Daily Prelims MCQs – History and Culture – 5th July 2025

Welcome to today’s handpicked set of Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs) from the History and Culture   — crafted specially for the UPSC Prelims! These questions aren’t just a quiz — they’re a smart way to see how current affairs connect with core concepts, just like UPSC asks in the exam.

Each question is based on recent news and backed by clear explanations to help you build strong links between dynamic events and static knowledge.

Today’s topics include: Nagari Pracharini Sabha, history of languages, Story of ‘girmitiyas’, Dadabhai Naoroji, The India House, Intangible Cultural Heritage, uprising of Patharughat, Chapchar Kut and more…

QUESTION 1

With which historical institution/society of India were Shyam Sunder Das, Pandit Ramnarayan Mishra, and Thakur Shivkumar Singh associated?

(a) Kotwal Dasta

(b) Nagari Pracharini Sabha

(c) Communist Consolidation

(d) Tehrek e Reshmi Rumal

Answer (b)

Explanation:

• After decades of dormancy, the Nagari Pracharini Sabha is active again, and has begun republishing books from March this year.

• The Nagri Pracharini Sabha was founded in this milieu, by three Hindi scholars —Shyam Sunder Das, Pandit Ramnarayan Mishra, and Thakur Shivkumar Singh— on January 16, 1893. The organisation decided to throw its weight behind the cause of making Hindi the language of courts and government offices. It was also decided that an authoritative dictionary for Hindi would be compiled.

• From 1908 onwards, the Nagari Pracharini Sabha began sending people to villages, towns, and cities at its own expense to collect words and their meanings. These collectors documented words, synonyms, and local versions in use on paper. The collected words were then organised systematically and written down. This intense work continued for 21 years.

QUESTION 2

Consider the following statements with reference to history of languages in India:

1. During Mughal rule, Persian was used as the official language in India. 

2. In 1832, the Court of Directors of the East India Company declared that justice should be administered in Hindi language.

3. British civil servant Antony MacDonnell is credited with initiating the shift from the Persian script to the Devanagari script.

Which of the above given statements is/are true?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 1 and 3 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer (b)

Explanation:

Hindi under the British

• During Mughal rule, Persian was used as the official language in India. With the arrival of the British, the language equation changed. In 1832, the Court of Directors of the East India Company declared that justice should be administered in a language that common people could understand. As a result, Indian languages began to replace Persian.

• By 1861, in regions such as the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, the languages used in courts and government offices had become English, Urdu, and Persian. In some areas, the official languages were English, Persian, and Urdu, along with local scripts. Hindi had not yet emerged clearly, as it lacked a comprehensive vocabulary accessible to all.

• In the 1890s, the Devanagari script began to replace the Persian script. This shift is credited to British civil servant Antony MacDonnell.

QUESTION 3

‘Girmitiyas’ is the term used for:

(a) Indian clerks in colonial government

(b) armed robbers

(c) Indian slaves in British colonies

(d) indentured labourers

Answer (d)

Explanation:

Story of ‘girmitiyas’

• Britain banned slave trade in 1807, and finally abolished slavery in the British Empire in 1834. This created a labour crisis in many British colonies dependent on slave labour — including in Trinidad whose economy revolved around slave-run sugar plantations.

• In 1838, the enactment of the emancipation legislation in Trinidad was followed by a large-scale emigration of emancipated slaves from the sugar estates. Plantation owners thus turned to indentured labour from India. The very first boatload of indentured Indians came to Trinidad on May 30, 1845.

• While seen as more humane than slavery, indentured servitude was nonetheless brutal for labourers. ‘Agents’ back in India would lure unsuspecting Indians with the promise of riches and opportunity, but hold back a part of the labourer’s wages till the end of the contract.

• This effectively ensured that labourers would be under bondage while working in back breaking conditions on plantations in faraway lands. These labourers were colloquially called girmitiyas, a corruption of the word “agreement” that the labourers had to sign.

