[Mission 2022] QUIZ – 2021: INSIGHTS STATIC , 24 August 2021 – History

Solution: d)

In 1919 Gandhiji gave a call for a satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act that the British had just passed. The Act curbed fundamental rights such as the freedom of expression and strengthened police powers.

• In April 1919 there were a number of demonstrations and hartals in the country and the government used brutal measures to suppress them. The Jallianwala Bagh atrocities, inflicted by General Dyer in Amritsar on Baisakhi day were a part of this repression.
• The Khilafat issue was another such cause. In 1920 the British imposed a harsh treaty on the Turkish Sultan or Khalifa. People were furious about this as they had been about the Jallianwala massacre. Also, Indian Muslims were keen that the Khalifa be allowed to retain control over Muslim sacred places in the erstwhile Ottoman Empire.
• The leaders of the Khilafat agitation, Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, wished to initiate a full-fledged Non-Cooperation Movement. Gandhiji supported their call and urged the Congress to campaign against “Punjab wrongs” (Jallianwala massacre), the Khilafat wrong and demand swaraj.

Solution: b)

The Non-Cooperation Movement was a significant but short phase of the Indian independence movement from British rule.

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: b)

During 1919-22, the British were opposed through two mass movements—the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation. Though the two movements emerged from separate issues, they adopted a common programme of action—that of non-violent non-cooperation.

With the Non-Cooperation Movement, nationalist sentiments reached every nook and corner of the country and politicised every strata of population—the artisans, peasants, students, urban poor, women, traders, etc. The masses lost the hitherto all-pervasive fear of the colonial rule and its mighty repressive organs.

Hindu-Muslim Unity: The massive participation of Muslims and the maintenance of communal unity, despite the events like Moppila Uprisings, were great achievements.

Solution: c)

Chauri-Chaura Incident (February 5, 1922)—Violence by agitated mob prompted Gandhi to withdraw the movement. Most of the nationalist leaders including C.R. Das, Motilal Nehru, Subhash Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, however, expressed their bewilderment at Gandhi’s decision to withdraw the movement.

Solution: b)

Government of India Act, 1919 for the first time allowed women to vote.