Important Historical Centenaries and Anniversaries (2025–2026) Guide

Competitive exam question-setters have a well-documented tendency to reference events with round-number anniversaries falling near the exam cycle — a genuine and predictable pattern worth building into your preparation strategy rather than dismissing as coincidence. If a significant historical event is marking its 100th or 150th anniversary in the same year or the year before your exam, the probability of it appearing in that cycle’s paper rises measurably, simply because news coverage and institutional commemoration around the anniversary puts the event back into circulation for question-setters as well as the general public.

This guide identifies the major centenaries and anniversaries falling in the 2025–2026 window, with enough historical detail on each to answer questions beyond simple date-recall. For the broader Modern India syllabus these events sit within, our Modern India Notes cover the full political and social movement history these anniversaries connect to.

The NTA Connection: Why Historical Anniversaries Trigger Exam Questions

The mechanism here is straightforward: anniversary years generate news coverage, government commemorative programs, and renewed public and academic attention, all of which increase the likelihood that a question-setter compiling a paper in that same window has recently encountered the topic and includes it. This isn’t a guaranteed prediction method, but it’s a legitimate, low-cost addition to your revision priorities — reviewing centenary-year topics with genuine depth, rather than treating them as a footnote, is time well spent given the disproportionate attention they’re likely to receive.

100-Year Centenaries (1925–1926 to 2025–2026)

Kakori Train Action (1925)

The Kakori Train Action (August 1925) was a major revolutionary action in which members of the Hindustan Republican Association looted a train carrying government funds near Kakori, Uttar Pradesh, intended to finance revolutionary activities. The subsequent Kakori Conspiracy Case trial resulted in the execution of several key revolutionaries, including Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan, making this both a significant revolutionary action and a notable instance of colonial judicial repression — worth knowing both halves of the story (the action itself and its legal aftermath) rather than just the event’s name and date.

Vaikom Satyagraha (1924–1925)

The Vaikom Satyagraha, beginning in 1924 and continuing into 1925, was a significant early temple-entry and anti-untouchability movement in Kerala, protesting restrictions barring lower-caste individuals from public roads near the Vaikom temple. The movement drew support from figures including Gandhi and connects directly to the broader anti-caste reform movement history covered in our Western and Southern Reform Movements guide, representing an important link between organized religious-reform history and the specific tactic of satyagraha later central to the national movement.

Formation of the CPI at Kanpur (1925)

The Communist Party of India was formally founded at Kanpur in 1925, an event directly connected to our Trade Union Movement guide’s coverage of growing communist influence in organized labor during this period, and to the subsequent Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case (1924) that had already targeted early Indian communist organizers before the party’s formal founding — worth keeping the sequence (organizing activity, conspiracy case prosecution, formal party founding) straight rather than treating these as a single undifferentiated event.

150-Year Anniversaries (1875 to 2025)

Alongside the centenaries above, several events reach their 150th anniversary in this window: the Arya Samaj, founded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati in 1875, represents a major Hindu reform movement emphasizing a return to Vedic principles and opposition to practices including idol worship and caste-based discrimination, distinct in its specific ideological emphasis from the Brahmo Samaj and the anti-caste movements covered elsewhere. The Deccan Riots of 1875, covered in detail in our Tribal and Peasant Revolts guide, also reach their 150th anniversary in this window, having led directly to the Deccan Agriculturists’ Relief Act of 1879.

Expected Question Formats for Upcoming Exams

Based on the pattern of how anniversary-linked topics tend to be tested, expect direct definitional and date-recall questions (when was the CPI founded, where did the Vaikom Satyagraha take place), cause-and-consequence questions connecting an anniversary event to its legislative or political aftermath, and — less commonly but worth preparing for — comparative questions connecting an anniversary event to a thematically related topic elsewhere in the syllabus (Vaikom Satyagraha to the broader anti-caste reform movement history, for instance).

Summary

Anniversary-linked topics deserve deeper-than-average revision attention specifically because of their elevated probability of appearing in a nearby exam cycle, not because they’re inherently more important than other syllabus content. Prioritize genuine understanding of the Kakori Train Action, the Vaikom Satyagraha, and the CPI’s Kanpur founding for their 100th anniversaries in this window, and don’t neglect the Arya Samaj and Deccan Riots for their 150th anniversaries, connecting each back to the broader syllabus content it’s already part of.

For the complete Modern India syllabus these events connect to, see the Modern India Notes. For all four subjects together, the Complete Bundle offers better overall value.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the top historical centenaries relevant for UGC NET in 2025–2026?
The most significant centenaries in this window are the Kakori Train Action (1925), the Vaikom Satyagraha (1924–1925), and the formal founding of the Communist Party of India at Kanpur (1925), alongside the 150th anniversaries of the Arya Samaj’s founding and the Deccan Riots (both 1875).

Why do anniversary years increase the likelihood of a topic appearing on the exam?
Anniversary years generate increased news coverage, government commemorative programs, and renewed academic attention, all of which raise the probability that question-setters compiling papers during that window have recently encountered and included the topic, even though this isn’t a guaranteed prediction method.

Related figures and events are covered in the Modern India glossary.