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13.2 — India: History and the Freedom Movement
Cover the answers and work down. Roughly ninety facts, in rough chronological order, which is itself a memory aid.
Ancient India
What is the oldest known Indian civilisation? The Indus Valley or Harappan civilisation, roughly 2600–1900 BCE. It had grid-planned cities and covered a larger area than Egypt and Mesopotamia combined.
Who discovered Harappa and Mohenjo-daro? Daya Ram Sahni at Harappa in 1921 and R. D. Banerji at Mohenjo-daro in 1922, under John Marshall. Both sites are now in Pakistan.
What does Mohenjo-daro mean? Mound of the dead, in Sindhi. The site's original name is unknown because the script is unread.
Has the Indus script been deciphered? No. The inscriptions are too short — usually about five signs — and there is no bilingual text.
Which Harappan site is in Gujarat and has a dockyard? Lothal. Dholavira, also in Gujarat, has the earliest known signboard and elaborate water reservoirs.
What are the four Vedas? Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda. The Rigveda is the oldest, roughly 1500–1200 BCE.
Which Veda deals with music? The Samaveda. Indian classical music traces its lineage to it.
Who wrote the Sanskrit grammar Ashtadhyayi? Panini, around the fifth or fourth century BCE. Its rule structure is close enough to a programming language specification that computer scientists still cite it.
Which two epics are the great Indian epics? The Ramayana, by Valmiki, and the Mahabharata, attributed to Vyasa. The Mahabharata at about 100,000 verses is the longest epic poem in the world.
What is the Bhagavad Gita part of? The Mahabharata, in the Bhishma Parva. It is a battlefield conversation delivered before the fighting starts.
Where was the Buddha born, enlightened, and where did he die? Born at Lumbini, enlightened at Bodh Gaya, first sermon at Sarnath, died at Kushinagar. Those four are the standard set.
What was the Buddha's given name? Siddhartha Gautama. The title Buddha means "the awakened one" and is not a name.
Who founded Jainism, or rather revived it? Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara, a contemporary of the Buddha. Rishabhanatha is counted as the first.
Which dynasty did Chandragupta Maurya found, and when? The Mauryas, in 322 BCE. He overthrew the Nandas with the help of Chanakya.
Who wrote the Arthashastra? Chanakya, also called Kautilya or Vishnugupta. It is an unsentimental manual of statecraft and espionage, eighteen centuries before Machiavelli.
Which battle caused Ashoka's change of heart? Kalinga, around 261 BCE. He is the only ancient ruler who recorded public remorse for a victory, carved into rock.
Who deciphered the Brahmi script? James Prinsep, in Calcutta in 1837, which made Ashoka's edicts readable after two thousand years.
Where is the Lion Capital from, and what does India use it for? Sarnath. It is the State Emblem, and the wheel beneath the lions is the Ashoka Chakra on the flag.
Which period is called India's Golden Age? The Gupta period, roughly 320–550 CE, for its mathematics, astronomy, literature and sculpture.
Who was Aryabhata and what did he claim? A mathematician-astronomer who finished the Aryabhatiya in 499 CE at 23. He said the Earth rotates on its axis, a thousand years before Copernicus.
Who first wrote rules for zero as a number? Brahmagupta, in 628 CE. He also defined operations on negative numbers, which he described as debts.
Which Chinese travellers visited India, and when? Fa-Hien under Chandragupta II, Hiuen Tsang under Harshavardhana, and I-Tsing later. Their accounts are among the best sources on the period.
Which ancient Indian university did Bakhtiyar Khilji destroy? Nalanda, around 1193. Its library reportedly burned for months.
Who wrote the Kama Sutra? Vatsyayana. Most of it is a manual of urban civility; the sexual material is one section of seven.
Who was Charaka, and who was Sushruta? Charaka wrote on internal medicine, Sushruta on surgery. The Sushruta Samhita describes cataract removal and reconstructive nose surgery.
Medieval India
Which battle in 1192 opened north India to Turkish rule? The Second Battle of Tarain, where Muhammad Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan. Ghori had lost the first battle a year earlier.
Who founded the Delhi Sultanate? Qutb-ud-din Aibak, in 1206, starting the Slave or Mamluk dynasty. He began the Qutb Minar.
