QUIZ – 2020: INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 5 November 2020 – History

Solution: b)

Bhimbetka owes its name to the characters of the Mahabharata. It is believed that when the five brothers, called Pandavas, were banished from their kingdom, they came here and stayed in these caves, the massive rocks seating the gigantic frame of Bhima, the second Pandava.

The rock paintings have numerous layers belonging to various epochs of time, ranging from the Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic Age to the protohistoric, early historic and medieval periods. The most ancient scenes here believed to be commonly belonging to the Mesolithic Age.

Animals such as bison, tiger, rhinoceros, wild boar, elephants, monkeys, antelopes, lizards, peacocks etc. have been abundantly depicted in the rock shelters. Popular religious and ritual symbols also occur frequently.

Solution: d)

Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age which falls roughly from 10000 B.C. to 6000 B.C.

Mesolithic remains are found in Langhanj in Gujarat, Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and also in some places of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

In the sites of Mesolithic Age, a different type of stone tools is found. These are tiny stone artifacts, often not more than five centimeters in size, and therefore called microliths.

The favourable climate, better rainfalls and warm atmosphere led to reduction in nomadism to seasonally sedentary settlement. They moved to new areas such as nearby rivers which provided water. First human colonization of the Ganga plains took place during this period.

Domestication of animals, horticulture and primitive cultivation started.

Solution: a)

While many zamindars were facing a crisis at the end of the eighteenth century, a group of rich peasants were consolidating their position in the villages. This class of rich peasants were known as jotedars. By the early nineteenth century, jotedars had acquired vast areas of land – sometimes as much as several thousand acres. They controlled local trade as well as moneylending, exercising immense power over the poorer cultivators of the region.

A large part of their land was cultivated through sharecroppers (adhiyars or bargadars) who brought their own ploughs, laboured in the field, and handed over half the produce to the jotedars after the harvest.

They fiercely resisted efforts by zamindars to increase the jama of the village, prevented zamindari officials from executing their duties, mobilised ryots who were dependent on them, and deliberately delayed payments of revenue to the zamindar.

The jotedars were most powerful in North Bengal. In some places they were called haoladars, elsewhere they were known as gantidars or mandals. Their rise inevitably weakened zamindari authority.

Solution: c)

The Treaty of Allahabad was signed on 12 August 1765, between the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, son of the late Emperor Alamgir II, and Robert Clive, of the East India Company, as a result of the Battle of Buxar of 22 October 1764.

The Treaty of Seringapatam was signed on 18 March 1792 at the end of the Third Anglo-Mysore War.

The Treaty of Bassein was a pact signed on 31 December 1802 between the British East India Company and Baji Rao II, the Maratha Peshwa of Pune in India after the Battle of Poona.

Solution: d)

Moderates were called so because they adopted peaceful and constitutional means to achieve their demands. They had faith in British goodwill and justice. They organized in parties and associations, even extremists did the same, but the latter were more radical in their approach. Extremists believed in confrontation rather than persuasion.