1.What is colonialism?

Ans: It is a policy adopting which the many European powers took partial or full control of territories
across the globe to exploit their people and resources.

2.When and why Western Roman empire crumbled?

Ans: Western Roman empire crumbled in the 5th century due to the rise of Christianity.

3.When and how the Eastern Roman empire crumbled?

Ans: Eastern roman empire crumbled as the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud-2 demolished theeastern roman
empire's capital Constantinople’s clay walls by besieging the city for nearly two months.

4.Who and when discovered India?

Answer: The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama was the first European to carry out a voyage to India
from 1497 to 1499.

5.What items used to be exported from eastern markets from the Eastern hemisphere?

Answer: Few things passed from the eastern region to the western world including Indian spices,
medicinal plants, Chinese silk and tea, Dhaka muslin, porcelain, handicrafts, and jewelry.

6.Why India and Indonesia favored spice production?

Ans: India and Indonesia offer low temperatures in winter and high temperatures during summer. Most
of spices require relatively low temperatures during their early growth stage and high temperature in
the reproductive stage.

7.What was the impact of the Ottoman victory over the Eastern Roman Empire?

Ans: With the victory over the Eastern Roman Empire, the Ottomans acquired control over the silk and
spice trade route which prompted the European traders to look for an alternative route to the spice
destinations in the eastern hemisphere.

8.Why was spice so an important commodity during the middle age?

Ans: Besides the food use of spices, they were also used as food preservatives as refrigerators came
much later in the series of inventions.
9.Why the European traders planned to venture out to India?

Ans: To the Europeans, dealing with the Ottomans would not only increase cost but would also enhance
risks and the risk-reward ratio of long-distance maritime adventures seemed lucrative and that was the
reason for venturing out to India.

10.How West Indies came to be named as such?

Ans: In 1492, when Columbus after reaching one of the Bahamian islands declared that he reached Asia
proved otherwise when Vasco-Da-Gama arrived in India later. So to differentiate from India/East India,
West Indies was named as such.

11.Who founded the Mughal Emperor & when?

Ans: Emperor Babar established the Mughal Emperor defeating Afghan sultan Ibrahim Lodi in the battle
of Pani path in 1526.

12.Who was Emperor Shahjahan and why he was famous?

Ans: Emperor Shahjahan was one of the Mughal Emperors and the father of Aurangzeb became famous
for building Tajmahal to commemorate his beloved wife Mamtaj situated on the bank of Jamuna in the
city of Agra.

13.How did Aurangzeb become the Mughal Emperor?

Ans: When Emperor Shahjahan became ill, Aurangzeb killed his brother Dara Shikoh and Murad, driven
out Shah Suza to exile in Burma, and locked up his ailing father to become the Emperor himself.

14.How was the rule of succession in the Mughal empire?

Answer: It was customary that when a Mughal Empire would die, the sons would have evicted their
father and the one who would defeat all would ascend to the throne.

15.What happened after the demise of Emperor Aurangzeb?

Ans: After the demise of Emperor Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire started to crumble as regional
kings/Rajas started to ignore central command in Delhi while East India Company was exploiting these
weak areas.

16.Why did the European Powers start to quarrel amongst themselves in India?
Ans: Since all the European powers had been trying to buy the same products, the price of commodities
went high and they started to quarrel with each other for gaining trading benefits.

17.What was the reason behind the price hick when the British started to trade all over India?

Answer: Since all the European companies were competing to buy the same products so the price of
commodities went high. This was nothing but the obvious demand-price economics. If the demand is
high the price will rise up.

18.Why the locals became dissatisfied with the East India Company?

Ans: The East India Company established trading posts and was not paying tax when they came in
dispute not only with the local populations but with the Nawabs and Rajas as well.

19.What was the main cause of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula’s defeat in the Battle of Plessey?

Ans: Before the Battle of Plessey Lord Clive hatched a conspiracy with Nawab’s Commander Mir Zafar
and bought his support in the exchange for a promise to make him the next Nawab for which he
remained inactive during the battle causing the downfall of Nawab.

