"History & Freedom Movement" — Practice

Question 1

Which Harappan site is distinguished by its sophisticated water-conservation and harvesting system, along with a unique three-part city division?
(a) Mohenjo-daro (b) Dholavira (c) Kalibangan (d) Surkotada

Accepted Answer

Dholavira (Gujarat) is specifically known for its advanced water-conservation/harvesting engineering and its three-part city division. Mohenjo-daro is known instead for the Great Bath; Kalibangan for evidence of a ploughed field; Surkotada for the earliest evidence of horse remains — each Harappan site has one standout feature, and confusing which site had which is the most common Ancient India error.

Answer: (b) Dholavira.

Question 2

The Kalinga War, whose bloodshed is credited with prompting Ashoka's conversion to Buddhism and his policy of Dhamma, was fought around:
(a) 321 BCE (b) 261 BCE (c) 232 BCE (d) 185 BCE

Accepted Answer

The Kalinga War is dated to roughly 261 BCE, several years into Ashoka's reign. 321 BCE is close to the Mauryan Empire's founding (Chandragupta Maurya); 232 BCE is roughly Ashoka's death; 185 BCE marks the Mauryan Empire's end, when Brihadratha was overthrown by his commander Pushyamitra Shunga.

Answer: (b) 261 BCE.

Question 3

Which Gupta-era figure is credited with proposing that the Earth rotates on its own axis and calculating an accurate value of pi?
(a) Kalidasa (b) Varahamihira (c) Aryabhata (d) Chandragupta II

Accepted Answer

Aryabhata, author of the Aryabhatiya, proposed the Earth's axial rotation and calculated pi with notable accuracy. Varahamihira authored the Brihat Samhita (astronomy); Kalidasa was the era's great Sanskrit poet-dramatist; Chandragupta II was the ruler under whom this scholarship flourished, not a scholar himself. Each Gupta-era figure has one specific, non-overlapping signature contribution.

Answer: (c) Aryabhata.

Question 4

The first and only woman to rule the Delhi Sultanate was:
(a) Nur Jahan (b) Razia Sultana (c) Chand Bibi (d) Begum Hazrat Mahal

Accepted Answer

Razia Sultana (Mamluk/Slave dynasty) ruled Delhi from 1236–1240 and remains the Sultanate's only female ruler. Nur Jahan was a highly influential Mughal empress but never ruled in her own name as sovereign; Chand Bibi was a regent of Bijapur/Ahmednagar in the Deccan; Begum Hazrat Mahal led resistance in Awadh during the 1857 revolt — none of the three ruled the Delhi Sultanate itself.

Answer: (b) Razia Sultana.

Question 5

The First Battle of Panipat (1526), in which Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi, marked the end of the Delhi Sultanate and the founding of:
(a) the Bahmani Sultanate (b) the Vijayanagara Empire (c) the Mughal Empire (d) the Maratha Confederacy

Accepted Answer

Babur's victory over Ibrahim Lodi, the last Sultanate ruler (Lodi dynasty), directly founded the Mughal Empire in 1526. The Bahmani Sultanate (founded 1347) and Vijayanagara Empire (founded 1336) both predate this battle by nearly two centuries; the Maratha Confederacy rose to prominence much later, in the 17th–18th centuries.

Answer: (c) the Mughal Empire.

Question 6

Akbar abolished the Jizya tax on non-Muslims as part of his religious tolerance policy. Which later Mughal emperor reinstated it?
(a) Jahangir (b) Shah Jahan (c) Aurangzeb (d) Bahadur Shah I

Accepted Answer

Aurangzeb reinstated the Jizya tax decades after Akbar had abolished it, reflecting his comparatively more orthodox religious policy — this exact reversal is the single most repeated Akbar-Aurangzeb contrast fact tested at this level. Jahangir and Shah Jahan, the intervening rulers, did not reinstate it.

Answer: (c) Aurangzeb.

Question 7

Which Bhakti figure, drawing on both Hindu and Islamic ideas, went on to found Sikhism as an organised religion — unlike Kabir, who preached a similar syncretic message but did not found a formal religious institution?
(a) Kabir (b) Guru Nanak (c) Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (d) Ramanuja

Accepted Answer

Guru Nanak founded Sikhism, emphasising one formless God, equality, and rejection of caste and ritualism. Kabir drew on similar Hindu-Islamic syncretism and rejected idol worship and ritualism, but did not found an organised religion in the way Guru Nanak did — a frequently tested distinction between two similar-sounding figures. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Bengal) and Ramanuja (Tamil South India) belong to the separate Krishna-bhakti and Vishishtadvaita philosophical traditions respectively.

Answer: (b) Guru Nanak.

Question 8

The battle in which Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah, Nawab of Bengal, aided by the betrayal of his commander Mir Jafar, was the first decisive step toward British political power in India. It is known as the:
(a) Battle of Buxar (1764) (b) Battle of Plassey (1757) (c) Battle of Wandiwash (1760) (d) Battle of Talikota (1565)

Accepted Answer

The Battle of Plassey (1757) is specifically defined by Mir Jafar's betrayal of Siraj-ud-Daulah. Buxar (1764) was militarily more decisive (defeating a genuine three-way coalition) but did not involve Mir Jafar's betrayal; Wandiwash (1760) was an Anglo-French battle in the Carnatic; Talikota (1565) ended Vijayanagara's power, unrelated to the British.

