Name the revolutionary woman, who participated in the Peasant Movement of Bijoliya and was arrested. She also participated in 1930 Satyagrah and 1932 Civil Disobedience Movement and was sentenced to Jail -

Correct — option (1), Rama Devi.

RPSC's key names Rama Devi. Accounts of the 1931 phase of the Bijolia peasant satyagraha name a Rama Devi, Ramadevi Joshi, wife of Ladu Ram Joshi, among the workers who went into Bijolia to help the peasants.

On Akha Teej in April 1931, Bijolia's peasants under Manikya Lal Varma ploughed the lands they had given up. K. S. Saxena's The Political Movements and Awakening in Rajasthan records that Varma and 26 peasants were arrested.

B. L. Panagariya's Rajasthan ka Itihas (1982) says Haribhau Upadhyaya, then barred from entering Mewar, sent Durga Prasad Chaudhary, Pandit Ladu Ram, Achleshwar Prasad Sharma, Shrimati Rama Devi and others to Bijolia. After harsh treatment they were expelled from Bijolia one by one.

Gandhiji aur Rajasthan, published by the Rajasthan Rajya Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, says Shrimati Rama Devi Joshi went from Ajmer with three men to help the peasants, and that they were insulted and put out of Mewar. Saxena lists "Smt. Ramadevi Joshi w/o Ladu Ram Joshi" among the women in that satyagraha.

These accounts do not say she was arrested at Bijolia, and they do not detail the stem's 1930 and 1932 jail terms. Those details rest on RPSC's stem and key.

Rama Devi (Joshi): the 1931 Bijolia satyagraha.

Why the others are wrong

• (2)
  Ratan Shashtri — Ratan Shastri's work lay in Jaipur state, not in the Bijolia movement. On 6 October 1935 she started the girls' school that grew into Banasthali Vidyapith, which she and her husband Hiralal Shastri founded.

  She was active in the Jaipur Praja Mandal agitation of 1939, when its leaders were arrested.

• (3)
  Anjana Devi Chaudhary — Anjana Devi, wife of Ram Narayan Chaudhary, was also part of the Bijolia agitation, so this option needs care. The Bhilwara District Gazetteer says that after her husband's arrest in 1922 she visited Amargarh and Bijolia with other agitators, and Saxena lists her among the women in the 1931 satyagraha.

  The accounts used here name Rama Devi Joshi, not Anjana Devi, among the workers Haribhau Upadhyaya sent to Bijolia in 1931 who were then expelled. RPSC's key is Rama Devi.

• (4)
  Kishori Devi — Kishori Devi is linked with a different peasant movement. The Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education's class 12 textbook Bharat ka Itihas says she presided over a large women's conference at Katrathal on 25 April 1934, in the Sikar peasant movement.

  She does not appear in the accounts of the 1931 Bijolia satyagraha used here. Saxena's list of women and Panagariya's list of workers sent to Bijolia name Rama Devi instead.

Bijolia was a thikana (estate) of Mewar where peasants of the Dhakar community resisted the estate's many cesses (lagat) and forced labour (begar). Leaders over the years included Vijay Singh Pathik, Manikya Lal Varma and, from Ajmer, Haribhau Upadhyaya.

Gopinath Sharma's Rajasthan ka Swatantrata-Sangram ka Itihas says Pathik and Ram Narayan Chaudhary were barred from Mewar and had to withdraw, and that from 1929 Jamnalal Bajaj and Haribhau Upadhyaya agreed to lead the movement at Varma's request.

Upadhyaya then reached an understanding with Mr. Trench on the peasants' behalf, which, Saxena says, the thikana's officials did not carry out. The peasants ploughed their surrendered lands on Akha Teej in April 1931, and women such as Ramadevi Joshi and Anjana Devi joined the satyagraha.

Key facts

• On Akha Teej, April 1931, Bijolia's peasants under Manikya Lal Varma ploughed the lands they had surrendered (Saxena).
• Haribhau Upadhyaya, then barred from Mewar, sent workers to Bijolia, among them Durga Prasad Chaudhary, Pandit Ladu Ram and Rama Devi (Panagariya, Rajasthan ka Itihas, 1982).
• Saxena lists Ramadevi Joshi, Anjana Devi and Bhagirathi Upadhyaya among the women in the 1931 Bijolia satyagraha.
• Ratan Shastri started a girls' school on 6 October 1935 that grew into Banasthali Vidyapith, founded by her and Hiralal Shastri.
• Anjana Devi was the wife of Ram Narayan Chaudhary (Bhilwara District Gazetteer).

Common traps

• Two women in the options, Rama Devi and Anjana Devi, both appear in the Bijolia record, so the movement alone does not settle the answer. The texts used here do not record the arrest or the 1930 and 1932 jail terms the stem describes; the answer rests on RPSC's key.
• Several women named Rama Devi appear in the freedom struggle; NCERT's chapter "Nationalism in India" mentions a Rama Devi in Odisha during Quit India.
• The Bijolia movement ran in phases over decades: the gazetteer places Anjana Devi's visit in 1922, while Saxena and Panagariya name Rama Devi in the 1931 phase.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under whose leadership did the peasants of Bijolia plough their surrendered lands on Akha Teej in April 1931 ?

  • (a)Manikya Lal Varma
  • (b)Vijay Singh Pathik
  • (c)Haribhau Upadhyaya
  • (d)Ram Narayan Chaudhary
  Answer(1) — Saxena writes that on Akha Teej (April 1931) the peasants, under Manikya Lal Varma's leadership, occupied and ploughed the land. Option (2), Pathik, and option (4), Chaudhary, had been barred from Mewar and had withdrawn (Gopinath Sharma); option (3), Upadhyaya, was barred from Mewar and sent workers instead (Panagariya).
• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which woman freedom fighter of Rajasthan is associated with the founding of Banasthali Vidyapith ?

  • (a)Ratan Shastri
  • (b)Anjana Devi Chaudhary
  • (c)Rama Devi Joshi
  • (d)Bhagirathi Upadhyaya
  Answer(1) — Ratan Shastri started a girls' school on 6 October 1935 that grew into Banasthali Vidyapith, founded by her and Hiralal Shastri. Option (2), Anjana Devi, option (3), Rama Devi Joshi, and option (4), Bhagirathi Upadhyaya, are among the women Saxena lists in the 1931 Bijolia satyagraha.