Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 3

The correct answer is A, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand. All three came into being within a fortnight in November 2000: Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh on 1 November, Uttarakhand, then named Uttaranchal, from Uttar Pradesh on 9 November, and Jharkhand from Bihar on 15 November.

Option B swaps one of them for Telangana, which was created much later, on 2 June 2014. Option C names the states of 1987: Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh on 20 February and Goa on 30 May. Option D names the three north-eastern states that became full states together on 21 January 1972 under the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971. Group the years in your notes as 1972, 1987, 2000 and 2014, each with its set of states, and keep the parent state beside each name, because a question often asks which existing state a new one was carved out of rather than the year.

The correct answer is C, Sardar Hukam Singh. The Parliamentary Committee headed by Sardar Hukam Singh, then Speaker of the Lok Sabha, examined the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state and recommended the division of Punjab. The Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 followed, and on 1 November 1966 Haryana became a separate state while the hill districts went to Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh was made a Union Territory serving as the shared capital.

Option A, Lal Bahadur Shastri, was Prime Minister until January 1966 and did not head such a committee. Option B, Indira Gandhi, was Prime Minister when the Act was passed but again headed no committee on the question. Option D, Sir Chhotu Ram, was a peasant leader of the region who died in 1945, long before the reorganisation. A related name worth keeping is the Shah Commission, which drew the actual boundaries after the committee reported.

The correct answer is C, Uttar Pradesh. The deep alluvial soil of the Ganga plain, the canal network of the western districts and a long growing season have made the state the leading producer of sugarcane in the country, and its western belt around Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur holds a large share of the sugar mills. The state is also among the largest producers of wheat and potato.

Option A, Maharashtra, is the second great sugarcane state and leads in the recovery of sugar from the cane, which is why it is the most tempting alternative. Option B, Karnataka, grows a large crop in its northern districts but comes well behind the first two. Option D, Tamil Nadu, gets a high yield for each hectare but grows the crop on a much smaller area.

The correct answer is B, 1950. The province was called the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh and then simply the United Provinces, and the name was changed to Uttar Pradesh on 24 January 1950, two days before the Constitution came into force. The new name was welcomed partly because it kept the initials of the old one, so that existing seals and records did not have to be redone.

Option A, 1947, is the year of independence, when the province still carried its old name. Option C, 1956, is the year of the States Reorganisation Act, which redrew many boundaries but did not rename this state. Option D, 2000, is the year the hill districts of the state were separated to form Uttarakhand, then called Uttaranchal, which is a division rather than a renaming.

The correct answer is B, Ganga and Gandak. Sonepur in Saran district stands at Harihar Kshetra, where the Gandak comes down from the north and joins the Ganga opposite Patna. The fair begins after Kartik Purnima, lasts for weeks and has long been a market for cattle, horses and elephants as well as a place of pilgrimage at the Harihar Nath temple.

Option A names the Sone, which joins the Ganga from the south further west, near Patna, but not at Sonepur. Option C names the Kosi, which joins the Ganga far to the east in the Katihar region. Option D names two northern rivers that do not meet at this place. The pairing of the fair with the Gandak confluence is the detail the question tests.

The correct answer is B, Kosi. The Kosi rises in Nepal, carries an enormous load of Himalayan silt and keeps raising its own bed, so it spills over and abandons its channel again and again. It has shifted its course far to the west over the last two centuries and floods a wide belt of northern Bihar almost every year, which is how it earned the name.

Option A, the Sone, joins the Ganga from the south and is the largest southern tributary in the state; it does not behave in this way. Option C, the Falgu, flows past Gaya and is famous for the Pitrapaksha rites rather than for floods. Option D, the Punpun, is another southern river of the Ganga basin. Note the parallel names asked in the same papers: the Damodar is the Sorrow of Bengal and the Hwang Ho the Sorrow of China.

The correct answer is B, Kalbelia. Kalbelia is the dance and song tradition of the Kalbelia community of snake charmers of Rajasthan. The women dance in black swirling skirts with movements that recall a serpent, to the be en and the khanjari played by the men, and the songs are composed on the spot. UNESCO inscribed the Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan on its representative list of intangible cultural heritage.

Option A, Ghoomar, is the most widely known Rajasthani dance and is performed in a circle with the veil held low, but it does not carry this inscription. Option C, Bhavai, is the balancing dance in which the performer dances with several pots on the head. Option D, Gair, is the men's dance of the Bhils performed at Holi. All four are Rajasthani, so only the UNESCO listing separates them.

