenix Settlement 1904 (Durban, inspired by Ruskin); Tolstoy Farm 1910 (Johannesburg).
Practice Questions
View allSimla was founded as a hill station to use as strategic place for billeting troops, guarding frontier and launching campaign during the course of
- A.Anglo-Maratha War
- B.Anglo-Burmese War
- C.Anglo-Gurkha War
- D.Anglo-Afghan War
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Simla came under British control during the Anglo-Gurkha War of 1814-16 and grew as a military post on the hill frontier.
Read the full explanation →In 1921, during which one of the following tours, Gandhiji shaved his head and began wearing loincloth in order to identify with the poor?
- A.Ahmadabad
- B.Champaran
- C.Chauri Chaura
- D.South India
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In September 1921, while touring the south during the Non-Cooperation Movement, Gandhi gave up his shirt and cap at Madurai and took to a simple loincloth.
Read the full explanation →Harshacharita has references to various presents sent by a ruler named Bhaskara to Harshavardhana. Bhaskara belonged to
- A.Haryanka Dynasty of Magadha
- B.Varman Dynasty of Assam
- C.Nanda Dynasty of North India
- D.None of the above
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Bhaskaravarman was the king of Kamarupa, ancient Assam, and a close ally of Harsha. Harshacharita was written by Banabhatta, the court poet of Harshavardhana of Kannauj in the seventh century.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements about the Harappan Culture is not correct?
- A.It witnessed the first cities in the subcontinent.
- B.It marks the first use of script, written from right to left.
- C.It marks the earliest known use of iron as a medium for the art of sculpting.
- D.It marks the earliest known use of stone as a medium for the art of sculpting.
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The Harappans were a Bronze Age people and did not know iron at all. The Harappan or Indus Valley Civilisation flourished from about 2600 to 1900 BCE.
Read the full explanation →Which river is praised in the fifth century Tamil epic, Silappadikaram?
- A.Cauvery
- B.Godavari
- C.Saraswati
- D.Ganges
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The Silappadikaram sings the praise of the Kaveri, the life-giving river of the Chola country, in whose delta its story begins.
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