20.What do you understand by God, Gold, and Glory?

Answer: The Europeans believed that God will reward them for civilizing the colonial subjects, the
colonial powers wanted to also benefit from their colonies and certainly there was an element of glory
behind all these adventurisms.

21.What was the outcome of the Battle of Buxar (Bihar)?

Ans: After the victory in the Battle of Buxar, the East India Company obtained the right to collect tax
from the states of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.

22.What caused the famine of 1770?

Ans: The infamous famine of 1770 primarily took place due to draught but was severed by the burden of
high tax rate and the policy of economic commercialization.

23.Why did the East India Company implement permanent settlement in India?
Ans: East India Company established a permanent settlements in India for the ease of revenue collection
and also to divide the people as the Zamindars and the peasants in order to establish their political
authority based on wealth and religion.

24.How was the land right in post-colonial India?

Ans: Before the British rule in India, under the Delhi sultanate and Mughal Empire the people had
customary right over land. The Emperor appointed agents to collect tax in exchange for a commission.

25.Name a few exploitive policies adopted by the British.

Ans: Permanent settlement, sun-set law, martial-race theory, the partition of Bengal, doctrine of lapse,
high tax on Indian goods, agricultural commercialization, etc.

26.Why did Enfield cartridges act as a trigger for the rebellion of 1857?

Ans: It was alleged that the Enfield cartridges were greased by cow and sow fat hurting the sentiments
of the Hind-Muslim soldiers since cows were considered holly by the Hindus and pigs were considered
haram by the Muslims.

27.Why sir Syed Ahmed Khan was famous for this?

Ans: He was famous for setting up Aligarh Muslim University, worked hard for the emancipation of the
Muslims of India and warned them not to join congress. His movement was known as the Aligarh
movement.

28.Why the Muslims of India stayed dormant until the end of the 19th century.

Ans: The Muslims of India stayed dormant as they just lost power to the English and were not
considered for anything which would make them elated. Besides, they continued to suffer from a kind of
complex and remained from learning English and for keeping themselves aloof.

29.Why the British partitioned the Bengal province?

Ans: Viceroy Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal in the name of administrative convenience but the
underlying reason was to divide the Hinds and the Muslims from being able to unite against the British.

30.How did the Calcutta-based middle-class community grow?

31.What prompted the Indian Muslims to send a delegation to Lord Minto that later came to be known
as Shimla Delegation?

Ans: When Lieutenant Governor Fuller of East Bengal & Assam stepped down from his post on account
of a difference of opinion with the central government, the Muslims felt insecure and thought of going
to Viceroy Lord Minto to secure their position highlighting their challenges and problems.

32.Why WWI took place?

Ans: WW-1 links to the Franco-German war of 1871 when French & Germany fought for six months &
ended up annexing a slice of French territory. Following this, German became an ally of the Austo-
Hungarian empire.On 29 June 1914, when the would-be heir of the Austro-Hungarian empire was killed
with his wife by a young Serb from Bosnia, the Austro-Hungarian empire accused Serbia and declared
war against it following which Germany attacked France.

33.What is the impact of Indian participation in WWI being on the British side?

Ans: Following WWI, India had a high expectations from the British in terms of freedom as a reward but
practically the British enacted the black act/Rowlett Act to suppress the blooming Indian nationalism.

34.What is Lucknow Pact?

Ans: It was an agreement between the Indian national congress and the Muslim League signed in 1916
on the issue of self-rule, one-third Muslim representation in the central government, separate of the
executive from the judiciary and separate electorate but was later disagreed by Nehru's report.

35.What is the Jalianwala Bagh incident?

Ans: On 14th April 1919, when the people of Punjab went to Jallianwala Bagh to celebrate new year and
also to voice against the arrest of some political leaders, they were gunned down by Brigadier Dyer’s
forces. Thousand were killed and injured during the massacre which became known as the Jallianwala
Bagh incident.

36.What is Black Act of 1919?

37.What is Gandhi’s movement of non-violence?

