Test: History & Culture - 1 - UPSC MCQ

Akbar’s reign(¹556-1605) holds a certain prominence in history; he was the ruler who actually fortified the foundations of the Mughal Empire.

• Persian prose and poetry were at climax under Akbar’s reign.

• Shaikh Abu al-Fazal ibn Mubarak also known as Abu’l-Fazl, was the vizier of the Mughal emperor Akbar, and author of the Akbarnama, the official history of Akbar's reign in three volumes, (the third volume is known as the Ain-i-Akbari) and a Persian translation of the Bible. He was also one of the Nine Jewels (Navaratnas) of Akbar's royal court and the brother of Faizi, the poet laureate of Emperor Akbar.

• Faizi(brother of Abu’lFazl) was the leading poet of that age. Faizi also worked for the Akbar's translation department. The translation of the Mahabharata was carried out under his supervision.

• Utbi and Naziriwere the two other leading Persian poets during Akbar's reign. They migrated from Iran to India and made the Mughal court one of the cultural centres of the Islamic world. Naziri became the first Persian-born poet to join the court of the great Mughal statesman and literary patron ^cAbd-al- Rahim Kan-e Kanan. Besides, Hindus also contributed to the growth of Persian literature.

• Tulsidas (1532-1623) was one of the most influential Hindi poets of the medieval period who had written Ramcharitmanas. He used a dialect of Hindi, spoken in the eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh (around Banaras).

• Eknath and Tukaram (1608-50)developed and made the Marathi language popular. Tukaram was a contemporary of Jahangir (1605-1627). The great Maratha chief Shivaji was an admirer of Tukaram.

• The theme of Mara Vijaya has been painted in the caves of Ajanta in cave No. 26.

• It is sculpted near the colossal Buddha image of Mahaparinibbana.

• The panel shows the image of the Buddha in the centre surrounded by Mara’s army along with his

daughter. The event is part of the enlightenment. It is a personification of the commotion of mind which the Buddha went through at the time of enlightenment. Mara represents desire.

• According to the narrative, there is a dialogue between the Buddha and Mara, and the Buddha is shown

with his right hand indicating towards earth as a witness to his generosity. The composition is very complex with highly voluminous images. The figure on the right shows Mara coming with his army consisting of various kinds of people including some with grotesque animal faces. On the left lower end, the image of Mara is shown contemplating how to disturb Siddhartha, the name of the Buddha before

enlightenment. The army of Mara is shown marching towards the Buddha in the first half of the panel

whereas the lower half of the panel shows the departing army of Mara giving him adorations. The centrally placed Buddha is in padmasana and a tree at the back is shown by dense leaves.

• During the rule of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, there was resentment among Hindus for revival of Jaziya and general destruction of temples under imperial orders. The revolt triggered when a Mughal soldier killed a Satnami. The Satnamis killed the soldier in revenge and in turn Mughal soldiers were sent to teach them a lesson. In 1672, at Narnaul, an armed conflict occurred between the peasants and the Mughals. Some 5,000 Satnamis stood up in arms and routed the Mughal troops in the town, drove away the Mughal administrators and set up their own administration under their leader Birbhan. Hence Statement 1 is correct.

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  The absence from North India of the major proportion of royal troops helped the revolting people to establish a temporary gain and the movement of rebels towards Delhi became a matter of serious concern for the emperor himself.

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  The Satnamis were mostly peasants, artisans, and lower caste people, such as Goldsmiths, Carpenters, Sweepers, Tanners, and other ignoble beings. Hence Statement 2 is correct.

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  They did not observe distinction of caste and rank or between Hindus and Muslims and followed a strict code of conduct.

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  It is interesting to note that the local Zamindars, many of whom were rajputs, sided with Mughals in this conflict.

Statement 1 is not correct: Kapila was the founder of the Samkhya School. Based on the Upanishads, two schools of philosophy developed in India:

o The realistic (e.g. Samkhya)

o The idealistic (e.g.Vedanta).

