Socio-Religious & Educational Reform: previous-year questions

Answer: (D) Tilak

The Age of Consent Act, 1891 raised the age of consent for girls from 10 to 12 years; it followed Behramji Malabari's campaign and the death of the child-wife Phulmoni Dasi in Bengal. Bal Gangadhar Tilak opposed the Bill, not in defence of child marriage as such but on the ground that a foreign government had no right to legislate on Hindu social and religious customs and that reform must come from within society. Ranade, Gokhale and other reformers supported it; W.C. Bonnerjee was the first Congress President (1885). Follow-up law: the Child Marriage Restraint (Sarda) Act, 1929 fixed the marriage age at 14 for girls and 18 for boys.

Answer: (A) Behramji Malabari

Behramji Merwanji Malabari, a Parsi journalist and reformer of Bombay who edited the 'Indian Spectator', published his 'Notes on Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood' in 1884 and circulated them to officials and Indian leaders. His campaign in India and England led to the Age of Consent Act, 1891, which Tilak opposed; he also co-founded the Seva Sadan in 1908. The distractors and their work: Jyotiba Phule wrote 'Gulamgiri' and founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (1873); M.G. Ranade led the Prarthana Samaj and founded the Indian National Social Conference (1887); Dadoba Pandurang founded the Paramahansa Mandali (1849).

Answer: (B) 1829

Lord William Bentinck's Regulation XVII of 1829, backed by Raja Rammohun Roy, made sati illegal. 1856 is the year of the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, a frequent confusion, and 1729 and 1929 are unrelated.

Answer: (B) Raja Rammohan Roy

Raja Rammohun Roy founded the Brahmo Sabha in Calcutta in 1828, which became the Brahmo Samaj. Dayananda founded the Arya Samaj, Vivekananda the Ramakrishna Mission, and Ranade was associated with the Prarthana Samaj.

Answer: (A) 1817

Hindu College was founded in Calcutta in 1817 by David Hare, Raja Radhakanta Deb and others, and later became Presidency College. 1858 and 1885 are the years of Crown rule and the founding of the Congress respectively.

Answer: (D) Annie Besant

Annie Besant led the Theosophical Society from its headquarters at Adyar, Madras, and became its international President in 1907. Sarojini Naidu, her daughter Padmaja Naidu and Lakshmi Sahgal of the INA were not leaders of the Society.

Answer: (D) Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Gopal Krishna Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society at Poona in 1905 to train dedicated workers for national service. Malaviya founded the Banaras Hindu University, and Patel and Bose were not its founders.

Answer: (A) opening the temples to the low castes Hindus

The Vaikom Satyagraha (1924–25) in the princely state of Travancore demanded that "lower-caste" Hindus (Ezhavas, Pulayas and others) be allowed to use the roads around the Vaikom Mahadeva temple; it was the first organised temple-entry type movement in Kerala. Its leaders included T. K. Madhavan, K. Kelappan and K. P. Kesava Menon; E. V. Ramasamy "Periyar" took part and earned the title "Vaikom Veerar", and Gandhi visited in 1925. It paved the way for the Guruvayur Satyagraha (1931–32) and the Temple Entry Proclamation of 1936. Tenant struggles against landlords and the demand for responsible government in Travancore (State Congress, 1938) were separate movements.

Answer: (D) Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental School at Aligarh in 1875; it became a college in 1877 and Aligarh Muslim University in 1920. It was the centre of the Aligarh Movement, which urged Muslims to take to modern Western education. He also founded the Scientific Society (1864) and the journal Tahzib-ul-Akhlaq. Nawab Salimullah of Dacca hosted the founding session of the Muslim League in 1906; Liaquat Ali Khan became the first Prime Minister of Pakistan; and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the "Frontier Gandhi", founded the Khudai Khidmatgar (Red Shirts).

Answer: (C) 1817

Hindu College was founded in Calcutta on 20 January 1817 with support from David Hare and Raja Radhakanta Deb; it is now Presidency University. Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, who taught there, inspired the radical Young Bengal group. The tempting 1818 is the year Serampore College was founded by the missionaries Carey, Marshman and Ward. 1816 and 1819 have no link with the college.

