History – True/False – GK Questions

Lord Canning served as Governor-General (1856-58) and became the first Viceroy of India (1858-62) after the Government of India Act 1858 transferred power from the Company to the Crown. [[1]]

Lord Dalhousie (1848-56) introduced the Doctrine of Lapse, annexing princely states like Satara, Jhansi, and Nagpur that lacked a natural male heir. This policy fueled resentment leading to the 1857 Revolt. [[30]]

The Battle of Wandiwash (January 22, 1760) saw British forces under Sir Eyre Coote defeat the French under Comte de Lally. This victory effectively ended French military ambitions in India. [[30]]

The Battle of Plassey (1757) occurred after the Carnatic Wars. The Third Carnatic War (1756-63) ended with the Treaty of Paris (1763), which confirmed British supremacy over the French in India. [[1]]

Queen Elizabeth I granted a royal charter to the British East India Company on December 31, 1600, giving it a monopoly on English trade with the East Indies for 15 years. [[1]]

Though Vasco da Gama first landed at Calicut (1498), the Portuguese established their first factory at Cochin (Kochi) in 1503. Calicut's Zamorin was hostile to Portuguese trade ambitions. [[30]]

Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore in 1799 and established the Sikh Empire. He unified the Misls, modernized the army, and ruled with religious tolerance until his death in 1839. [[1]]

Guru Arjan Dev (1563-1606) compiled the Adi Granth (later Guru Granth Sahib) in 1604, installing it at the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar. He was the first Sikh Guru to be martyred. [[30]]

Shivaji established the Ashta Pradhan (Council of Eight) to administer his kingdom. Key positions included Peshwa (Prime Minister), Amatya (Finance), and Senapati (Commander-in-Chief). [[1]]

The Third Battle of Panipat (January 14, 1761) saw the Maratha forces led by Sadashiv Rao Bhau defeated by Ahmad Shah Abdali's Afghan army. This halted Maratha expansion northward and weakened their power. [[30]]

Gol Gumbaz (1656), the mausoleum of Muhammad Adil Shah in Bijapur, features a dome with a diameter of 44 meters – the second-largest pre-modern dome after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Its whispering gallery is famous. [[30]]

Amir Khusrau (1253-1325), a Sufi poet and musician in the Delhi Sultanate, is traditionally credited with developing the tabla, sitar, and qawwali, blending Persian and Indian musical traditions. [[1]]

Ellora Caves (6th-10th century CE) showcase religious harmony with 12 Buddhist, 17 Hindu, and 5 Jain caves carved from a single basalt cliff. The Kailasa Temple (Cave 16) is the world's largest monolithic structure. [[30]]

Aryabhata (476-550 CE) calculated pi as 3.1416 in his work Aryabhatiya. He also proposed that Earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the Sun, centuries before Copernicus. [[30]]

Tirukkural, a classic Tamil text on ethics, politics, and love, was composed by Thiruvalluvar during the Sangam period (c. 1st-4th century CE). It consists of 1,330 couplets. [[1]]

After attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, Buddha delivered his first sermon (Dhammachakkappavattana Sutta) at Sarnath near Varanasi, setting in motion the Wheel of Dharma. [[1]]

The Fourth Buddhist Council (c. 72 CE) was held at Kundalavana in Kashmir under Kushana emperor Kanishka. It was presided by Vasumitra and led to the division of Buddhism into Mahayana and Hinayana sects. [[30]]

The Swadeshi Movement (1905-1908) promoted indigenous goods and boycotted British products in protest against Bengal's partition. It marked the beginning of mass participation in India's freedom struggle. [[30]]

The Indian National Congress was founded in December 1885 in Bombay by A.O. Hume, with W.C. Banerjee as its first president. It initially sought reforms within the British framework. [[1]]

Though there were earlier tribal and peasant uprisings, the Revolt of 1857 was the first large-scale, coordinated armed resistance involving sepoys, peasants, and rulers across North and Central India. [[1]]