22 multiple-choice (MCQ / objective) questions from this chapter, in every exam-style shape used in the paper. Every question comes with an explanation along with the answer, so you remember why the option is correct, not just which one it is.
1 Direct Questions
Direct Questions
- 1 markWho became India’s first Chief Election Commissioner?
(A) Sukumar Sen(B) Rafi Ahmed Kidwai(C) Govind Ballabh Pant(D) John Matthai - 1 markWhen the first draft of the electoral rolls was published, the names of nearly how many women were found to be missing?
(A) 4 lakh(B) 14 lakh(C) 40 lakh(D) 4 crore - 1 markWhich magazine wrote that Jawaharlal Nehru “would live to confess the failure of universal adult franchise in India”?
(A) The Times of India(B) The Hindustan Times(C) The Hindu(D) Organiser - 1 markHow many of the 489 seats in the first Lok Sabha did the Congress win?
(A) 264(B) 364(C) 374(D) 464 - 1 markWhom did the governor invite to form the ministry in Kerala in 1957?
(A) A. K. Gopalan(B) S. A. Dange(C) E. M. S. Namboodiripad(D) P. Sundarraya - 1 markThe Congress Socialist Party was formed within the Congress in
(A) 1929(B) 1934(C) 1948(D) 1951 - 1 markIn which year did the Congress declare its goal to be the socialist pattern of society?
(A) 1948(B) 1951(C) 1955(D) 1957 - 1 markThe Communist Party of India’s split of 1964 followed the ideological rift between
(A) India and China(B) the Congress and the Socialist Party(C) the Soviet Union and the United States(D) the Soviet Union and China
2 Assertion-Reason
Assertion-Reason
- 1 markAssertion (A): The Congress won three out of every four seats in 1952 but did not get even half of the votes.
Reason (R): Under the first-past-the-post method, the party that gets more votes than others tends to get much more than its proportional share.
(A) Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A(B) Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A(C) A is true but R is false(D) A is false but R is true - 1 markAssertion (A): The Bharatiya Jana Sangh won more Lok Sabha seats than the Communist Party of India in the first general election.
Reason (R): In the 1950s the Jana Sangh remained on the margins of electoral politics and secured only 3 Lok Sabha seats in the 1952 elections.
(A) Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A(B) Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A(C) A is true but R is false(D) A is false but R is true
3 Match the Following
Match the Following
- 1 markMatch the year in List I with the event in List II.
List I: (i) 1934, (ii) 1948, (iii) 1951, (iv) 1964
List II: (P) The Bharatiya Jana Sangh is formed, (Q) The Congress Socialist Party is formed within the Congress, (R) The Communist Party of India splits, (S) The Socialist Party is formed as a separate party
(A) (i)-Q, (ii)-S, (iii)-P, (iv)-R(B) (i)-S, (ii)-Q, (iii)-P, (iv)-R(C) (i)-Q, (ii)-P, (iii)-S, (iv)-R(D) (i)-Q, (ii)-S, (iii)-R, (iv)-P - 1 markMatch the countries in List I with the reason the chapter groups them in List II.
List I: (i) China, Cuba and Syria, (ii) Myanmar, Belarus, Egypt and Eritrea, (iii) Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan, (iv) South Africa
List II: (P) Effectively one-party states due to legal and military measures, (Q) The constitution permits only a single party to rule, (R) The African National Congress has dominated since the end of apartheid, (S) Effectively one-party dominant states until a few years ago
(A) (i)-P, (ii)-Q, (iii)-S, (iv)-R(B) (i)-Q, (ii)-P, (iii)-R, (iv)-S(C) (i)-Q, (ii)-S, (iii)-P, (iv)-R(D) (i)-Q, (ii)-P, (iii)-S, (iv)-R
4 Statement-Based Questions
Statement-Based Questions
- 1 markConsider the following statements about the Socialist Party in 1952.
(i) It secured more than 10 per cent of the votes all over the country.
(ii) It won more than three per cent of the seats.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(A) Only (i)(B) Only (ii)(C) Both (i) and (ii)(D) Neither (i) nor (ii) - 1 markConsider the following statements about the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
(i) In its early years the party’s support came mainly from rural areas in the southern states.
