Test: History - 8 - UPSC MCQ

• The British Government summoned the first Round Table Conference of Indian leaders and spokesmen of the British Government in London in 1930 to discuss Simon Commission Report. The National Congress boycotted the Conference.

• The Government now made attempts to negotiate an agreement with the Congress so that it would attend the Round Table Conference. Finally, the Pact was signed by Gandhiji on behalf of the Congress and by Lord Irwin on behalf of the Government, a procedure that was hardly popular with officialdom as it placed the Congress on an equal footing with the Government.

• The terms of the agreement included:

  • the immediate release of all political prisoners not convicted for violence,

  • the remission of all fines not yet collected,

  • the return of confiscated lands not yet sold to third parties, and

  • lenient treatment for those government employees who had resigned.

• The Government also conceded the right to make salt for consumption to villages along the coast, as also the right to peaceful and non-aggressive picketing. The Congress demand for a public inquiry into police excesses was not accepted, but Gandhiji’s insistent request for an inquiry was recorded in the agreement. Congress, on its part, agreed to discontinue the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Hence option (b) is not the correct answer.

• In November 1927, the British Government appointed the Indian Statutory Commission, known popularly after the name of its Chairman as the Simon Commission, to go into the question of further constitutional reform. It was formed by the Conservative Government of Britain. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• All the members of the Commission were Englishmen. This announcement was greeted by a chorus of protest from all Indians. What angered them most was the exclusion of Indians from the Commission and the basic notion behind this exclusion that foreigners would discuss and decide upon India's fitness for Self government. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• At its Madras Session in 1927, presided over by Dr. Ansari, the National Congress decided to boycott the Commission 'at every stage and in every form.' The Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha decided to support the Congress decision.

• The action began as soon as Simon Commission landed at Bombay on 3 February 1928. That day, people were out on the streets participating in black-flag demonstrations. In Madras, T. Prakasam symbolized the defiant spirit of the occasion by baring his chest before the armed policemen. In Lucknow, Khaliquzzaman executed the brilliant idea of floating kites and balloons imprinted with the popular slogan ‘Go Back Simon’ over the reception organized in Kaiserbagh by the taluqdars for members of the Commission.

• In Lucknow, Jawaharlal and Govind Ballabh Pant were beaten up by the police. But the worst incident happened in Lahore where Lala Lajpat Rai, the hero of the Extremist days and the most revered leader of Punjab, was hit on the chest by lathis on 30 October and succumbed to the injuries on 17 November 1928. It was his death that Bhagat Singh and his comrades were seeking to avenge when they killed the white police official, Saunders, in December 1928.

• The Simon Commission report contained no mention of the Dominion Status and was in other ways also a regressive document. It disappointed national leaders including moderates.

Hence statement 3 is not correct.

• Most of the Indian princes had not only remained loyal to the British but had actively aided the latter in suppressing the Revolt. Moreover, the experience of the Revolt had convinced the British authorities that the princely states could serve as useful allies and supporters in case of popular opposition or revolt. The Revolt of 1857 led the British to reverse some aspects of their policy towards the Indian States.

• Some of the relaxation announced by the British to the princely states were:

  • Before 1857, the British availed every opportunity to annex princely states. This policy was now abandoned. Hence statement 1 is correct.

  • The right of princes to adopt heirs would be respected and the integrity of their territories guaranteed against future annexation.

• On the other hand, some of the old policies were applied even after the revolt of 1857:

  • Princes were made to acknowledge Britain as the paramount power as the price of their continued existence. In 1876, Queen Victoria assumed the title of the Empress of India to emphasize British sovereignty over the entire Indian subcontinent. Hence statement 3 is correct.

  • British claimed the right to supervise the internal government of the princely states.

  • They not only interfered in the day-to-day administration through the Residents but insisted on appointing and dismissing ministers and other high officials. Sometimes the rulers themselves were removed or deprived of their powers. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• Their perpetuation was only one aspect of the British policy towardé the princely state. Complete integration of princely states with British India was another aspect of the British policy towardé the princely states.

