Answer: A

Basic Information:

• The Bharata Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandala (BISM) owed its origins to the stalwart

Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade.

• He founded this institution in 1910 in Pune with the support of K C Mehendale.
• Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade (24 June 1863 – 31 December 1926), popularly known as Itihasacharya Rajwade, was a historian, scholar, writer, commentator and orator from Maharashtra.

• In 1895 he started a Marathi magazine called Bhashantar (meaning ‘translation’) through which he brought works of Western historians and scholars such as Plato, Aristotle, and Edward Gibbon, and also Indian scholars like Shankaracharya in Marathi.

• After his sudden death in 1926, ‘Rajwade Sanshodhak Mandal’ was founded at Dhule
• His noted work: Marathyanchya Itihasachi Sadhane (History of Marathas), Radha Madhav Vilas Champu (Biography of Shahaji), Bharatiya Vivah Sansthecha Itihas (History of Indianmatrimony), Aitihasik Prastavana (Historical Prefaces)

• The BISM organised an All India Congress in 1935 to celebrate its silver jubilee. This event resulted in the inception of the Indian History Congress (IHC).

• The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute founded in 1917 by R G Bhandarkar.

Answer: C

Basic Information:

• 202nd anniversary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle of 1818 was observed on January 1, 2020.
• The last battle of the Third Anglo-Maratha war was fought at Koregaon on the banks of Bhima river, hence the name Bhima Koregaon battle, on January 1, 1818

• The three wars between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire are referred to as the great Maratha Wars or the Anglo-Maratha Wars.
• The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-1818) because of conflict between the British and the Pindaris. The British suspected that the Marathas were providing help to the Pindaris, who were mercenaries fighting for the Marathas.

• Peshwa intended to attack Pune, but British dispatched troops from Shirur, resulting in theBattle of Bhima-Koregaon on January 1, 1818.
• The battle was decisively won by Company forces. The dead Company soldiers of Indian originincluded 22 Mahars, 16 Marathas, 8 Rajputs, 2 Muslims, and 2 Jews.
• On 1 January 1927, B.R. Ambedkar visited the memorial obelisk erected on the spot of Bima-Koregaon, which bears the names of the dead including nearly two dozen Mahar soldiers.

Answer: D

Basic Information:

• Savitribai Phule was born on 3 January 1831 at Naigaon in Maharashtra’s Satara district. She was the eldest daughter of Lakshmi and Khandoji Neveshe Patil, both of whom belonged to the Mali community, now an Other Backward Caste (OBC). At the age of 9, she was married to 13- year-old Jyotirao Phule.

• Jyotiba, at the age of 21, and Savitri, 17, opened a school for women in 1848. It was the country’s first school for women started by Indians.

• Savitribai Phule was taught by Jyotiba at their home. Later, she took a teacher’s training course at an institute run by an American missionary in Ahmednagar and in Pune’s Normal School.

• Fatima Sheikh went along with Savitribai to the Normal School and they both graduated together. Fatima and Savitribai opened a school in Usman Sheikh’s house in Pune in 1849.

• In the 1850s, the Phule couple initiated two educational trusts—the Native Female School, Pune and The Society for Promoting the Education of Mahars, Mangs and Etceteras—which came to have many schools under them.

• Savitribai was also a fiery author and poetess. She published Kavya Phule in 1854 and Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar in 1892.

• In 1852, Savitribai, a staunch feminist, started the Mahila Seva Mandal to raise awareness about women’s rights.

• She also started the Home for the Prevention of Infanticide in her house, a place where Brahmin widows could deliver their babies safely.

• She initiated the first Satyashodhak marriage—a marriage without dowry, Brahmin priests or Brahminical rituals.
• Savitribai broke yet another taboo when she led the funeral procession of her husband.

Answer: B

Lord Curzon (1899-1905), initiated a number of unpopular legislative and administrative measures, which hurt the susceptibilities of the educated Indians.

