History MCQs for UPSC Prelims — September 2026

Q1. With reference to Bastar and the colonial-era record on it, consider the following: 1. Bastar acceded to the Union of India on 1 January 1948 and was placed within Madhya Pradesh in 1956. 2. Bastar became a district of Chhattisgarh when that state was created in 2000. 3. The Bhumkal of 1910, led by Gunda Dhur along with the state's diwan, arose from forest-reservation policies that barred tribal communities from customary forest use. 4. The 1872 census returned Bastar, excluding Kanker, at 13,062 sq. miles, and its enumeration of the region is regarded as a model of accuracy for tribal tracts. Which of the above is/are NOT correct?

  1. Bastar acceded to the Union of India on 1 January 1948 and was placed within Madhya Pradesh in 1956.
  2. Bastar became a district of Chhattisgarh when that state was created in 2000.
  3. The Bhumkal of 1910, led by Gunda Dhur along with the state's diwan, arose from forest-reservation policies that barred tribal communities from customary forest use.
  4. The 1872 census returned Bastar, excluding Kanker, at 13,062 sq. miles, and its enumeration of the region is regarded as a model of accuracy for tribal tracts.
  • A. 1 and 3
  • B. 2 and 4
  • C. 1, 2 and 4
  • D. 4 only

Q2. Under which colonial statute were large numbers of nomadic, pastoral and forest-dwelling communities registered and placed under police surveillance as hereditary offenders, a designation lifted only when the statute was repealed on 31 August 1952?

  • A. The Scheduled Districts Act of 1874, which set apart tracts from ordinary law
  • B. The Indian Forest Act of 1878, which classified and reserved forest tracts
  • C. The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, which provided for notification of whole communities
  • D. The Thagi and Dakaiti suppression legislation of the 1830s, aimed at organised gangs

Q3. The Tarikh-i-Firishta was composed for the ruler of which one of the Deccan Sultanates, the court its author entered in 1589 and after whose patron it takes its alternative title?

  • A. Golconda, under the Qutb Shahi rulers of the Krishna-Godavari doab
  • B. Bijapur, under the Adil Shahi ruler who reigned from 1579 to 1626
  • C. Ahmadnagar, under the Nizam Shahi rulers of the upper Godavari country
  • D. Bidar, under the Barid Shahi rulers of the central Deccan plateau

Q4. Consider the following statements comparing pre-British and British treatment of the Gonds of central India: 1. Gondwana, the traditional homeland of the Gonds, lies broadly in the country between the Narmada and the Godavari. 2. Raids and evasion of tribute by Gonds had been treated as political acts by pre-British regimes, but were recast as crimes under British rule. 3. The whole of the Gond country passed under direct British authority in a single settlement made immediately after the war of 1817–18, after which no Gond raja continued to rule anywhere. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. Gondwana, the traditional homeland of the Gonds, lies broadly in the country between the Narmada and the Godavari.
  2. Raids and evasion of tribute by Gonds had been treated as political acts by pre-British regimes, but were recast as crimes under British rule.
  3. The whole of the Gond country passed under direct British authority in a single settlement made immediately after the war of 1817–18, after which no Gond raja continued to rule anywhere.
  • A. 1 only
  • B. 2 and 3 only
  • C. 1 and 2 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 3

Q5. The Gond zamindaris of central India that the British took over for revenue purposes after the war of 1817–18 had, until that point, mostly formed part of the dominions of which power?

  • A. The nizams of Hyderabad, holding the tracts south of the Godavari
  • B. The Scindias of Gwalior, holding the tracts north of the Narmada
  • C. The Holkars of Indore, holding the western Malwa uplands
  • D. The Bhonsle rajas of Nagpur, whose seat collapsed early in that war

Q6. Consider the following statements about Henry Harpur Spry's account of Bastar and its relation to earlier writing on the region: 1. Spry, an East India Company official, wrote that the people of Bastar sacrifice and eat their fellow creatures. 2. Spry's claim was built on material supplied by an officer of the Bengal Artillery who had charge of the Chhattisgarh territories, rather than on Spry's own observation. 3. Spry departed from the earlier English translation of the Tarikh-i-Firishta by identifying the Bastar ruling house as Rajput rather than Gond. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. Spry, an East India Company official, wrote that the people of Bastar sacrifice and eat their fellow creatures.
  2. Spry's claim was built on material supplied by an officer of the Bengal Artillery who had charge of the Chhattisgarh territories, rather than on Spry's own observation.
  3. Spry departed from the earlier English translation of the Tarikh-i-Firishta by identifying the Bastar ruling house as Rajput rather than Gond.
  • A. 1 and 3 only
  • B. 1 and 2 only
  • C. 2 and 3 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 3

