Who attended the Imperial Durbar of 1877 dressed in hand-spun Khadi?
(a) M.K. Gandhi
(b) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(c) Bipin Chandra Pal
(d) Ganesh Vasudev Joshi
Solution: (d)
Called the “Proclamation Durbar”, the Durbar of 1877 was held beginning on 1 January 1877 to designate the coronation and proclaim Queen Victoria as Empress of India. The 1877 Durbar was largely an official event and not a popular occasion with mass appeal like 1903 and 1911. It was attended by the 1st Earl of Lytton – Viceroy of India, maharajas, Nawabs and intellectuals. It was at this glittering durbar that a man in “homespun spotless white khadi” rose to read a citation on behalf of the Pune Sarvajanik Sab ha. Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi put forth a demand couched in very polite language: “We beg of Her Majesty to grant to India the same political and social status as is enjoyed by her British subjects.” With this demand, it can be said that the campaign for a free India was formally launched.
Who was the only Indian to be elected as President of the United Nations General Assembly?
(a) Vijayalakshmi Pandit
(b) V.K. Krishna Menon
(c) Jawaharlal Nehru
(d) Rajeshwar Dayal
Solution: (a)
Vijaya Lakshmi Nehru Pandit was an Indian diplomat and politician, the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru. Between 1946 and 1968 she headed the Indian delegation to the United Nations. In 1953, she became the first woman President of the United Nations General Assembly.
Which of the following, according to Mahatma Gandhi, is the strongest force in the world?
(1) Non-violence of the brave
(2) Non-violence of the weak
(3) Non-violence of the coward
(4) Non-violence of the downtrodden
Solution: (a)
According to Gandhi, Non violence is not passive. It is active, creative, provocative and challenging. Gandhi described non-violence as “A force more powerful than all the weapons of world combined.” “Non violence is the greatest and most active force in the world.” Gandhi wrote, “It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of humanity. When we tap into the spirit of non-violence, it becomes contagious and can topple empires.” According to Gandhi one should be brave and not a coward. He should present his views, suggestions and thoughts without being violent. One should fight a war with the weapons of truth and non violence.
Where are the traces of Portuguese culture found in India?
(a) Goa
(b) Calicut
(c) Cannanore
(d) Cochin
Solution: (a)
Goa is a former Portuguese colony, the Portuguese overseas territory of Portuguese India existed for about 450 years until it was annexed by India in 1961. In 1510, the Portuguese defeated the ruling Bijapur kings with the help of a local ally, Timayya, leading to the establishment of a permanent settlement in Velha Goa (or Old Goa). In 1843 the capital was moved to Panjim from Velha Goa. By the mid-18th century the area under occupation had expanded to most of Goa’s present day state limits. Simultaneously the Portuguese lost other possessions in India until their borders stabilized and formed the Estado da India Portuguesa, of which Goa was the largest territory.
According to Dadabhai Naoroji ‘Swaraj’ meant
(a) Complete independence
(b) Self-government
(c) Economic independence
(d) Political independence
Solution: (b)
Dadabhai Naoroji in his Presidential address at the National Congress in Calcutta said,” We must have Swaraj on the lines granted to Canada and Australia, which is our sole aim.” For him Swaraj meant administration of affairs in a country by her own people on their own strength in accordance with the welfare of the people without even nominal suzerainty.
Who was the first Governor– General of Bengal?
(a) Robert Clive
(b) Warren Hastings
(c) William Bentinck
(d) Cornwallis
Solution: (b)
Warren Hastings was appointed the first Governor-General of Bengal in 1773. He was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.
The Quit India Movement was launched in 1942 in the month of
(a) January
(b) March
(c) August
(d) December
Solution: (c)
The Quit India Movement, or the August Movement (August Kranti) was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi’s call for immediate independence.
The pledge for “Poorna Swaraj” was taken at the Congress Session of
(a) Calcutta
(b) Lahore
(c) Allahabad
(d) Madras
Solution: (b)
In December 1929, the Congress held its annual session at Lahore. Jawaharlal Nehru was the president at this session. In this session, the Congress declared ‘Purna Swaraj’ or Complete Independence as its ultimate goal. It asked all Congressmen and nationalists not to participate in elections to the legislatures and to resign from the legislatures. It was decided that 26 January would be henceforth observed as the Independence Day every year. To achieve the aim of complete independence, the Congress decided to launch another mass movement – the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Mahatma Gandhi was profoundly influenced by the writings of
(a) Bernard Shaw
(b) Karl Marx
(c) Lenin
(d) Leo Tolstoy
Solution: (d)
When Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi started to practice law in South Africa as a young barrister in the 1890s, he was confronted with glaring racial discrimination as well as various other injustices. It was then that he began to develop his satyagraha philosophy of nonviolence, through which he would later lead India to independence. Perhaps the most profound influence on Gandhi at this time were the ideas and living example of the Russian author Leo Tolstoy who, in the last year of his life, became Gandhi’s mentor on nonviolence. By directly influencing Mahatma Gandhi with this idea through his work The Kingdom of God Is Within You, Tolstoy has had a huge influence on the nonviolent resistance movement to this day.
Which Governor General is associated with Doctrine of Lapse?
(a) Lord Ripon
(b) Lord Dalhousie
(c) Lord Bentinck
(d) Lord Curzon
Solution: (b)
The Doctrine of Lapse was an annexation policy purportedly devised by Lord Dalhousie, who was the Governor General for the East India Company in India between 1848 and 1856. According to the Doctrine, any princely state or territory under the direct influence of the British East India Company (the dominant imperial power in the subcontinent), as a vassal state under the British Subsidiary System, would automatically be annexed if the ruler was either “manifestly incompetent or died without a direct heir”.
