UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — The DAILY QUIZ

Q1. With reference to the electoral franchise under the Constitution of India, consider the following statements: Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. No person can be excluded from the general electoral roll of a territorial constituency on grounds only of religion, race, caste or sex.
  2. The date on which a voter's age is reckoned for registration is to be fixed by or under a law made by the appropriate Legislature, not by the Constitution itself.
  3. An adult citizen may still be denied registration as a voter if disqualified by law on grounds such as non-residence, unsoundness of mind, crime or corrupt practice.
  • A. 2 and 3 only
  • B. 1 and 2 only
  • C. 1 and 3 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 3

Q2. Consider the following statements: Which of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

  1. Unlike the gradual extension of the vote to women in many Western democracies, women in India could vote in Lok Sabha elections on the same terms as men from the commencement of the Constitution.
  2. Article 326 makes adult suffrage the basis of elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies, so that citizenship, a minimum age and the absence of legal disqualification, rather than sex, property or education, determine who may vote.
  • A. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I
  • B. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct, but Statement-II does not explain Statement-I
  • C. Statement-I is correct, but Statement-II is incorrect
  • D. Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct

Q3. Consider the following assertion: Universal adult franchise in the Constitution of India was not a sudden innovation of the Constituent Assembly but the culmination of demands raised within the national movement. Which of the following statements support/supports the above assertion?

  1. Under the Government of India Act, 1935, the vote depended on property, income or educational qualifications, so that only a small fraction of Indians were enfranchised.
  2. The Nehru Report (1928) proposed that every person of either sex who had attained 21 years and was not disqualified by law should be entitled to vote.
  3. The Karachi Resolution (1931) of the Indian National Congress declared that the franchise shall be on the basis of universal adult suffrage.
  • A. 1 and 2 only
  • B. 1 and 3 only
  • C. 2 and 3 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 3

Q4. Under the Government of India Act, 1935, the franchise depended on property, income or educational qualifications. A woman could qualify through literacy, as the wife of a man enfranchised on a property qualification, or as the pensioned widow or mother of military personnel. The All-India Women's Conference objected that a woman's vote should not depend on her marital status. Consider the following inferences: Which of the inferences given above can validly be drawn?

  1. Under this scheme, the political status of many women was derived from the economic status of their husbands rather than held in their own right.
  2. Under this scheme, women were enfranchised on the same terms as men, differing only in the documents they had to produce.
  3. Had literacy alone been made sufficient for every woman, all gender disparity in the electorate would have been eliminated.
  • A. 1, 2 and 3
  • B. 1 only
  • C. 2 and 3 only
  • D. 1 and 3 only

Q5. Consider the following facts: In 1850, the Worcester women's rights convention demanded the removal of one word from every State constitution so that women could vote. Later, one suffrage organisation pursued amendments to State constitutions one by one, while another pursued an amendment to the federal Constitution. Wyoming Territory gave women the vote in 1869, and Wyoming in 1890 became the first State whose constitution did so. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment barred the United States or any State from denying the vote on account of sex. Consider the following inferences: Which of the inferences given above can validly be drawn?

  1. In the nineteenth-century United States, the qualifications of voters were largely determined by State constitutions.
  2. Before 1920, no woman anywhere in the United States could vote in any election.
  3. A successful federal amendment would bind even those States that had refused to change their own constitutions.
  4. The Worcester convention's demand was substantially achieved within a decade of the convention.
  • A. 1 and 3 only
  • B. 1, 3 and 4 only
  • C. 1, 2 and 3 only
  • D. 2 and 4 only

Q6. Consider the following assertion: The organised women's rights movement in the nineteenth-century United States grew out of the anti-slavery movement. Which of the following statements support/supports the above assertion?

  1. Women delegates, including Lucretia Mott, were refused recognition at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840, and this exclusion led Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to plan a women's rights convention.
  2. The Nineteenth Amendment barred the United States and the States from denying the vote to citizens on account of sex.
  3. Anti-slavery activists such as Lucretia Mott and Abby Kelley Foster were among those who signed the call for the 1850 Worcester convention.
  • A. 1, 2 and 3
  • B. 1 and 3 only
  • C. 1 and 2 only
  • D. 2 and 3 only