British Policy, Acts & Constitutional Reforms: previous-year questions

Answer: (B) Rowlat Act

The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, passed in March 1919 on the recommendations of the Sedition Committee chaired by Justice Sidney Rowlatt, was popularly called the Rowlatt Act or the 'Black Act' (no dalil, no vakil, no appeal). It allowed detention without trial for up to two years and trial of political cases without juries. Gandhi's Rowlatt Satyagraha (hartal of 6 April 1919) followed, leading on to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April 1919. The Defence of India Act, 1915 (A) was the wartime measure whose powers the Rowlatt Act sought to continue; the Indian Penal Code (C) dates from 1860; and the Lex Loci Act, 1850 (D) protected the inheritance rights of converts.

Answer: (D) The Nizam of Hyderabad

The Subsidiary Alliance was the system used by Lord Wellesley (1798-1805) under which an Indian ruler kept a British force in his territory and paid for it (in cash or by ceding land), accepted a British Resident, employed no other Europeans and gave up independent foreign relations. The Nizam of Hyderabad was the first to accept it, in 1798. Others followed: Mysore and Tanjore (1799), Awadh (1801), Peshwa Baji Rao II by the Treaty of Bassein (1802), then the Bhonsle and Scindia (1803). So options A and C are later entrants. Do not confuse it with Dalhousie's Doctrine of Lapse (Satara, 1848).

Answer: (B) Thomas Munro

The Ryotwari system, in which the government settled land revenue directly with each cultivator (ryot) and not through zamindars, was first tried by Captain Alexander Read in the Baramahal district (1792) and was developed and extended across the Madras Presidency by Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras from 1820. In Bombay it was introduced under Mountstuart Elphinstone (D). The three settlements: Permanent or Zamindari (1793, Cornwallis; Bengal, Bihar, Orissa), Ryotwari (Madras, Bombay, Assam) and Mahalwari (1822, Holt Mackenzie; North-Western Provinces, Punjab). Charles Metcalfe (A) is known as the liberator of the Indian press (1835), and John Malcolm (C) for the settlement of Central India.

Answer: (C) Rowlatt Act of 1919

The Rowlatt Act of 1919 allowed detention without trial, and Gandhi called it the ‘Black Act’, launching the Rowlatt Satyagraha against it. The Vernacular Press Act was dubbed the ‘gagging Act’, and the Government of India Act 1919 brought the Montagu–Chelmsford reforms.

Answer: (B) 1928

The Simon Commission, appointed in 1927, arrived in India in February 1928 and was met with ‘Simon Go Back’ protests because it had no Indian member. 1946 is the Cabinet Mission, 1942 the Cripps Mission, and 1930 the year its report was published.

Answer: (C) Lord Lytton

The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was passed under Lord Lytton to curb Indian-language newspapers. Lord Ripon repealed it in 1882, which makes him the tempting wrong option, and Curzon came later.

Answer: (C) 1919

The Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms were enacted as the Government of India Act, 1919, introducing dyarchy in the provinces. 1909 is the year of the Morley–Minto Reforms, the most tempting wrong option.

Answer: (D) 1858

Queen Victoria's Proclamation was read out by Lord Canning at Allahabad on 1 November 1858, announcing the transfer of India's government from the Company to the Crown. The other years do not match this event.

Answer: (C) The Simon Commission

The Simon Commission of 1927 was called the ‘All White Commission’ because all seven of its members were British, with no Indian. The Hunter and Fowler bodies dealt with education and currency, and Linlithgow chaired an agriculture commission.

Answer: (C) 1935

Among the years given, 1935 is the Government of India Act, which introduced provincial autonomy and proposed an All-India Federation; it is the largest single source of the present Constitution. 1946 is the year of the Cabinet Mission and the elections to the Constituent Assembly. 1938 is the year of the Haripura Congress, presided over by Subhas Chandra Bose. 1936 is the year of Nehru's Lucknow Congress, where the All India Kisan Sabha was also founded.

