Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 12

The correct answer is A, rice, wheat and maize. These three cereals take up most of Bihar's cropped area and give the state the bulk of its foodgrain output. Rice is the main kharif crop of both the north Bihar plain and the south Bihar plain, where the monsoon and the alluvial soil of the Ganga basin suit it; wheat follows as the leading rabi crop; and maize is grown heavily in the Kosi and Seemanchal belt, with the state well known for its rabi maize. B is wrong because sugarcane is a cash crop and not a foodgrain, tea is grown on only a small area in Kishanganj, and barley is a minor crop. C is wrong because groundnut is an oilseed and coffee is not grown in Bihar at all, since it needs the well-drained hill slopes of peninsular India. D is wrong because option A is correct. Exam tip: Bihar's foodgrain trio is rice, wheat and maize, while sugarcane and jute are its chief cash crops.

The correct answer is B, Kerala. Kolathunadu, Valluvanad and Thekkumkoor were small medieval kingdoms, or swaroopams, of Kerala. Kolathunadu, ruled by the Kolathiri rajas, lay in north Malabar around present-day Kannur; Valluvanad spread over the Palakkad and Malappuram area and is remembered for the Mamankam festival at Tirunavaya; Thekkumkoor lay in the Kottayam region and was absorbed by Travancore under Marthanda Varma in the eighteenth century. Before unification, Kerala was split among such chiefdoms along with Travancore, Cochin and Calicut, and the present state was formed on 1 November 1956 from Travancore-Cochin and the Malabar district of Madras. Option A is wrong because Karnataka's old kingdoms were the Kadambas, Hoysalas and Vijayanagara. Option C is wrong because ancient Bihar was home to Magadha, Anga and Videha. Option D is wrong because Gujarat was ruled by the Solankis of Anhilwada and the Chaulukyas. Exam tip: names ending in nadu or koor in this list point to the medieval chiefdoms of Kerala.

The correct answer is B, Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand adopted Sanskrit as its second official language in 2010, the first state in India to do so, with Hindi remaining the first official language; the decision fits a state whose Char Dham and temple towns keep a living Sanskrit tradition. Option A is wrong because Himachal Pradesh took the same step later, in 2019, and is therefore the second such state, a pair examiners like to swap. Option C is wrong because Uttar Pradesh uses Hindi with Urdu as its second official language. Option D is wrong because Madhya Pradesh has Hindi alone as its official language. Garhwali, Kumaoni and Jaunsari are dialects of Uttarakhand but carry no official status. The state also keeps a network of Sanskrit schools and a Sanskrit university at Haridwar, which is why this fact is asked as a first among the states.

The correct answer is D, Tripura. The Manikya dynasty ruled Tripura for centuries, and its kings all took the title Manikya. Their history is recorded in the Rajmala, a chronicle in Bengali verse first compiled in the fifteenth century under Dharma Manikya. The Ujjayanta Palace at Agartala, built by Radha Kishore Manikya at the beginning of the twentieth century, was their seat and now houses a state museum, and the lake palace Neermahal was raised by Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, the last ruling king, after whom Agartala's airport is named. The princely state signed the merger agreement and joined the Indian Union in October 1949. Option A is wrong because Gujarat was ruled by the Solanki or Chaulukya line. Option B is wrong because Rajasthan had the Sisodia, Kachwaha and Rathore houses. Option C is wrong because Manipur was ruled by the Ningthouja or Meitei dynasty. Exam tip: Manikya means Tripura, its chronicle is the Rajmala, and it merged with India in 1949.

The correct answer is C, 1972. The Simla Agreement was signed at Shimla on 2 July 1972 by Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after the Bangladesh war, converting the ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir into the Line of Control and binding the two countries to settle disputes bilaterally. Option A is wrong because 1966 is the year of the Tashkent Declaration signed by Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ayub Khan after the 1965 war, and also of the Punjab Reorganisation Act. Option B is wrong because 1971 is the year of the war itself and of Himachal statehood. Option D is wrong because 1975 saw the merger of Sikkim as a state, not any agreement with Pakistan. Shimla had been the summer capital of British India from 1864, which is why so many agreements and conferences carry its name.

The correct answer is C, Lakshadweep. With an area of only about 32 square kilometres, Lakshadweep is the smallest Union Territory of India. It is a group of 36 coral islands in the Arabian Sea, of which only ten are inhabited, and its capital is Kavaratti. Being coral atolls, the islands are tiny and low lying, which is why the total land area stays so small even though the lagoons and waters around them stretch very wide. Option A is wrong because Daman and Diu covers about 112 square kilometres, more than three times Lakshadweep, and since 2020 it is part of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Option B is wrong because Ladakh is the largest Union Territory by area. Option D is wrong because Jammu and Kashmir is also far larger and is the Union Territory with the biggest population. Exam tip: Lakshadweep is the smallest by area, Ladakh the largest.

