Question Discussion & Solution

The correct answer is All of the above.

Key Points

• The local chiefs at the time of unification in Rajasthan are as follows
  • Neemrana- Alwar
  • Lava- Jaipur
  • Kushalgarh- Bansabada

Additional Information

• At the time of unification in Rajasthan princely states was 19.

Note: https://rajassembly.nic.in/OverviewRajIntegration.aspx

The correct answer is Muhammad Bin Tughlaq.

• Muhammad Bin Tughlaq was the ruler of the Delhi sultanate when Ibn Batuta came to India.

Key Points

• Ibn Battuta was a traveller from Morocco.
  • He came to India during the reign of Muhammad bin-Tughlaq (1333-1347).
  • Muhammad bin-Tughlaq was impressed by his scholarship and appointed Ibn Battuta the qazi or judge of Delhi.
  • He was ordered in 1342 to proceed to China as the Sultan’s envoy to the Mongol ruler.
  • His account is often compared with that of Marco Polo, who visited China (and also India) from his home base in Venice in the late thirteenth century.
  • Ibn Battuta’s book of travels called Rihla, written in Arabic provides extremely rich and interesting details about the social and cultural life in the subcontinent in the fourteenth century.

Additional Information

• Alauddin Khilji
  • He was the second sultan of the Khilji dynasty and was the most powerful king of this dynasty. He ruled for about twenty years from 1296 to 1316.
  • He became the sultan of Delhi after killing his uncle and father-in-law Jalaluddin Khilji, the founder of the Khilji dynasty.
  • Alauddin was a very ambitious person and a warmonger.
  • He liked to call himself ‘The Second Alexander’.
  • During his regime, he expanded his kingdom to a large area.
  • He conquered Gujarat, Ranathambor, Mewar, Malwa, Jalore, Warangal, and Madurai.
• Ibrahim Lodhi
  • He was the last king of the Lodhi dynasty and the last sultan of Delhi.
  • He was the son of Sikandar Lodhi. Daulat Khan Lodhi, the Governor of Punjab, invited Bahur to overthrow Ibrahim.
  • He captured Gwalior and was defeated by Rana Sanga of Mewar.
  • He was defeated and killed at the hands of Babur in the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 AD.
• Feroz Shah Tughlaq
  • He was born in 1309 and became sultan of Delhi after the demise of his cousin Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq.
  • He was the third ruler of the Tughlaq dynasty that ruled over Delhi from 1320 to 1412 AD.
  • He was in power from 1351 to 1388 AD.
  • He used to pay his army in-kind i.e Land and not in real money.
  • The British called him the ‘father of the irrigation department’ because of the many gardens and canals that he built like - The canal connecting the Yamuna to the city of Hissar. 

The correct answer is Nalanda.

Important Points

• Chinese traveler Hiuen-Tsang studied at the University of Nalanda.
• Nalanda University was the first ever university of India which was founded in the 5th century CE but got abandoned in the 13th century.
• Its ruins are found in present-day Bihar.

Additional Information

• Xuanzang, born Chen Hui / Chen Yi, was a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator who traveled to India in the seventh century and described the interaction between Chinese Buddhism and Indian Buddhism during the early Tang dynasty. 

The correct answer is ​Widespread discontentment among peasants against oppressive practices of Zamindars.

Key Points

• The Bengal Tenancy Act 1885 was an enactment of the Bengal British government that defined the rights of zamindars lords and their tenants in response to a widespread peasant revolt.
• It was mainly in response to widespread peasant discontent against oppressive practices of Zamindars emerging from Act X of 1859.
  • The zamindars resorted to enhanced rents beyond legal limits and prevented the tenants from acquiring occupancy rights under Act X of 1859.  
• During the 1870s and 1880s, large parts of Eastern Bengal witnessed agrarian unrest caused by oppressive practices of the zamindars, popularly referred to as Pabna Agrarian Revolt.
• To achieve their ends, the zamindars resorted to forcible evictions, seizure of cattle and crops and prolonged, costly litigation in courts where the poor peasant found himself at a disadvantage.  
• Having had enough of the oppressive regime, the peasants of Yusufshahi Pargana in Patna district formed an agrarian league or combination to resist the demands of the zamindars.  
• The League organised a rent strike where the ryots refused to pay the enhanced rents, challenging the zamindars in the courts.
• Funds were raised by ryots to fight the court cases.
• The struggles spread throughout Patna and to other districts of then East Bengal. 
• The main form of struggle was that of legal resistance; there was very little violence.
• Though the peasant discontent continued to linger on till 1885, most of the cases had been solved, partially through official persuasion and partially because of zamindars' fears.
• Many peasants were able to acquire occupancy rights and resist enhanced rents. The Government also passed the Bengal Tenancy Act in 1885.
• A number of young Indian intellectuals including Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt and the Indian Association under Surendranath Banerjee supported the peasants' cause.

James Prinsep deciphered the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts.

• Brahmi Script- It is the oldest writing styles in ancient India. The rock cut edicts of Ashoka are the best examples of Brahmi script which were deciphered by an archeologist of East India Company James Prinsep.
• Kharoshthi scripts- It is used in Gandhara kingdom to write Gandhari Prakrit and Sanskrit in 4-3 century B.C.