In which region did Birsa Munda operate against the British?
(a) Punjab
(b) Chota Nagpur
(c) Tarai
(d) Manipur
Solution: (b)
Birsa Munda was a tribal leader and a folk hero, belonging to the Munda tribe who was behind the millenarian movement that rose in the tribal belt of Jharkhand during the British raj, in the late 19th century. To the twin challenges of agrarian breakdown and culture change, Birsa along with the Munda responded through a series of revolts and uprisings under his leadership. The movement sought to assert rights of the Mundas as the real proprietors of the soil, and the expulsion of middlemen and the British.
Which British Viceroy is associated with the Partition of Bengal?
(a) Lord Canning
(b) Lord Curzon
(c) Lord Hardinge
(d) Lord Wellesley
Solution: (b)
The decision to effect the Partition of Bengal was announced in July 1905 by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The partition took effect in October 1905 and separated the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu western areas.
Gandhiji opposed the Communal Award because he thought this would bring
(a) communal disunity
(b) division in the Hindu Society
(c) economic miseries to India
(d) destruction to handi-crafts
Solution: (b)
In August 1932, the then Prime Minister of Britain, Ramsay Macdonald gave his ‘award’ known as the Communal Award. According to it, separate representation was to be provided for the Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, Europeans, Dalit etc. The depressed classes were assigned a number of seats to be filled by election from special constituencies in which voters belonging to the depressed classes only could vote. Gandhi strongly opposed the communal award on the grounds that it would disintegrate Hindu society. He began an indefinite hunger strike from September 20, 1932 to protest this award.
Gandhi-Irwin Pact is associated with
(a) Quit India Movement
(b) Civil Disobedience Movement
(c) Non-Cooperation Khilafat Movement
(d) Rowlatt Agitation
Solution: (b)
The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was a political agreement signed by Mahatma Gandhi and the then Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin on 5 March 1931 before the second Round Table Conference in London. One of the proposed conditions for the conference was the discontinuation of the civil disobedience movement by the Indian National Congress.
Who said “Give me Blood, I will give you Freedom”?
(a) Subhash Chandra Bose
(b) Lala Lajpat Rai
(c) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(d) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
Solution: (a)
Subhas Chandra Bose organised Indian National Army and sought the help of Japan for military assistance. He famously said, “Tum mujhe khoon do, mein tumhe azadi dunga” (Give me your blood and I will give you freedom).
Who was the first Governor-General of Independent India?
(a) Lord Attlee
(b) Lord Mountbatten
(c) C. Rajagopalachari
(d) Rajendra Prasad
Solution: (b)
Louis Mountbatten was the last Viceroy of India (1947) and the first Governor-General of the independent Union of India (1947–48), from which the modern Republic of India emerged in 1950. When India and Pakistan attained independence at midnight on the night of 14-15 August 1947, Mountbatten remained in New Delhi for ten months, serving as India’s first governor general until June 1948.
Who, among the following Europeans, established their trade and influence in India first?
(a) British
(b) French
(c) Dutch
(d) Portuguese
Solution: (d)
Near the end of the 15th century, Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama became the first European to re-establish direct trade links with India since Roman times by being the first to arrive by circumnavigating Africa (1497-1499). His subsequent visits laid the foundation of Portuguese rule in India. Trading rivalries brought other European powers to India. The Netherlands, England, France, and Denmark established trading posts in India in the early 17th century.
A prominent leader of the Ghadar Party was
(a) P. Mitra
(b) Lala Har Dayal
(c) B.G. Tilak
(d) Bipin Chandra Pal
Solution: (b)
Lala Har Dayal was an Indian nationalist revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party in America. His simple living and intellectual acumen inspired many expatriate Indians living in Canada and the USA to fight against British Imperialism during the First World War.
Gandhi started the ‘Dandi March’ from
(a) Ahmedabad
(b) Allahabad
(c) Dandi
(d) Calcutta
Solution: (a)
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, began with the Dandi March on March 12, 1930. It was a direct-action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly in colonial India, and triggered the wider Civil Disobedience Movement. Mahatma Gandhi led the Dandi march from his base, Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad, to the sea coast near the village of Dandi.
The book “Prison Diary” was written by
(a) Mahatma Gandhi
(b) V.D. Savarkar
(c) Jaya Prakash Narayan
(d) Morarji Desai
Solution: (c)
Prison diary is by Jayaprakash Narayan. It was first published in 1977 by Popular Prakashan.