• The reconstitution of the Calcutta Corporation through the Calcutta Municipal Amendment Act of 1899 reduced the number of elected representatives in it;

• the Indian Universities Act of 1904 placed Calcutta University under the most complete governmental control;

• the Indian Official Secrets Amendment Act of 1904 further restricted press freedom.
• The last in the series was the partition of Bengal in 1905, designed to weaken the Bengali nationalists who allegedly controlled the Congress.

Some of his popular initiatives:

• He established The Agriculture Research Institute in Pusa (Bihar – Bengal Presidency)
• He instituted a Police Commission in 1902 under the chairmanship of Sir Andrew Frazer.
• He passed a law called the Ancient Monuments Act, 1904

Answer: C

• December 25th is the birth anniversary of Madan Mohan Malaviya, the famed Indian educationist and freedom fighter who is also called ‘Mahamana’.

• He was one of the torchbearers of the freedom struggle — acting as a bridge between the Moderates and the Extremists in the Congress.

• Drawn to politics, Malaviya joined the Indian National Congress at its Calcutta session in 1886 — it had been founded a year previously at the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Mumbai.

• Malaviya rose up the ranks, and became president four times — in 1909 (Lahore), in 1918 (Delhi), in 1930 (Delhi), and in 1932 (Calcutta). Malaviya was part of the Congress for almost 50 years.

• Malaviya was one of the early leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha, and helped found it in 1906.

Answer: B

Answer: A

• The Arya Samaj Movement, revivalist in form though not in content, was the result of a reaction to western influences. Its founder, Dayanand.Saraswati (or Mulshankar, 1824-83) was born in the old Morvi state in Gujarat.

• Dayanand’s views were published in his famous work, Satyarth Prakash (The True Exposition).
• He took inspiration from the Vedas and considered them to be “India’s Rock of Ages”, the infallible and the true original seed of Hinduism

• He gave the slogan “Back to the Vedas”.
• Arya Samaj offered a sharp criticism of the existing Hindu practices, like idolatry, polytheism, child marriage, widow celibacy, foreign travel, dominance of Brahmans and caste system.

• Lala Lajpat Rai was associated with Arya Samaj and was editor of Arya Gazette, which he set up during his student time.

Answer: C

• Abdali was supported by two Indian allies—the Rohillas Najib-ud-daulah, Afghans of the Doab region and Shuja-ud-Daula-the Nawab of Awadh.

• The Marathas were defeated in the battle, with 40-50,000 of their troops killed, while Abdali’s army is estimated to have suffered around 20,000 casualties.

• It had great impact on Maratha empire prospects. Many important Maratha chiefs including Bhau, son of the Peshwa, Viswas Rao, Jaswant Rao Pawar, Tukoji Sindhia etc. were killed in the battle.

• The Maratha rise was checked but they retook Delhi ten years later under Peshwa Madhavrao.
• The First Battle of Panipat, in 1526 was fought between Babur and Ibrahim lodhi. laid the foundation of the Mughal Empire in India.

• The Second Battle of Panipat, in 1556 was fought between Akbar and King Hemu ‘Vikramaditya’.

Answer: A

• Rani Lakshmibai born on November 19, 1828, as Manikarnika Tambe in Varanasi. Rani was married to the King of Jhansi, Raja Gangadhar Newalkar in 1842.

• She gave birth to a boy, later named Damodar Rao, in 1851, who died after four months. The Maharaja adopted a child called Anand Rao, the son of Gangadhar Rao’s cousin, who was renamed Damodar Rao, on the day before the Maharaja died.

• Under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie, the Doctrine of Lapse was applied, rejecting Damodar Rao’s claim to the throne and annexing the state to its territories.

• In March 1854, Rani Lakshmibai was given an annual pension of Rs. 60,000 and ordered to leave the palace and the fort.

• The Doctrine of Lapse was an annexation policy followed widely by Lord Dalhousie when he was India’s Governor-General from 1848 to 1856.

• Under it, any princely state under the direct or indirect (as a vassal) control of the East India Company where the ruler did not have a legal male heir would be annexed by the company.

• Also any adopted son of the Indian ruler could not be proclaimed as heir to the kingdom.

