Prelims · Modern India & the freedom struggle · 12 questions

Europeans & the East India Company

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Prelims 2023 · Q49

Medium

Who among the following rulers of medieval Gujarat surrendered Diu to Portuguese?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) Bahadur Shah

Bahadur Shah, Sultan of Gujarat, is the ruler who let the Portuguese into Diu. Squeezed between the Mughal emperor Humayun and the Portuguese, he signed a treaty with the Portuguese governor Nuno da Cunha on 25 October 1535 and allowed them to build a fortress at Diu.

✓ (c) Bahadur Shah made the 1535 treaty with Nuno da Cunha, which gave the Portuguese permission to build a fort in Diu harbour. He later regretted it, but the Portuguese kept Diu and took full control in 1546.
✗ (b) Mahmud Begarha's long reign ended by the early 1510s, more than twenty years before the 1535 treaty. The Diu concession came in Bahadur Shah's reign.
✗ (a) The 1535 treaty was made by the reigning Sultan, Bahadur Shah, not by any ruler named Ahmad Shah.

Remember · Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, pressed by Humayun, gave the Portuguese a fort at Diu in 1535; Diu passed fully to them in 1546 and stayed Portuguese until 1961.

Sources

History, Diu District Website (District Administration, Diu; UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu) ↗ “Bahadur Shah entered into a treaty with Nuno De Cunha on October 25, 1535 who agreed to assist Bahadur Shah against his enemy by land and sea. In turn he received permission to construct a fortress at Diu”
Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Thana District: Bassein (Government of Maharashtra Gazetteers) ↗ “There is no certain notice till 1507, when Mahmud Begada of Gujarat (1459-1513) is said to have effected his designs against the towns of Bassein and Bombay.”

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·

Prelims 2023 · Q81

Hard

With reference to the Indian History, Alexander Rea, A. H. Longhurst, Robert Sewell, James Burgess and Walter Elliot were associated with

Answer & explanation

Answer: (a) archaeological excavations

These five were colonial-era archaeologists and antiquarians who surveyed, recorded and dug up India's ancient sites, so the link is archaeological excavation.

✓ (a) Alexander Rea dug the Iron Age burial site of Adichanallur and was the first Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey's Southern Circle (1902), where A. H. Longhurst later served. James Burgess founded the Indian Antiquary journal (1872) and worked on the survey of monuments. Walter Elliot collected sculptures at Amaravati in 1854.
✗ (b) None of them is known for setting up the press or newspapers in colonial India.
✗ (d) Railway building was the work of engineers and railway companies; these five are known for antiquarian and archaeological work.

Remember · Rea (Adichanallur), Longhurst (ASI Southern Circle), Burgess (Indian Antiquary, monument surveys), Sewell (South Indian antiquities) and Elliot (Amaravati sculptures) are colonial-era archaeology names.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Sources

Archaeological Survey of India, Chennai Circle: About Us ↗ “formerly called Southern Circle covering whole area of the then Madras Presidency was established in the year 1881. Sir Alexander Rea became the first Superintendent in 1902. Subsequently, great scholars like A.H. Longhurst”
Archaeological Survey of India: Excavations at Adichchanallur ↗ “The site was excavated by Alexander Rea of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1905”
Archaeological Survey of India: History ↗ “The founding of the journal Indian Antiquary in 1872 by James Burgess enabled publication of important inscriptions and their decipherment by scholars”
NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part I, Chapter 4 “In 1854, Walter Elliot, the commissioner of Guntur (Andhra Pradesh), visited Amaravati and collected several sculpture panels and took them away to Madras.”

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·

The same topic in Mains

Modern Indian historyGS 1 syllabus

Read it in NCERT

Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Chapter 4cited in 1 explanation