Who was the author of The Secret Doctrine?
- (a)Raja Ram Mohan Roy
- (b)H. P. Blavatsky
- (c)Keshab Chandra Sen
- (d)D. K. Karve
Correct — B, H. P. Blavatsky. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891), the Russian-born occultist who co-founded the Theosophical Society with Colonel Henry Steel Olcott in New York in 1875, published The Secret Doctrine in 1888. It is the central text of Theosophy, setting out her account of cosmic and human evolution and drawing heavily on Hindu and Buddhist ideas. Her earlier book, Isis Unveiled (1877), had already made her name in the movement.
- (a)Raja Ram Mohan Roy — The founder of the Brahmo Sabha (1828) wrote Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin and The Precepts of Jesus, and he died in 1833 — more than fifty years before The Secret Doctrine appeared.
- (c)Keshab Chandra Sen — A leader of the Brahmo Samaj who broke away to form the Brahmo Samaj of India and later the Nava Vidhan; he died in 1884 and had no connection with the Theosophical movement.
- (d)D. K. Karve — Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve worked for widow remarriage and women's education and founded the Indian Women's University; he was a social reformer and educationist, not a writer on Theosophy.
The Theosophical Society was founded in New York in 1875 by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, moved to India in 1879 and settled its headquarters at Adyar near Madras in 1882. Its motto — 'There is no religion higher than Truth' — captured its claim to seek a wisdom common to all faiths, and it drew on Indian philosophy at a time when educated Indians were being told their traditions were backward. Annie Besant joined in 1889 and became president in 1907; through her the movement fed directly into Indian public life, from the Central Hindu School at Banaras to the Home Rule League.
This is a book-to-author question, and the safest method is to fix each name to the one text or institution it owns: Ram Mohan Roy → Brahmo Sabha and Precepts of Jesus; Keshab Chandra Sen → Nava Vidhan; Karve → women's education. The trap is that three of the four names are Indian reformers, which makes the foreign name look out of place — yet it is exactly the odd name that is right, because The Secret Doctrine is a Theosophical work and Theosophy's founder was Blavatsky. Note also that MPPSC recycles distractors: it used 'Maharshi D. K. Karve' the same way in its 2019 question on the author of Satyarth Prakash.
- The Secret Doctrine (1888) was written by H. P. Blavatsky; her earlier work was Isis Unveiled (1877)
- The Theosophical Society was founded in New York in 1875 by Blavatsky and Colonel H. S. Olcott
- Its international headquarters moved to Adyar, Madras (Chennai), in 1882
- Annie Besant joined the Society in 1889 and became its president in 1907; she founded the Central Hindu School at Banaras in 1898
- Society motto: 'There is no religion higher than Truth'
- Crediting Annie Besant with founding the Theosophical Society — she joined it fourteen years after Blavatsky and Olcott founded it
- Placing the Society's founding in India; it was founded in New York and only later moved its headquarters to Adyar
- Guessing an Indian name because the other three options are Indian reformers
MPPSC asks flat book-to-author recall from the socio-religious reform chapter; UPSC embeds the same material in statement-based questions — who founded what, in which year, and which claim about a reformer is correct.
Annie Besant was 1. Responsible for starting the Home Rule Movement 2. The founder of the Theosophical Society 3. Once the President of the Indian National Congress Select the correct statement/statements using the codes given below.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 1 and 3 only — statement 2 is wrong because the Theosophical Society was founded by Blavatsky and Olcott, not by Besant.
Turns on the same fact this question tests — that Theosophy belongs to Blavatsky (with Olcott), and Annie Besant only led it later.
With reference to Madanapalle of Andhra Pradesh, which one of the following statements is correct?
- (a) Pingali Venkayya designed the tricolour Indian National Flag here.
- (b) Pattabhi Sitaramaiah led the Quit India Movement of Andhra region from here.
- (c) Rabindranath Tagore translated the National Anthem from Bengali to English here.
- (d) Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott set up headquarters of Theosophical Society first here.
Answer(c) Rabindranath Tagore translated the National Anthem from Bengali to English here.
UPSC used Blavatsky and Olcott as the trap option — you clear it only by knowing that they founded the Society in New York and fixed its headquarters at Adyar.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 at:
- (a)New York
- (b)London
- (c)Adyar
- (d)Bombay
Answer(a) New York — the headquarters shifted to Adyar, near Madras, in 1882.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following pairs of book and author is correctly matched?
- (a)Isis Unveiled — H. P. Blavatsky
- (b)Satyarth Prakash — Swami Vivekananda
- (c)Precepts of Jesus — Keshab Chandra Sen
- (d)Gulamgiri — Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Answer(a) Isis Unveiled — H. P. Blavatsky; Satyarth Prakash is Dayanand Saraswati's, Precepts of Jesus is Ram Mohan Roy's and Gulamgiri is Jyotirao Phule's.