The Deoband Movement in U.P. (United Province) started in the year

The correct answer is D) 1866. The Deoband Movement began when Darul Uloom Deoband was founded in 1866 at Deoband, near Saharanpur in present-day Uttar Pradesh. Its key founders were Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, with Haji Imdadullah as their spiritual guide. It was set up after the 1857 revolt, when the ulama wanted to preserve Islamic learning and religious education.

• A) 1900: Wrong. By 1900 Deoband was already decades old. The 1894 Nadwat ul-Ulama at Kanpur is a different development.
• B) 1888: Wrong. No founding of the Deoband school falls in this year.
• C) 1885: Wrong. 1885 is the year the Indian National Congress was founded in Bombay. It has no link to the Deoband seminary.

The core concept is the reformist, religious-education stream of Indian Muslim response to colonial rule, which contrasts with the Aligarh modernist stream. For Mains, compare Deoband with Aligarh and Barelvi approaches on education, politics and nationalism.

Trap: Aspirants mix up the 1885 Congress founding with other 1880s-90s events and pick it by association. Anchor the Deoband date to 1866 with the 1857 context.