Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 26

The correct answer is C, Mizoram. In the Cheraw, pairs of men sit facing each other and tap long bamboo staves together in rhythm while dancers step in and out of the closing bamboos; it is performed above all at Chapchar Kut, the spring festival held when the cleared jhum fields are waiting to be burnt, and it is the best known dance of the state. Option A is wrong; the dance of Manipur is the Manipuri classical form, with the Ras Leela and the drum dance Pung Cholom, and its martial art is Thang-ta. Option B is wrong; Meghalaya has the Nongkrem dance and Shad Suk Mynsiem of the Khasis and the Wangala drumming of the Garos. Option D is wrong; Tripura has the Hojagiri, danced by Reang women balancing on earthen pitchers, which is the other north-eastern dance commonly offered in these options and is easy to confuse with the Cheraw.

The correct answer is C, Manipur. Keibul Lamjao lies in the southern part of Loktak Lake and rests on phumdis, floating mats of soil, roots and decaying vegetation thick enough to carry animals and even huts; nowhere else in the world is a national park built on such a surface. It was created to protect the sangai, the brow-antlered deer that is the state animal of Manipur. Option A is wrong; the national parks of Meghalaya are Nokrek and Balphakram, both in the Garo hills and both on solid ground. Option B is wrong; Assam has Kaziranga and Manas, famous for the one-horned rhinoceros and for the tiger reserve on the Bhutan border, but no floating park. Option D is wrong; Mizoram has Phawngpui Blue Mountain National Park and Murlen National Park, which lie in high hill country.

The correct answer is C, Sikkim. The state began phasing out chemical fertilisers and pesticides in the mid two thousands, converted its whole cultivated area to certified organic management, and was declared India first fully organic state in 2016; the policy won a Future Policy Gold Award from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Future Council in 2018, the first time an Indian state had received it. Option A is wrong; Nagaland practises jhum cultivation over much of its hill land and has moved towards organic certification for particular crops, but not as a whole state. Option B is wrong; Tripura is known for rubber, bamboo and tea rather than for an organic policy. Option D is wrong; Mizoram, like other hill states, has a low use of chemical inputs, which makes it a plausible guess, but the declaration and the award belong to Sikkim.

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 C, 31 October 2019. The Act was passed by Parliament in August 2019 but the appointed day on which the former State ceased to exist and the two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and of Ladakh came into being was 31 October 2019. Option A is wrong because 5 August 2019 is the date of the Presidential Orders by which Article 370 and Article 35A ceased to operate; the reorganisation followed later. Option B is wrong because 9 August 2019 is the date the Act received the President’s assent, which is not the same as its commencement. Option D is wrong because 26 January 2020 is the day on which Dadra and Nagar Haveli merged with Daman and Diu, an unrelated reorganisation. Keep 5 August, 9 August and 31 October apart, because papers use all three as options.

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, Article 239. It lays down the basic rule that a Union Territory is administered by the President acting through an Administrator appointed by him with such designation as the President may specify, which is why some Administrators are styled Lieutenant Governor. Option B is wrong because Article 239A, inserted by the Fourteenth Amendment Act of 1962, lets Parliament create a legislature and a Council of Ministers for Puducherry. Option C is wrong because Article 240 gives the President power to make regulations for the peace, progress and good government of the named Union Territories. Option D is wrong because Article 241 allows Parliament to constitute a High Court for a Union Territory, failing which the Territory falls under a neighbouring State’s High Court. All four lie in Part VIII of the Constitution.

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, Mizoram. Article 371G, inserted when the state was created in 1986, provides that no Act of Parliament about the religious or social practices of the Mizos, Mizo customary law and procedure, the administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Mizo customary law, or the ownership and transfer of land shall apply to Mizoram unless the Legislative Assembly so decides by resolution. Option A is wrong; the corresponding provision for Nagaland is Article 371A, the model on which the Mizoram article was drafted. Option B is wrong; Manipur has Article 371C, which provides for a committee of the Assembly for the hill areas. Option D is wrong; Sikkim has Article 371F, inserted by the thirty-sixth amendment in 1975. Learning the sequence as A for Nagaland, C for Manipur, F for Sikkim, G for Mizoram and H for Arunachal Pradesh prevents the usual confusion.

The correct answer is A, Waghora. The Ajanta Caves were cut into a steep scarp above a horseshoe bend of the Waghora river, a small stream in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district. They are Buddhist caves, both chaityas and viharas, and their wall paintings on themes from the Jataka stories are the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian painting. UNESCO inscribed them on the World Heritage List in 1983.

Option B, the Godavari, is the longest river of the state but flows well away from the site. Option C, the Tapi, runs westward through Khandesh to the Arabian Sea. Option D, the Bhima, is a tributary of the Krishna that flows past Pandharpur. The distractors are all real Maharashtra rivers, which is why the small Waghora must be remembered by name.

The correct answer is A, Sikkim. Yuksom, in the west of the state, is where three Tibetan lamas consecrated Phuntsog Namgyal as the first Chogyal in 1642, founding the dynasty that ruled until 1975; the name means the meeting place of three learned ones, and the Norbugang throne and the nearby Dubdi monastery mark the spot. The capital later moved to Rabdentse, then to Tumlong and finally to Gangtok. Option B is wrong; Nagaland had no monarchy of this kind, each village being governed by its own council. Option C is wrong; Arunachal Pradesh was the North East Frontier Agency administered from Shillong before Itanagar was built. Option D is wrong; the Manikya kings of Tripura ruled first from Udaipur and later from Agartala, which is the capital sequence to keep separate from this one.

