DAY – 75 (InstaTest-75): Insta 75 Days Revision Plan-2020: Topic – Modern India, Previous year UPSC papers – 2017, March 2020 CA

Solution: B

Organizing the All India Whips Conference is one of the functions assigned to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, under Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 made under article 77(3) of the Constitution.

Solution: B

Bardoli Satyagraha

The Bardoli taluqa in Surat district had witnessed intense politicization after the coming of Gandhi on the national political scene. The movement sparked off in January 1926when the authorities decided to increase the land revenue by30 per cent. The Congress leaders were quick to protest and a Bardoli Inquiry Committee was set up to go into the issue. The committee found the revenue hike to be unjustified. In February 1926, Vallabhbhai Patel was called to lead the movement. The women of Bardoli gave him the title of “Sardar”. Under Patel, the Bardoli peasants resolved to refuse payments of the revised assessment until the Government appointed an independent tribunal or accepted the current amount as full payment. To organize the movement, Patel setup 13 chhavanis or workers’ camps in the taluqa. Bardoli Satyagraha Patrika was brought out to mobilize public opinion. An intelligence wing was set up to make sure all the tenants followed the movement’s resolutions. Those who opposed the movement faced a social boycott. Special emphasis was placed on the mobilization of women. K.M.Munshi and Lalji Naranji resigned from the Bombay Legislative Council in support of the movement.

By August 1928, massive tension had built up in the area. There were prospects of a railway strike in Bombay. Gandhi reached Bardoli to stand by in case of any emergency. The Government was looking for a graceful withdrawal now. It set the condition that first the enhanced rent be paid by all the occupants (not actually done). Then, a committee went into the whole affair and found the revenue hike to be unjustified and recommended a rise of 6.03 per cent only.

Solution: A

Earlier attempts to improve the economic conditions of the workers were in the nature of the philanthropic efforts which were isolated, sporadic and aimed at specific local grievances.

1870 Sasipada Banerjea started a workingmen’s club and newspaper Bharat Shramjeevi.

1878 Sorabjee Shapoorji Bengalee tried to get a bill, providing better working conditions to labour, passed in the Bombay Legislative Council.

1880 Narain Meghajee Lokhanday started the newspaper Deenbandhu and set up the Bombay Mill and Millhands Association.

1899 The first strike by the Great Indian Peninsular Railways took place, and it got widespread support. Tilak’s Kesari and Maharatta had been campaigning for the strike for months.

There were many prominent nationalist leaders like Bipin Chandra Pal and G. Subramanya Aiyar who demanded better conditions for workers and other pro-labour reforms.

Solution: A

Mercosur is an economic and political bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Created during a period when longtime rivals Argentina and Brazil were seeking to improve relations, the bloc saw some early successes, including a tenfold increase in trade within the group in the 1990s.

Solution: D

Wardha Scheme of Basic Education (1937)

The Congress had organized a National Conference on Education in October 1937 in Wardha. In the light of the resolutions passed there, Zakir Hussain committee formulated a detailed national scheme for basic education. The main principle behind this scheme was ‘learning through activity’. It was based on Gandhi’s ideas published in a series of articles in the weekly Harijan. Gandhi thought that Western education had created a gulf between the educated few and the masses and had also made the educated elite ineffective. The scheme had the following provisions.

(i) Inclusion of a basic handicraft in the syllabus.

(ii) First seven years of schooling to be an integral part of a free and compulsory nationwide education system (through mother tongue).

(iii) Teaching to be in Hindi from class II to VII and in English only after class VIII.

(iv) Ways to be devised to establish contact with the community around schools through service.

(v) A suitable technique to be devised with a view to implementing the main idea of basic education—educating the child through the medium of productive activity of a suitable handicraft.

The system, rather than being a methodology for education, was an expression of an idea for a new life and a new society. The basic premise was that only through such a scheme could India be an independent and non-violent society. This scheme was child-centred and cooperative. There was not much development of this idea, because of the start of the Second World War and the resignation of the Congress ministries (October 1939).

Solution: B

Censorship of Press Act, 1799

Lord Wellesley enacted this, anticipating French invasion of India. It imposed almost wartime press restrictions including pre-censorship. These restrictions were relaxed under Lord Hastings, who had progressive views, and in 1818, pre censorship was dispensed with.

Licensing Regulations, 1823

The acting governor-general, John Adams, who had reactionary views, enacted these. According to these regulations, starting or using a press without licence was a penal offence. Later on, the Act was extended to cover journals, pamphlets and books. These restrictions were directed chiefly against Indian language newspapers or those edited by Indians. Rammohan Roy’s  Mirat-ul-Akbar had to stop publication.

