Test: Modern History- 1 - UPSC MCQ

• Mahatma Gandhi was requested by Rajkumar Shukla, a local man, to look into the problems of the farmers in the context of indigo planters of Champaran in Bihar. Gandhi went to Champaran with Rajkumar early in 1917 accompanied by Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-Haq, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parekh, and J.B. Kripalani.
• Whereas, Indulal Yajnik assisted Gandhi in Kheda satyagraha. So, Statement 1 is not correct.
• Mahatma Gandhi was assisted in Kheda Satyagraha by Sardar Vallabhai Patel and other local lawyers and advocates such as Indulal Yagnik, Shankarlal Banker, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya, and Ravi Shankar Vyas. Anasuya Sarabhai also played a major role in the Kheda satyagraha and was also one of the first signatories of the ‘Satyagraha Pledge’ created by Gandhi to oppose the Rowlatt Bill. So, Statement 2 is correct.
• Gandhi organized the third campaign in Ahmedabad where he intervened in a dispute between the mill owners and workers. Gandhi knew Ambalal Sarabhai, a millowner, as the latter had financially helped Gandhi’s Ashram. Moreover, Ambalal’s sister Anasuya Sarabhai had reverence for Gandhi. He was assisted by Anasuya Sarabhai organized daily mass meetings of workers, in which he delivered lectures and issued a series of leaflets on the situation. So, Statement 3 is correct.

Additional Information:

MAHATMA GANDHI
Champaran Satyagraha

• The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was the first Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi in India and is considered a historically important revolt in the Indian Independence Movement.
• It was a farmer's uprising that took place in the Champaran district of Bihar, India, during the British colonial period. The farmers were protesting against having to grow indigo with barely any payment for it.
• When Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915 and saw peasants in northern India oppressed by indigo planters, he tried to use the same methods that he had used in South Africa to organize mass uprisings by people to protest against injustice.
• Champaran Satyagraha was the first popular satyagraha movement.
• Other popular leaders associated with Champaran Satyagraha were Brajkishore Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Ramnavmi Prasad, and Shambhusharan Varma.

Kheda Satyagraha

• Because of the drought in 1918, the crops failed in the Kheda district of Gujarat.
• According to the Revenue Code, if the yield was less than one-fourth of the normal
• production, the farmers were entitled to remission.
• The Gujarat Sabha, consisting of the peasants, submitted petitions to the highest governing authorities of the province requesting that the revenue assessment for the year 1919 be suspended.
• The government, however, remained adamant and said that the property of the farmers would be seized if the taxes were not paid.
• Gandhi asked the farmers not to pay taxes.
• Gandhi, however, was mainly the spiritual head of the struggle.
• It was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a group of other devoted Gandhians, namely, Narahari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya, and Ravi Shankar Vyas, who went around the villages, organized the villagers and told them what to do, and gave the necessary political leadership.
• Patel, along with his colleagues, organized the tax revolt which the different ethnic and caste communities of Kheda supported.
• The revolt was remarkable in that discipline and unity were maintained.
• Even when, on non-payment of taxes, the government seized the farmers’ personal property, land, and livelihood, a vast majority of Kheda’s farmers did not desert Sardar Patel.
• Those Indians who sought to buy the confiscated lands were socially ostracised.
• Ultimately, the government sought to bring about an agreement with the farmers.
• It agreed to suspend the tax for the year in question, and for the next; reduce the rate increase, and return all the confiscated property.
• The struggle at Kheda brought a new awakening among the peasantry.
• They became aware that they would not be free of injustice and exploitation unless and until their country achieved complete independence.

Ahmedabad mill strike

• In March 1918, Gandhi intervened in a dispute between cotton mill owners of Ahmedabad and the workers over the issue of discontinuation of the plague bonus.
• The mill owners wanted to withdraw the bonus.
• The workers were demanding a rise of 50 percent in their wages so that they could manage in the times of wartime inflation (which doubled the prices of food grains, cloth, and other necessities) caused by Britain’s involvement in World War I.
• The mill owners were ready to give only a 20 percent wage hike.
• The workers went on strike. The relations between the workers and the m ill owners worsened with the striking workers being arbitrarily dismissed and the mill owners deciding to bring in weavers from Bombay.
• The workers of the mill turned to Anusuya Sarabhai for help in fighting for justice.
• Anusuya Sarabhai was a social worker who was also the sister of Ambalal Sarabhai, one of the mill owners and the president of the Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association (founded in 1891 to develop the textile industry in Ahmedabad), for help in fighting for justice.
• Though Gandhi was a friend of Ambalal, he took up the workers’ cause.
• Gandhi asked the workers to go on a strike and demand a 35 percent increase in wages instead of 50 percent.
• Gandhi advised the workers to remain non-violent while on strike.
• When negotiations with mill owners did not progress, he undertook a fast unto death (his first) to strengthen the workers’ resolve.
• But the fast also had the effect of putting pressure on the mill owners who finally agreed to submit the issue to a tribunal.

