Peasant & Tribal Movements MCQs for UPSC Prelims

Correct answer: C - Joining of peasant unrest to India's National Movement

The Champaran Satyagraha (1917) was Gandhi's first civil disobedience experiment in India, where indigo cultivators' grievances under the oppressive tinkathia system were linked to the wider national movement, so (c) is correct. Broad all-India participation of lawyers, students and women (a) and large-scale involvement of Dalit and tribal communities (b) became prominent in later movements like Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience, not specifically Champaran. There was no drastic decline in plantation cropping as a defining feature (d); the significance lay in mobilising peasant discontent into the freedom struggle.

Correct answer: D - Birsa Munda's Revolt of 1899-1900

"Ulgulan" (the Great Tumult) is the name given to the Munda rebellion led by Birsa Munda in 1899-1900 in the Chhotanagpur region, a tribal uprising against landlords, moneylenders and British land policy. The Revolt of 1857 was a pan-Indian sepoy and civil rebellion, not a tribal Ulgulan. The Mappila Rebellion of 1921 was a Muslim peasant revolt in Malabar. The Indigo Revolt of 1859-60 was a Bengal peasant agitation against forced indigo cultivation, so none of these match the term.

Correct answer: B - its unprofitability in the world market because of new inventions

The decisive blow to Indian indigo came from the invention of synthetic indigo dye in Germany in the late 1890s, which was cheaper and of consistent quality, making natural indigo unprofitable in the world market by the early twentieth century. Peasant resistance, most famously the Indigo Revolt of 1859-60 in Bengal, had shifted cultivation to Bihar but did not end it; the trade survived for decades afterwards. National leaders' involvement, notably Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha of 1917, came after the decline had already set in and addressed planter oppression rather than causing the industry's fall. Government regulation of planters was minimal and was not the reason for the collapse.

Correct answer: D - 1, 2 and 3

All three pairs are correctly matched. Gandhi founded the All India Anti-Untouchability League in 1932, soon renamed the Harijan Sevak Sangh, as part of his campaign against untouchability after the Poona Pact. The All India Kisan Sabha was launched at Lucknow in 1936 with Swami Sahajanand Saraswati as its first president. The Self-Respect Movement was started in 1925 in Tamil Nadu by E. V. Ramaswami Naicker, popularly known as Periyar, to fight caste hierarchy and Brahminical dominance. Since every pair holds, the answer is 1, 2 and 3.

Correct answer: A - 1 only

The Kheda Satyagraha of 1918 was launched because the crops failed due to drought, yet the colonial administration refused to suspend or remit the land revenue, pressing the distressed peasants to pay in full; statement 1 is therefore correct. Statement 2 is incorrect: there was no proposal to introduce the Permanent Settlement in Gujarat, which had a ryotwari-type arrangement; the Permanent Settlement was a Bengal-Bihar phenomenon. Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Correct answer: D - The complete disruption of the old agrarian order of the tribal communities

The 19th century tribal revolts had many individual triggers, but the single underlying common factor was the complete disruption of the old tribal agrarian order: colonial intrusion overturned communal land control, traditional rights over forests and shifting cultivation, and the self-sufficient tribal economy. New land revenue systems, missionary activity, and the influx of moneylenders and middlemen were specific manifestations or aggravating elements of this broader breakdown rather than the encompassing common cause. Hence the most comprehensive common factor is the disruption of the old agrarian order.

Correct answer: A - the reduction of the share of the landlords from one-half of the crop to one-third

The Tebhaga movement of 1946-47 in Bengal, led by sharecroppers (bargadars) under the Kisan Sabha, demanded that the landlord's share be cut from one-half to one-third of the crop, leaving two-thirds (tebhaga) with the cultivator, so option (a) is correct. Option (b) describes a demand for land ownership, which was not the immediate slogan. Option (c) refers to abolition of zamindari, a separate broader cause. Option (d) about writing off debts was not the Tebhaga demand.

Correct answer: C - Both 1 and 2

Both measures are correct. After the Santhal rebellion of 1855-56 was suppressed, the British carved out a separate administrative area called the Santhal Parganas to govern the Santhal heartland, so statement 1 is right. To protect the tribals from the moneylenders and zamindars whose exploitation had triggered the revolt, the government also barred the transfer of Santhal land to non-Santhals, making statement 2 right. Since both were part of the colonial response, the answer is both 1 and 2.