Who was the only woman to rule the Delhi Sultanate? Razia Sultana, 1236–1240. She was deposed largely because the nobility would not accept a woman.
Which sultan moved the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad? Muhammad bin Tughlaq, and then moved it back. He also issued token currency, which was counterfeited into worthlessness.
Which empire was founded in 1336 in the south? Vijayanagara, by Harihara and Bukka. Its capital Hampi was among the largest cities in the world under Krishnadevaraya.
When was the First Battle of Panipat, and who won? 1526 — Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi and founded the Mughal empire. He won with artillery and a chained-cart barrier.
Who was defeated at the Second Battle of Panipat, in 1556? Hemu, by Akbar's forces under Bairam Khan. Akbar was thirteen.
Which Mughal emperor abolished the jizya? Akbar. Aurangzeb reimposed it, and the reimposition is central to why the empire fragmented.
Which Mughal built the Taj Mahal, and for whom? Shah Jahan, for Mumtaz Mahal, completed around 1653. He also built the Red Fort and Jama Masjid at Delhi.
Who wrote the Akbarnama and the Ain-i-Akbari? Abul Fazl, Akbar's court historian, who was later assassinated on Jahangir's instructions.
Which Mughal emperor's death in 1707 began the empire's decline? Aurangzeb's, after 49 years of rule and 26 years of continuous war in the Deccan.
Who sacked Delhi in 1739 and took the Peacock Throne? Nadir Shah of Persia, who also took the Koh-i-Noor.
When was Shivaji crowned? 1674, at Raigad. He built a navy, which almost no other Indian power of the period took seriously.
What was the Third Battle of Panipat, in 1761? Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated the Marathas. It broke Maratha power in the north and cleared the way for the British.
Who founded Sikhism, and who was the tenth Guru? Guru Nanak founded it; Guru Gobind Singh was the tenth and last human Guru, and created the Khalsa in 1699.
Which Sikh ruler was called the Lion of Punjab? Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who ruled from Lahore for forty years and had the Harmandir Sahib covered in gold.
Company and Crown
When was the English East India Company chartered? The last day of 1600, by Elizabeth I. The Dutch VOC followed in 1602.
Which battle in 1757 gave the Company Bengal? Plassey. It was decided by Mir Jafar's defection rather than by fighting.
Which battle in 1764 confirmed it? Buxar, after which the Company gained the Diwani — the right to collect Bengal's revenue.
Who was the first Governor-General of Bengal? Warren Hastings, from 1773. He was later impeached in Britain and acquitted after a seven-year trial.
What was the Doctrine of Lapse, and whose was it? Lord Dalhousie's policy of annexing any princely state whose ruler died without a natural heir. It was a major cause of 1857.
What was the immediate trigger of the 1857 revolt? The greased Enfield cartridge, which had to be bitten. The causes underneath were annexations, land settlements and economic collapse.
Where did the 1857 revolt begin? Meerut, on 10 May 1857. Mangal Pandey's earlier act at Barrackpore in March is usually counted as the spark.
Who led the revolt at Jhansi, Kanpur and Lucknow? Rani Lakshmibai at Jhansi, Nana Sahib and Tatya Tope at Kanpur, Begum Hazrat Mahal at Lucknow.
What changed in 1858? The Crown took direct control from the Company, and the Governor-General became the Viceroy. Lord Canning was the first.
When was the Indian National Congress founded, and by whom? 1885 in Bombay, with A. O. Hume among its organisers. W. C. Bonnerjee was its first president.
Who partitioned Bengal, and when was it reversed? Lord Curzon in 1905; it was annulled in 1911, when the capital also moved from Calcutta to Delhi.
What was the Swadeshi movement? The boycott of British goods that followed the 1905 partition, with public burnings of foreign cloth.
Who were Lal-Bal-Pal? Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal — the assertive wing of Congress. Tilak's slogan was that freedom is his birthright.
When did the Jallianwala Bagh massacre happen? 13 April 1919, at Amritsar, under Brigadier General Dyer. Tagore renounced his knighthood in response.
What was the Rowlatt Act? A 1919 law allowing detention without trial, which triggered the protests that led to Jallianwala Bagh.