Q7. The colonial claim that the people of Bastar 'sacrifice and eat their fellow creatures' rests on two men — Henry Harpur Spry, who wrote it down, and the Company officer whose report he relied on. Between the two of them, how many visits to Bastar are evidenced?

  • A. None
  • B. One
  • C. Two
  • D. Four

Q8. The English rendering of Firishta's chronicle, in whose annotation the ruler of Bastar came to be labelled a 'Gond', was made by John Briggs, who served as an officer of which one of the following?

  • A. The Bengal Artillery, then supervising the Chhattisgarh territories
  • B. The Bombay Engineers, then attached to the Deccan Residency
  • C. The Madras Army, in which he rose to general officer rank
  • D. The Bengal Native Infantry, then posted in the Saugor territories

Q9. Consider the following statements regarding the Persian chronicle Tarikh-i-Firishta and its nineteenth-century English translation: 1. The English translation carries the narrative of the chronicle down to A.D. 1612. 2. The description of the Bastar Raja as a 'Gond' occurs in the Persian original of the chronicle itself, and not in any apparatus added by its English translator. 3. Because the translator's identification was accepted as settled, every later British account of Bastar rested exclusively on first-hand observation in the region. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. The English translation carries the narrative of the chronicle down to A.D. 1612.
  2. The description of the Bastar Raja as a 'Gond' occurs in the Persian original of the chronicle itself, and not in any apparatus added by its English translator.
  3. Because the translator's identification was accepted as settled, every later British account of Bastar rested exclusively on first-hand observation in the region.
  • A. 1 only
  • B. 1 and 2 only
  • C. 2 and 3 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 3

Q10. Which one of the following was the principal consideration behind fixing India's standard time at a half-hour rather than a whole-hour offset from Greenwich?

  • A. It was a midpoint between the two whole-hour zones proposed for India, adopted in place of a two-zone scheme
  • B. It corresponded to the local mean time of Calcutta, then the capital of British India, which was retained as the national standard
  • C. It matched the timetable reference already used by the railways at Bombay, which was extended to the whole of British India
  • D. It was fixed so as to keep India's clocks aligned with the standard meridian adopted by neighbouring Nepal

Q11. Consider the following statements regarding the evolution of Indian Standard Time as a uniform time reference: 1. The meridian of 82°30′ E, passing near Mirzapur, was announced as the basis of Indian Standard Time by Viceroy Lord Curzon. 2. Indian Standard Time was formally adopted by the British authorities with effect from 1 January 1906. 3. Calcutta continued to keep its own local time and shifted to Indian Standard Time only in 1948. 4. Bombay was the earliest of the presidency capitals to abandon its local time, switching to Indian Standard Time well before Calcutta did. Which of the above is/are NOT correct?

  1. The meridian of 82°30′ E, passing near Mirzapur, was announced as the basis of Indian Standard Time by Viceroy Lord Curzon.
  2. Indian Standard Time was formally adopted by the British authorities with effect from 1 January 1906.
  3. Calcutta continued to keep its own local time and shifted to Indian Standard Time only in 1948.
  4. Bombay was the earliest of the presidency capitals to abandon its local time, switching to Indian Standard Time well before Calcutta did.
  • A. 1 and 2
  • B. 3 only
  • C. 4 only
  • D. 2 and 4

Q12. Which one of the following, a Kew Gardens-trained botanist of German birth who died in Bengaluru in 1956, served as Superintendent of Lalbagh from 1908 to the early 1930s?

  • A. John Cameron
  • B. William New
  • C. M. H. Marigowda
  • D. Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel

Q13. The organisation founded at Srinagar in October 1932 by Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, out of which the present Jammu and Kashmir National Conference emerged in 1939, was known as:

  • A. The Jammu and Kashmir Praja Parishad
  • B. The Jammu and Kashmir Plebiscite Front
  • C. The All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference
  • D. The All India Kashmir Committee