British Rule, the Freedom Struggle, Hyderabad Liberation & Samyukta Maharashtra — Practice

Question 1

What were the Deccan Riots, and what law followed them?

Accepted Answer

Peasant risings of 1875, beginning at Supe in Pune district, in which peasants seized and burned moneylenders' bonds. The Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act of 1879 followed.

Question 2

Who shot the Collector of Nashik in 1909, and which organisation was linked to it?

Accepted Answer

Anant Kanhere shot A. M. T. Jackson on 21 December 1909. It was linked to Abhinav Bharat, founded by V. D. Savarkar.

Question 3

Why is the Faizpur session of the Congress notable?

Accepted Answer

Held in 1936 in Jalgaon district under Nehru, it was the first Congress session held in a village.

Question 4

What was the Satara Prati Sarkar?

Accepted Answer

A parallel government in Satara district from 1943 to 1946 under Krantisinh Nana Patil, which ran its own courts and acted against moneylenders and informers during the Quit India period.

Question 5

Describe the liberation of Marathwada. (~150 words)

Accepted Answer

At independence Marathwada was part of the Nizam's Hyderabad State, whose ruler refused to join India. The Razakars under Qasim Razvi used violence against the population. The Hyderabad State Congress, led by Swami Ramanand Tirth, organised resistance, with a strong base among Marathwada's people. After negotiations failed, the Indian Army's Operation Polo of 13 to 17 September 1948 ended the Nizam's rule. Maharashtra marks 17 September as Marathwada Mukti Sangram Din. Marathwada joined the bilingual Bombay State in 1956 and Maharashtra in 1960, bringing regional development concerns that the Nagpur Pact and, later, the Article 371(2) development boards addressed.

Question 6

Name three safeguards promised to Vidarbha by the Nagpur Pact.

Accepted Answer

A proportionate share of development spending and government jobs, a bench of the High Court at Nagpur, and a session of the state legislature at Nagpur each year.

Question 7

How did Tilak make nationalism a mass movement in Maharashtra? (~150 words)

Accepted Answer

Tilak used the press and public festivals. Kesari in Marathi and Mahratta in English, founded in 1881, carried nationalist argument to a wide readership. In 1893 he turned Ganeshotsav into a public festival, and in 1895-96 he started the Shivaji festival, which gave the movement symbols that ordinary people shared. During the famine and plague of 1896-97 he criticised the government's methods and was jailed for sedition in 1897. His imprisonment at Mandalay from 1908 made him a national figure, and in April 1916 he founded the Home Rule League at Belgaum with the demand that swaraj was a birthright. His methods have been criticised for their religious idiom, but they took nationalism beyond the educated elite.

Question 8

Trace the Samyukta Maharashtra movement and assess its significance. (~250 words)

Accepted Answer

The movement sought one Marathi-speaking state with Bombay as its capital. In 1947 the Akola Pact and in 1953 the Nagpur Pact brought Vidarbha and Marathwada into the demand by promising them a share of development spending and jobs, a High Court bench and an annual legislative session at Nagpur. In 1955 the States Reorganisation Commission recommended a bilingual Bombay State and a separate Vidarbha, and the proposal to separate Bombay city provoked mass protest. Police firing at Flora Fountain in 1955-56 left 106 people commemorated as martyrs at what is now Hutatma Chowk. The Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti, formed on 6 February 1956, united leaders such as Keshavrao Jedhe, S. M. Joshi, Acharya Atre and S. A. Dange, and C. D. Deshmukh resigned from the Union Cabinet. A larger bilingual Bombay State was formed in November 1956, but the Samiti's strong showing in 1957 and the parallel Mahagujarat movement made it unworkable. The Bombay Reorganisation Act created Maharashtra and Gujarat on 1 May 1960. The movement secured a linguistic state with Bombay as capital, built regional safeguards into its founding, and left the border question with Karnataka open.

Question 9

Assess Maharashtra's contribution to the Quit India Movement. (~250 words)

Accepted Answer

The Quit India resolution was adopted by the All India Congress Committee at Gowalia Tank Maidan, Bombay, on 8 August 1942, which gave Maharashtra a symbolic centre in the movement. After the leaders were arrested, Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the flag at the maidan on 9 August, and Usha Mehta ran the underground Congress Radio from the city. In Vidarbha the uprisings at Ashti and Chimur in August 1942 were followed by severe repression. In Satara, Krantisinh Nana Patil ran a parallel government from 1943 to 1946 that held its own courts and acted against moneylenders and informers, one of the longest-lasting such experiments in India. The movement also drew on Maharashtra's earlier traditions, from the forest satyagrahas of 1930 to the organisation built by the Gandhian ashram at Sevagram. Its limits were those of the movement nationally: it was suppressed within months and did not by itself end British rule. But it showed a depth of popular participation that, with the naval mutiny in Bombay in 1946, made continued British rule untenable.

Practice — British Rule, the Freedom Struggle, Hyderabad Liberation & Samyukta Maharashtra

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