History and Culture: previous-year questions
270 real UPSC Prelims questions (2011–2026) with the official answer and a clear explanation. 76 of them came in the last five papers.
How often UPSC asks this
Questions per year, counted from the official papers.
Subtopics
Architecture and sculpture
32 questions
British expansion, administration and economic impact
16 questions
Buddhism, Jainism and other sects
28 questions
Gandhian era to Independence; constitutional development
91 questions
Mauryas to Guptas: Sangam age and early medieval kingdoms
66 questions
Medieval India: Sultanate, Vijayanagara, Mughals, Marathas; Bhakti and Sufi
78 questions
Painting, performing arts, crafts, literature, philosophy and festivals
63 questions
Prehistory, Harappan and Vedic India
12 questions
Reform movements, 1857, tribal and peasant revolts, early nationalism (to 1919)
80 questions
Attempt the questions
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With reference to Manipuri Sankirtana, consider the following statements :
- 1. It is a song and dance performance.
- 2. Cymbals are the only musical instruments used in the performance.
- 3. It is performed to narrate the life and deeds of Lord Krishna.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Statements 1 and 3 are correct (b). Sankirtana of the Manipur valley is a ritual song and dance form (1) that tells the life and deeds of Krishna (3). It is performed in temples and at life events such as births and weddings, and it comes from the Vaishnav devotional tradition. Statement 2 is wrong because the performers use the pung (a barrel drum) as well as cymbals (kartal), and the drummers dance while playing.
UNESCO listed it as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013. Notice the related form Manipuri classical dance, with its gentle Ras Lila. Other Indian entries on the UNESCO list include Ramlila, Chhau, Kalbelia, Garba (2023) and Durga Puja in Kolkata (2021).
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
The painting of Bodhisattva Padmapani is one of the most famous and oft-illustrated paintings at
Answer (a) & explanation
The Padmapani painting is at Ajanta (a). The Bodhisattva Padmapani, a lotus-holding form of Avalokiteshvara, is in Ajanta Cave 1. It was painted in the late 5th century under the Vakatakas, beside the Vajrapani on the back wall of the hall. Its lowered eyes, gentle posture and soft shading make it the best-known image of Indian mural art. Badami (b) has Chalukyan cave paintings. Bagh (c), in MP, has Buddhist murals similar to Ajanta's. Ellora (d) is mainly famous for sculpture, such as the Kailasa temple.
Ajanta's murals use the tempera method on dry plaster. Notice the other famous Ajanta scenes: the Dying Princess (Cave 16) and the Jataka tales.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to Indian freedom struggle, consider the following events :
- 1. Mutiny in Royal Indian Navy
- 2. Quit India Movement launched
- 3. Second Round Table Conference
What is the correct chronological sequence of the above events ?
Answer (c) & explanation
The order is 3-2-1 (c). The Second Round Table Conference sat in London from September to December 1931. Gandhi attended as Congress's only representative after the Gandhi–Irwin Pact, and he came back empty-handed. Quit India was launched on 8 August 1942 at Gowalia Tank, Bombay, with the call "Do or Die". The Royal Indian Navy mutiny broke out at Bombay on 18 February 1946, starting on HMIS Talwar. Any other order (a, b, d) is wrong.
The RIN mutiny, along with the INA trials (Red Fort, 1945), convinced Britain it could no longer count on Indian forces. Notice what came next: the Cabinet Mission arrived in March 1946.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Who among the following was/were associated with the introduction of Ryotwari Settlement in India during the British rule ?
- 1. Lord Cornwallis
- 2. Alexander Read
- 3. Thomas Munro
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
Answer (c) & explanation
Alexander Read and Thomas Munro introduced Ryotwari (c). The Ryotwari system, where the cultivator (ryot) paid revenue directly to the state, began in the Baramahal district under Alexander Read in 1792, with Thomas Munro as his assistant. Munro, as Governor of Madras (1820–27), spread it across the presidency, and Elphinstone took it to Bombay. Statement 1 is wrong because Lord Cornwallis brought in the Permanent Settlement (1793) with zamindars in Bengal.