The correct answer is C, 15 November 2000. Jharkhand was created on that day under the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000, becoming the twenty-eighth state of India, and the date was chosen because it is the birth anniversary of the tribal leader Birsa Munda, now observed nationally as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas. Option A is wrong because 1 November 2000 is the formation day of Chhattisgarh, carved out of Madhya Pradesh. Option B is wrong because 9 November 2000 is the formation day of Uttarakhand, then called Uttaranchal, carved out of Uttar Pradesh. Option D is wrong because 2 October is Gandhi Jayanti and has no connection with the reorganisation. The three new states of that year are almost always asked together, so hold the order as Chhattisgarh first, Uttarakhand second and Jharkhand third.

The correct answer is B, Dharamshala. Dharamshala, the headquarters of Kangra district and the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, was declared the second or winter capital of Himachal Pradesh in 2017, while Shimla remains the capital and the seat of the High Court. Option A is wrong because Mandi, called the Varanasi of the hills for its temples and its Shivratri fair, is only a district headquarters. Option C is wrong because Solan, known for mushrooms and its brewery, is a district town on the Kalka Shimla line. Option D is wrong because Bilaspur, the princely state merged in 1954, is known for the Bhakra Dam and the Gobind Sagar, not for any capital status. The pattern of a second capital also appears in Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.

The correct answer is A, 1 November 2000. Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh under the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000, becoming the twenty-sixth state of India and the first of the three states created that year. Option B is wrong because 9 November 2000 is the formation day of Uttarakhand, then named Uttaranchal, separated from Uttar Pradesh. Option C is wrong because 15 November 2000 is the formation day of Jharkhand, separated from Bihar, and that date was chosen as the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda. Option D is wrong because 1 November 1956 is the date on which the States Reorganisation Act came into force and several states, including Madhya Pradesh in its older form, were reconstituted on linguistic lines. Fix the order of the year 2000 as Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand.

The correct answer is A, Nainital. When the state was formed in 2000 its High Court was established at Nainital, the old summer headquarters of the hills, while the seat of government went elsewhere. Option B is wrong because Dehradun is the working capital of the state and the seat of the Secretariat and the Assembly, but not of the High Court; Uttarakhand is a standard example of a state whose High Court is not in its capital, alongside Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Option C is wrong because Haridwar is a pilgrim city and one of the four Kumbh Mela centres, with no High Court. Option D is wrong because Gairsain, also called Bhararisain, in Chamoli district was declared the summer capital in 2020 and holds no court.

The correct answer is D, Blackbuck. The blackbuck, called Krishna Jinka in Telugu, is the state animal of Andhra Pradesh. It is an antelope of open grassland and scrub; the male turns dark brown to black with age and carries long spiral horns, while the female stays fawn coloured and usually hornless. It is among the fastest Indian animals and is protected under Schedule I of the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972. Punjab and Haryana also carry the blackbuck as their state animal. A is wrong because the mithun, a domesticated bovine of the hills, is the state animal of Arunachal Pradesh and of Nagaland. B is wrong because the ox is a domestic draught animal and is not named as any state animal. C is wrong because the one-horned rhinoceros is the state animal of Assam, where Kaziranga protects most of its population. Exam tip: blackbuck for Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana; rhinoceros for Assam; mithun for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

The correct answer is B, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The statue stands 182 metres tall at Kevadia, now Ekta Nagar, near the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada, and it was unveiled on 31 October 2018, the leader's birth anniversary; the name recalls his work in integrating the princely states. Option A is wrong because Gandhi, though born in Gujarat at Porbandar, is commemorated there by Kirti Mandir and by the Sabarmati Ashram, not by this statue. Option C is wrong because the tall statues connected with Dr Ambedkar stand elsewhere and none of them is this one. Option D is wrong because no statue of this scale commemorates Nehru. Ask yourself three things together in such questions: the person, the height of 182 metres and the place, Kevadia on the Narmada.

The correct answer is B, Himalayan monal. The monal, a bright pheasant of the high forests known locally as munal, is the state bird of Uttarakhand; the state animal is the alpine musk deer, the state tree the buransh or rhododendron and the state flower the Brahma Kamal. Option A is wrong because the western tragopan, or jujurana, is the state bird of Himachal Pradesh, and the two Himalayan pheasants are the standard confusion in this question. Option C is wrong because the sarus crane is the state bird of Uttar Pradesh, the parent state of Uttarakhand. Option D is wrong because the great Indian bustard is the state bird of Rajasthan, a desert species with no Himalayan range. The monal is also the national bird of Nepal, where it is called danphe, a link examiners occasionally use in a match the following question.

