Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 25

The correct answer is B, Meghalaya. The name is Sanskrit for the home of the clouds and was chosen for the new state in 1972 because of the rainfall of its southern slopes, which face the moist air coming off the Bay of Bengal and receive the heaviest rain in the country at Mawsynram and Cherrapunji. Option A is wrong; Mizoram is called the land of the highlanders or the land of the blue mountains, from Phawngpui, its highest peak. Option B being correct, option C is wrong; Manipur is called the jewelled land or, in a phrase of Jawaharlal Nehru, the jewel of India, from the valley ringed by hills. Option D is wrong; Sikkim is often described as the land of the thunderbolt or, in the Lepcha phrase, the valley of rice, and its mountain Kanchenjunga is the highest in India. These epithets are a standard source of questions in this part of the syllabus.

The correct answer is B, Imphal. Imphal lies in the valley at the centre of Manipur, surrounded by hills, and holds the Kangla Fort, the old seat of the Meitei kings, and Ima Keithel, the market run entirely by women. Option A is wrong; Aizawl is the capital of Mizoram, which stands on a long ridge and from which the Tropic of Cancer passes close by. Option C is wrong; Shillong is the capital of Meghalaya and was the capital of undivided Assam until 1972, when Meghalaya was separated and Assam moved its capital to Dispur. Option D is wrong; Kohima is the capital of Nagaland and is remembered for the battle fought there in 1944, though its nearness to Manipur makes it a natural distractor. Imphal is also where the Indian National Army campaign of 1944 was directed, and Moirang in the same state saw the flag raised in April of that year.

The correct answer is B, Agartala. Agartala lies close to the Bangladesh border in the west of the state and holds the Ujjayanta Palace, built by Maharaja Radha Kishore Manikya at the turn of the twentieth century and now the state museum; it is the second largest city of the north-east after Guwahati. Option A is wrong; Udaipur in Gomati district was an older capital of the Manikya kings and has the Tripura Sundari Temple, counted among the Shakti Peethas, which makes it a plausible choice for a candidate who remembers the temple. Option C is wrong; Kailashahar in the north of the state is the town nearest the rock carvings of Unakoti. Option D is wrong; Gangtok is the capital of Sikkim, offered here because the two states are studied in the same chapter. Note that Udaipur in Tripura is distinct from Udaipur in Rajasthan.

The correct answer is B, Lachit Borphukan. Saraighat was a naval battle fought on the Brahmaputra near Guwahati in 1671, in which the Ahom commander Lachit Borphukan defeated the Mughal force led by Ram Singh, and it ended Mughal ambitions in the Brahmaputra valley. Option A, Sukaphaa, is wrong; he founded the Ahom kingdom in 1228, more than four centuries before this battle, and Assam Day on 2 December commemorates him. Option C, Chilarai, is wrong because he was the general of the Koch kingdom in the sixteenth century, a different state and an earlier period, which makes him the most plausible wrong choice. Option D is wrong as it is not the name of a historical commander of this battle. The National Defence Academy awards a gold medal named after Lachit Borphukan.

The correct answer is B, Meghalaya. Mawsynram lies in the East Khasi Hills district, a short distance west of Cherrapunji, now called Sohra, and the two places between them hold the records for rainfall in the country; the moist air from the Bay of Bengal is forced up the steep southern face of the Khasi hills, cools and sheds its water in enormous quantity. Option A is wrong; Assam lies in the Brahmaputra valley, which is wet but nowhere near these figures, and its rainfall questions usually concern floods rather than records. Option C is wrong; Arunachal Pradesh is heavily watered and holds the largest forest cover among the north-eastern states, but its wettest stations do not approach Mawsynram. Option D is wrong; Nagaland has a hill climate of moderate rainfall. The pairing of Mawsynram and Cherrapunji with Meghalaya is one of the most frequently asked facts about the north-east.

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, Tripura. Neermahal stands in the middle of Rudrasagar Lake at Melaghar, about fifty kilometres from Agartala, and was built in the nineteen thirties by Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya as a summer palace; it mixes Hindu and Mughal elements with Islamic arches and is described as the only water palace in eastern India, the other in the country being the Jal Mahal at Jaipur. Option A is wrong; Nagaland has no palace of this kind, its historic architecture being the morung, the bachelors dormitory of a Naga village. Option C is wrong; Sikkim has the royal palace of the Chogyals at Gangtok and the Tsuklakhang monastery beside it. Option D is wrong; Manipur has the Kangla Fort at Imphal, the seat of the Meitei kings, which is the other royal site of the region and the usual distractor here.