• Statement 1 is not correct: The share-croppers demand two-third of the produce from the land. There was huge participation of peasants from rural areas. North Bengal was the epicentre of the movement. The demands of sharecroppers were incorporated in the Bengal Bargadars Temporary Regulation Bill. At the request of the jotedars, the police suppressed the sharecroppers and the movement slowly disappeared by the end of March 1947.

• Statement 2 is not correct: The demands were based on the recommendation of the Floud Commission also known as the Bengal Land Revenue Commission which recommended two-third share to the bargardars (sharecroppers).

• After the withdrawal of the Non-cooperation movement, disintegration set in Congress. A group of leaders led by Chittaranjan Das (C.R. Das) and Motilal Nehru advocated the end of the boycott of Legislative Councils. Sardar Patel, Dr. Ansari, Rajendra Prasad, and others are known as 'no changers opposed Council entry.

• In 1922, in the Gaya session of the Congress, C R Das (who was presiding over the session) moved a proposal to enter the legislatures but it was defeated. Das and other leaders broke away from Congress and formed the Swaraj Party on 1 January 1923. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Congress Khilafat Swaraj Party with Das as president and Motilal Nehru as one of the secretaries. The new party was to function as a group within the Congress. It accepted the Congress programme except in one respect - it would take part in Council elections. Hence statements 1 and 2 are correct.

• The Swarajists and the no-changers engaged in fierce political controversy. On Gandhiji's advice, the two groups agreed to remain in the Congress though they would work in separate ways.

• Swarajists won 42 seats out of the 101 elected seats in the Central Legislative Assembly. With the cooperation of other Indian groups, they repeatedly outvoted the Government in the Central Assembly. In March 1925, they succeeded in electing Vithalbhai J. Patel, a leading nationalist leader, as the speaker of the Central Legislative Assembly. Hence statement 3 is not correct.

• When Warren Hastings assumed the administration of Bengal in 1772, he found it in utter chaos. Therefore, Warren Hastings realized the immediate need for introducing reforms.

• Reforms under Warren Hastings:

  • The East India Company decided to act as Diwan and to undertake the collection of revenue by its own agents. Hence, the Dual System introduced by Robert Clive was abolished.

  • After the abolition of the Dual System, the responsibility of collecting the revenue fell on the shoulders of the Company. For that purpose, a Board of Revenue was established at Calcutta to supervise the collection of revenue.

  • Warren Hastings felt the necessity of reorganizing the judicial system. Each district was provided with a civil court under the collector and a criminal court under an Indian Judge.

  • Warren Hastings abolished the system of dastaks, or free passes, and regulated the internal trade.

  • In 1781, Warren Hastings set up the Calcutta Madrasah for the study and teaching of Muslim law and related subjects.

  • He also introduced a uniform system of pre-paid postage system.

Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

• Kumbalathuparambu Ayyappan better identified as Sahodaran Ayyappan, was a social reformer, thinker, rationalist, journalist, and politician from Kerala, India. A vocal follower of Sree Narayana Guru, he was associated with a number of events related to the Kerala reformation movement and was the organizer of Misra Bojana in Cherai in 1917. He founded Sahodara Sangam, and the journal Sahodaran and was the founder-editor of the magazine Yukthivadhi.

• He gave the call of “No religion, No caste and No God for mankind” against the caste system.

Hence option (d) is the correct answer.

• By the 18th century, the Portuguese in India lost their commercial influence, though some of them still carried on trade in their individual capacity and many took to piracy and robbery. The decline of the Portuguese was brought about by several factors.

  • The local advantages gained by the Portuguese in India were reduced with the emergence of powerful dynasties in Egypt, Persia, and North India and the rise of the turbulent Marathas as their immediate neighbors. (The Marathas captured Salsette and Bassein in 1739 from the Portuguese).

  • The population of Portuguese was less than a million, its Court was autocratic and decadent, its merchants enjoyed much less power and prestige than its landed aristocrats. Hence statement 1 is not correct.

  • They followed a policy of religious intolerance. The religious policies of the Portuguese, such as the activities of the Jesuits, gave rise to political fears. Their antagonism for the Muslims apart, the Portuguese policy of conversion to Christianity made Hindus also resentful. Hence statement 3 is correct.

