UPSC Essentials | Daily subject-wise static quiz: History and Culture MCQs on Swadeshi, Quit India Movement, and more (Week 121)

QUESTION 1

Consider the following quote:

“Calcutta is the centre from which the Congress party is manipulated throughout the whole of Bengal and indeed the whole of India.” 

Whose words are these?

(a) Raja Ram Mohan Roy

(b) Lord Canning

(c) Lala Lajpat Rai

(d) Lord Curzon

Explanation

On July 19, 1905, the then Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, announced the division of Bengal into two provinces – East Bengal and Assam (predominately Muslim) and the western province called Bengal (primarily Hindus).

While apologists of Curzon’s regime claimed that the partition of Bengal aimed at administrative convenience, nationalist leaders called it a deliberate divide and rule policy. The political motive behind the bifurcation was to encourage Hindu-Muslim tensions and divide nationalist leaders of East and West Bengal, thereby weakening the growing opposition against the British rule in the province. It was evident in the words of Curzon:

“Calcutta is the centre from which the Congress party is manipulated throughout the whole of Bengal and indeed the whole of India.” 

Therefore, d is the correct answer.

(For more, refer:Revisiting the legacy of Swadeshi movement amid Trump’s tariff tirade, Dileep P Chandran, The Indian Express)

QUESTION 2

Where was the idea of boycotting British goods first proposed during India’s struggle for independence?

(a) Weekly Sanjivani

(b) Bipin Chandra Pal’s New India

(c) British House of Commons 1907

(d) Public meeting in Calcutta Town Hall in 1905

Explanation

The failure of moderates’ ‘mendicant policies’ (appealing to the British through prayers and petitions) to counter Curzon’s repressive reforms led to the search for a new technique to demand revocation of the Bengal partition. The idea of boycotting British goods was first proposed in Krishnakumar Mitra’s weekly Sanjivani on July 13, 1905, and later adopted by nationalist leaders at a public meeting in Calcutta Town Hall on August 7, 1905.

Therefore, a is the correct answer.

(For more, refer: Revisiting the legacy of Swadeshi movement amid Trump’s tariff tirade, Dileep P Chandran, The Indian Express)

QUESTION 3

Consider the following pairs:

1. Brahmobandhab Upadhyay : Sandhya and Yugantar

2. Aurobindo Ghosh                   : Bande Mataram

3. Bipin Chandra Pal                  : New India

Which of the pairs given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 3 only

(c) 2 and 3 0nly

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Explanation

Contrary to the expectation of the colonial administration that the protests against the partition would fade away soon, the Swadeshi movement expanded into a broader struggle for Swaraj, attracting young, educated youth. For the first time in the history of India, the movement attracted women, workers, peasants, and the marginalised to nationalist ideas. The period also witnessed the rapid growth of the vernacular press with a nationalistic tone.

Young nationalists in Bengal viewed the partition as a ‘national insult’. They were not satisfied with the mere call for self-reliance, like Rabindranath Tagore’s concept of atmashakti (self-strengthening), and appealed for revolutionary politics. Publications like Bipin Chandra Pal’s New India, Aurobindo Ghosh’s Bande Mataram, Brahmobandhab Upadhyay’s Sandhya and Yugantar called for a struggle for Swaraj, dismissing the peaceful movement of self-reliance as inadequate.

Therefore, d is the correct answer.

(For more, refer: Revisiting the legacy of Swadeshi movement amid Trump’s tariff tirade, Dileep P Chandran, The Indian Express)

QUESTION 4

Consider the following:

1. Formation of the Muslim League

2. Morley-Minto Reforms

3. Split between the moderates and extremists (Surat Session)

What is the correct chronological order of events, starting with what happened first?

(a) 1 – 2 – 3

(b) 1 – 3 – 2

(c) 3 – 1 – 2

(d) 3 – 2 – 1

Explanation

The Swadeshi movement (1905-1911) laid the groundwork for many strategies adopted during the Gandhian phase of the national movement. Later, Mahatma Gandhi extended the idea of Swadeshi into the spiritual realm by linking it to a moral duty. He wrote, “I should use only things that are produced by my immediate neighbours and serve those industries by making them efficient and complete where they may be found wanting.”

However, there emerged differences among the leaders of the Swadeshi movement mainly at two levels. First, they could not agree over the political methods and goals, and resulted in the split between the moderates and extremists within the Indian National Congress at the Surat session in 1907. Second, there was a controversy associated with combining religious revivalism with political methods. The fusion of nationalism with Hindu symbols alienated minority communities from the national movement.

The colonial administration exploited these tensions and deliberately fostered communal divisions, as seen in the formation of the Muslim League in 1906 and the introduction of separate electorates for Muslims in the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909.

Therefore, b is the correct answer.

(For more, refer: Revisiting the legacy of Swadeshi movement amid Trump’s tariff tirade, Dileep P Chandran, The Indian Express)

QUESTION 5

Consider the following statements:

1. The slogan ‘Quit India’ was coined by Mahatma Gandhi.

2. India Wins Freedom (1959) is an autobiography of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

3. Allama Iqbal wrote Urdu classic Ghubaar-e-khaatir which included Taraana-e-hind.

Which of the statements given above is/are true?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1 and 3 only

Explanation

The Quit India Movement officially began on August 8, 1942. A few weeks earlier, on 14 July 1942, the Congress Working Committee had passed the Quit India Resolution, demanding a complete end to British rule. The slogan ‘Quit India’ was coined by Yusuf Meherally, a socialist leader, who was then the mayor of Bombay.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who served as the youngest President of the Indian National Congress and after independence became India’s first Education Minister, recalls in his autobiography India Wins Freedom (1959) how the resolution generated an “electric atmosphere in the Country”.