The correct answer is B, Siang. The Yarlung Tsangpo of Tibet turns round the Namcha Barwa massif and enters India in Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang, also written Dihang; in Assam, after it is joined by the Lohit and the Dibang near Sadiya, it takes the name Brahmaputra, and in Bangladesh it is the Jamuna. Option A, Lohit, is wrong but is a real river of the state; it is one of the two tributaries that join the Siang to form the Brahmaputra, and Parasuram Kund stands on it. Option C, Barak, is wrong; the Barak, also called the Surma, drains southern Assam around Silchar and belongs to a different system altogether. Option D, Teesta, is wrong; it rises in Sikkim, flows through north Bengal and joins the Brahmaputra only in Bangladesh. The chain Tsangpo, Siang or Dihang, Brahmaputra, Jamuna is worth memorising as a single line.

The correct answer is A, Meghalaya. In the Khasi and Jaintia hills villagers train the aerial roots of the Indian rubber fig across streams and let them thicken over decades into bridges that strengthen with age rather than rotting, as a wooden bridge would in that rainfall; the double-decker bridge at Nongriat near Cherrapunji is the best known of them and they are called jingkieng jri locally. Option B is wrong; Mizoram is known for its bamboo, its Cheraw dance and the Blue Mountain, not for root bridges. Option C is wrong; Manipur is known for Loktak Lake and the floating national park, which is the other living landscape of the north-east and is sometimes confused with this one. Option D is wrong; Tripura is known for Neermahal, the water palace, and the rock carvings of Unakoti. The root bridges are among the features proposed for World Heritage listing.

The correct answer is C, the Kaveri. The Kallanai, called the Grand Anicut by the British, was built across the Kaveri near Tiruchirappalli by the early Chola king Karikala, and it still spreads the river's water across the delta of Thanjavur, which is why that delta is called the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu. Option A is wrong because the Vaigai, the river of Madurai, carries the Vaigai dam of the twentieth century and no ancient anicut of this kind. Option B is wrong because the Thamirabarani flows through Tirunelveli in the far south and is associated with the Papanasam dam. Option D is wrong because the Palar, which enters the state from Karnataka and passes Vellore, is a seasonal river. On the Kaveri the Mettur dam and its Stanley Reservoir are the modern works.

The correct answer is A, Tripura. Unakoti is a hillside near Kailashahar in the north of the state covered with huge rock-cut images of Shiva, Ganesha, Nandi and others, carved into the rock face and dated to roughly the seventh to ninth centuries; the name comes from the legend that Shiva passed the night here with ninety-nine lakh ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine companions, all turned to stone at daybreak. Option B is wrong; the great rock-cut and stone sites of Odisha are the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves and the Konark and Lingaraja temples. Option C is wrong; Nagaland has no comparable rock sculpture, its heritage being in textiles, wood carving and the stone monoliths of some villages. Option D is wrong; Assam has the stone sculpture of Madan Kamdev and the Ahom monuments of Sivasagar, but the carvings of Unakoti are distinctly Tripura.

The correct answer is A, the Mandovi. The Dudhsagar Falls, a drop of roughly 310 metres in four tiers, are on the Mandovi river in the Western Ghats near the Goa and Karnataka border, inside the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary; the name means sea of milk, from the white sheet the water makes in the monsoon. Option B, the Zuari, is wrong although it is the largest river of the state and carries Mormugao port at its mouth. Option C, the Sal, is wrong; it is a small river of South Goa with no such fall. Option D, the Chapora, is wrong; it is a northern river with a Portuguese fort at its mouth. Note that the same river, the Mandovi, carries the capital Panaji, which makes it the single most examinable river of Goa.

The correct answer is B, the Garos. Wangala is the post-harvest festival of the Garo people of the western hills of Meghalaya, held in autumn in thanksgiving to Misi Saljong, the giver of the harvest, and it takes its popular name from the long drums played in rows; the Khasis of the same state hold Nongkrem and Shad Suk Mynsiem, and the Jaintias hold Behdienkhlam. Option A is wrong; the Mizos hold Chapchar Kut in spring, with the Cheraw bamboo dance, and Mim Kut and Pawl Kut later in the year. Option C is wrong; the Meiteis of the Manipur valley hold Lai Haraoba, Yaoshang and Ningol Chakouba, the festival at which married daughters are invited home. Option D is wrong; the Angamis of Nagaland hold Sekrenyi, and the Nagaland festival best known outside the state is the Hornbill Festival at Kisama each December.