  • The earlier monopoly of knowledge of the sea route to India held by the Portuguese could not remain a secret forever; soon enough the Dutch and the English, who were learning the skills of ocean navigation, also learned it and outshined the Portuguese. They lagged behind in the development of shipping as compared to other European powers. Hence statement 2 is correct.

  • As new trading communities from Europe arrived in India, there began a fierce rivalry among them. In this struggle, the Portuguese had to give way to the more powerful and enterprising competitors. The Dutch and the English had greater resources and more compulsions to expand overseas, and they overcame the Portuguese resistance.

• In the middle of the seventeenth century, the English began to emerge as a big colonial power. The Anglo-Dutch rivalry lasted for about seven decades during which period the Dutch lost their settlements to the British one by one.

• The English were also at this time rising to prominence in the Eastern trade, and this posed a serious challenge to the commercial interests of the Dutch. A commercial rivalry soon turned into bloody warfare. After prolonged warfare, both the parties came to a compromise in 1667 by which the British agreed to withdraw all their claims on Indonesia, and the Dutch retired from India to concentrate on their more profitable trade in Indonesia. They monopolized the trade in black pepper and spices. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

• In the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-74), communications between Surat and the new English settlement of Bombay got cut due to which three homebound English ships were captured in the Bay of Bengal by the Dutch forces. The retaliation by the English resulted in the defeat of the Dutch. The Battle of Chinsurah (also known as the Battle of Hooghly) took place near Chinsurah, India on 25 November 1759), which dealt a crushing blow to Dutch ambitions in India. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

Lord Linlithgow Viceroy of India announced the August Offer (August 1940) which proposed:

• Dominion status as the objective for India. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

• Expansion of Viceroy’s executive council which would have a majority of Indians (who would be drawn from major political parties). Hence, statement 3 is correct.

• Setting up of a constituent assembly after the war where Indians would decide the Constitution according to their social, economic, and political conceptions, subject to fulfilment of the obligation of the government regarding defence, minority rights, treaties with States, all Indian services. No future constitution to be adopted without the consent of minorities. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• In Amritsar, the arrest of two local leaders, Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal on 10 April led to an attack on the town hall and the post office; telegraph wires were cut and Europeans including women were attacked. The army was called in and the city handed over to General Dyer, who issued an order prohibiting public meetings and assemblies.

• An unarmed but large crowd gathered on 13 April 1919 at Amritsar in the Jallianwalla Bagh, to protest against the arrest of the leaders Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal. Jallianwalla Bagh was a large open space that was enclosed on three sides by buildings and had only one exit. General Dyer surrounded the Bagh with his army unit, closed the exit with his troop, and then ordered his men to shoot into the trapped crowd with rifles and machine guns. Thousands were killed and wounded. After this massacre, martial law was proclaimed throughout Punjab and the people were submitted to the most uncivilized atrocities. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• A wave of horror ran through the country as the knowledge of the Punjab happenings spread. The popular shock was expressed by the great poet and humanist Rabindranath Tagore who renounced his knighthood in the protest. Hence statement 3 is correct.

• In February 1919, Mahatma Gandhi founded the Satyagraha Sabha who members took a pledge to disobey the Rowlatt Act and thus to court arrest and imprisonment. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• The Hunter Committee was appointed by the Government to enquire into the Punjab disturbances. It was just an eyewash that the House of Lords had voted in favour of General Dyer’s action and that the British public had demonstrated its support by helping the Morning Post collect 30,000 pounds for General Dyer. Hence statement 4 is not correct.

• Lucknow Session of the Indian National Congress (December 1916) is very important for the Indian freedom struggle. The session produced two historic developments. First, the two wings of the Congress that is the Moderates and the Extremist were reunited. Second, The session also became significant because of the famous Congress-League Pact, popularly known as the Lucknow Pact. The two organisations overcame their old differences and put out a set of common political demands before the government.

• The unity between Congress and league was bought by the signing of the Congress-League pact (Lucknow pact). An important role in bringing the two together was played by Lokmanya Tilak and Muhammad Ali Jinnah because the two believe that India could win self-government only through Hindu Muslim unity.

• Together Congress and the League passed the same resolutions at their sessions and put forward a joint scheme of political reforms based on separate electorate and demand that the British government should make a declaration that it would consider self-government on India at an early date. Hence statements 1 and 2 are correct.