The correct answer is C, Chambal. The Chambal enters Rajasthan from Madhya Pradesh and flows north and then east through deep ravines, carrying water through the year, which makes it the only perennial river of the state and also its longest. The Rana Pratap Sagar and Jawahar Sagar dams stand on it, and the Chambal ravines are a protected area for the gharial.

Option A, the Luni, dries in stretches and is saline in its lower course. Option B, the Banas, flows entirely within Rajasthan but is seasonal, filling after the monsoon and thinning in summer. Option D, the Ghaggar, is a lost river whose dry bed passes Kalibangan and disappears in the sands of Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar. Rajasthan's dependence on the Chambal and on canal water follows directly from this.

The correct answer is B, Ladakh. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 took effect on 31 October 2019 and replaced the former state with two Union Territories. Ladakh, made up of the Leh and Kargil districts, was constituted without a legislative assembly and is administered by a Lieutenant Governor.

Option A, Jammu and Kashmir, is the other Union Territory created by the same Act, and it does have a legislative assembly, which is exactly the contrast the question tests. Option C, Puducherry, has had a legislature since long before this Act and is not its creation. Option D, Chandigarh, is a Union Territory without a legislature, but it was created in 1966 when Punjab was divided, not in 2019. Remember that a Union Territory with a legislature is the exception, and only a handful have one.

The correct answer is C, Article 3. It allows Parliament to form a new state by separation of territory, to unite two or more states, to increase or diminish the area of a state and to alter its boundaries or its name. Such a bill may be introduced only on the recommendation of the President, who must first refer it to the legislature of the state affected for its views, and those views do not bind Parliament.

Option A, Article 1, only describes India as a Union of States and names the territory. Option B, Article 2, lets Parliament admit into the Union or establish new states, which concerns territory not already part of India, and is the trap in this question. Option D, Article 5, deals with citizenship at the commencement of the Constitution and has nothing to do with the map. Remember Article 4 as well, which is why a reorganisation law needs only a simple majority.

The correct answer is B, Prayagraj, the city formerly called Allahabad. Uttar Pradesh is one of the few states where the High Court does not sit in the capital: its principal seat is at Prayagraj and it has a bench at Lucknow, an arrangement that goes back to the merger of the courts of Agra and Oudh. Examiners like the question precisely because the split is unusual.

Option A, Lucknow, is the capital of the state and the seat of the bench, so it is the answer most candidates give. Option C, Kanpur, is the largest industrial city of the state and has no High Court. Option D, Varanasi, is a centre of learning and pilgrimage but has no High Court either. Remember the pair: Lucknow is the capital, Prayagraj is the seat of the High Court.

The correct answer is A, Dudhwa National Park. It lies in Lakhimpur Kheri district along the border with Nepal and protects the tall grassland and sal forest of the Terai. It is the home of the barasingha, the swamp deer that is the state animal of Uttar Pradesh, and also of tigers and rhinoceros. Nearby Pilibhit is a well known tiger reserve of the same belt.

Option B, Jim Corbett, is the trap most often chosen, because it was the first national park of India and lay in Uttar Pradesh before the year 2000; it went to Uttarakhand when that state was formed. Options C and D, Kanha and Bandhavgarh, are both in Madhya Pradesh and are famous tiger parks of the central Indian highlands, far from the Terai.

The correct answer is A, Bhagalpur. The sanctuary covers a stretch of the Ganga in the Bhagalpur district and is set aside for the Gangetic dolphin, which is the national aquatic animal of India and is nearly blind, hunting by echolocation. The same district holds the ruins of Vikramshila, the monastic university founded by the Pala king Dharmapala, from which the sanctuary takes its name.

Option B, Begusarai, holds Kanwar Lake, a large freshwater wetland, and the Barauni refinery, but not this sanctuary. Option C, Muzaffarpur, is known for its Shahi litchi, which carries a Geographical Indication. Option D, Rohtas, in the south, holds Sasaram and the Rohtasgarh fort. Tie the dolphin to Bhagalpur and the litchi to Muzaffarpur, since both pairs are asked often.

The correct answer is A, Valmiki National Park. It lies in the West Champaran district on the border with Nepal, in the basin of the Gandak, and forms the core of the Valmiki Tiger Reserve, the only tiger reserve of the state. Its forests are the eastern end of the Himalayan foothill belt and hold tiger, leopard, sloth bear and a rich bird life.

