Medieval and Modern Indian History

The Treaty of Salbai was signed on May 17, 1782, by representatives of the Maratha Empire and the British East India Company after long negotiations to settle the outcome of the first Anglo-Maratha War.

The statement about forcing prisoners of war to become slaves is incorrect because Shivaji was known for his humane treatment of prisoners. Historical records show he treated captured prisoners with respect and did not force them into slavery. Options A, B, and D are all true - Shivaji was simple and religious, tolerated other religions, and organized the Marathas against the Mughal empire.

The British proclaimed 'Now India is ours' after the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803-1805) because this war destroyed the major Maratha power centers. The defeat of the Scindias, Bhonsles, and Holkars left the British as the dominant power in India with no significant Indian rival remaining. The First Anglo-Maratha War was actually a British defeat.

Medley, a British historian, characterized the 1857 revolt as a 'war of races' - meaning a racial conflict between the British and Indians. This terminology reflected the colonial view of the uprising as fundamentally about racial tension and hierarchy rather than political grievances. Other historians like S. N. Sen used different descriptors.

The 1857 revolt began on March 29, 1857, at Barrackpore when Mangal Pandey revolted. However, Berhampur (in Bengal) witnessed the very first sparks in late February 1857 when the 19th Native Infantry refused to use the new Enfield cartridges, even before Mangal Pandey's famous rebellion. This makes Berhampur the earliest site of unrest, though Barrackpore is more famous as the starting point.

General Bakht Khan, a veteran of the Anglo-Afghan Wars, led the rebel forces in Delhi during the 1857 revolt. He brought soldiers from Bareilly and became the commander-in-chief of the rebel army in Delhi after arriving there in July 1857. Lucknow had Begum Hazrat Mahal, Kanpur had Nana Saheb, and Bareilly had Khan Bahadur Khan.

Jalal-ud-din Firuz Khilji was founder of the Khilji dynasty. The most distinguishing part of Ala-ud-din's reign was the fact that he repeatedly defeated the Mongol invaders. Not only did he defeat them, but also raided their strongholds. So much was his fear that the Mongols spared India after that.

In 1398, Timur Lang invaded India on the pretext that the Muslim sultans of Delhi were too tolerant of their Hindu subjects. After defeating the armies of Nasiruddin Mahmud of Tughlaq dynasty on 15 December 1398, Timur entered Delhi on 18 December, 1398, and the city was sacked, destroyed and left in ruins, and over 100, 000 war prisoners were killed as well.

The rise of Persian speaking people to the throne naturally resulted in the spread of the Persian language in India. It was the official language and soon literary works in the language began to appear. Sanskrit continued to remain an important language of the time, and despite the increasingly influence of Persian, it was able to hold its ground. There was also significant amount of work taking place in regional languages.

Akbar departed from the diplomatic policy of his predecessors in his treatment of the territories he conquered. Previous Mughals extracted a large tribute from these rulers and then leave them to administer their dominions autonomously; Akbar integrated them into his administration, providing them the opportunity to serve as military rulers.

Akbar organized his army as well as the nobility by means of a system called the mansabdari. Under this system, each officer in the army was assigned a rank (a mansab), and assigned a number of cavalry that he had to supply to the imperial army. The mansabdars were divided into 33 classes. The mansabdars were remunerated well for their services and constituted the highest paid military service in the world at the time.

Akbar set about reforming the administration of his empire's land revenue by adopting a system that had been used by Sher Shah Suri. A cultivated area was measured and taxed through fixed rates based on the area's crop and productivity. However, this placed hardship on the peasantry because tax rates were fixed on the basis of prices prevailing in the imperial court, which were often higher than those in the countryside. Akbar changed to a decentralised system of annual assessment, but this resulted in corruption among local officials and was abandoned in 1580, to be replaced by a system called the dahsala. Under the new system, revenue was calculated as one-third of the average produce of the previous ten years, to be paid to the state in cash. Akbar's dahsala system is credited to Raja Todar Mal, who also served as a revenue officer under Sher Shah Suri.

Statement 1 is incorrect: In the year 185 BC, about fifty years after Ashoka's death, the last Maurya ruler, Brihadrata, was assassinated by the commander-in-chief of the Mauryan armed forces, Pusyamitra Sunga, while he was taking the Guard of Honor of his forces. Statement 2 is also incorrect: Ashoka was succeeded by weak rulers, which encouraged the provinces to proclaim their independence. The arduous task of administering such a vast empire could not be executed by the weak rulers. The mutual quarrel among the successors also contributed to the decline of the Mauryan Empire.

Statement 1 is correct: The Maurya period was the first time in Indian history that an empire extended from the Hindukush to the valleys of Godavari and Krishna. Statement 2 is incorrect: The early Maurya rulers had no contact with China. In fact, China was unknown to Indian epigraphy before the Nagarjunikonda inscriptions.

Kauravas and Pandavas (cousins) pitted against each other for ascending of throne of Hastinapur.