Which one of the following was NOT a cause of the Revolt of 1857 ?
- (a)The rumour that the British had mixed the bone dust of cows and pigs into the flour being sold in the market
- (b)The prophecy that British rule would come to an end on the centenary of the Battle of Plassey on 23rd June, 1857
- (c)Popular discontent with British rule
- (d)The prophecy that the end of British rule would lead to the end of the Kali Yuga and the return of Ram Rajya
Correct — D, The prophecy that the end of British rule would lead to the end of the Kali Yuga and the return of Ram Rajya. The rumours and prophecies that historians actually record for 1857 are a short and well-attested list — the greased cartridges said to be smeared with the fat of cows and pigs, the story that bone dust had been mixed into the flour sold in the bazaars, the chapatis passed from village to village, and the prophecy that a hundred years after Plassey British rule would end. A Kali Yuga prophecy promising the return of Ram Rajya is not among them, and it is the statement the paper wants you to reject.
- (a)The rumour that the British had mixed the bone dust of cows and pigs into the flour being sold in the market — This one is genuine, so it cannot be the answer. It is one of the standard rumours of 1857, recorded in the textbook accounts alongside the greased cartridges, and it worked because it touched the same fear — that the Company meant to destroy caste and faith by stealth.
- (b)The prophecy that British rule would come to an end on the centenary of the Battle of Plassey on 23rd June, 1857 — This is genuine as well. Plassey was fought on 23 June 1757, and the prophecy that the Company's rule would last exactly a hundred years from that day circulated widely in the months before the outbreak.
- (c)Popular discontent with British rule — This is the broadest true cause of all — the annexations under the doctrine of lapse, the heavy revenue demands on peasants, the dispossession of taluqdars in Awadh, the ruin of artisans and the grievances of the sepoys. It cannot be the odd one out.
The revolt of 1857 had long-standing causes and immediate triggers. Political annexations, the revenue settlements, the decline of traditional artisan employment and the accumulated grievances of the Bengal Army sepoys built the discontent; the new Enfield cartridge lit it. What historians emphasise about 1857, and what the NCERT account makes central, is the role of rumour and prophecy in spreading that discontent across regions with no organisation to connect them.
This is a NOT question about a body of evidence rather than about a date, so the safest method is to recall the documented list and see which option is absent from it. Three of the four choices repeat what the textbooks state; the fourth borrows the vocabulary of religious prophecy and sounds equally plausible, which is exactly the trap. The revolt broke out at Meerut on 10 May 1857, reached Delhi the next day, and the rebels proclaimed the aged Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar as their sovereign — a single centre of legitimacy that helped the rising spread.
- The Battle of Plassey was fought on 23 June 1757, so its centenary fell in June 1857.
- The rumours recorded for 1857 include greased cartridges, bone dust mixed into flour and the circulating chapatis.
- The revolt began at Meerut on 10 May 1857 and reached Delhi on 11 May, where Bahadur Shah Zafar was proclaimed emperor.
- Lord Canning was Governor-General during the revolt, and Crown rule replaced Company rule by the Government of India Act, 1858.
- Accepting any religious-sounding prophecy as one of the 1857 rumours; only a specific set is documented.
- Dating Plassey to 1857 instead of 1757 and so missing why the centenary mattered.
- Reading a NOT question quickly and picking the most familiar true statement.
NDA asks which statement about the revolt is or is not correct, which centre was or was not affected, and who led a named centre.
“In this instance we could not play off the Mohammedans against the Hindus”. To which one of the following events did this remark of Aitchison relate?
- (a) Revolt of 1857
- (b) Champaran Satyagraha (1917)
- (c) Khilafat and Non-cooperation Movement (1919-22)
- (d) August Movement of 1942
Answer(a) Revolt of 1857
The same revolt seen through a British official's complaint about the communal unity of the rebels, which is the other half of what made 1857 unusual.
The educated middle class in India
- (a) opposed the revolt of 1857
- (b) supported the revolt of 1857
- (c) remained neutral to the revolt of 1857
- (d) fought against native rulers
Answer(c) remained neutral to the revolt of 1857
Who did not join, which is examined as often as who did — the western-educated classes stood aside from a rising they read as backward-looking.
Which one of the following statements about the Revolt of 1857 is correct?
- (a) It was a Revolt carefully organised and planned by the Rajas, Nawabs and Taluqdars
- (b) Rumours and prophecies did not play any role in its outbreak and spread
- (c) The rebel proclamations in 1857 repeatedly appealed to all sections of the population irrespective of their caste and creed.
- (d) The British succeeded in quickly and easily controlling the rebels
Answer(c) The rebel proclamations in 1857 repeatedly appealed to all sections of the population irrespective of their caste and creed.
The same body of evidence tested positively, and its option (b) states outright that rumours and prophecies did matter — the fact this question relies on.
Which one of the following statements about the ishtahars issued during the Revolt of 1857 is correct?
- (a) They glorified the Muslim rule in India.
- (b) They glorified the co-existence of different communities under the Mughal Empire.
- (c) They glorified the message of Islam.
- (d) They glorified the role of Queen Victoria.
Answer(b) They glorified the co-existence of different communities under the Mughal Empire.
The rebel proclamations themselves, the written counterpart to the rumours — and further evidence of the cross-community appeal the revolt made.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The prophecy that circulated before the outbreak of 1857 held that British rule would end a hundred years after which battle?
- (a)Battle of Buxar
- (b)Battle of Plassey
- (c)Third Battle of Panipat
- (d)Battle of Wandiwash
Answer(b) Battle of Plassey — fought on 23 June 1757, so its centenary fell in June 1857.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Who was proclaimed the sovereign by the rebels who reached Delhi in May 1857?
- (a)Nana Sahib
- (b)Bahadur Shah Zafar
- (c)Kunwar Singh
- (d)Begum Hazrat Mahal
Answer(b) Bahadur Shah Zafar — the last Mughal emperor was proclaimed by the sepoys who marched from Meerut to Delhi.