UPSC Prelims 2000 · General Studies
Question 50: History and Culture
“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?
AnswerThe answer is (a).
The remark is by Sir Charles Aitchison, a British administrator of the nineteenth century, and relates to the Revolt of 1857. Hindus and Muslims fought together in 1857 and accepted the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar as a symbolic leader, so the British could not set one community against the other. After 1857 the British followed a deliberate policy of divide and rule.
Why each option is right or wrong
- (a) Right: Hindus and Muslims fought side by side in the Revolt of 1857.
- (b) Aitchison died in 1896, so he could not have written of Champaran in 1917.
- (c) Aitchison died in 1896, so he could not have written of the Khilafat movement of 1919-22.
- (d) Aitchison died in 1896, so he could not have written of the movement of 1942.
Explanation: written by UPSC Grade, not by UPSC.
Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2000, General Studies. UPSC's own paper isn't online; the words are from a published compilation. The paper on upsc.gov.in.