RAS question
Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner represented India at which international event?
Correct answer: (C) Paris Peace Conference (1919) / Treaty of Versailles.
Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner represented India at the Paris Peace Conference held at Versailles in 1919, where he was also one of India's signatories to the Treaty of Versailles.
Explanation
The event was the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, connected with the Treaty of Versailles. The cited Ministry of External Affairs PDF says that, after the First World War, India took part in the peace conference held at Versailles and was represented by Edwin Montague, Lord Satyendra Nath Sinha and His Highness Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner. It also states that the Peace Treaty of Versailles was signed by Montague and Maharaja Ganga Singh, after which India became an original member of the League of Nations. Ganga Singh's role therefore belongs to the post-war Versailles settlement, not to a generic League of Nations meeting.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The Berlin Conference of 1884 took place before Ganga Singh's international role after the First World War, when he represented India at the peace conference held at Versailles.
- (B) A League of Nations meeting in 1930 is not the relevant event; Ganga Singh was linked to the Versailles peace conference, and India's League of Nations membership followed from the Versailles settlement.
- (D) The United Nations founding in 1945 was a different event, while Ganga Singh's representation of India belongs to the 1919 Versailles peace conference.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan's role in modern Indian political history through princely-state participation in international forums. It recurs in RAS because Bikaner under Ganga Singh connects Rajasthan history with the First World War, Versailles and India's early international status.