Sri Lankan History and Politics

History And Politics

407 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

Practise History And Politics now

Random questions from this topic, one at a time. You see the answer and the explanation straight after each one.

All 407 questions

  1. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Polonnaruwa with the correct year: Rameshwaram was under Sinhalese and Vira Pandyan Alliance rule till ______.
  2. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Polonnaruwa with the correct year: In ______, the capital was seized by Parakrama Pandyan, a rival claimant who took power via Pandyan assistance.
  3. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Polonnaruwa with the correct year: In ______ Rajaraja I died and was succeeded by his son Rajendra Chola I, perhaps the most aggressive king of his line.
  4. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Polonnaruwa with the correct year: By ______, when Sinhalese sovereignty was restored under Vijayabāhu I, he had reunited the country for the first time in over…
  5. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Kandy with the correct year: Following the Spoiling of Vijayabahu in ______, the kingdom of Kotte split into three competing states – Sitawaka, Raigama, and Bhuv…
  6. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Kandy with the correct year: Kandy subsequently lent aid to the Jaffna Kingdom against the Portuguese in ______.
  7. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Kotte with the correct year: In ______, Parakramabahu VI established Kotte as his capital city.
  8. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Kotte with the correct year: In ______, through his conquest of the Jaffna Kingdom in northern Sri Lanka, Parakramabahu VI succeeded in unifying the entire islan…
  9. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Kotte with the correct year: By ______, a decade after the death of Parakramabahu VI, regional kingdoms had grown in strength.
  10. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Dambadeniya with the correct year: Considering Dambadeniya insecure, he transferred the capital to Yapahuwa in ______ and developed it into a fortified royal res…
  11. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Sitawaka with the correct year: Sitawaka disintegrated soon after the death of its last king Rajasinha I in ______.
  12. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Sitawaka with the correct year: By ______, however, the Jaffna kingdom to the north had asserted its independence.
  13. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Sitawaka with the correct year: Though local resistance prevented them from completing a fortress in Colombo, from ______ a Portuguese agent remained in Kotte un…
  14. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Sitawaka with the correct year: The first, beginning in ______, was repelled due to resistance organized by the new Portuguese Captain-General in Colombo, Miguel…
  15. Complete the sentence about Kingdom of Sitawaka with the correct year: Portuguese involvement in the internal politics of Kotte increased with the arrival in ______ of viceroy Afonso de Noronha and a…
  16. Complete the sentence about Dutch Ceylon with the correct year: Rajasinghe and the Dutch were both playing a double game trying to outwit each other, and the treaty of ______ was never implemented.
  17. Complete the sentence about Dutch Ceylon with the correct year: Meanwhile, envoys were sent to Rajasinha, at whose court they arrived in ______.
  18. Complete the sentence about British Ceylon with the correct year: The British rule on the island lasted until ______ when the country regained independence following the Sri Lankan independence moveme…
  19. Complete the sentence about British Ceylon with the correct year: The Portuguese founded a fort at the port city of Colombo in ______ and gradually extended their control over the coastal areas.
  20. Complete the sentence about British Ceylon with the correct year: In ______ the Sinhalese moved their capital to the inland city of Kandy, a location more secure against attack from invaders.
  21. Complete the sentence about British Ceylon with the correct year: In ______, therefore, when the Dutch captain Joris van Spilbergen landed, the king of Kandy appealed to him for help.
  22. Complete the sentence about Dominion of Ceylon with the correct year: In ______, the British Colony of Ceylon was granted independence as Ceylon.
  23. Complete the sentence about Dominion of Ceylon with the correct year: In ______, the country became a republic within the Commonwealth, and its name was changed to Sri Lanka.
  24. Complete the sentence about Dominion of Ceylon with the correct year: The British-ruled Colony of Ceylon achieved independence on 4 February ______, with an amended constitution taking effect on the s…
