WBP SI Prelims History Previous Year Questions with Answers

Correct Answer: (A) Siraj Ud Duolla

Explanation

Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, captured Fort William (Calcutta) from the English in June 1756 and renamed the city Alinagar in honour of his grandfather Alivardi Khan.

Exam Facts

• The capture of Fort William in 20 June 1756 is linked with the story of the Black Hole of Calcutta.
• Alivardi Khan ruled Bengal from 1740 to 1756 and Siraj succeeded him.
• After Clive’s recapture of Calcutta, the Treaty of Alinagar was signed in February 1757.
• The Battle of Plassey was fought on 23 June 1757 and Siraj-ud-Daulah was defeated.
• Mir Jafar (option D) was the commander who betrayed Siraj at Plassey and became the next Nawab.
• Mir Qasim (option B) became Nawab in 1760 and fought the Battle of Buxar in 1764.
• Shah Alam II (option C) was the Mughal emperor who fought at Buxar and granted the Diwani of Bengal to the Company in 1765.
• Robert Clive led the Company forces at Plassey.
• Murshidabad was the capital of Bengal after Murshid Quli Khan shifted it from Dhaka.
• Calcutta was founded by Job Charnock in 1690 and became the capital of British India in 1772 (until 1911).

Correct Answer: (A) Lord Cornwallis

Explanation

Lord Cornwallis (Governor-General 1786–93) introduced the first organised police system in India: districts were divided into thanas, each under a daroga (the later sub-inspector), with a superintendent of police for the district. He is called the father of civil services in India for the same reforms.

Exam Facts

• Cornwallis ended the police powers of the zamindars and took policing under the Company.
• The Cornwallis Code of 1793 separated the revenue, judicial and executive functions.
• He introduced the Permanent Settlement of Bengal in 1793.
• The Police Act of 1861 (after the revolt of 1857) set up the later police structure.
• Lord William Bentinck (option B) is known for the abolition of sati in 1829 and social reforms.
• Lord Mountbatten (option C) was the last Viceroy and the first Governor-General of independent India.
• Lord Ripon (option D) is known for the Local Self-Government Resolution of 1882 and the Hunter Commission on education.
• The Indian Police Service (IPS) was created after independence from the Imperial Police.
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy at Hyderabad trains IPS officers.
• Cornwallis also fought the Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–92) against Tipu Sultan.

Correct Answer: (A) Pali

Explanation

The Tripitaka (Pali: Tipitaka), the main scripture of Buddhism, was written in Pali, the language of Theravada Buddhism.

Exam Facts

• The three baskets are the Vinaya Pitaka (monastic rules), Sutta Pitaka (the Buddha’s discourses) and Abhidhamma Pitaka (philosophy).
• The teachings were first compiled at the First Buddhist Council at Rajagriha, held after the Buddha’s death.
• They were written down for the first time in Sri Lanka in the 1st century BCE (at Aluvihara) in the time of King Vattagamani.
• The Buddha preached in the common language of the people, Prakrit (Magadhi/Pali).
• Sanskrit (option B) was used in many Mahayana texts, but not for the original Tripitaka.
• Hindi (option C) and Bengali (option D) developed many centuries later.
• The Jataka tales are stories of the Buddha’s previous births, and are in Pali.
• Ashoka’s inscriptions are in Prakrit written in Brahmi script (and Kharosthi in the north-west).
• The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are the core of the Buddha’s teaching.
• The Third Buddhist Council was held at Pataliputra under Ashoka, and Moggaliputta Tissa presided over it.

Correct Answer: (D) Fatikchand

Explanation

The title Jagat Seth (‘banker of the world’) was held by Fateh Chand, the head of the great Murshidabad banking house. Flag: the title was given by the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (1723) and not by the East India Company, but Fatehchand is the only person linked with it among the options.

Exam Facts

• Manikchand (option A) founded the banking house and was the banker of Murshid Quli Khan; Fateh Chand was his nephew and adopted heir.
• The Jagat Seths’ bank at Murshidabad acted like the Bank of Bengal, handling revenue and loans.
• The Jagat Seths joined the conspiracy against Siraj-ud-Daulah which led to the Battle of Plassey (1757).
• Khoja Wajid (option B) was an Armenian merchant of Hooghly.
• Umichand (Amirchand) (option C) was a Calcutta merchant who acted as a go-between in the Plassey conspiracy and was cheated by Clive with a false treaty.
• Robert Clive led the Company’s forces at Plassey, and Mir Jafar was made Nawab.
• Murshid Quli Khan shifted the Bengal capital from Dhaka to Murshidabad in 1717.
• The Jagat Seth house later declined after Mir Qasim had them killed in 1763.
• The Battle of Plassey was fought on 23 June 1757.
• Plassey’s loot was a start of the drain of wealth from Bengal to Britain.

Correct Answer: (B) Vishakhdutta

Explanation

Mudrarakshasa is a Sanskrit historical-political play written by Vishakhadatta (Gupta period). It describes how Chanakya (Kautilya) wins over Rakshasa, the loyal minister of the Nandas, for Chandragupta Maurya.

Exam Facts

• The play is in seven acts and is a major source for the rise of the Mauryas.
• The word ‘Mudra’ means seal; the story turns on Rakshasa’s signet ring.
• Vishakhadatta also wrote Devichandraguptam, about the Gupta king Ramagupta.
• Shudraka (option A) wrote Mrichchhakatika (The Little Clay Cart).
• Kalhana (option C) wrote Rajatarangini, the history of Kashmir, in the 12th century.
• Kalidasa (option D) wrote Abhijnanashakuntalam, Meghaduta and Raghuvamsha.
• Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire in about 321 BCE after overthrowing the Nandas.
• Chanakya wrote the Arthashastra, a book on statecraft.
• Indica by Megasthenes is a Greek account of Chandragupta’s court.
• Sanskrit drama reached its peak with Kalidasa, Bhasa and Shudraka.