In 1898, Annie Besant established a Central Hindu College near Town Hall, Varanasi, to impart religious, moral instructions and secular education. In 1910, she was supposed to set up a university and while this did not happen, in 1911, in collaboration with Madan Mohan Malviya and others, the Central Hindu College became the nucleus of Banares Hindu University. So, Pair 1 is correct.
The 'Bharat Mata Mandir, or Bharat Mata temple, is dedicated to Mother India and was constructed by Babu Shiv Prasad Gupta between 1918 and 1924. It is located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Mahatma Gandhi inaugurated the 'Bharat Mata Mandir temple on October 25, 1936. Hence, the temple is not located in Mathura. So, Pair 2 is not correct.
The Non - Cooperation Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi was an expression of the growing resentment of all classes of the Indian people against oppressive British rule. Gandhi took up three specific points on which the movement was initiated:

• the Khilafat wrong,
• the Punjab wrong,
• Swaraj.

On February 04, 1922, The volunteers marched through the streets of Chauri Chaura village of Gorakhpur district of the United Provinces, shouting slogans of Gandhi and the Khilafat. As the crowd grew larger and fiercer, the cops retreated inside the police station. The protestors doused the building in kerosene and set it on fire. Twenty-three policemen were killed, and 228 people were brought to trial in the incident, out of which 19 were sentenced to death. This event marked the end of the non-cooperation movement. The Congress Working Committee met at Bardoli in February 1922 and resolved to stop all activity that led to breaking of the law and to get down to constructive work, instead, which was to include popularisation of khadi, national schools, and campaigning for temperance, for Hindu-Muslim unity and against untouchability. So, Pair 3 is correct.
The Hindustan Republic Association (HRA) was founded in October 1924 in Kanpur by Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee, and Sachin Sanyal to organize an armed revolution to overthrow the colonial  Government and establish in its place the Federal Republic of United States of India.
Under the leadership of Chandra Shekhar Azad, the name of the Hindustan Republic Association (HRA) was changed to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), an Indian revolutionary organization.
Kakori Conspiracy, also called Kakori Conspiracy Case or Kakori Train Robbery, was a train robbery at Kakori, a village near Lucknow, in 1925. An armed robbery was organized by ten revolutionaries of the Hindustan Republic Association, an organization that aimed to achieve independence through revolution.
So, Pair 4 is correct.
 

• Subhas Chandra Bose reorganized and revitalized the Indian National Army under Mohan Singh and Major-General Shah Nawaz Khan in Singapore in May 1943. So, Option (a) is not correct.
• On October 17, 1940, Mahatma Gandhi chose Acharya Vinoba Bhave as the first satyagrahi (proponent of satyagraha) to start personal satyagraha (a movement that meant holding to the truth) and Jawaharlal Nehru as the second. The British Colonial government had committed India to the Second World War without the consent of the Indian leaders. To oppose this decision by the foreign government, the Congress party launched individual satyagraha. So, Option (b) is correct.
• Chittaranjan Das formed the Congress-Khilafat-Swaraj Party within the Congress on 31 December 1922. He was aided by Motilal Nehru and Malaviya from UP, Lajpat Rai from Punjab, M. R. Jayakar and VithalbhaiPatel from Gujarat, the ‘Tilak group’ from Bombay and some leaders from south India. It became both a minority faction within the Congress and an independent organization ‘running candidates for legislatures  outside the purview of the Congress. The plan, program and constitution of the Swaraj Party (Swarajya Party) were drawn up at its first conference in Allahabad in 1924. Chittaranjan Das became the President of this new party, and Motilal Nehru was one of its secretaries. So, Option (c) is not correct.
• Cripps Mission was sent to India to discuss the British Government’s Draft Declaration on the Constitution of India with representative Indian leaders from all parties. Cripps arrived in Delhi on 22 March 1942, where they discussed the Draft Declaration with many Indian leaders. The Cripps Mission failed, and the issue of India’s constitution was postponed until the  end of the war.

Thus, Viceroy Linlithgow announced the Cripps Mission to offer dominion status to India on behalf of British
Parliament in 1942. So, Option (d) is not correct.
 

• In 1935, the Government of India Act was passed. It evolved into the concept of the All India Federation. Provincial Autonomy was introduced. There was to be a transfer of financial control from London to Delhi in response to the long-standing demand of the Government of India for fiscal autonomy. Provinces were given independent financial powers and resources. Provincial governments could borrow money for their own security. So, Statement 1 is correct.
• The Government of India Act 1935 expanded the size of the electorate to 30 million but retained high property qualifications. Only 10 percent of the Indian population got the right to vote. So, Statement 2 is not correct.
• The Government of India Act 1935 expanded women's franchise through preferential or special franchise qualifications, it also reserved seats for women in legislatures in accordance with the allocation of seats for different communities. So, Statement 3 is correct.
• The Government of India Act 1935 replaced the diarchy. At the same time, it gave provincial governors enormous 'discretionary power' to call the legislature, to not give consent to bills passed in legislatures, and, most important and undemocratic of all, to take over the control of a province from its elected majority ministry on the grounds of public order. Dyarchy was introduced at the center under the condition of several safeguards, and the Viceroy retained full control over foreign affairs, defense, and internal security. So, Statement 4 is correct.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT, 1935
Main Features 3⁄4 The establishment of an All-India Federation in which Governors' Provinces, the
Chief Commissioners' Provinces, and those Indian states which might accede to
be united were to be included.

