In the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny, the ratings' discontent was linked with what?

Correct answer: Complaints like food, treatment, and racial discrimination

Direct answer: Option A is correct. Ratings were ordinary enlisted sailors in the Royal Indian Navy. Their discontent included poor and unequal food, insulting or unfair treatment by some officers, and racial discrimination within the colonial military system. The reasoning is: daily service conditions created anger; nationalist feeling after the Second World War strengthened that anger; protests spread among naval establishments and received wider public and political support. Option A works because it names the central service and discrimination complaints. Option B is wrong because indigo profit concerned agrarian production, not naval ratings’ immediate grievances. Option C is wrong because temple entry was a social-reform issue, not the main cause of this naval revolt. Option D is wrong because the partition of Bengal occurred decades earlier and was unrelated to the ratings’ service complaints. The event is often called the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny or Revolt of 1946, and it reflected wider colonial military discontent. Memory cue: ratings remembered food, treatment, and racial discrimination.