Correct Answer: (D) Singapore

Explanation

Subhas Chandra Bose formed the Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind Government) at Singapore on 21 October 1943, with himself as Head of State, Prime Minister and War Minister.

Exam Facts

• The government was recognised by Japan, Germany, Italy and other Axis powers.
• The Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) was first formed in 1942 by Mohan Singh with Rash Behari Bose leading the Indian Independence League.
• Bose took over the leadership of the INA and the League at Singapore in July 1943.
• The slogans ‘Delhi Chalo’ and ‘Jai Hind’ are linked with Bose and the INA.
• In December 1943 the Andaman and Nicobar islands were handed over to the Azad Hind Government and renamed Shaheed and Swaraj.
• Berlin (option B): Bose lived in Germany in 1941–43 and set up the Free India Centre there.
• Bangkok (option C) hosted the 1942 conference of the Indian Independence League, which began the INA’s setting-up.
• Rangoon (option A) was the headquarters of the INA in Burma in 1944, and Bose gave his ‘Give me blood’ speech in Burma.
• The INA trials at the Red Fort (1945) led to great public anger.
• Bose is said to have died in a plane crash at Taipei (Taiwan) in August 1945.

Correct Answer: (B) Satish Chandra Samanta

Explanation

The Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar (National Government of Tamluk) was set up on 17 December 1942 during the Quit India Movement in Midnapore, and Satish Chandra Samanta was its head (its Sarvadhinayak, the Director General or Dictator).

Exam Facts

• The government ran its own courts, police (Vidyut Bahini) and relief work for the people.
• Matangini Hazra, aged 73, was shot dead by police at Tamluk on 29 September 1942 during a march to take over the police station.
• Ajoy Mukherjee (option A) and Sushil Kumar Dhara (option D) were leading figures of the Tamluk movement; Ajoy Mukherjee was later Chief Minister of West Bengal.
• Biren Sasmal (option C), called Deshapran, was a well-known Congress leader of Contai (Midnapore).
• The government was dissolved in August 1944 after Gandhi asked the Quit India workers to end the struggle.
• The Quit India Movement was launched at Gowalia Tank, Bombay on 8 August 1942, with the slogan ‘Do or Die’.
• Contai and Tamluk were the strongest centres of the movement in Bengal.
• Midnapore also saw the Cyclone and famine of 1942–43 aggravate the suffering.
• Khudiram Bose, executed in 1908, also belonged to Midnapore.
• The Bengal famine of 1943 killed about 3 million people.

Correct Answer: (D) 13th April, 1919

Explanation

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13 April 1919 (Baisakhi day) at Amritsar, Punjab, when troops under General Reginald Dyer fired on an unarmed crowd.

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (A) Mahesh Das

Explanation

Birbal was born Mahesh Das; Akbar gave him the title Birbal (later Raja Birbal) and he became one of the Navaratnas (nine jewels) of the Mughal court.

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (D) Balaji Bajirao

Explanation

Balaji Bajirao (Nana Saheb) was the Peshwa from 1740 to 1761. The Third Battle of Panipat (14 January 1761) was fought between the Marathas under Sadashivrao Bhau and the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali, and the Marathas lost heavily.

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (A) Hooghly

Explanation

Raja Rammohan Roy was born in 1772 at Radhanagar, near Khanakul, in the Hooghly district of West Bengal.

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (C) Bhaskaracharya

Explanation

Lilavati is the book on arithmetic written by Bhaskaracharya (Bhaskara II) in the 12th century as part of his work Siddhanta Shiromani (1150 CE).

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (D) Maski

Explanation

At Maski (Raichur district, Karnataka) the minor rock edict names the king as Devanampiya Piyadasi Asoka, giving his personal name Ashoka. Most edicts give only the titles Devanampiya Piyadasi.

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (A) Little Boy

Explanation

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 was named Little Boy. It was a uranium (U-235) gun-type bomb dropped from the B-29 bomber Enola Gay.

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (B) Raja Birbal

Explanation

Din-i-Ilahi (“Divine Faith”) was a code of ethics started by Akbar in 1582, and Raja Birbal was the only Hindu among its followers, hence the correct answer.

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (D) Young Bengal Movement.

Explanation

Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-1831) was a teacher at Hindu College, Calcutta, who inspired the radical Young Bengal Movement (about 1826-1831), which questioned orthodoxy and promoted rational thinking.

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (A) Prafulla Chaki

Explanation

Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki, members of the revolutionary group Anushilan Samiti, threw a bomb at the carriage they believed carried Magistrate Douglas Kingsford at Muzaffarpur on 30 April 1908.

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (D) Susrutha

Explanation

Susruta, author of the Susruta Samhita on surgery, is the person standard exam sources name for medicine in the Gupta period. (Flag: the traditional date of Susruta is earlier, and the text was revised later; Charaka belongs to the Kushan age.)

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF

Correct Answer: (B) The Rowlatt Act

Explanation

The Rowlatt Act (1919) allowed detention without trial for two years and sparked nationwide protests. The arrest of Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal in Amritsar led to the gathering at Jallianwala Bagh on 13 April 1919 (Baisakhi), where General Dyer ordered firing.

Want more exam facts on this question? Get the WBP SI Prelims PYQ PDF