History MCQs – Set 3 - Modern India

 Q.1. In which city was Mahatma Gandhi assassinated on 30 January, 1948?

(a) Delhi

(b) Bombay

(c) Kolkata

(d) Allahabad

Q.2. Who was the Prime Minister of Britain when India became independent? 

(a) Clement Attlee

(b) Winston Churchill

(c) Neville Chamberlain

(d) Ramsay MacDonald

Q.3. In which year did Burma (Myanmar) cease to be a part of India?

(a) 1924

(b) 1935

(c) 1936

(d) 1937

Q.4. How many volunteers had accompanied Mahatma Gandhi on the famed Dandi March or Salt Satyagraha starting on March 12, 1930?

(a) 76

(b) 77

(c) 78

(d) 79

Q.5. Name the city where Satyagraha Sabha was formed by Gandhi in 1919 to protest against the Rowlatt Act.  

(a) Bombay

(b) Lahore

(c) Calcutta

(d) Ahmedabad

Q.6. Who among the following was a source of inspiration to Gandhi?

(a) Tolstoy

(b) Lenin

(c) Karl Marx

(d) None of the above

Q.7. Who among the following was the Governor-General of India during the Sepoy Mutiny, also known as Indian Mutiny by the British?

(a) Lord Dalhousie

(b) Lord Ellenborough

(c) Lord Canning

(d) Lord Auckland

Q.8. Who was the commander-in-chief of the army of Bahadur Shah Zafar during the Revolt of 1857?

(a) General Bakht Khan

(b) Khan Bahadur Khan Rohilla

(c) Azimullah Khan 

(d) Ahmadullah Shah

Q.9. Who declared eleven year old Birjis Qadr the Nawab of Oudh after the exile of Wajid Ali Shah to Calcutta during the Revolt of 1857?

(a) Begum Hazrat Mahal 

(b) Begum Zeenat Mahal

(c) Sultana Chand Bibi 

(d) Abadi Bano Begum

Q.10. Where did Kuka movement take place with a view to overthrowing the British rule?

(a) Odisha

(b) Bihar

(c) Travancore 

(d) Punjab

Answers:

Q. 1- (a)

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Vinayak Godse on 30 January 1948 in the compound of Birla House in New Delhi.

Q. 2- (a)

Clement Attlee was the Prime Minister of Britain when India became independent. He belonged to the Labour Party. 

Q. 3- (d)

Britain had separated Burma province  from India in 1837 and made it a crown colony.

Q. 4- (c)

78 volunteers had accompanied Mahatma Gandhi on the famed 24-day Dandi March which lasted from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930. This march on foot covered 240 miles (390 km). It is also called Salt Satyagraha.  

Q. 5- (a)

Gandhiji founded Satyagraha Sabha in 1919 at Bombay to protest against the Rowlatt Act. 

Q. 6 - (a)

The Kingdom of God is Within You written by Leo Tolstoy greatly influenced Gandhi. 

Q. 7 - (c)

Lord Canning was the Governor-General of India during the Sepoy Mutiny. Under the Government of India Act 1858 the position of Governor General of India was changed to that of Viceroy of India. The first Viceroy of India was Lord Canni

Q. 8 - (a)

General Bakht Khan was the commander-in-chief of the army of Bahadur Shah Zafar during the Revolt of 1857.

Q. 9. - (a)

Begum Hazrat Mahal was one of the important leaders of the Revolt of 1857. She was the wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, the ruler of Oudh, who was deposed by the British in 1856 and sent to exile in Calcutta. She led the revolt at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Acting as a regent of her eleven year old son Brijis Qadr, she ruled Awadh and under her tutelage the administration was reorganized. 

Q. 10. - (d)

Initially started as a religious movement with a view to reforming the Sikh religion by purging it of the degenerate features, Kuka movement, founded in 1840 in the Western Punjab, turned into a political struggle against the British. The founder of Kuka movement was Bhagat Jawahar Mal.  

Faraizi Movement

Starting as a religious (communal) movement, Faraizi Movement in course of time became a struggle against the landlords (who were mostly Hindus) who oppressed the common people and farmers and British colonists. Founded by Haji Shariatullah, the movement began with a call to the Muslims to perform their obligatory duties (Fard) enjoined by Allah with a view to purging the religion of the un-Islamic rites which he considered were contrary to the teachings of the Qu’ran. 

Haji Shariatullah was born in Faridpur (now in Bangladesh) in 1781. 

After Haji Shariatullah’s death in 1840, the mantle of leadership was passed on to his son Muhsinuddin Ahmed, more popularly known as Dudu Miyan. Under Dudu Miyan, the movement became agrarian in character. After his death in 1862, the movement began to lose steam and ultimately died down. 

Kushinagar: Where the Buddha Breathed his last

Located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Kushinagar is one of the world's most sacred sites of Buddhism. Kushinagar’s claim to fame lies in being the place where Buddha breathed his last, the event known in the Buddhist tradition as paranibbana (Mahaparinirvana) which is considered to have taken place in 483 BC. 

Kushinagar has an antiquity of centuries. Buddha himself declared Kushinagar as one of the four most sacred places. However, unlike Sravasti, Champa, Rajagraha, Saketa, Kausambi and Varanasi, Kusinagar was not an important city during Buddha’s time. This can be ascertained form Buddha’s disciple Ananda’s regret that his master chose to die in so small town as Kusinagar.

Kusinagar was visited by the Buddha several times before his death. 

