Indian History Questions and Answers

Answer: A

It was Annie Besant.

She started Commonweal as a weekly in January 1914 and bought the Madras daily New India that year, using both to campaign for Home Rule. She founded the Home Rule League in 1916 and presided over the Congress in 1917.

Answer: A

He ruled Magadha.

Bimbisara of the Haryanka line ruled from about 544 to 492 BCE, annexed Anga, and built the strength of Magadha by marriage alliances with Kosala, Vaishali and Madra. He was a contemporary and patron of both the Buddha and Mahavira.

Answer: D

It was at Bodh Gaya.

He attained enlightenment under the pipal tree on the bank of the Niranjana after six years of search. Lumbini is his birthplace, Sarnath the site of the first sermon and Kushinagar of his death.

Answer: D

It is by Abul Fazl.

The Ain-i-Akbari is the third volume of the Akbarnama, and is an account of the empire's administration rather than a narrative - the household, the army, the provinces, with revenue statistics and prices that remain a primary source.

Answer: A

He was a contemporary of Akbar.

Tulsidas lived from about 1532 to 1623 and began the Ramcharitmanas at Ayodhya in 1574, in Awadhi rather than Sanskrit. His life falls almost wholly within Akbar's reign.

Answer: D

It was C. Rajagopalachari.

He succeeded Mountbatten in June 1948 and held the office until 26 January 1950, when the Constitution came into force and the President replaced the Governor-General. He was the only Indian to hold the post.

Answer: A

It was Narasimhavarman I.

The Pallava king, called Mamalla, gave Mamallapuram its name and had the five rathas and the great relief of Arjuna's penance cut there in the seventh century. His father Mahendravarman I began the rock-cut mandapas.

Answer: A

It was Tulsidas.

He began the Ramcharitmanas at Ayodhya in 1574 and wrote it in Awadhi rather than Sanskrit, so that the story of Rama should be available to ordinary people. Its seven kandas are recited across north India.

Answer: A

The Battle of Plassey, 23 June 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in South Asia which expanded over much of the Indies for the next 190 years. The battle took place at Palashi, Bengal, on the river banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 150 km north of Calcutta, near Murshidabad, then capital of undivided Bengal. The belligerents were Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and the British East India Company.

Answer: C

It was Mysore.

Raja Wodeyar took Srirangapatna from the Vijayanagara viceroy in 1610 and made the Wodeyars independent. The family ruled Mysore until 1947, apart from the interval of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.