  25. Complete the sentence about Dominion of Ceylon with the correct year: Independence was granted under the Ceylon Independence Act ______.
  26. Complete the sentence about Don Stephen Senanayake with the correct year: In ______, he was elected to the State Council of Ceylon, where he served as Minister of Agriculture and Lands.
  27. Complete the sentence about Don Stephen Senanayake with the correct year: In ______, he was appointed as a member of a government commission sent to Madagascar to study and report on their graphite mi…
  28. Complete the sentence about Don Stephen Senanayake with the correct year: The three Senanayake brothers were involved in the temperance movement formed in ______.
  29. Complete the sentence about Don Stephen Senanayake with the correct year: When World War I broke out in ______ they joined the Colombo Town Guard.
  30. Complete the sentence about S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike with the correct year: On 25 September ______, Bandaranaike was shot at his town house in Colombo and died of his wounds the day after.
  31. Complete the sentence about Chandrika Kumaratunga with the correct year: In ______, she was elected Chief Minister of the Western Province.
  32. Complete the sentence about J. R. Jayewardene with the correct year: At the Ceylon Law College, he won the Hector Jayewardene Gold Medal and the Walter Pereira Prize in ______.
  33. Complete the sentence about Ranasinghe Premadasa with the correct year: In ______, he was elected to the Colombo Municipal Council as a member of San Sebastian's Ward.
  34. Complete the sentence about Ranasinghe Premadasa with the correct year: From the UNP, Premadasa contested the ______ general election from the Ruwanwella electorate but lost to N.
  35. Complete the sentence about Mahinda Rajapaksa with the correct year: Rajapaksa is a lawyer by profession and was first elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka in ______.
  36. Complete the sentence about Mahinda Rajapaksa with the correct year: Rajapaksa was sworn in for his first six-year term as president on 19 November ______.
  37. Complete the sentence about Gotabaya Rajapaksa with the correct year: Born to a political family from the Southern Province, Rajapaksa was educated at Ananda College, Colombo and joined the Ceylon Arm…
  38. Complete the sentence about Ranil Wickremesinghe with the correct year: Born into a political family, Wickremesinghe graduated from the University of Ceylon and qualified as a lawyer from the Ceylon L…
  39. Complete the sentence about Anura Kumara Dissanayake with the correct year: Dissanayake was selected to the Central Committee of the JVP in ______.
  40. Complete the sentence about Velupillai Prabhakaran with the correct year: Prabhakaran, who had said, "I would prefer to die in honour rather than being caught alive by the enemy", was killed in a fire…
  41. Complete the sentence about Velupillai Prabhakaran with the correct year: Velupillai Prabhakaran was born in the northern coastal town of Valvettithurai on 26 November ______, the youngest of four chi…
  42. Complete the sentence about Velupillai Prabhakaran with the correct year: Prabhakaran along with Kuttimani, Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran and other prominent rebels joined the Tamil Manavar Peravai formed b…
  43. Complete the sentence about Black July with the correct year: On the night of 24 July ______, anti-Tamil rioting started in the capital city of Colombo and then spread to other parts of the country.
  44. Complete the sentence about Black July with the correct year: The NGO International Commission of Jurists described the violence of the pogrom as having "amounted to acts of genocide" in a report publ…
  45. Complete the sentence about Black July with the correct year: By ______, 33% of clerical jobs in Ceylon were held by Sri Lankan Tamils, although they were 11% of the country's population.
  46. Complete the sentence about Indian Peace Keeping Force with the correct year: The IPKF began withdrawing from Sri Lanka in ______, on the orders of the newly elected Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Pr…
  47. Complete the sentence about Indian Peace Keeping Force with the correct year: The origins of the Sri Lankan Civil War can be traced to the independence of Sri Lanka in ______, after the end of British…
  48. Complete the sentence about Indian Peace Keeping Force with the correct year: In fact in ______, the LTTE supremo Prabhakran was arrested by the police in Tamil Nadu, for a shoot-out with his rival Um…
  49. Complete the sentence about Indo-Sri Lanka Accord with the correct year: The Indo-Lanka Peace Accord was an accord signed in Colombo on 29 July ______, between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and S…
  50. Complete the sentence about Indo-Sri Lanka Accord with the correct year: The accord was expected to resolve the Sri Lankan Civil War by enabling the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lan…
