UPSC Prelims 2021 GS Paper I · Q46 of 98 History medium

Who among the following was associated as Secretary with Hindu Female School which later came to be known as Bethune Female School?

  1. (a) Annie Besant
  2. (b) Debendranath Tagore
  3. (c) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar ✓ UPSC's answer
  4. (d) Sarojini Naidu

Why the answer is (c)

• The Hindu Female School was founded in Calcutta in 1849 by John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune, Law Member of the Governor-General's Council; it was renamed Bethune School after his death in 1851.

• Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a champion of women's education, served as its Secretary and helped run it; he also opened dozens of girls' schools in Bengal — option (c).

• Annie Besant (a) and Sarojini Naidu (d) belong to a later era; Debendranath Tagore (b) led the Brahmo Samaj but was not the school's Secretary.

• Hence option (c).

Why the other options are wrong

(a) Annie Besant
Annie Besant came to India decades later (1893).
(b) Debendranath Tagore
Debendranath Tagore was not the school's Secretary.
(d) Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu was born in 1879, after the school's founding.

Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2021, held on 10 October 2021. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

Reading the answer is not the same as getting it right under a clock. Practise this question with UPSC's negative marking, and anything you miss goes into an error notebook until you get it right twice.

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