Modern Indian History MCQs

Notes:
The Portuguese built their first fortress in India at Kochi in 1503. The fortress, named Fort Emmanuel after King Manuel I of Portugal, was constructed with the permission of the ruler of the Kingdom of Kochi. Strategically located near the Malabar coast’s spice trade routes, Fort Emmanuel enabled the Portuguese to consolidate power along India’s southwestern shores. For over a century, it served as the epicenter from which the Portuguese promoted trade interests and religious proselytization in the subcontinent. Though the fort now lies in ruins on Fort Kochi Beach, it inaugurated a era of direct European involvement in Indian political and mercantile affairs.

Notes:
It was in 1487 that the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Dias, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and sailed up the eastern coast; he was well convinced that the long sought after sea route to India had been found. But it was only ten years later that an expedition of Portuguese
ships headed out to India (in 1497) and arrived in India in slightly less than eleven months’ time, in May 1498.He stayed in India for three months and carried back with a rich cargo. That time the importance of pepper trade was realized for the first time by the Europeans.

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The Vernacular press act:1. It was passed during the times of Lord Lytton2. It empowered the magistrate to deposit a security, which could be confiscated if the printer violated the Bond3. It was repealed during times of Lord Ripon

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Clement Richard Attlee was the leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951. He was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the time of India’s independence. On February 20, 1947 Atlee declared the British would quit India before June 1948.

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The Gardener was published in 1913. Gitanjali was published in 1910, The King of the Dark Chamber (Originally Raja, 1910) was published in 1914. In the year 1913, he won Nobel prize (First non-European) in literature.

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Sachindra Prasad Bose was a popular Indian freedom movement activist. The Calcutta flag was designed by him which was unfurled on 7 August 1906 in Calcutta. The flag had three horizontal bands of equal width (From top to bottom orange, yellow, green). The word Vande Mataram was written in the middle in Devnagari script.

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Madan Lal Dhingra was an Indian student at the University of London. He was associated with the India House of London which was set up by Shyamji Krishna Varma and The Indian Sociologist. Sir William Curzon Wiley was assassinated in London on 1st July 1909 by Dhingra at the Imperial Institute while he attending an event organised by the National Indian Association.

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Naujawan Bharat Sabha was founded by Bhagat Singh in 1926. Members from the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities were there in the organization. The public meeting of the association was reduced after the killing of J.P. Saunders in 1928. In the year 1929, the association was banned.

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Faraidi ( or Faraizi) movement (1804): It was founded by Haji Shariatullah of village Bahadurpur in Faridpur district, Bengal. The movement had emphasis on strict monotheism and to remove un-Islamic practices from the Muslim society as well as to revive and restore Muslim rule once again by expelling the Christians from India. His successors Dudu Mian and Nowa Mian successfully mobilized the Muslim peasants of central and eastern Bengal against the zamindars and money lenders who were mostly Hindus and the indigo planters who were British. Finally, the movement was suppressed by the Bengal government after a series of arrests, trials and persecutions.

Notes:
The Battle of Bedara (1759) was fought between the English and Dutch army in Bengal, India. In this battle, the Dutch force was decisively defeated by the British forces and that helped British East India Company to assert their supremacy in India.