The correct answer is B, the Solankis, also called the Chalukyas of Gujarat, who ruled from Anhilwad Patan and built the temple to Surya at Modhera with its stepped tank, assembly hall and sanctum aligned so that light falls within it. Option A is wrong because the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan are remembered for the rock cut Kailasa temple at Ellora. Option C is wrong because the Palas ruled Bengal and Bihar and are associated with Buddhist monasteries such as Vikramshila and with the Pala school of art. Option D is wrong because the Gaekwads were Maratha rulers of Baroda in a much later period and had no part in the temple. The Solanki period is also the period of Rani ki Vav, so the two monuments are often paired in a question.

The correct answer is B, Ladakh. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 gave the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir a Legislative Assembly but made Ladakh a Union Territory without a legislature, administered by a Lieutenant Governor. Ladakh’s local representation comes instead through the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh, created in 1995, and of Kargil, created in 2003. Option A is wrong because Jammu and Kashmir is one of the Union Territories that does have an Assembly, along with Delhi and Puducherry. Option C is wrong because only one of the two has an Assembly. Option D is wrong because Jammu and Kashmir has one. Remember the list of Union Territories with legislatures: Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir. Delhi gets its Assembly from Article 239AA and Puducherry from Article 239A, while the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly comes from the Reorganisation Act of 2019 itself, so the three rest on three different provisions.

The correct answer is B, Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, who founded the settlement around the sacred tank that gave the city its name. Option C is wrong, though close: Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, completed the Harmandir Sahib and installed the Adi Granth in it in 1604, but the city itself was his predecessor's foundation, and examiners set these two against each other. Option D is wrong because Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru, raised the Akal Takht facing the Harmandir Sahib and gave the community its martial turn. Option A is wrong because Guru Angad Dev, the second Guru, is remembered for standardising the Gurmukhi script, not for founding Amritsar. Maharaja Ranjit Singh later covered the shrine in gold, which is why it is known as the Golden Temple.

The correct answer is B, Barren Island. Barren Island, in the Andaman Sea about one hundred and forty kilometres north-east of the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is the only active volcano in India and in South Asia, and it has erupted several times in recent decades. Option A is wrong because Narcondam Island, further north-east, is a dormant volcano and is also known for the Narcondam hornbill, found nowhere else. Option C is wrong because Saddle Peak in North Andaman is the highest point of the Territory and not a volcano. Option D is wrong because Indira Point at the southern tip of Great Nicobar is the southernmost point of India. Papers pair Barren with active and Narcondam with dormant, so keep the two names apart.

The correct answer is C, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers. The Nanda Devi National Park was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1988 and the Valley of Flowers National Park was added as an extension in 2005, so the two are listed together as one site in Chamoli district. Option A is wrong because neither Rajaji nor Jim Corbett carries the World Heritage tag, although Corbett is the oldest national park in the country. Option B is wrong because Gangotri and Govind Pashu Vihar are ordinary national parks of the upper Bhagirathi and Tons basins. Option D is wrong because it pairs a listed park with an unlisted one. The Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh is the other Himalayan site on the list.

The correct answer is B, the Jhelum. Wular lake lies in Bandipora district of the Kashmir valley and is fed and drained by the Jhelum, which rises at Verinag and is known locally as the Vyeth; the lake acts as a natural flood basin for the river and is a Ramsar site. Option A is wrong because the Chenab flows through the Jammu division and carries the Salal, Baglihar and Dulhasti projects, but feeds no lake of this kind. Option C is wrong because the Indus flows through Ladakh and is associated with Pangong Tso’s region only by proximity, not by drainage, as Pangong is a closed brackish lake. Option D is wrong because the Ravi flows along the Jammu division towards Punjab. The pair to memorise is Wular with the Jhelum, as examiners offer the Indus as the distractor.

The correct answer is A, the Andaman group from the Nicobar group. The Ten Degree Channel runs roughly along the tenth parallel of north latitude, between Little Andaman to its north and Car Nicobar to its south, and it is a busy shipping lane. Option B is wrong because the Eight Degree Channel separates Lakshadweep from the Maldives. Option C is wrong because the Nine Degree Channel separates Minicoy from the rest of Lakshadweep. Option D is wrong because the Coco Channel lies between North Andaman and the Coco Islands of Myanmar. Learn the four channels as a ladder by latitude: Eight Degree between Lakshadweep and the Maldives, Nine Degree around Minicoy, Ten Degree between Andaman and Nicobar, and the Duncan Passage between South Andaman and Little Andaman.

The correct answer is B, the Hangul or Kashmir stag. Dachigam, which lies just east of Srinagar and whose name means ten villages, is the last stronghold of the Hangul, the only red deer found in India. Option A is wrong because the markhor, a wild goat with spiral horns, is protected mainly in Kazinag National Park in Baramulla district and the Hirapora sanctuary. Option C is wrong because the snow leopard is associated with Hemis National Park in Ladakh and the high Himalaya rather than with Dachigam, although it does occur in the upper reaches. Option D is wrong because the black-necked crane breeds on the Changthang plateau of Ladakh and is protected in the Changthang Cold Desert Wildlife Sanctuary and at the Ramsar wetlands of Tso Moriri and Tso Kar.

The correct answer is C, Kavaratti. Kavaratti is the capital and administrative headquarters of Lakshadweep, which is India’s smallest Union Territory by area and its only group of coral atolls. Option A is wrong because Androth is the largest island of the group and the nearest to the mainland, but not the capital. Option B is wrong because Agatti is the island with the airport, which makes it the gateway for air travellers, again not the capital. Option D is wrong because Minicoy, known as Maliku, is the southernmost inhabited island and is distinct in language, its people speaking Mahl written in the Thaana script while the rest of Lakshadweep speaks the Jeseri dialect of Malayalam. Judicially the Territory falls under the Kerala High Court.