Question Discussion & Solution

The correct answer is Durga.

Key Points

• The Vedic period is divided into the Early Vedic period and the Later Vedic period.
• During the early Vedic period, there were mainly 33 Gods.
• They were Prithvi, Agni, Soma, Brahaspati, Rivers, Indra, Rudra, Surya, Varuna, Aditi, Usha, and Ashvin.
• Among these Indra, Agni and Varuna were the most popular during that period.
• During the later Vedic period, previous Gods lost their relevance, and now Prajapati (creator of the Universe) also known as Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra (Shiva) become the main Gods.

Surkotada is situated in Kutchh district of Gujarat.

• It is the only Indus Valley site where the remains of a horse have actually been found.
• Kalibangan is situated in Hanumangarh, Rajasthan.
• Banawali is situated in Hisar, Haryana.
• Mohenjo Daro is situated in Larkana, Sindh.

The correct answer is Cornwallis.

Key Points

• Lord Cornwallis created the Covenanted Civil Service of India which later came to be known as the Indian Civil Service.
• Lord Cornwallis:
  • Lord Cornwallis was a British army officer, administrator, and diplomat who had previously served his country during the War of American Independence.
  • He had surrendered along with his troops to the Americans at Yorktown.
  • In 1786, he accepted the offer to take up the post of Governor-General of Bengal on the condition that he be given the supreme military command as well.
  • He arrived at Calcutta on 12 September and took charge.
  • Under his guidance, the Cornwallis Code was developed which contained provisions for governing the civil, policing and judiciary administration in British India.

Additional Information

• Warren Hastings
  • Warren Hastings (1732 – 1818) became the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal) in 1772 and the first Governor-General of Bengal in 1774 till he resigned in 1785.
  • He started his career as a writer (clerk) in the East India Company at Calcutta in 1750.
  • In 1758, he became the British resident at Murshidabad, the capital of Bengal, after Mir Jafar was installed as the Nawab after the Battle of Plassey.
  • During his term, the First Anglo-Maratha war and the second Anglo-Mysore war were fought.
  • The Regulating Act of 1773 was passed during his term.
  • He supported Sir William Jones in the formation of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1785.
• Wellesley
  • Lord Wellesley remained Governor-General of Fort Williams from 1798 to 1805.
  • During his tenure, the Fourth and last Anglo-Mysore war was fought and Tipu was killed in this war.
  • The Second Anglo Maratha war also happened in which Bhonsle, Scindia and Holkar were defeated. Wellesley followed the policy of “subsidiary alliance”, which was accepted by the rulers of Mysore, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Bundi, Macheri, Bharatpur, Oudh, Tanjore, Berar, Peshwa, and Nizam of Hyderabad.
• William Bentinck
  • William Bentinck was born on 14 September 1774 at Buckinghamshire, England to William Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland and Lady Dorothy.
  • His father was a Prime Minister of Great Britain.
  • Bentinck joined the British army at the age of 16 and had become a colonel by 1798.
  • In 1803, he was named the Governor of Madras.
  • He later served as Governor-General of India from 1828-1835.
  • He is credited with reforms in educational, social and judicial spheres during his tenure as Governor-General of British India.

Rajadhiraja belongs to the Chola empire.

• Rajadhiraja Chola was the emperor of the Chola dynasty in the 11th century in the southern part of India.
• Bimbisara, Ajatashatru, and Mahapadma Nanda belonged to the Magadha empire.
• The Chola dynasty existed in South India. Their rulers were powerful and their dynasty was one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world.
• The Chola art school spread to Southeast Asia and influenced Southeast Asian architecture and art.

The correct answer is Non-Cooperation Movement.

Key Points

• Swaraj Party was formed following the failure of the Non-Cooperation Movement.
• Non-Cooperation Movement:
  • The movement of Non-cooperation was launched on 4 September 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi with the aim of self-governance and obtaining full independence (Purna Swaraj) as the Indian National Congress (INC) withdrew its support for British reforms following the Rowlatt Act of 21 March 1919, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April 1919.
  • The Rowlatt Act of March 1919, which suspended the rights of political prisoners in sedition trials, was seen as a "political awakening" by Indians and as a "threat" by the British.
  • Although it was never invoked and declared void just a few years later, the act motivated Gandhi to conceive the idea of satyagraha (truth), which he saw as synonymous with independence.
• Swaraj Party:
  • Swaraj Party, an Indian political party established in late 1922–early 1923 by members of the Indian National Congress (Congress Party), notably Motilal Nehru, one of the most prominent lawyers in northern India (and the father of political leader Jawaharlal Nehru), and Chitta Ranjan Das, a nationalist politician from Bengal.
  • The party’s name is taken from the term swaraj, meaning “self-rule,” which was broadly applied to the movement to gain independence from British rule.
  • The party’s primary goal was to contest the elections to the new Central Legislative Assembly in 1923 and, once in office, to disrupt official policy and derail the Raj (British government in India) by antigovernment agitation within the council chambers.
  • Though the noncooperation approach of Mohandas K. Gandhi had remained the primary strategy of the Congress, in reality, those Congress leaders who were less-orthodox Hindu or who were more secular-minded in outlook chose the alternative tactic of partially cooperating with political reforms being instituted by the British after World War I.

Additional Information

• Civil Disobedience Movement:
  • Mohandas Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement of 1930-1931—launched by the Salt March—is a critical case for understanding civil resistance.
  • Although by itself it failed to bring Indian independence, it seriously undermined British authority and united India’s population in a movement for independence under the leadership of the Indian National Congress (INC).
  • It further signalled a new stage in the struggle for Indian swaraj (self-rule) and facilitated the downfall of the British Empire in India.
  • Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha drew upon a traditional South Asian cultural practice – the “Padyatra” (a long spiritual march) that became a model of strategic action for many social movements in the decades to come.
• Rowlatt Bill Satyagraha:
  • Rowlatt Acts, (February 1919), legislation passed by the Imperial Legislative Council, the legislature of British India. 
  • The acts allowed certain political cases to be tried without juries and permitted the internment of suspects without trial.
  • Their object was to replace the repressive provisions of the wartime Defence of India Act (1915) with a permanent law.
  • They were based on the report of Justice S.A.T. Rowlatt’s committee of 1918.
  • The Rowlatt Acts were much resented by an aroused Indian public.
  • All nonofficial Indian members of the council (i.e., those who were not officials in the colonial government) voted against the acts.
  • Mahatma Gandhi organized a protest movement that led directly to the Massacre of Amritsar (April 1919) and subsequently to his noncooperation movement (1920–22).
• Champaran Satyagraha:
  • The Champaran Satyagraha was the combination of elements of extra-constitutional struggle as well as the employment of moral force against an adversary, an exemplar of the rule of law; and the use of compromise as a gambit.
  • It is marked as India’s First Civil Disobedience Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi to protest against the injustice meted out to tenant farmers in the Champaran district of Bihar.
  • Champaran district was part of a permanent settlement area that consisted of the large zamindari estates under rich and influential landlords.
  • Most of the villages were leased out by the zamindars to thikadars of whom the most influential were European Indigo Planters.
  • Though the planters were temporary tenure holders, they not only extracted rent from the peasants but also exercised civil and criminal jurisdiction.