TK Madhavan: The Spearhead of Vaikom Satyagraha

Born on September 2, 1885, TK Madhavan was a prominent social reformer who played a dominant role in the famed Vaikom Satyagraha, a movement for temple entry and abolition of untouchability. He was a follower of Sri Narayana Guru and in 1927 he was elected as the Organizing Secretary of the Shree Narayan Dharma Paripalana Yogam. 

Vaikom Satyagraha, which lasted for 18 months during 1924–25, was a movement to allow temple entry for the avarnas or lower castes at Vaikom (a part of the then princely state of Travancore) in the Kottayam district of Kerala. 

TK Madhavan was arrested in 1924 for participating in the Vaikom Satyagraha. He sought the help of Mahatma Gandhi who arrived at Vaikom on March 7, 1925 and camped there with TK Madhavan, helping in the successful completion of Satyagraha.

TK Madhavan made his contribution in the field of journalism. From 1917 onwards he was the editor of the Malayalam daily Deshabhimani which he started to educate the people of their rights.   

He had participated in the Indian National Congress session of Kanpur in 1925.

TK Madhavan died on April 27, 1930.  

Biography of Behramji Malabari

                                                                    Behramji Malabari. Image Source
An associate of Dadabhai Naoroji, M. G. Ranade, Dinshaw Wacha and other contemporary political leaders and social reformers, Behramji Merwanji Malabari was a Parsi social reformer who vigorously championed the cause of women. He was against casteism and child marriage, advocated widow remarriage. He was in favour of equality of sexes and uplift of the status of the women, particularly the widows. 

Born in Vadodara in 1853, Behramji Malabari had participated in the first session of the Indian National Congress held in Mumbai in 1885.

In 1908 he founded a social service organization Seva Sadan Society for the education and empowerment of women. The branches of Seva Sadan Society, which he founded with another social reformer Dayaram Gidumal, were also set up in Ahmedabad and Surat.

In 1875, he published a collection of Gujarati poems, Nitivinod (Pleasure of Morality) in which he ruminates on the ill effects of child marriage and the widowhood forced on women due to the practice of child marriage. Fluent both in Gujarati and English, in 1877 he wrote English poetry ‘Indian Muse in English Garb’ which enlisted recognition from famous English poet Alfred Tennyson. 

The widespread agitation by Behramji Malabari during the period 1884–1891 forced the British colonial government to pass the Age of Consent Act in 1891.

In 1893, Behramji Malabari published travel memoir The Indian Eye on English Life or Rambles of a Pilgrim Reformer which describes his three voyages to England and gives an account of the British way of life. 

Behramji had translated the speeches of the German orientalist Max Müller. 

Behramji Malabari died in 1912 in Simla. 

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Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh

Yesterday Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of a university in Aligarh named after Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh who is known for establishing a Provisional Government of Free India in Kabul in 1915 with himself as the President and Maulana Barkatullah of Bhopal as the President. 

Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was a freedom fighter, revolutionary and journalist.

Born in a royal family in 1886 in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, Mahendra Pratap Singh was one of the few royals who actively participated in the India’s struggle for freedom. From 1914 to 1945 he lived abroad in the USA, Austria, Germany, China, Afghanistan, Japan and Turkey working for India’s freedom from British colonialism. 

Mahendra Pratap Singh worked closely with the Hindustan Ghadar Party in the USA. In 1926 the Ghadar Part sent him to Tibet to organize a rebellion against the British. He started an Indian League in Japan.

Mahendra Pratap Singh supported technical and vocational education to students by establishing Prem Vidyalaya, a technical college, at Vrindavan in 1909. He believed in the essential unity of all religion and advocated the abolition of the Zamindari system in spite of himself being a landowner.

He started two papers- Prem in Hindi and Nirbal Sewak in Hindi and Urdu.

 

Sir Muhammad Iqbal : ideological founder of Pakistan

Muhammad Iqbal was an Urdu poet and lawyer. Born in Sialkot (now in Pakistan) on November 9, 1877, he was a great nationalist during early years of career writing the famous nationalist song: Sare Jahan se Accha, Hindositan hamara, but later on he voiced the idea of a separate Muslim state in the north-west India in his presidential address to the annual session of the Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930.

It was this idea which later fructified and culminated in the creation of a separate Muslim state of Pakistan on August 14, 1947. Naturally enough, he is acclaimed as the father of the idea of Pakistan. 

Muhammad Iqbal, also known as Allama Iqbal, died in Lahore in 1938.

History Medieval India - MCQs – Set 5

Q.1. Which one of the following dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate following Timur’s invasion?

(a) Sayyid dynasty

(b) Lodi dynasty

(c) Tughlaq dynasty

(d) Khalji dynasty

Q.2. Which of the following Delhi Sultanate rulers had set up employment exchanges for the unemployed?

(a) Firuz Shah Tughlaq

(b) Alauddin Khilji

(c) Muhammad bin Tughlaq

(d) Iltutmish

Q.3. Which of the following rulers of the Delhi Sultanate is called “Father of Indian Irrigation”?