• The Lucknow pact marked an important step towards the Hindu Muslim unity. The immediate effect of the development at Lucknow was tremendous the unity between the moderate nationalist and the militant nationalist and between the national Congress and the Muslim league aroused great political enthusiasm in the country. At the same time it accepted the principle of separate electorate. Thus, it left the way open to the future resurgence of communalism in Indian politics. Hence statement 3 is not correct.

• Indian states and society during the 18th century: Succession states-

  • With the gradual weakening and decline of the Mughal Empire, local and regional political and economic forces began to arise and assert themselves and politics began to undergo major changes from the late 17th century onwards. During the 18th century, on the debris of the Mughal Empire and its political system, arose a large number of independent and semi-independent powers.

  • Some of these states, such as Bengal, Awadh, and Hyderabad, may be characterized as 'succession states'. They arose as a result of the assertion of autonomy by the governor of Mughal provinces with the decay of the central power.

  • Others, such as the Maratha, Afghan, Jat, and Punjab states were the product of rebellions by local chieftains, zamindars, and peasants against Mughal authority.

  • Not only did the politics in the two types of states or zones differ to some extent from each other, but there were differences among all of them because of local conditions. There was, of course, also a third zone comprising of areas on the south-west and south-east, coasts and of north-eastern India, where Mughal influence had not reached in any degree.

  • Moreover, nearly all of them adopted the methods and spirit of the Mughal administration. The first group of states (succession states) inherited the functioning of Mughal administrative structure and institutions; others tried to adopt in varying degrees this structure and institutions, including the Mughal revenue system.

Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

• Lord Linlithgow was the longest serving viceroy of India. He was the viceroy from 1936 to 1944. During his time, many important events took place.

• Rajkot Satyagraha took place in 1938-39. It was against the princely ruler of Rajkot state, known as the ‘Thakore’, oppressive taxation regimes, curbs/restrictions on civil liberties such as freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, lack of access to education and other welfare services. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• Most of the state revenue that was earned by imposing heavy taxes on its citizens, was spent on the upkeep of the luxurious lifestyles led by the princely ruler.

• The situation was further aggravated by the fact that the princes had ‘British immunity’ that is they were given protection by the British from domestic and external turmoil or aggression. In exchange for this protection, the princes were expected to support fully, the imperialistic agendas of the British while ignoring the domestic struggles for freedom that were spreading, across their states.

• Winston Churchill was elected as the prime minister of England in 1940.

• The Congress passed the ‘Quit India Resolution’ in 1942 which started the Quit India movement. It was famously called as August revolution. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• It was launched after the failure of the Cripps Mission when it failed to solve the constitutional deadlock.

• Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the tricolour on the Gowalia Tank ground and on August 9 night, the senior leaders of the Congress were arrested. Due to the arrests, an action plan for the movement was made.

• Second world war began in 1939 and lasted till 1945. Hence statement 3 is correct. It was during Linlithgow’s time that the congress ministries resigned due to outbreak of second world war.

• The Charter Act of 1833 was a significant constitutional instrument defining the scope and authority of the East India Company.

• Following were the important provisions:

  • The English East India Company ceased to be a commercial agency in India. In other words, it would function hereafter as the political agent for the Crown.

  • The Governor-General of Fort William was hereafter called ‘the Governor-General of India’. Thus, Lord William Bentinck was the first Governor-General of India’.

  • A Law Member was appointed to the Governor-General’s Council. T. B. Macaulay was the first Law Member of the Governor- General-in-Council.

  • The Charter Act of 1833 brought the Company’s monopoly of tea trade and trade with China to an end. At the same time, the debts of the Company were taken over by the Government of India which was also to pay its shareholders a 10 percent dividend on their capital.

Hence, both statements 1 and 2 are correct.

• In October 1940, Gandhiji gave the call for a limited satyagraha by a few selected individuals. The satyagraha was kept limited so as not to embarrass Britain’s war effort by a mass upheaval in India. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

• Gandhiji’s aim was to make clear to the world that the vast majority of people of India were not interested in war. According to him, the people didn’t make any distinction between Nazism and the double autocracy that rules India.