• The Federal Legislature was to have two chambers (bicameral)—the Council of States and the  Federal Legislative Assembly. The Council of States (the Upper House) was to be a permanent body
• There was a provision for joint sitting in cases of deadlock between the houses. There were to be three subject lists—the Federal Legislative List, the Provincial Legislative List, and the Concurrent Legislative List. Residuary legislative powers were subject to the discretion of the governor-general.
• Dyarchy in the provinces was abolished, and provinces were given autonomy, Provinces derived their power and authority directly from the British Crown. They were given independent financial powers and resources Provincial legislatures were further expanded.
• The principles of 'communal electorates' and 'weightage' were further extended to depressed classes, women, and labor The franchise was extended, with about 10 percent of the total population getting
• the right to vote.
• The Act also provided for a Federal Court
• The India Council of the Secretary of State was abolished
   

• The All India Muslim League, annoyed with the Congress for not sharing power with them,  established the Pirpur Committee in 1938 to prepare a detailed report on the atrocities supposedly committed by the Congress ministries.
• In the report, the committee charged the Congress with interference in the religious rites, suppression of Urdu in favor of Hindi, denial of proper representation, and oppression of Muslims in the economic sphere. So, Option (a) is correct.

• The Nagpur Satyagraha of 1923 is the Flag Satyagraha, also called the Jhanda Satyagraha. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel led it at Nagpur in the year 1923. Hence, it was not held under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. So, Statement 1 is not correct.
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jamnalal Bajaj, Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, and Vinoba Bhave organized the revolt thousands of people from different regions, including from south of the Princely state of Travancore, traveled to Nagpur and other parts of the Central Provinces that is the present states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to participate in civil disobedience. Therefore, people from different parts of the nation came to Nagpur. So, Statement 2 is correct.
• The satyagrahis were encouraged to hoist the national flag without resisting arrest or retaliating against police, even though the British government deployed a heavy police force. They ignored the probable danger and they were even ready to sacrifice their lives and hoisted the flag in Victoria Town Hall, Jabalpur. And after that, flags were hoisted at several places across the country. So, Statement 3 is correct.

• ‘Khudai Khidmatgars movement’ (“Servants of God”), also known as the ‘Red-Shirts’ movement is a nationalist and nonviolent one, that was established in 1929. Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan also called Badshah Khan and Frontier Gandhi had organized a volunteer brigade (a military unit), ‘Khudai Khidmatgars,’ popularly known as the ‘Red-Shirts,’ who were pledged to the freedom struggle.
• One of the fundamental ideas of the movement is to reform the social structure by preparing the people for more direct action against British rule by the use of non-violent means. So, Statements 1 and 3 are correct.
• The red Shirts movement of 1929 was initially a social reform organization focusing on a better education system through the establishment of village schools and was set to work organizing village projects to build capacity and prepare the people for more direct action against British rule. Later, only it developed into a Political movement. So, Statement 2 is correct.

Gandhi founded the All-India Village Industries Association in Wardha in 1934. Jamnalal Bajaj has donated considerable land and buildings to the All-India Village Industries Association. Gandhi organized the first All-India Village Industries Exhibition in Indore in 1935.

• Gandhiji started experiments in rural lifestyles, such as the revival of village crafts and agro-processing industries, village cleanliness, diet reforms, etc., so that villages could be developed as ideal surroundings to live in. So, Option (a) is not correct.
• On 30 September 1932, Gandhi founded the All India Anti Untouchability League to remove untouchability in the society, which was later renamed Harijan Sevak Sangh ("Servants of Harijan Society") Harijan Sevak Sangh is a non-profit organization founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1932 to eradicate untouchability in India, working for Harijan or Dalit people and uplifting the Depressed Class of India. So, Option (b) is not correct.
• The federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry was established in 1927. FICCI is the largest and oldest apex business organization in India. Its history is closely interwoven with India's struggle for independence, industrialization, and emergence as one of the most rapidly growing global economies. A non-government, not-for-profit organisation, FICCI is India's business and industry voice. From influencing policy to encouraging debate, engaging with policy makers and civil society, FICCI articulates the views and concerns of industry. It serves its members from the Indian private and public corporate sectors and multinational companies, drawing its strength from diverse regional chambers of commerce and industry across states, reaching out to over 2,50,000 companies. So, Option (c) is not correct. 
• On his return from South Africa, Gandhi's first Ashram in India was established in the Kochrab area of Ahmedabad on 25 May 1915. Gandhi's Kochrab Ashram was located near the city of Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat. This ashram was a major center for students of Gandhian ideas to practice satyagraha, self- sufficiency, and Swadeshi, work for the upliftment of the poor, women, and untouchables, and to promote better public education and sanitation. The ashram was organized based on human equality. So, Option(d) is correct.

