Q10. Who prepared the draft resolution calling upon the British to quit India?
[Uttarakhand PCS Prelims, 2002]
(A) Jawaharlal Nehru
(B) Mahatma Gandhi
(C) Maulana Azad
(D) Sarojini Naidu
Answer: (B) Mahatma Gandhi
Explanation: Gandhi formulated the central demand that British authority should leave India. The Congress Working Committee discussed and shaped the resolution before its final ratification by the All India Congress Committee in August 1942.
Q9. Who argued that partition was the only possible solution to India’s political dispute?
[WBCS Prelims, 2002]
(A) A. K. Fazlul Huq
(B) Muhammad Iqbal
(C) Chaudhry Rahmat Ali
(D) Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Answer: (D) Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Explanation: Jinnah became the chief advocate of the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan during the final years of British rule. The demand hardened as negotiations over a united constitutional settlement broke down.
Q8. On which date did the Muslim League observe Direct Action Day?
[WBCS Prelims, 2002]
(A) 12 August 1946
(B) 14 August 1946
(C) 15 August 1946
(D) 16 August 1946
Answer: (D) 16 August 1946
Explanation: The Muslim League designated 16 August 1946 as Direct Action Day following disagreements over the Cabinet Mission arrangements. Serious communal violence in Calcutta followed, worsening the political crisis before partition.
Q7. Who chaired the British Cabinet Mission sent to India in 1946?
[45th BPSC Prelims, 2001]
(A) Clement Attlee
(B) Stafford Cripps
(C) Lord Wavell
(D) Pethick-Lawrence
Answer: (D) Pethick-Lawrence
Explanation: Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, then Secretary of State for India, led the three-member Cabinet Mission. The other members were Stafford Cripps and A. V. Alexander; it was dispatched by Attlee’s Labour government.
Q6. Who led the Quit India Movement of 1942?
[45th BPSC Prelims, 2001]
(A) B. R. Ambedkar
(B) Jawaharlal Nehru
(C) Mahatma Gandhi
(D) None of these
Answer: (C) Mahatma Gandhi
Explanation: Mahatma Gandhi gave the decisive call for immediate British withdrawal. Although he was imprisoned at the start of the uprising, his leadership and “Do or Die” message remained its central inspiration.
Q5. Who called the Cripps offer a “post-dated cheque on a crashing bank”?
[WBCS Prelims, 2001]
(A) Mahatma Gandhi
(B) Jawaharlal Nehru
(C) Subhas Chandra Bose
(D) Vallabhbhai Patel
Answer: (A) Mahatma Gandhi
Explanation: Gandhi criticised the Cripps proposals as a promise payable only after the war, with no assurance of immediate power. The metaphor captured Congress scepticism toward delayed Dominion status and uncertain British commitments.
Q4. Assertion: Britain granted independence to India in 1947.
Reason: The Second World War had substantially weakened Britain.
[UPPSC PCS Prelims, 2001]
(A) Both correct, with reason explanatory
(B) Both correct, without explanatory link
(C) Assertion true, reason false
(D) Assertion false, reason true
Answer: (A) Both correct, with reason explanatory
Explanation: Britain’s resources were severely depleted after the global conflict. Independence resulted from this weakening alongside decades of Indian political resistance, making wartime exhaustion an important contributory explanation for the transfer of power.
Q3. Which authority formally appointed the first Prime Minister of independent India?
[UPPSC PCS Prelims, 2001]
(A) Governor-General
(B) British monarch
(C) Mahatma Gandhi
(D) Viceroy
Answer: (A) Governor-General
Explanation: Under the Dominion arrangements existing in August 1947, the Governor-General made the formal appointment of the Prime Minister. Jawaharlal Nehru took office as head of government upon India’s independence.
Q2. Which Congress leader was particularly supportive of the Cabinet Mission’s compromise plan?
[UPPSC UDA/LDA Prelims, 2001]
(A) Mahatma Gandhi
(B) Jawaharlal Nehru
(C) Vallabhbhai Patel
(D) Maulana Azad
Answer: (A) Mahatma Gandhi
Explanation: Gandhi initially regarded the mission as a promising attempt to preserve national unity. Its proposed constitutional structure ultimately unravelled as the Congress and Muslim League disagreed over the meaning of provincial grouping.
Q1. The Cabinet Mission allotted provincial Constituent Assembly seats at a ratio of roughly one per how many inhabitants?
[UPPSC PCS Prelims, 2001]
(A) Eight lakh
(B) Ten lakh
(C) Eleven lakh
(D) Twelve lakh
Answer: (B) Ten lakh
Explanation: Provincial allocations under the Cabinet Mission formula were population-based, with about one assembly member for every million residents. This arrangement shaped the initial composition of India’s constitution-making body.
