Indian National Movement Test - 6

In 1917, at Champaran, the government forced farmers to undertake the cultivation of indigo. Indigo for the British happened to be a very profitable cash crop that was used for making dye. The demand of the dye further increased after the recession of the synthetic dye invented by the Germans owing to their massive defeat in the First World War.

Hence, the lucrative profits behind the indigo crop forced the formulation of new land laws that were focused on maximising the indigo production which took no consideration of the well-being of the farmers. This led the cultivators to go through a lot of suffering and pain. The immediate idea of Mahatma Gandhi was to relieve the farmers of the Champaran district of Bihar from such plight through the Champaran movement.

Sepoy Mutiny is known in India as the First War of Independence. It began on May 10, 1857, at Meerut as a mutiny among 35,000 Indian troops (sepoys) in the Bengal army. The spark that led to a mutiny in several sepoy companies was the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle February, 1857. A rumour was spread that the cartridges were made from cow and pig fat. Loading the Enfield required tearing open the greased cartridge with one's teeth.

The revolt of 1857 is also known as the Sepoy Mutiny and the First War of Independence. The revolt was called so because it was the first time that a combined effort had been made by the Indian nationals against the British.

This War was fought in 1857 by Indians against the British in order to get rid of their domination. The main causes of the War were political, social, economical, military and religious. In this uprising, both Hindus and Muslims joined hands against the British due to their religious sentiments.

Hence, statements 1 and 2 are correct.

The revolt of 1857 began on 10 May 1857 at Meerut, as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army. Sepoys in the Presidency of Bengal revolted against their British officers.British historians called it the Sepoy Mutiny, Indian historians named it the Revolt of 1857 or the First War of Indian Independence.

Nana Saheb is regarded as one of the main leaders of the 1857 war of independence disappeared soon after his defeat at the hands of the British. According to the historians Nana Saheb could not be captured by the British in 1857. Nana Saheb, better known as Dhondupant was the adopted son of exiled last Peshwa- Baji Rao II.

The Doctrine of Lapse was a policy applied by the British East India Company (BEIC) in India until 1848. According to the doctrine, any Indian princely state under the suzerainty of the British East India Company (the dominant imperial power in the subcontinent), as a vassal state under the British subsidiary system, would have its princely status abolished (and therefore annexed into British India) if the ruler was either "manifestly incompetent or died without a male heir".

At the time of its adoption, the British East India Company had imperial administrative jurisdiction over wide regions of the subcontinent. The company took over the princely states of Satara (1848), Jaitpur and Sambalpur (1849), Nagpur and Jhansi (1854), Tore and Arcot (1855) and Udaipur (Chhattisgarh) under the terms of the Doctrine of Lapse.