08 November 2023

Q1. Consider the following: He was one of the first artists who tried to create a style that was both modern and national. He belonged to the family of the Maharajas. He mastered the Western art of oil painting and realistic life study, but painted themes from Indian mythology. He dramatised on canvas, scene after scene from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, drawing on the theatrical performances of mythological stories that he witnessed during his tour of the Bombay Presidency. He had also set up a picture production team and printing press on the outskirts of Bombay?

Who among the following is being described in above passage?

1. Rabindranath Tagore
2. Raja Ravi Varma
3. Abanindranath Tagore
4. Nandalal Bose

Explanation:

• Raja Ravi Varma was one of the first artists who tried to create a style that was both modern and national. Ravi Varma belonged to the family of the Maharajas of Travancore in Kerala, and was addressed as Raja. He mastered the Western art of oil painting and realistic life study, but painted themes from Indian He dramatized on canvas, scene after scene from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, drawing on the theatrical performances of mythological stories that he witnessed during his tour of the Bombay Presidency. From the 1880s, Ravi Varma’s mythological paintings became the rage among Indian princes and art collectors, who filled their palace galleries with his works.

Q2. Rabindranath Tagore renounced his Knighthood after which event:

1. Partition of Bengal
2. Jalianwala Bagh attrocities
3. Death of Lajpat Rai
4. Hanging of Bhagat Singh

• Explanation:

The Jallianwala Bagh atrocities, inflicted by General Dyer in Amritsar on Baisakhi day (13 April). On learning about the massacre, Rabindranath Tagore expressed the pain and anger of the country by renouncing his knighthood.

Q3. Who gave the call — “one religion, one caste and one God for mankind”?

1. Mahatma Gandhi
2. Jyotiba Phule
3. Swami Vivekananda
4. Narayana Guru

• Explanation:

There were numerous movements demanding lifting of ban on entry of lower castes into temples; for instance, Sri Narayana Guru in Kerala led a lifelong struggle against upper caste domination. He coined the slogan “one religion, one caste, one God, for mankind”.

Q4. The outflow of gold & silver from Britain slowed after the Battle of Plassey, and entirely stopped after the assumption of Diwani because:

1. Diwani allowed the Company to use the vast revenue resources of Bengal.
2. Nawabs of Bengal were forced to give land and vast sums of money as gifts to Company officials.
3. British goods exported to India increased many folds.
4. Indian product became less popular after battle of Plassey.

• Explanation:

Finally, in 1765 the Mughal emperor appointed the Company as the Diwan of the provinces of Bengal. The Diwani allowed the Company to use the vast revenue resources of Bengal. This solved a major problem that the Company had earlier faced. From the early eighteenth century its trade with India had expanded. But it had to buy most of the goods in India with gold and silver imported from Britain. This was because at this time Britain had no goods to sell in India. The outflow of gold from Britain slowed after the Battle of Plassey, and entirely stopped after the assumption of Diwani. Now revenues from India could finance Company expenses. These revenues could be used to purchase cotton and silk textiles in India, maintain Company troops, and meet the cost of building the Company fort and offices at Calcutta.

Q5. Which of the following factors became the basis for the economic critique of colonialism by early nationalists?

1. Ruin of traditional handicraft
2. Home charges
3. Manner of development of Railways

Select the correct answer using the code given below?

1. 1 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3 

• Explanation:

• Indian intellectuals of the first half of the 19th century had adopted a positive attitude towards British rule in the hope that Britain would help modernize India. The process of disillusionment set in gradually after 1860 Leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji, Justice M G Ranade and R C Dutta propounded the drain theory associated with the colonial rule.The early leaders highlighted the following issues due to colonial rule:

1) progressive decline and ruin of India’s traditional handicrafts.

2) railways had not been coordinated with India’s industrial needs.

3) saw foreign capital as an unmitigated evil which exploited and impoverished India.

4) criticized the colonial pattern of finance. Taxes were so raised, they averred, as to overburden the poor while letting the rich, especially the foreign capitalists and bureaucrats, go scot-free.

5) On the expenditure side, they pointed out that the emphasis was on serving Britain ‘s imperial needs while the developmental and welfare departments were starved.

6) The nationalist leaders pointed out that a large part of India ‘s capital and wealth was drained to Britain in the form of salaries and pensions of British civil and military officials working in India known as home charges.

Q6. Gandhiji decided to launch “Individual Satyagraha” due to dissatisfaction with:

1. August offer made by the British during the course of the Second World War
2. State of untouchables in the country
3. Religious intolerance in the countryside
4. Government of India Act, 1935 which eroded autonomy of local bodies

• Explanation:
• During the course of the Second World War in order to secure the cooperation of the Indians, the British Government made an announcement on August 1940, which came to be known as the ‘August Offer’.
• Gandhiji was not satisfied with this offer and decided to launch Individual Satyagraha.
• Individual Satyagraha was limited, symbolic and non-violent in nature and it was left to Gandhiji to choose the Satyagrahis.

