UPSC: History NCERT Based Test- 1 - UPSC MCQ

The First World War had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey. And there were rumours that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the Ottoman emperor – the spiritual head of the Islamic world (the Khalifa).

At the Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, he convinced other leaders of the need to start a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well as for swaraj.

• In Kurnool caves of Andhra Pradesh, traces of ash have been found, suggesting that people were familiar with the use of fire.
• Rosetta is a town on the north coast of Egypt, and here an inscribed stone was found, which contained inscriptions in three different languages and scripts (Greek, and two forms of Egyptian).
• Tools made from limestone were found in Hunsgi, Karnataka.

The term Mahayana means "Great Vehicle". Hinayana means "Lesser Vehicle". This sect of Buddhism believes in the heavenliness of Buddha and believes in Idol Worship. The Mahayana sect spread from India to several other nations such as China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia.

• Krishnadeva Raya belonged to the Tuluva dynasty. Krishnadeva Raya’s rule was characterised by expansion and consolidation.
• This was the time when the land between the Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers (the Raichur doab) was acquired (1512), the rulers of Orissa were subdued (1514) and severe defeats were inflicted on the Sultan of Bijapur (1520).

Abu Fazl refers to the discovery of America.

Jute in Bengal, tea in Assam, sugarcane in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), wheat in Punjab, cotton in Maharashtra and Punjab, rice in Madras.

• Wood’s Despatch argued that European learning would improve the moral character of Indians. It would make them truthful and honest, and thus supply the Company with civil servants who could be trusted and depended upon. The literature of the East was not only full of grave errors.
• Following the 1854 Despatch, several measures were introduced by the British. Education departments of the government were set up to extend control over all matters regarding education.

• Not all social groups were moved by the abstract concept of swaraj. One such group was the nation’s ‘untouchables’, who from around the 1930s had begun to call themselves Dalit or oppressed.
• For long the Congress had ignored the Dalits, for fear of offending the sanatanis, the conservative high-caste Hindus. In the north, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, who founded the reform association called Arya Samaj, also supported widow remarriage.
• Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the Dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at the second Round Table Conference by demanding separate electorates for Dalits. When the British government conceded Ambedkar’s demand, Gandhiji began a fast unto death.

The modern Bengali vocabulary contains the vocabulary base from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, also tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and other major borrowings from Persian, Arabic, Austroasiatic languages and other languages in contact with.

• Chandragupta, the father of Samudragupta was the first ruler of the Gupta dynasty to adopt the grand title of maharaj-adhiraja nagaram was an organisation of merchants.
• These assemblies were likely controlled by rich and powerful landowners and merchants. Fa Xian visited India during the reign of Chandragupta II.

In 1856, Governor-General Canning decided that Bahadur Shah Zafar would be the Mughal king.

The Craftspersons of Bidar were so famed for their inlay work in copper and silver that it came to be called Bidri. The Panchalas or Vishwakarma community, consisting of goldsmiths, bronze smiths, blacksmiths, masons and carpenters, were essential to the building of temples.

The tanti weavers of Bengal, the julahas or momin weavers of north India, sale and kaikollar and devangs of south India are some of the communities famous for weaving.

Jhum cultivation also known shifting cultivation was done on small patches of land. They spread the ash from the firing, which contained potash to fertilise the soil.

Awadh was annexed in 1856. Rest is correct.

In 1761, Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated the Marathas in the third battle of Panipat

The Birsa movement identified all these forces as the cause of the misery the Mundas were suffering. The land policies of the British were destroyed. Their traditional land system, Hindu landlords and Moneylenders were taking over their land, and Missionaries were criticising their traditional culture.

Samudragupta’s Prashasti was inscribed on the Ashokan pillar at Allahabad. It was of course not built by him. The Allahabad pillar is an Ashoka Stambha, one of the Pillars of Ashoka, erected by Ashoka, Emperor of the Maurya dynasty, who reigned in the 3rd century BCE.

