DAY – 43 : Insta 75 Days Revision Plan-2026 : MODERN INDIA

Answer: (b)

Explanation

The decline of Indian cotton exports to Britain after 1865 is a classic example of how global geopolitical events can cause massive economic fluctuations in local markets.

• The Cotton Boom (1861–1865): During the American Civil War, Britain’s primary supply of cotton from the American South was cut off due to a naval blockade. This created a “Cotton Famine” in the textile mills of Lancashire. To compensate, Britain turned heavily toward India, leading to a massive spike in Indian cotton exports and prices.
• When the American Civil War ended in 1865, the American South resumed its cotton production and exports. American cotton was generally considered superior in quality (longer staple) and more cost-effective compared to Indian varieties.
• Consequently, British demand for Indian cotton plummeted almost immediately. This led to a catastrophic collapse in cotton prices in India, which was one of the primary factors contributing to the agrarian distress and the subsequent Deccan Riots of 1875.

Answer: (c)

Explanation

The Santhal Rebellion (or Santhal Hool) of 1855–56 was one of the most powerful tribal uprisings against the British East India Company and the oppressive socio-economic systems it introduced.

• Statement 1 is correct: The Permanent Settlement of 1793 played a foundational role in the rebellion. It categorized the Santhal lands (Damin-i-Koh) as the property of the state and the newly created class of Zamindars. This led to the displacement of Santhals from their traditional forest-clearing roles to being mere tenants on their own land, subjected to high taxes.
• Statement 2 is correct: While the British were the ultimate authority, the immediate targets of the rebellion were the Mahajans (moneylenders) and Zamindars. The Mahajans exploited the Santhals through exorbitant interest rates and debt bondage, while government functionaries (police and tax collectors) supported these exploiters, making life unbearable for the Santhals.
• Statement 3 is correct: After the brutal suppression of the revolt, the British realized that tribal grievances needed a specific administrative solution. Consequently, the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act was passed, and a separate administrative unit called Santhal Pargana (covering about 5,500 sq. miles) was created. This unit was designated as a “non-regulation” district, where special laws were enacted to protect tribal land from being transferred to non-tribals (Dikus).

Hence, all three statements are correct.

Answer: (c)

Explanation:

In 1505, the King of Portugal appointed a governor in India called Francisco De Almeida and was asked to consolidate the position of the Portuguese in India and to destroy Muslim trade by seizing Aden, Ormuz and Malacca.

• He was also advised to build fortresses at Anjadiva, Cochin, Cannanore and Kilwa. What Almeida, however, encountered along with the opposition of the Zamorin, was a threat from the Mameluke Sultan of Egypt.
• In 1507, the Portuguese squadron was defeated in a naval battle off Diu by the combined Egyptian and Gujarat navies, and Almeida’s son was killed.
• Almeida avenged his defeat by totally crushing the two navies. Almeida’s vision was to make the Portuguese the master of the Indian Ocean. His policy was known as the Blue Water Policy (cartaze system).

Answer: (c)

Explanation

The Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) was formed in October 1924 in Kanpur. It was the first revolutionary organization in India to operate on a multi-state level, aiming to overthrow British rule through an organized and armed revolution to establish a “Federal Republic of the United States of India.”

• I. Ram Prasad Bismil: He was a primary founder and the leader of the HRA in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). He was a brilliant poet and strategist, later martyred following the Kakori Train Action.
• II. Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee: He was a key founder responsible for organizing the revolutionary network in Bengal and Bihar. He played a vital role in drafting the organization’s constitution.
• III. Sachindra Nath Sanyal: He is considered the senior-most founder and the intellectual backbone of the HRA. He authored the famous manifesto of the HRA titled “The Revolutionary” and wrote the classic book Bandi Jiwan.
• IV. Gopinath Saha: While he was a courageous revolutionary from Bengal, he was not a founder of the HRA. He is known for his attempt to assassinate Charles Tegart (the Police Commissioner of Calcutta) in January 1924, but he mistakenly killed an Englishman named Ernest Day. His sacrifice was highly praised by Gandhi’s political rivals, but he was not part of the core founding group of the HRA in Kanpur.

The founding council also included other notable revolutionaries like Shachindra Nath Bakshi and Ashfaqullah Khan.

Answer: (a)

Explanation

The Cabinet Mission, sent by the British government in 1946 (comprising Pethick-Lawrence, Stafford Cripps, and A.V. Alexander), was the last major attempt to reach a settlement between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League to avoid the partition of India.

• Statement 1 is correct: The Mission rejected the demand for a full sovereign Pakistan and instead proposed a three-tier federal structure.
  • It envisioned a weak Center (controlling only Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Communications) and strong Provinces.
  • The most distinctive feature was the Grouping of Provinces (Sections A, B, and C) based on religious majorities, which was intended to provide the Muslim League with the autonomy they sought within a unified India.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: Initially, both the Congress and the Muslim League accepted the Plan, albeit for different reasons and with different interpretations. The Muslim League accepted it (in June 1946) because it saw the “grouping” clause as the “basis and foundation of Pakistan.”
  •  The Congress accepted it (in July 1946) because it viewed the grouping as optional and felt the Constituent Assembly would be a sovereign body.
  • However, the Plan later collapsed after Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech on July 10, 1946, where he stated that Congress would enter the Constituent Assembly “unfettered by agreements,” leading the League to withdraw its acceptance and call for “Direct Action Day.”

Answer: (b)

Explanation:

The national movement found a new expression outside the country’s frontiers, Subhash Chandra Bose had escaped from India in March 1941 to go to the Soviet Union for help.