• The Leader (October 24, 1909 – September 6, 1967) was one of India's most influential English-language newspapers during British Raj. Founded by Madan Mohan Malviya, the paper was published in Allahabad.
• Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, also known as Mahamana, was from Allahabad and a moderate nationalist who served as President of INC for three terms and founded Banaras Hindu University in 1916. So, Pair 1 is correct.
• The Free Hindustan is described as "An Organ of Freedom, and Political, Social and Religious Reform," The Free Hindustan was published in April 1908 by Tarakanath Das. Tarankanath Das traveled to Japan in 1905 and lived in exile there for a year under the name of Tarak Brahmachari. He traveled to San Francisco, California, to begin his journal, "Free Hindustan." and was the first leader of the Indian community in North America to start a paper. He began influencing American public opinion about the true state of India through his articles, and he promoted the cause of a free Indian republic. He helped Lala Hardayal organize the Ghadar Party Movement in the United States and founded the Indian Independence League in California. So, Pair 2 isnot correct.
• Krishna Kumar Mitra founded his Bengali journal "Sanjibani" in 1883. On July 6, 1905, it was the first
• newspaper to announce the partition of Bengal. It also highlighted the working conditions of  ssamese
• tea plantation laborers. Krishna Kumar Mitra (1852–1936) was an Indian freedom fighter, journalist, and leader of the Brahmo Samaj. He is remembered for his contributions to the Swadeshi movement through his journal Sanjibani. So, Pair 3 is correct.

• Satyagraha was to be launched on April 6, 1919, but before it could be launched, there were large-scale violent, anti-British demonstrations in Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi, Ahmedabad, etc. Especially in Punjab, the situation became so very explosive due to wartime repression, forcible recruitments, and ravages of disease that the Army had to be called in. April 1919 saw the biggest and the most violent anti-British upsurge since 1857. So, Statement 1 is not correct.
• The entire agitation against the Rowlatt act proved its unorganized nature whereby the Satyagraha Sabha of Mahatma Gandhi concentrated mainly on publishing propaganda literature and collecting signatures on the Satyagraha pledge. So, Statement 2 is correct.
• Mahatma Gandhi left Bombay on April 8 to promote the Satyagraha agitation in Delhi and Punjab. But, as his entry into Punjab was considered dangerous by the government, Gandhi was removed from the train he was traveling at Palwal near Delhi and taken back to Bombay. The news of Gandhi’s arrest precipitated the crisis. The situation became tense in Bombay, and violence broke out in Ahmedabad and Virangam. In Ahmedabad, the government enforced martial law. In particular, the Punjab region and Amritsar witnessed the worst scenes of violence. So, Statement 3 is correct.
   

• The famous Lord Macaulay’s Minute 1835 settled the row in favour of Anglicists against orientalists and recommended that the limited government resources were to be devoted to teaching Western sciences and literature. The government soon made English the medium of instruction in its schools and colleges and opened a few English schools and colleges instead of a large number of elementary schools, thus neglecting mass education.
• The British planned to educate a small section of upper and middle classes, thus creating a class “Indian in blood and color but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect” who would act as interpreters between the government and masses and would enrich the vernaculars by which knowledge of Western sciences and literature would reach the masses. This was called the ‘downward filtration theory. Hence option (a) is the correct answer.
• Modern ideas, if not education, did filter down to the masses, though not in a form desired by the rulers, but through political parties, press, pamphlets, public platforms, etc. Modern education only helped this process by making available the basic literature on physical and social sciences to nationalists, thus stimulating their capacity to make social analysis—otherwise, the content, structure, and curricula of modern education served colonial interests.

• The catalyst to the new phase of the movement was provided when the British government appointed Indian Statutory Commission, popularly known after the name of its chairman, as Simon Commission, to go into the question of further constitutional reforms. All the members of this commission were Englishmen. This announcement was greeted by a chorus of protest from all Indians. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• The call for a boycott of the Commission was endorsed by the Liberal Federation led by Tej Bahadur Sapru. The Hindu Mahasabha and the section of the Muslim League under Jinnah supported the call for boycott. It was the Indian National Congress, however, that turned the boycott into a popular movement. The Congress had resolved on the boycott at its annual session in December 1927 at Madras, and in the prevailing excitable atmosphere, Jawaharlal Nehru had even succeeded in getting passed a snap resolution declaring complete independence as the goal of the Congress.
• The Simon Commission published a two-volume report in May 1930. It proposed the abolition of dyarchy and the establishment of representative government in the provinces which should be given autonomy. The report contained no mention of Dominion Status. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• The failure of the Cripps Mission paved the way for a full-fledged confrontation between the British and the Congress. As a result Congress announced the Quit India campaign in August 1942 and refused to help the British in the war effort, and the British imprisoned the entire Congress leadership in return. Hence statement 1 is correct. 
• The Quit India Movement made clear that now there was no distinction to be made between the people of British India and the States: every Indian was to participate in this mass struggle The meeting of the All India State Peoples Conference (AISPC) was convened along with the Congress session at Bombay that announced the commencement of the Movement. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• The Communist Party of India, following the involvement of Russia in the war in December 1941, did not support Quit India movement because of their “Peoples’ War” Strategy, Other parties like Muslim League, Hindu Mahasabha were also against it. Hence statement 3 is not correct.

