Q20. Who among the following belonged to the Extremist nationalist group?
[UPPSC UDA/LDA Preliminary Examination 2013]
(A) Pherozeshah Mehta
(B) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
(C) Bipin Chandra Pal
(D) None of the above
Answer: (C) Bipin Chandra Pal
Explanation: Bipin Chandra Pal was a prominent leader of the assertive Swadeshi phase and part of Lal–Bal–Pal. Mehta and Gokhale favoured constitutional avenues and are generally classified as Moderates. The opposing tendencies emerged clearly around the 1905 anti-partition agitation.
Q19. Which person was NOT a member of the revolutionary Jugantar circle after Bengal’s partition?
[Manipur PSC Preliminary Examination 2013]
(A) Amarendranath Chatterjee
(B) Jatindranath Mukherjee
(C) Bipin Chandra Pal
(D) Aurobindo Ghosh
Answer: (C) Bipin Chandra Pal
Explanation: Bipin Chandra Pal was an influential Swadeshi publicist and assertive Congress leader rather than a member of the secret Jugantar revolutionary circle. The movement contained different currents, including open political boycott and clandestine militant organizations associated with revolutionaries in Bengal.
Q18. Who defended Sri Aurobindo during the Alipore Bomb Case trial?
[UPPSC Mains Examination 2012]
(A) Chittaranjan Das
(B) Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee
(C) Motilal Nehru
(D) Tej Bahadur Sapru
Answer: (A) Chittaranjan Das
Explanation: Chittaranjan Das acted as defence counsel for Aurobindo during the Alipore proceedings arising from revolutionary investigations in 1908. His celebrated advocacy helped secure Aurobindo’s acquittal in 1909. Several other accused were convicted for activities connected with the revolutionary network.
Q17. Who was known as Sher-e-Punjab?
[BPSC 53rd–55th Preliminary Examination 2011]
(A) Rajguru
(B) Bhagat Singh
(C) Lala Lajpat Rai
(D) Udham Singh
Answer: (C) Lala Lajpat Rai
Explanation: Lala Lajpat Rai earned the names Punjab Kesari and Sher-e-Punjab for his nationalist leadership. He was associated with the Arya Samaj, the Swadeshi movement and national education. His death in 1928 followed police violence during an anti-Simon Commission demonstration.
Q16. Which Extremist leader received a sentence of six years’ imprisonment in 1908?
[Uttarakhand PCS Preliminary Examination 2010]
(A) Bipin Chandra Pal
(B) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(C) Lala Lajpat Rai
(D) Aurobindo Ghosh
Answer: (B) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Explanation: Tilak was convicted of sedition in 1908 and sentenced to six years of transportation. He was imprisoned at Mandalay in Burma, where he wrote his major interpretation of the Gita. His imprisonment became a symbol of colonial repression of nationalist journalism.
Q15. Which of these leaders supported the Swadeshi movement?
[UPPSC Preliminary Examination 2009]
(A) Aurobindo Ghosh
(B) Pherozeshah Mehta
(C) Dadabhai Naoroji
(D) Subhas Chandra Bose
Answer: (A) Aurobindo Ghosh
Explanation: Sri Aurobindo strongly supported Swadeshi, boycott, national education and passive resistance during the Bengal anti-partition movement. He contributed influential nationalist articles to Bande Mataram and advocated complete self-rule, helping to shape the assertive programme of early twentieth-century nationalism.
Q14. Who criticized the early Congress as a “begging institute”?
[UPPSC Lower Subordinate Preliminary Examination 2008]
(A) Bipin Chandra Pal
(B) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(C) Aurobindo Ghosh
(D) None of the above
Answer: (C) Aurobindo Ghosh
Explanation: Sri Aurobindo criticized the petitions and appeals of the early Congress, arguing that national freedom required strength and self-reliance. His essays New Lamps for Old attacked the limitations of Moderate politics and anticipated the rise of more militant nationalist methods.
Q13. Which method was chiefly associated with the early Moderate leaders of the Congress?
[BPSC 48th–52nd Preliminary Examination 2008]
(A) Constitutional agitation
(B) Revolutionary terrorism
(C) Armed insurrection
(D) Rejection of legislative reform
Answer: (A) Constitutional agitation
Explanation: Moderates usually worked through resolutions, petitions, public meetings and legal constitutional avenues to secure change. Extremist leaders later questioned the effectiveness of this approach and stressed boycott, Swadeshi and mass pressure. The distinction was central to the 1907 Congress disagreement.
Q12. Who founded the revolutionary organization Anushilan Samiti?
[UPPSC Special Preliminary Examination 2008]
(A) P. Mitra
(B) Barindra Kumar Ghosh
(C) V. D. Savarkar
(D) Narendra Gosain
Answer: (A) P. Mitra
Explanation: Pramathanath Mitra was an important founder of the Calcutta Anushilan Samiti in the early twentieth century. The organization became associated with revolutionary training and networks in Bengal. Its activities formed part of the context for the 1908 Alipore Bomb Case.
Q11. In which year was the assassination attempt made on Magistrate Kingsford at Muzaffarpur?
[BPSC 48th–52nd Preliminary Examination 2008]
(A) 1908
(B) 1909
(C) 1907
(D) 1911
Answer: (A) 1908
Explanation: Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki attempted to bomb a carriage believed to carry Magistrate Douglas Kingsford in Muzaffarpur in April 1908. Their error killed two women instead. The investigation revealed revolutionary networks and led to the landmark Alipore conspiracy trial.
