History · Civics Polity

Modern Indian History

8,159 Questions

Modern Indian History covers the colonial period, the freedom struggle, and key political movements. It includes questions on important leaders, the Indian National Congress, and social reforms. Mastering these questions is vital for clearing competitive government exams.

Indian freedom struggleIndian National CongressFamous historical leadersSocial reform movementsColonial administration

Modern Indian History Questions

Multiple choice

Gandhi finally accepted the partition of India because

  1. the Congress had already accepted it

  2. it seemed unavoidable in the circumstances

  3. Nehru and Patel persuaqed him to do so

  4. he had came to realize that Hindus and Muslims could not live together amicably
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Gandhi accepted the partition of India as a last resort because the communal situation had deteriorated to a point where civil war seemed imminent. It was viewed as an unavoidable tragedy to prevent further bloodshed and chaos during the transition to independence.

Multiple choice

The partition of Bengal made in 1905

  1. was annulled as a result of the Morley-Minto Reforms in 1919

  2. was withdrawn in 1908 because of the immense protests it evoked

  3. was annulled by the king's proclamation at the Delhi Durbar in 1911

  4. continued till India got independence
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The partition of Bengal, implemented by Lord Curzon in 1905, was formally annulled by King George V during the Delhi Durbar in 1911.

Multiple choice

Which of the following did not contribute in a major way to the growth of a nationalist consciousness in India?

  1. Impact of western education

  2. Consistent economic exploitation of India by the British

  3. Revivalist Movements of the 19th century

  4. World public opinion
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Western education, economic exploitation, and 19th-century revivalist movements were all instrumental in fostering Indian nationalism. World public opinion was not a primary driver of the internal nationalist consciousness during that era.

Multiple choice

Which Plan became the basis for Indian Independence?

  1. Mountbatten Plan

  2. Cripps Plan

  3. Wavell Plan

  4. Gates Plan
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The Mountbatten Plan, announced in June 1947, outlined the process for the partition of British India and the transfer of power to the two independent dominions of India and Pakistan.

Multiple choice

Ashok Mehta Committee is related to?

  1. Computerisation of Banks

  2. Konkan Railway project

  3. Studies about Panchayati Raj

  4. Assassination of Indira Gandhi
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Studies about Panchayati Raj

Multiple choice

Directions: Read the following passage/information and answer the question that follows.

In India, Bhartiya Kisan Manch (BKM) won 37 seats in the 545 seats of Parliament in 1954. It managed to win only 3 seats in the 1959 election, even though the party’s pro-agrarian reform agenda had essentially remained unchanged. This decline in the party’s fortunes clearly demonstrates that, in India, pro-agrarian reform concerns faded in significance between 1954 and 1959.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

  1. Between 1954 and 1959, the number of eligible voters in India rose, but not the percentage who actually voted.

  2. Between 1954 and 1959, India’s leading political parties revised their platform, adopting a strongly pro-agrarian reform stance.

  3. The parties that ran candidates in the 1959 election in India were the same as those that had done so in the 1954 election.

  4. In 1959, the Bhartiya Kisan Manch won fewer votes in India than it had won in 1954.

  5. Between 1954 and 1959, Bhartiya Kisan Manch redefined pro-agrarian reforms.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

On the basis of information that Bhartiya Kisan Manch (BKM),  which had 37 seats out of 545 in the town council in 1954, had lost majority of them in 1959, the author argues that the decline in the party’s fortunes clearly demonstrates that pro-agrarian reform concern faded in significance in India during this period. Choice (2) says that the India’s leading political parties (which had won majority of other seats in 1954 and 1959) had revised their platform adopting a strongly pro-agrarian reform stance. If this is true, voters who are in favor of pro-agrarian reform would have voted for the leading political parties this time instead of for the BKM. So the defeat of the members of the BKM party would not mean that pro-agrarian reform concerns had faded in significance in the minds of the voters. So, (2) seriously weakens the argument of the author and is the answer.

Multiple choice

While Mrs. Gandhi stood like a ________ against India's natural tendency towards ________ on the basis of caste, religion and ethnicity, she ignored the ________ and left it in the hands of ideologues and Xenophobes who always hated MNCs.

  1. Himalaya, division, country

  2. deterrent, fission, economy

  3. rock, splinter, economy

  4. rock, disintegration, nation

  5. Goliath, differentiate, detail

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

A person stands like a rock against obstacles. The last blank can be filled using both economy and nation to make good sense. But it is the middle blank, which differentiates the correct answer, because it is disintegration that refers to the process of breaking up. 

Multiple choice

Directions: In the following question, four statements are provided between an opening statement 1 and closing statement 6. The four statements are jumbled up and form a coherent paragraph when properly arranged. Select the alternative representing the proper and logical sequencing of these six taken together:

  1. If the Indian national movement did not express the interests of the Indian people vis–à–imperialism, then whose interests did it represent? A. Thus, the elite groups, and their needs and interests, provide the origin as well as the driving force of the idea, ideology and movement of nationalism. B. But, in each case, these groups had a narrow, selfish interest in opposing British rule or each other. C. The national movement, assert the writers of the imperialist school, was not a people’s movement but a product of the needs and interests of the elite groups who used it to serve either their own narrow interests or the interests of their prescriptive groups. D. These groups were sometimes formed around religious or caste identities and sometimes through political connections built around patronage.
  2. Nationalism, then, is seen primarily as a mere ideology which these elite groups used to legitimise their narrow ambitions and to mobilize public support.

  1. CABD

  2. ADCB

  3. CADB

  4. BCDA

  5. CDAB
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

C follows statement 1 as it seeks to answer the question in 1 ‘whose interests did it represent?’ –  ‘interests of the elite groups’.  A follows C. Thus, the elite groups’. “These groups” in D refers to “elite groups” in A, thus D follows A. “But” B provides a contrary view to D, thus B follows D.

Multiple choice

The day on which Lal Bahadur Shastry died

  1. 1966 Jan 11

  2. 1964 May 27

  3. 1948 Jan 30

  4. 1950 Dec 15
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second Prime Minister of India, died on January 11, 1966, in Tashkent.