Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 14

The correct answer is A, linguistic and cultural uniformity. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 redrew the map of India mainly on the basis of language.

The demand for linguistic states grew strong after independence. The death of Potti Sriramulu after a long fast led to the creation of Andhra State in 1953, the first state carved out for the speakers of one language. The government then appointed the States Reorganisation Commission under Fazl Ali, with K M Panikkar and H N Kunzru as its members. Its report was largely accepted, and the Act of 1956, read with the Seventh Amendment, created fourteen states and six union territories in place of the old Part A, B, C and D grouping.

B is wrong: geography and resources were not the test applied. C is wrong: security shaped only a few later changes, not the 1956 scheme. D is wrong: administrative convenience was the colonial basis of provinces, which 1956 replaced.

Exam tip: remember the chain Potti Sriramulu, Andhra 1953, Fazl Ali Commission, States Reorganisation Act 1956.

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 A, Indian Nation. The Indian Nation was an English daily brought out from Patna, and it is the only Patna paper in this list.

The paper was started in the 1930s and was run by the Darbhanga Raj, the princely house of north Bihar, which also published the Hindi daily Aryavarta from Patna. For several decades these two were the best known newspapers of Bihar, and questions on the press of the state almost always turn on this pair. Patna has long been a centre of Hindi and English journalism in eastern India.

B is wrong: Punjab Kesari is a Hindi daily of the Hind Samachar group, published from Jalandhar and Delhi. C is wrong: Prabhakar was a nineteenth century Hindi journal of north India, not a Patna daily. D is wrong: Don is not an Indian newspaper at all.

Exam tip: remember the Darbhanga Raj pair published from Patna, The Indian Nation in English and Aryavarta in Hindi.

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 B, the sal tree. Sarhul marks the new year for many tribal communities of the Chhotanagpur plateau and is celebrated when the sal tree comes into flower in spring; the village priest offers the first sal blossoms, and only after the festival may the new flowers and fruit of the season be used. Option A is wrong because the banyan, though sacred in much of India, is not the tree of Sarhul. Option C is wrong because the mahua is economically important in the region for its flowers and oil but belongs to other observances. Option D is wrong because the peepal has its own place in worship elsewhere. Sal is also the state tree of Jharkhand, which is why this pair is asked twice over, once as a festival and once as a state symbol.

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 C, the Soviet Union. The Bhilai Steel Plant in Durg district was built with Soviet collaboration and began production in 1959; it is run today by the Steel Authority of India and is known above all for the long rails it supplies to Indian Railways. Option A is wrong because West German collaboration built the Rourkela Steel Plant in Odisha, the first of the public sector plants of that era. Option B is wrong because British collaboration built the Durgapur Steel Plant in West Bengal. Option D is wrong because the Soviet Union, not Japan, was the partner here, although Japanese assistance came later to other Indian industry; the Bokaro Steel Plant in Jharkhand was also built with Soviet help. The three plants of the Second Five Year Plan, Rourkela, Bhilai and Durgapur, are asked as a set with their partner countries.

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 B, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. West Bengal is the only Indian state that touches three foreign countries: Nepal lies to its north west, Bhutan to its north and Bangladesh to its east along a long eastern frontier. Option A is wrong because West Bengal does not reach the Chinese border; Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh lie between. Option C is wrong because Myanmar borders Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, none of which touches West Bengal. Option D is wrong for the same reason regarding China and because it leaves out Bangladesh, the longest of the state's three international borders. Connected to this is the Siliguri corridor in the north, the narrow strip between Nepal and Bangladesh called the chicken's neck, which is the only land link to the north eastern 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 A, 1 April 1936. Orissa was separated from the Bihar and Orissa Province and made a province in its own right on 1 April 1936, and the day is kept every year as Utkal Divas. It is often described as the first province in British India carved out on a linguistic basis, and the campaign for it is linked above all with Madhusudan Das and Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das. Option B is wrong because 1 November 1956 is the day the States Reorganisation Act came into force and redrew many state boundaries, but Odisha was already a separate unit by then. Option C is wrong because 15 August 1947 is the date of independence, not of the formation of the province. Option D is wrong because 1 November 2000 is the day Chhattisgarh was created out of Madhya Pradesh. Keep the two first of November dates apart, since both appear as distractors in state papers.

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 B, Jharkhand. Seraikela, in the Seraikela Kharsawan district, gives its name to one of the three recognised styles of Chhau, a masked dance drama inscribed on the UNESCO list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2010; the other two styles are Mayurbhanj in Odisha, which is danced without masks, and Purulia in West Bengal. Option A is wrong because Odisha hosts the Mayurbhanj style, not Seraikela. Option C is wrong because West Bengal hosts the Purulia style. Option D is wrong because Chhattisgarh has its own folk forms such as Panthi and Raut Nacha but no Chhau style. Jharkhand's other performing traditions, Paika, Jhumar, Domkach and Karma, are asked alongside Chhau. A further point worth carrying is that Chhau grew out of martial exercise and is danced chiefly around the spring Chaitra Parva festival, which is why its vocabulary of steps still resembles mock combat; the Seraikela style is also noted for the delicacy of its masks, which are made locally.