Q10. Who put forward the doctrine of Passive Resistance during the national movement?
[BPSC 47th Preliminary Examination 2005]
(A) Mahatma Gandhi
(B) Bipin Chandra Pal
(C) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(D) Aurobindo Ghosh
Answer: (D) Aurobindo Ghosh
Explanation: Aurobindo articulated passive resistance as a strategy of refusing cooperation with colonial authority. During the Swadeshi movement it involved boycott, national education and indigenous institutions. His formulation differed from later Gandhian satyagraha, although both employed methods of organized non-cooperation.
Q9. Who criticized the Indian National Congress for practising prayer, petition and protest?
[UPPSC UDA/LDA Preliminary Examination 2002]
(A) Lala Har Dayal
(B) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(C) Subhas Chandra Bose
(D) Bhagat Singh
Answer: (B) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Explanation: Tilak strongly challenged reliance on petitions and appeals to British goodwill. He pressed for Swaraj and methods such as public mobilization and boycott. The criticism helped crystallize disagreements between Moderate constitutionalism and the assertive nationalists who rose to prominence after 1905.
Q8. Who among these personalities belonged to the assertive or Extremist wing of nationalism?
[BPSC 45th Preliminary Examination 2001]
(A) Aurobindo Ghosh
(B) Dadabhai Naoroji
(C) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
(D) Surendranath Banerjee
Answer: (A) Aurobindo Ghosh
Explanation: Aurobindo Ghosh was a prominent ideologue of assertive nationalism in Bengal. He supported the Swadeshi and boycott movements and wrote in Bande Mataram. Naoroji, Gokhale and Banerjee are better known for their earlier Moderate constitutional politics.
Q7. Who among the following was NOT known as a Moderate nationalist?
[BPSC 45th Preliminary Examination 2001]
(A) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(B) Dadabhai Naoroji
(C) Mahadev Govind Ranade
(D) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Answer: (A) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Explanation: Tilak represented assertive nationalist politics and rejected exclusive reliance on petitions and constitutional lobbying. Naoroji, Ranade and Gokhale were associated with the early Congress Moderate tradition. These ideological differences grew sharper during the Swadeshi agitation and Surat crisis.
Q6. Who was famously labelled the Father of Indian Unrest?
[UPPSC UDA/LDA Preliminary Examination 2001]
(A) A. O. Hume
(B) Dadabhai Naoroji
(C) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(D) Mahatma Gandhi
Answer: (C) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Explanation: British journalist Valentine Chirol applied the description Father of Indian Unrest to Tilak. Tilak’s influence came from nationalist newspapers, the Swaraj demand and public mobilization. The colonial label reflected official fears of his ability to organize resistance beyond elite politics.
Q5. Which leader was NOT associated with the Extremist school of Indian nationalism?
[BPSC 44th Preliminary Examination 2000]
(A) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(B) Madan Lal Dhingra
(C) Udham Singh
(D) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Answer: (D) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Explanation: Gokhale was a leading Moderate and supported constitutional approaches to self-government. Tilak championed more assertive nationalism, while Dhingra and Udham Singh were revolutionary nationalists from different periods. The contrasting political methods distinguish the Moderate from militant currents.
Q4. Under whose influence did the Congress policy of prayers and petitions ultimately give way to more assertive politics?
[UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 1999]
(A) Aurobindo Ghosh
(B) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(C) Lala Lajpat Rai
(D) Mahatma Gandhi
Answer: (B) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Explanation: Tilak consistently pressed the national movement to move beyond petitions to a stronger demand for Swaraj. Along with other assertive leaders, he promoted Swadeshi, boycott and public mobilization. This shift became particularly visible during the early twentieth-century nationalist upsurge.
Q3. After which year did the Indian National Movement become strongly influenced by the Extremist group?
[BPSC 43rd Preliminary Examination 1999]
(A) 1906
(B) 1909
(C) 1914
(D) 1919
Answer: (A) 1906
Explanation: The years following the 1905 Bengal partition saw intensified Swadeshi agitation and the growing influence of assertive Congress leaders. The Calcutta session of 1906 brought demands for self-government into focus. The differences culminated in the Surat split of 1907.
Q2. For how many years was Bal Gangadhar Tilak imprisoned following his sedition conviction in 1908?
[BPSC 43rd Preliminary Examination 1999]
(A) Two years
(B) Four years
(C) Six years
(D) Ten years
Answer: (C) Six years
Explanation: Tilak received a six-year sentence in 1908 and was sent to Mandalay in British Burma. He remained an influential symbol of resistance during his absence from India. In prison he wrote Gita Rahasya, later published after his release.
Q1. Which statement best represents the early Extremist nationalist ideology?
[UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 1998]
(A) Preference for imported goods
(B) Direct insistence on self-rule rather than relying solely on petitions
(C) Abandonment of all national education
(D) Exclusive reliance on colonial officials
Answer: (B) Direct insistence on self-rule rather than relying solely on petitions
Explanation: Assertive nationalists regarded political freedom as a right and favoured developing Indian strength through Swadeshi, boycott and mass action. This contrasted with the early Congress strategy of petitions and limited reforms. Not every Extremist leader advocated armed violence.