• The Samkhya philosophy combines the basic doctrines of Samkhya and Yoga. However, the Samkhya represents the theory and Yoga represents the application or the practical aspects.

• Statement 2 is correct: Samkhya system believes that the soul can attain liberation only through real knowledge. Real knowledge can be acquired through observation, inference, and words.

• Statement 3 is correct: Kapila's primary principle is that the world is material. Matter (Prakriti) is the basis of everything that is, it is omnipresent, eternal, and one. The motion of Prakriti is just as eternal as Prakriti itself. Primordially, Prakriti has no outside cause, for matter (Prakriti) has neither beginning nor end. Kapila wrote that the world was not created, and therefore there was no creator; the world itself was the cause of the world; the world developed gradually. Thus he rules out the existence of God. Samkhya argues that if God exists and if God is eternal and unchanging as is widely claimed, then he can not be the cause of the world. A cause has to be active and changing.

• ​Charvakapropounded another materialistic philosophy known as Lokayata.

• The edicts of Ashoka are the first physical evidence of Buddhism and how it was spread during his region.

• These edicts were deciphered by the British archaeologist and historian James Prinsep.

• The edicts are divided into Pillar Edicts (total 7), Major Rock Edicts(total 14) and 2 separate ones found in Odisha(Kalinga), Minor Rock Edicts, the queen’s Edict, Barabar Caves inscriptions and the Kandahar bilingual inscription.

• Sanchi hosts a minor rock edict of Ashokan Inscription, other locations have major rock edicts.

• Girnar- It is situated one mile to the east of Junagarh in Kathiawar. That it was a site of immense importance is amply proved by the number of major inscriptions to be found there, including apart from those of Asoka, those of Rudradaman and Skandagupta. It is mentioned as Girinagar in the Brihat Samhita. By tradition, the mountain is regarded as sacred both to Brahmans and Jainas.

• Sopara- It is situated in the Thane district of Bombay and is the site of an ancient sea-port and town, which no doubt was of importance during the reign of Asoka. It has been identified with the Soupara of Ptolemy, described as a commercial centre.

• Kandahar – the site of the inscription is Shar-i-Quan, the old city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. It grew to importance with the establishment of trade between the Hellenic world and north-west India after the campaigns of Alexander had established contact.

• Option (c) is the correct answer.

• The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the travelling bards of ancient northern India known as Kathakars. Kathak evolved during the Bhakti movement, particularly by incorporating the childhood and stories of the Hindu god Krishna, as well as independently in the courts of north Indian kingdoms.

• Statement 1 is correct: The emergence of Raslila, mainly in the Braj region (Mathura in Western U.P.) was important in its development. It combined in itself music, dance and the narrative. Dance in Raslila, however, was mainly an extension of the basic mime and gestures of the Kathakarsor story­tellers which blended easily with the existing traditional dance.

• Statement 2 is correct: Kathak has emerged as a distinct dance form. Being the only classical dance of India having links with Muslim culture, it represents a unique synthesis of Hindu and Muslim genius in art. Further, Kathak is the only form of classical dance wedded to Hindustani or the North Indian music. Both of them have had a parallel growth, each feeding and sustaining the other.

• Statement 3 is not correct: The Mughal era courts and nobles accepted Kathak as a form of aristocratic entertainment, which low-income families were willing to provide. However, the dance became more abstract and erotic, less as a means of communication of spiritual or religious ideas.

• The right of ownership of Zamindars regarding the land depended mainly on succession. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• The people who settle a new village or who brought wastelands under cultivation, belong to the respective villages. These villagers became the owners of these lands.

• The considerable section of the zamindars had the hereditary right of collecting land revenue from their respective villages. This was called his ‘talluqa’ or his ‘zamindari.’

• For collecting the land revenue, the zamindars received a share of the land revenue which could go up to 25 percent.

• Zamindars held enormous tracts of land and control over their peasants, from whom they reserved the right to collect tax on behalf of imperial courts or for military purposes.

