Practice MCQs — Governor-Generals & Viceroys (with Answers)

1. Who was the first Governor-General of Bengal? Answer: Warren Hastings.

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

3. Who introduced the Permanent Settlement of Bengal? Answer: Lord Cornwallis (1793).

4. Who is called the "Father of Civil Services in India"? Answer: Lord Cornwallis.

5. Who introduced the Subsidiary Alliance system? Answer: Lord Wellesley.

6. Which Governor-General signed the Treaty of Sugauli with Nepal? Answer: Lord Hastings (Marquess of Hastings).

7. Who abolished Sati? Answer: Lord William Bentinck (1829).

8. Who issued the Minute on Education favouring English education? Answer: Thomas Babington Macaulay, under Lord William Bentinck (1835).

9. Which Governor-General presided over the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War? Answer: Lord Auckland.

10. Who introduced the Doctrine of Lapse? Answer: Lord Dalhousie.

11. Who laid India's first railway line? Answer: Lord Dalhousie (1853).

12. Who was Governor-General during the Revolt of 1857 and became the first Viceroy? Answer: Lord Canning.

13. Which Act transferred power from the Company to the Crown? Answer: The Government of India Act 1858.

14. Which Viceroy was assassinated in office? Answer: Lord Mayo (1872, Andaman Islands).

15. Which Viceroy is called the "Father of Local Self-Government in India"? Answer: Lord Ripon.

16. Which controversial bill did Lord Ripon try to pass regarding Indian judges trying Europeans? Answer: The Ilbert Bill (1883).

17. During which Viceroy's tenure was the INC founded? Answer: Lord Dufferin (1885).

18. Which Viceroy demarcated the Durand Line with Afghanistan? Answer: Lord Lansdowne (1893).

19. Which Viceroy ordered the Partition of Bengal? Answer: Lord Curzon (1905).

20. Which Act introduced separate electorates for Muslims? Answer: The Indian Councils Act 1909 (Morley-Minto Reforms), under Lord Minto II.

21. Which Viceroy presided over the shift of the capital to Delhi? Answer: Lord Hardinge II (1911–12).

22. Which Act introduced dyarchy in the provinces? Answer: The Government of India Act 1919, under Lord Chelmsford.

23. Under which Viceroy did the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre occur? Answer: Lord Chelmsford (1919).

24. Who signed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact? Answer: Lord Irwin, with Gandhi (1931).

25. Which Viceroy's tenure saw the Government of India Act 1935 passed? Answer: Lord Willingdon.

26. Who was the longest-serving Viceroy of India? Answer: Lord Linlithgow (1936–1943).

27. Which Viceroy convened the Shimla Conference (1945)? Answer: Lord Wavell.

28. Who was the last Viceroy of India? Answer: Lord Mountbatten.

29. Who was the only Indian to serve as Governor-General? Answer: C. Rajagopalachari.

30. When did the office of Governor-General end in independent India? Answer: 26 January 1950, with the adoption of the Constitution.

(End of Governor-Generals & Viceroys notes. Cross-reference with the Acts and Reforms and Freedom Movement files for the legislative and political context of each tenure.)