• Faxian was a Chinese Buddhist monk and translator who traveled by foot from Ancient China to Ancient India, visiting many sacred Buddhist sites in Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia between 399-412 to acquire Buddhist texts.
• Xuan Zang was a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator who travelled to India in the seventh century and described the interaction between Chinese Buddhism and Indian Buddhism during the early Tang dynasty.
• I-Qing, was also a Chinese Buddhist monk who came to India about 50 years after Xuan Zang.
• Lao Zu (also Laozi or Lao-Tzu) is a legendary figure in Chinese folk history. It is believed that Lao Zu lived around 500 BC. He is most famous as the author of the Tao Te Ching — and as such, the founder of the religion/philosophy Taoism. Lao tzu was not a Buddhist and he had never visited India.

Zamindars lost their power to organise local justice and the local police. Over time the collectorate emerged as an alternative centre of authority, severely restricting what the zamindar could do. At the time of rent collection, an officer of the zamindar, usually the amlah, came around to the village.

Lord Hastings was appointed as the Governor-General of India, on 11 November 1813. Under him "Policy of Paramountcy" was initiated by British.

• The very choice of the site of Vijayanagara was likely inspired by the existence of the shrines of Virupaksha and Pampadevi. The Vijayanagara kings claimed to rule on behalf of the god Virupaksha.
• All royal orders were signed “Shri Virupaksha”, usually in the Kannada script. Rulers also indicated their close links with the gods by using the title “Hindu Suratrana”. This was a Sanskritisation of the Arabic term Sultan, meaning king, so it meant Hindu Sultan.

• A high revenue demand was imposed in the 1790s, a time when the prices of agricultural produce were depressed, making it difficult for the ryots to pay their dues to the zamindar.
• According to the Sunset Law, if payment did not come in by sunset of the specified date, the zamindari was liable to be auctioned.

• By the 1850s, the Santhals felt that the time had come to rebel against zamindars, moneylenders and the colonial state, in order to create an ideal world for themselves where they would rule.
• It was after the Santhal Revolt (1855-56) that the Santhal Pargana was created, carving out 5,500 square miles from the districts of Bhagalpur and Birbhum. The colonial state hoped that by creating a new territory for the Santhals and imposing some special laws within it, the Santhals could be reconciled.

During the Vedic period, a large number of cities came into existence in north-eastern India. New cities such as Kausambi near Allahabad, Kusinagar (in the Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh), Banaras, Vaisah (in the newly created district, of the same name in north Bihar), Chirand (in the Chapra district) and Rajgir (situated at a distance of about 100 km from Patna). Besides others these cities had many artisans and traders, who began to use coins for the first time. The earliest coins belonged to the fifth century B.C., and they are called punch-marked coins. They circulated for the first time in -eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The use of coins naturally facilitated trade and commerce, which added to the importance of the Vaisyas.

After World War I India witnessed a growth in Industrialisation as war led to a shortage of essential items. To tackle this issue new industries were established in India. From the 1900s India’s nationalist leaders began opposing the system of indentured labour migration as abusive and cruel. It was abolished in 1921.

• Between the seventh and tenth centuries, architects started adding more rooms, doors and windows to buildings.
• Roofs, doors and windows were still made by placing a horizontal beam across two vertical columns, a style of architecture called “trabeate” or “corbelled”.
• Between the eighth and thirteenth centuries, the trabeate style was used in the construction of temples, mosques, tombs and buildings attached to large stepped-wells (baolis).

James Mill wrote the monumental work History of British India in 1817. He was the first writer to divide Indian history into three parts: Hindu, Muslim and British He didn't divide Indian history into Ancient, Medieval and Modern phase.

The high content of ash in Indian coal was a problem. Many pleas were made to banish the dirty mills from the city, with no effect. However, in 1863, Calcutta became the first Indian city to get smoke nuisance legislation.

Land and property of Muslims were confiscated on a large scale. Policies were made to protect landlords and zamindars and give them the security of rights over their lands.