Educators and social reformers quiz (50 questions)
Schools for girls, rights for workers, land for communities and a voice for people who were not heard: match the reformer to the change they made.
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50 multiple-choice questions, with the answer explained after each one.
Answer each question, see why, and beat your best score.
All 50 questions and answers
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- Savitribai Phule opened a school for girls in which Indian city in 1848?
- Mumbai
- Calcutta
- Pune
- Madras
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Pune. She worked with her husband Jyotirao Phule to bring education to girls and to people who had been kept out of schools.
- Jyotirao Phule founded which society in 1873 to work for equality for lower castes?
- Arya Samaj
- Satyashodhak Samaj
- Brahmo Samaj
- Servants of India Society
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Satyashodhak Samaj. He also campaigned for the education of girls.
- Fatima Sheikh is remembered as a teacher who worked alongside which reformer in Pune?
- Pandita Ramabai
- Savitribai Phule
- Annie Besant
- Sarojini Naidu
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Savitribai Phule. Together they helped to open schools for girls and for communities that had been excluded.
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy campaigned against the practice of sati, which was banned in which year?
- 1857
- 1829
- 1905
- 1757
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1829. He also helped to start the Brahmo Samaj.
- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's work led to which law in 1856?
- The Indian Councils Act
- The Factory Act
- The Right to Education Act
- The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act
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The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act. He was a teacher and writer in Bengal who also worked to open schools for girls.
- B. R. Ambedkar chaired the drafting committee for what?
- India's first budget
- India's first railway plan
- India's Constitution
- India's national anthem
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India's Constitution. He fought discrimination against Dalits throughout his life.
- Pandita Ramabai set up the Mukti Mission to help whom?
- Soldiers
- Sailors
- Farmers' sons only
- Women and girls in need, including widows
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Women and girls in need, including widows. She was a scholar and reformer in the 19th century.
- Sir Syed Ahmad Khan founded a college in 1875 that became which university?
- Banaras Hindu University
- Osmania University
- Delhi University
- Aligarh Muslim University
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Aligarh Muslim University. He wanted young people to gain modern learning.
- Madan Mohan Malaviya founded which university in 1916?
- Banaras Hindu University
- Jamia Millia Islamia
- Aligarh Muslim University
- Calcutta University
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Banaras Hindu University. He was an educator and freedom fighter.
- Rabindranath Tagore founded a school at Santiniketan that grew into which university?
- Nalanda
- Jadavpur
- Presidency
- Visva-Bharati
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Visva-Bharati. He believed learning should happen close to nature.
- Vinoba Bhave began the Bhoodan movement, which asked landowners to do what?
- Pay higher taxes
- Plant forests
- Build temples
- Donate land to the landless
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Donate land to the landless. He walked from village to village across India.
- Ela Bhatt founded SEWA, an organisation that supports which group of workers?
- Factory owners
- Women who work in the informal economy
- Sailors
- Government clerks
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Women who work in the informal economy. It started in Ahmedabad.
- Verghese Kurien led Operation Flood, which made India a major producer of what?
- Rice
- Tea
- Cotton
- Milk
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Milk. He built farmers' cooperatives, including the one behind Amul, in Anand, Gujarat.
- M. S. Swaminathan, who was born in Tamil Nadu, worked with Norman Borlaug to bring what to India's farms?
- Telephones
- High-yielding wheat and rice
- Electric lights
- Tractors only
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High-yielding wheat and rice. He is known as the father of the Green Revolution in India.
- Baba Amte founded Anandwan in Maharashtra to care for people affected by which illness?
- Malaria
- Cholera
- Leprosy
- Polio
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Leprosy. He dedicated his life to giving them dignity and work.
- Sunderlal Bahuguna was a leader of which environmental movement in India?
- The Narmada movement
- The Swadeshi movement
- The Chipko movement
- The Silent Valley movement
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The Chipko movement. People hugged trees to stop them being cut down.
- Sister Nivedita, an Irish-born teacher, opened a school for girls in which city?
- Bombay
- Dublin
- Delhi
- Calcutta
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Calcutta. She was inspired by Swami Vivekananda.
- K. Kamaraj, Chief Minister of Madras State, is remembered for spreading what in schools?
- Computers
- Cricket
- Uniform colours
- Midday meals
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Midday meals. He wanted poor children to come to school and to have a nourishing meal.
- Annie Besant, an Irish-born reformer, based her work at Adyar in which Indian city?
- Benares
- Pune
- Madras (Chennai)
- Lahore
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Madras (Chennai). She worked for education and Indian self-rule.
- Kailash Satyarthi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for his struggle against what?
- The suppression of children and young people
- Nuclear weapons
- Famine
- Air pollution
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The suppression of children and young people. He is from Vidisha, India.
- Malala Yousafzai spoke out for what?
- Voting rights for children
- Free travel
- Girls' right to go to school
- Cleaner water
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Girls' right to go to school. She became the youngest Nobel laureate at 17.
- Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank helped people with what?
- Medicine
- Free school books
- Small loans to start businesses
- Free housing
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Small loans to start businesses. They shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
- Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement encouraged women to do what?
- Plant trees
- Run schools
- Build roads
- Open banks
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Plant trees. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
- Maria Montessori, an Italian doctor, opened her first children's house in Rome in which year?
- 1907
- 1937
- 1857
- 1977
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1907. Her approach lets children learn by exploring things with their hands.
- Anne Sullivan taught which famous deafblind student?