  51. Complete the sentence about Indo-Sri Lanka Accord with the correct year: The origins of this conflict can be traced to the independence of the island from Britain in ______.
  52. Complete the sentence about Indo-Sri Lanka Accord with the correct year: By ______, the LTTE would become the major Tamil militant group having sidelined any alternatives.
  53. Complete the sentence about Indo-Sri Lanka Accord with the correct year: From ______ however, the Sri-Lankan Government started rearming itself extensively for its anti-insurgent role with support fro…
  54. Complete the sentence about Indo-Sri Lanka Accord with the correct year: In June ______, the Sri Lankan Army laid siege on the major town, and Tamil stronghold of Jaffna.
  55. Complete the sentence about Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka with the correct year: On 29 July ______, the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gan…
  56. Complete the sentence about Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka with the correct year: In February ______, the Chief Minister of Sri Lanka's Northern Province, C.V.
  57. Complete the sentence about 1971 JVP insurrection with the correct year: The revolt began on 5 April ______ and lasted until June of that year.
  58. Complete the sentence about 1971 JVP insurrection with the correct year: At odds with party leaders and impatient with its lack of revolutionary purpose, Wijeweera formed the movement in ______ with o…
  59. Complete the sentence with the correct year: The JVP entered democratic politics in ______ when President J.
  60. Complete the sentence about Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna with the correct year: The JVP launched a more organized insurrection for the second time in ______ after the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord…
  61. Complete the sentence about 1987–89 JVP insurrection with the correct year: The insurgency reached its peak in ______ and impacted all Sri Lankan civilians, including those without any political stake…
  62. Complete the sentence about 1987–89 JVP insurrection with the correct year: Wijeratne was assassinated in ______, which led to the outbreak of the second phase of the Sri Lanka-LTTE conflict, known as…
  63. Complete the sentence about 1987–89 JVP insurrection with the correct year: The group was first internationally recognized as a political party when it participated in a communist youth conference in…
  64. Complete the sentence about 1987–89 JVP insurrection with the correct year: The JVP launched an open revolt against Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike's government in April ______.
  65. Complete the sentence about 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami with the correct year: The ______ Sumatra earthquake is believed to have been a foreshock, preceding the main event by over two yea…
  66. Complete the sentence about 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami with the correct year: Great earthquakes such as the ______ Indian Ocean earthquake are generally associated with megathrust events…
  67. Complete the sentence about 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings with the correct year: In November ______ he told parliament that 32 Sri Lankan Muslims from "well-educated and elite" families had joined th…
  68. Complete the sentence about Parliament of Sri Lanka with the correct year: By a Delimitation commission, the Seats in the House of Representatives was increased to 151 in ______.
  69. Complete the sentence about President of Sri Lanka with the correct year: The governor-general replaced the position of the governor of British Ceylon, who had previously exercised executive control o…
  70. Complete the sentence about President of Sri Lanka with the correct year: In ______, the new Republican Constitution declared Sri Lanka a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state.
  71. Complete the sentence about President of Sri Lanka with the correct year: In ______, the second amendment to the Constitution replaced the Westminster system with a more semi-presidential system.
  72. Complete the sentence about President of Sri Lanka with the correct year: In ______, the highly controversial 18th Amendment to the constitution was introduced in order to remove the two-term limit fo…
  73. Complete the sentence about Prime Minister of Sri Lanka with the correct year: Under the Soulbury Constitution, the post of Prime Minister was created in ______ as the head of government of Ceylon in…
  74. Complete the sentence about Sri Lankan rupee with the correct year: Rixdollar notes not presented for exchange were demonetized in June ______.
  75. Complete the sentence about Sri Lankan rupee with the correct year: The Indian rupee was made Ceylon's standard coin on 26 September ______, and Ceylon reverted to the Indian currency area.
