Practice MCQs — Acts and Reforms (with Answers)

1. Which Act created the post of Governor-General of Bengal? Answer: The Regulating Act, 1773.

2. Which Act created the Board of Control? Answer: Pitt's India Act, 1784.

3. Which Charter Act ended the Company's trade monopoly with India (except China)? Answer: The Charter Act of 1813.

4. Which Act allocated the first state funds for education in India? Answer: The Charter Act of 1813.

5. Which Act created the post of Governor-General of India? Answer: The Charter Act of 1833.

6. Which Act separated legislative and executive functions of the council and introduced open ICS exams? Answer: The Charter Act of 1853.

7. Which Act ended East India Company rule? Answer: The Government of India Act, 1858.

8. Which Act first introduced Indians (nominated) into the legislative council? Answer: The Indian Councils Act, 1861.

9. Which reforms introduced separate electorates for Muslims? Answer: The Morley-Minto Reforms (Indian Councils Act, 1909).

10. Which Act introduced dyarchy in the provinces? Answer: The Government of India Act, 1919 (Montford Reforms).

11. Which Act introduced provincial autonomy and proposed an (unimplemented) All-India Federation? Answer: The Government of India Act, 1935.

12. Which Act created India and Pakistan as independent dominions? Answer: The Indian Independence Act, 1947.

13. Who championed the abolition of Sati? Answer: Raja Ram Mohan Roy (with Lord William Bentinck enacting the Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829).

14. Who championed the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856? Answer: Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.

15. Who primarily drafted the Indian Penal Code? Answer: Lord Macaulay.

16. What did the Age of Consent Act, 1891 set? Answer: The minimum age for consummation of marriage for girls at 12 years.

17. What is the Sarda Act also known as, and what did it set? Answer: The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 — minimum marriage ages of 14 (girls) and 18 (boys).

18. Who passed the Vernacular Press Act, and who repealed it? Answer: Passed by Lord Lytton (1878); repealed by Lord Ripon (1882).

19. What did the Ilbert Bill controversy concern? Answer: Allowing Indian judges to try European defendants.

20. What did the Rowlatt Act, 1919 allow? Answer: Detention without trial for political offences.

21. On what date did the Constitution of India come into force? Answer: 26 January 1950.

22. On what date was the Constitution of India adopted by the Constituent Assembly? Answer: 26 November 1949.

(End of Acts and Reforms notes. Cross-reference with Governor-Generals & Viceroys, Freedom Movement, and Modern India files for fuller political context of each Act.)