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, Tripura. Kokborok, whose name means the language of the people, is spoken by the Tripuri and related communities and is an official language of the state along with Bengali and English; it belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family, unlike Bengali, which is Indo-Aryan, and the two sit side by side in the state. Option A is wrong; the languages of Sikkim are Nepali, Sikkimese or Bhutia, Lepcha and Limbu, with several more recognised by the state. Option B is wrong; the official language of Nagaland is English, and Nagamese, a creole based on Assamese, is the common speech between tribes that do not share a tongue. Option D is wrong; Meghalaya has Khasi and Garo alongside English. Keeping Kokborok with Tripura and Meiteilon with Manipur solves most of the language questions set on this region.

The correct answer is C, the Red Fort Complex. Shah Jahan built the fort between 1639 and 1648 as the citadel of his new capital Shahjahanabad, and it was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2007. The Prime Minister raises the national flag and speaks from its ramparts on Independence Day, and its buildings include the Diwan-i-Aam, the Diwan-i-Khas, the Rang Mahal and the Moti Masjid.

Option A, the Qutub Minar and its monuments, and option B, Humayun's Tomb, were both inscribed earlier, in 1993, and are the two older Delhi entries. Option D, the Jantar Mantar of Delhi, is not on the list at all; it is the Jantar Mantar of Jaipur that was inscribed, in 2010. So Delhi has three World Heritage Sites in all, two from 1993 and one from 2007.

The correct answer is B, 20 February 1987. Mizoram became the twenty-third state of India on that day under the fifty-third amendment of the Constitution, and Arunachal Pradesh became the twenty-fourth state on the same date. Option A is wrong for statehood but is a real date in the story: on 21 January 1972 the Mizo hills district of Assam was separated as the Union Territory of Mizoram, which it remained for fifteen years. Option C is wrong as the date of statehood, though it is the date of the Mizo Peace Accord, signed on 30 June 1986 between the Government of India and the Mizo National Front, which made statehood possible; a careless reader picks it. Option D is wrong; 1 December 1963 is the statehood day of Nagaland. The useful pairing to carry into the hall is 1972 for the Union Territory, 1986 for the accord and 1987 for the state.

The correct answer is C, 1975. Sikkim had been a kingdom under the Chogyals of the Namgyal dynasty, with India responsible for its defence and external affairs; the thirty-fifth amendment of 1974 made it an associate state, and after a referendum in April 1975 the thirty-sixth amendment made it the twenty-second state of India with effect from 16 May 1975, inserting Article 371F at the same time. Option A is wrong; 1963 is the year Nagaland became the sixteenth state. Option B is wrong; 1972 is the year Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura became full states and Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh became Union Territories. Option D is wrong; 1987 is the year Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh became states and also the year Goa became the twenty-fifth state, which makes it a crowded year and a tempting guess.

The correct answer is A, the Mizo National Front. The Front had grown out of the famine relief committee formed during the Mautam of the nineteen fifties and had been in armed revolt since 1966 under Laldenga; the accord signed on 30 June 1986 ended the insurgency, gave the territory statehood and brought Laldenga into office as chief minister, and it is widely regarded as the most durable accord of its kind in India. Option B is wrong; the Mizo Union was the earlier political party that worked within the system from the nineteen forties and had dissolved long before. Option C is wrong; the National Socialist Council of Nagaland is a Naga organisation, with which a ceasefire was agreed in 1997 and a framework agreement in 2015. Option D is wrong; the United Liberation Front of Asom is an Assamese organisation, and the Assam Accord of 1985 was signed with the All Assam Students Union, not with it.

The correct answer is B, Kanchenjunga. At 8,586 metres it stands on the border of Sikkim and Nepal, is the highest peak in India and the third highest in the world after Everest and K2, and is worshipped as a guardian deity in Sikkim, which is why climbers stop short of the actual summit. Option A is wrong; Nanda Devi in Uttarakhand, at 7,816 metres, is the highest peak lying wholly within Indian territory, a distinction that makes this question tricky and that is itself asked separately. Option C is wrong; Mount Saramati on the Nagaland and Myanmar border is the highest peak of Nagaland but only around 3,826 metres. Option D is wrong; Anamudi in the Western Ghats of Kerala, about 2,695 metres, is the highest peak of peninsular India and of South India, a different superlative altogether.