Buddha’s Mahaparinirvana came at the age of eighty. After spending the last rainy season of life near the city of Vaishali, he and his followers reached the town of Pava where he took a meal at the house of his lay disciple, Cunda. Soon after he was attacked by blood dysentery but he continued his journey till he reached the outskirts of Kushinagar town where he laid himself down under a sal tree and that night he attained Mahaparinirvana (Final Blowing- out). His last words were: “All composite things decay. Strive diligently!”  

After paying homage to the remains of the Buddha, his sorrowing followers cremated his body. His relics were distributed among various claimants including the Magadhan ruler Ajatashatru.

Ananda was with the Buddha at the time of latter's death.     

Places to see in Kushinagar

                                        Mahaparinirvana Temple / Wikimedia Commons  

Mahaparinirvana Temple

The Mahaparinirvana Temple is home to a 6.10 meter long fifth century AD statue of the reclining Buddha. The idol is made of the sandstone of Chunar, about 25 miles south-west of Varanasi. 

Nirvana Stupa

Discovered by Carlyl in 1876, the huge brickwork Nirvana Stupa stands behind the Mahaparinirvana Temple at a height of 2.74 meters. A copper vessel bearing an inscription in Brahmi script states that Buddha's relics had been placed here.

Ramabhar Stupa

1.5 km away from Mahaparinirvana Temple, the Ramabhar Stupa marks the spot where the Buddha was cremated. Rising to a height of 15 meters, the Stupa is referred to as 'Mukut-Bandhan Chaitya' in ancient Buddhist texts. 

Other places of attractions in and around Kushinagar are Japanese Temple, Chinese Temple, Kushawati Temple and Kushinagar Museum.

How to Reach Kushinagar

Air: Nearest major airport to Kushinagar is at Varanasi which is connected by flights from major cities in India. Varanasi is 260 km away from Kushinagar. Other airports close to Kushinagar are at Gorakhpur and Lucknow which are 53 km and 252 km away respectively from Kushinagar. 

Rail: Kushinagar does not have a Railway Station. The nearest railheads are at Deoria and Gorakhpur which are 35 km and 53 km away from Kushinagar. Gorakhpur railway station is well connected by rail with all the major railway stations in India. 

Road: Situated on National Highway No. 28, Kushinagar is well connected with important places in Uttar Pradesh by frequent bus services. 

 

Chini ka Rauza

                                    Chini-ka-Rauza /Image Source

Located in Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Chini-ka-Rauza is the mausoleum Afzal Khan Aalmi who was the diwan-I kull of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. During Shah Jahan’s times vizir (Prime Minister) of the Mughal empire was called diwan-I kull. A learned man, Afzal Khan Aalmi was the elder brother of Amanat Khan who is known for designing the calligraphy of world renowned monument Taj Mahal.  

Both of the brothers came to India from Shiraz in Iran. 

Afzal Khan Aalmi died in 1639 in Lahore from where he was brought to Agra where he built a rauza (tomb) for himself and buried in Chini-ka-Rauza. The monument is so named because of the coloured glazed tiles (Chini) that adorn the tomb.

Bibi ka Maqbara of Aurangabad

 

Image source

Located in Aurangabad, Bibi-ka-Maqbara is the mausoleum of 6th Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s wife Dilras Banu Begum who was posthumously called Rabia-ud-Daurani. The monument was commissioned by Aurangzeb in 1660. 

With its four minarets flanking a central onion-domed tomb, the monument is built on a high square platform, which is approached by a flight of steps from the three sides. 

Bearing a striking resemblance to the world acclaimed Taj Mahal at Agra, Bibi Ka Maqbara is also known as the “Taj of the Deccan”. 

Khudiram Bose Death Anniversary

Today is the death anniversary of Khudiram Bose [1889-1908], a revolutionary born in the Midnapore district of West Bengal. 

One of India’s earliest revolutionaries to die on the gallows on August 11, 1908, Khudiram Bose was a member of the revolutionary society Anushilan Samiti. He along with Prufulla Chaki threw a bomb at the carriage of Kingsford, an English Judge at Muzaffarpur in Bihar. He was arrested in the Muzaffarpur Conspiracy case and sentenced to death at the young age of 18.

Deva Raya I's Love's Labour's Lost

In 1406 one of the many battles between the Vijayanagar kingdom and the Bahmani sultanate took place. If the medieval Persian historian Ferishta is to believed, the casus belli of the fight was a fascination of Vijayanagar ruler Deva Raya I for a goldsmith’s beautiful daughter living in Mudgal in the Raichur Doab , the region between the Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers. Thanks to its being a fertile land, Raichur Doab was a bone of contention between the rulers of the Vijayanagar and the Bahmanis as none of them wanted to forsake their claim on the region. 

Since the girl in question was averse to the idea of marrying Deva Raya I, this infuriated the latter who laid waste some villages in the neighbourhood of Mudgal. This antagonized the Bahmani Sultan Firuz Shah who considered the aggression as an encroachment on the Bahmani territory. In retaliation, he attacked Vijayanagar. Though the war initially went well for Vijayanagar, in the end Deva Raya I was forced to make peace with the Bahmani Sultan who forced the Viajaynagar ruler to give out the hands of his daughter in marriage to him. Besides, Deva Raya I had to surrender the strategic fort of Bankapur as her dowry. 

Firuz Shah Bahmani secured his son Hasan Khan the goldsmith’s daughter whose beauty was responsible for the battle. Apart from pearls, 50 elephants, 2000 boys and girls skilled in song and dance, he extracted a heavy cash indemnity from Deva Raya I.

The marriage of Firuz Shah Bahmani with the daughter of Deva Raya I was celebrated with great pomp and show.