Revenue under Ryotwari was very high, often 45–55% of the produce, and it was revised every 20–30 years. Notice the third system: Mahalwari (Holt Mackenzie, 1822; later Bird and Thomason) in the North-West Provinces and Punjab, settled with the whole village community.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
The Trade Disputes Act of 1929 provided for
Answer (d) & explanation
The 1929 Act brought tribunals and a ban on some strikes (d). The Trade Disputes Act, 1929 set up courts of inquiry and boards of conciliation for industrial disputes. It banned strikes in public utility services without notice, and any strike meant to pressure the government. It did not give workers a role in management (a), it did not give management arbitrary powers (b), and it did not provide for British courts to intervene (c).
It came with the Public Safety Ordinance and the Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929), as the government cracked down on a labour movement growing under communist influence after the 1928 strikes in Bombay. Notice the earlier milestone: the Trade Unions Act, 1926 gave unions legal recognition.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following statements :
- 1. The Factories Act, 1881 was passed with a view to fix the wages of industrial workers and to allow the workers to form trade unions.
- 2. N.M. Lokhande was a pioneer in organizing the labour movement in British India.
Which of the above statements is/are correct ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Only statement 2 is correct (b). Statement 1 is wrong because the Factories Act, 1881, under Lord Ripon, dealt mainly with child labour. It banned work for children under 7 and limited children aged 7–12 to 9 hours a day. It said nothing on wages or trade unions. Statement 2 is right because N. M. Lokhande, a follower of Jyotiba Phule, founded the Bombay Mill Hands Association in 1890, India's first organised labour body. He won a weekly holiday for mill workers.
The 1891 Factories Act went further, limiting women's work to 11 hours. Notice the later milestones: the AITUC (1920, first president Lala Lajpat Rai) and the Trade Unions Act, 1926.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
The object of the Butler Committee of 1927 was to
Answer (d) & explanation
The Butler Committee was about relations between the Government of India and the princely states (d). The Indian States Committee under Sir Harcourt Butler (1927–29) looked into ties between the paramount power and the princely states. The princes hoped it would limit British interference. Instead it said paramountcy must remain supreme and could change with the times. It also said a state could not be handed to an elected Indian government without its own consent. It did not define Centre–province powers (a), which belonged to the Simon Commission's work. It did not deal with the Secretary of State (b) or press censorship (c).
The Chamber of Princes (1921) was the princes' forum. Notice how this consent principle later helped the princes resist the 1935 federation plan.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Regarding the taxation system of Krishna Deva, the ruler of Vijayanagar, consider the following statements :
- 1. The tax rate on land was fixed depending on the quality of the land.
- 2. Private owners of workshops paid an industries tax.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer (c) & explanation
Both are correct (c). Under Krishnadevaraya (1509–29), land was surveyed and taxed by its quality: wet, dry, orchard and forest land paid different rates (1). Besides land revenue, the state taxed property, sales and professions, and charged an industries tax on owners of workshops (2), along with tolls and even marriage taxes.
Accounts of foreign travellers such as Domingo Paes and Fernão Nunes describe the empire's wealth. Krishnadevaraya also wrote the Telugu work Amuktamalyada and patronised the Ashtadiggajas. Notice how a strong revenue system funded Vijayanagara's temples, armies and markets.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the economic history of medieval India, the term ‘Araghatta’ refers to
Answer (c) & explanation
Araghatta was a water-wheel for irrigation (c). It carried a chain of pots and was turned by bullocks, lifting water from wells to the fields. Early medieval texts and inscriptions mention it, and it later developed into the gear-driven Persian wheel (saqiya/rahat), which spread widely under the Delhi Sultanate. It does not mean bonded labour (a). Land grants to military officers (b) were iqtas under the Sultanate and jagirs under the Mughals. Wasteland brought under the plough (d) does not match the word either.
Notice the story of farm technology: wells, tanks (eri) and the araghatta made it possible to grow two crops a year. Babur's memoirs describe the water-wheels he saw in north India.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Which one of the following books of ancient India has the love story of the son of the founder of Sunga dynasty?
Answer (b) & explanation
Kalidasa's Malavikagnimitram tells the love story of Agnimitra, son of Pushyamitra Shunga, founder of the Shunga dynasty, for the maid Malavika at his court in Vidisha (b). Svapnavasavadatta (a), by Bhasa, is about Udayana of Vatsa. Ratnavali (d), by Harsha, also has Udayana as its hero. The Meghaduta (c) is Kalidasa's lyric poem of a yaksha sending a message through a cloud.