• The zamindars, not necessarily “owner” of all the lands over which he collected the land revenue. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• The peasants who actually cultivated the land could not be dispossessed as long as they paid the land revenue. Thus the zamindars and the peasants, both had their own hereditary rights in land.

• The Vijayanagara Empire was based in the Deccan Plateau region in South India. The empire is named after its capital city of Vijayanagara, whose ruins surround present day Hampi, now a World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India. It was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of Sangama Dynasty.

• The first dynasty, the Sangama, lasted until about 1485, when at a time of pressure from the BahmanI sultan and the raja of Orissa, Narasimha of the Saluva dynasty usurped power.

• By 1503 the Saluva dynasty had been supplanted by the Tuluva dynasty. The outstanding Tuluva king was Krishna Deva Raya. During his reign (1509-29) the land between the Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers (the Raichur doab) was acquired (1512), the Orissa Hindus were subdued by the capture of Udayagiri (1514) and other towns, and severe defeats were inflicted on the Bijapursultan(1520).

• Krishna Deva’s successors, however, allowed their enemies to unite against them. In 1565 Rama Raya, the chief minister of Vijayanagar, led the empire into the fatal battle at Talikota, in which its army was routed by the combined forces of the Muslim states of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, and Golconda and the city of Vijayanagar was destroyed.

• Tirumala, brother of Rama Raya, then seized control of the empire and founded the Aravidudynasty, which established a new capital at Penukonda and kept the empire intact for atime.

• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

• Indian classical music has two major traditions - the North Indian classical music tradition is called Hindustani, while the South Indian expression is called Carnatic. In Haripala’s "Sangeeta Sudhakara", written in the 14th century A.D., the terms Carnatic and Hindustani are found for the first time. The Indian music of the Northern part of India assimilated some features of the music of the Persian and Arabic musicians who adorned the courts of the Mughal rulers of Delhi, the music of the South continued to develop along its own original lines. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• In Hindustani music, a gharana is a system of social organization in the Indian subcontinent, linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship, and by adherence to a particular musical style. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• The major vocal forms associated with Hindustani classical music are the Khayal, Ghazal, Dhrupad, Dhammar, tarana and Thumri. Dhrupad style of singing is traditionally performed by men with a tanpura and pakhawaj. The lyrics sung in Dhrupad are in a medieval form of Hindi and typically heroic in theme, or in praise of a particular deity. A more adorned form is called Dhamar. Khayal consists of about 4-8 lines of lyrics set to a tune. The performer uses these few lines as the base for improvisation. Taranasare songs that are used to convey a feel of joy and are usually performed towards the end of a concert.

• Although vocal music plays an important role, instrumental music is more important in Hindustani music. There are some purely instrumental forms, such as the theme with variations known as gat. Hence statement 3 is not correct.

• About Gommateshwara Statue

o It is a Jain shrine at Shravanbelagola, Karnataka dedicated to Lord Bahubali. However, he could not become a Tirthankara. Last Jain Tirthankara is Lord Mahavira. Hence statement 1 is not correct. o Standing at fifty-seven feet high, it is is the world’s tallest monolithic free-standing structure made up of the granite. Hence statement 2 is correct.

o It was commissioned by Camundaraya, the General-in-Chief and Prime Minister of the Ganga Kings of Mysore. Hence statement 3 is not correct, o About Gangas of Mysore:

• They are also called Western Gangas to distinguish them from the Eastern Gangas who in later centuries ruled over Kalinga.

• They ruled in ancient Karnataka from about 350 to 1000 CE.

• Camundaraya is said to be inspired by Jain Acarya, NemichandraSiddhanta Chakravartin to build the statue of Bahubali.

• The most important economic development of the Post Mauryan period was the thriving trade between India and the eastern Roman empire. In the beginning, a good deal of this trade was carried on by land, but the movement of the Shakas, Parthians and Kushans beginning from the first century B.C. disrupted trade by land route. Since the first century A.D. trade was carried on mainly by the sea.

