1857 & early resistance movements

Answer: (a) 2 and 3 only

The British would not tolerate the taluqdars' armed power: right after annexation they were disarmed and their forts pulled down, so statement 1 is wrong. The Summary Settlement of 1856 treated the taluqdars as interlopers and removed them wherever it could, aiming to settle land directly with those who tilled it.

• ✗ 1. The taluqdars were not left their arms and forts; they were disarmed and their forts destroyed immediately after annexation.
• ✓ 2. The first British revenue settlement, the Summary Settlement of 1856, assumed the taluqdars were interlopers who had seized land by force and fraud, with no lasting stake in it.
• ✓ 3. Revenue officers expected that removing the taluqdars would let them settle land with the actual owners of the soil, cutting exploitation of peasants while raising the state's revenue.

Remember · Awadh 1856: taluqdars disarmed, forts destroyed; Summary Settlement called them interlopers and cut their share of villages from 67 to 38 per cent.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

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

Answer: (d) Birsa Munda's Revolt of 1899 – 1900

"Ulgulan" (also spelt Ulgulaan), meaning the Great Tumult, is the name of the tribal uprising led by Birsa Munda in the Chota Nagpur region in 1899-1900. It is remembered as a Munda movement against colonial authority, not as any of the other revolts listed.

• ✗ (a) The Revolt of 1857 was the wide uprising against Company rule in north and central India. It is not called Ulgulan.
• ✗ (b) The Mappila Rebellion of 1921 took place in the Malabar region of Kerala and has no link with the Munda tribe of Chota Nagpur.
• ✗ (c) The Indigo Revolt of 1859-60 was a peasant revolt in Bengal against planters who forced cultivators to grow indigo.
• ✓ (d) NCERT records that in 1899-1900 Birsa Munda led a widespread uprising known as Ulgulaan or the Great Tumult, in which tribal communities rejected colonial authority and tried to reclaim their land.

Remember · Ulgulan (Great Tumult) = Birsa Munda's uprising of 1899-1900 in Chota Nagpur; he was arrested in early 1900 and died in jail that year.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Both measures were taken. After the Santhal Revolt of 1855–56 the British carved out a separate Santhal Pargana territory, and special laws there protected Santhal land from passing to outsiders.

• ✓ 1. The Santhal Pargana was created after the revolt, carved out of Bhagalpur and Birbhum districts, in 1855, as a separate territory to conciliate the Santhals.
• ✓ 2. The special laws for the Santhal Pargana barred the transfer of raiyati land: Regulation III of 1872 (Section 7) made the holdings non-transferable, and Regulation III of 1908 declared their non-transferability and empowered the Deputy Commissioner to act against illegal alienation. Santhals had lost land to moneylenders and outsiders. The protection continues today in the Santal Parganas Tenancy (Supplementary Provisions) Act, 1949, which makes a raiyat's transfer invalid unless the right is recorded.

Remember · Santhal Hul (1855–56, Sido–Kanhu) led to the separate Santhal Pargana district and special land-protection laws against transfer to outsiders.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 1 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Dinabandhu Mitra wrote Neeldarpan.

Dinabandhu Mitra's play Neeldarpan (Nildarpan), on the oppression of indigo growers, dates from 1860, which is earlier than the other three events (1863, 1875 and 1882). Line the four dates up and the earliest is the play.

• ✗ (a) Swami Dayananda Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj in 1875, fifteen years after Neeldarpan.
• ✓ (b) Neeldarpan is listed among Dinabandhu Mitra's plays as of 1860, the year of the indigo agitation in Bengal; this is the earliest date in the set.
• ✗ (c) Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Anandamath came out in 1882, the latest of the four.
• ✗ (d) Satyendranath Tagore, eldest brother of Rabindranath, qualified for the Indian Civil Service in 1863, three years after Neeldarpan.

Remember · Order to remember: Neeldarpan (1860), Satyendranath Tagore in the ICS (1863), Arya Samaj (1875), Anandamath (1882).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error