• The Pitt’s India Act of 1784 gave the British government a large measure of control over the Company’s affairs. The Company became a subordinate department of the State. The Company’s territories in India were termed ‘British possessions’. The act clearly subordinated the Bombay and Madras presidencies to Bengal in all questions of war, diplomacy, and revenues. It constituted a department of state in England, also known as the Board of Control, whose purpose served to control the policy of the Court of Directors, introducing the Dual System of Government. The government’s control over the Company’s affairs was greatly extended. A Board of Control consisting of the chancellor of the exchequer, a secretary of state, and four members of the Privy Council (to be  appointed by the Crown) were to exercise control over the Company’s civil, military, and revenue affairs. All dispatches were to be approved by the board. Thus, a dual system of control was set up. Hence statements 1 and 2 are correct.
• Despite these changes, Company was satisfied as the act saved its monopoly over Indian and Chinese trade. Its directors retained the profitable right of appointing and dismissing its officials in India. Hence statement 3 is not correct.

Theosophical Movement:

• A group of westerners led by Madame H.P. Blavatsky (1831- 1891) and Colonel M.S. Olcott, who was inspired by Indian thought and culture, founded the Theosophical Society in New York City, United States in 1875. In 1882, they shifted their headquarters to Adyar, on the outskirts of Madras (at that time) in India. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• Society believed that a special relationship could be established between a person’s soul and God by
• contemplation, prayer, revelation, etc. It accepted the Hindu beliefs in reincarnation and karma and drew inspiration from the philosophy of the Upanishads and Samkhya, yoga, and Vedanta schools of thought. Hence statement 2 is not correct.
• It aimed to work for the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour. The society also sought to investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man.
• The Theosophical Movement came to be allied with the Hindu renaissance. (At one time it allied with the Arya Samaj too.) It opposed child marriage and advocated the abolition of caste discrimination, uplift of outcastes, and improvement in the condition of widows. In India, the movement became somewhat popular with the election of Annie Besant (1847-1933) as its president after the death of Olcott in 1907.

• Annie Besant, already sixty-six in 1914, had begun her political career in England as a proponent of Free Thought, Radicalism, Fabianism, and Theosophy, and had come to India in 1893 to work for the Theosophical Society. Hence statement 1 is correct. 
• In early 1915, Annie Besant launched a campaign through her two papers, New India and Commonweal, and organized public meetings and conferences to demand that India be granted self- government on the lines of the White colonies after the War. From April 1915, her tone became more peremptory and her stance more aggressive. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• Annie Besant had gone ahead with the formal founding of her League in September 1916. Most of the work was carried on by Annie Besant and her lieutenants — Arundale, C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar, and B.P. Wadia — from her headquarters at Adyar. Hence statement 3 is not correct.
• Annie Besant was the first woman President of the Indian National Congress. She presided over the 1917 Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress. The president of the 1916 Lucknow session was Ambica Charan Mazumdar. Hence statement 4 is correct.

• Sasipada Banerjee was a social worker and leader of the Brahmo Samaj who is remembered as a champion of women's rights and education and as one of the earliest workers for labor welfare in India. He was the founder of several girls' schools, a widow's home.
• Banerjee became involved in the social reform movement in Bengal through the Brahmo Samaj which he joined in 1861.
• He set up a Workingmen’s Club in 1870 and brought out a monthly journal called BharatSramjeebi (Indian Labour), with the primary idea of educating the workers.
• Banerjee was a member of the Temperance movement in India and was a close associate of Mary Carpenter whom he first met during her visit to India in 1866.
• Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

• Indian newspapers began to find their feet in the 1870s. They became highly critical of Lord Lytton’s administration, especially regarding its inhuman approach towards the victims of the famine of 1876-77. As a result, the Government decided to make a sudden strike at the Indian language newspapers, since they reached beyond the middle-class readership. The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was directed only against Indian-language newspapers. It was conceived in great secrecy and passed at a single sitting of the Imperial Legislative Council. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The Act provided for the confiscation of the printing press, paper and other materials of a newspaper ifthe Government believed that it was publishing seditious materials and had flouted an official warning. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Indian nationalist opinion firmly opposed the Act. The first great demonstration on an issue of public importance was organized in Calcutta on this question when a large meeting was held in the Town Hall. Various public bodies and the Press also campaigned against the Act. Consequently, it was repealed in 1881 by Lord Ripon. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

