UPSC Prelims 2002 — solved PYQs

While both are true, the reason does directly explain why labour participation was weak — ideological distrust kept them away from the Congress-led movement.

The reason is true. Communist-influenced labour leaders did view the Congress as bourgeois.

The assertion is also true. Labour participation in the early 1930s nationalist upsurge was indeed weak.

La Nina is generally associated with above-normal monsoon rainfall in India, not weak monsoons.

Jet stream shifts affect weather patterns but are not the primary short-term climate predictor for weak monsoons that was highlighted in the given timeframe.

Global greenhouse effects operate on longer timescales and do not serve as a short-term predictor for specific weak monsoon years.

The ariz's department (military affairs) existed before Alauddin Khalji. It was part of the Sultanate's administrative apparatus from earlier times.

The branding system (dagh) for military horses was introduced by Alauddin Khalji as part of his military reforms, not by Balban.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq was succeeded by his cousin Firuz Shah Tughlaq, not his uncle. This distinction is important in Sultanate succession history.

Nimbus clouds produce rain and are too thick and low for halo formation; they would obscure the sun entirely.

Dust particles scatter light but do not produce the characteristic 22° circular halo pattern.

Cumulus clouds are lower-altitude and composed of water droplets; they produce coronae (not halos) under specific conditions.

The Government of India Act of 1858 transferred power from the Company to the Crown and created the Secretary of State but did not introduce the portfolio system.

The Indian Councils Act of 1892 introduced the principle of indirect elections to the legislative councils but did not change the executive council's functioning.

The Indian Councils Act of 1909 (Morley-Minto Reforms) expanded the legislative councils and introduced separate electorates but did not introduce the portfolio system.

The Planning Commission drafted the plan, but it did not give the final political approval.

The Union Cabinet shaped overall policy, but formal approval of the plan framework came through the NDC.

Parliament discussed plan-related allocations through budgets, but it was not the approving body for the Five Year Plan document.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564–1624) was a contemporary of Akbar and Jahangir, not Ibrahim Lodi (d. 1526).

Both statements 1 and 3 are incorrect. Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi was not a contemporary of Ibrahim Lodi, and Shaikh Salim Chisti (d. 1572) died before Aurangzeb was born (1618).

Statement 3 is incorrect. Shaikh Salim Chisti died in 1572, decades before Aurangzeb's birth in 1618. They were not contemporaries.

The share of pulses in the gross cropped area has not doubled; it has remained relatively stagnant or slightly declined over the decades.

India accounts for a much larger share — about 25-30% — of the total world area under rice, not 15%.

Rice does not occupy 34% of India's gross cropped area; it occupies around 22-24%.

The 2002 Johannesburg Summit was not focused on AIDS; it was an environmental governance summit.

Global terrorism was a major post-9/11 concern but was not the subject of the 2002 Johannesburg Summit.

Human rights summits are organized separately; Johannesburg 2002 was an environment and development summit.

This matching does not reflect the correct positions of these Indian Ocean islands on the map.

The numbering does not correspond to the actual map positions of these islands.

Mauritius and Socotra are swapped in this option.

This incorrectly matches Lothal with ploughed field. Lothal is famous for its dockyard, not for a ploughed field. The ploughed field was discovered at Kalibangan.

This incorrectly matches Lothal with ploughed field and Banawali with terracotta plough. The dockyard was at Lothal, not the ploughed field.

While Lothal-dockyard and Kalibangan-ploughed field are correct, this swaps Dholavira and Banawali. Dholavira had the large inscription signboard, and Banawali had the terracotta plough replica.

Dadu Dayal (1544–1603) came after Ramananda and Kabir. He was not the first to use Hindi for Bhakti propagation.

Kabir (c. 1440–1518) composed in Hindi dialects, but he was a disciple of Ramananda, who preceded him in using Hindi for spiritual teachings.

Tulsidas (1532–1623) wrote the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi Hindi, but he came well after Ramananda, who first adopted Hindi for Bhakti preaching.