Solution: C

In genetics and developmental biology, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a laboratory strategy for creating a viable embryo from a body cell and an egg cell. The technique consists of taking an enucleated oocyte (egg cell) and implanting a donor nucleus from a somatic (body) cell. It is used in both therapeutic and reproductive cloning.

Solution: B

The Charter Act of 1833

• The lease of 20 years to the Company was further extended. Territories of India were to be governed in the name of the Crown.
• The Company’s monopoly over trade with China and in tea also ended.
• All restrictions on European immigration and the acquisition of property in India were lifted. Thus, the way was paved for the wholesale European colonization of India.
• In India, a financial, legislative and administrative centralization of the government was envisaged:

— The governor-general was given the power to superintend, control and direct all civil and military affairs of the Company.

— Bengal, Madras, Bombay and all other territories were placed under complete control of the governor-general.

— All revenues were to be raised under the authority of the governor-general who would have complete control over the expenditure too.

— The Governments of Madras and Bombay were drastically deprived of their legislative powers and left with a right of proposing to the governor-general the projects of law which they thought to be expedient.

• A law member was added to the governor-general’s council for professional advice on law-making.
• Indian laws were to be codified and consolidated.
• No Indian citizen was to be denied employment under the Company on the basis of religion, colour, birth, descent, etc. (Although the reality was different, this declaration formed the sheet-anchor of political agitation in India.)
• The administration was urged to take steps to ameliorate the conditions of slaves and to ultimately abolish slavery. (Slavery was abolished in 1843.)

Solution: D

Babasaheb Ambedkar, who had experienced the worst form of casteist discrimination during his childhood, fought against upper caste tyranny throughout his life. He organized the All India Scheduled Castes Federation, while several other leaders of the depressed classes founded the All India Depressed Classes Association. Ambedkar condemned the hierarchical and insular caste system as a whole, and advocated the annihilation of the institution of caste for the real progress of the nation. The struggle of the depressed classes led to the provision of special representation for these classes in the Government of India Act, 1935.

Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar led the Mahad Satyagraha in March 1927 to challenge the regressive customs of the caste Hindus. He stressed the necessity of removing ideas of ‘high’ and ‘low’ and inculcating self-elevation through self-help, self-respect and self-knowledge. He led a procession of some 2,500 ‘untouchables’ through the town of Mahad to the Chawdar tank, a public source of water tank from which the untouchables were not allowed to draw water. Dr Ambedkar took water from the tank and drank it. There were huge protests by caste Hindus. Later in December 1927, Ambedkar and his colleagues burnt the ‘Manusmriti’ at the same place as a gesture of getting rid of inequalities.

Dr Ambedkar established the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha in 1924 to highlight the difficulties and grievances of the dalits before the government. Its motto was: ‘Educate, Agitate and Organize’.

Solution: B

The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) is spreading namely, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram.

The Western Ghats, also known as Sahyadri are a mountain range that covers an area of 140,000 square kilometres (54,000 sq mi) in a stretch of 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, traversing the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Pulicat Lake is spread over two States only.

Solution: C

In 1925, the National Council of Women in India, a national branch of the International Council of Women, was formed. Mehribai Tata played a vital role in its formation and advancement. She opined that the purdah system, caste differences and lack of education prevented women from working to solve societal problems. Other women who held important positions on the executive committee of the council included Cornelia Sarabji, India’s first lady barrister; Tarabai Premchand, wife of a wealthy banker; Shaffi Tyabji, a member of one of Mumbai’s leading Muslim families; and Maharani Sucharu Devi, daughter of Keshab Chandra Sen.

However, according to critics, the philanthropic style that was being followed by these women was that of upper-class English women.

The All India Women’s Conference (AIWC), founded by Margaret Cousins in 1927, was perhaps the first women’s organization with an egalitarian approach. Its first conference was held at Ferguson College, Pune.

Solution: C

Nature of the Revolt

It was at the beginning of the twentieth century that the 1857 revolt came to be interpreted as a “planned war of national independence”, by V.D. Savarkar in his book, The Indian War of Independence, 1857. Savarkar called the revolt the first war of Indian independence. He said it was inspired by the lofty ideal of self-rule by Indians through a nationalist upsurge. Dr S.N. Sen in his Eighteen Fifty-Seven considers the revolt as having begun as a fight for religion but ending as a war of independence. Dr R.C. Majumdar, however, considers it as neither the first, nor national, nor a war of independence as large parts of the country remained unaffected and many sections of the people took no part in the upsurge.

