UPSC Prelims 1998 · General Studies
Question 79: History and Culture
Which one of the following events was characterised by Montague as ‘Preventive Murder’?
AnswerThe answer is (b).
The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on 13 April 1919, when General Dyer ordered troops to fire on an unarmed crowd gathered in an enclosed ground, is the event the question attributes to Montagu, then Secretary of State for India, as 'preventive murder'. The Hunter Committee was set up to inquire into it. Killing of INA activists, the shooting of Gandhi and of Curzon-Wyllie were different events.
Why each option is right or wrong
- (a) INA activists were tried in 1945; this was not called preventive murder.
- (b) Right: Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, 1919.
- (c) Gandhi was shot in 1948; this was not preventive murder.
- (d) Curzon-Wyllie was assassinated in London in 1909 by Madan Lal Dhingra.
Explanation: written by UPSC Grade, not by UPSC.
Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 1998, General Studies. UPSC's own paper isn't online; the words are from a published compilation. The paper on upsc.gov.in.