UPSC Essentials | Daily Quiz : History and Culture on Cabinet Mission, Congress, Mughals, and more (Week 138)

UPSC Essentials brings to you its initiative of daily subject-wise quizzes. These quizzes are designed to help you revise some of the most important topics from the static part of the syllabus. Attempt today’s subject quiz on History and Culture to check your progress. Find links to previous quizzes for UPSC towards the end of the article.

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Who among the following were not members of the 1946 Cabinet Mission to India, which consisted of three senior British Cabinet ministers?

By the 1940s, especially after World War II ended and Winston Churchill lost power, the withdrawal of the British from India was seen as more or less inevitable, with the modalities of independence and the creation of a new government to be worked out.

The Cabinet Mission came up with a plan outlining the contours of the nation moving towards self governance. While pitched as a last-ditch attempt to keep India united, the plan had inherent contradictions which would make its implementation very difficult.

Therefore, c is the correct answer.

1. Gopinath Bordoloi, the first CM of Assam, was against the lumping together of Assam with Bengal in the Cabinet Mission Plan.

2. Jawaharlal Nehru felt that the Cabinet Mission Plan had been devised because the British wanted to “save the face of Jinnah”.

Which of the above given statements is/are true?

Gopinath Bordoloi (also spelt Bardoloi), the CM of Assam, was against the lumping together of Assam with Bengal. Sagar Boruah in a paper published in the Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 63 (‘Nation building in North-East India: Role of the National Movement), writes, “The Assam Provincial Congress Committee totally rejected this grouping in the plan. The leaders of the Assam Provincial Congress feared that under this ‘grouping’ Assam might be sacrificed and tagged to Muslim dominated zone to appease the League.”

Bordoloi vowed to oppose this, but wanted to consult Gandhi before going ahead. He thus dispatched two Assam Congress leaders, Bijaychandra Bhagawati and Mahendra Mohan Choudhury, to meet Gandhi, who told them in unequivocal terms to reject the plan, and that Assam “should lodge its protest and retire from the Constituent Assembly.”

Nehru felt that the Cabinet Mission Plan had been devised because the British wanted to “save the face of Jinnah” and not push him into an “impossible corner”. He opposed Assam being forced into anything.

“It must be kept out of unhealthy competition with political parties and communal bodies. For these and other similar reasons, the A.I.C.C. (All India Congress Committee) resolves to disband the existing Congress organisation and flower into a Lok Sevak Sangh (Society to Serve the People).”

Who wrote the above words about Congress?

Gandhi initially saw the Congress as an organisation that “brought together Indians from different parts of India, and enthused us with the idea of nationality… To treat the Congress as an institution inimical to our growth as a nation would disable us from using that body.”

But by the 1940s, he believed that decentralised action to achieve self-rule was the best path to create his ideal society, beginning with self-sufficiency at the village level. Shortly before his assassination in 1948, he wrote about the Congress, “It must be kept out of unhealthy competition with political parties and communal bodies. For these and other similar reasons, the A.I.C.C. (All India Congress Committee) resolves to disband the existing Congress organisation and flower into a Lok Sevak Sangh (Society to Serve the People).”

That did not mean the end of the Congress, but certainly implied reimagining it as an entity with an entirely different purpose.

Therefore, a is the correct answer.

“The British government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually… Therefore… India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete independence.”

At the 1929 Lahore session of the Congress, under the presidency of Gandhi’s protege Jawaharlal Nehru, the party declared Purna Swaraj (complete independence) as its ultimate goal. “The British government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually… Therefore… India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete independence,” Nehru declared.

This goal would eventually be attained in 1947, albeit alongside the bitter reality of the Partition of India.

Therefore, b is the correct answer.

“I am sending thither Abdullah my ambassador and Dominic Pires to ask you to send me two learned Priests, who should bring with them the Principal books of the Law and the Gospel so that I may leam the Law and what is most perfect in it.”

Which Mughal emperor’s invitation (above) surprised the Jesuits, who saw it as a chance to convert the Muslim rulers of the north to Christianity?

About five centuries back, the Mughal emperor Akbar sent out a request to Jesuit priests stationed at the Portuguese enclave of Goa to teach him about Christianity. Whether he wanted to learn about the religion of Christ out of personal interest or for the sake of picking out suitable material for his new religion, ‘Din-I-Illahi’, is hard to tell. However, what got initiated was an elaborate process of cultural exchange culminating in a collection of glorious artistic pieces consisting a combination of Persian and European motifs.

Chief fathers of the order of St Paul know that I am your great friend.

Akbar’s invitation came as a big surprise to the Jesuits who saw in it an opportunity to teach the laws of Christianity to the Muslim rulers of north, with the expectation that they would convert. They immediately arranged for translated volumes of the Bible, and several pieces of art from Europe reflecting Christian imagery.

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