Jawaharlal Nehru considered the revolt of 1857 as essentially a feudal uprising though there were somen ationalistic elements in it (Discovery of India). M.N. Roy felt the revolt was a last ditch stand of feudalism against commercial capitalism. R.P. Dutt also saw the significance of the revolt of the peasantry against foreign domination even as he acknowledged it to be a defence of the old feudal order.

Nature

R.C. Majumdar and S.N. Sen— “Not an organized ‘national ’revolt”

R.C. Majumdar— “Neither first, nor National War of Independence”

V.D. Savarkar—“War of independence”

Eric Stokes—“Elitist in character”

Lawrence and Seeley—“Mere sepoy mutiny”

T.R. Holmes—“A conflict between civilization and barbarism”

James Outram—“A Mohammedan conspiracy making capital of Hindu grievances”

Percival Spear—Three phases of the revolt

Solution: D

The Election Commission of India is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering election processes in India at national, state and district level.

The body administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, state Legislative Assemblies, state legislative Councils, and the offices of the President and Vice President of the country.

“The Election Commissioner Amendment Act, 1989” was adopted on 1 January 1990 which turned the commission into a multi-member body: a 3-member Commission has been in operation since then and the decisions by the commission are made by a majority vote.

Election Commission of India decides the election schedule for the conduct of both general elections and bye-elections.

Election Commission resolves the disputes relating to splits/mergers of recognized political parties.

Solution: C

The Kisan Sabha Movement

After the 1857 revolt, the Awadh taluqdars had got back their lands. This strengthened the hold of the taluqdars or big landlords over the agrarian society of the province. The majority of the cultivators were subjected to high rents, summary evictions (bedakhali), illegal levies, renewal feesor nazrana. The First World War had hiked the prices of food and other necessities. This worsened the conditions of the UP peasants.

Mainly due to the efforts of the Home Rule activists, kisan sabhas were organized in UP. The United Provinces Kisan Sabha was set up in February 1918 by Gauri Shankar Mishra and Indra Narayan Dwivedi. Madan Mohan Malaviya supported their efforts. By June 1919, the UP Kisan Sabha had 450 branches. Other prominent leaders included Jhinguri Singh, Durgapal Singh and Baba Ramchandra. In June 1920, Baba Ramchandra urged Nehru to visit these villages. During these visits, Nehru developed close contacts with the villagers.

In October 1920, the Awadh Kisan Sabha came into existence because of differences in nationalist ranks. The Awadh Kisan Sabha asked the kisans to refuse to till bedakhali land, not to offer hari and begar (forms of unpaid labour), to boycott those who did not accept these conditions and to solve their disputes through panchayats.

From the earlier forms of mass meetings and mobilization, the patterns of activity changed rapidly in January 1921 to the looting of bazaars, houses, granaries and clashes with the police. The centres of activity were primarily the districts of Rai Bareilly, Faizabad and Sultanpur. The movement declined soon, partly due to government repression and partly because of the passing of the Awadh Rent (Amendment) Act.

Solution: D

Education of Women The Christian missionaries were the first to set up the Calcutta Female Juvenile Society in1819. The Bethune School, founded by J.E.D. Bethune, president of the Council of Education in Calcutta in 1849was the first fruit of the powerful movement for women’s education that arose in the 1840s and 1850s. Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was associated with no less than 35 girls’ schools in Bengal and is considered one of the pioneers of women’s education.

Charles Wood’s Despatch on Education (1854) laid great stress on the need for female education. In 1914, the Women’s Medical Service did a lot of work in training nurses and mid-wives. The Indian Women’s University set up by Professor D.K. Karve in 1916 was one of the outstanding institutions imparting education to women. In the same year Lady Hardinge Medical College was opened in Delhi.

Solution: C

Corona Kavach App

• Indian Government has finally launched its own Coronavirus tracking app dubbed Corona Kavach.
• It has been introduced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in association with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW).
• The Android smart phone app is a location-based COVID-19 tracking one, which will alert a user if they are at the risk of catching the virus and tell about the COVID-19 cases in the country.
• The Corona Kavach app is meant to track Coronavirus and somehow control its spread.

Solution: A

Shyamji Krishnavarma had started in London in 1905an Indian Home Rule Society—‘India House’—as a centre for Indian students, a scholarship scheme to bring radical youth from India, and a journal The Indian Sociologist .Revolutionaries such as Savarkar and Hardayal became the members of India House. Madanlal Dhingra from this circle assassinated the India office bureaucrat Curzon-Wyllie in 1909. Soon, London became too dangerous for the revolutionaries, particularly after Savarkar had been extradited in 1910 and transported for life in the Nasik conspiracy case.

