All questions of Class 12 (Themes in Indian History III) for UPSC CSE Exam

In January 1915, Gandhi returned to his homeland after two decades of residence in South Africa.

In June 1858, the Rani of Jhansi, Lakshmi Bai, died while fighting the British.

The Round Table Conference took place in London. Gandhiji joined the Second Conference as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. His claim that the Congress represented all sections of India was challenged by the Muslim League, Dr Ambedkar and Hindu Mahasabha. The Conference was held to discuss constitutional reforms required in India.

Lord Wellesley was the Governor General of colonial India who introduced the Subsidiary Alliance, under which the native troops of several Indian states were disbanded in lieu of British troops, which would be maintained by the princely states' resources. The states could also make wars or agreements only with British permission.

Lucknow Session is one of the most important sessions of the Indian National Congress. This session was remarkable for the reunion of Moderates and Extremists on one hand, and Congress and Muslim League on the other.

Apart from the Muslim League, which boycotted the Constituent Assembly, demanding a separate constitution for the new country of Pakistan, the Socialists were also initially unwilling to join the Constituent Assembly. This was because they viewed it as a British creation, due to which, they felt, it could not function independently.

Chauri Chaura is a small village in the Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh. This place is known for the incident that took place in February 1922. There, an enraged mob of satyagrahis set a police station on fire, which resulted in the deaths of 22 policemen. Gandhiji, after seeing the inception of violence, immediately suspended the Non-Cooperation Movement as it was supposed to run on the principles of non-violence.

Calcutta (Kolkata) became the centre of the Indian Independence Movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also underwent partition in 1905 on communal grounds, resulting in widespread agitation. All these activities, along with the disadvantageous location of Calcutta on the eastern fringes of India, prompted the British to shift their capital to Delhi in 1911.

The life span of Maharaja Mehtab Chand was 1820-1879. He was born in 1820 and ruled from 1832-1879. He was the Raja of Burdwan.

The RSS cadres were well-trained and highly disciplined cadres, all pledged to an ideology of Hindu nationalism, convinced that India was a land of the Hindus.

The Hindu Mahasabha was a Hindu party that remained confined to North India. It aimed to unite Hindu society by encouraging Hindus to transcend the divisions of caste and sect. It sought to define Hindu identity in opposition to Muslim identity. Till late 1938, many Congressmen, especially in the Central Provinces (modern-day Madhya Pradesh) were active in the Hindu Mahasabha.

The English East India Company (E.E.I.C.) established its raj in the countryside of Bengal and implemented its revenue policies there.

Francis Buchanan was a physician who came to India and served in Bengal Medical Service from 1794 to 1815. He published reports on several districts of Eastern India.

Village headmen were called Jotedars and Mandals. They controlled local trade as well as money lending. They were too happy to see the zamindar in trouble. The zamindar could not easily assert his power over them.

In September 1857, a contingent of British army recaptured Delhi. Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was hiding in Humayun's tomb, was taken into custody. Two of his sons and grandsons were shot dead. The Emperor, along with his wife, was exiled to Rangoon.

The Battle of Plassey took place on June 23rd 1757, at Palashi in West Bengal, on the banks of the Bhagirathi River. It was fought between the forces of Sirajudaulah and the English East India Company. After this, the Company became the political ruler of Bengal.

The rebels used ishtahars (notifications) and proclamations to persuade Indians to join them as well as to spread their ideas. In these advertisements of proclamations, the religious beliefs of other people were duly respected by the rebels. They appealed to all the Indians, irrespective of their caste or creed, to join the common cause to free themselves from the foreign yoke.

In January 1915, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned to India after two decades of residence abroad. These years had been spent mostly in South Africa, where he gone, in 1893, as a lawyer, and in time became a leader of Indians in that country.

On the pretext of misrule, the British had annexed Awadh in 1856. During the 1857 Revolt, after heavy fighting and use of military power on a gigantic scale, the British brought Awadh region under its control by March 1858.

In 1857 the first spinning and weaving mill was established, in Bombay and by 1860 the city had become the largest cotton market in India.

On 27th August 1947, B. Pocker Bahadur from Madras made pleaded for continuing separate electorates. In his view, only separate electorates would ensure that minorities, especially Muslims, had a meaningful voice in the governance of India. However, this provoked anger and dismay amongst most nationalists, with many of their arguments opposing the demand. Most of them saw separate electorates as a deliberate measure to divide Indians.

Through The Treaty of Sevres, much of the territories of Ottoman ruler were snatched away by the Allied Powers. The powers of Ottoman rulers were also reduced. Muslim communities all around the world were agitated by this and rose in protest.

Hindustani is a blend of Hindi and Urdu. It was a popular language of a large section of the people of India. It was a composite language. It had developed over the years and had assimilated the words of other languages. However, after independence, the idea of having national language was dropped in order to respect the feelings of linguistic communities. Hindi is an official language of India.