Ans: Gandhi’s movement of non-violence is a way to protest without causing any loss or damage to lives
and properties. Gandhi popularized this movement while he was working In South Africa as a legal
advisor in a Gujrat Firm.

38.What is the Khilafat movement?

Ans: Khilafat movement was a pan-Islamic movement initiated by the Indian Muslims against the British
government to retain the position and prestige of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire as Khalifat. The
orthodox Muslim Leaders of the Muslim League led this movement.

39.Why Jinnah did not support the Khilafat movement?

Ans: Jinnah believed the position of Khilafat had no practical implications for the Indian Muslims and
therefore he remained quiet during the Khilafat movement.

40.Why did Gandhi’s non-violent movement fail?

Ans: In 1922, when the activists of Gandhi’s non-violent movement attacked a police station in Couri-
Chara that killed 22 police members following which Gandhi abandoned the program.

41.Who was the first to discuss/present two nation theories in the political forum?

Ans: Allama Iqbal’s presidential address in the Muslim League session on 29 December 1930 was seen as
the first exposition of the two-nation theory based on which Pakistan came into being.

42.When did the two-nation theory-based political policy become official?

Ans: In 1940 during the Muslim League Lahore session the two nation theory-based religion-based
nation-state became official.

43.What is the difference between the political philosophy of Gandhi and Jinnah?

Ans: Gandhi believed in one India and Jinnah worked hard for hired-Muslim unity. Gandhi preferred
mass-based non-violent based political movements to achieve political objectives. Jinnah thought of
secular politics based on the constitution, and reconciliation. Jinnah preferred a round table or drawing
room to resolve political lessons than going to the ground.

44.What made Jinnah drift away from Hindu-Muslim unity?

Ans: Congress resistance, and political isolation allowed time for his felt evaluation. It was when Allama
Iqbal educated him about the idea of two nation theory. Tine got good to better when two communal
awards were declared and he reconsidered the inclusion of orthodox Muslim League leaders and also
integrated people.

45.What were the impacts of the Provincial Election of 1936-1937?

Ans: The Muslim League being in the opposition got a chance to note the discriminatory role of various
congress governments. It was the Bengal province where share Bangla was the Chief Minister undertook
many pro-peasant policies that disenchanted the Bengalis of West Bengal to drift away from the idea of
a United Bengal.

46.Why the congress ministries resigned and what was its impact?

Ans: The viceroy lord Linlilhgow decided to join in WW2 without consulting the Indian politicians in
protecting the congress government resigned. This has opened up opportunities for the politicians of
the Muslim League to be closer to the British authority in pursuing their political objectives.

47.What is Lahore Resolution?

Ans: The areas in which the Muslims were numerically majority in number as in the northwestern and
eastern zone of India, should be grouped to constitute independent states in which constitute units
should be autonomous and sovereign.

48.Who is Netaji Subash Chandra Bose?

Ans: Netaji Subash Chandra Bose was an Indian politician from West Bengal. He was once Chairman of
the Indian Congress. He was not convinced with Gandhi on the modalities by which he planned to drive
out the British Form Indian soil. So, he escaped to Germany and sought Hitler’s support to fight out the
English and formed Indian National Army.

49.What is the Cabinet Mission plan?

Ans: In 1946, when the independence movement reached its peak, a three-member Cabinet Mission
came to India and proposed a plan. Accordingly, the center's power was to be confined to foreign
affairs, defense, currency & communications & provinces would keep all the other powers. The grouping
of provinces was as under :

Group A - UP, CP, Bombay, Bihar, Orissa & Madras.

Group B - Sind, Punjab, Northwest Frontier & Baluchistan

Group C - Bengal & Assam.

50.What is Direct Action Day?

Ans: After agreeing to the proposed grouping of states by the Cabinet Mission, Neheru during a press
conference opined to alter the composition of groupings when the Muslim League withdrew its
agreement to the plan and announced a general strike on 16 August 1947 terming it as Direct Action
Day, to assert its demand for a separate Muslim homeland.