New centres emerged on the continent—Paris and Geneva—from where Madam Bhikaji Cama, a Parsi revolutionary who had developed contacts with French socialists and who brought out Bande Mataram, and Ajit Singh operated. And after 1909 when Anglo-German relations deteriorated, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya chose Berlin as his base.

The Ghadr

The Ghadr Party was a revolutionary group organized around a weekly newspaper The Ghadr with its headquarters at San Francisco and branches along the US coast and in the Far East.

These revolutionaries included mainly ex-soldiers and peasants who had migrated from the Punjab to the USA and Canada in search of better employment opportunities. They were based in the US and Canadian cities along the western(Pacific) coast. Pre-Ghadr revolutionary activity had been carried on by Ramdas Puri, G.D. Kumar, Taraknath Das, Sohan Singh Bhakna and Lala Hardayal who reached there in1911. To carry out revolutionary activities, the earlier activists had set up a ‘Swadesh Sevak Home’ at Vancouver and ‘United India House’ at Seattle. Finally in 1913, the Ghadr was established. The Berlin Committee for Indian Independence was established in 1915 by Virendranath Chattopadhyay, Bhupendranath Dutta, Lala Hardayal and others with the help of the German foreign office under ‘Zimmerman Plan’. These revolutionaries aimed to mobilize the Indian settlers abroad to send volunteers and arms to India to incite rebellion among Indian troops there and to even organize an armed invasion of British India to liberate the country.

Solution: A

Kheda Satyagraha (1918)—First Non-Cooperation

Because of drought in 1918, the crops failed in Kheda district of Gujarat. According to the Revenue Code, if the yield was less than one-fourth the normal produce, the farmers were entitled to remission. The Gujarat Sabha, consisting of the peasants, submitted petitions to the highest governing authorities of the province requesting that the revenue assessment for the year 1919 be suspended. The government, however, remained adamant and said that the property of the farmers would be seized if the taxes were not paid. Gandhi asked the farmers not to pay the taxes. Gandhi, however, was mainly the spiritual head of the struggle. It was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a group of other devoted Gandhians, namely, Narahari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya and Ravi Shankar Vyas, who went around the villages, organized the villagers and told them what to do and gave the necessary political leadership. Patel along with his colleagues organized the tax revolt which the different ethnic and caste communities of Kheda supported.

The revolt was remarkable in that discipline and unity were maintained. Even when, on non-payment of taxes, the government seized the farmers’ personal property, land and livelihood, a vast majority of Kheda’s farmers did not desert Sardar Patel. Gujarat is in other parts who sympathized with the cause of the revolt helped by sheltering the relatives and property of the protesting peasants. Those Indians who sought to buy the confiscated lands were socially ostracized.

Ultimately, the government sought to bring about an agreement with the farmers. It agreed to suspend the tax for the year in question, and for the next; reduce the increase in rate; and return all the confiscated property. The struggle at Kheda brought a new awakening among the peasantry. They became aware that they would not be free of injustice and exploitation unless and until their country achieved complete independence.

Solution: B

NCS (NATIONAL CAREER SERVICE):

• The Ministry of Labour and Employment launched the National Career Service (NCS) Project by transforming the processes in the existing network of 978 Employment Exchanges whereby they also function as career centers.
• It is one of the mission mode projects under the umbrella of E-Governance Plan.
• The NCS portal provides a nation-wide online platform for jobseekers and employers for job matching in a dynamic, efficient and responsive manner.
• NCS provides a host of career-related services such as dynamic job matching, career counselling, job notifications, vocational guidance, information on skill development courses, internships and alike.
• NCS would facilitate not just the online matching of jobs, but provide information about opportunities for training and re-skilling also.

Solution: C

The Simon Commission Recommendations

The Simon Commission published a two-volume report in May 1930. It proposed the abolition of dyarchy and the establishment of representative government in the provinces which should be given autonomy. It said that the governor should have discretionary power in relation to internal security and administrative powers to protect the different communities. The number of members of provincial legislative council should be increased.

The report rejected parliamentary responsibility at the center. The governor-general was to have complete power to appoint the members of the cabinet. And the Government of India would have complete control over the high court.

It also recommended that separate communal electorates be retained (and extended such electorates to other communities) but only until tensions between Hindus and Muslims had died down. There was to be no universal franchise.

It accepted the idea of federalism but not in the near future; it suggested that a Consultative Council of Greater India should be established which should include representatives of both the British provinces as well as princely states.

