C. Rajagopalachari — MCQs with Answers (Set 1)

Congress ministries quit in 1939 because India was made a party to the war without asking elected leaders. Rajaji resigned with them.

Sardar Patel died in December 1950. Rajaji became Home Minister and served until November 1951.

The march went to Vedaranyam on the Tamil coast. Rajaji was arrested on 28 April 1930 and spent six months in jail.

The Swatantra Party was founded on 4 June 1959, together with K. M. Munshi. It opposed heavy state control of the economy.

C. Rajagopalachari held the post from 21 June 1948 to 26 January 1950. It ended when India became a Republic.

C. Rajagopalachari became independent India’s last Governor-General, the only Indian to ever hold that office.

The marchers reached Vedaranyam on 28 April 1930, where they broke the Salt Law by making salt.

C. Rajagopalachari led the Vedaranyam Salt March, breaking the Salt Law on the Tanjore coast in April 1930.

Devadas Gandhi married Rajaji’s daughter Lakshmi in 1933, after both fathers made the couple wait five years. Their sons, Rajmohan Gandhi and Gopalkrishna Gandhi, are Rajaji’s grandsons.

He founded the free-market Swatantra Party in 1959, to organise opposition against the Congress he himself had once led.

His 1953 education scheme split the school day and added home-based vocational training. Critics, including the DMK, dubbed it “Kula Kalvi Thittam” (hereditary education policy), and deadly protests followed. Kamaraj withdrew support amid the backlash, and Rajaji resigned soon after.

He resigned along with the rest of the Congress ministry, protesting the Viceroy’s 1939 declaration of India’s entry into World War II without consulting elected Indian leaders.

Rajagopalachari served as Governor-General from 21 June 1948 to 26 January 1950. He was the first Indian to hold the post, and its last holder before it was abolished on Republic Day 1950.

Gandhi’s son Devadas married Rajaji’s daughter Lakshmi; Gandhi himself called Rajaji the “keeper of my conscience.”

The Swatantra Party championed free enterprise and reduced central government control, positioning itself as an organised opposition to the Congress.

His new elementary education scheme was dubbed “Kula Kalvi Thittam” (hereditary education policy) by critics including the DMK, and the backlash led to his resignation.

He resigned in protest, along with other Congress ministries, after Britain declared India at war without consulting elected Indian representatives.

He was the first Indian to serve as Governor-General, and the last, since the office was abolished when India became a republic on 26 January 1950.

Mountbatten stayed on as Governor-General right after independence, before C. Rajagopalachari became the first Indian to hold the post.