UPSC Essentials | Daily subject-wise quiz: History and Culture MCQs on ‘Stri-Purush Tulana’, the HSRA pamphlet and more (Week 101)

QUESTION 1

According to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) pamphlet, why was the murder of John Saunders, a British police officer in Lahore, planned?

(a) As a retaliation of arresting Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt for throwing bombs at the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi. 

(b) As a response to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre

(c) As a revenge to the assassinaiton of Lala Lajpat Rai 

(d) None of the above

Explanation

The HSRA pamphlet after Saunder’s death said the following: “With the death of J P Saunders the assassinaiton of Lala Lajpat Rai has been avenged… Today the world has seen that the people of India are not lifeless; their blood has not become cold… Our aim is to bring about a revolution which would end all exploitation of man by man. Inqualab Zindabad!” It was signed by ‘Balraj’, one of the many pseudonyms that Azad went by.

Therefore, (c) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 2

Consider the following events in the history of India’s struggle to independence:

1. Establishment of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA)

2. Kakori train robbery 

3. Mahatma Gandhi calling off the Non Cooperation Movement 

4.  The bombing of the Central Assembly in Delhi by Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt

Which of the following represents the correct chronological order of the events mentioned above?

(a) 2, 3, 1, 4

(b) 1, 2, 4, 3

(c) 3, 1, 4, 2

(d) 3, 2, 1, 4

Explanation

Azad was very upset when Gandhi called off the Non Cooperation Movement in February 1922. And like many of his contemporaries, his frustration pushed him down a more militant path.

He would soon join the Hindustan Republican Army (HRA) of Ram Prasad Bismil and Sachindranath Sanyal, where he participated in numerous political dacoities to raise funds for an eventual armed uprising. The most famous of these was the Kakori train robbery of 1925. Of those involved, Azad was the only one to escape the authorities — Azad had fled to Jhansi, where he lay low till the trial ended.

Subsequently, he began organising again. It was at this time that he met Bhagat Singh.

The two would eventually gather a crew of revolutionaries from across United Provinces and Panjab, and establish the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928. This was the successor to the HRA, but now with a far more explicit socialist bent, courtesy Bhagat Singh.

While Bhagat Singh was the political ideologue of the organisation, Azad was its military leader — the one who strategised, planned and helped execute ‘actions’, gave the young men training in target practice, and helped organise arms and ammunition. He would, most famously, plan and execute the murder of John Saunders, a British police officer in Lahore in December 1928. Bhagat Singh and Rajguru shot Saunders, while Azad shot dead a police constable who chased the assassins.

The HSRA would carry out one more “action” — the bombing of the Central Assembly in Delhi by Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt in 1929. After this, the British crackdown sent the organisation in disarray. Almost all of its leaders were eventually arrested. Bhagat Singh, along with Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar would be hanged for the killing of Saunders on March 21, 1931.

Therefore, (d) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 3

With reference to Amir Khusrau, consider the following statements:

1. Alauddin Khalji bestowed upon Khusrau the title of ‘Amir’

2. His most popular compositions include Chhaap Tilak, Zehal-e-Maskeen, and Sakal Ban Phool Rahi Sarson.

3. He was the disciple of the Chishti Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya.

4. He wrote in Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi that he “served as keeper of the Qur’ān” in the court of Sultan Jalaluddin Khalji.

Which of the above given statements is/are true?

(a) 1, 2 and 3 only

(b) 1 and 2 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Explanation

In his address to the 25th edition of Jahan-e-Khusrau at New Delhi’s Sunder Nursery on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the annual music festival that commemorates the Sufi poet-musician Amir Khusrau as imbued with the “fragrance of the soil of Hindustan”.

Bestowed with the sobriquet of Tuti-yi-Hind, the ‘Parrot of India’, the 13th century mystic is seen as a father figure for North India’s syncretic Ganga-Jamuni culture.

Khusrau made lasting contributions to Indian classical music, Sufi qawwali, and Persian literature, and is also credited for developing Hindavi, a precursor to modern Hindi and Urdu.

Amir Khusrau served at least five Sultans — Muiz ud din Qaiqabad, Jalaluddin Khalji, Alauddin Khalji, Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah, and Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq — and many other powerful patrons over five decades, which testifies to the quality of his poetry. He wrote in Persian, the language of the court, as well as Hindavi.

Sultan Jalaluddin Khalji bestowed upon Khusrau the title of ‘Amir’. Historian Ziauddin Barani wrote in Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi that Jalaluddin held Khusrau “in great esteem”, and Khusrau “served as keeper of the Qur’ān” in his court (trans. Losensky and Sharma). Hence, statements 1 and 4 are not correct. 

Khusrau was the most beloved disciple of the Chishti Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya, who once wished that his favourite pupil would be buried with him. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

Khusrau’s ghazals and qawwalis are today sung in both sacred and secular contexts, at sufi dargahs and Bollywood musicals. His most popular compositions include Chhaap Tilak, Zehal-e-Maskeen, and Sakal Ban Phool Rahi Sarson. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

However, his musical contributions likely go farther than this. Khusrau is said to be instrumental in the development of modern Indian classical music — he is credited with crafting dozens of ragas, creating ornate khayal music, and inventing the sitar and tabla, even though evidence for this is limited.

Therefore, (c) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 4

Who was the author of Stri-Purush Tulana (1882), a critique of gender inequality written in response to the case of a widow arrested for murdering her newborn?

(a) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

(b) Bandaru Acchamamba

(c) Tarabai Shinde 

(d) Ramabai Ranade

Explanation

In 1881, a 24-year-old widow from Olpad, a village near Surat in Gujarat, found herself at the centre of a tragic situation. Vijaylakshmi was arrested after the lifeless body of her newborn was discovered on a rubbish heap. Confronted by the authorities, she allegedly confessed to killing the infant to avoid the stigma of being a widowed mother.

Vijaylakshmi’s case, which reflected the harsh realities faced by Brahmin and high-caste Hindu women who got married young and were expected to maintain strict chastity if widowed in 19th-century India, sparked widespread public debate. It also inspired one woman to pick up her pen and write a passionate rebuttal in a book considered to be India’s first feminist text. Her name was Tarabai Shinde.

Deeply disturbed by the way Vijaylakshmi was being portrayed, in 1882, Tarabai published Stri-Purush Tulana (A comparison of women and men) in Marathi, directly challenging the blame placed on women for society’s ills.

Therefore, (c) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 5

In Mortality of the British Army, the ‘polar area diagram’ developed by her demonstrated that preventable diseases caused more deaths than injuries to the army men. The principles in her Notes on Nursing guided her later work in India. Her statistical analysis in Life and Death in India showed a drop in mortality rates, attributed to the reforms she advocated.

Who is referred to in the above statements?

(a) Dr. Anandibai Joshi 

(b) Kadambini Ganguly

(c) Rakhmabai

(d) Florence Nightingale

Explanation

In the annals of Victorian heroism, Florence Nightingale stands as a near-mythic figure: the “Lady with the Lamp,” a beacon of mercy amid the gore of the Crimean War (1853–56). To the Western imagination, she is the prim nurse who tamed chaos with a washcloth and a steely glare.

But for India, her story is more than a sepia-toned colonial cameo; it is a tale of how one woman, armed with statistics and a relentless pen, bent the arc of public health toward something resembling justice.

Therefore, (d) is the correct answer.

Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week.

Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.