Answer: (D) Lord Ripon

The Vernacular Press Act (the 'Gagging Act') was passed in 1878 by Lord Lytton to muzzle Indian-language newspapers; the Amrita Bazar Patrika famously turned into an English paper overnight to escape it. The liberal Lord Ripon (1880-84) repealed it in 1881-82; he is also remembered for the Local Self-Government resolution (1882), the Hunter Education Commission, the first Factory Act (1881) and the Ilbert Bill controversy. Dufferin was Viceroy when the Congress was founded (1885); Curzon partitioned Bengal (1905).

Answer: (C) Rowlatt Act

The Rowlatt Act (Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, March 1919), based on the Sedition Committee headed by Justice Sidney Rowlatt, allowed arrest without warrant and detention without trial for up to two years: 'no dalil, no vakil, no appeal'. It led to Gandhiji's Rowlatt Satyagraha and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (13 April 1919). The Arms Act and the Vernacular Press Act (both 1878, Lord Lytton) restricted possession of weapons and the Indian-language press respectively; 'Act III of 1882' is only a distractor.

Answer: (B) Chakraborty Rajagopalachari

C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) succeeded Lord Mountbatten in June 1948 and served till 26 January 1950; he was the first Indian and also the last Governor-General of India. Lord Mountbatten was the first Governor-General of free India. Rajendra Prasad became the first President and S. Radhakrishnan the first Vice-President. Rajaji, Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman were the first recipients of the Bharat Ratna (1954); Rajaji later founded the Swatantra Party (1959).

Answer: (A) 1905

The Carlyle Circular was issued in October 1905 by R. W. Carlyle, Chief Secretary of Bengal, threatening to withdraw grants, scholarships and affiliation from schools and colleges whose students joined the Swadeshi and anti-partition agitation. In reply Sachindra Prasad Basu formed the Anti-Circular Society (November 1905), and the national education movement followed with the National Council of Education in 1906.

Answer: (B) 1918

PSC's official answer is 1918, the year in which the Montagu-Chelmsford Report (by Secretary of State Edwin Montagu and Viceroy Lord Chelmsford) announcing the reform scheme was published, following Montagu's August Declaration of 20 August 1917. The proposals became law as the Government of India Act, 1919, which introduced dyarchy in the provinces and a bicameral central legislature, and the Act came into force in 1921. So remember the chain: 1917 Declaration, 1918 Report, 1919 Act, 1921 implementation.

Answer: (C) 1931

The transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi was announced by George V at the Delhi Durbar of December 1911 (option B is the trap), and Lord Hardinge moved there in 1912; but the new city designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker took two decades to build and was formally inaugurated by Lord Irwin on 13 February 1931. 1905 is the year of the Partition of Bengal and 1947 that of independence. Lutyens designed the Viceroy's House (Rashtrapati Bhavan) and India Gate; Baker designed the Secretariat blocks and Parliament House.

Answer: (D) A decree to prevent nationalist protests amongst students in educational institutions during the Partition of Bengal.

The Carlyle Circular of October 1905, issued by R. W. Carlyle, Chief Secretary to the Government of Bengal, threatened to withdraw grants, scholarships and affiliation from schools and colleges whose students took part in the Swadeshi and anti-Partition agitation. In reply, students led by Sachindra Prasad Basu formed the Anti-Circular Society (November 1905), and the movement for national education led to the National Council of Education (1906) and Bengal National College, with Aurobindo Ghosh as principal. Similar orders were the Pedler and Lyon circulars. The Arms Act dates from 1878, and English education from Macaulay's Minute (1835), not from after 1857.

Answer: (C) Lord Ripon

The Ilbert Bill of 1883, which sought to allow Indian judges to try European offenders, was introduced under Viceroy Lord Ripon and provoked fierce opposition from the European community.

Answer: (A) 1813 Charter Renewal Act

The Charter Act of 1813 earmarked an annual sum of Rs. 1 lakh for the promotion of education among Indians.

Answer: (D) Lord Dalhousie

Lord Dalhousie is credited with launching India's railway network, with the first passenger line opening in 1853 during his tenure.