• The Shaka and Kushan kingdoms used two routes from the north-western frontier to the western sea coast. Both these routes converged at Taxila, and were connected to the Silk Route passing through Central Asia. The first route directly ran from the north to the south connecting Taxila with the lower Indus basin from where it passed on to Broach.

• The second route called Uttarapath was in more frequent use. From Taxila it passed through modern Punjab up to the western coast of Yamuna. Following the course of the Yamuna, it went southward to Mathura. From Mathura it passed on to Ujjain in Malwa and again from Ujjain to Broach on the western coast. Ujjain was the meeting point of another route which started from Kaushambi near Allahabad. Mahishmati lies on the Dakshinapath. Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

• Statement 1 is correct: In sixth century BCE plough Agriculture was spread in fertile alluvial river valleys like the Ganga and the Kaveri. The iron-tipped ploughshare was used to turn the alluvial soil in areas which had high rainfall. In some parts of the Ganga valley, production of paddy was dramatically increased by the introduction of transplantation.

• Statement 2 is not correct: Use of iron ploughshare led to a growth in agricultural productivity, its use was restricted to certain parts of the subcontinent - cultivators in areas which were semi-arid, such as parts of Punjab and Rajasthan did not adopt it till the twentieth century, and those living in hilly tracts in the north-eastern and central parts of the subcontinent practised hoe agriculture.

• Pandavaniis a folk singing style involving narration of tales from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. The singing also involves musical accompaniment. Bhima, the second of the Pandava is the hero of the story in this style. In Pandavani, tales from Mahabharata are sung as a ballad and one or two episodes are chosen for the night’s performance. The main singer continuously sits throughout the performance and with powerful singing and symbolic gestures he assumes all the characters of the episode one after another. This form of folk theatre is popular in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Hence, pair 1 is correctly matched.

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  Mando is a musical form that evolved during the 19th and 20th century among Goan Catholics of Goa, India. It represents the meeting point of Indian and western musical traditions. It is a slow verse and refrain composition dealing with love, tragedy and both social injustice and political resistance during Portuguese presence in Goa. Hence pair 2 is correctly matched.

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  Laman is a part of folk music of Himachal Pradesh. In Laman a group of girls sing a stanza and a group of boys give reply in the song. This continues for hours. Interesting is that the girls singing on one of the peaks of the hill seldom see the faces of the boys singing on another peak. In between is the hill which echoes their love song. Most of these songs are sung especially in Kullu Valley. Hence pair 3 is not correctly matched.

• Statement 1 is not correct: Turkish troops did not have superior weapons as compared to Indians. Turkish bows could shoot arrows to a longer distance, but the Indian bows were supposed to be more accurate and more deadly, the arrowheads being generally dipped in poison. In hand to hand combat, the Indian swords were considered to be the best in the world.

• Statement 2 is not correct: The Indians had the advantage of elephants. However, Turks had horses which were swifter and more sturdy than the horses imported into India.

• Statement 3 is correct: The Turks were more socially and organisationally superior. The growth of feudalism, that is rise of local landed elements and chiefs weakened the administrative structure and military organisation of the Indian states. The rulers had to depend more on the various chiefs who rarely acted in coordination and quickly dispersed to their areas after the battle. On the other hand, the tribal structure of the Turks and the growth of iqta and khalisa system enabled the Turks to maintain large standing army which could be kept in the field for a longtime.

• The Indians were not effective to move as an organised body of horseman which covered long distances and fight. Rajputs put up prolonged resistance to the incursions of Arab and Turks but they never tried to be offensive and try to push the Arabs or Turks from the strategic lands like Afghanistan, Punjab that they had occupied. That is to say, Rajputs lacked a strategic vision.

• Statement 1 is not correct: Satavahanas ruled over parts of western and central India ( c. second century BCE -second century CE). Both Satvahanas and the Shakas, a people of Central Asian origin who established kingdoms in the north-western and western parts of the subcontinent, derived revenues from long-distance trade. Their social origins were often obscure, but in the case of the Satavahanas, once they acquired power they attempted to claim social status in a variety of ways.