Solution: A

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA):

• The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is the apex statutory body for disaster management in India.
• On 23 December 2005, the Government of India enacted the Disaster Management Act, which envisaged the creation of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
• It is headed by the Prime Minister.
• State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) headed by respective Chief Ministers, to spearhead and implement a holistic and integrated approach to Disaster Management in India.
• NDMA, as the apex body, is mandated to lay down the policies, plans and guidelines for Disaster Management to ensure timely and effective response to disasters.

National Disaster Response Force:

• The Disaster Management Act has made the statutory provisions for constitution of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for the purpose of specialized response to natural and man-made disasters.
• All battalions have been equipped and trained to respond natural and man-made disasters including chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) emergencies.
• It works under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Solution: A

Gandhi-Irwin Pact

On January 25, 1931, Gandhi and all other members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) were released unconditionally. The CWC authorized Gandhi to initiate discussions with the viceroy. As a result of these discussions, a pact was signed between the viceroy, representing the British Indian Government, and Gandhi, representing the Indian people, in Delhi on February 14, 1931. This Delhi Pact, also known as the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, placed the Congress on an equal footing with the government. Irwin on behalf of the government agreed on—

1. immediate release of all political prisoners not convicted of violence;
2. remission of all fines not yet collected;
3. return of all lands not yet sold to third parties;
4. lenient treatment to those government servants who had resigned;
5. right to make salt in coastal villages for personal consumption (not for sale);
6. right to peaceful and non-aggressive picketing; and
7. withdrawal of emergency ordinances.

The viceroy, however, turned down two of Gandhi’s demands—

(i) public inquiry into police excesses, and

(ii) commutation of Bhagat Singh and his comrades’ death sentence to life sentence.

Solution: C

National Centre for Disease Control:

• It is an institute under the Indian Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• It was established in July 1963 for research in epidemiology and control of communicable diseases.
• It was previously known as National Institute of Communicable Diseases.
• It functions as the nodal agency in the country for disease surveillance facilitating prevention and control of communicable diseases.

Solution: B

After Cripps’ departure, Gandhi framed a resolution calling for British withdrawal and a non-violent non-cooperation movement against any Japanese invasion. The CWC meeting at Wardha (July 14, 1942) accepted the idea of a struggle.

The ‘Quit India’ Resolution

In July 1942, the Congress Working Committee met at Wardha and resolved that it would authorize Gandhi to take charge of the non-violent mass movement. The resolution generally referred to as the ‘Quit India’ resolution. Proposed by Jawaharlal Nehru and seconded by Sardar Patel, it was to be approved by the All India Congress Committee meeting in Bombay in August.

The Quit India Resolution was ratified at the Congress meeting at Gowalia Tank, Bombay, on August 8, 1942. The meeting also resolved to

• demand an immediate end to British rule in India.
• declare commitment of free India to defend itself against all types of Fascism and imperialism.
• form a provisional Government of India after British withdrawal.
• sanction a civil disobedience movement against British rule.
• Gandhi was named the leader of the struggle.

Solution: B

Young Scientist Programme

• ISRO has launched a special programme for school children called Yuva Vigyani Karyakram or Young Scientist Programme.
• The programme aims at imparting basic knowledge on space technology, space science and space applications to the younger ones with the intent of arousing their interest in the emerging areas of space activities.
• Under the programme, three students each will be selected to participate in it every year from each state and union territory, covering CBSE, ICSE and state syllabus.
• The eligibility for being chosen for the programme includes those students who have finished 8th standard and are currently studying in the 9th standard.
• The selection will be based on the academic performance and extracurricular activities of the students, as per the selection criteria already circulated to the chief secretaries of the states and administrators of Union Territories.
• The students belonging to rural areas have been given special weightage under the selection criteria set by ISRO.
• Students who are studying in India including OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) are eligible for the programme.

Solution: B

Solution: C

Solution: A

To reach the winning post A will have to cover a distance of (1000 m–280 m), i.e., 720 m

Ratio of the speed of A and B is 3: 4.

By the time A covers 720 m (i.e 240 * 3), B covers 960 m (i.e 240 *4)

Therefore, A betas B by 40 m if A has start of 280 m.

Solution: B

The boy can select one trouser in 4 ways.

The boy can select one shirt in 8 ways.

The number of ways in which he can select one trouser and one shirt is 4 * 8 = 32 ways.

Answer: D.

Based on a reading of the last line of the passage, it is clear that right of personal property should reconcile with similar right of others as well, which is captured by option D.