The Khudai Khidmatgars under Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan did not seek union with Afghanistan. They were aligned with the Indian National Congress.

The Khudai Khidmatgars were committed to non-violence, not terrorist tactics. They adopted Gandhian methods of resistance.

The movement was not based on communist ideology. It was rooted in Pashtun identity and Gandhian non-violence.

The reason is false. Air rises in the centre of a cyclone (low pressure), not descends. Descending air is a feature of anticyclones.

The reason is factually incorrect. Cyclones are characterised by convergence and rising air, not descending air.

The assertion is true. The pressure gradient force draws surface winds inward toward the low-pressure centre, and the Coriolis effect causes them to spiral.

Incorrect. While freedom of religion is an important fundamental right, it was not the one Ambedkar described as the heart and soul of the Constitution.

Incorrect. Right to property was originally a fundamental right but was never characterised by Ambedkar as the heart and soul of the Constitution. It was later removed from Part III by the 44th Amendment.

Incorrect. Right to equality is fundamental to the constitutional scheme, but Ambedkar specifically reserved the 'heart and soul' description for another right.

Hakim Ajmal Khan was associated with the Ahrar movement. This statement is factually questionable and is not the correct answer.

While Sayyid Ahmad Khan did oppose Congress participation by Muslims, this option is not identified as the correct answer for this question in the standard key.

Maulana Barkaullah and Obeidullah Sindhi were involved in the Provisional Government in Kabul, but this option is not the identified correct answer.

Isolation prevents gene flow but cannot alone create new genetic variation needed for speciation.

Natural selection acts on existing variation but does not itself create new genetic material.

Sexual reproduction shuffles existing genes but does not generate entirely new alleles the way mutations do.

This statement is correct. Satish Chandra Mukherjee formulated a scheme of national education in 1898 as an alternative to British colonial education.

This statement is correct. The Bengal National College was established in 1906 as part of the Swadeshi national education movement, with Aurobindo Ghosh as its first Principal.

This statement is correct. Rabindranath Tagore did preach the philosophy of Atmashakti (self-reliance), focusing on village regeneration as a constructive element of the Swadeshi movement.

The Lamarckian concept of use and disuse is not the accepted modern explanation for limb loss in snakes.

While natural selection played a role, the specific driving factor was the adaptive advantage of a limbless body for burrowing.

Inheritance of acquired characters is a Lamarckian idea not supported by modern evolutionary biology.

The Garos came into contact with the British later during the expansion into the northeastern hill areas.

The Kukis of Manipur and surrounding areas came into British contact later during the northeastern frontier campaigns.

The Tipperahs (Tripura) were encountered in a different context and timeline from the initial post-Diwani contact.

A is false because glycine, serine and tyrosine are non-essential amino acids synthesised by the body.

A is false; these three amino acids are non-essential.

R is true; essential amino acids indeed cannot be synthesised by the body.

While the Mughals had ancestral connections to Samarkand and Ferghana, the immediate strategic objective was frontier security near Kabul, not the reconquest of distant ancestral homelands.

Fixing the frontier on the Amu Darya was not the stated or primary motive. The campaign was about ensuring a friendly buffer state rather than establishing a permanent river boundary.

The campaign was defensive-strategic in nature, aimed at protecting existing territories, not expansionist ambition beyond the subcontinent.

This incorrectly pairs the Charter Act of 1813 with the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court at Calcutta was established by the Regulating Act of 1773.

This incorrectly assigns the provisions. The Regulating Act did not create the Secretary of State, which came with the 1858 Act.

This reverses the Charter Act of 1813 and Regulating Act of 1773 provisions incorrectly.

This describes only narrow money (M1) components and excludes time deposits and other deposits with RBI.

This omits demand deposits and other deposits with RBI, which are also part of M3.

This excludes currency with the public and other deposits with RBI.

The reason is false — iron's specific gravity (~7.8) is less than mercury's (~13.6), not more.

The assertion is true; the reason is the false part.

The assertion is correct — iron does float on mercury due to the higher density of mercury.