• One of the most militant and widespread of the peasant movements was the Indigo Revolt of 1859-60. From the beginning, indigo was grown under an extremely oppressive system that involved great loss to the cultivators. The indigo planters, nearly all Europeans, compelled the tenants to grow indigowhich they processed in factories set up in rural (mofussil) areas. The planters forced the peasants totake a meager amount as advance and enter into fraudulent contracts. Since the enforcement of forced and fraudulent contracts through the courts was a difficult and prolonged process, the planters resorted to a reign of terror to coerce the peasants. Kidnapping, illegal confinement in factory godowns, flogging, attacks on women and children, carrying off cattle, looting, were some of the methods used by the planters. They hired or maintained bands of lathyals (armed retainers) for the purpose. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• In practice, the planters were also above the law. With a few exceptions, the magistrates, mostly European, favoured the planters. The discontent of indigo growers in Bengal boiled over in the autumn of 1859 when their case seemed to get Government support. Misreading an official letter and exceeding his authority, Hem Chandra Kar, Deputy Magistrate of Kalaroa, published on 17th August a proclamation to policemen that ‘in case of disputes relating to Indigo Ryots, they (ryots) shall retain possession of their own lands and shall sow on them what crops they please, and the Police will be careful that no Indigo Planter nor anyone else is able to interfere in the matter. The news of Kar’s proclamation spread all over Bengal, and peasants felt that the time for overthrowing the hated system had come. The beginning was made by Digambar Biswas and Bishnu Biswas, ex-employees of a planter, they gave up indigo cultivation.
• The peasant disturbances and indigo strikes spread rapidly to other areas. The peasants refused to take advances and enter into contracts, pledged not to sow indigo, and defended themselves from the planters’ attacks with whatever weapons came to hand. The planters then attacked with another weapon, their zamindari powers. They threatened the rebellious ryots with eviction or enhancement of rent. The ryots replied by going on a rent strike. Peasants gradually learnt to use the legal machinery to enforce their rights. They also used the weapon of social boycott to force a planter’s servants to leave him. Ultimately, the planters could not withstand the united resistance of the ryots, and they gradually began to close their factories. The cultivation of indigo was virtually wiped out from the districts of Bengal by the end of 1860.
• A major reason for the success of the Indigo Revolt was the tremendous initiative, cooperation, organization and discipline of the ryots. Another was the complete unity among Hindu and Muslim peasants. Leadership for the movement was provided by the more well-off ryots and in some cases by petty zamindars, moneylenders and ex-employees of the planters.
• The intelligentsia’s role in the Indigo Revolt was to have an abiding impact on the emerging nationalist intellectuals very political childhood they had given support to a popular peasant movement against the foreign planters. This was to establish a tradition with long-run implications for the national movement. Christian Missionaries were another group that extended active support to the indigo ryots in their struggle. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Worried by the rebellion, the government brought in the military to protect the planters from assault, and set up the Indigo Commission to enquire into the system of indigo production. The Commission held the planters guilty, and criticised them for the coercive methods they used with indigo cultivators. It declared that indigo production was not profitable for ryots. Hence statement 3 is correct.
• Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

• After the withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation Movement in February 1922, a new line of political activity, which would keep up the spirit of resistance to colonial rule, was advocated by C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru. They suggested that the nationalists should end the boycott of the legislative councils, enter them, expose them as ‘sham parliaments’ and as ‘a mask which the bureaucracy has put on,’ and obstruct ‘every work of the council.’ 
• Statement 1 is correct and statement 2 is not correct: C.R. Das as the President of the Congress and Motilal as its Secretary put forward this program of ‘either mending or ending’ the councils at the Gaya session of the Congress in December 1922. Another section of the Congress, headed by Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad and C. Rajagopalachari, opposed the new proposal which was consequently defeated. Das and Motilal resigned from their respective offices in the Congress and on 1 January 1923 announced the formation of the Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party better known later as the Swaraj Party. The adherents of the council entry program came to be popularly known as ‘pro-changers’ and those still advocating boycott of the councils as ‘no-changers.’ Das was the President and Motilal wasone of the Secretaries of the new party. The adherents of the council-entry programme came to be popularly known as ‘pro-changers’ and those still advocating boycott of the councils as ‘no-changers.’
• The no-changers, whose effective head was Gandhiji even though he was in jail, argued for the continuation of the full programme of boycott and non-cooperation, effective working of the constructive programme and quiet preparations for the resumption of the suspended civil disobedience. The Swarajists claimed that they would turn the legislatures into arenas of political struggle and that their intention was not to use them, as the Liberals desired, as organs for the gradual transformation of the colonial state, but to use them as the ground on which the struggle for the overthrow of the colonial state was to be carried out.
• As the pro-changer no-changer clash developed, the atmosphere of dismay in nationalist ranks began to thicken, and they began to be haunted by the fear of the repetition of the disastrous split of 1907. Consequently, in a special session of the Congress held at Delhi in September 1923, the Congress suspended all propaganda against council-entry and permitted Congressmen to stand as candidates and exercise their franchise in forthcoming elections.