Answer: (B) Brahmo Sabha

Raja Rammohun Roy founded the Brahmo Sabha in Calcutta in 1828, later known as the Brahmo Samaj, to promote monotheism and oppose idolatry and social evils. Before that he had formed the Atmiya Sabha in 1815. His campaign led to Lord William Bentinck's abolition of sati in 1829. The Lok Sabha is the House of the People created by the Constitution, and the other two bodies have no link with him.

Answer: (B) 1829

Lord William Bentinck's Regulation XVII of 4 December 1829 declared sati illegal in the Bengal Presidency, after a long campaign by Raja Rammohun Roy. In 1830 Rammohun Roy sailed to England, where he died at Bristol in 1833. 1831 is the year of Titu Mir's revolt and his bamboo fort at Narkelberia. 1832 has no link with the sati law.

Answer: (B) Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Naicker

E. V. Ramasamy 'Periyar' launched the Self-Respect Movement in Tamil Nadu in 1925 (after leaving the Congress) to reject Brahminical dominance and caste, and to promote rationalism, women's rights and priest-less 'self-respect marriages'; he later led the Justice Party and founded the Dravidar Kazhagam (1944). Dr Ambedkar led the Mahad Satyagraha (1927) and founded the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha. Dinkarrao Javalkar and Keshavrao Jedhe were leaders of the non-Brahmin movement in Maharashtra.

Answer: (B) Rabindranath Tagore

On 16 October 1905, the day the Partition of Bengal came into force, Rabindranath Tagore led the Rakhi Bandhan ceremony in Calcutta, tying rakhis as a symbol of unity between the two Bengals and between Hindus and Muslims, and composed 'Banglar mati Banglar jol'. Ramendra Sundar Trivedi called for 'Arandhan' (no cooking) on the same day. Pramathanath Mitra was president of the Anushilan Samiti, Pulin Behari Das led the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti, and C. R. Das later founded the Swaraj Party.

Answer: (B) Debendranath Tagore

Debendranath Tagore, father of Rabindranath, founded the Tattwabodhini Sabha in 1839 to spread the ideas of Rammohan Roy and the study of the Upanishads; its journal, the Tattwabodhini Patrika (1843), was edited by Akshay Kumar Datta, and the Sabha later merged with the Brahmo Samaj. Radhakanta Deb led the orthodox Dharma Sabha (1830), Keshab Chandra Sen founded the Brahmo Samaj of India (1866), and Dadoba Pandurang was associated with the Paramahansa Mandali of Maharashtra (1849).

Answer: (D) 1857

The University of Calcutta was established on 24 January 1857 under Lord Canning, as recommended by Wood's Despatch of 1854 (option C); the universities of Bombay and Madras followed the same year, all modelled on the University of London. Sir James William Colvile was its first Vice-Chancellor, Sir Gooroodas Banerjee the first Indian Vice-Chancellor (1890) and Sir Asutosh Mookerjee its most celebrated. 1817 is the founding year of Hindu College (later Presidency College), and 1911 is the year the Partition of Bengal was annulled.

Answer: (B) Dhondo Keshav Karve

Dhondo Keshav Karve founded the Indian Women's University (now SNDT Women's University) in Pune in 1916.

Answer: (A) Dr. Zakir Hussain

Jamia Millia Islamia (1920) actually had several co-founders — Mahmud Hasan, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Mohammad Ali Jauhar and Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari among them — but Dr. Zakir Hussain, a genuine founding member who later served as its long-time Vice-Chancellor and shaped its growth into a university, is the standard textbook answer among these options.

Answer: (D) Wood's Despatch

Wood's Despatch of 1854 recommended setting up universities at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras; the University of Calcutta was established in 1857 as a result.

Answer: (B) Lala Hansraj

The Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) College, Lahore (1886), was founded and long headed by Lala Hansraj, a follower of the Arya Samaj.