Question Discussion & Solution

• Mohanjodaro was excavated in 1922 in Larkana district on the banks of Indus.
• It was excavated by a team led by R.D. Banerjee.
• Dhanushkodi is believed to be the place where Lord Ram ordered to build a bridge to connect Sri Lanka, (Ram Setu). It is situated in Tamil Nadu.
• Harappa was excavated in 1920-1921, while it was discovered in the year 1826.
• Kanchi or Kanchipuram is an ancient city in Tamil Nadu.

The correct answer is W.C. Bannerjee.

Key Points

•  W.C. Bonnerjee
  • W.C. Banerjee was born on 29th December 1844 at Calcutta. He finished his schooling at Oriental Seminary and Hindu School.
  • In 1862, he joined a law firm in Calcutta as a clerk from where he got acquainted with the law.
  • In 1882, he became the first Indian to be appointed as a Standing Counsel.
  • He famously defended Surendranath Banerjee in contempt of court case in the High Court of Calcutta.
  • In the first session of the INC in December 1885 at Bombay, Bonnerjee was the President. This session was attended by 72 members.
  • Although he was defeated, he became the first Indian to stand for election for the British Parliament.
  • He passed away at Calcutta in 1906 aged 61.

Additional Information

•  Motilal Nehru 
  • Motilal Nehru was a leader of the Indian independence movement, cofounder of the Swaraj Party, and the father of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
  • The massacre of hundreds of Indians by the British at Amritsar in 1919 prompted Motilal to join Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation movement, giving up his career in law and changing to a simpler, non-Anglicized style of life.
  • In 1923 Motilal helped found the Swaraj Party (1923–27), the policy of which was to win election to the Central Legislative Assembly and obstruct its proceedings from within.
• Jawaharlal Nehru
  • On 14 November 1889, Jawaharlal Nehru was born in Allahabad to parents with Kashmiri Pandit lineage.
  • He played a prominent role in the freedom struggle and became the first prime minister of independent India.
  • He became the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee in September 1923. He was the party president in the Lahore session in 1929 when the declaration of complete independence as the goal of the freedom movement was passed.
  • He became the president of the All India States Peoples Conference in 1935. He threw open its membership to people across the political spectrum. This organisation would play an important part in the integration of the princely states into India.
• Mahatma Gandhi
  • Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist.
  • He was known as the Father of the Nation and commonly called Bapu.
  • His birthday on 2 October is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday.
  • He was a prolific writer. One of Gandhi's publications Hind Swaraj published in Gujrati in 1909.
  • He was the leader of various movements (Satyagraha, Champaran Movement, Kheda Movement, Quit India Movement).

The correct answer is Mauryan Empire.

Key Points

• In the Mauryan empire Kautilya refers to two types of courts :
  • Dharmasthiyas (dealt with civil matters).
  • Kantakasodhana(dealt with criminal matters).

Additional Information

• Mauryan Empire (321 BCE - 185 BCE):
  • Chandragupta Maurya (321 BCE - 297 BCE):
    • Founder of the Maurya Dynasty and credited with the setting up of the first (nearly) pan-Indian empire.
    • Known as Sandrakottos to the Greeks and Androkottus by Aerian and Plutark. 
    • William Jones was the 1st scholar who recognized Sandrokottos as Chandragupta Maurya.
    • Kautilya mentored Chandragupta and prepared him for a takeover of Magadha.
    • Set up a vast centralized empire (details of whose functioning, society, military, and economy are well preserved in Kautilya's Arthashastra).
    • Defeated the invading army of the Eastern part of Alexander's empire Seleucus (305 BCE).​
    • Megasthenese was a Greek ambassador sent to the court of Chandragupta Maurya.
    • Chandragupta in his later years accepted Jainism.
      • Accompanied Bhadrabahu to Karnataka and later died by following the ritual of sallekhana, i.e., fasting till death. 
  • Bindusara (297 BCE - 273 BCE):
    • 2nd Mauryan Emperor of India and he was the son of Chandragupta Maurya.
    • Known as Amitrochates to the Greeks. In Jain texts, he was known as Simhasena.
    • Antiochus sent Deimachus as an ambassador to Bindusara's court.
    • Chanakya also remained the chief advisor of Bindusara.
    • Bindusara was an able monarch who was successful in consolidating the empire established by his father.
    • Bindusara patronized the Ajivikas.
  •  Ashoka the Great (268 BCE - 232 BCE):
    • 3rd king of the Mauryan Empire.
    • He was known for:
      • Renunciation of war after the Kalinga war.
      • Development of the concept of Dhamma (pious social conduct, welfare of humanity).
      • Promotion of Buddhism. 
      • Effective reign of a nearly pan-Indian political entity.
    • Under Ashoka, the Mauryan Empire stretched from modern-day Iran through almost the entirety of the Indian subcontinent.
    • Ashoka initially rules this vast empire through the political treatise's precepts known as the Arthashastra.
    • In his inscriptions, he was called Devanampriya or Devanapiyadasi.​
    • Most of the inscriptions were written in Prakrit language in Brahmi script except only two which were in Kharoshti script.
    • In 1837, James Prinsep become the 1st scholar who deciphered Ashoka's inscription.
  • Brihadratha:
    • Last Mauryan ruler.
    • Assassinated by Pushyamitra Sunga and established his own Sunga dynasty.