• The 1919 Act had provided that a Royal Commission would be appointed ten years after the Act to report on its working and recommend further constitutional reforms in India. In November 1927, two years before schedule, the British government announced the appointment of such a commission—the Indian Statutory Commission. The commission submitted its report in 1930. So, Statement 1 is correct. 
• Among the other recommendations, the Simon Commission suggested that the Indian army should be Indianised though British forces must be retained. But by the time the report came out, it was no longer relevant because several events overtook the importance of its recommendations. So, Statement 2 is correct.
• The appointment of the Simon commission radicalized Indian politics and improved prospects of unity
• among the various communities. Almost all political groups, except the Justice Party in Madras and the Union Party in Punjab, decided to boycott the Simon Commission. Thus, The Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha along with INC decided to boycott the commission. So, Statement 3 is not correct.

• Before the provincial elections in 1937, leaders of the Congress Left had made serious efforts to enlist the support of workers. Jawaharlal Nehru toured Tamil Nadu in November 1936, where the Congress Socialist Party had been established in 1934 by Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya Narendra Dev.
• Pandit Nehru’s appeal and the thorough work of Satyamurty, Rajagopalachari and others created an accord between the AITUC and the Indian National Congress. AITUC did not contest all the labour seats to make way for Congress. Congress tried to retain labour support for a short while after taking office. Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Bose organized a big labour rally in Calcutta in 1937, where they ur ged theworkers to unite, organize and join hands with the Congress. And also, Conservative Vallabhbhai Patel,
• Rajendra Prasad and J. B. Kripalani founded a Hindustan Majdur Sabha in 1938. So, Option (d) is correct.

• In 1851, both the Landholders’ Society and the Bengal British India Society merged into the British Indian Association. British Indian Association was established on October 29, 1851, in Kolkata, India, with Radhakanta Deb as its first President. The first general secretary of the association was DebendranathTagore. The association was exclusively composed of Indians, and it worked towards increasing the welfare of Indians. So, Pair 1 is correct.
• Nawab Abdul Latif founded the Mohammedan Literary Society in 1863 in Kolkata, Bengal Presidency, British Raj. Latif was the society's secretary, while Prince Mahomed Ruheemoodin of Mysore was the president. The society's goal was to educate Muslim youth in English medium schools that would allow them to compete with their English and Hindu peers. So, Pair 2 is not correct.
• National Muhamedan Association was a political organization founded by Syed Ameer Ali in Calcutta in 1877. Ameer Ali was the first Muslim leader to visualize the need for such a political organization since he believed that efforts directed through an organization were more effective than those from an individual leader.
• The Association aimed to achieve the goals of Muslims' well-being through lawful means. Its solemn
• objectives were to revive moral values and promote awareness about Muslims' intellectual heritage for their regeneration. So, Pair 3 is correct.
• An Indian independence activist, Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty, founded the Madras Native Association (1849) and the first Indian-owned newspaper, The Crescent. The association was a platform for educated Indians to protest against any injustice by the British. It was the first Indian political organization in the Madras Presidency to vent for the rights of Indians. So, Pair 4 is correct.

• The Swaraj Party was a political party formed in India in January 1923 following the Indian National Congress's annual Congress in Gaya in December 1922. It was formed by Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru. Chittaranjan Das was its President, and Motilal Nehru was its secretary. Both leaders decided to contest legislative council seats in elections. Their goal was to disrupt a foreign administration. So, Statement 1 is not correct.
• The Swarajists were allowed to contest elections as a group within Congress. The Swarajists accepted the Congress program with only one difference - that they would join legislative councils. But the party was described as a party within the Congress and not as a rival organization. So, Statement 2 is not correct.
• The Swaraj Party’s objective was to enter the Council by participating in the general elections at the end of 1923 to block the Government of India Act of 1919 from within the Council. But they neither amend nor end the Government of India Act 1919. So, Statement 3 is not correct.

• A committee under the leadership of Motilal Nehru was formed to outline the principles on which the constitution was to be drafted. The draft constitution prepared by the committee is known as the Nehru Report. One of its recommendations is that Sind should be separated from Bombay but with certain conditions like it should be financially self-sufficient to get separated. So, Statement 1 is not correct.
• The report stated that there should be a Federal form of Government in India with Residuary powers to be vested in the Centre. There will be no separate electorate for minorities because it awakens communal sentiments, therefore, it should be scrapped and a joint electorate should be introduced. Therefore, the federal form of Government in India with Residuary powers is not to be vested in State. So, Statement 2 is not correct.
• The Nehru Report of 1928 mainly recommended that the senate will comprise two hundred members elected for seven years, while the House of Representatives should consist of five hundred members elected for five years. Governor-General will act on the advice of the executive council. It was to be collectively responsible to the parliament. So, Statement 3 is correct.