• Statement 2 is correct: Satavahana rulers were identified through metronymics (names derived from that of the mother). Although this may suggest that mothers were important, in the case of the Satavahanas the succession to the throne was generally patrilineal e.g. raja Gotami-puta Siri- Satakani, the names had uniform title raja, with the term puta, a Prakrit word meaning ^?son^?. The term Gotami-puta means 'son of Gotami'.

• Statement 3 is not correct: Many Kushana rulers and not Satavahana rulers adopted the title devaputra, or “son of god”, possibly inspired by Chinese rulers who called themselves sons of heaven. This was a means of claiming a high status. Colossal statues of Kushana rulers have been found installed in a shrine at Mat near Mathura (Uttar Pradesh). Similar statues have been found in a shrine in Afghanistan as well. Some historians feel this indicates that the Kushanas considered themselves godlike.

• The RIN revolt started on 18 February 1946 in Bombay. The naval ratings on HMIS Talwar protested against the poor quality of food and racial discrimination by British officers. Hence, options 1 and 2 are correct.

• The mutineers took out a procession in Bombay, holding aloft a portrait of Subhas Bose. Their ships also raised the flags of the Congress, Muslim League, and Communist Party.

• The demands advanced by the naval central strike committee combined service grievances with wider national concerns.

• ​The latter included the release of INA (Indian National Army) personnel and other political prisoners; withdrawal of Indian troops from Indonesia; and the acceptance of Indian officers only as superiors. Hence, option 3 is not correct.

• The most significant feature of this short uprising was the massive outpouring of public support for the mutineers. The city of Bombay, especially the labouring classes, went on strike on 22 February in solidarity. The public transport network was brought to a halt, trains were burnt, roadblocks were erected and commercial establishments were shut down

• Simon Commission appointed in November 1927 by the British government to report on the working of the Government of India Act of 1919. In 1930, the Commission published its two-volume report, also known as the Simon Report.

In response to the inadequacy of the Simon Report, the Labour Government, which had come to power under Ramsay MacDonald in 1929, decided to hold a series of Round Table Conferences in London. The first Round Table Conference convened from 12 November 1930 to 19 January 1931. Since many of the Congress’ leaders were in jail, Congress did not participate in the first conference, but representatives from all other Indian parties and a number of Princes did.

• The outcomes of the First Round Table Conference were minimal: India was to develop into a federation, safeguards regarding defense and finance were agreed and other departments were to be transferred.

• The British policy of ’Divide and Rule’ found another expression in the announcement of the Communal Award in August 1932. The Award allotted to each minority a number of seats in the legislatures to be elected on the basis of a separate electorate, that is Muslims would be elected only by Muslims and Sikhs only by Sikhs, and so on. Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians had already been treated as minorities. The Award declared the Depressed Classes (Scheduled Castes of today) also to be a minority community entitled to separate electorate and thus separated them from the rest of the Hindus.

• Gandhiji demanded that the representatives of the Depressed Classes should be elected by the general electorate under a wide if possible universal, common franchise. At the same time, he did not object to the demand for a larger number of the reserved seats for the Depressed Classes. He went on a fast unto death on 20 September 1932 to enforce his demand. In the end they succeeded in hammering out an agreement, known as the Poona Pact(1932), according to which the idea of separate electorates for the Depressed Classes was abandoned but the seats reserved for them in the provincial legislatures were increased from seventy-one in the Award to 147 and in the Central Legislature to eighteen percent of the total.

• Quit India Movement was launched under the leadership of Gandhi ji in august 1942 with the slogan “Do or Die”. The Quit India Resolution was passed by the Congress Working Committee on 8 August 1942 in Bombay.

• As in earlier mass struggles, the youth were in the forefront of the struggle. Students from colleges and even schools were the most visible element, especially in the early days of August (probably the average age of participants in the 1942 struggle was even lower than that in earlier movements). Women, especially college and school girls, played a very important role.Aruna Asaf Ali and Sucheta Kripalani were two major women organizers of the underground, and Usha Mehta an important member of the small group that ran the Congress Radio. Workers were prominent as well and made a considerable sacrifice by enduring long strikes and braving police repression in the streets.