The correct answer is Pradyumna Shah.

• Pradyumna Shah was killed in the battle of Khurbura in 1804 A.D.

Key Points

• Pradyumna Shah, king of Garhwal fought ferocious with Gurkha invaders from Nepal, was killed in the battle of Khurbura in Dehradun in 1804.
• Battle of Khurbura or Battle of Khudbuda occurred in May 1804 near the modern-day village of Dehradun "Khurbura".
• The battle is regarded as the first major attack in the history of the Garhwal Kingdom that triggered between Gurkha forces and Maharaja Pradyumna Shah and continued for 13 days until the Garhwal king was defeated.
• It was chiefly regarded as the only defeat of his life and the victory of Gurkhas.
• Khurbura is now a small colony without any remains of the bloody battle in which Pradyumna Shah was killed by a bullet while fighting the Gurkhas with his sword.

​Important Points

Garhwal Kingdom 

• The Garhwal Kingdom was an independent kingdom in the current north-western Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India.
• The Garhwal Kingdom was founded in 823 AD by Kanak Pal.
• The kingdom was divided into two parts during the British Raj, namely: the princely state of Garhwal and the Garhwal District of British India.
  • During this period, the princely state of Garhwal was one of the States of the Punjab Hills which became part of the Punjab Hill States Agency although it was not under the Punjab Province administration.
  • The princely state of Garhwal or Independent Garhwal consisted of the present-day Tehri Garhwal district and most of the Uttarkashi district. This former state acceded to the Union of India in August 1949.

The correct answer is Shri Ram Bajpai.

Key Points

• Shri Ram Bajpai founded the Sava Samiti Boy Scouts Association in the year 1914 in Bombay.
• On the lines of the worldwide Baden-Powell Organisations, which at that time banned Indians from joining it.
• Though later Baden-Powell, after a private visit to India, lifted the colour bar, Bajpai's organization continued its separate existence, for it had the aim of bringing about the complete Indianisation of the Boy Scout movement in India.  
• About Lord Baden-Powell
  • He was a British general and founder of the modern Scouting movement.
    Baden-Powell became a national hero during the Boer war of 1899-1900 when, with a small garrison, he commanded the defence of Mafeking.
  • During the Boer War, Baden-Powell wrote a book "A Guide to Scout". This was published in 1903 and was a best-seller.
  • Initially meant for military purposes, after the war, he felt it could be used as a focus for young boys to give them more meaning in life.
  • This led to the creation of the Scout Movements. During his lifetime it grew to be a respected international organisation.

Additional Information

• Seva Samiti
  • It was another organization founded by a prominent member of the Servants of India Society, Hridayanath Kunzru.
  • Founded in 1914 at Allahabad, the Seva Samiti had as its objective to organize social service during natural disasters like floods and epidemics, to promote the spread of education, cooperation, sanitation, uplift depressed classes, reform criminals and rescue the fallen.
• ​Hridya Nath Kunzru-
  • He was an Indian freedom fighter and public figure. He was a long-time Parliamentarian, serving in various legislative bodies at the Provincial and Central levels for nearly four decades.
  • He was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India that drew up the Constitution of India. 
  • He was one of the members of the Servants of India Society, founded in 1914 the Seva Samiti at Allahabad.
  • In addition to the promotion of education, sanitation, physical culture, etc., it organises social service during fairs, famines, floods, epidemics, and especially on the occasion of religious festivals like the Kumbha Mela.
• Annie Besant
  • She was a prominent British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self-rule.
  • She became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NSS) and writer and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh.
  • In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. The scandal made them famous, and Bradlaugh was elected M.P. for Northampton in 1880.
  • She became involved with union actions including the Bloody Sunday demonstration and the London matchgirls strike of 1888.
  • She was a leading speaker for the Fabian Society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF).
  • In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky and over the next few years, her interest in theosophy grew while her interest in secular matters waned.
  • She became a member of the Theosophical Society and a prominent lecturer on the subject.