• Durgabai Deshmukh became famous among the people as "Joan of arc" due to her wonderful oratory, courageous instincts, and determined personality and inspired crores of people with her immortal contribution.
• Durgabai Deshmukh, also known as the 'Iron lady,' was a great freedom fighter, a dedicated social worker, and an adept lawyer.
• She was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and immersed herself completely in the freedom struggle. As a steering committee member, she actively participated in the assembly debates.
• She was prominently associated with institutions, including Andhra Mahila Sabha, Vishwa Vidyalaya Mahila Sangh, Nari Raksha Samiti, and Nari Niketan.
• She was also the first to emphasize the need to set up separate Family Courts after studying the same during her visit to China in 1953. Durgabai was awarded a Padma Vibhushan.

• Anusilan Samiti was a prominent secret revolutionary society operating from Bengal in the 20th century with a mission to overthrow colonial rule and give momentum to India’s struggle for freedom. So, Statement 1 is correct.
• It was founded by Satish Chandra Pramatha Mitra, Aurobindo Ghose, and Sarala Devi, which was one among the many illustrious institutions from the pious land of Bengal that shaped the nation’s conscience through nationalist writings, publications, and emphasis on Swadeshi, whereby legends like Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das, Surendranath Tagore, Jatindranath Banerjee, Bagha Jatin were also associated with Anusilan Samity. So, Statements 2 and 3 are correct.

Mithubahen Petit, Mridula Sarabhai, and Khurshedben Naoroji were some of the important women associated with the Dandi march. The Dandi March and the following Civil Disobedience movement launched by Gandhi were turning points for women’s participation in nationalism. While earlier movements like the Bengal Partition Protests were constricted to a particular region, or like non-cooperation mostly saw the participation of the middle-class elite, women from all sections of society and from all over the country emerged from their homes and joined the salt satyagraha. So, Option (c) is correct.

• The third pillar of British rule was the police whose creator was Cornwallis. He relieved the Zamindars of their police functions and established a regular police force to maintain law and order.
• In this respect, he went back to and modernised the old Indian system of thanas. This put India ahead of Britain where system of police had not developed yet.
• He organised a regular police force to maintain law and order by establishing a system of thanas (circles) in a district under a daroga (an Indian) and a superintendent of police (SP) at the head of a district.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

1. The Swadeshi Movement had its genesis in the anti-partition movement which was started to oppose the British decision to partition Bengal.
   • The attempt, at that time in the words of Lord Curzon, the Viceroy (1899-1905) was to ‘dethrone Calcutta’ from its position as the ‘centre from which the Congress Party is manipulated throughout Bengal, and indeed which the Congress Party centre of successful intrigue’ and ‘divide, the Bengali speaking population.’
   • Risley, the Home Secretary to the Government of India, was more blunt. He said on 6 December 1904: ‘Bengal united, is power, Bengal divided, will pull several different ways.
2. In December 1903, the partition proposals became publicly known, and immediate and spontaneous protest followed. Surendranath Banerjea, Krishna Kumar Mitra, Prithwishchandra Ray and other leaders launched a powerful press campaign against the partition proposals through journals and newspapers like the Bengalee, Hitabadi and Sanjibani.
3. Vast protest meetings were held in the town hail of Calcutta in March 1904 and January 1905, and numerous petitions (sixty-nine memoranda from the Dacca division alone), some of them signed by as many as 70,000 people were sent to the Government of India and the Secretary of State. Even, the big zamindars who had hitherto been loyal to the Raj joined forces with the Congress leaders who were mostly intellectuals and political workers drawn from journalism, law and other liberal professions. Hence statement 1 is not correct.
4. The day partition took effect — 16 October 1905 — was declared a day of mourning throughout Bengal. People fasted and no fires were lit at the cooking hearth.
   • In Calcutta, a hartal was declared. People took out processions and band after band walked barefoot, bathed in the Ganges in the morning and then paraded the streets singing Bande Mataram which, almost spontaneously, became the theme song of the movement.
5. The Indian National Congress took up the Swadeshi call and the Banaras Session, 1905, presided over by G.K. Gokhale, supported the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement for Bengal.
   • The militant nationalists led by Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lajpat Rai and Aurobindo Ghosh were, however, in favour of extending the movement to the rest of India and carrying it beyond the programme of just Swadeshi and boycott to a full-fledged political mass struggle.
   • The aim was now Swaraj and the abrogation of partition had become the ‘pettiest and narrowest of all political objects” The Moderates, by and large, were not as yet willing to go that far. Hence statement 2 is not correct.
6. The differences between the Moderates and the Extremists, especially regarding the pace of the movement and the techniques of struggle to be adopted, came to a head in the 1907 Surat session of the Congress where the party split with serious consequences for the Swadeshi Movement.