Day-667 | Daily MCQs | UPSC Prelims | HISTORY

Answer: C
Explanation:
Statement 1 is correct: The department of land revenue under chola is known as puravuvari-tinaikkalam.
Statement 2 is correct: Uttaramerur inscription issued by Prantaka Chola gives details of election to these committees. The affairs of the village were managed by an executive committee to which educated persons owning property were elected by drawing lots or by rotation.
Statement 3 is correct: The Chola society had a division of caste into “Idangai” and “Vadangai”.
Additional information:
● King: The emperor or king was at the top of the administration. All authority rested in his hands. He often went on tours in order to keep better touch with the administration .
● Chola rulers appointed Brahmins as spiritual preceptors or rajagurus (the kingdom’s guide). Rajaraja I and Rajendra I mention the names of rajagurus and Sarva-sivas in their inscriptions.
● Chola kings granted huge estates of land to Brahmins as brahmadeyams and chaturvedimangalams.
● Provinces: The Chola Empire was divided into mandalams and each
mandalam into valanadus and nadus.
● In each nadu there were a number of autonomous villages.
● The royal princes or officers were in charge of mandalam.
● The valanadu was under periyanattar and nadu under nattar. The town was known as nagaram and it was under the administration of a council called nagarattar.
● Military administration: The Cholas maintained a large army consisting of infantry, cavalry and elephants which were called the three limbs of the army. The venetian traveler Marco Polo says that all the bodyguards of the king burnt themselves in the funeral pyre of the dead king.
● Revenue administration: For the purposes of assessing tax, the Cholas undertook extensive land surveys and revenue settlements. Rajaraja I (1001), Kulotunga I (1086) and Kulotunga III (1226) appointed people for land survey so that the land could be classified and assessed for the purposes of taxation.
● The department of land revenue is known as puravuvari-tinaikkalam.
● Various units of the land measurement are kuli,ma, veli, patti, padagam, etc.
● The tax rates were fixed depending on the fertility of the soil and the status of the
● Besides land revenue, there were tolls and customs on goods taken from one place to another, various kinds of professional taxes, dues levied on ceremonial occasions like marriages and judicial fine.
● Local Administration:There were two types of villages in the Chola empire. One type of village consisted of people from different castes and the assembly which ran this type of village was called ‘ur’. The second type of village was ‘agrahara’ , a type of village which was settled by Brahmins in which most of the land was rent-free.
● The assembly of this agrahara type of village was a gathering of the adult men in brahmana villages called ‘Sabha’ or ‘mahasabha’. These villages enjoyed a large measure of autonomy.
● The affairs of the village were managed by an executive committee to which educated persons owning property were elected by drawing lots or by rotation.
● Uttarameruru inscription issued by Prantaka Chola gives details of election to these committees.

Answer: A
Explanation:
Statement 1 is correct: Gana-Sanghas had an oligarchical system of governance.
Statement 2 is correct and is the correct explanation of statement 1: The administration was run by an elected king with the help of large councils or assemblies comprising heads of all important clans and families.
● The period of Mahajanpadas (600 BCE) is also known as the Period of 2nd urbanization (IVC was the 1st urbanization) as the center of polity and economy shifted from India’s North-west to Eastern states (mainly Bihar). Urban settlement and the use of Iron tools enabled the formation of large territories called Mahajanapadas. At that time there were 16 such Mahajanapadas (as per Buddhist text Anguttara Nikaya).
● There were two types of Government- Monarchy (in Kingdoms) and Republics (or Gana-Sangha). E.g. Vajji (Confederation of many clans); Shakya, and Malla (made up of a single clan) were Republics.
● Gana-Sanghas was an alternative to the kingdom system of polity. Unlike kingdoms, the gana-sanghas were generally spread around the periphery of the Indo-Gangetic-Plain, in the foothills of Himalayas, north-western India, including Punjab, Sind, parts of central India and Western India.
● It was very clear that Gana-Sanghas generally occupied the hilly and less fertile areas. The kingdoms generally practiced orthodox traditions but the gana-sanghas practiced more or less egalitarian traditions among the ruling clans.
● The gana-sanghas rejected the Vedic traditions and such a tendency among them suggests that they followed an older or alternative tradition. The term gana-sangha or gana-rajya incorporates the term gana which means equal.
● The term sangha on the other hand means an assembly or rajya or governance. In the system of gana-sangha the head of the family or the head of a clan governed the territory in the model of the assembly to which only members of a particular clan belonged.
● Sometimes this method of governance was known as a type of democracy but later on it was found that the system was not the same as democracy because power was vested in the hands of small families and only they participated in the governance.
● The larger number of people who lived in the territory had no rights and were denied access to resources. Hence the most appropriate term that was used for this system of government was republic. The system of government that was followed by the gana-sanghas was different from the monarchy.

