Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 4

The correct answer is B, Chitrakoot. Khabar Lahriya was started in 2002 in the Chitrakoot region of Uttar Pradesh, which lies in the Bundelkhand belt. It was run by a group of Dalit women who had learnt to read and write as adults, and it was brought out in Bundeli, the local dialect, so that newly literate readers in villages could follow it. Its eight pages carried reports on caste violence, corruption in village works, police inaction and the shortage of water, stories that big city papers usually left out. NCERT's Class 7 social and political life book uses it as an example of local media run by ordinary people rather than by a big company. A is wrong because Agra is known for the Taj Mahal and its leather work, not for this paper. C is wrong because Jhansi lies in the same Bundelkhand belt but the paper did not begin there. D is wrong because Mirzapur is a carpet weaving centre on the Ganga. Exam tip: Khabar Lahriya, Chitrakoot, 2002, written in Bundeli by Dalit women.

The correct answer is B, Fazl Ali. The States Reorganisation Commission was appointed in December 1953 with Fazl Ali as chairman, and it submitted its report in 1955. It accepted language as an important test but not the only one, and recommended that the classification of units into Part A, B, C and D states be given up.

Option A, S. K. Dhar, headed the Linguistic Provinces Commission of 1948, which advised against redrawing provinces on language, so he belongs to the earlier stage of the story. Options C and D, K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru, were the two other members of the Fazl Ali Commission and are placed here because candidates who remember the three names often cannot say which of them chaired it. The chain to learn is Dhar 1948, JVP 1949, Fazl Ali 1953 to 1955, Act 1956.

The correct answer is B, Sasaram. Sher Shah Suri was born in this town of the Rohtas district and his octagonal tomb of red sandstone stands on a platform in the middle of an artificial lake, one of the finest works of Indo Islamic architecture of the period. He ruled for five years, built the Grand Trunk Road, issued the silver rupiya and organised a postal system.

Option A, Patna, was renamed Pataliputra to Patna in his time and holds Takht Sri Harmandir Ji, the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh, but not his tomb. Option C, Rajgir, is the old Magadhan capital in the Nalanda district, known for its hot springs and the first Buddhist Council. Option D, Vaishali, is the Licchavi capital and a Jain and Buddhist site. Only Sasaram carries both his birth and his burial.

The correct answer is B, Bodh Gaya. The Buddha attained enlightenment under the bodhi tree on the bank of the Falgu at Bodh Gaya in the Gaya district. The Mahabodhi Temple Complex that stands there is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and is the most visited Buddhist site in India.

Option A, Sarnath, near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, is where he preached his first sermon, and its Lion Capital gave India its State Emblem. Option C, Kushinagar, also in Uttar Pradesh, is where he attained mahaparinirvana. Option D, Lumbini, in Nepal, is his birthplace. The four sites are asked together as a set, so fix them in that order: birth at Lumbini, enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, first sermon at Sarnath and death at Kushinagar.

The correct answer is B, Jaisalmer. Pokhran lies in Jaisalmer district in the Thar desert and was the site of the underground nuclear test of 1974, code named Smiling Buddha, and of the series of tests in May 1998 carried out as Operation Shakti, after which India declared itself a nuclear weapon state. The remoteness and the dry rock of the region were the reasons for the choice.

Option A, Barmer, is an oil and gas district and holds part of the Desert National Park, but not the test site. Option C, Bikaner, is known for its fort, its camel breeding farm and the Karni Mata temple at Deshnoke. Option D, Churu, has the Tal Chhapar blackbuck sanctuary. All four are western desert districts, so the question is answered only by knowing that Pokhran belongs to Jaisalmer.

The correct answer is A, Rajasthan. Sambhar Lake lies west of Jaipur, spread over parts of Jaipur, Nagaur and Ajmer districts. It is the largest inland saline lake in the country, a major source of common salt, a Ramsar site, and a winter feeding ground for flamingos and other migratory birds.

Option B, Gujarat, has Nal Sarovar and the salt flats of the Rann, but these are not the same as Sambhar. Option C, Odisha, has Chilika, which is the largest brackish water lagoon in India, joined to the sea, and therefore not an inland saline lake. Option D, Andhra Pradesh, has Kolleru and Pulicat, both of them freshwater or brackish coastal lakes. The pair to fix is Sambhar as the largest inland saline lake and Chilika as the largest brackish lagoon.

The correct answer is B, Bhopal. Bhopal is the capital of Madhya Pradesh and the seat of its Vidhan Sabha and secretariat. It is called the city of lakes because of the Upper and Lower Lakes at its centre, and it holds the Van Vihar National Park within the city limits. It is also remembered for the gas leak on the night of 2 and 3 December 1984, the worst industrial disaster in the country.

Option A, Indore, is the largest city of the state and its commercial centre, which is why many candidates mark it. Option C, Jabalpur, is the seat of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh and lies on the Narmada near the marble rocks of Bhedaghat. Option D, Gwalior, is known for its hill fort and for the tomb of Tansen. Only Bhopal is the capital, and the pair to remember is Bhopal for government and Jabalpur for the High Court.

