Indian History Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Iltutmish is the answer. The iqta system, in which land revenue assignments (iqtas) were granted to officers in return for military service, was organised on a large scale by Iltutmish in the Delhi Sultanate, and is credited to him in the textbooks. Qutub-ud-Din Aibak ruled before him for a short time and did not organise it, Muhammad bin Tughlaq is known for his token currency and the shift of the capital, and Ibrahim Lodi was the last Sultan, so none of them started the Iqtadari system.

Answer: D

The Rahnumai Mazdayasnan Sabha was set up in 1851 in Bombay by Parsi reformers, among them Naoroji Furdunji, Dadabhai Naoroji and S. S. Bengalee, to reform the social and religious condition of the Parsis, including education and the status of women. The Brahmo Samaj and the Prarthana Samaj were Hindu reform movements, and the Theosophical Society was a spiritual society of international scope, so the question points only to the Sabha.

Answer: B

Four dynasties ruled the Vijayanagara Empire: the Sangama, the Saluva, the Tuluva and the Aravidu. The Sangama dynasty was founded by Harihara and Bukka in 1336 and the last, Aravidu, ruled until the empire's fall after the battle of Talikota in 1565 and its later decline.

The empire is often said to have had three dynasties, which is why three appears as an option, because the short-lived Saluva rule is sometimes left out. The standard list is of four, so the keyed answer is four. Two and five do not match any list.

Answer: C

Ishwarachandra Vidyasagar advocated widow remarriage and led the campaign that resulted in the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856, which made the remarriage of Hindu widows lawful.

Raja Rammohun Roy campaigned against sati, Jyotiba Phule worked for the education of women and the lower castes and for the rights of widows in a different way, and Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj, which also supported widow remarriage but is not the reformer most closely tied to the Act.

Answer: C

The first Buddhist Council was held at Rajagriha, in the Saptaparni cave, soon after the Buddha's death, about 483 BC, under the patronage of King Ajatashatru and the presidency of Mahakassapa. Ananda recited the Dhamma and Upali the Vinaya.

Gaya is where the Buddha attained enlightenment, Ujjain is not a site of the councils, and Amaravati is a famous stupa site but not a council. The later councils were at Vaishali, Pataliputra and Kashmir.

Answer: C

The Lahore Resolution of 1940 articulated the two-nation theory. Jinnah argued at the Muslim League's Lahore session that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations, with their own culture, religion and social customs, and that Muslim-majority areas should be grouped as independent states.

A single-nation theory was the Congress position, and a three-nation theory and an ‘Islamic nation’ theory were never put forward in the resolution, so those options are wrong.

Answer: A

Alauddin Khilji is known for his market reforms. He fixed the prices of grain, cloth, horses, slaves and cattle, set up separate markets (such as the grain market and the cloth and general goods market) under a market controller, and punished traders who cheated, so that his large standing army could be maintained on low soldiers' pay.

Iltutmish is remembered for consolidating the Sultanate and introducing the silver tanka and copper jital coinage, Razia Sultan for being the only woman to rule Delhi, and Balban for the theory of kingship and the Persian court ceremony, not for market control.

Answer: A

Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon at Sarnath, near Varanasi, in the Deer Park (Isipatana). This event, the Dhammachakkappavattana Sutta, is called ‘turning the wheel of dharma’. Sarnath is one of the four main Buddhist pilgrimage sites.

Dhauli in Odisha is associated with the Kalinga war and the Ashokan rock edicts, Jaugarh in Odisha has Ashokan rock edicts, and Ratnagiri in Odisha is a Buddhist monastic site, none of which saw the first sermon.

Answer: C

The Cripps Mission of 1942 proposed Dominion status for India, to be granted after the Second World War, with a Constituent Assembly to frame the constitution.

The Sargent Plan (1944) was an education scheme, and Woods Despatch (1854) laid out education policy, so neither concerned dominion status. The Cabinet Mission Plan (1946) proposed a union of British Indian provinces and princely states with a loose federal structure and a Constituent Assembly rather than the Dominion idea.

Answer: B

Alauddin Khalji attacked Chittorgarh in 1303, when he besieged the fort held by Rana Ratan Singh of Mewar. The other years belong to other Alauddin campaigns: 1301 is the capture of Ranthambore, 1308 the siege of Siwana, and 1311 the capture of Jalore.

Alauddin Khalji ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1296 to 1316, and the Chittorgarh siege is one of his military campaigns of the years 1301 to 1311 listed above.