Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 23

The correct answer is A, Sukaphaa. Sukaphaa was a Tai prince who crossed the Patkai range and established the Ahom kingdom in 1228; it lasted about six hundred years, the longest unbroken rule by any Indian dynasty of the medieval period, and 2 December is observed in Assam in his memory. Option B, Rudra Singha, is wrong; he was a powerful later Ahom king of the early eighteenth century under whom the kingdom reached a cultural peak. Option C, Gadadhar Singha, is wrong because he too was a later Ahom ruler, of the late seventeenth century. Option D, Naranarayana, is wrong since he was a king of the Koch dynasty, the rival power to the west, and his general was Chilarai. Only the founder's name answers a question about 1228.

The correct answer is B, Dispur. Dispur is the seat of the Assam government and lies within the larger city of Guwahati, which is why the two are so often confused. Option A, Guwahati, is the commonest wrong answer; it is the largest city of the state and of the whole north-east, the seat of the Gauhati High Court and the site of the Kamakhya temple, but it is not the capital in name. Option C, Jorhat, is wrong; it is known for the Tocklai Tea Research Institute and as the gateway to Majuli. Option D, Silchar, is wrong because it is the chief town of the Barak valley in southern Assam. A useful way to hold this is that Dispur is a locality of Guwahati, so the capital sits inside the largest city.

The correct answer is D, Article 371H. It makes the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh specially responsible for law and order in the state, a responsibility he discharges on his individual judgment after consulting the Council of Ministers, and it provides that the Legislative Assembly shall consist of not less than thirty members. Option A, Article 371A, is wrong; that is the well-known provision for Nagaland, protecting Naga religious practices, customary law and land. Option B, Article 371F, is wrong; it was inserted by the Thirty-sixth Amendment for Sikkim when it joined the Union in 1975. Option C, Article 371G, is wrong; it is the matching provision for Mizoram. A further point examiners add is that although Arunachal Pradesh is largely tribal, it is not covered by the Sixth Schedule, which applies in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

The correct answer is C, Itanagar. Itanagar stands in Papum Pare district at the foot of the hills and has been the seat of government since the territory was being readied for statehood. Its name comes from Ita Fort, a brick fort of about the fourteenth or fifteenth century that still stands in the town, ita meaning brick. Option A, Pasighat, is wrong; founded in 1911 on the Siang in East Siang district, it is the oldest town of the state, which is why it is offered here. Option B, Tawang, is wrong; it is the home of Tawang Monastery, the largest in India, and of the sector that saw the fighting of 1962, but it is a district headquarters in the far north-west. Option D, Ziro, is wrong; it is the Apatani valley in Lower Subansiri, known for its paddy-cum-fish fields. Naharlagun is the railhead for Itanagar and Donyi Polo Airport at Hollongi serves it.

The correct answer is A, the Treaty of Yandabo of 1826. It ended the First Anglo-Burmese War, and under it the Burmese gave up their claims to Assam, Manipur, Arakan and Tenasserim, so Assam came under the East India Company. Option B is wrong; the Treaty of Amritsar of 1846 transferred Kashmir to Gulab Singh after the First Anglo-Sikh War. Option C is wrong because the Treaty of Bassein of 1802 brought the Peshwa into subsidiary alliance and precipitated the Second Anglo-Maratha War. Option D is wrong since the Treaty of Allahabad of 1765 followed the Battle of Buxar and settled affairs with the Mughal emperor and the Nawab of Awadh. Yandabo is the one to remember for the north-east, because the same treaty also brought Manipur and Arakan into the British sphere.

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, Namdapha National Park. Namdapha lies in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh near the Myanmar border, is the largest national park in north-east India, and is famous as the one protected area said to hold four big cats: the tiger, the leopard, the snow leopard and the clouded leopard. Option A, Kaziranga, is wrong; it is the one-horned rhinoceros park of Assam, on the Brahmaputra, and a World Heritage Site. Option C, Manas, is wrong; it too lies in Assam, on the border with Bhutan, and is both a tiger reserve and a World Heritage Site. Option D, Keibul Lamjao, is wrong; it is the floating park on Loktak lake in Manipur, home of the sangai deer. Mouling in Upper Siang is the second national park of Arunachal Pradesh, and Pakke and Kamlang are its other tiger reserves.

