QUIZ – 2020: INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 16 March 2020 – History

Solution: d)

The Third Battle of Panipat was fought between the Marathas and the invading armies of Afghan general Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1761. The battle, fought about 90 km north of Delhi, was won by the Afghans and left about 40,000 troops of the Marathas dead. Maharaja Surajmal was among those who played key roles in the battle. After the battle, the Marathas lost their preeminent position in north India, which ultimately paved the way for British colonial powers to take over.

Who is Maharaja Surajmal?

Maharaja Surajmal was born in 1707 in the kingdom of Bharatpur, Rajasthan. He ruled in the 18th century and was the son of the Jat chieftain Badan Singh. He is described as “a strong leader who harried the Mughal empire in the anarchic period of its decline, consolidated the kingdom with its capital at Bharatpur and used the resources gained to build forts and palaces, the most famous being the palace at Deeg and the Bharatpur Fort”

Source

Solution: c)

In a bid to rectify the defects of the Regulating Act of 1773, the British Parliament passed the Amending Act of 1781, also known as the Act of Settlement. The next important act was the Pitt’s India Act2 of 1784.

Features of the Act

1. It distinguished between the commercial and political functions of the Company.
2. It allowed the Court of Directors to manage the commercial affairs but created a new body called Board of Control to manage the political affairs. Thus, it established a system of double government.
3. It empowered the Board of Control to supervise and direct all operations of the civil and military government or revenues of the British possessions in India.

Thus, the act was significant for two reasons: first, the Company’s territories in India were for the first time called the ‘British possessions in India’; and second, the British Government was given the supreme control over Company’s affairs and its administration in India.

Solution: c)

Government of India Act of 1858 – known as the Act for the Good Government of India.

Charter Act of 1853:

• It established a separate Governor-General’s legislative council which came to be known as the Indian (Central) Legislative Council.
• It introduced an open competition system of selection and recruitment of civil servants. The covenanted civil service was thus thrown open to the Indians also.

It introduced, for the first time, local representation in the Indian (Central) Legislative Council.

Solution: b)

The Non-Cooperation Movement was a significant but short phase of the Indian independence movement from British rule. It was led by Mahatma Gandhi after the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and lasted from 1920 to February 1922.

September 1920 At a special session in Calcutta, the Congress approved a non-cooperation programme till the Punjab and Khilafat wrongs were removed and swaraj was established. The programme was to include—

• boycott of government schools and colleges;
• boycott of law courts and dispensation of justice through panchayats instead;
• boycott of legislative councils;
• boycott of foreign cloth and use of khadi instead; also practice of hand-spinning to be done;
• renunciation of government honours and titles

December 1920 At the Nagpur session of the Indian National Congress— The programme of non-cooperation was endorsed.

Solution: d)

The main objective was to correct the Khilafat wrong, to save the ottoman empire and save the holy places of Muslims. Through this movement they also expressed their anti-British feelings.