Socio-Religious Reform Movements Quiz: Modern Indian History Practice

Spoilers! These are the Starter quiz’s answers. Easy, Medium, Hard and Mixed rounds show their own answers when you finish.

1. The Brahmo Sabha, later called the Brahmo Samaj, was founded in 1828 by:

   • Debendranath Tagore
   • Keshab Chandra Sen
   • Raja Rammohan Roy
   • Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

   Answer: Raja Rammohan Roy. Rammohan Roy founded it in Calcutta to promote worship of one formless God and oppose idolatry and sati.

2. Sati was declared illegal in 1829 under which Governor-General?

   • Lord William Bentinck
   • Lord Amherst
   • Lord Auckland
   • Lord Dalhousie

   Answer: Lord William Bentinck. Bentinck's Bengal Sati Regulation (Regulation XVII of 1829) followed years of campaigning by Rammohan Roy.

3. "Satyarth Prakash" was written by:

   • Swami Vivekananda
   • Dayanand Saraswati
   • Sri Aurobindo
   • Swami Shraddhanand

   Answer: Dayanand Saraswati. Dayanand Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj, set out his ideas in it, calling for a return to the Vedas.

4. The Satyashodhak Samaj (1873), which fought caste discrimination in Maharashtra, was founded by:

   • B. R. Ambedkar
   • Sree Narayana Guru
   • Gopal Hari Deshmukh
   • Jyotiba Phule

   Answer: Jyotiba Phule. Jyotiba Phule founded it in Pune to secure rights for lower castes; the same year he published Gulamgiri.

5. Who founded the SNDP Yogam in Kerala and gave the message "one caste, one religion, one God for man"?

   • Sree Narayana Guru
   • Ayyankali
   • Chattampi Swamikal
   • E. V. Ramasamy

   Answer: Sree Narayana Guru. Sree Narayana Guru worked for the Ezhava community; the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam was founded in 1903.

6. The Young Bengal Movement was inspired by which teacher of Hindu College, Calcutta?

   • Alexander Duff
   • David Hare
   • Henry Vivian Derozio
   • William Carey

   Answer: Henry Vivian Derozio. Derozio encouraged his students to question tradition and think freely; he died young in 1831.

7. The Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh (1875) was founded by:

   • Sayyid Ahmad Khan
   • Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
   • Abdul Latif
   • Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi

   Answer: Sayyid Ahmad Khan. Sayyid Ahmad Khan wanted Muslims to take up modern education; the college became Aligarh Muslim University in 1920.

8. The Prarthana Samaj was founded in Bombay in 1867 by:

   • M. G. Ranade
   • Atmaram Pandurang
   • R. G. Bhandarkar
   • K. T. Telang

   Answer: Atmaram Pandurang. Atmaram Pandurang founded it with help from Keshab Chandra Sen. Ranade and Bhandarkar joined later and became its leading figures.

9. The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 owed much to the campaign of:

   • Raja Rammohan Roy
   • Keshab Chandra Sen
   • Debendranath Tagore
   • Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

   Answer: Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Vidyasagar used Sanskrit texts to argue that widow remarriage was permitted. The Act was passed in July 1856 under Lord Canning.

10. Consider the following statements about the Theosophical Society: 1. It was founded in New York in 1875. 2. Its international headquarters is at Adyar. 3. Annie Besant later became its president. Which of the statements given above are correct?

    • 1 and 2 only
    • 2 and 3 only
    • 1, 2 and 3
    • 1 only

    Answer: 1, 2 and 3. Blavatsky and Olcott founded it in New York, set up the Adyar (Madras) headquarters in 1882, and Annie Besant led it from 1907.