The correct answer is D, the Mandovi. Panaji, also called Panjim, stands on the left bank of the Mandovi, known in Goa as the Mhadei, near the point where the river meets the Arabian Sea; Old Goa lies a short way upstream on the same river. Option A, the Zuari, is wrong although it is the largest river of the state; Mormugao port and the town of Vasco da Gama lie at its mouth, not the capital. Option B, the Terekhol, is wrong; it is the small river on the northern border with Maharashtra, with the Terekhol fort at its mouth. Option C, the Sal, is wrong; it is a short river in South Goa near Mobor and Betul. Remember also that the Dudhsagar Falls are on the Mandovi and that the Cumbarjua canal joins the Mandovi to the Zuari.

The correct answer is B, Assam. Sattriya grew in the sattras, the Vaishnava monasteries founded by Srimanta Sankardeva in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, many of them on the river island of Majuli, and it was recognised as a classical dance of India in 2000, the most recent addition to the list. Option A, Manipur, is wrong; Manipuri is itself a classical dance and was recognised much earlier, which makes it the likeliest wrong choice among north-eastern states. Option C, Odisha, is wrong because its classical dance is Odissi. Option D, Kerala, is wrong since Kathakali and Mohiniyattam belong to Kerala. Note that Bihu, the best known dance of Assam, is a folk dance of the spring festival and not the classical one, so a question that asks for the classical dance of Assam is never answered with Bihu.

The correct answer is A, Chavundaraya. The figure of Gommateshwara, also called Bahubali, stands about fifty-seven feet high on Vindhyagiri hill at Shravanabelagola in Hassan district and was raised by Chavundaraya, a minister and general of the Western Ganga kingdom, towards the end of the tenth century. It is anointed in the Mahamastakabhisheka ceremony once in twelve years. Option B is wrong because Krishnadevaraya was a Vijayanagara emperor of a much later age, associated with Hampi. Option C is wrong because Vishnuvardhana was the Hoysala king who built the Chennakeshava temple at Belur. Option D is wrong because Pulakeshin II was the Chalukya ruler of Badami who defeated Harshavardhana, and he built no monument at this Jain centre. Shravanabelagola is the chief Jain pilgrimage centre of the south, and the hill facing Vindhyagiri, called Chandragiri, carries still older Jain temples and inscriptions.

The correct answer is B, China. The McMahon Line was drawn at the Simla Convention of 1914 between British India and Tibet and is named after Sir Henry McMahon, then foreign secretary of the Government of India. It runs along the crest of the eastern Himalaya and forms the northern boundary of Arunachal Pradesh with Tibet, now part of China; China has never accepted it, and the war of 1962 was fought along it at Namka Chu, Se La and Walong. Option A, Myanmar, is wrong; the eastern boundary of Arunachal Pradesh with Myanmar is a different line, crossed at Pangsau Pass on the old Stilwell Road. Option C, Bhutan, is wrong; Bhutan lies to the west of the state and its boundary has its own history. Option D, Nepal, is wrong; Nepal does not touch Arunachal Pradesh at all, Sikkim and West Bengal lying between them.

The correct answer is A, Ulgulan. The word means the great tumult, and it is the name given to the movement Birsa Munda led in the Chhotanagpur region in 1899 and 1900 against landlords, moneylenders, missionaries and the colonial administration, demanding the restoration of tribal land rights; Birsa died in Ranchi jail in June 1900, and the agitation contributed to the passing of the Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act in 1908. Option B is wrong because Hul is the name of the Santhal rebellion of 1855 and 1856. Option C is wrong because Fituri refers to tribal risings in the Andhra region. Option D is wrong because the Kol Uprising of 1831 and 1832, led by figures such as Buddhu Bhagat, came earlier and involved the Kol tribes. Keep Hul with the Santhals and Ulgulan with the Mundas.

The correct answer is B, Digboi. Digboi in the Tinsukia district is where oil was first struck in India in the late nineteenth century, and the refinery built there is the oldest in the country still working. Option A, Duliajan, is wrong but is closely related, because it is the headquarters of Oil India Limited, the public sector company that produces crude in upper Assam. Option C, Numaligarh, is wrong; its refinery was commissioned much later as part of the Assam Accord commitments. Option D, Bongaigaon, is wrong since that refinery and petrochemical complex in lower Assam also belongs to a later period. For the first public sector refinery in India, the answer is Guwahati, commissioned in the early nineteen sixties, so Assam supplies the answer to three separate refinery questions and the place names must be kept apart.