Lucknow, the capital of Awadh, was an important centre of revolt. The revolt in Lucknow was led by Begum Hazrat Mahal, the wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah.

Chaudhary Rehmat Ali was a Punjabi Muslim. In his 'PAK-STAN', each letter denotes a Muslim-dominated region, where 'P' stands for Punjab, 'A' stands for Afghan bordering region, 'K' stands for Kashmir and 'stan' stands for Baluchistan. His view of a separate Muslim State was ridiculed by many leaders. Even the Muslim League dismissed the idea as a student's dream.

The Indian Constitution, which was completed in December 1949, was adopted officially on 26th January 1950. Consequently, India became a republic country on that day.

The Dutch established their trading company’s base at Masulipatnam in 1605.

The Ryotwari system was instituted in some parts of British India. This system was used to collect revenues from the cultivators of the agricultural lands. Under this system, land was surveyed every 30 years.

On 8th August 1942, the All-India Congress Committee passed the Quit India Resolution and proposed the starting of a non-violent mass struggle, under Gandhiji’s leadership.

The Constituent Assembly that came into being in 1946 was dominated by the Congress. The Socialists were initially unwilling to join, for they believed the Constituent Assembly to be a British creation, and hence not being truly autonomous.

Ryotwari system was first introduced in Madras Presidency, later it was extended to Bombay Deccan. Under this system, the revenue was directly settled with the ryot (cultivator).

The Fort St. George was built by the East India Company in 1639-40. It was one of the first English establishments in India.

The paintings became the means to celebrate victory over the rebels. Paintings personified people who saved the prestige of British by subduing rebels. They were celebrated as the saviours. In the painting "The Relief of Lucknow", Barker celebrated the entry of Campbell to relieve people who were defending the residency of Lucknow against the rebels.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, an economist, and a lawyer, joined the Union Cabinet as the Law Minister and served as the Chairman of the Drafting Committee. The Government of India honored Dr.Ambedkar by awarding India's highest civilian award, the ‘Bharat Ratna’, in the year 1990, posthumously to the architect of the Indian Constitution, which came into force from 26th January 1950.

After revolting in Meerut, the mutineers moved to Delhi. In September 1857, Delhi was finally captured by the British after almost four months of heavy fighting with the rebels.

The Lahore session of the Muslim League in 1940 was presided over by M.A. Jinnah where he gave his famous speech, openly supporting the two-nation theory.

Awadh was one of the friendly states of the British that played a great role in the expansion of East India Company in India. It was one of the subsidiary states of the company. However, the British wanted to annex it, Lord Dalhousie once described it as, 'A cherry that will fall in our mouth one day'. The annexation of Awadh, on the false plea of misrule, was regarded as a betrayal by the people of Awadh.

Unionist party was a political party that was an umbrella organisation of All India Muslim League, and was based in the province of Punjab during British Raj in India. It mainly represented the interest of landlords of Punjab, which included Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs.

The term Harijan means people of God and was the name given to the so-called untouchables in the Indian caste system during his movement for their upliftment. Gandhi used this term as reference to the untouchables.

Taluqdar refers to one who holds a taluq or a connection. Taluq also refers to a territorial unit. After the Permanent Settlement, a new variety of taluqs were created by zamindars.

Shah Mal lived in a large village in pargana Barout in Uttar Pradesh. He belonged to a clan of Jat cultivators whose kinship ties extended over Chaurasee Des. Shah Mal mobilised the headmen and cultivators of Chaurasee Des, moving at night from village to village, urging people to rebel against the British.

On 24 January 1950, 284 members of the Constituent Assembly signed the Indian Constitution at the Constitution Hall, now known as the Central Hall of Parliament, in New Delhi.

According to Maulana Azad, an important Congress leader, while members of the Congress were not allowed to join the League, many Congressmen were active in the Hindu Mahasabha, especially in the Central Provinces (present-day Madhya Pradesh). Finally, in December 1938, the Congress Working Committee declare that Congress members could not be members of the Mahasabha.

During the period of British rule, Ambedkar was a political opponent of the Indian National Congress. But, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi, he was asked, at India's independence, to join the Union Cabinet as Law Minister.

Within the villages of Bengal, jotedars were more powerful than the zamindars. They were most powerful in North Bengal.

By 1915, when Gandhi returned to India, it had undergone many changes since the time he left. Therefore, Gopal Krishna Gokhale advised him to trave

The Santhals were given land and persuaded to settle in the foothills of Rajmahal. By 1832, a large area of land was demarcated as Damin-i-Koh. This was declared to be the land of the Santhals.

Mahatma Gandhi is known as the Father of Our Nation as he had played a stellar role in India's Freedom Struggle.