UPSC STATIC QUIZ – History : 5 February 2024

Solution: c)

Statement 1 is incorrect.

Main Demands of Moderates

_ Expansion and reform of legislative councils.

_ Greater opportunities for Indians in higher posts by holding the ICS examination simultaneously in England and in India.

_ Separation of the judiciary from the executive.

_ More powers for the local bodies.

_ Reduction of land revenue and protection of peasants from unjust landlords.

_ Abolition of salt tax and sugar duty.

_ Reduction of spending on army.

_ Freedom of speech and expression and freedom to form Associations

Solution: b)

Statement 1 is incorrect.

The Sabarmati Ashram (also known as Harijan or Satyagraha Ashram) was home to Mahatma Gandhi from 1917 until 1930 and served as one of the main centres of the Indian freedom struggle.

Sevagram cottage served as the last residence of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji left to Delhi from Sevargam Cottage in 1946 and then went to Noakhali. From there he did not return to Sewagram while engaged in his task of communal unity and peace making. He was martyred in Delhi in 1948.

It was from Sabarmati Ashram that Gandhi led the Dandi march also known as the Salt Satyagraha on 12 March 1930. In recognition of the significant influence that this march had on the Indian independence movement, the Indian government has established the ashram as a national monument.

Solution: b)

Statement 2 is incorrect.

The main proposals of the Wavell Plan were as follows.

• With the exception of the governor-general and the commander-in-chief, all members of the executive council were to be Indians.
• Caste Hindus and Muslims were to have equal representation.
• The reconstructed council was to function as an interim government within the framework of the 1935 Act (i.e. not responsible to the Central Assembly).
• Governor- general was to exercise his veto on the advice of ministers.
• Representatives of different parties were, to submit a joint list to the viceroy for nominations to the executive.

Solution: c)

Gaidinliu (26 January 1915 – 17 February 1993) was a Naga spiritual and political leader who led a revolt against British rule in India.

At 13, she became associated with freedom fighter and religious leader, Haipou Jadonang, and became his lieutenant in his social, religious and political movement. Jadonang, who was also a Rongmei, started the ‘Heraka movement’, based on ancestral Naga religion, and envisioned an independent Naga kingdom (or Naga-Raja).

Rani Gandiliu’s association with Jadonang prepared her to fight the British. After the execution of Jadonang, she took up the leadership of the movement — which slowly turned political from religious. Rani started a serious revolt against the British and was eventually imprisoned for life. She was released after 14 years, in 1947.

Acknowledging her role in the struggle against the British, Jawaharlal Nehru called her the “Daughter of the Hills” and gave her the title “Rani” or queen. 

Solution: d)

Savitribai Phule, the social reformer who is considered to be one of India’s first modern feminists, was born on January 3, 1831. Among her accomplishments, she is especially remembered for being India’s first female teacher who worked for the upliftment of women and untouchables in the field of education and literacy.

Phule was born in Naigaon, Maharashtra in 1831 and married activist and social-reformer Jyotirao Phule when she was nine years old. After marriage, with her husband’s support, Phule learned to read and write and both of them eventually went on to found India’s first school for girls called Bhide Wada in Pune in 1948. Before this, she started a school with Jyotirao’s cousin Saganbai in Maharwada in 1847.

Essentially, both Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule recognised that education was one of the central planks through which women and the depressed classes could become empowered and hope to stand on an equal footing with the rest of the society.

The Phules also started the Literacy Mission in India between 1854-55. The Phules started the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society for Truth-Seeking), through which they wanted to initiate the practice of Satyashodhak marriage, in which no dowry was taken.