Option B, Betla National Park, is in the Palamu district of Jharkhand, which was part of Bihar until 2000, and it is the commonest wrong answer for this reason. Option C, Dudhwa National Park, is in Uttar Pradesh on the same Nepal border, which makes it a natural confusion. Option D, Kanha National Park, is in Madhya Pradesh and is far from the region altogether.

The correct answer is A, Nagaur. The Makrana quarries in Nagaur district have produced white marble for centuries, and it is the marble used in the Taj Mahal at Agra and in the Victoria Memorial at Kolkata. Nagaur is also where Panchayati Raj was inaugurated in 1959 and is known for its cattle fair.

Option B, Jhunjhunu, holds the Khetri copper mines, historically important enough that Swami Vivekananda's patron ruled from there. Option C, Udaipur, holds the Zawar mines, the oldest known zinc smelting site in India. Option D, Bhilwara, is a textile centre and has mica and other minerals. The mineral to district pairs asked most often are marble with Makrana in Nagaur, copper with Khetri in Jhunjhunu and zinc with Zawar in Udaipur.

The correct answer is B, the Rann of Kutch. The Luni rises in the Aravallis near Ajmer, flows south west across the desert districts of Marwar, grows saline as it picks up salts from the soil, and ends in the marshes of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat without reaching open sea. Its name comes from lavanavari, meaning salt water, and it is the main river of western Rajasthan.

Option A is wrong because the Luni is a river of inland drainage and has no mouth on the Arabian Sea. Option C is wrong because the Luni never meets the Chambal, which flows on the other side of the Aravallis; the Banas is the river that joins the Chambal. Option D is wrong because no Rajasthan river drains east to the Bay of Bengal. Sabarmati, Mahi and Luni are the western rivers, and only the Mahi and the Sabarmati reach the Gulf of Khambhat.

The correct answer is A, Govind Ballabh Pant. He led the government of the United Provinces before independence and continued as the first Chief Minister of the state after it, staying in office through the renaming of 1950. He later became Home Minister of India and was awarded the Bharat Ratna. At the same time Sarojini Naidu was the first Governor of the state and the first woman Governor in the country.

Option B, Sampurnanand, and option C, Chandra Bhanu Gupta, both became Chief Minister later and are genuine names from the same period, which is what makes them useful distractors. Option D, Sucheta Kripalani, holds a different and often asked distinction: she became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1963 and was the first woman Chief Minister of any Indian state.

The correct answer is B, Muzaffarpur. The Shahi litchi of the Muzaffarpur belt in northern Bihar is known for its thin skin, small stone and high sugar, and it received a Geographical Indication tag in recognition of the link between the fruit and the alluvial soil and climate of that tract. Muzaffarpur is often called the land of litchi for this reason.

Option A, Gaya, is known for Bodh Gaya, the Vishnupad temple and the Pitrapaksha Mela, not for litchi. Option C, Darbhanga, belongs to the Mithila region and is associated with Madhubani painting and makhana cultivation. Option D, Nalanda, holds the ruins of the ancient university, Pawapuri, and Silao, whose khaja sweet carries its own Geographical Indication. Each district here has a real claim to fame, which is why the question is worth reading closely.

The correct answer is B, Sawai Jai Singh II. Sawai Jai Singh II of the Kachhwaha house moved his seat from the hill fort of Amber to the plain and founded Jaipur in 1727. The city was laid out on a grid of nine blocks by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, and Jai Singh, an astronomer as well as a ruler, built the Jantar Mantar observatories at Jaipur, Delhi, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura. The walled city and the Jantar Mantar are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Option A, Rana Kumbha, was a fifteenth century ruler of Mewar who built Kumbhalgarh. Option C, Maharaja Man Singh of Amber, was Akbar's general who led the Mughal force at Haldighati, more than a century before Jaipur was built. Option D, Maharana Pratap, ruled Mewar and is connected with Haldighati and Chittorgarh, not with Jaipur. The pink wash that gave Jaipur its nickname came much later, in 1876.

The correct answer is B, Kathak. The name comes from the katha or story that the wandering storytellers of northern India told through gesture, and the form took its present shape in the temples of Braj and the courts of Lucknow and Jaipur. Its marks are the fast turns, the intricate footwork counted out on the ankle bells and the close conversation between the dancer and the drummer.

Option A, Odissi, belongs to Odisha and is built on the sculptural poses of its temples. Option C, Mohiniyattam, is a graceful solo form from Kerala. Option D, Sattriya, comes from the monasteries of Assam founded by Sankaradeva. Along with Kathak, the folk traditions of Uttar Pradesh include Nautanki, Raslila and the Charkula dance of the Braj region.