• Statement 1 is not correct: Gandhiji asked government servants to openly declare their allegiance to the congress and not to resign.

• Statement 2 is not correct: Gandhiji asked the soldiers to refuse to fire on their own people and not to leave their posts.

• Statement 3 is correct: Gandhiji asked the princes of the Princely states to accept the sovereignty of their own people.

• In October 1940, Gandhi gave the call for a limited satyagraha (Individual 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.

• The demand of a satyagrahi would be for the freedom of speech to preach against participation in the War. Hence statement 1 is not correct.TheIndividual Satyagraha had a dual purpose —while giving expression to the Indian people’s strong political feeling, it gave the British Government further opportunity to peacefully accept the Indian demands.

• The first Satyagrahi was Acharya Vinoba Bhave, who was sent to jail when he spoke against the war in the village Panaur and he was arrested subsequently.

• Women from different parts of the country took part in the satyagraha. Smt Sarala Devi was the first woman who took part in the Individual Satyagraha. Hence option 3 is not correct.

• Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical cepticism that condemns existence.

• The first decade of the 20^th century saw the rise of extreme revolutionaries who used violence to overthrow British rule. They were inspired by the Irish terrorists and Russian Nihilists and followed their method of assassinating corrupt and unpopular officials. They also engaged in dacoities to raise funds for the purchase of arms, etc. Popularly known as Swadeshi dacoities. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

The Congress ministries took a series of measures to alleviate the suffering of the peasants and agrarian sector which included

• In U.P. a tenancy act was passed in October 1939 which gave all statutory tenants both in Agra and Oudh full hereditary rights in their holdings while taking away the landlord’s right to prevent the growth of occupancy.

• In Bihar, the new tenancy legislation was passed mainly in 1937 and 1938 which was more radical in approach as compared to that of U.P.

• In Orissa, a tenancy bill was passed in May 1938 granting the right of free transfer of occupancy holdings, reducing the interest on arrears of rent and abolishing all illegal levies on tenants. The Governor refused to give assent to the bill as it would have reduced the zamindars’ incomes by fifty to sixty per cent.

• In Madras, a committee under the chairmanship of T. Prakasam (1872-1957) recommended that in the areas under Permanent Zamindari Settlement the ryot and not the zamindar was the owner of the soil and that therefore the level of rents prevailing when the Settlement was made in 1802 should be restored. The Legislative Assembly passed, in January 1939, a resolution accepting the recommendations, but before a bill could be drafted, the Ministry resigned. o Measures of tenancy reform, usually extending security of tenure to tenants in landlord areas, were also carried in the legislatures of Bombay, the Central Provinces and the North-West Frontier Province.

• Indian Peasants’ Institute

  • It was set up in 1933 by N.G. Ranga in the village of Nidobrolu in Guntur district which trained peasants to become active workers of the peasant movement.

  • Bengal Bargadars Temporary Regulation Bill, 1947

  • o This bill was introduced by Muslim league ministry in Bengal to incorporate the demand of the Sharecroppers against the backdrop of Tebhaga struggle. This encouraged the movement and led to the increased participation of the peasants from rural areas. However, the government failed to pass the bill immediately and it was only in 1950, the bill was passed.

• ​Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

• The Akali movement (also known as Gurudwara Reform Movement) was an offshoot of the Singh Sabha Movement. It aimed at liberating the Sikh gurudwaras from the control of corrupt Udasi mahants (the post having become hereditary). Hence option (a) is the correct answer.

• These mahants were a loyalist and reactionary lot, enjoying government patronage. The government tried its repressive policies against the non-violent non-cooperation satyagraha launched by the Akalis in 1921, but had to bow before popular demands; it passed the Sikh Gurudwaras Act in 1922 (amended in 1925) which gave the control of gurudwaras to the Sikh masses to be administered through Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) as the apex body.