- Maria Montessori
- Malala Yousafzai
- Louis Braille
- Helen Keller
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Helen Keller. Keller went on to study at Radcliffe College and became an author.
- Booker T. Washington led which college in Alabama?
- Spelman College
- Tuskegee Institute
- Howard University
- Morehouse College
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Tuskegee Institute. He wrote the autobiography Up from Slavery.
- Paulo Freire, a Brazilian teacher, wrote which influential book about education?
- Walden
- The Republic
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed
- Emile
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Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He worked to teach adults to read.
- Louis Braille helped blind people to read using what?
- Audio tapes
- Raised dots
- Coloured lights
- Large print
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Raised dots. He created the system when he was fifteen.
- Susan B. Anthony campaigned for which right for women in the United States?
- The right to fly
- The right to join the army
- The right to a pension
- The right to vote
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The right to vote. She lived in Rochester, New York.
- Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery in Maryland, became a leader of which movement?
- The campaign to abolish slavery
- The temperance movement only
- The scouting movement
- The suffragettes
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The campaign to abolish slavery. He was a powerful speaker and writer.
- Harriet Tubman helped enslaved people to freedom along which network?
- The Silk Road
- The Appian Way
- The Underground Railroad
- The Pony Express
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The Underground Railroad. She was born in Maryland and returned to rescue many others.
- Mary McLeod Bethune founded a school in Daytona that became which university?
- Spelman College
- Howard University
- Bethune-Cookman University
- Tuskegee University
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Bethune-Cookman University. She opened the school in 1904 to educate Black girls.
- William Wilberforce campaigned for years in the British Parliament to end what?
- Taxes on bread
- The slave trade
- Duelling
- Child labour in factories
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The slave trade. The Parliament banned the slave trade in 1807.
- Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in 1955 in which city?
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Little Rock, Arkansas
- Montgomery, Alabama
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Montgomery, Alabama. Her act helped to spark the Montgomery bus boycott.
- Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at what age?
- 35
- 42
- 50
- 29
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35. He was the youngest man to receive the prize up to that time.
- Dorothea Dix campaigned for better care for people with what?
- Polio
- Mental illness
- Deafness
- Blindness
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Mental illness. She persuaded lawmakers to build proper hospitals.
- Jane Addams co-founded Hull House in 1889 in which city?
- New York
- Philadelphia
- Chicago
- Boston
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Chicago. It helped poor families and new immigrants, and she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.
- Octavia Hill worked to improve housing for the poor in London and helped to found what well-known British organisation?
- The National Trust
- The Scouts
- The Salvation Army
- The Red Cross
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The National Trust. She believed everyone needs decent homes and open spaces.
- Elizabeth Fry campaigned for prisoners in which London prison?
- Holloway
- The Tower
- Newgate
- Pentonville
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Newgate. She improved conditions for women and children.
- Eddie Mabo's court case led to a 1992 High Court decision recognising what?
- The end of conscription
- Native title for Indigenous Australians
- The vote for women
- The Australian flag
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Native title for Indigenous Australians. Mabo was from Mer (Murray Island) in the Torres Strait.
- Mary MacKillop, an Australian teacher, founded which order of sisters to educate poor children?
- The Red Cross
- The Sisters of Mercy
- The Salvation Army
- The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart
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The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. She is Australia's first canonised saint.
- Caroline Chisholm helped immigrant women and families settle in which country in the 1840s?
- South Africa
- Australia
- Canada
- India
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Australia. She became known as the 'emigrant's friend'.
- The Reverend John Flynn started which service in 1928 to bring health care to people in remote Australia?
- The Bush Nursing Service
- Meals on Wheels
- The Royal Flying Doctor Service
- The School of the Air
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The Royal Flying Doctor Service. Its first base was at Cloncurry in Queensland.
- Vincent Lingiari led a walk-off at Wave Hill in 1966 for fair pay and what else?
- A national holiday
- A new currency
- A new flag
- Land rights
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Land rights. He was a Gurindji man whose stand became a landmark in Aboriginal land rights.
- Faith Bandler campaigned for the 1967 referendum in Australia, which was about what?
- Ending the monarchy
- Introducing a new flag
- Making English the official language
- Counting Aboriginal people in the census and giving the Commonwealth power to make laws for them
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Counting Aboriginal people in the census and giving the Commonwealth power to make laws for them. The referendum was passed by a large majority.
- Dhondo Keshav Karve worked for women's education in Pune. What did he found?
- A university for women
- A newspaper
- A hospital for animals
- A railway for Pune
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A university for women. His women's university, SNDT, is in Maharashtra.
- Rukmini Devi Arundale founded Kalakshetra in Chennai to teach what?
- Classical dance and the arts
- Medicine
- Cooking
- Law
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Classical dance and the arts. She helped to revive Bharatanatyam.
- Gopal Krishna Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society in 1905 in which city?
- Nagpur
- Delhi
- Pune
- Mumbai
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Pune. He was a teacher and moderate leader who was an adviser to Mahatma Gandhi.
- Mary Slessor, a Scottish missionary, worked for many years in which part of Nigeria, protecting twins and their mothers?
- Abuja
- Lagos
- Calabar
- Kano
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Calabar. She spoke up for children who were at risk.
- Thomas Barnardo opened homes in London for what group of people?
- Visiting students
- Poor and homeless children
- Injured horses
- Retired sailors
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Poor and homeless children. His charity still works for children today.