Q40. When did Britain announce its intention to transfer power in India by June 1948?
[Uttarakhand PCS Mains, 2006]
(A) 1946
(B) February 1947
(C) April 1947
(D) June 1947
Answer: (B) February 1947
Explanation: Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced the deadline on 20 February 1947. Mountbatten subsequently advanced the actual transfer to August 1947 as political negotiations and communal violence intensified.
Q39. Who was the last Viceroy before the end of British rule in India?
[Uttarakhand PCS Mains, 2006]
(A) Lord Wavell
(B) Lord Mountbatten
(C) Lord Linlithgow
(D) Sir Claude Auchinleck
Answer: (B) Lord Mountbatten
Explanation: Mountbatten assumed the viceroyalty in March 1947 and supervised the final decisions on withdrawal and partition. He continued to hold the different constitutional office of Governor-General after independence.
Q38. Which plan formed the immediate basis of the Indian independence settlement?
[UPPSC UDA/LDA Prelims, 2006]
(A) Cripps Plan
(B) Wavell Plan
(C) Mountbatten Plan
(D) None of these
Answer: (C) Mountbatten Plan
Explanation: The Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947 accepted partition and arranged an accelerated transfer of power. Parliament enacted the Indian Independence Act in July to implement the settlement for India and Pakistan.
Q37. Who served as the first Law Minister of independent India?
[Uttarakhand PCS Mains, 2006]
(A) M. C. Setalvad
(B) B. R. Ambedkar
(C) Kailash Nath Katju
(D) Rafi Ahmad Kidwai
Answer: (B) B. R. Ambedkar
Explanation: B. R. Ambedkar entered the first Union Cabinet as Law Minister in August 1947. He also chaired the Constitution’s Drafting Committee, connecting the transfer of power with India’s subsequent constitutional reconstruction.
Q36. Before Quit India, which appeal did Gandhi make: 1. Civil servants should resign, 2. Soldiers should abandon posts, 3. Princes should accept popular sovereignty?
[UPSC CSE Prelims, 2005]
(A) 1 and 2
(B) 2 and 3
(C) 3 only
(D) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (C) 3 only
Explanation: Gandhi did not ask civil servants to resign or soldiers to desert. He asked princes to acknowledge their subjects’ sovereignty. His instructions sought moral support for resistance without prescribing mass resignation or desertion.
Q35. Which statement is correct? 1. Mountbatten was Viceroy during the 1945 Simla Conference. 2. The 1946 naval revolt involved Bombay and Karachi.
[UPSC CSE Prelims, 2005]
(A) 1 only
(B) 2 only
(C) Both statements
(D) Neither statement
Answer: (B) 2 only
Explanation: Lord Wavell, not Mountbatten, was Viceroy at Simla in 1945. The Royal Indian Navy ratings’ revolt erupted the following year and spread beyond Bombay, including to Karachi, making the second statement correct.
Q34. Which item was NOT included in the Cripps Mission proposals?
[UPPSC PCS Prelims, 2005]
(A) Dominion status after the war
(B) Acceptance of an Indian-framed constitution
(C) A communal-parity executive council of Hindus and Muslims
(D) A province’s right to remain outside the Union
Answer: (C) A communal-parity executive council of Hindus and Muslims
Explanation: A reconstructed Executive Council with Hindu–Muslim parity relates to the later Wavell Plan, not the Cripps proposals. Cripps envisaged postwar constitutional arrangements, Dominion status, and an opt-out provision for provinces.
Q33. Which Congress president negotiated both with Cripps and with Lord Wavell?
[47th BPSC Prelims, 2005]
(A) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
(B) Jawaharlal Nehru
(C) J. B. Kripalani
(D) C. Rajagopalachari
Answer: (A) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Explanation: Maulana Azad was Congress president throughout most of the Second World War. He participated in negotiations with Cripps in 1942 and with the Wavell administration during efforts to resolve the constitutional deadlock.
Q32. Who was Prime Minister of Britain at the time of the Quit India Movement?
[46th BPSC Prelims, 2005]
(A) Neville Chamberlain
(B) Winston Churchill
(C) Clement Attlee
(D) Ramsay MacDonald
Answer: (B) Winston Churchill
Explanation: Churchill led the British wartime coalition during the 1942 uprising. He strongly resisted immediate Indian independence; the Labour government of Clement Attlee later oversaw Britain’s withdrawal in 1947.
Q31. With which national campaign did Gandhi connect the call “Do or Die”?
[Chhattisgarh PSC Prelims, 2005]
(A) Swadeshi
(B) Non-Cooperation
(C) Civil Disobedience
(D) Quit India
Answer: (D) Quit India
Explanation: The slogan accompanied Gandhi’s 8 August 1942 speech demanding that British authorities leave India. It expressed resolve to win independence and became the best-known rallying cry of the mass movement.