(a) Firoz Shah Tughlaq

(b) Alauddin Khilji

(c) Muhammad Bin Tughlaq

(d) Sikandar Lodi

Q.4. Which of the following battles took place between Sher Shah and Humayun?

(a) Battle of Ghaghra

(b) Battle of Bilgram

(c) Battle of Surajgarh

(d) None of the above

Q.5. The Mughal empire under Akbar was divided into 15 provinces. They were called --------.

(a)  Parganas

(b)  Subahs

(c)  Sarkars

(d)  None of these

Q.6. What was the name of the war that took place between Sher Shah Suri and  the Mughal Governor of Bihar, Jalal Khan,  in 1534 ?

(a) Battle of Surajgarh 

(b) Battle of Bilgram

(c) Battle of Ghaghra

(d) Battle of Kannauj

Q.7. Which of the following works narrates the ascent of the Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq to power?

(a) Tabaqat-i-Nasiri

(b) Tajul-Ma'asir

(C) Tughlaqnama

(d) None of the above

Q.8. Who was the founder of Tughlaq Dynasty?

(a) Firoz Shah Tughlaq

(b) Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq

(C) Muhammad bin Tughlaq

(d) Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah Tughluq

Q.9. What was the name of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq before his ascension to the throne?

(a) Ghazi Malik 

(b) Juna Khan

(c) Nizam Khan

(d) None of the above

Q.10. Who among the following transferred his capital from Delhi to Devagiri renamed by him as Daulatabad?

(a) Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq 

(b) Mohammad-bin Tughlaq 

(c) Firoz Shah Tughlaq

(d) Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah Tughluq

Answers

Q.1.- a

Khizr Khan was appointed governor of Multan, Lahore and DIpalpur by Timur Lang or Tamerlane who won these places after invading India and sacking Delhi in 1398-99. In June 1414, Khizr Khan invaded Delhi and founded a new dynasty named Saiyid Dynasty.

Q.2.- a

Firuz Shah Tughlaq, the third Tughlaq Sultan, had established employment exchanges for the unemployed.

Q.3.- a 

Firoz Shah Tughlaq, the third Tughlaq Sultan, is known as “Father of Indian Irrigation” because of the many irrigation canals that he built in his empire.

Q.4.- b 

The Battle of Kannauj took place at Kannauj in present day Uttar Pradesh between Mughal emperor Humayun and Afghan leader Sher Shah Suri on May 17, 1540. This battle is also known as the battle of Bilgram. Humayun was defeated by Sher Shah Suri in the battle.

Q.5.- b 

Initially Akbar had divided the Mughal empire into 12 subahs which were later expanded to 15 by the end of his reign.

Q.6.- a 

Battle of Surajgarh (1534) was fought between the combined forces of Jalal Khan and Bengal Sultan Mahmud Shah and the forces of Sher Shah.

Q.7.- c 

Tughlaq Nama (Book of the Tughlaqs) was written by Amir Khusrau. Tughlaq Nama describes the reign of Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq.

Q.8.- b

Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq was the founder of the Tughluq dynasty. He was succeeded by Juna Khan who assumed the title of Muhammad bin Tughlaq whose reign marked the highest point of territorial expansion of the Delhi Sultanate.  

Q.9.- a

Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq was called Ghazi Malik before his ascension to the throne of Delhi Sultanate. Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq was succeeded by Juna Khan who assumed the title of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. 

Q.10.- b

In 1327 a rebellion by his cousin Bahauddin Gurshasp, prompted Muhammad bin Tughluq to transfer his capital from Delhi to centrally located Devagiri, which he named Daulatabad. However, this experiment of his did not go down well with the Delhi populace. This forced the Sultan to retransfer the capital to Delhi.    

History Medieval India - MCQs – Set 4

 Q.1.- Ibrahim Lodhi was defeated by Rana Sanga in which of the following battles?

(a) Battle of Khatoli

(b) Battle of Gagron

(c) Battle of Khanwa

(d) None of the above

Q.2.- Who among the following Delhi Sultanate rulers was first to have coins inscribed with the name of Abbasid caliph of Baghdad?

(a) Iltutmish

(b) Ruknuddin Firoz

(c) Razia 

(d) None of the above

Q.3.- Chintamani Bhatta’s Suka-saptati (Parrot’s Seventy) was the first Sanskrit work to be translated into Persian by the name Tutinama. Who translated the work during the time of Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq?

(a) Malik Muhammad Jayasi 

(b) Amir Khusrau 

(c) Zia Nakhshabi 

(d) Zain-ul-Abidin  

Q.4.- The Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in Delhi is the earliest example of Islamic architecture in India. What was the original construction at the site of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque?

(a) A Jain temple

(b) A Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu

(c) A Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva

(d) None of the above

Q.5.- Which of the following rulers of Delhi Sultanate created the department of Diwan-e-Amir-Kohi related to agriculture? 

