[Mission 2023] INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 9 July 2022 – History

Solution: d)

The judicial system at the time of Warren Hastings’ ascendancy was a store-house of abuses. The Nawab who was hitherto the chief administrator of justice, misused his powers. Often, his judgments were careless. The zamindars who acted as judges at lower levels within their own areas were highly corrupt and prejudiced. On the whole, the judicial institution suffered from extreme corruption. Warren Hastings felt the necessity of reorganizing the judicial system. Each district was provided with a civil court under the Collector and a criminal court under an Indian Judge.

To hear appeals from the district courts two appellate courts, one for civil cases and another for criminal cases, were established at Calcutta. The highest civil court of appeal was called Sadar Diwani Adalat, which was to be presided over by the Governor and two judges recruited from among the members of his council. Similarly, the highest appellate criminal court was known as Sadar Nizamat Adalat which was to function under an Indian judge appointed by the Governor-in-Council.

Experts in Hindu and Muslim laws were provided to assist the judges. A digest of Hindu law was prepared in Sanskrit by learned Pandits and it was translated into Persian. An English translation of it – Code of Hindu Laws – was prepared by Halhed.

Solution: a)

In early 1908, Pulin organized the sensational Barrah Dacoity. The audacious dacoity was committed in broad daylight by a group of revolutionaries at the residence of the zamindar of Barrah, under the Nawabganj police station in the district of Dhaka. The fund was used for buying arms and ammunition.

Rashbehari Bose and Sachin Sanyal staged a bomb attack on Viceroy Hardinge.

Prafulla and Khudiram Bose tried to assassinate the district judge, Mr. Kingsford, by throwing bombs at the carriage in which Kingsford was supposed to travel, but he was not in the carriage, and two British women were killed.

Solution: c)

The newspapers and journals advocating revolutionary activity after the failure of Swadeshi movement included Sandhya and Yugantar in Bengal and Kal in Maharashtra.

Solution: b)

After calling off of the non-cooperation movement, differences over the question of council entry aroused. It resulted in the defeat of the Swarajists’ proposal of ‘ending or mending’ the councils at the Gaya session of the Congress (December 1922).

C.R Das and Motilal Nehru resigned from the presidentship and secretaryship respectively of the Congress and announced the formation of Congress-Khilafat Swarajya Party, with C.R. Das as the president and Motilal Nehru as one of the secretaries.

Important members of swarajya party are C.R. Das, Motilal Nehru, Vithalbhai Patel and Ajmal Khan. They were known as pro-changers.

Those who opposed council entry were known as no-changers. Important leaders belonging to this section were Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad, C. Rajagopalachari and M.A. Ansari. They advocated concentration on constructive work, and continuation of boycott and non-cooperation, and quiet preparation for resumption of the suspended civil disobedience programme.

Solution: c)

During Civil Disobedience Movement, a powerful agitation was organized in Assam against the infamous ‘Cunningham circular’ which forced parents, guardians and students to furnish assurances of good behaviour.