Pushyamitra overthrew the last Mauryan king, Brihadratha, around 185 BCE. Notice how literature can preserve history: this play is a key source on the early Shungas.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the cultural history of India, the memorizing of chronicles, dynastic histories and epic tales was the profession of who of the following?
Answer (d) & explanation
Memorising chronicles and epic tales was the job of the Magadha (d). The Magadhas and Sutas were court bards who learnt by heart and recited royal genealogies, dynastic histories and epic stories. The Puranas and the Mahabharata were passed down partly through them. In the Mahabharata, the suta Sanjaya narrates the war to Dhritarashtra. A shramana (a) was an ascetic of non-Vedic traditions such as Buddhism and Jainism. A parivrajaka (b) was a wandering mendicant. An agraharika (c) was linked with an agrahara, a tax-free land grant to Brahmins.
Notice how ancient Indian history depended on oral traditions. Bards kept the genealogies the Puranas later wrote down, which is why historians check them against inscriptions.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the cultural history of medieval India, consider the following statements :
- 1. Siddhas (Sittars) of Tamil region were monotheistic and condemned idolatry.
- 2. Lingayats of Kannada region questioned the theory of rebirth and rejected the caste hierarchy.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer (c) & explanation
Both are correct (c). The Siddhas (Sittars) were Tamil mystics who believed in one god and mocked idol worship, rituals and caste (1). The Lingayats or Virashaivas, founded by Basavanna in the 12th century, worshipped Shiva alone through the personal ishtalinga, rejected caste hierarchy and questioned the theory of rebirth (2). They also allowed widow remarriage.
Basavanna's vachanas, short poems in Kannada, spread these ideas, and the Anubhava Mantapa was a hall for spiritual debate. Notice how these movements challenged hierarchy long before modern social reform.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
What was the main reason for the split in the Indian National Congress at Surat in 1907?
Answer (b) & explanation
The split came from the Extremists' lack of faith in the Moderates' methods (b). After the partition of Bengal (1905), Extremists led by Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo wanted to spread swadeshi, boycott and national education across India. They had no faith in the Moderates' petition-and-prayer approach. At Surat (1907) they clashed over the president, Rash Behari Ghosh, and the session broke up. Minto's separate electorates (a) came only in 1909. The Muslim League (c) was founded in 1906 but did not cause the split. Aurobindo was never a presidential candidate (d); the Extremists wanted Lajpat Rai.
Notice the result: the British arrested Tilak (Mandalay, 1908). The two groups came back together at Lucknow in 1916.
Aurobindo was a leading Extremist, but the presidency dispute was a symptom, not the cause, of the split.
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Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Banjaras during the medieval period of Indian history were generally
Answer (d) & explanation
Banjaras were mainly traders and carriers (d). They moved in large bullock caravans called tanda, carrying grain, salt and other goods over long distances. They were not chiefly agriculturists (a), warriors (b) or weavers (c), though they served armies as suppliers.
Alauddin Khalji used Banjaras to bring grain to Delhi's markets as part of his price controls. Jahangir described their caravans in his memoirs, and Mughal armies relied on them for supplies on campaign. Notice how such mobile traders knit together a vast internal market long before railways, a point that often appears in questions on medieval trade.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
The plan of Sir Stafford Cripps envisaged that after the Second World War
Answer (d) & explanation
Cripps promised Dominion status after the war (d). The Cripps Mission (March 1942) came when Japan was advancing in Asia. It offered Dominion status after the war, with the right to leave the Commonwealth. It also offered an elected constitution-making body, with provinces and princely states free to stay out. It did not offer complete independence (a). It did not propose partition outright (b), though the opt-out idea pointed that way. It did not offer a republic tied to the Commonwealth (c).
Gandhi called it a "post-dated cheque". Congress rejected it because defence stayed with the British and the opt-out threatened unity, and the League rejected it too. Notice what came next: the Quit India resolution, five months later in August 1942.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Who of the following had first deciphered the edicts of Emperor Ashoka?