Q7. Consider the following statements about Mahawari System:

1. It was devised by Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras
2. The estimated revenue demand was fixed on village basis and it was to be revised periodically
3. The system was prevalent in North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency
4. village headman was made responsible for collecting the revenue and paying it to the Company

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

1. 1, 2 and 3 only
2. 1, 2 and 4 only
3. 1, 3 and 4 only
4. 2, 3 and 4 only

• Explanation:

• In the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency (most of this area is now in Uttar Pradesh), an Englishman called Holt Mackenzie devised the new system which came into effect in 1822. He felt that the village was an important social institution in north Indian society and needed to be preserved. Under his directions, collectors went from village to village, inspecting the land, measuring the fields, and recording the customs and rights of different groups. The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each village (mahal) had to pay. This demand was to be revised periodically, not permanently fixed. The charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the Company was given to the village headman, rather than the zamindar. This system came to be known as the mahalwari settlement.

Q8. Under Ryotwari system the settlement was made with:

1. Zamindar
2. Village headman
3. Cultivator
4. Taluqdars

• Explanation:

In the British territories in the south there was a similar move away from the idea of Permanent Settlement. The new system that was devised came to be known as the ryotwar (or ryotwari). It was tried on a small scale by Captain Alexander Read in some of the areas that were taken over by the Company after the wars with Tipu Sultan. Subsequently developed by Thomas Munro, this system was gradually extended all over south India. Read and Munro felt that in the south there were no traditional zamindars. The settlement, they argued, had to be made directly with the cultivators (ryots) who had tilled the land for generations.

Q9. Which of the following Leaders of the Mutiny is/are correctly matched with the areas of the Revolt:

1. Nana Sahib: Bihar
2. Kunwar Singh: Kanpur
3. Shah Mal: Pargana Barout in Uttar Pradesh
4. Gonoo: Singhbhum in Chotanagpur

Select the correct answer using the code below?

1. 1 and 4 only
2. 2 and 4 only
3. 3 and 4 only
4. 1 and 2 only

• Explanation:

Leaders and followers:

To fight the British, leadership and organisation were required. For these the rebels sometimes turned to those who had been leaders before the British conquest. One of the first acts of the sepoys of Meerut, as we saw, was to rush to Delhi and appeal to the old Mughal emperor to accept the leadership of the revolt. This acceptance of leadership took its time in coming. Bahadur Shah’s first reaction was one of horror and rejection. It was only when some sepoys had moved into the Mughal court within the Red Fort, in defiance of normal court etiquette, that the old emperor, realising he had very few options, agreed to be the nominal leader of the rebellion.

Elsewhere, similar scenes were enacted though on a minor scale. In Kanpur, the sepoys and the people of the town gave Nana Sahib, the successor to Peshwa Baji Rao II, no choice save to join the revolt as their leader. In Jhansi, the rani was forced by the popular pressure around her to assume the leadership of the uprising. So was Kunwar Singh, a local zamindar in Arrah in Bihar. In Awadh, where the displacement of the popular Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and the annexation of the state were still very fresh in the memory of the people, the populace in Lucknow celebrated the fall of British rule by hailing Birjis Qadr, the young son of the Nawab, as their leader. Not everywhere were the leader’s people of the court – ranis, rajas, nawabs and taluqdars. Often the message of rebellion was carried by ordinary men and women and in places by religious men too. From Meerut, there were reports that a fakir had appeared riding on an elephant and that the sepoys were visiting him frequently. In Lucknow, after the annexation of Awadh, there were many religious leaders and self-styled prophets who preached the destruction of British rule.

Elsewhere, local leaders emerged, urging peasants, zamindars and tribals to revolt. Shah Mal mobilised the villagers of pargana Barout in Uttar Pradesh; Gonoo, a tribal cultivator of Singhbhum in Chotanagpur, became a rebel leader of the Kol tribals of the region.

Q10. Which of the following is/are incorrect regarding the British army before 1857?

1. Sepoys were generally conservative in nature.
2. The General Service Enlistment Act dictated conditions for Sepoys on the basis of age.
3. The British Army employed Sepoys from all the castes so that they could maintain large army & avoid any discrimination.

Select the correct statements using the codes below?

1. 1 only
2. 1 and 2 only
3. 2 and 3 only
4. All of the above

• Explanation:

The conditions of service in the Company’s Army and cantonments increasingly came into conflict with the religious beliefs and prejudices of the sepoys. Restrictions on wearing caste and sectarian marks and secret rumors of proselytizing activities of chaplains (often maintained on the Company’s expenses) were interpreted by Indian sepoys, who were generally conservative by nature, as interference in their religious affairs. To the religious Hindu of the time, crossing the seas meant loss of caste. In 1856 Lord Canning’s Government passed the General Service Enlistment Act which decreed that all future recruits to the Bengal Army would have to give an undertaking to serve anywhere their services might be required by the Government. This caused resentment.

The Indian sepoy was equally unhappy with his emoluments compared to his British counterpart. A more immediate cause of the sepoys’ dissatisfaction was the order that they would not be given the foreign service allowance (Matta) when serving in Sindh or in Punjab. The annexation of Awadh, home of many of the sepoys, further inflamed their feelings. The Indian sepoy was made to feel a subordinate at every step and was discriminated against racially and in matters of promotion and privileges.