QUESTION 4

Whose words are these: ‘When I intently ponder over the spread of education, the main obstacle seems to be the fact that its carrier is English’?

(a) Raja Ram Mohan Roy 

(b) Dadabhai Naoroji

(c) Rabindranath Tagore

(d) Mahatma Gandhi 

Answer (c)

Explanation:

• Social reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy initially embraced English, but others began to question whether its cost — cultural dislocation — was too high. Still, English had taken root in law courts, universities, and commerce.

• Among the earliest voices of dissent were those of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, who, though profoundly different in temperament, shared a common concern: that English was unmooring Indians from their linguistic and cultural soil.

• Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj critiqued English for alienating Indians from their roots: “To give millions a knowledge of English is to enslave them. The foundation that Macaulay laid of education has enslaved us. I do not suggest that he had any such intention, but that has been the result.”

• Tagore, in a 1915 essay, Shikshar Bahan, worried: “When I intently ponder over the spread of education, the main obstacle seems to be the fact that its carrier is English.”

QUESTION 5

Which of the following associations or societies was Dadabhai Naoroji not associated with?

(a) London Indian Society 

(b) East India Association

(c) The India House 

(d) Bombay Presidency Association

Answer (c)

Explanation:

• In 1865 and 1866, Naoroji helped found the London Indian Society and the East India Association respectively. The two organisations sought to bring nationalist Indians and sympathetic Britons on one platform. As the secretary of the East India Association, Naoroji travelled in India to gather funds and raise national awareness.

Leader of the Indian National Congress

• In 1885, Naoroji became a vice-president of the Bombay Presidency Association, was nominated to the Bombay legislative council by Governor Lord Reay, and helped form the Indian National Congress. He was Congress president thrice, in 1886, 1893, and 1906.

• The first session of the Congress in 1885 passed a resolution calling for the formation of a standing committee in the British House of Commons for considering protests from legislative bodies in India. Naoroji dedicated his efforts towards this objective when he returned to England in 1886.

• Dadabhai Naoroji was not part of The India House.

• The India House was a student organization based in London during the early 20th century, known for its revolutionary activities and promoting Indian nationalism among students abroad.

QUESTION 6

Consider the following:

1. Tradition of Vedic chanting

2. Kumbh Mela

3. Kalamkari

4. Garba 

Which of the above is/are included in UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage?

(a) 1, 2 and 3

(b) 2, 3 and 4

(c)  1, 2 and 4

(d) 1, 2 , 3 and 4

Answer (c)

Explanation:

• Following are the part of the list: Tradition of Vedic chanting (2008), Kumbh Mela (2017), Garba of Gujarat (2023)

• Kalamkari is not included in UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

QUESTION 7

What caused the uprising of Patharughat in 1894?

(a) administrative mismanagement during floods

(b) peasants unrest against royalty

(c) the British interference in their way of living of the tribal population

(d) the British government decision to increase agricultural land tax

Answer (d)

Explanation:

• After the British annexation of Assam in 1826, surveys of the vast lands of the state began. On the basis of such surveys, the British began to impose land taxes, much to the resentment of the farmers. In 1893, the British government decided to increase agricultural land tax reportedly by 70- 80 per cent. “Up until then the peasants would pay taxes in kind or provide a service in lieu of cash,” said Patharughat-based Kamalakanta Deka, a professor of Assamese at Patharughat Higher Secondary School. “Across Assam, peasants began protesting the move by organising Raij Mels, or peaceful peoples’ conventions.”

QUESTION 8

What is Chapchar Kut?

(a) A Buddhist festival of Sikkim commemorating Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death, observed with special rituals. 

(b) A unique festival held at the Kamakhya Temple.

(c) A Tibetan Buddhist festival marking the New Year.

(d) A traditional festival celebrated in Mizoram after the successful clearing of jungle for farmland.

Answer (d)

Explanation:

The annual traditional Chapchar Kut, a festival celebrating the successful clearing of jungle for farmland and considered the most important traditional festival in Mizoram.