Answer: D

• Dyer died of cerebral haemorrhage and arteriosclerosis in 1927.
• On March 13, 1940 Udham Singh shot O’Dwyer at a meeting of the East India Association and the Royal Central Asian Society at Caxton Hill.
• He was a political activist who got associated with the Ghadar Party while in the US.

• He considered O’Dwyer to be the actual perpetrator as he the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab in 1919.

Answer: A

• Japan sent Major Fujiwara to Southeast Asia to contact expatriate Indians who were organising themselves into the Indian Independence Leagues under the leadership of men like Pritam Singh.

• By September 1942, the INA was formally in existence under Mohan Singh.
• As Mohan Singh insisted on autonomy and allied status, he was removed from command and put under arrest. Rash Behari Bose tried to hold the banner for some time, but he was then too aged for the task.

• After a long and arduous submarine voyage, in May 1943 Bose arrived in Southeast Asia.
• He became the supreme commander of its army, the Azad Hind Fauj (Free India Army) or the Indian National Army, which recruited around forty thousand men by 1945. and had a women’s regiment named after the legendary Rani of Jhansi of 1857 fame.

• In October 1943, he established a Provisional Government of Free India, which was immediately recognised by Japan and later by eight other governments, including Germany and Fascist Italy.

Answer: C

Answer: D

• in 1946, the interim government of India led by Jawaharlal Nehru was formed. It was the only such cabinet in India’s history in which arch-rivals Congress and the Muslim League shared power at the Centre.

• The interim government functioned with a great degree of autonomy, and remained in power until the end of British rule, after which it was succeeded by the Dominions of India and Pakistan.

• The Cripps mission in 1942, made a number of attempts to form an interim government in India.

• In 1946, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held following the proposals of the British Cabinet Mission dispatched by the British Prime Minister Clement Attlee.

• Viceroy Wavell subsequently called upon Indian representatives to join the interim government.

• The Interim government functioned according to the older Government of India Act of 1919.

Answer: D

• The Asiatic Society of Mumbai, elected the first woman president Prof Vispi Balaporia in the 218 years of its existence.

• Prof Vispi Balaporia, visiting faculty at Mumbai’s Jai Hind College, an institution where she was earlier Vice-Principal and Head of the Department of English, will head the institution that is a treasure house of remarkable historical artifacts.

• The Asiatic Society began its journey in 1804 as the Literary Society of Bombay. It was founded by Sir James Mackintosh, a Scottish colonial administrator who had a keen interest in Oriental studies.

• In 1841, the Society started publishing a journal titled Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society which continues to be published under the name Journal of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai.

• It was initially started by and for white European men, but in year 1841 the Society began admitting Indians as members.

• In 1826, the Literary Society became the Mumbai arm of the London-based Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and came to be called the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (BBRAS).

• In 1954, the institution was severed from its London parent and became the Asiatic Society of Bombay. In 2002, it acquired its present name.

Answer: A

• The INC officially suspended the CDM in May 1933 and withdrew it in May 1934.
• The CSP formed in 1934 operated within INC and tried to change its orientation towards a socialist programme as well as contain the dominance of the conservative ‘right’ wingers.

• At the Lucknow Congress in 1936 two issues, i.e., council entry and office acceptance came to a head The AICC meeting (August 1936) in Bombay decided in favour of contesting the election, but postponed the decision on office acceptance until the election was over.

• The AICC sanctioned office acceptance in March, 1937 by overriding the objections of Nehru and other CSP leaders.

• The formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Congress in April 1936, with Sahajanand Saraswati elected as its first president.

Answer: D

• At the opening day of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) at the Gowalia tank Maidan in Mumbai on 7 th August, 1942; Gandhi said, “I stick to the principle of non-violence as I did before. If you are tired of it then you need not come with me. At the time when I am about to launch the biggest fight in my life there can be no hatred for the British in my heart”

• The “Quit India” resolution, adopted by the AICC in Bombay on 8 August 1942, proposed to begin this mass civil disobedience under Gandhi’s direction

• He briskly set aside all opposition from within the Congress against direct action, coming mainly from Nehru and Rajagopalachari, and prepared the party for the final struggle, “the biggest fight in my life”.   77th anniversary of Quit India movement was observed on August 8th, 2019. Every year 8 August is celebrated in India as August Kranti Din.