Answer: C
Explanation:
Statement 1 is correct: Sultan Qutub-ud-din Aibak earned the title of ‘Lakh Baksh’ or giver of Lakhs.
Statement 2 is incorrect: Lakh Baksh was a term given to those who distributed their wealth generously and compassionately towards the poor and needy.
Additional information:
● Qutb-Ud-din Aibak was the first Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate and was the founder of the Slave Dynasty. Qutbuddin Aibak was a slave of Muhammad Ghori.
● Qutb ud-Din Aibak, was a general of the Ghurid emperor Muhammad Ghori. He was in charge of the Ghurid territories in northern India, and after Muhammad Ghori’s assassination in 1206, he established the Delhi Sultanate, and started the Mamluk dynasty, which would rule the Sultanate until 1290.
● Qutub-ud-din-Aibak (1150-1210) was a general in the reign of Ghurid King, Muhammad Ghori. Aibak acquired the throne of Delhi after the death of his predecessor Muhammad Ghori and gave rise to the Delhi Sultanate.
● He is associated with my battles and was a prized warrior. Born in slavery, Aibak was sold out to Muhammad Ghori in Ghazni and developed skills to pave his path as a warrior.

Answer: B
Explanation:
Statement 1 is incorrect: Religious-national movement helped the Maratha state to rise to power. It was not among the causes of their defeat in the Anglo Maratha war.
Statement 2 is correct: While giving lip service to the Peshwa’s authority, strong rulers like the Gaikwad, Holkar, Scindia, and Bhonsle carved out semi-independent kingdoms for themselves. In addition, the various parts of the confederacy were at constant odds with one another.
Statement 3 is correct: Maratha leadership was unable to create a sound economic strategy to satisfy the period’s changing demands. There were no businesses or chances for international trade.
Statement 4 is incorrect: Marathas disregarded the vital importance of artillery. An artillery department was set up by the Poona administration, although it was ineffectual.
Additional information:
Anglo-Maratha wars:
● These conflicts resulted from the English’s great ambition and the Marathas’ split house, which gave them a reason to believe their endeavour would succeed.
● The English in Bombay planned to establish an administration resembling that of Clive in Orissa, Bihar, and Bengal. The Marathas’ disagreement over succession provided the English with a long-awaited opportunity.
Causes of the Conflicts
● The Great Maratha Wars or the Anglo-Maratha Wars refer to the three conflicts fought in India between the British East India Company and the Maratha confederacy or the Maratha Empire.
● The Maratha Empire in India was destroyed along with the British victory in the wars, which started in 1777 and ended in 1818.
● The third Peshwa, Balaji Baji Rao, passed away on June 23, 1761, the day after the Marathas were beaten at the Battle of Panipat.
● After his death, his son Madhav Rao took over as ruler.
● He was a capable and competent commander who kept his nobles and chiefs united and swiftly succeeded in regaining the lost power and dignity of the Marathas.
● As the Marathas’ authority increased, the British grew more cautious of them and worked to prevent their restoration.
● The British were free to assault the Marathas after Madhav Rao’s death in 1772.

Answer: A
Explanation:
Statement 1 is correct: Lahore Congress of 1929 had authorized the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to launch a programme of civil disobedience.
Statement 2 is incorrect: Though, poor peasants joined the movement because they found it difficult to pay rent. They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlord to be remitted. The industrial working classes did not participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement in large numbers, except in the Nagpur region. Some workers did participate, selectively adopting some of the Gandhian programmes like boycott of foreign goods as a part of their own movements against low wages and poor working conditions.
Participation of other classes:
● Business class- They reacted against colonial policies that restricted activities because they were keen on expanding their business and for this, they wanted protection against imports of foreign goods. They thought that Swaraj would cancel colonial restrictions and trade would flourish without restrictions.
● Rich peasants: Rich peasant communities like patidars of Gujarat & the jats of Uttar Pradesh joined the movement because being producers of commercial crops, they were hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices. The refusal by the government to reduce the revenue demand made them fight against high revenues.
● Women- There was large-scale participation of women in the movement. They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. Many went to jail.
● Muslim participation was nowhere near the Non-Cooperation Movement (NCM), and there was even communal discontent in some places.
Additional information:
● Civil Disobedience Movement (1930) is regarded as the second major mass movement and a distinct advancement in widening the social reach of India’s struggle for freedom after the Non-Cooperation Movement.
● Known also as Salt Satyagraha, it was also the first time when Congress put the objective of complete independence to the British authority as well as to the Indian masses.
● The primary factors that contributed to the conditions for the Civil Disobedience Movement included protests against the arrest of revolutionary leaders, India’s pursuit of its own Constitution, and a growing demand for complete independence following the rejection of Dominion status as proposed in the Nehru Report.
● Despite not achieving its goals of Purna Swaraj, the Movement occupies a special place in the history of India’s quest for freedom.
● Not a failure for Congress: Congress could mobilise great political support and got moral authority that was reflected in the massive victory in the 1937 election.