• Vinoba Bhave was the first to offer satyagraha. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

• Jawaharlal Nehru was the second person and Brahma Dutt was the third person who offered individual satyagraha.

• Nadir Shah had risen from a shepherd boy to Shah (King) by saving Persia from sure decline and disintegration. In 1729 he won back Herat after defeating the Abdalis and expelling the Ghalzais from Isfahan and central and southern Persia. After long and bitter warfare he compelled Turkey to give back all conquered territory. In 1735, he signed a treaty with Russia receiving back all seized territory. Next year, he deposed the last of the Safavi rulers and made himself the Shah. In the following years, he reconquered the province of Qandahar.

• Nadir Shah was attracted to India by the fabulous wealth for which it was always famous. He entered Indian territory towards the end of 1738, without meeting with any opposition. He attacked Delhi in March 1739. His army easily defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Karnal. The greedy invader took possession of the royal treasury and other royal property, levied tribute on the leading nobles, and plundered the rich of Delhi. His total plunder has been estimated at 70 crores of rupees. He also carried away the famous Koh-i-nur diamond and the jewel-studded Peacock Throne of Shahjahan. He compelled Muhammad Shah to cede to him all the provinces of the Empire west of the river Indus.

• After Muhammad Shah’s death in 1748, bitter struggles and even civil war took out among unscrupulous and power-hungry nobles. Furthermore, as a result of the weakening of the north-western defenses, the Empire was devastated by the repeated invasions of Ahmed Shah Abdali, one of Nadir Shah's ablest generals, who had succeeded in establishing his authority over Afghanistan after his master's death. Abdali repeatedly invaded and plundered northern India right down to Delhi and Mathura between 1748 and 1767. In 1761, he defeated the Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat and thus gave a big blow to their ambition of controlling the Mughal Emperor and thereby dominating the country,

• As a result of the invasions of Nadir Shah and Abdali and the suicidal internal feuds of the Mughal nobility, the Mughal Empire had by 1761 ceased to exist in practice as an all-India Empire. It remained merely as the Kingdom of Delhi. Shah Alam II, who ascended the throne in 1759, spent the initial years as an Emperor wandering from place to place far away from his capital, for he lived in mortal fear of his own wazir. He was a man of some ability and ample courage. But the Empire was by now beyond redemption. In 1764, he joined Mir Qasim of Bengal and Shuja-ud-Daula of Avadh in declaring war upon the English East India Company. Defeated by the British at the Battle of Buxar, he lived for several years at Allahabad as a pensioner of the East India Company.

• NOTE: Tipu Sultan was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India and a pioneer of rocket artillery. He introduced a number of administrative innovations during his rule, including a new coinage system and calendar, and a new land revenue system which initiated the growth of the Mysore silk industry. In the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, a combined force of British East India Company troops supported by the Marathas & the Nizam of Hyderabad defeated Tipu. He was killed on 4 May 1799 while defending his stronghold of Seringapatam.

Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

• The outbreak of the Seven Years' War in Europe between England and France in 1756 provided the context for the third and decisive round of the Anglo-French conflict in south India. The most decisive battle of the Third Carnatic War was the Battle of Wandiwash in 1760.

• In the Battle of Wandiwash, General Eyre Coote of the English defeated the French army under Count Thomas Arthur de Lally and took Bussy as a prisoner. French also lost Pondicherry to the British.

• During the Third Carnatic War, the French lost their positions in India. However, by the Peace of Paris in 1763 France got back all the factories and settlements that it possessed in India prior to 1749. But the balance of power in India had by now decisively changed with the steady expansion of the power of the English company.

Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

• Nearly all the major new leaders of the revolutionary terrorist politics, for example, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjea, Surya Sen, Jatin Das, Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Shiv Varma, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and Jaidev Kapur, had been enthusiastic participants in the non-violent Non-Cooperation Movement. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• A real breakthrough in terms of revolutionary ideology was made by Bhagat Singh and his comrades. HRA manifesto had declared in 1925 that it stood for ‘abolition of all systems which make the exploitation of man by man possible. Its founding council, in its meeting in October 1924, had decided ‘to preach social revolutionary and communistic principles.’ Its main organ, The Revolutionary, had proposed the nationalization of the railways and other means of transport and large-scale industries such as steel and shipbuilding.