Answer (b) & explanation
James Prinsep first deciphered Ashoka's edicts (b). An official of the Calcutta mint and secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, he cracked the Brahmi script in 1837 and read the title "Devanampiya Piyadasi". Georg Bühler (a) later studied Indian scripts and edicts in detail, Max Müller (c) was an Indologist of the Vedas, and William Jones (d) founded the Asiatic Society in 1784.
Prinsep did not know who Piyadasi was; the name Ashoka itself was confirmed only by the Maski edict, found in 1915. Notice how deciphering one script opened up the Mauryan age and the later study of Kharosthi too.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
The ‘Swadeshi’ and ‘Boycott’ were adopted as methods of struggle for the first time during the
Answer (a) & explanation
Swadeshi and Boycott were first adopted during the agitation against the Partition of Bengal (a). The boycott resolution passed at Calcutta Town Hall on 7 August 1905 launched the Swadeshi movement. The Home Rule Movement (b) came in 1916, Non-Cooperation (c) in 1920, and the Simon Commission (d) protests in 1928, all later.
The movement saw bonfires of foreign cloth, national schools, swadeshi industries and Tagore's Raksha Bandhan. The partition was annulled in 1911. Notice how methods first tried in 1905 became the backbone of Gandhian mass movements, which is why the Bengal agitation is called a dress rehearsal for later struggles.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following pairs :
| Famous place | Region
| 1. Bodhgaya | Baghelkhand
| 2. Khajuraho | Bundelkhand
| 3. Shirdi | Vidarbha
| 4. Nasik (Nashik) | Malwa
| 5. Tirupati | Rayalaseema
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Answer (c) & explanation
Only pairs 2 and 5 are correct (c). Khajuraho (Chhatarpur, MP) lies in Bundelkhand (2), the land of its Chandela builders. Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) is in Rayalaseema (5), the southern part of Andhra Pradesh. Pair 1 is wrong because Bodhgaya is in Gaya district of Bihar, the ancient Magadha region. Baghelkhand is Rewa–Satna in MP. Pair 3 is wrong because Shirdi is in Ahmednagar (now Ahilyanagar) in western Maharashtra, not Vidarbha (Nagpur–Amravati). Pair 4 is wrong because Nashik is also in western Maharashtra, while Malwa is the plateau around Indore and Ujjain.
Notice how these regional names keep showing up in questions. Learn them with their key districts, since they decide many map-based questions.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the religious history of India, consider the following statements :
- 1. The concept of Bodhisattva is central to Hinayana sect of Buddhism.
- 2. Bodhisattva is a compassionate one on his way to enlightenment.
- 3. Bodhisattva delays achieving his own salvation to help all sentient beings on their path to it.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer (b) & explanation
Statements 2 and 3 are correct (b). Statement 1 is wrong: the Bodhisattva ideal is central to Mahayana, not Hinayana. Hinayana (Theravada) aims at becoming an arhat, one who wins his own liberation. A Bodhisattva is a compassionate being on the path to enlightenment (2) who delays his own nirvana to help all sentient beings reach it (3).
Famous Bodhisattvas include Avalokiteshvara, embodying compassion, painted at Ajanta as Padmapani, and Maitreya, the future Buddha. Mahayana grew strong under Kanishka and the Fourth Buddhist Council. Notice how the shift from personal salvation to compassion for all shaped Buddhism across Tibet, China and Japan.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Satya Shodhak Samaj organized
Answer (c) & explanation
Satyashodhak Samaj was an anti-caste movement in Maharashtra (c). Jyotiba Phule founded it in Pune in 1873 to free the lower castes and women from Brahminical domination. It held marriages without priests, and Phule and Savitribai Phule ran schools for girls and Dalits. His book Gulamgiri (1873) compared caste with slavery. The other options are wrong: Bihar's tribal movements were Birsa Munda's Ulgulan (a), Gujarat had no such temple-entry campaign (b), and Punjab's peasant movements were unrelated (d). The best-known temple-entry movements were Vaikom (1924–25) and Guruvayur in Kerala.
Phule was given the title "Mahatma" in 1888. Notice how his ideas later shaped the non-Brahmin movement and Dr Ambedkar, who called him one of his three gurus.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.