The Quit India movement triggered a wave of arrests, especially of senior Congress leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who were interned at the Ahmednagar Fort Prison. Mahatma Gandhi was detained in the Agha Khan’s Summer Palace in nearby Poona. During more than two years they spent in Ahmednagar Fort Prison, Nehru and Azad, who were not just leaders of the national movement but also men of quite extensive learning, began writing two of their finest works.

Nehru wrote his seminal work, The Discovery of India, while Azad composed his much-loved Urdu classic, Ghubaar-e-khaatir, a collection of letters penned in the early morning hours when the Maulana would ruminate over subjects as diverse as life, literature, philosophy, and history, all over his favourite cup of Chinese Jasmine tea. Interestingly, other eminent co-prisoners and intellectuals, including J.B. Kripalani and Pattabhi Sitaramayya, also spent their time writing books.

Therefore, b is the correct answer.

(For more, refer: Quit India Movement – Protests, prison writings, and post-war order by Amir Ali, The Indian Express)

QUESTION 6

“I wanted India to take an eager and active part in the mighty conflict, for I felt that high principles would be at stake, and out of this conflict would come great and revolutionary changes in India and the world.”

Whose words are these, in reference to India’s potential role in World War II ?

(a) Lord Linlithgow

(b) Muhammad Ali Jinnah

(c) Jawaharlal Nehru

(d) Subhas Chandra Bose

Explanation

The backdrop to the Quit India movement was thus very much shaped by the uncertain global situation that had arisen with the Second World War. Some leaders of the Indian national movement tended to sympathise more with the Allied powers, who claimed to be on the side of democracy and freedom as they fought against the Fascist Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan. However, there was a feeling that support for the Allied powers needed to be tied to a greater commitment on the part of the British towards granting India self-rule after the war.

US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt advocated freedom for India, exerting pressure on Britain and further reiterating his “Four Freedoms” outlined in his State of the Union Address in 1941. In India, resentment had already been building over the way the then Viceroy Lord Linlithgow, at the very outset of the war in 1939,  unilaterally declared India’s involvement in the war effort without consulting the national leadership.

Notably, Jawaharlal Nehru presented his assessment of the political situation in The Discovery of India in the following manner: “I wanted India to take an eager and active part in the mighty conflict, for I felt that high principles would be at stake, and out of this conflict would come great and revolutionary changes in India and the world.”

Therefore, c is the correct answer.

(For more, refer: Quit India Movement – Protests, prison writings, and post-war order by Amir Ali, The Indian Express)

QUESTION 7

Consider the following statements:

1. In June 1945, the then Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, announced his intention of holding a conference at Simla (Simla Conference), proposing that Indian leaders be included in the Viceroy’s Executive Council to create an interim self-government, with a view to prospective self-rule.

2. The Simla Conference failed due to the Muslim League’s insistence that it alone would nominate Muslim representatives to the Executive Council.

Which of the above given statements is/are true?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation

During Quit India Movement:

While the Congress leadership was in jail, the Muslim League under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah continued to be active outside. In June 1945, the then Viceroy, Lord Archibald Wavell, announced his intention of holding a conference at Shimla, proposing that Indian leaders be included in the Viceroy’s Executive Council to create an interim self-government, with a view to prospective self-rule.

The timing reflected the changed wartime context: the war in Europe had come to an end, though Japan had not yet surrendered. However, the Simla Conference failed due to the Muslim League’s insistence that it alone would nominate Muslim representatives to the Executive Council.

Therefore, b is the correct answer.

(For more, refer: Quit India Movement – Protests, prison writings, and post-war order by Amir Ali, The Indian Express)

QUESTION 8

With reference to Ahmednagar Fort, consider the following statements:

1. The Quit India movement triggered a wave of arrests, especially of senior Congress leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who were interned at the Ahmednagar Fort Prison.

2. Jawaharlal Nehru wrote “The Discovery of India” while imprisoned at the Ahmednagar Fort by the British, during the Quit India Movement between 1942 and 1946.

Which of the statements give above is/are true?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation

The Quit India movement triggered a wave of arrests, especially of senior Congress leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who were interned at the Ahmednagar Fort Prison. Mahatma Gandhi was detained in the Agha Khan’s Summer Palace in nearby Poona. During more than two years they spent in Ahmednagar Fort Prison, Nehru and Azad, who were not just leaders of the national movement but also men of quite extensive learning, began writing two of their finest works.

Nehru wrote his seminal work, The Discovery of India, while Azad composed his much-loved Urdu classic, Ghubaar-e-khaatir, a collection of letters penned in the early morning hours when the Maulana would ruminate over subjects as diverse as life, literature, philosophy, and history, all over his favourite cup of Chinese Jasmine tea. Interestingly, other eminent co-prisoners and intellectuals, including J.B. Kripalani and Pattabhi Sitaramayya, also spent their time writing books.

In the final chapter of The Discovery of India, titled ‘Ahmednagar Fort Again’, dated August 13, 1944, Nehru observes: “It is just over two years since we came here, two years of a dream life rooted in one spot, with the same few individuals to see, the same limited environment, the same routine from day to day’.

Therefore, b is the correct answer.

(For more, refer: Quit India Movement – Protests, prison writings, and post-war order by Amir Ali, The Indian Express)

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