Freedom fighter Kanaklata Barua was martyred in:
- (a)Sepoy Mutiny
- (b)Quit India Movement
- (c)Non-Cooperation Movement
- (d)Peasant Uprising of 1893 – 1894
Correct — B, the Quit India Movement. Kanaklata Barua was a 17-year-old freedom fighter from Barangabari in Assam who was shot dead on 20 September 1942 while leading a procession of the Mrityu Bahini (death squad) to hoist the national flag at the Gohpur police station during the Quit India Movement. She died holding the tricolour, becoming one of the youngest martyrs of 1942.
- (a)Sepoy Mutiny — The Revolt of 1857 (Sepoy Mutiny) took place decades before Kanaklata was born (she was born in 1924), so she could not have died in it.
- (c)Non-Cooperation Movement — The Non-Cooperation Movement ran during 1920 to 1922, before her birth in 1924 — she was martyred in 1942, not 1922.
- (d)Peasant Uprising of 1893 – 1894 — That uprising long predates her lifetime and had no connection to her death, which occurred in the 1942 flag-hoisting protest.
The Quit India Movement of August 1942 was Gandhi's call for an immediate end to British rule, met with mass, often leaderless, protest across India. In Assam it produced iconic martyrs, notably Kanaklata Barua, who was killed while trying to hoist the national flag at a police station. Her death illustrates the youth and grassroots participation that made 1942 so intense.
The dates are the giveaway. Kanaklata was born in 1924 and died in 1942, so any option set in 1857, 1893 to 1894 or 1920 to 1922 is chronologically impossible. Only the 1942 Quit India Movement fits her lifetime and her recorded act of martyrdom.
- Kanaklata Barua (1924 to 20 September 1942) was from Gohpur in present-day Assam.
- She was shot while leading a procession to hoist the tricolour at Gohpur police station during Quit India.
- She belonged to the Mrityu Bahini, a volunteer 'death squad' of local activists.
- In 2020 the Indian Coast Guard named a Fast Patrol Vessel ICGS Kanaklata Barua in her honour.
- Confusing Kanaklata Barua with Matangini Hazra — both died hoisting the flag in 1942, but in different regions (Assam versus Bengal).
- Being lured by 'Non-Cooperation Movement' as a generic freedom-struggle answer without checking that it predates her birth.
Asked as a straight fact-recall matching a named martyr to the movement in which she died.
Consider the following statements: On the eve of the launch of Quit India Movement, Mahatma Gandhi 1. Asked the Government servants to resign. 2. Asked the soldiers to leave their posts. 3. Asked the Princes of the Princely States to accept the sovereignty of their own people. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2
- (b) 2 and 3
- (c) 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 3 only
Same movement — Quit India (1942). UPSC probes exactly what Gandhi appealed for on the eve of the movement in which Kanaklata Barua was martyred, deepening context around the 1942 upsurge.
Freedom Fighter Kanaklata Barua sacrificed her life while participating in
- (a) Rowlatt Satyagraha
- (b) Non-Cooperation Movement
- (c) Civil Disobedience Movement
- (d) Quit India Movement
Answer(d) Quit India Movement
The identical fact — the NDA has repeated this exact martyr-to-movement item, confirming Quit India (1942) as the answer and showing how directly the paper reuses it.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which teenage martyr was shot dead in 1942 while trying to hoist the national flag at the Gohpur police station in Assam?
- (a)Matangini Hazra
- (b)Kanaklata Barua
- (c)Rani Gaidinliu
- (d)Aruna Asaf Ali
Answer(b) Kanaklata Barua — martyred during the Quit India Movement.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Quit India Movement was launched in which year?
- (a)1930
- (b)1935
- (c)1942
- (d)1946
Answer(c) 1942 — Gandhi gave the 'Do or Die' call on 8 August 1942.