Happy 62nd anniversary of India's independence!!

[1] When mutinies against British rule broke out in northern India in 1857, the Bengal Army, composed of Indian soldiers under British command, had 139,000 soldiers. How many sided with Britain, and how many with the mutineers?
(a) 78,000 for Britain; 61,000 for the mutineers
(b) 7,800 for Britain; 131,200 for the mutineers
(c) 110,000 for Britain; 29,000 for the mutineers
(d) 23 for Britain; 138,977 for the mutineers

[2] In 1901 India's population was 300m. How many Britons lived in India and ruled over them?
(a) 1.2m
(b) 239,000
(c) 154,000
(d) 28,900

[3] Mohandas Gandhi is more commonly known by the honorific "Mahatma", which means what?
(a) "National father"
(b) "Spiritual leader"
(c) "Great soul"
(d) "Child of God"

[4] What was Gandhi holding on March 12th 1930 when he announced to a crowd, "With this _____ I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire"?
(a) A policeman's collar
(b) A document pronouncing India's independence
(c) A handful of salt
(d) A length of spun cotton

[5] What did Gandhi say "accentuate[s] the evil nature of man" and lets "bad men fulfil their designs with greater rapidity"?
(a) Trains
(b) Wristwatches
(c) Assembly lines
(d) Shoes

[6] Which of these most accurately describes Mahatma Gandhi's murderer?
(a) He was a Muslim who believed he was waging a "holy war" against Hindu occupation
(b) He was a spurned political rival
(c) He was a Hindu enraged by the creation of Pakistan
(d) He was a Sikh enraged that the partition of India created separate Hindu and Muslim countries, but denied self-rule to the Sikhs

[7] About how many people were uprooted during the sectarian violence that broke out during the partition of British India into independent India and Pakistan in 1947?
(a) 500,000
(b) 2m
(c) 5m
(d) 12m

[8] How did Kashmir, with its predominantly Muslim population, come to have a Hindu ruler at the time of partition?
(a) The British hastily installed a puppet maharajah as they were leaving
(b) The same family ruled Kashmir for a millennium; they resisted the spread of Islam and remained Hindu
(c) The British had awarded the state to a Hindu soldier 50 years earlier
(d) The British had sold the state to a Hindu maharajah 100 years earlier

[9] Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, wrote that religion:
(a) "Is, as a Russian said, the opiate of the masses"
(b) "Waters the rich and loamy soil of our Mother India"
(c) "Has not only broken our backs but stifled and almost killed all originality of thought or mind"

(d) "Thrives in our beloved India as nowhere else on Earth, and without it we would be immeasurably poorer"

[10] In a letter to his wife from a colonial jail, Nehru wrote that he saw himself as:
(a) "A traveller, limping along in the dark night"
(b) "A warrior of the spirit, bound to call our nation to greatness"
(c) "An attendant lord, one that will do to swell a progress, start a scene or two"
(d) "One fated to make a lasting mark"

[11] What happened on April 7th 2005 for the first time since the partition of India and Pakistan?
(a) Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged fire across the Siachen glacier in Kashmir
(b) A passenger bus drove between the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir and the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir
(c) A gate at the Kashmiri border was left open all night
(d) England won a test match against India

[12] Rahul Gandhi, a young MP, is sometimes rumoured to be a possible candidate for prime minister. Which of his blood relations did not hold that office?
(a) His great-grandfather
(b) His grandfather
(c) His father
(d) His grandmother

Source: Economist

I scored 8/12 and they say I have not missed your tryst with destiny! Wut's your score?

Find the answers in the comment section.