• The atmosphere of wide reading and deep thinking pervaded the ranks of the HSRA leadership. Sukhdev, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, Shiv Varma, Bejoy Sinha, Yashpal, all were intellectuals of a high order. The draft of the famous statement of revolutionary position, 'The Philosophy of the Bomb,' was written by Bhagwati Charan Vohra at the instance of Azad and after a full discussion with him. The book defined revolution as ‘Independence, social, political and economic’ aimed at establishing a new order of society in which political and economic exploitation will be an impossibility. Hence statements 1 and 3 are correct.

• Ghadar means revolt or rebellion. The Ghadar party (started in 1913) was a revolutionary group organised to overthrow the British rule in India. It was organised by overseas Indian immigrants to Canada and USA. The party was organised around a weekly newspaper The Ghadar which was published from its headquarters, the Yugantar Ashram in San Francisco. The founding president of Ghadar party was Sohan Singh Bhakna and Lala Hardayal was a co-founder of this party. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• The leadership also included Bhagwan Singh, Barkatullah and Ram Chandra. The Ghadar militants immediately began an extensive propaganda campaign against the British rule. They toured extensively, visiting mills and farms where most of the Punjabi immigrant labour worked. The Yugantar Ashram became the home and headquarters and refuge of these political workers.

• The first issue of Ghadar was published in Urdu on 1st November 1913, the Gurumukhi edition was letter started on 9th December. The newspaper carried the captions on the masthead: ‘Angrezi Raj ka Dushman’ or ‘An Enemy of British Rule.’ On the front page of each issue was a feature titled Angrezi Raj Ka Kacha Chittha or ‘An Expose of British Rule.’ This expose consisted of 14 points enumerating the harmful effect of the British rule in India and lost two point dealt with solutions. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• During the first World War revolutionaries of Ghadar tried to violently overthrow the British government, they called Rash Behari Bose to lead the movement in Punjab, but the movement was successfully dismantled by the British India government using intelligence (CID) and force.

• On 2nd September 1946, the Interim Government of India was formed to oversee the transition of the country from a British colony to an independent republic.

• It was initially formed with Congress members alone with Jawahar Lal Nehru as the de facto head. This was against the Muslim league insistence that all settlements be acceptable to it. Hence statement 1 is correct and 3 is not correct.

• Even though the Muslim League refused to be a part of the Interim Government, insisting on their demand for a separate nation, it eventually became a part of it.

• Viceroy Lord Wavell brought the league into Interim Government on 26 October 1946 though the Muslim league did not accept the Cabinet Mission plan. Liaqat Ali and some other members from the Muslim league participated in it. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was an Indian educator and social reformer. Vidyasagar championed the upliftment of the status of women in India, particularly in his native Bengal. Unlike some other reformers who sought to set up alternative societies or systems, he sought to transform society from within. He was the most prominent campaigner for Hindu widow remarriage and petitioned the Legislative council despite severe opposition and a counter-petition against the proposal with nearly four times more signatures by Radhakanta Deb and the Dharma Sabha. He was the principal of the Sanskrit College and opposed the monopoly of Sanskrit only to upper castes. Hence option (a) is the correct answer.

• David Hare was a Scottish watchmaker and philanthropist in Bengal, India. He founded many educational institutions in Calcutta such as the Hindu School, and Hare School, and helped in founding Presidency College. David Hare was instrumental in establishing the School Book Society on 6 May 1817. It took the initiative to print and publish textbooks in both English and Bengali. This society contributed substantially to the flowering of the Bengal Renaissance.

• Sir Raja Radhakanta Deb Bahadur was a scholar and a leader of the Calcutta conservative Hindu society. An accomplished scholar, Radhakanta was proficient in Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic. He published Shabda Kalpadruma, a Sanskrit language dictionary. Radhakanta Deb always showed a marked interest in promoting education, particularly English education among the Hindus; he also advocated female education. Radhakanta Deb was actively involved in the establishment and activities of the Calcutta School Book Society in 1817 and the Calcutta School Society in 1818. Despite his contribution to the cause of education, he was a strong upholder of social conservatism. Although sati was not practiced in his own family, he came forward to defend the custom when the Government contemplated its abolition.

