UPSC Essentials | Daily Quiz : History and Culture (Week 133) — Test your knowledge for UPSC CSE Prelims 2026

1. Ghanshyam Das Birla

2. Jawaharlal Nehru

3. Madan Mohan Malviya

4. Sarojini Naidu

5. B. R. Ambedkar

Select the correct code :

(a) 1, 2, 4 and 5 only

(b) 1, 3, 4 and 5 only

(c) 1, 2 and 4 only

(d) 3, 4 and 5 only

Explanation

— Representatives, including Gandhi, attended the second conference in 1931 after reaching a pact with Viceroy of India Lord Irwin to end the Civil Disobedience Movement.

— Jawaharlal Nehru did not attend any of the three Round Table Conferences. Rest three personalities mentioned above participated in the Second Round Table Conference.  Dr. B. R. Ambedkar as the representative of the “Depressed Classes” participated too.

Therefore, b is the correct answer.

QUESTION 2

Which of the following monuments was also known as ‘Qila-e-Mubarak’?

(a) Shergarh Fort

(b) Agra Fort

(c) Purana Qila

(d) Red Fort

Explanation

— The ‘Dehli’ that the French traveller Francois Bernier describes in his writings was Shahjahanabad — the city founded by Shah Jahan. The construction of this new city and its fort began simultaneously in 1639, and nine years later, Shah Jahan formally inaugurated what is now known as the Red Fort.

— This architectural brilliance would serve as the main residence of the Mughal emperors, for Shahjahanabad retained its title of ‘New Delhi’ for nearly 250 years after its founding — until the early 1900s, when yet another new city of Delhi was established by the British.

— Originally called Qila-e-Mubarak (the Fortunate Citadel), the palace came to be known more simply as the Lal Qila, or the Red Fort, owing to its imposing red sandstone walls.

Therefore, d is the correct answer.

(For more, refer: From a palace that once defined the East, scarred by the 1857 revolt, to the site of Independence Day celebrations: Red Fort’s journey by Nikita Mohta, Research, The Indian Express)

QUESTION 3

The terms “curry western” is used in reference to:

(a) a term used by 17th-century European traders to categorize spices

(b) a classification used in classical Indian music 

(c) a genre of Indian films

(d) the first successful hybrid strain of rice, combining Indian ‘Basmati’ with drought-resistant varieties from North American farms.

Explanation

— It is a genre of Indian films from the 1970s and 1980s that fused the American Western with Indian settings and themes. It is often associated with actors like Feroz Khan and Dharmendra.

— The “curry western” emerged in Indian cinema as a way to adapt the popular spaghetti western genre, which was popularized by Italian director Sergio Leone, to an Indian context. This adaptation often involved combining Western tropes with Indian plots and characters, sometimes leading to criticism for being derivative of Western films.

— Sholay is the best example of this genre.

Therefore, c is the correct answer.

QUESTION 4

Consider the following statements with reference to Bengal Famine of 1943:

1. Large-scale diversion of food for war purposes during World War II and a cyclone were among the factors responsible for the famine.

2. The Government of India built an official national memorial for the victims of famine soon after independence in Noakhali.

Which of the above given statement is/are true?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation

Bengal famine of 1943: Dead and dying children on a Calcutta street published in the Statesman 22 August 1943 (Wikimedia Commons)

— In 1943, Bengal was gripped by a famine that claimed nearly three million lives. Yet, unlike the wars and partitions that followed, this catastrophe has left behind no museum, no memorial, not even a plaque. At a recent memorial in Manchester, people gathered to remember what history has long chosen to forget — and to raise a stark question: why has South Asia never formally commemorated one of its deadliest tragedies?

The 1943 Bengal Famine

— When Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, the priorities of the colonial authorities in India shifted considerably. Every decision became tied to wartime defence, security, and mobilisation.

— Japan’s entry into the war in 1941 intensified British anxieties. After a rapid string of Japanese victories across Southeast Asia — and the fall of Burma in early 1942 — Bengal, particularly Calcutta, became central to British wartime planning.

— However, as historian Janam Mukherjee notes in his book Hungry Bengal, the British government’s plan to ‘defend’ the city had little to do with military reinforcement. “Instead, the war cabinet in London opted for a scorched earth campaign in Bengal– a scheme to ‘deny’ Japan the resources that it might utilize to advance on Calcutta in the event of invasion,” he writes.

— The main objective of the policy was to confiscate any “surplus” stocks of rice in the coastal districts of Bengal, which were most vulnerable to attack from the Axis powers. Government agents used coercion to confiscate grain, much of which rotted in godowns even as starvation spread. By April 1942, the price of rice had soared, and there was distress both in the city and the countryside.

— The second part of Britain’s defence policy was “boat denial”. It meant denying any kind of transport from the coast of Bengal to the invading Japanese army. This led to the confiscation of approximately 45,000 rural boats, thereby crippling the movement of labour, supplies, and food.

— A cyclone in October 1942 further compounded the crisis, destroying large amounts of paddy stocks and killing thousands. Rural Bengal, particularly Midnapore, Noakhali, and Tamluk, was most affected, forcing thousands to flee to Calcutta in search of food and work.

Therefore, a is the correct answer.

(For more, refer: In Britain, the first memorial to a famine Bengal never forgot — and India never marked by Adrija Roychaudhary, Research, The Indian Express)

QUESTION 5

Consider the following statements:

1. When Macaulay arrived in India, the General Committee of Public Instruction—a body to oversee education policies and funds in colonial India—was deadlocked between two factions, the Orientalists and the Anglicists.

2. When Macaulay was appointed as the President of the General Committee of Public Instruction, William Bentinck was the Governor-general of India. 

Which of the above statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation

— When Macaulay arrived in India, the General Committee of Public Instruction—a body to oversee education policies and funds in colonial India—was deadlocked between two factions, the Orientalists and the Anglicists. The Anglicists supported European ideas and English education and were opposed to the practice of Oriental learning. They sought to curtail stipends for students of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, and to reduce expenditure on publishing works in these languages. The Orientalists, by contrast, favoured Indian language and literature.

— In The Story of English in India (2006), N. Krishnaswamy and Lalitha Krishnaswamy note: “William Bentinck (governor-general of India) solved the problem by appointing Macaulay, Law Member of the Council, President of the Committee of Public Instruction.”

— This appointment paved the way for Macaulay’s Minute of 2 February 1835, often called the ‘Manifesto of English Education in India’. In it, Macaulay said: “We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern—a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to redefine the vernacular dialects in the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from Western nomenclature…”.

Therefore, c is the correct answer.

(For more, refer: From IPC to ‘Manifesto of English Education in India’: The colonial legacy of Thomas Macaulay by Nikita Mohta, Research, The Indian Express)

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