Partition of Bengal, Swadeshi & Home Rule: previous-year questions

Answer: (B) Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Bal Gangadhar Tilak founded the Indian Home Rule League at Belgaum in April 1916, alongside Annie Besant's league. Aurobindo had withdrawn to Pondicherry by then, and Gandhi and Malaviya were not its organisers.

Answer: (B) 1907

The Congress split into Moderates and Extremists at its Surat session in December 1907. The two wings reunited only at Lucknow in 1916; 1900, 1911 and 1919 are unrelated.

Answer: (A) Lord Curzon

The Partition of Bengal was announced in July 1905 and took effect on 16 October 1905 under Viceroy Lord Curzon, provoking the Swadeshi movement. Wellesley, Amherst and Bentinck held office in the early 19th century.

Answer: (A) East Bengal and Bengal

Lord Curzon's partition, effective 16 October 1905, created (i) the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, with its capital at Dacca and a Muslim majority, and (ii) a reduced province of Bengal, made up of western Bengal with Bihar and Orissa, with its capital at Calcutta. Hence "East Bengal and Bengal"; "West Bengal" as a name dates only from 1947, and Assam was merged into the eastern province rather than forming a separate one. The partition set off the Swadeshi and Boycott movement and was annulled at the Delhi Durbar of 1911, when the capital was also shifted to Delhi; Bihar and Orissa were then separated in 1912.

Answer: (B) 1907

The Congress split into Moderates and Extremists at its Surat session in December 1907, presided over by Rash Behari Ghosh. At the 1906 Calcutta session under Dadabhai Naoroji, Swaraj was first declared the Congress goal, and the Muslim League was founded at Dacca that December. In 1908 Tilak was sentenced to six years in Mandalay jail. 1909 brought the Morley-Minto Reforms, which introduced separate electorates for Muslims.

Answer: (C) 1905

Lord Curzon's partition of Bengal came into effect on 16 October 1905, which was observed as a day of mourning and Raksha Bandhan, and it launched the Swadeshi movement. The partition was annulled at the Delhi Durbar of December 1911, when the shift of the capital to Delhi was also announced. 1906 is the year the Muslim League was founded at Dacca. 1910 saw the Indian Press Act, used against the nationalist press.

Answer: (D) Mukunda Das

PSC's key credits the song 'Ban eshechhe mora gange' ('the flood-tide has come to the dead river') to Mukunda Das, the 'Charan Kavi' of Barisal, whose swadeshi jatras and songs such as 'Chhere dao reshmi churi' roused rural Bengal during the anti-Partition movement of 1905; his play Matripuja was banned and he was jailed. Rabindranath Tagore wrote 'Amar Sonar Bangla' and 'Banglar mati Banglar jal' and led the Rakhi Bandhan of 16 October 1905. Lalan Fakir was a Baul saint who died in 1890, and Kazi Nazrul Islam (born 1899), the 'Bidrohi Kavi', belongs to the 1920s.

Answer: (B) 1911

The Partition of Bengal, carried out by Lord Curzon with effect from 16 October 1905, was annulled by King George V at the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911, during the viceroyalty of Lord Hardinge II; the same announcement shifted the capital from Calcutta to Delhi. The reunited Bengal became a Governor's province in 1912, Bihar and Orissa were separated as a new province, and Assam again became a Chief Commissioner's province. 1905 is the year of the partition itself and 1947 that of the second partition at independence.

Answer: (C) Belgaum

Tilak launched his Home Rule League in April 1916 at the Bombay Provincial Conference held at Belgaum; Joseph Baptista was its president and N. C. Kelkar its secretary. Its headquarters were at Poona (the trap option), and it worked in Maharashtra (except Bombay city), Karnataka, the Central Provinces and Berar. Annie Besant started her All-India Home Rule League in September 1916 at Madras, with George Arundale as secretary.

Answer: (D) Maulana Azad

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was not associated with the Home Rule Movement. Annie Besant founded the Home Rule League in 1916, Tilak founded a separate Home Rule League the same year, and M.A. Jinnah was also actively involved. Azad's political activities centred on the Khilafat movement and Congress work.