Who was the first Indian to be awarded the Victoria Cross?

The correct answer is B, 1861. The Order of the Star of India was created in 1861, four years after the Revolt of 1857, to tie the princely rulers and senior officials of India to the British Crown, and its motto was Heaven's light our guide; it was given three classes in 1866, the Knight Grand Commander, the Knight Commander and the Companion. Option A is wrong because 1857 is the year of the Revolt itself, which was the reason for the order rather than its date. Option C is wrong because 1877 is the year of the Delhi Durbar at which Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. Option D is wrong because 1878 is the year of the other two orders, the Order of the Indian Empire and the Order of the Crown of India.

The correct answer is C, 1900. Queen Victoria instituted the Kaiser-i-Hind Medal in 1900 for distinguished public service in India, and unlike the orders of chivalry it was open to any person of any rank, Indian or European, man or woman, in gold, silver and bronze classes. Option A is wrong because 1878 is the year of the Order of the Indian Empire and the Order of the Crown of India. Option B is wrong because 1911 is the year of the Delhi Durbar at which Indian soldiers were made eligible for the Victoria Cross. Option D is wrong but is the closest trap: 1920 is the year Mahatma Gandhi returned the medal he had received in 1915, so a candidate who remembers only the renunciation may give the date of that act instead of the institution.

The correct answer is B, the Non-Cooperation Movement. Gandhi had been awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind in 1915 for raising an ambulance corps in South Africa, and in 1920 he returned it in a letter to the Viceroy, giving up two South African war medals at the same time, as part of the surrender of titles and honours that the Non-Cooperation Movement called for. Option A is wrong because the Civil Disobedience Movement began in 1930 with the Dandi March, ten years later. Option C is wrong because the Quit India Movement was launched in August 1942. Option D is wrong because the Home Rule Movement, led by Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, belonged to the years 1916 and 1917 and did not involve giving back honours at all; it worked instead for self-government within the Empire.

The correct answer is D, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. After troops under General Dyer fired on a gathering at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on 13 April 1919, Tagore wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, on 31 May 1919, renouncing the knighthood conferred on him in 1915. Option A is wrong, although the Rowlatt Act of 1919 led to the protests that brought the crowd to Jallianwala Bagh, because the renunciation was a response to the firing itself, which Tagore named in his letter. Option B is wrong because the Partition of Bengal of 1905, which Tagore opposed in song, was annulled in 1911, long before the knighthood. Option C is wrong because the Simon Commission came to India in 1928, nine years after the renunciation.

The correct answer is B, 1856. Queen Victoria instituted the Victoria Cross in 1856, and it bears the words For Valour; the award was then backdated so that acts of gallantry from 1854 onwards, during the Crimean War, could be recognised. Option A is wrong because 1837 is the year of the Indian Order of Merit, instituted by the East India Company and the oldest gallantry decoration in India. Option C is a careful trap: 1854 is the year from which the award counted, not the year it was created, so a question that asks when it was instituted must be answered with 1856. Option D is wrong because 1861 belongs to the Order of the Star of India. Indian soldiers became eligible for the Victoria Cross only in 1911.