Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon(History, Art & Culture) 5 October 2020

Sir Surendranath Banerjea (1848–1925) was one of the founders of modern India and a proponent of autonomy within the British Commonwealth.
• He served as an Indian Civil Service officer till 1874, before becoming a teacher.
• He founded Ripon College, later renamed after him, in Calcutta and worked on the idea of nationalism.
• He purchased The Bengalee, a newspaper he edited for 40 years to propagate his nationalist viewpoint.
• He was twice appointed the president of Indian National Congress, appealed to the British to modify the 1905 Partition of Bengal, and in 1921 he was knighted and accepted office as minister of Local Self-government in Bengal.
• He retired to write his autobiography, A Nation in Making in 1925.
Source: NCERT

Dalhousie’s chief aim was the consolidation of British rule in India. So he adopted the principle of centralization.
For the newly acquired territories he devised the ‘Non-Regulation System” under which commissioners were appointed to deal with the administrative problems.
They were made responsible to the Governor-General in the Council.
He handed over all other powers relating to justice, police, and land revenue to the District Magistrates.
Source: Spectrum

The word mirasdars of Arabic origin. As mentioned in the Marathi documents, it refers to hereditary or transferable right or patrimony (bop roti) obtained by descent, purchas, or gift, etc.
The mirasdars were the holders of land under the mirasi tenure. They owned the village land and could exact rent in money or service from persons who lived on their land.
Source: Grover & Grover

The Indian army was carefully reorganized after 1858. Some changes were made necessary by the transfer of power to the Crown. The East India Company’s European forces were merged with the Crown troops. But the army was reorganized most of all to prevent the recurrence of another revolt. The rulers had seen that their bayonets were the only secure foundation of their rule. Several following steps were taken to minimize, if not completely eliminate, the capacity of Indian soldiers to revolt −
• The domination of the army by its European branch was carefully guaranteed.
• The proportion of Europeans to Indians in the army was raised and fixed at one to two in the Bengal Army and two to five in the Madras and Bombay armies.
• The European troops were kept in key geographical and military positions. The crucial branches of the army like artillery and, later in the 20th century, tanks, and armored corps were put exclusively in European hands.
• The older policy of excluding Indians from the officer corps was strictly maintained. Till 1914, no Indian could rise higher than the rank of a subedar.
• The organization of the Indian section of the army was based on the policy of “balance and counterpoise” or “divide and rule” so as to prevent its chances of uniting again in an anti-British uprising.
• Discrimination on the basis of caste, region, and religion was practiced, in recruitment to the army.
Source: NCERT

Shyamji Krishna varma was an Indian revolutionary fighter, lawyer and journalist. He founded the Indian Home Rule Society, India House and The Indian Sociologist in London.
Source: Spectrum

Home Charges represented the single biggest source of the direct drain of wealth, the expenses in Britain borne by the Indian treasury.
These Home Charges were a huge burden on the finances and contributed to a sustained and continuous deficit in the budget throughout the nineteenth century. Home charges included pensions to British Indian officials, army officers, military and other stores purchased in England.
Source: Spectrum

Deepavali declaration” passed during the tenure of Lord Irwin in 1929(just after Simon commission 1928).
It was just a show leaf to Indians for dominion status that was to be not granted anywhere in the near future.
Source: Spectrum

A Boycott Resolution was passed in Calcutta City Hall on August 7, 1905, where it was decided to boycott the use of Manchester cloth and salt from Liverpool.
• Bande Mataram became the boycott and Swadeshi movement theme song.
• Boycott and public burning of foreign clothes, picketing of shops selling foreign goods, all became common in remote corners of Bengal as well as in many major cities and towns across the country.
• Another form of mass mobilization widely used by the Swadeshi movement was the corps of volunteers (samitis). Ashwini Kumar Dutt, a school teacher, set up the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti in Barisal was the best – known volunteer organization of all of them.
• The Shivaji and Ganapati festivals in Western India (Maharashtra) were organized by Lokmanya Tilak to spread the swadeshi message and boycott movements among the masses.
Source: Spectrum

In 1823, the Governor-General-in Council appointed a “General Committee of Public Instruction”, which had the responsibility to grant one lakh of rupees for education.
The committee consisted of 10(ten) European members, of which Lord Macaulay was the president.
The committee decided to spend major portions from the grant for the improvement of oriental literature.
Source: NIOS

Indigo was a commercial crop forced upon the peasantry by the Zamindars and British planters in the Zamindari areas of eastern India.
• At one point indigo cultivation was considered to be a symbol of India’s slavery. Finally, in 1860 the terribly oppressed indigo peasants launched “Non-Cultivation of indigo” movements.
• Beginning with the ryots of Govindpur village in Nadia district of Bengal, the indigo strikes rapidly spread to other areas.
• By the spring of 1860, it totally covered all the indigo districts of Bengal.