• Karsondas Mulji was a Gujarati language journalist, writer, and social reformer from India. He became a vernacular schoolmaster and started Satyaprakash, a weekly in Gujarati, in which he attacked what he perceived to be the immoralities of the Maharajas or hereditary high priests.

• During the 1870s and 1880s, there was agrarian unrest in the parts of Eastern Bengal caused by oppressive practices of zamindars. They tried to extract the rent beyond legal limits and also prevent the tenants from acquiring occupancy rights under Act X of 1859. They use different types of illegal coercive methods such as forced eviction, seizure of crops and cattle as well as dragging the tenants into costly litigation in the courts. Having enough of the repression peasants of yusufshahi pargana started a revolt in the Pabna district to resists the demands.

• Statement 1 is not correct: The revolt was against the malpractice and oppression by Zamindars (and not European planters). The ryots refused to pay enhanced rents and other demands of the zamindars. They organise large meetings and large crowds of peasants would gather and march through villages appealing to other peasants to join them and frightening the zamindars.

• Statement 2 is correct: As resistance against oppression, peasants organised no-rent unions. The agrarian league organised a rent strike in which ryots refused to pay the enhanced rents and challenge the zamindars in the court. The fund was created to fight the cases in courts as the main form of resistance was legal resistance.

• Statement 3 is correct: The government in 1885 passed the Bengal tenancy act. The government undertake legislation to protect tenants from various aspects of oppression by zamindars including permanency of tenure to some class of tenants. Till 1885 most of the cases were solved partially through persuasion and partly through fear of zamindars.

• Akali Movement was Started by Sikh reformers to purify their religious places by removal of evil social practices that had slowly crept into them.

• After taking control of Golden Temple, Khalsa Biradari appointed Committee to run Golden Temple and Akal Takht. They asked British Government appointed Manager to hand over the keys of Toshakhana (treasury) but the DC of Amritsar took the keys from him. This infuriated Sikhs in the whole Punjab and they started powerful agitation known as Toshakhana Keys Affair. Since NCM was going on and Akalis were a powerful force in Punjab, Gandhi decided to support them. Government in order to isolate Congress decided to return the keys. But this victory of the reformers was seen by the national leaders as a victory of the forces of nationalism.

Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

• The Secretary of State’s Educational Dispatch of 1854 asked the government of India to assume responsibility for the education of the masses. It thus repudiated the downward filtration theory , atleast on paper.

• It is famously called as Wood's despatch and considered as the 'Magna-Carta of English Education' in India.

• It gave emphasis to Primary education (vernacular languages were promoted), hierarchy of education was systemised and promoted teacher's training. It also talked about Grants-in-aid to encourage private enterprise.

• It gave directions to open Departments of Education in all the provinces and affiliating universities were set up in 1857 at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• The direction to the company to spend one lakh rupees per annum on education was given by the Charter Act of 1813. Hence statement 1 is not correct.

• The act was the first official step to spread education and modern knowledge in the country.

• The Karachi session was presided by Sardar Patel. It was held in March 1931. The Gandhi Irwin Pact was endorsed by Congress in the Karachi Session of 1931. In the Karachi session, congress passed a resolution to dissociate itself from and disapprove the political violence in any shape.

• Congress adopted a resolution on Fundamental Rights and National Economic Programme. The resolution guaranteed basic civil and political rights to the people. It provided for the nationalization of key industries and transport, better conditions for the workers, agrarian reform, and free and compulsory primary education. It also assured that the culture, language, and script of the minorities and of the different linguistic areas shall be protected.

Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

• Rash Behari Bose was one of the most prominent leaders of Indian National Movement especially during the extremist phase. He was one of the masterminds behind the Delhi conspiracy case, was elected as the Congress president, participated in the Ghadar movement, and established Indian Independence league while in Japan.

• The Delhi Conspiracy Case involved an assassination attempt of Lord Hardinge in Chandni Chowk (Delhi) on the occasion of official entry into new capital during the shift of capital from Calcutta to Delhi, in 1912. Lord Hardinge who was wounded by the bomb thrown at him while he was riding an elephant in a state procession. Rash Behari Bose and Sachin Sanyal were the two masterminds of this conspiracy.