(a) Firoz Shah Tughluq

(b) Muhammd Bin Tughlaq

(c) Allaudin Khilji

(d) Jalauddin Khilji

Q.6.- Who among the following Delhi Sultanate rulers had appointed lbn Batuta as the Chief Oazi of Delhi?

(a) Balban

(b) Alauddin Khilji

(c) Feroz Shah Tughlaq

(d) Muhammad bid Tughluq 

Q.7.- Which of the following rulers of Delhi Sultanate had maximum number of slaves in his court?

(a) Balban

(b) Alauddin Khilji

(c) Mohammad bin Tughlaq

(d) Feroz Shah Tughlaq

Q.8. - Who among the following was the ruler of Delhi Sultanate when Hari Har and Bukka founded the Vijayanagar Empire in the South India?

(a) Muhammad bin Tughlaq

(b) Firuz Shah Tughlaq

(c) Alauddin Khilji

(d) Khizr Khan

Q.9. -Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi has been written by

(a) Ziauddin Barani 

(b) Shams Siraj Afif

(c) Both a and b

(d) None of the above

Q.10. -During the reign of which Tughlaq ruler, India faced invasion from Amir Timur, the terrible Mongol military leader of Central Asia?

(a) Ghiyasud-din Tughlaq

(b) Firuz Shah Tughlaq

(c) Muhammad bin Tughluq

(d) Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah Tughluq

Answers

Q.1.- (a)

Battle of Khatoli was fought between Rana Sanga and Ibrahim Lodi in 1518. Rana Sanga defeated Ibrahim Lodi in the battle of Khatoli.

Q. 2.- (a)

In 1229, Iltutmish received a deed of investiture from the Abassid Caliph of Baghdad, becoming the first Sultan of Delhi to secure this recognition. The names of Abbasid caliph of Baghdad are inscribed on his coins.

Q. 3.- (c)

Zia Nakhshabi (d.1350) was a famous Sufi saint and scholar during the reign of Tughlaq Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq. He is credited with translating Chintamani Bhatta’s Sanskrit work Suka-saptati (Parrot’s Seventy) into Persian. The text translated by him is known as Tutinama (Stories from a Parrot) which was in time translated into Turkish and other European languages.

Zia Nakhshabi had also translated Koka-shastra (also known as Rati-rahasyam: Mysteries of Passion), a popular early medieval Sanskrit work on erotica written by Kukkoka (Kokapandita).

Q. 4.- (a)

Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in Delhi is considered to be India's oldest mosque.

Q.5.- (b)

The department named Diwan-e-Amir-Kohi was introduced by Muhammad Bin Tughlaq.

Q.6.- (d)

Arab traveller Ibn Battutah arrived in India in 1333 during the rule of second Tughlaq ruler Muhammad bid Tughluq who appointed him the Qazi (judge) of Delhi. After serving for eight years as the Qazi (judge) of Delhi, he was dismissed from the post by the Tughlaq Sultan.

Q.7.- (d)

Feroz Shah Tughlaq is known to have as many as 180,000 slaves. According to Shams Siraj Afif, their rise brought disaster to the Tughlaqs. They annihilated Firuz's sons and played roles in destroying the Tughlaq dynasty. Firuz's eunuch named Malik Sarwar founded the Sharqi dynasty of Jaunpur.

Q.8.- (a) 

During his reign Muhammad bin Tughluq had to encounter as many as thirty four rebellions, twenty seven of them in the south. Vijayanagar Empire came into existence at the cost of Sultanate territory during the rule of Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

Q.9.- (c) 

Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi is a contemporary account of Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq by medieval historian Ziauddin Barani. Another contemporary chronicle, also known as Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi, written by Shams Siraj Afif, gives a detailed account of his reign.

Q.10.- (d) 

It was during the reign of last Tughluq ruler Nasiruddin Mahmud (reigned 1394-1413) in the years 1398-99 that Amir Timur, the terrible Mongol military leader of Central Asia, invaded India creating havoc in the forms of massacres and plunders.

Madhavrao I

Madhav Rao I Image Source

Madhav Rao I was appointed the 9th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire on 23 June in 1761 upon the death of his father, Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao, also known as Nana Saheb, who had lost his eldest son and heir Vishwas Rao in the third battle of Panipat in 1761. 

Madhav Rao's claim to fame lies in his being instrumental in restoring the Maratha supremacy which was dented by their defeat in the third battle of Panipat. 

Since Madhav’s age at the time of his ascension to the Peshwaship was 16 years, his uncle Raghunath Rao, the eldest surviving member of the Peshwa family, took upon himself the regency of the Maratha empire and became its de facto ruler. This led to acrimonious differences between Madhav Rao and  Raghunath Rao who entered into wars against each other. 

In 1765 Raghunath Rao called for the partition of the Maratha State between himself and the Peshwa.

Madhav Rao I had defeated Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysore, in each of the campaigns the Peshwa undertook against him. Madhav Rao was a great administrator.

Madhav Rao I died an untimely death on 18 November 1772 at the temple premises of  Ganesha Chintamani, Theur. It is said that had he lived longer, he might have averted the downfall of the Maratha Empire.