Answer: (b) Battle of Plassey (1757).

Question 9

The immediate/triggering cause of the Revolt of 1857 was:
(a) the Doctrine of Lapse (b) the new Enfield rifle cartridges greased with animal fat (c) the annexation of Awadh (1856) (d) high land revenue demands

Accepted Answer

The Enfield cartridges, greased with fat widely believed to be from cows and pigs (offensive to Hindu and Muslim sepoys respectively) and needing to be bitten open before loading, were the immediate spark, first at Barrackpore (Mangal Pandey) and then at Meerut. The Doctrine of Lapse, Awadh's annexation, and high land revenue were real but UNDERLYING causes that explain the revolt's scale, not its immediate trigger.

Answer: (b).

Question 10

The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 by:
(a) W.C. Bonnerjee (b) Dadabhai Naoroji (c) Allan Octavian Hume (d) Surendranath Banerjee

Accepted Answer

Allan Octavian Hume, a retired British civil servant, founded the INC in 1885. W.C. Bonnerjee presided as its first president — a distinct fact from founding it — while Naoroji and Banerjee were prominent early Moderate leaders, not founders.

Answer: (c) Allan Octavian Hume.

Question 11

The Partition of Bengal (1905) was carried out by Lord Curzon; its reversal in 1911 was announced at the Delhi Durbar by:
(a) Lord Curzon himself (b) Lord Minto (c) Lord Hardinge (d) Lord Dalhousie

Accepted Answer

Lord Hardinge, Viceroy from 1910–1916, announced Bengal's reunification at the Delhi Durbar of 1911, alongside the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi. Curzon (who ordered the original 1905 partition) had already left office by then; Minto preceded Hardinge; Dalhousie belongs to an earlier era (Doctrine of Lapse, 1848–56).

Answer: (c) Lord Hardinge.

Question 12

Which of Gandhi's mass movements was triggered by the government's salt monopoly and launched through the Dandi March?
(a) Non-Cooperation Movement (1920) (b) Civil Disobedience Movement (1930) (c) Quit India Movement (1942) (d) Swadeshi Movement (1905)

Accepted Answer

The Civil Disobedience Movement (1930) was launched through the Dandi (Salt) March, breaking the government's salt-production monopoly. Non-Cooperation (1920) was triggered by the Rowlatt Act and the Khilafat issue; Quit India (1942) followed the Cripps Mission's rejection; the Swadeshi Movement (1905) followed the Partition of Bengal — each movement has one specific, non-interchangeable trigger.

Answer: (b) Civil Disobedience Movement (1930).

Question 13

Gandhi attended only one of the three Round Table Conferences in London. Which one, and what pact preceded his participation?
(a) First RTC, following the Poona Pact (b) Second RTC, following the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (c) Third RTC, following the Cabinet Mission (d) Second RTC, following the Cripps Mission

Accepted Answer

Gandhi attended only the Second Round Table Conference (1931), as Congress's sole representative, after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (March 1931) led Congress to suspend Civil Disobedience and participate. Congress boycotted the First RTC (its leaders were in prison) and the Third. The Poona Pact (1932) and the Cripps Mission (1942) both happened AFTER this conference, not before it.

Answer: (b) Second RTC, following the Gandhi-Irwin Pact.

Question 14

Bhagat Singh, along with Rajguru and Sukhdev, was executed on 23 March 1931 for his role in the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association's most famous action, the:
(a) Kakori train robbery (1925) (b) Central Legislative Assembly bomb (1929) (c) Alipore Bomb Case (1908) (d) Chittagong Armoury Raid (1930)

Accepted Answer

Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt threw a deliberately non-lethal bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly in 1929, courting arrest to publicise the HSRA's cause; the subsequent trial (linked also to avenging Lala Lajpat Rai's death) led to the 1931 executions. The Kakori robbery (1925, Ram Prasad Bismil's HRA) and the Alipore Bomb Case (1908, Khudiram Bose) belong to earlier, separate revolutionary generations; the Chittagong Armoury Raid (1930, Surya Sen) was a distinct, simultaneous but separate Bengal action.

Answer: (b) Central Legislative Assembly bomb (1929).

Question 15

Subhas Chandra Bose, after resigning as INC president in 1939, went on to lead the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj), formed with the support of:
(a) Germany (b) Japan (c) the Soviet Union (d) Italy

Accepted Answer

The INA was organised and led by Bose with Japanese support in Southeast Asia from 1943, after he took over from Rash Behari Bose; it fought alongside Japanese forces in the Burma campaign. Bose had earlier sought support in Germany (1941–43) but the INA itself, including the all-women Rani of Jhansi Regiment, was a Japan-backed force.

Answer: (b) Japan.

Question 16

Under the Mountbatten Plan and the Indian Independence Act, 1947, India and Pakistan became independent on:
(a) India: 15 August; Pakistan: 14 August (b) India: 14 August; Pakistan: 15 August (c) Both on 15 August (d) India: 26 January; Pakistan: 14 August

Accepted Answer

Pakistan became independent on 14 August 1947, one day before India's independence on 15 August 1947 — a precise, frequently tested date pairing. 26 January is India's later Republic Day (1950), when the Constitution came into force, not its Independence Day.

Answer: (a) India: 15 August; Pakistan: 14 August.

Practice — "History & Freedom Movement"

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