• During the moderate phase of the struggle (1894-1906) Gandhiji set up the Natal Indian Congress. The second phase of the struggle in South Africa, which began in 1906, was characterized by the use of the method of passive resistance or civil disobedience, which Gandhiji named Satyagraha. It was first used when the Government enacted legislation making it compulsory for Indians to take out certificates of registration which held their finger prints.

• The campaign was widened to include protest against a new legislation imposing restrictions on Indian migration.

• The poll tax of three pounds imposed on ex- indentured Indians and invalidation of Indian marriages further widened the campaign.

• The nature of Peasant movements after the revolt of 1857 and until the end of the 19th century witnessed a certain shift.

The princes, chiefs and landlords had been crushed or co-opted and peasants emerged as the main force in agrarian movements. They now fought directly for their own demands, centered almost wholly on economic issues, and against their immediate enemies, foreign planters and indigenous zamindaris and moneylenders. Their struggles were directed towards specific and limited objectives and redressal of particular grievances. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

• The territorial reach of these movements was also limited. They were confined to particular localities with no mutual communication or linkages. They also lacked continuity of struggle or long-term organization. Once the specific objectives of a movement were achieved, its organization, as also peasant solidarity built around it, dissolved and disappeared. Thus, the Indigo strike, the Pabna agrarian leagues and the social-boycott movement of the Deccan ryots left behind no successors. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

• A major weakness of the peasant movements was the lack of an adequate understanding of colonialism, colonial economic structure and the colonial state. Nor did the 19th century peasants possess a new ideology and a new social, economic and political programme based on an analysis of the newly constituted colonial society. Their struggles, however militant, occurred within the framework of the old societal order. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

Third battle of Panipat happened on 14th January 1761 between Afghans led by Ahmed Shah Abdali and the Marathas.

• Marathas could not find allies among the northern powers because of their earlier behaviour and political ambitions had antagonized all these powers.

• Rajputs: Marathas had interfered in the internal affairs of Rajputana States and levied huge fines and tributes upon them.

• Awadh: Marathas had made large territorial and monetary claims upon Awadh.

• Punjab: Marathas' actions in Punjab had angered the Sikhs.

• Jats: The Jat chiefs on whom also heavy fines had been imposed by them.did not trustthem.

• Therefore, they had to fight their enemies all alone, except for the weak support of Imad al mulk. Hence, Statement 1 is not correct.

• The Maratha army was completely routed by Abdali. The Maratha defeat at Panipat was a disaster for them and their political prestige suffered a big blow. In fact, it is said that the third battle of Panipat did not decide who were to rule India, but who would not.

• For the British East India Company, this defeat of Maratha give an opportunity to consolidate its power in Bengal and South India. Also, Afghans did not benefit from their victory. They could not even hold Punjab. So the British were the ultimate beneficiaries of this battle. Hence, Statement 2 is not correct.

• Akshay Kumar Dutt was one of the initiators of the Bengal Renaissance. In 1839, he joined the Tattwabodhini Sabha and soon became its assistant secretary. He was appointed a teacher of the TattwabodhiniPathsala the next year and in 1843, TattwabodhiniPatrikawas published as mouthpiece of both the Tattwabodhini Sabha and Brahmo Samaj. He was the first editor of the journal and contributed substantially towards the development of prose writing in Bengali.

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  Akshay Kumar held that all-natural and social phenomena could be analyzed and understood by purely mechanical processes. This perspective not only enabled them to adopt a rational approach to tradition but also to evaluate the contemporary socio-religious practices from the standpoint of social utility.

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  In advocating widow marriage and opposing polygamy and child marriage, Akshay Kumar was not concerned about religious sanction or whether they existed in the past. His arguments were mainly based on their effects of Society. Instead of depending on the scriptures, he cited medical Opinion against Child marriage. He held very advanced ideas about marriage and family: courtship before marriage, partnership and equality as the basis of married life and divorce by both law and custom.

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  Hence option a is the correct answer.