But when the Soviet Union joined the allies in June 1941, he went to Germany. In February 1943 he left for Japan to organise an armed struggle against British rule with Japanese help.

Statement 1 is correct: In Singapore he formed the Azad Hind Fauj {Indian National Army or INA for short) to conduct a military campaign for the liberation of India.

Statement 2 is not correct: He was assisted by Rash Behari Bose, an old revolutionary. Before the arrival of Subhash Bose, steps towards the organisation of the INA had been taken by General Mohan Singh.

Answer: (c)

Explanation:

The youth of Bengal were angered by official arrogance and repression and were filled with burning hatred for foreign rule.

• They no longer believed that passive resistance could achieve nationalist aims. But the revolutionary young men did not try to generate a mass revolution.
• Instead, they decided to copy the methods of the Irish terrorists and the Russian Nihilists, that is, to assassinate unpopular officials.
• In 1904, V.D. Savarkar had organised the Abhinava Bharat, a secret society of revolutionaries.
• After 1905, several newspapers had begun to advocate revolutionary terrorism, The Sandhya and the Yugantar in Bengal and the Kal in Maharashtra were the most prominent among them.

Answer: (c)

Explanation

The constitutional evolution of India under British rule was marked by a series of parliamentary acts that progressively shifted power from a commercial entity (the East India Company) to the British Crown.

• Statement 1 is correct: The Regulating Act of 1773 was the first step by the British Parliament to control and regulate the affairs of the East India Company. It changed the constitution of the Court of Directors (the governing body of the Company) by requiring them to submit all correspondence regarding civil, military, and revenue affairs to the British Treasury and Secretary of State, thereby increasing parliamentary oversight.
• Statement 2 is correct: Pitt’s India Act of 1784 was a watershed moment that established a system of “dual government.” It created a new body, the Board of Control (representing the British Government), to supervise the Court of Directors. This Act explicitly stated that the Board of Control would manage and supervise all operations of the civil and military government and revenues of the “British possessions in India.”
• Statement 3 is correct: The Charter Act of 1813 was a result of pressure from British merchants who wanted a share in Indian trade. It abolished the Company’s trade monopoly in India, allowing all British subjects to trade. However, the Company was allowed to retain two key monopolies for another twenty years: the trade in tea and the trade with China.

Hence,  all three statements are correct.

Answer: (a)

Explanation:

The Derozians attacked old and decadent customs, rites, and traditions. They were passionate advocates of women’s rights and demanded education for them.

They did not, however, succeed in creating a movement because social conditions were not yet ripe for their ideas to flourish.

Statement 1 is not correct: They did not take up the peasant’s cause and there was no other Class or group in Indian society at the time which could support their advanced ideas.

Statement 2 is correct: The Derozians carried forward Rammohun’s tradition of educating the people in social, economic, and political questions through newspapers, pamphlets, and public associations.

Statement 3 is correct: They carried on public agitation on public questions such as the revision of the Company’s Charter, the freedom of the Press, better treatment for Indian labour in British colonies abroad.

Answer: (c)

Explanation:

Wood’s Despatch (1854)

In 1854, Charles Wood prepared a despatch on an educational system for India. Considered the “Magna Carta of English Education in India”, this document was the first comprehensive plan for the spread of education in India.

1. It asked the government of India to assume responsibility for education of the masses, thus repudiating the ‘downward filtration theory’, at least on paper. Hence, statement 2 is incorrect.
2. It systematised the hierarchy from vernacular primary schools in villages at bottom, followed by Anglo-Vernacular High Schools and an affiliated college at the district level, and affiliating universities in the presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.
3. It recommended English as the medium of instruction for higher studies and vernaculars at school level.
4. It laid stress on female and vocational education, and on teachers’ training.
5. It laid down that the education imparted in government institutions should be secular.
6. It recommended a system of grants-in-aid to encourage private enterprise.

Answer: (b) 222

Solution:
Check the pattern using cubes:

1³ + 1 = 2
2³ + 2 = 10
3³ + 3 = 30
4³ + 4 = 68
5³ + 5 = 130

Each term follows: n³ + n

Next term:
6³ + 6 = 216 + 6 = 222

Answer: (a) 249

Solution:
Observe the pattern:

6 × 2 + 1 = 13
13 × 2 + 2 = 28
28 × 2 + 3 = 59
59 × 2 + 4 = 122

Each step:

• Multiply by 2
• Add consecutive numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, …)

Next term:
122 × 2 + 5 = 244 + 5 = 249

Answer: (b) 925

Solution:
Pattern:
Next term = (Previous term + 1) × 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…

Check:

• (5 + 1) × 1 = 6
• (6 + 1) × 2 = 14
• (14 + 1) × 3 = 45
• (45 + 1) × 4 = 184

Next:

• (184 + 1) × 5 = 925

Answer: (b) 925

Answer: (a) 27

Solution:
Observe alternating operations:

8 × 3 = 24
24 ÷ 2 = 12
12 × 3 = 36
36 ÷ 2 = 18
18 × 3 = 54

Pattern repeats:

• Multiply by 3
• Divide by 2

Next step:
54 ÷ 2 = 27

Answer: (b)

Solution:
The passage states that individuals are now responsible for filtering information, but human cognitive ability has not evolved to handle large volumes of data. This creates a mismatch.

(a) is incorrect because the passage does not say editors are completely unnecessary.
(b) is correct because it reflects the mismatch between responsibility and cognitive limits.

(c) is incorrect because the passage says people prefer information that confirms their biases.
(d) is incorrect because the issue is filtering, not just the amount of information.