• Bose was also elected as the President of Indian National Congress during 1907 session at Surat where Congress got split into the moderates and the extremists. Bose was also called to Punjab in 1915 to asume the leadership of the Ghadar movement. Though the Ghadar movement was dismantled by the British government, Bose escaped to Japan where he continued his activities to overthrow the British rule.

• While in Japan Bose persuaded the Japanese authorities for their support to the cause of India’s freedom struggle. He established Indian Independence league in 1942, the leadership of which was later resumed by Subash Chandra Bose.

Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

• In Bengal, too, the revolutionary terrorists started reorganizing and developing their underground activities. They cooperated with C.R. Das in his Swarajist work. After his death, as the Congress leadership in Bengal got divided into two wings, one led by Subhas Chandra Bose and the other by J.M. Sengupta, the Yugantar group joined forces with the first and Anushilan with the second. Also many new ‘Revolt Groups’ emerged, the most active and famous was the Chittagong group led by Surya Sen.

• Surya Sen had participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement and had become a teacher in the national school in Chittagong. Surya Sen decided to organize an armed rebellion along with his associates—Anant Singh, Ganesh Ghosh, and Lokenath Baul—to show that it was possible to challenge the armed might of the mighty British Empire. They had planned to occupy two main armories in Chittagong to seize and supply arms to the revolutionaries to destroy telephone and telegraph lines and to dislocate the railway link of Chittagong with the rest of Bengal. The raid was conducted in April 1930 and involved 65 activists under the banner of the Indian Republican Army—Chittagong Branch. The raid was successful. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• A remarkable aspect of this new phase of the terrorist movement in Bengal was the large-scale participation of young women. Under Surya Sen’s leadership, they provided shelter, acted as messengers and custodians of arms, and fought, guns in hand. Pritilata Waddedar died while conducting a raid, while Kalpana Dutt was arrested and tried along with Surya Sen and given a life sentence. In December 1931, two schoolgirls of Comilla, Santi Ghosh, and Suniti Chowdhury shot dead the District Magistrate. In February 1932, Bina Das fired point-blank at the Governor while receiving her degree at the Convocation. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• The Bengal revolutionaries of the 1920s and 1930s had shed some of their earlier Hindu religiosity — they no longer took religious oaths and vows. Some of the groups also no longer excluded Muslims — the Chittagong IRA cadre included many Muslims like Sattar, Mir Ahmad, Fakir Ahmad Mian, Tunu Mian and got massive support from Muslim villagers around Chittagong.

• Though Congress was opposed to the Government of India Act, 1935, it decided to contest the elections under the Act, though with the desired aim of showing how unpopular the Act was.

• The election campaign of Congress met with massive response, even though Gandhiji didn’t address a single election meeting. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

• The elections, held in February 1937, conclusively demonstrated that a large majority of Indian people supported the Congress which swept the polls in most of the provinces. Congress ministries were formed in July 1937 in seven out of eleven provinces. Later, Congress formed coalition governments in two others. Only Bengal and Punjab had non-Congress ministries. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

• Punjab was ruled by the Unionist Party and Bengal by a coalition of the Krashak Praja Party and the Muslim League. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• The Permanent Settlement was introduced in Bengal and Bihar in 1793 by Lord Cornwallis through the Permanent Settlement Act.

• The zamindars and revenue collectors were not only to act as agents of the Government in collecting land revenue from the ryots but also became the owners of the land.

• Their right of ownership was made hereditary and transferable. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• The initial fixation of revenue was made arbitrarily and without any consultation with the zamindars which guaranteed the stability of income for Britishers.

• Zamindars were to give 10/11th of the rental they derived keeping only 1/11th for themselves and the sums to be paid were fixed in perpetuity. If the Zamindar failed in giving the revenue to the company for any reason, his land was to be sold. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• Permanent settlement settled the revenue beforehand and it was fixed and permanent in nature, that is why, the name permanent. The Land Revenue would not be increased in future even if Zamindar’s income went up. Hence statement 3 is not correct.

• It was later extended to Orissa, The Northern districts of Madras and Districts of Varanasi.