Who returned the title of ‘Knighthood’ given by the British Government in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre?
- A.M. Ali Jinnah
- B.Rabindranath Tagore
- C.Rameshwar Singh
- D.Sankaran Nair
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Rabindranath Tagore. On 13 April 1919, General Dyer’s troops fired on an unarmed crowd at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, killing hundreds. At the end of May 1919 Tagore wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, giving up the knighthood he had received in 1915, saying that such badges of honour had become a mark of shame. The poet had won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for Gitanjali, so his protest carried great weight across the world. Option A is wrong because M. A. Jinnah resigned from the Imperial Legislative Council in March 1919 in protest against the Rowlatt Act; he returned no knighthood. Option C is wrong because Maharaja Rameshwar Singh of Darbhanga was a loyal supporter of the government and gave up no title. Option D is wrong because Sir C. Sankaran Nair protested by resigning from the Viceroy’s Executive Council, not by returning his knighthood. Exam tip: Tagore gave up his knighthood in 1919; Gandhi returned the Kaiser-i-Hind medal in 1920.
Practice Questions
View allThe Ryotwari experiment in land revenue was started by
- A.Henry Dundas
- B.Alexander Reed
- C.David Ricardo
- D.Mountstuart Elphinstone
Show answer
Captain Alexander Read (the name is also spelt Reed) began the Ryotwari experiment in 1792 in the Baramahal region, which the Company had taken from Tipu Sultan, with Thomas Munro as one of his assistants.
Read the full explanation →Who deciphered the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts?
- A.Piyadassi
- B.Colin Mackenzie
- C.Alexander Cunningham
- D.James Prinsep
Show answer
Prinsep, an official of the East India Company's mint and secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, deciphered the Brahmi script in 1837 and also made the key breakthrough in reading Kharoshthi.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements about the Justice Party is not correct?
- A.It clamoured for the same kind of separate communal representation for the Non-Brahmins as had been granted to the Muslims by the Morley-Minto Reforms.
- B.It was patronized mainly by richer landowning and urban middle class Non-Brahmins.
- C.It succeeded in getting the provision for 28 reserved seats for the Non-Brahmins in the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms.
- D.It supported the call given by the Congress to boycott elections in 1920.
Show answer
The Justice Party did not join the Congress boycott of the 1920 elections; it contested them, won a majority in the Madras Legislative Council and formed the first ministry under the new reforms.
Read the full explanation →Which organization was started at the Haridwar Kumbh Mela in 1915?
- A.Sanatan Dharma Sabha
- B.Dev Samaj
- C.Brahmin Sabha
- D.Hindu Mahasabha
Show answer
The All-India Hindu Mahasabha held its founding session at Haridwar during the Kumbh Mela of 1915, bringing together the provincial Hindu Sabhas that had grown up, first in Punjab, since 1909.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements about the All India Depressed Classes Association is not correct?
- A.The All India Depressed Classes Association was formed in Nagpur with M. C. Rajah as its first elected President.
- B.The All India Depressed Classes Association was not attended by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in 1926.
- C.Ambedkar resigned from the All India Depressed Classes Association and formed his own All India Depressed Classes Congress in 1930.
- D.The All India Depressed Classes Association favoured Ambedkar's demand for separate electorate for the depressed classes.
Show answer
The All India Depressed Classes Association did not back Ambedkar's demand for a separate electorate; under M. C. Rajah it supported joint electorates with seats reserved for the depressed classes.
Read the full explanation →