Indian History Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The founder was Govindraj.

After Prithviraj Chauhan's defeat at the second battle of Tarain in 1192, his son Govindraj was established at Ranthambhore, founding the Chauhan line there. Its most famous ruler was Hammir Dev, who fell defending the fort against Alauddin Khilji in 1301.

Arnoraj, Ajayraj and Vigrahraj IV were earlier rulers of the main Chauhan house of Shakambhari and Ajmer, not of Ranthambhore.

Answer: C

The lines describe Maharana Pratap.

The couplet praises a ruler of Mewar who wandered from hill to hill (pag pag bhamya pahar) and gave up his land rather than his honour and faith (dhara chhod rakhyo dharam), and who lives in the heart of India. That is the image of Maharana Pratap, who refused to submit to Akbar after Haldighati (1576) and fought on from the Aravalli hills.

Maharana Uday Singh was his father, who founded Udaipur. Man Singh of Amer led the Mughal army at Haldighati, and Behlol Khan was a Mughal commander killed there, so neither can be the Mewar hero of the lines.

Answer: B

The soldier was Mangal Pandey.

On 29 March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a sepoy of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry at Barrackpore near Calcutta, attacked his British officers in protest against the greased cartridges. He was hanged on 8 April 1857, and his act is remembered as the first spark of the revolt of 1857.

The other names are not associated with the Barrackpore incident.

Answer: A

The Mewar Praja Mandal was established by Manikya Lal Verma.

Manikya Lal Verma founded the Mewar Praja Mandal at Udaipur in 1938 to campaign for responsible government in Mewar state. He later became the Prime Minister of the United State of Rajasthan in 1948.

Bhogilal Pandya led the Dungarpur Praja Mandal, and the other names are not credited with founding the Mewar body.

Answer: D

The states merged in the second stage were Banswara, Bundi, Kishangarh, Tonk, Pratapgarh (with others).

In the second stage of Rajasthan's integration, on 25 March 1948, the Rajasthan Sangh (Purva Rajasthan) was formed from Banswara, Bundi, Dungarpur, Jhalawar, Kishangarh, Kota, Pratapgarh, Shahpura and Tonk, with Kota as its capital. The last option names five of these.

Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli had formed the Matsya Union in the first stage. Udaipur joined in the third stage, and Bikaner and Jaisalmer only in the fourth, Greater Rajasthan, in 1949.

Answer: B

The first woman of Rajasthan to be arrested in the freedom movement was Anjana Devi (Anjana Devi Chaudhary).

Anjana Devi Chaudhary, wife of Ram Narayan Chaudhary, worked among women in the Bijolia peasant movement and was the only woman founder member of the Rajasthan Seva Sangh. She is recognised as the first woman from Rajasthan to be arrested by the British, and she was jailed again during the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Kishori Devi, Janakidevi Bajaj and Rama Devi were also freedom fighters, but they do not hold this distinction.

Answer: B

The name came from Colonel James Tod.

James Tod's Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, published from 1829, used the names 'Rajasthan' and 'Raethan' for the land of the Rajput states, and the name was adopted for the state formed after independence.

George Thomas is credited with first using the name 'Rajputana', in 1800. The other names did not coin the term.

Answer: A

Excavations at Harappa were begun in 1921 by Daya Ram Sahni.

Under the Archaeological Survey of India headed by John Marshall, Daya Ram Sahni started digging at Harappa in 1921, and R. D. Banerji began work at Mohenjo-daro the next year. These excavations revealed the Indus Valley Civilisation.

S. R. Rao later excavated Lothal, B. K. Thapar worked at Kalibangan with B. B. Lal, and M. R. Mughal is a Pakistani archaeologist known for his survey of the Cholistan desert.

Answer: A

The key gives James Tod.

In his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Tod traced the Guhil (Guhilot) dynasty of Mewar back to the rulers of Vallabhi in Saurashtra, telling the story of a Vallabhi queen's son, Guha, as the founder of the line. Later historians have questioned this origin.

Abul Fazal wrote the Ain-i-Akbari and Nainasi his Khyat, but the Vallabhi link is the account associated with Tod. Gopinath Sharma is a modern historian of Rajasthan.

Answer: C

In 1539 Sher Shah defeated Humayun at Chausa.

At the battle of Chausa on the Ganga in Bihar in June 1539, Sher Khan surprised and routed Humayun's army; Humayun barely escaped across the river. Sher Khan then took the title Sher Shah.

He defeated Humayun again at Kannauj (Bilgram) in 1540, which drove Humayun out of India. Panipat is the site of Babur's victory of 1526 and Akbar's of 1556, and Chanderi was taken by Babur in 1528.