The correct answer is B, Devprayag. Devprayag in Tehri Garhwal district is the last of the Panch Prayag, and below it the united stream is known as the Ganga; the Bhagirathi comes from the Gangotri glacier at Gaumukh and the Alaknanda from the Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers. Option A is wrong because Rudraprayag is where the Mandakini, which drains the Kedarnath valley, joins the Alaknanda. Option C is wrong because Karnaprayag is the confluence of the Alaknanda with the Pindar, which rises from the Pindari glacier. Option D is wrong because Vishnuprayag is the first prayag, where the Dhauliganga meets the Alaknanda near Joshimath. Nandprayag, on the Nandakini, is the fifth of the set. All five prayags except Devprayag lie in Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts, and examiners test the river name against the town name, so learn the pairs Dhauliganga with Vishnuprayag, Nandakini with Nandprayag, Pindar with Karnaprayag, Mandakini with Rudraprayag and Bhagirathi with Devprayag.

The correct answer is B, Veer Narayan Singh. The zamindar of Sonakhan opened grain stores for a famine stricken countryside during the revolt of 1857, was arrested for it, and was hanged at Raipur, which is why he is honoured as the first martyr of Chhattisgarh. Option A is wrong because Gundadhur led the Bhumkal rebellion of 1910 in Bastar against forest and revenue policy, half a century later. Option C is wrong because Birsa Munda led the Munda rising in the Chotanagpur region of present day Jharkhand at the close of the nineteenth century, and the state of Jharkhand was formed on his birth anniversary. Option D is wrong because Pandit Sundarlal Sharma was a social reformer and the pioneer of the demand for a separate Chhattisgarh, not a figure of 1857.

The correct answer is A, the Gulf of Kachchh in Gujarat, where the Marine National Park was the first of its kind in India, protecting coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass, sponges and a rich bird life across a group of islands. Option B is wrong because the Gulf of Mannar off Tamil Nadu is famous as a biosphere reserve with great marine diversity, and it is the option most often chosen by mistake. Option C is wrong because the Gulf of Khambhat, on the other side of the Saurashtra peninsula, has heavy tides and silt and holds no marine national park. Option D is wrong because the Gulf of Aden lies between Yemen and Somalia, outside India altogether. Keep the pairing clear: first marine national park in the Gulf of Kachchh, marine biosphere reserve in the Gulf of Mannar.

The correct answer is C, the Calcutta High Court. It was established in 1862 under the Indian High Courts Act of 1861, a few days before the High Courts at Bombay and Madras, which makes it the oldest in the country; its jurisdiction also extends beyond the state to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Option A is wrong because the Bombay High Court, though set up in the same year under the same Act, came after Calcutta. Option B is wrong for the same reason in the case of the Madras High Court. Option D is wrong because the Allahabad High Court was established later, in 1866, and had its seat first at Agra. The trio created under the 1861 Act, with Calcutta first, is the standard form of this question.

The correct answer is B, Chilika Lake. Chilika, spread along the coast of the Puri, Khordha and Ganjam districts, is the largest brackish water lagoon in India, cut off from the Bay of Bengal by a long sandbar. It was one of the first two Indian wetlands listed under the Ramsar Convention, in 1981, it holds the Nalabana Bird Sanctuary on an island of reeds, and the waters near Satapada are known for Irrawaddy dolphins. Option A is wrong because Kolleru, in Andhra Pradesh between the Krishna and the Godavari, is a freshwater lake. Option C is wrong because Pulicat, on the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu coast, is a brackish lagoon but the second largest, not the largest. Option D is wrong because Anshupa, an oxbow lake near the Mahanadi in Cuttack district, is the largest freshwater lake of Odisha and a much smaller water body.

The correct answer is A, East Singhbhum. The Jaduguda mine in the Singhbhum belt began operating in the late nineteen sixties and is India's first and best known uranium mine, worked by the Uranium Corporation of India Limited, whose headquarters is also in the district; the same belt holds the copper mines around Ghatsila and Mosaboni. Option B is wrong because Koderma is the centre of the mica belt and is called the mica capital of India. Option C is wrong because Palamu is known for its tiger reserve and for its old forts. Option D is wrong because Sahebganj lies in the Santhal Pargana on the Ganga and is known for stone quarrying. Jharkhand's mineral questions almost always ask the district, so pair uranium with East Singhbhum, mica with Koderma and coal with Dhanbad.

The correct answer is B, tin. The Bastar belt carries cassiterite, the primary ore of tin, and Chhattisgarh is the only state in the country from which primary tin ore is mined, which makes it a favourite one-line fact for objective papers. Option A is wrong because copper comes chiefly from Jharkhand, from the Singhbhum belt, as well as from Madhya Pradesh at Malanjkhand and from Rajasthan at Khetri. Option C is wrong because zinc comes overwhelmingly from Rajasthan, from the Zawar and Rampura Agucha mines, where it occurs with lead. Option D is wrong because lead likewise comes mainly from Rajasthan, as zinc and lead ores are found together there. Chhattisgarh is better known for iron ore from Bailadila, coal from Korba and large deposits of bauxite, dolomite and limestone, but the tin fact is the one that distinguishes it.