Answer: A

• Lal Bahadur Shastri was born on 2nd October, 1904 at Mughal
• He was greatly impressed by Mahatma Gandhi’s denunciation of Indian Princes for their support of British rule in India.

• Lal Bahadur Shastri joined the Kashi Vidya Peeth in Varanasi, one of the many national institutions set up in defiance of the British rule.

• ‘Shastri’ was the bachelor’s degree awarded to him by the Vidya Peeth but has stuck in the minds of the people as part of his name.

• He accepted a spinning wheel and a few yards of handspun cloth as dowry.
• When the Congress Government was formed in 1946, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in his home State of Uttar Pradesh and soon rose to the position of Home Minister.

• He resigned his post as Minister for Railways because he felt responsible for a railway accident in which many lives were lost. The unprecedented gesture was greatly appreciated by Parliament and the country.

• He was the second Prime Minister of Independent India succeeding Nehru.
• He promoted the White Revolution and gave slogan – “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”
• He was awarded the Bharat Ratna the India’s highest civilian award posthumously in 1966.
• He suffered a heart attack while in Tashkent and passed away there. sarai, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

Answer: C

• In 1854, Charles Wood prepared a despatch on an educational system for India. Considered the “Magna Carta of English Education in. India”, this document was the first comprehensive plan for the spread of education in India.

• It recommended English as the medium of instruction for higher studies and vernaculars at school level.

• It laid down that the education imparted in government institutions should be secular.
• It recommended a system of grants-in-aid to encourage private enterprise.
• The departments of education were set up in all provinces.
• The ideals and methods of Wood’s Despatch dominated the field for five decades which saw rapid westernisation of education system in India, with educational institutions run by European headmasters and principals

Answer: D

• Socio-religious movements of 19 th century like Brahmo Samaj, Young Bengal Movement, Paramhansa Mandali, Prarthana Samaj, Arya Samaj, etc.

• The reformers of the early nineteenth century exhibited an intrinsic faith in the benevolent nature of colonial rule and relied more on legislation for imposing reform from above. These movements had remained confined to a narrow social space, as the reformist spirit appealed only to a small elite group, who were primarily the economic and cultural beneficiaries of colonial rule.

• Socially, they were mostly Hindus, and though caste was not a major criterion for membership, most of them belonged to the three higher castes, Brahman, Kayastha and Baidya. The Brahmo movement was almost exclusively patronised by these groups.

• It remained alienated from the masses.
• There was very little or no attempt to create a reformist social consciousness at the grass- roots level, where religious revivalism later found a fertile ground.

• To summarise their position in Christophe Jaffrelot’s words, they “undertook to reform their society and its religious practices in order to adapt them to Western modernity while preserving the core of Hindu tradition.”

Answer: A

• Rani Chennamma, the queen of Kitturu was one such warrior who led a war against British forces in early part of 19th Century when not many rulers were familiar with the evil designs of the British.

• Chennamma was born in Kakati, a small village in today’s Belagavi district of Karnataka.
• She became queen of Kitturu (now in Karnataka) when she married Raja Mallasarja of the Desai family.

• Under the Doctrine of Lapse, British rejected adopted child, Shivalingappa as heir to the throne.

• The princely state of Kitturu was taken over by the British East India Company in 1824 by imposing the ‘doctrine of lapse’, even before it was officially articulated by Lord Dalhousie.

• The British ordered Rani Chennamma to exile the adopted child Shivalingappa, using the policy of paramountcy and complete authority. But Chennamma defied the order.

• Rani Chennamma fought fiercely with the help of her lieutenants, Sangolli Rayanna and Gurusiddappa, but was outnumbered and ultimately captured and imprisoned at Bailhongal Fort, where she died on 21 February 1829.