History (ইতিহাস)
8 chapters · 96 practice questions with full solutions — all free.
🎯 Full History (ইতিহাস) section test
40 questions across the whole section · 40 min · one timed test
Ideas of History (ইতিহাসের ধারণা)
Modern history-writing has moved beyond kings, wars and dates to the lives of ordinary people: society, sport, food, dress, performing and visual arts, transport, cities and localities, environment, science and medicine, and women. The chapter also introduces the sources of modern Indian history (government records, autobiographies and memoirs, letters, newspapers and periodicals, photographs and the internet) and the strengths and limits of each.
Exam tip: This chapter usually gets 2 MCQs and 2 very short items (often true/false or matching of book-author pairs) plus 2-mark questions such as 'What is new social history?' or 'Why are autobiographies useful sources?'. Memorise author-book-year pairs and one strength and one limitation of each type of source.
12 questionsPractice testReform: Characteristics and Observations (সংস্কার : বৈশিষ্ট্য ও মূল্যায়ন)
Nineteenth-century Bengal saw reform in education, society and religion. Periodicals and literature such as Bamabodhini Patrika, Hindu Patriot, Grambarta Prakashika, Hutom Penchar Naksha and Nildarpan mirrored and criticised society; Western education spread through the government, Christian missionaries and Indian reformers; Rammohan Roy, Vidyasagar, the Brahmo Samaj and Young Bengal fought social evils, while Ramakrishna and Vivekananda gave religion a humane, practical turn. Historians still debate how far this ‘Bengal Renaissance’ reached beyond Kolkata's educated middle class.
Exam tip: This chapter carries about 3 MCQs, 3 very short and 2 short answers. Drill periodical-editor-year pairs, education milestones (1817, 1835, 1849, 1854, 1857) and reformer-reform matching; 2- and 4-mark questions often ask what ‘Hutom Penchar Naksha’ or ‘Nildarpan’ reveals about society, or for the limitations of the Bengal Renaissance.
12 questionsPractice testResistance and Rebellion: Characteristics and Analyses (প্রতিরোধ ও বিদ্রোহ)
Colonial forest laws, heavy revenue demands and the exploitation by zamindars, moneylenders and planters destroyed the traditional rights of tribal people and peasants and provoked a chain of revolts: the Chuar, Kol, Santal (Hul) and Munda (Ulgulan) risings among tribals, and the Sannyasi-Fakir, Wahabi (Titu Mir), Faraizi and Indigo revolts among peasants. Though mostly local and finally suppressed, they expressed deep anti-colonial anger and forced the government into concessions.
Exam tip: Expect about 2 MCQs and 3 very short items: leader-revolt matching, one-liners on Hul, Ulgulan, khuntkatti and dadan, and map points (Damin-i-koh, Chotanagpur, Jungle Mahal, Narkelberia, the Nadia-Jessore indigo belt). 4- and 8-mark questions often ask for the causes or characteristics of the Santal, Munda or Indigo revolt.
12 questionsPractice testEarly Stages of Collective Action: Characteristics and Analyses (সংঘবদ্ধতার গোড়ার কথা)
The revolt of 1857 shook British rule and ended the East India Company's government; historians still debate whether it was only a sepoy mutiny or a national struggle. Through the 19th century the educated middle class formed political associations, such as the Landholders' Society, British Indian Association, Hindu Mela and Indian Association, that prepared the ground for the Indian National Congress (1885), while literature (Anandamath, Bartaman Bharat, Gora) and art (Abanindranath's Bharatmata, Gaganendranath's cartoons) spread national feeling.
Exam tip: Expect about 3 MCQs and 3 very short items: association-founder-year, who said what about 1857, and book or painting-creator pairs. Map points: Barrackpore, Meerut, Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi. 8-mark questions often ask about the nature of the 1857 revolt or the role of the associations.
12 questionsPractice testAlternative Ideas and Initiatives (From mid-19th Century to the Early 20th Century): Characteristics and Observations (বিকল্প চিন্তা ও উদ্যোগ (উনিশ শতকের মধ্যভাগ থেকে বিশ শতকের প্রথমভাগ পর্যন্ত): বৈশিষ্ট্য ও পর্যালোচনা)
From the mid-19th century Bengal saw 'alternative' initiatives outside the colonial government: printing presses made books cheap and spread education, and Indians built their own institutions for science and technical education. Vidyasagar, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, Mahendralal Sarkar, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Ray and Rabindranath Tagore created these institutions with the goal of self-reliance.
Exam tip: History usually sets 2 MCQs and 2 very short answers from this chapter, mostly founder-institution-year matches (IACS, Bose Institute, Bengal Chemicals, Visva-Bharati, U. Ray and Sons, Sanskrit Press). Learn them as one table.
12 questionsPractice testPeasant, Working Class and Left Movements in 20th Century India: Characteristics and Observations (বিশ শতকের ভারতে কৃষক, শ্রমিক ও বামপন্থী আন্দোলন: বৈশিষ্ট্য ও পর্যালোচনা)
In the 20th century peasants and workers joined the national movement while also fighting their own battles against zamindars, moneylenders, high land revenue and mill-owners. From the 1920s left ideas spread, and the Communist Party, the AITUC, the Workers' and Peasants' Party, the Congress Socialist Party and the All India Kisan Sabha organised them.
Exam tip: Expect about 3 MCQs and 3 very short answers: leader-movement matches (Madari Pasi, Baba Ramchandra, Sahajananda, Muzaffar Ahmed), founding years and places (AITUC 1920 Bombay, CSP 1934, Kisan Sabha 1936 Lucknow) and map items such as Bardoli, Malabar or Tamluk.
12 questionsPractice testMovements Organised by Women, Students and Marginal People in 20th Century India: Characteristics and Analyses (বিশ শতকের ভারতে নারী, ছাত্র ও প্রান্তিক জনগোষ্ঠীর আন্দোলন: বৈশিষ্ট্য ও বিশ্লেষণ)
In 20th-century India women, students and marginalised communities (Dalits, Namasudras, Rajbanshis, adivasis) took part in politics in their own ways. Women and students joined the Swadeshi, Gandhian and revolutionary movements despite official bans, while Dalit and tribal groups fought for dignity, education and rights, sometimes separately from the Congress-led movement.
Exam tip: Usually 3 MCQs and 3 very short answers: matching women revolutionaries with events, the Carlyle Circular and Anti-Circular Society, Alinda Yuddha and the Poona Pact; statement-explanation items often ask why some Dalit groups kept away from the Congress-led movement.
12 questionsPractice testPost-Colonial India: Second Half of the 20th Century (1947-1964) (উত্তর-ঔপনিবেশিক ভারত : বিশ শতকের দ্বিতীয় পর্ব (১৯৪৭-১৯৬৪))
After independence in 1947 India faced three big tasks: bringing the princely states into the Union, resettling millions of refugees created by partition, and reorganising states on the basis of language. Sardar Patel and V. P. Menon integrated most princely states peacefully, though Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir needed special steps; Bengal and Punjab bore the refugee crisis; and the Andhra movement led on to the States Reorganisation Act of 1956.
Exam tip: Usually 2 MCQs and 1 very short answer: Operation Polo (Hyderabad), the Junagadh plebiscite, Hari Singh, Potti Sriramulu, Andhra 1953, the SRC and the 1956 Act, the JVP Committee; map pointing often asks you to mark Hyderabad, Junagadh or Kashmir.
12 questionsPractice test