UPSC Prelims 2018 · Question 80 of 99
UPSC Prelims 2018 question on Neeldarpan Earliest Reform Event
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2018
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectModern History
- TopicSocio-Religious Movements
- DifficultyHard
- TypeChronology
Which among the following events happened earliest?
Show answer
Answer: B. Dinabandhu Mitra wrote Neeldarpan.
Analysis
Neeldarpan was written earliest, so the answer is (b).
The four events are dated as follows. Dinabandhu Mitra wrote Neeldarpan in 1858 and 1859. Satyendranath Tagore became the first Indian to succeed in the Indian Civil Services Examination in 1863. Swami Dayanand established the Arya Samaj in 1875. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote Anandamath in 1882.
Neeldarpan therefore precedes the others, and the closest competitor is Satyendranath Tagore's success, four years later.
Source
Spectrum.
How to crack it
You do not need all four dates, only enough ordering to isolate the earliest. Neeldarpan belongs to the indigo revolt of 1859 and 1860, which anchors it firmly in the late 1850s, while the Arya Samaj and Anandamath belong to the reform and literary ferment of the 1870s and 1880s. Tie each item to the movement or episode it grew out of rather than memorising bare years, because an event linked to a known episode carries its date with it. That habit answers chronology questions even when two options fall in the same decade.