The correct answer is A, Teejan Bai. She is the best known performer of Pandwani, the sung narration of the Mahabharata, which has two styles, Kapalik and Vedamati, and she carried the form from village gatherings to stages abroad; she has received the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan. Option B is wrong because Ritu Verma is also a noted Pandwani singer of the state but has not been given the Padma Vibhushan. Option C is wrong because Habib Tanvir of Raipur was a towering figure of Indian theatre, who built Naya Theatre on the folk form Nacha and wrote Charandas Chor, but he belongs to theatre rather than Pandwani. Option D is wrong because Minimata was a political figure, the first woman member of Parliament from the region, and not a performer.

The correct answer is B, the sixth Dalai Lama. Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama and a celebrated poet, was born at Urgelling monastery, a short way from the town of Tawang, which is why the Tawang valley holds so important a place in Tibetan Buddhism. Option A is wrong, though it is a tempting choice; the fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, was born in Tibet, and Tawang Monastery was founded in the 1680s by Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso in accordance with his wishes. Option C is wrong; the thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, was also born in Tibet. Option D is wrong; the fourteenth Dalai Lama was born in Taktser in Amdo and entered India through Tawang in 1959, which is the fact students confuse with birth. Tawang Monastery, called Galden Namgey Lhatse, is the largest in India.

The correct answer is A, 1757. The battle was fought on 23 June 1757 at Palashi in the Nadia region, where Robert Clive defeated Siraj ud Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, largely through the defection of Mir Jafar, and the victory made the Company the real power in Bengal. Option B is wrong because 1764 is the year of the Battle of Buxar, fought in Bihar against the combined forces of Mir Qasim, Shuja ud Daulah and Shah Alam the Second, which led to the grant of the Diwani in 1765. Option C is wrong because 1772 is when Warren Hastings became Governor of Bengal. Option D is wrong because 1793 is the year of the Permanent Settlement introduced by Lord Cornwallis. Keep the sequence Plassey, Buxar, Diwani, Permanent Settlement in order.

The correct answer is A, Deepor Beel. Deepor Beel is a permanent freshwater lake on the south-western edge of Guwahati, a former channel of the Brahmaputra, and it was designated a Ramsar site in 2002; it is an important resting place for migratory birds and for elephants moving between forest patches. Option B, Chandubi Lake, is wrong; it is a natural lake in the Kamrup district formed after an earthquake, and it is a tourist spot rather than a Ramsar site. Option C, Son Beel, is wrong although it is one of the largest wetlands of the Barak valley. Option D, Haflong Lake, is wrong because it is a hill lake in Dima Hasao. Remember Deepor Beel with Guwahati, since the question is usually framed around the capital region.

The correct answer is C, Apatani. Dree is the agricultural festival of the Apatani of the Ziro valley in Lower Subansiri district, kept in the middle of the year as a prayer against crop failure. The Apatani are known for terraced wet rice fields in which fish are raised along with the paddy, a landscape placed on UNESCO's tentative list of World Heritage Sites. Option A, Nyishi, is wrong; the Nyishi are the largest tribe of the state and their festival is Nyokum. Option B, Monpa, is wrong; the Monpa of Tawang and West Kameng are Tibetan Buddhists and keep Losar, the new year. Option D, Wancho, is wrong; the Wancho of Longding keep Oriah. The other pairs worth learning are Solung with the Adi, Mopin with the Galo, Si-Donyi with the Tagin, Reh with the Idu Mishmi and Sangken with the Khamti.

The correct answer is B, a river island on the Brahmaputra. Majuli is the state's great river island, long described as one of the largest in the world, and it is the centre of the sattra tradition founded by Srimanta Sankardeva, with the Raas Mahotsav among its best known festivals. Option A is wrong; the hill district of Dima Hasao has Haflong as its headquarters and no such island. Option C is wrong because the sanctuary on the Bhutan border is Manas, a tiger reserve and World Heritage Site, which is a different kind of place altogether. Option D is wrong since Jorhat is indeed the nearest mainland town and a tea centre, but Majuli is an island reached by ferry, not a valley. Note that Majuli shrinks steadily through erosion by the Brahmaputra.

The correct answer is D, Nepal. Arunachal Pradesh touches three countries and Nepal is not one of them; Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh lie along the Nepal border, far to the west. Option A, China, is a real neighbour; the northern boundary with Tibet follows the McMahon Line of the Simla Convention of 1914. Option B, Myanmar, is a real neighbour on the east, the boundary running through Changlang and Tirap and crossed at Pangsau Pass. Option C, Bhutan, is a real neighbour on the west, beside Tawang and West Kameng districts. Within India the state touches only Assam and Nagaland, and it has the longest international boundary of any north-eastern state. Bangladesh is the other wrong option often used in this question; it borders West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, but not Arunachal Pradesh.