(ii) The party opposed India developing nuclear weapons after China carried out its atomic tests in 1964.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(A) Only (i)(B) Only (ii)(C) Both (i) and (ii)(D) Neither (i) nor (ii)
5 Chronological Ordering
Chronological Ordering
- 1 markArrange the following in the correct chronological order.
(i) The first general election begins
(ii) The Constitution is adopted
(iii) The Constitution comes into effect
(iv) The second general election is held
(A) (ii), (iii), (i), (iv)(B) (iii), (ii), (i), (iv)(C) (ii), (i), (iii), (iv)(D) (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) - 1 markArrange the following in the correct chronological order.
(i) The Communist Party of India splits
(ii) The Congress begins a ‘liberation struggle’ against the elected government
(iii) The Communist Party wins the largest number of seats in the Kerala legislature
(iv) The Kerala government is dismissed under Article 356
(A) (iii), (iv), (ii), (i)(B) (iii), (ii), (i), (iv)(C) (ii), (iii), (iv), (i)(D) (iii), (ii), (iv), (i)
6 Fill in the Blanks
Fill in the Blanks
- 1 markAbout the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the chapter says: “Its lineage however can be traced back to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the ________ before independence.”
(A) Muslim League(B) Hindu Mahasabha(C) Swatantra Party(D) Forward Bloc - 1 mark“The party called for a reunion of India and Pakistan in ________.”
(A) Purna Swaraj(B) Sarvodaya(C) Akhand Bharat(D) Gram Swaraj
7 Odd One Out
Odd One Out
- 1 markThree of these are named by the chapter among the parties that came out of the Socialist Party’s splits and reunions. Which is the odd one out?
(A) Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party(B) Praja Socialist Party(C) Scheduled Castes Federation(D) Samyukta Socialist Party
8 Passage-Based Questions
Passage-Based Questions
Passage
Most of the state units of the Congress were made up of numerous factions. The factions took different ideological positions making the Congress appear as a grand centrist party. The other parties primarily attempted to influence these factions and thereby indirectly influenced policy and decision making from the “margins”. They were far removed from the actual exercise of authority. They were not alternatives to the ruling party; instead they constantly pressurised and criticised, censured and influenced the Congress. The system of factions functioned as balancing mechanism within the ruling party. Political competition therefore took place within the Congress. In that sense, in the first decade of electoral competition the Congress acted both as the ruling party as well as the opposition. That is why this period of Indian politics has been described as the ‘Congress system’.
- 1 markAccording to the passage, what made the Congress appear as a grand centrist party?
(A) Its refusal to admit members with strong ideological views(B) The fact that its state units’ factions took different ideological positions(C) Its decision to contest every seat in the country(D) The support it received from the opposition parties
Passage
But the Election Commission discovered that it was not going to be easy to hold a free and fair election in a country of India’s size. Holding an election required delimitation or drawing the boundaries of the electoral constituencies. It also required preparing the electoral rolls, or the list of all the citizens eligible to vote. Both these tasks took a lot of time. When the first draft of the rolls was published, it was discovered that the names of nearly 40 lakh women were not recorded in the list. They were simply listed as “wife of …” or “daughter of …”. The Election Commission refused to accept these entries and ordered a revision if possible and deletion if necessary.
- 1 markThe passage names two separate tasks that had to be completed before polling could begin. Which of them does it define as delimitation?
(A) Preparing the list of all citizens eligible to vote(B) Drawing the boundaries of the electoral constituencies(C) Fixing the date on which polling will take place(D) Deciding how many candidates each party may field
9 True / False
True / False
- 1 mark(i) In the first general election there were on an average more than four candidates for each seat.
(ii) More than half the eligible voters turned out to vote on the day of elections.
(A) Both statements are true(B) Both statements are untrue(C) (i) is true and (ii) is untrue(D) (i) is untrue and (ii) is true
Answer Key and Explanations
Direct Questions
- (A) The chapter says the Election Commission of India was set up in January 1950 and that Sukumar Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner. Kidwai, Pant and Matthai were ministers, not election officials.
- (C) The chapter says it was discovered that the names of nearly 40 lakh women were not recorded in the list, because they had been entered simply as “wife of …” or “daughter of …”.
- (D) The chapter attributes that line to Organiser, a magazine. The Times of India and The Hindustan Times are quoted in the chapter on the other side, praising the election after the result.
