UPSC STATIC QUIZ – History : 17 January 2024

Solution: a)

A noteworthy achievement was the defeat of the Public Safety Bill in 1928 which was aimed at empowering the Government to deport undesirable and subversive foreigners.

Solution: d)

As per the commission, there should be a constitutional reconstruction in the form of a federal constitution. The provinces should be given full autonomy including law.

Other major recommendations include:

• The number of members of provincial legislative council should be increased. Governor- general should have complete power to appoint the members of the cabinet.
• The governor should have discretionary power to relate to internal security and administrative powers to protect the different communities.
• The government of India should have complete control over the high court.
• There were no Indian members in the commission. No universal franchise was proposed and the position of governor-general remained unaffected.

There was no provision to abolish separate electorate but it was rather extended to other communities as well. No financial devolution was proposed.

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: b)

Statement 2 is incorrect.

The Defence of India Act 1915, also referred to as the Defence of India Regulations Act, was an emergency criminal law enacted by the Governor-General of India in 1915 with the intention of curtailing the nationalist and revolutionary activities during and in the aftermath of the First World War.

Unlike the English law which was limited to persons of hostile associations or origin, the Defence of India act could be applied to any subject of the King, and was used to an overwhelming extent against Indians.

The act was first applied during the First Lahore Conspiracy trial in the aftermath of the failed Ghadar Conspiracy of 1915, and was instrumental in crushing the Ghadr movement in Punjab and the Anushilan Samiti in Bengal.

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.