UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — India in commons

Q1. Indian indentured labour under the 'Girmit' system, instituted after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, was FIRST despatched (in 1834) to which one of the following colonies?

  • A. Mauritius
  • B. Fiji
  • C. Trinidad
  • D. British Guiana

Q2. Approximately how many indentured labourers from the Indian subcontinent are estimated to have entered Mauritius between the mid-19th century and the 1920s?

  • A. About 5,000
  • B. About 50,000
  • C. About 5,00,000
  • D. About 50,00,000

Q3. With reference to the office of the Secretary of State for India, consider the following statements. Which of the above is/are NOT correct?

  1. The office was created by the Government of India Act, 1858.
  2. The Secretary of State for India was a member of the British Cabinet.
  3. The Secretary of State was assisted by a Council of India that included elected Indian members.
  4. The Council of India was constituted as a 15-member body.
  • A. 1 and 2
  • B. 3 only
  • C. 3 and 4
  • D. 1, 2 and 4

Q4. Which of the following statements about the Vernacular Press Act, 1878 is/are correct?

  1. It was enacted during the viceroyalty of Lord Lytton.
  2. It applied equally to English-language and vernacular-language publications.
  3. It empowered the government to confiscate printing presses and publications.
  4. It was repealed in 1881 by Lord Ripon.
  • A. 1 and 2
  • B. 2, 3 and 4
  • C. 1, 3 and 4
  • D. 1 and 4 only

Q5. The Indian Press Act, 1910, which revived strict financial securities and forfeiture provisions against the press, was enacted during the viceroyalty of which one of the following?

  • A. Lord Lytton
  • B. Lord Ripon
  • C. Lord Minto
  • D. Lord Curzon

Q6. Which of the following statements regarding Indian indentured labour in Fiji is/are correct?

  1. It was introduced under Governor Sir Arthur Gordon.
  2. Indentured Indians were employed on the sugar plantations of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company.
  3. The indenture system in Fiji was terminated in 1920.
  4. People of Indian descent today form a negligible minority of Fiji's population.
  • A. 1, 2 and 3
  • B. 2, 3 and 4
  • C. 1 and 4
  • D. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Q7. The Indian indenture system, organised by British colonial administrators from the 1830s, saw recruitment of indentured emigrants formally ended in which year?

  • A. 1834
  • B. 1858
  • C. 1917
  • D. 1920

Q8. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, whose 18th edition was held in January 2025 at Bhubaneswar, is organised under the aegis of which one of the following Union Ministries?

  • A. Ministry of External Affairs
  • B. Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs
  • C. Ministry of Home Affairs
  • D. Ministry of Culture

Q9. In the context of British Labour Party engagement with Indian and colonial questions in the 1920s, 'Lansbury's Labour Weekly' is best described as which one of the following?

  • A. A British socialist weekly newspaper founded by George Lansbury in 1925
  • B. An Indian vernacular nationalist journal published from Calcutta
  • C. A committee of the House of Commons on Indian labour
  • D. A trade union of indentured labourers in Fiji