Modern Indian History MCQs

Notes:
Before the formation of the English East India Company, also known as “The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies”, which was established in 1600 AD, it was John Mildenhall, a merchant adventurer, who first arrived in India via a land route. His aim was to engage in trade with Indian merchants, marking the earliest known English trading activity in the Indian subcontinent.

Notes:
The Treaty of Lahore signed on March 9, 1846 between Lord Hardinge and Maharaja Duleep Singh (7 year old). The excerpts
of the treaty are-
a) the Sikhs lost Jammu, Kashmir, Hazara and some territories in Jalandhar Doab.
b) the Sikhs had to pay 1.2 million pounds to the British.
c) Maharaja Duleep Singh agreed that he would not appoint any European in service without the consent of the British.
d) Maharaja Duleep Singh recognized as King, Rani Jind Kaur as Regent and Lal Singh as Wazir.
e) British resident was also kept at Lahore.
f) the territories between the Sutlez and the Beas was ceded to the British.

Notes:
Sir Charles Metcalfe (1834-36) is known as the Liberator of the Indian Press, who abolished all restrictions on vernacular press through the famous “Press Law”.

Notes:
Lord Chelmsford was the Viceroy of India when the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on April 13, 1919. The massacre occurred in Amritsar when people gathered in Jallianwala Bagh on the eve of Baisakhi day.  Lord Chelmsford was also the Viceroy of India when the Rowlatt Act was passed in 1919.

Notes:
The Kheda Satyagraha (1918): The Kheda Satyagraha was initiated by Mahatma Gandhi in Kheda district of Gujarat in support of the farmers in the areaa which were facing a famine and were unable to pay revenue to the British government and Britishers were not in mood to scrap the tax. Then, Mahatma Gandhi launched “no-revenue” campaign with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The outcome of the satyragraha was British Government reduced revenue to 6.03% and ordered officials to recover revenue only
from those farmers who were willing to pay.

Notes:
Punjab Kesari, a daily hindi newspaper, was started at Jalandhar in 1965 by Lala Jagat Narayan. He was the founder of the Hind Samachar group.

Notes:
Powerful newspapers emerged during these years under distinguished and fearless journalists. These were the Hindu and Swadesamitran under the editorship of G. Subramaniya Iyer, Kesari and Mahratta under B.G. Tilak, Bengalee under Surendranath Banerjea, Amrita Bazar Patrika under Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh, Sudharak under Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Indian Mirror under N.N. Sen, Voice of India under Dadabhai Naoroji, Hindustani and Advocate under G.P. Varma and Tribune and Akhbar-i-Am in Punjab, Indu Prakash, Dnyan Prakash, Kal and Gujarati in Bombay, and Som Prakash, Banganivasi and Sadharani in Bengal. In fact, there hardly existed a major political leader in India who did not possess a newspaper or was not writing for one in some capacity or the other.

Notes:
Margaret E. Cousins was born in 1878 in Ireland, and came to India in 1915 and since then made India her home. She organized many institutions like the Madras Seva Sadan and Children’s Aid Society. She organized a women’s deputation to Mr. E.S. Montagu, Secretary of State for India, at Madras, which made the first demand for franchise for women in India. At the initiative of margaret cousins, the all india women’s conference was founded in 1927. It’s brought together women of different regions, religions and caste. Among the pioneers who shaped the organization were Sarojini Naidu, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Muthulaxmi Reddi, Laxmi , Hansa Mehta And Vijay Laxmi Pandit.

Notes:
On 12 December 1911, during the Delhi Durbar, George V, then Emperor of India, along with Queen Mary, his Consort, made the announcement that the capital of the Raj was to be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi.

Notes:
In 1914, Gandhi returned to India and lived a life of abstinence and spirituality on the periphery of Indian politics. Then in 1919 came the Rowlatt Act and people protested against it and Jallianwalah bagh Massacre happed. He supported Britain in the First World War but in 1919 launched a new satyagraha in protest of Britain’s mandatory military draft of Indians. Hundreds of thousands answered his call to protest, and by 1920 he was leader of the Indian movement for independence.