When was the Non-Cooperation Movement, and why was it called off? 1920–22, ended by Gandhi after the Chauri Chaura incident in which a crowd burned a police station.
What was the Simon Commission, and what was the slogan? A 1927 constitutional commission with no Indian members. The slogan was "Simon Go Back", and Lala Lajpat Rai died after a lathi charge at one protest.
When was Purna Swaraj declared? 26 January 1930, at the Lahore session under Nehru. That date was later chosen for the Constitution's commencement.
How long was the Dandi march, and what did it break? About 385 km over 24 days, ending 6 April 1930, breaking the salt law.
Who were Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, and when were they hanged? Revolutionaries hanged on 23 March 1931 for the killing of a police officer, after throwing non-lethal bombs in the Assembly to "make the deaf hear".
What was the Poona Pact, and between whom? 1932, between Gandhi and Ambedkar, replacing separate electorates for Depressed Classes with reserved seats. Gandhi had fasted to force it.
When was the Quit India Movement? August 1942, with Gandhi's call to "do or die". Almost the entire Congress leadership was arrested within hours.
Who founded the Indian National Army, and what was its slogan? Subhas Chandra Bose took command in 1943; the earlier formation was under Mohan Singh. The slogan was "Jai Hind", and "Give me blood and I will give you freedom".
Who was the last Viceroy of India? Lord Mountbatten, who advanced the transfer of power date to August 1947 and became the first Governor-General of independent India.
Who drew the India-Pakistan border? Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer who had never visited India, in about five weeks. The line was published two days after independence.
Which state was integrated by police action in 1948? Hyderabad, in Operation Polo. Junagadh acceded after a plebiscite; Kashmir acceded in October 1947.
Who was called the Iron Man of India, and why? Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, for integrating over 550 princely states into the Union. The Statue of Unity, the world's tallest statue, is of him.
After independence
Who was India's first President, and first Prime Minister? Dr Rajendra Prasad and Jawaharlal Nehru. Prasad is the only President elected twice.
Who chaired the Constitution's drafting committee? Dr B. R. Ambedkar. The Constituent Assembly's first sitting was in December 1946.
When were the first general elections? 1951–52, with universal adult suffrage from the start, in a country then around 85 per cent illiterate.
What was the States Reorganisation Act, and what forced it? The 1956 redrawing of state boundaries on linguistic lines, forced by the death of Potti Sriramulu after a 58-day fast.
Which wars has independent India fought? With Pakistan in 1947–48, 1965, 1971 and Kargil in 1999; with China in 1962. The 1971 war created Bangladesh.
What was the Green Revolution, and who led it in India? The adoption of high-yield dwarf wheat and rice from the mid-1960s, with M. S. Swaminathan leading in India and Norman Borlaug behind the varieties.
What was the White Revolution, and who led it? The dairy cooperative movement that made India the world's largest milk producer, led by Verghese Kurien through Amul.
When was the Emergency? June 1975 to March 1977, declared by Indira Gandhi. The 1977 election that followed produced India's first non-Congress government.
When did India conduct its nuclear tests? 1974 at Pokhran, called Smiling Buddha, and 1998, called Pokhran-II or Operation Shakti.
When did India liberalise its economy, and who were the two names? 1991, under Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, during a balance-of-payments crisis.
Quick-fire: who said it
"Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it." Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
"Give me blood and I will give you freedom." Subhas Chandra Bose.
"Do or die." Mahatma Gandhi, Quit India, 1942.
"Tryst with destiny." Jawaharlal Nehru, on the night of 14 August 1947.
"Jai Jawan Jai Kisan." Lal Bahadur Shastri, during the 1965 war and the food crisis.
"Inquilab Zindabad." Popularised by Bhagat Singh, though coined earlier by Hasrat Mohani.
"Sare Jahan Se Achha." Written by Muhammad Iqbal in 1904.
"Vande Mataram." Written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, in the novel Anandamath.
"Satyameva Jayate." From the Mundaka Upanishad, adopted as the national motto.
"You give me blood…" versus "Simon Go Back" — who is associated with the latter? Lala Lajpat Rai, who was fatally injured at the protest.
What comes next
The next page is the Constitution, the symbols and how the country is actually governed — the category that decides more competitive exams than any other.