Quiz 5 - Indian History
This quiz is courtesy of Prashant (aka PHD). I will be sending in the next one on Sunday evening.

1. Asoka was a very aggressive and imperialist ruler who attacked most of the other independent states in India of his times and built the first all India empire. However, victory over an Indian state turned him a peace loving ruler. The reason was the huge bloodbath in the battle moved him. What was the name of the state which he defeated in that battle (Hint: it was located in the region which we call Orissa these days).

2. The ruling period of which empire is considered as the Golden era in Indian history? (Hint: the second half in the names of all rulers in these dynasty ended with the name of the dynasty)

3. What was the name of Hindu Rajput wife of Akbar who was also the mother of Jehangeer? (Hint: Remember Mughal-e-Azam)

4. What was the name of the fort on which Shivaji killed Afzal Khan? (Hint: There is some recent controversy about the shrine of Afzal Khan just on the way uphill on the top of the fort. Some Shivsena members tried to ransack it a couple of years ago.)

5. What was the name of the last Mughal emperor who participated against British in the rising of 1857? (Hint: There was a serial about this emperor a few years ago on Doordarshan.)

6. In 1911, British shifted capital of India to Delhi. Which city was India's capital before that? (Hint: The rising disturbance around the old capital was a reason behind this shift).

7. Who was the famous Indian leader who died as a consequence of injuries suffered while demonstrating against Simon commission in 1928? (Hint: Bhagat Singh killed police officer Saunders responsible for the Lathicharge).

8. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was the president of drafting committee for Indian constitution. Who was the President of the constitutional assembly overall?

9. If the president of India dies, automatically vice-president takes over as the post cannot remain vacant even for a minute. If vice-president is not able to assume the office, automatically it goes to the chief justice of the Supreme Court. What was the name of the only chief justice of India who became temporary president of India for just two weeks in 1969? (Hint: He was from the minority community and became vice-president of India after a decade in 1979)

10. Who was the first Finance minister of independent India? (Hint: He was from the same Tamil trading community that the current FM P Chidambaram belongs to.)

11. There was only one time in the history of independent India that the union cabinet had two deputy prime ministers at the same time. It was in Morarji Desai ministry in 1977. Both were prime-ministerial aspirants but silenced to give up their claim in favour of Morarji by Jaiprakash Narayan. But after JP's death, they fought among themselves over the succession to Morarji and brought down the first non-congress government by Janta Party. Who were these two politicians? (Hint: one of them became PM for a short duration subsequently).

12. Who was the only minister in Indira Gandhi cabinet who questioned President Gyani Zail Singh's decision to appoint Rajiv Gandhi as PM after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 as Rajiv was not yet elected the leader of congress parliamentary party? (Hint: He is a senior member in Manmohan Singh cabinet currently. Although he was expelled by Rajiv Gandhi for his dissent, P V Narsimha Rao rehabilitated him in the congress party and politics).


ANSWERS

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1. Kalinga
2. The ruling period of the Gupta empire
3. Jodhabai
4. Pratapgad
5. Bahadur Shah Zafar
6. Calcutta
7. Lala Lajpatrai
8. Dr. Rajendra Prasad
9. M Hidayatullah
10. R K Shanmugam Chetty
11. Charan Singh & Jagjivan Ram
12. Pranab Mukherjee

- posted by Aditya @ 9:53 AM