- (B) The chapter says the party won 364 of the 489 seats in the first Lok Sabha and finished way ahead of any other challenger.
- (C) The chapter says the governor invited E. M. S. Namboodiripad, the leader of the Communist legislature party, to form the ministry, and that for the first time in the world a Communist party government had come to power through democratic elections.
- (B) The chapter says the Congress Socialist Party was formed within the Congress in 1934 by a group of young leaders who wanted a more radical and egalitarian Congress. The separate Socialist Party came later, in 1948.
- (C) The chapter says the socialists faced a dilemma when in 1955 the Congress declared its goal to be the socialist pattern of society, which made it difficult for them to present themselves as an effective alternative to the Congress.
- (D) The chapter says the party went through a major split in 1964 following the ideological rift between Soviet Union and China. The pro-Soviet faction remained as the CPI, while the opponents formed the CPI(M).
Assertion-Reason
- (A) Both sentences are the chapter’s own and they belong together. The chapter states the gap as a fact (45 per cent of votes, 74 per cent of seats in 1952) and then answers its own question “How did this happen?” with exactly the reason given here, adding that the non-Congress votes were divided between different rival parties and candidates.
- (D) R is the chapter’s own figure, and it is what makes A wrong. The Jana Sangh had 3 seats in 1952 while the Communist Party of India had 16 and was the largest opposition party, so the Jana Sangh won fewer seats, not more.
Match the Following
- (A) All four years are the chapter’s own. The Congress Socialist Party was formed within the Congress in 1934; the Congress amended its constitution in 1948 to bar dual membership, which forced the Socialists to form a separate Socialist Party the same year; the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed in 1951; and the CPI split in 1964 after the Soviet-China rift.
- (D) The chapter sorts them in exactly this way. In China, Cuba and Syria the constitution permits only a single party to rule; Myanmar, Belarus, Egypt and Eritrea are effectively one-party states due to legal and military measures; Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan were effectively one-party dominant states until a few years ago; and South Africa is the one case the chapter treats as a genuine parallel to India.
Statement-Based Questions
- (A) The chapter says the Socialist Party, the second largest party in terms of votes, secured more than 10 per cent of the votes all over the country but could not even win three per cent of the seats. Statement (ii) reverses that second half.
- (D) The chapter says the party’s early support came mainly from the urban areas in the Hindi speaking states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, and that the party was a consistent advocate of India developing nuclear weapons especially after China carried out its atomic tests in 1964. Each statement reverses one of those sentences.
Chronological Ordering
- (A) The chapter’s dates are: the Constitution adopted on 26 November 1949, coming into effect on 26 January 1950, the first general election held from October 1951 to February 1952, and the second general election in 1957.
- (D) The chapter’s sequence is: the Communist Party wins the Kerala assembly election of March 1957; on losing power the Congress begins a ‘liberation struggle’ against the elected government; the Congress government at the Centre dismisses that government under Article 356 in 1959; and the CPI itself splits in 1964.
Fill in the Blanks
- (B) The chapter traces the Jana Sangh’s lineage to the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha before independence; the profile box on Shyama Prasad Mukherjee also calls him a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha. The Swatantra Party was a different opposition party of the same era, and the Muslim League demanded Pakistan.
- (C) The chapter uses the term Akhand Bharat in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh box, alongside the party’s emphasis on the idea of one country, one culture and one nation.
Odd One Out
- (C) The three the chapter names in the Socialist Party box are the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, the Praja Socialist Party and the Samyukta Socialist Party. The Scheduled Castes Federation belongs to Ambedkar’s profile box, which records that he founded it after the Independent Labour Party.
Passage-Based Questions
- (B) The passage’s second sentence says exactly this: most of the state units of the Congress were made up of numerous factions, and the factions took different ideological positions making the Congress appear as a grand centrist party.
- (B) The passage defines it in the same breath as the word: holding an election required delimitation or drawing the boundaries of the electoral constituencies. The first option is the passage’s definition of the electoral rolls, which is the other task it names.
True / False
- (A) Both are the chapter’s own measures of how the first election went: elections were competitive with on an average more than four candidates for each seat, and the level of participation was encouraging, with more than half the eligible voters turning out. Statement (i) is true and statement (ii) is true.
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