  76. Complete the sentence about Sri Lankan rupee with the correct year: The Indian rupee was formally established as the unlimited legal tender 18 June ______.
  77. Complete the sentence about Colombo Stock Exchange with the correct year: The Colombo Brokers' Association began auctioning land shares in ______ and gradually became the SBA's competitor.
  78. Complete the sentence about Colombo Stock Exchange with the correct year: The two organizations combined to form the Colombo Securities Exchange in ______.
  79. Complete the sentence about Colombo Stock Exchange with the correct year: The CSE headquarters opened in World Trade Center Colombo in ______.
  80. Complete the sentence about United National Party with the correct year: Senanayake in ______ by amalgamating three right-leaning, pro-dominion parties from the majority Sinhalese community and minori…
  81. Complete the sentence about United National Party with the correct year: In March ______, prime minister Senanayake died in a horseback accident and was succeeded by his son Dudley Senanayake.
  82. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna with the correct year: In early ______, OSLFF leader Geeganage hinted that a change in the party leadership was soon to come.
  83. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna with the correct year: According to a poll conducted by Verité Research in March ______, the government's approval rating had fallen to just 10%…
  84. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka Navy with the correct year: The current Sri Lankan Navy was established on 9 December ______ when the Navy Act was passed for the formation of the Royal Ceylon Na…
  85. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka Navy with the correct year: The current name, Sri Lanka Navy, was constituted in ______ when Sri Lanka became a republic and with the introduction of new constitu…
  86. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka Navy with the correct year: Beauchamp as Commanding Officer under ordinance No I of ______.
  87. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka Navy with the correct year: On 31 August ______ at the outset of World War II, the CNVF was mobilised for war duties.
  88. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka Navy with the correct year: The first warship of the RCyN was commissioned in ______ as HMCyS Vijaya, an Algerine-class minesweeper, ex-HMS Flying Fish along with…
  89. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka Air Force with the correct year: The need for an air force was identified in its defence policy and the Air Force Act was passed in parliament in ______ in order…
  90. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka Air Force with the correct year: By ______, the RCyAF was operating two flying squadrons based at RAF Negombo, with one focused on training and the other on trans…
  91. Complete the sentence with the correct year: The RAF headquarters, Air HQ Ceylon, was disbanded on 1 November ______.
  92. Complete the sentence about Colombo Plan with the correct year: The Colombo plan is a regional intergovernmental organization that began operations on 1 July ______.
  93. Complete the sentence about Colombo Plan with the correct year: The key meeting for establishing the Colombo Plan was held in Colombo, Ceylon in January ______ at the Commonwealth Conference on Foreig…
  94. Complete the sentence about South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation with the correct year: The organization was founded in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 8 December ______ and is currently headquarter…
  95. Complete the sentence about South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation with the correct year: During his visit to India in December ______, Rahman discussed the issue of regional cooperation wit…
  96. Complete the sentence about South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation with the correct year: Responding to Rahman and Birendra's convention, officials of the foreign ministries of the seven cou…
  97. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth of Nations with the correct year: In July ______, India evacuated 430 Sri Lankan nationals from Lebanon, first to Cyprus by Indian Navy ships…
  98. Complete the sentence about Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth of Nations with the correct year: Iran and Sri Lanka have had official diplomatic relations since ______.
  99. Complete the sentence about Culavamsa with the correct year: The foremost translation of this work was that of Wilhelm Geiger from Pali into German, completed in ______.
  100. Complete the sentence about Culavamsa with the correct year: In ______ an English edition was published by Oxford University Press, translated by C.

Keep practising

More general knowledge topics

All general knowledge →

History And Politics in other exams

Ready for more general knowledge?

Play the GK ChallengeGeneral knowledge hub