The correct answer is C, Sutlej. Bhakra is a concrete gravity dam on the Sutlej in the Shivalik gorge at Bhakra, and the lake behind it is the Gobind Sagar. With the Nangal barrage downstream it forms the Bhakra Nangal project, a multipurpose scheme shared by Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan that supplies irrigation water and hydro power. Option A is wrong because the Beas is dammed at Pong, whose reservoir is the Maharana Pratap Sagar. Option B is wrong because the Ravi is dammed at Ranjit Sagar, also called the Thein Dam. Option D is wrong because the Ghaggar is a seasonal stream of the Shivalik foothills, often identified with the Vedic Saraswati, and carries no project of this size. Remember the pairs: Sutlej to Bhakra, Beas to Pong, Ravi to Ranjit Sagar.

The correct answer is C, Lahaul and Spiti. Lahaul and Spiti is the largest district of the state in area and one of the most thinly peopled districts in India, a cold desert beyond the Pir Panjal that holds the Tabo, Key and Dhankar monasteries and the Chandra Tal Ramsar site. Option A is wrong because Kangra is the most populous district and holds Dharamshala and the tea gardens, but is smaller in area. Option B is wrong because Chamba, with the Ravi and the Minjar fair, ranks behind Lahaul and Spiti. Option D is wrong because Shimla district holds the capital but is smaller still. Hamirpur is the smallest district by area, and Kinnaur is the other tribal district. Una was carved out of Hamirpur in 1972, and the twelve districts were completed in that reorganisation of the new state.

The correct answer is A, Karoh Peak. Karoh stands in the Morni hills of Panchkula district, in the Shivalik range along the northern edge of the state, and is the highest point in Haryana. The Morni hills are the only real hill area of the state and are visited as a small hill station near Chandigarh, with the Tikkar Tal lakes close by.

Option B, Dhosi Hill, is an extinct volcanic hill in the Aravalli range on the border of Mahendragarh district, associated with the sage Chyavana, but much lower than Karoh. Option C, Tosham Hill in Bhiwani district, is a rocky Aravalli outcrop known for inscriptions and quarries. Option D is not a recognised name at all. The north of the state is Shivalik and the south is Aravalli, and the highest ground is in the north.

The correct answer is B, Bihar. The southern, largely tribal plateau districts of Bihar were separated to form Jharkhand under the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000, after a demand that had been pressed since the days of the Chhotanagpur Unnati Samaj and the Adivasi Mahasabha led by Jaipal Singh Munda. Option A is wrong because Odisha lies to the south of Jharkhand and lost no territory to it. Option C is wrong because West Bengal borders Jharkhand on the east but was not divided. Option D is wrong because Madhya Pradesh was the parent state of Chhattisgarh, not of Jharkhand, and this is the most frequently chosen wrong answer. The word Jharkhand itself means the land of forests, a name used for this plateau country long before the state existed.

The correct answer is C, Madhya Pradesh. The eastern districts of Madhya Pradesh, long known as the Chhattisgarh region, were separated under the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000. Option A is wrong because Bihar was the parent state of Jharkhand, created on 15 November 2000 under the Bihar Reorganisation Act. Option B is wrong because Odisha, although it borders Chhattisgarh on the east and shares the Mahanadi with it, lost no territory in this reorganisation. Option D is wrong because Uttar Pradesh was the parent state of Uttarakhand, created on 9 November 2000, although Uttar Pradesh does touch the northern tip of Chhattisgarh. The three parent and child pairs of the year 2000, namely Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and Bihar and Jharkhand, are asked repeatedly.

The correct answer is C, Lipulekh Pass. Lipulekh lies in Pithoragarh district at the meeting point of Uttarakhand, Nepal and Tibet, and the oldest official route for the Kailash Mansarovar yatra crosses it through the Kali valley; Mana and Niti in Chamoli are the other passes of the state to Tibet. Option A is wrong because the Rohtang Pass is in Himachal Pradesh and connects Kullu with Lahaul and Spiti. Option B is wrong because Shipki La is the Himachal pass through which the Sutlej enters India, and it serves a trade route rather than this pilgrimage. Option D is wrong because Nathu La is in Sikkim on the old Silk Route, and it carries a separate Kailash Mansarovar route opened much later. Lipulekh also stands on the old salt and wool trade route to Tibet that the Bhotiya traders of Pithoragarh used.

The correct answer is A, Rohtang Pass. The Atal Tunnel runs about nine kilometres under the Rohtang Pass on the Pir Panjal, was inaugurated in October 2020 and gives the Lahaul valley a road to Manali through the winter, when the pass itself is closed by snow. Option B is wrong because Shipki La in Kinnaur is the pass through which the Sutlej enters India from Tibet and has no such tunnel. Option C is wrong because the Jalori Pass is a low crossing on the Kullu Shimla road through the Seraj valley. Option D is wrong because the Kunzum Pass joins Lahaul with Spiti and stays shut in winter. Baralacha La and Sach are the other high passes of the state. The tunnel is named after Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who approved the project, and it lies at about 3,000 metres above sea level.