Indian History Questions and Answers

Answer: C

It was renamed the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

The Central Bureau of Information, set up in 1919 and later called the Bureau of Public Information, was given the name Press Information Bureau in 1946. PIB is still the nodal agency of the Government of India for giving information to the media.

The Central Statistics Office deals with statistics, the Press Club of India is a journalists' club, and the Indian Institute of Mass Communication was founded in 1965 as a training institute.

Answer: C

The correct order is Kheda Satyagrah - Khilafat Movement - Simon Commission - Salt March.

1. Kheda Satyagraha: 1918.
2. Khilafat Movement: 1919-1920 onward.
3. Simon Commission: appointed 1927, arrived in India 1928.
4. Salt March: March-April 1930.

Every option that begins with the Simon Commission or the Salt March puts a later event first, so only this sequence is chronological.

Remembering the decade of each event is enough: the Kheda and Khilafat agitations belong to the years just after the First World War, and the Simon Commission and Salt March to the years before the Round Table Conferences.

Answer: D

The Sati Regulation, Bengal Regulation XVII, was passed in 1829 under Governor-General Lord William Bentinck, declaring the practice of sati illegal and punishable by the criminal courts. It was initially applicable to the Bengal Presidency and was extended to Madras and Bombay in 1830.

1821 and 1825 are earlier years, before Bentinck's tenure, and 1929 is a century later; that year saw the Child Marriage Restraint (Sarda) Act, a different social reform law.

Answer: B

Muhammad bin Tughluq was succeeded by his cousin Firuz Shah Tughluq, who ruled from 1351 to 1388 and came to the throne after Muhammad died in Sindh while pursuing a rebel. Ghiyasuddin Tughluq was Muhammad's father and the founder of the dynasty, so he came before him, not after. Ghazi Malik was the name Ghiyasuddin bore before he took the throne. Khizr Khan founded the Sayyid dynasty in 1414, after the Tughluqs, and was not Muhammad's immediate successor. Therefore only Firuz Shah fits the question.

Answer: C

The Battle of Plassey (23 June 1757) was fought between Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, and Robert Clive of the East India Company. Clive had won over Mir Jafar, the Nawab's commander, who stood aside with a large part of the army, and this made the Company's victory easy. Mir Jafar was therefore not an opponent of Clive in the battle, which rules out the second option. Shuja-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Awadh, and Hector Munro, the Company commander, belong to the Battle of Buxar (1764), so the first and fourth options mix the two battles.

Answer: D

Qutub-ud-din Aibak founded the Slave (Mamluk) dynasty in 1206 after the death of Muhammad Ghori. Iltutmish was his successor and a member of the same dynasty, Razia Sultan was Iltutmish's daughter and a later ruler, and Babur founded the Mughal Empire, not this dynasty, so only Aibak is the founder.

Answer: A

The Champaran Satyagraha began in 1917. It was Gandhi's first satyagraha in India, undertaken at Champaran in Bihar for the indigo farmers, who were forced to grow indigo on a part of their land. The year 1918 is that of the Kheda and Ahmedabad movements, 1915 is the year Gandhi returned to India, and 1920 is the year the Non-Cooperation Movement began, so only 1917 is right.

The movement began in 1917 after Rajkumar Shukla persuaded Gandhi to visit Bihar, and it led to the Champaran Agrarian Act of 1918, which ended the tinkathia system.

Answer: C

Babur was descended from Timur on his father's side and from Genghis Khan on his mother's side: his mother, Qutlugh Nigar Khanum, was a daughter of the Chaghatai Mongol ruler Yunus Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan. Humayun was Babur's son, Sher Shah was the Afghan ruler who defeated Humayun, and Miran Shah was a son of Timur, so he is connected to Babur through the father's line. The answer is Genghis Khan, option C.

Babur's father Umar Shaikh Mirza was a Timurid, which is why he is described as a Timurid on his father's side and a Mongol on his mother's side.

Answer: B

The Prarthana Samaj was founded in Bombay in 1867 by Atmaram Pandurang, with the support of Keshab Chandra Sen's influence, and it worked for social reform such as widow remarriage and the end of caste restrictions in western India. Madras, Calcutta and Delhi are the places of other movements, for example the Brahmo Samaj in Calcutta. The answer is Bombay, option B.

Answer: A

The Great Bath is a large, well built rectangular tank, lined with baked bricks and made water tight with bitumen, which was found at Mohenjo-daro in the Sindh province of present Pakistan, on the citadel mound. It is thought to have been used for ritual bathing. Harappa, Lothal and Rakhigarhi are other Harappan sites, known for granaries, a dockyard (Lothal) and one of the largest cities (Rakhigarhi), but the Great Bath is not found at them. The answer is Mohenjo-daro, option A.