The correct answer is B, sarus crane. It is the tallest flying bird in the world, stands over a metre and a half high, has a grey body with a bare red head and neck, and is found in the wetlands and flooded fields of the state. The pair stays together for life, which is why it appears so often in the folklore of the region, and it was chosen as the state bird of Uttar Pradesh.

Option D, the Indian peafowl, is the national bird of India and so is the easiest mistake to make here. Option C, the great Indian bustard, is the state bird of Rajasthan and is now extremely rare. Option A, the Indian roller, is the state bird of some other states and is a smaller blue bird of open country. Along with the sarus crane, remember the barasingha as the state animal, the ashoka as the state tree and the palash as the state flower.

The correct answer is B, 1 November 1966. On that day the Hindi speaking districts of the former Punjab were separated to form Haryana, which became the seventeenth state of India, while Chandigarh was made a union territory serving as the capital of both states. The day is observed every year as Haryana Day, and 1966 is the single most asked fact about the state.

Option A, 1 November 1956, is the day the States Reorganisation Act came into force, which reshaped many states but not Haryana. Option C, 1 May 1960, is the day Bombay State was divided into Maharashtra and Gujarat. Option D is the date of independence itself. Candidates often confuse 1956 with 1966 because both fall on 1 November, so the decade must be remembered carefully.

The correct answer is B, 1960. The reorganisation of 1956 had left a bilingual Bombay State with Marathi and Gujarati speakers together. Agitation by the Samyukta Maharashtra movement and the Mahagujarat movement led to the Bombay Reorganisation Act, and on 1 May 1960 the state was divided into Maharashtra with Bombay as its capital and Gujarat with Ahmedabad as its first capital.

Option A, 1956, is the year the States Reorganisation Act created the bilingual state rather than divided it. Option C, 1963, is the year Nagaland became a state, on 1 December. Option D, 1966, is the year Punjab was divided and Haryana was formed, on 1 November. Both states keep 1 May as their formation day, so the date is easy to confirm, and note that Gandhinagar became the capital of Gujarat only later.

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 B, Champaran Satyagraha. Gandhi went to Champaran in northern Bihar in 1917 at the repeated request of the cultivator Raj Kumar Shukla, to look into the tinkathia system under which peasants had to grow indigo on a fixed part of their holding for European planters. The enquiry committee that followed ended the system, and the episode made Gandhi a national figure.

Option A, the Kheda Satyagraha, came in 1918 in Gujarat and was about the refusal to remit land revenue after a failed harvest. Option C, the Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928, also in Gujarat, was led by Vallabhbhai Patel, who won the title Sardar for it. Option D, the Dandi March of 1930, was the salt satyagraha and came much later. Only Champaran was both the first and in Bihar.

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 A, Nagaur in Rajasthan. Acting on the report of the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee, Rajasthan became the first state to introduce Panchayati Raj, and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated it at Nagaur on 2 October 1959, Gandhi Jayanti. Andhra Pradesh followed later the same year, which is why it is the usual second answer.

Option B, Shadnagar in Andhra Pradesh, is where that state launched its own Panchayati Raj in November 1959, after Rajasthan. Option C, Jaipur, is the capital and a natural guess, but the inauguration was deliberately held in a rural district. Option D, Gandhinagar, did not exist as a city in 1959 and Gujarat itself was formed only in 1960. Note also that Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh worked with three tiers before the 73rd Amendment made them uniform in 1992.

The correct answer is C, 2000. Chhattisgarh became a separate state on 1 November 2000, taking sixteen districts from the eastern part of Madhya Pradesh, with Raipur as its capital. Two other states were created in the same year, Uttarakhand out of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand out of Bihar. After the division Madhya Pradesh lost its place as the largest state of India by area and became the second largest, after Rajasthan.

Option A, 1956, is the year Madhya Pradesh itself was formed under the States Reorganisation Act, on 1 November. Option B, 1972, is the year Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura became full states. Option D, 2014, is the year Telangana was separated from Andhra Pradesh. Note that both the formation of Madhya Pradesh and the creation of Chhattisgarh fall on 1 November, which is the detail a paper setter uses.

The correct answer is C, Kushinagar. The Buddha died there, an event described as the mahaparinirvana, and the town in eastern Uttar Pradesh keeps the Mahaparinirvana temple with its long reclining image of the Buddha, along with a stupa raised over his relics. It is one of the four places every Buddhist pilgrim is asked to visit.

Option A, Sarnath near Varanasi, is where the Buddha gave his first sermon after enlightenment, the event called the turning of the wheel of law, and it holds the Dhamek Stupa; it is in Uttar Pradesh but stands for a different event. Option B, Bodh Gaya, is in Bihar and is the place of his enlightenment. Option D, Lumbini, is in Nepal and is his birthplace. The four events, birth, enlightenment, first sermon and death, go with Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar in that order.

The correct answer is C, Shah Commission. The commission headed by Justice J. C. Shah was appointed in 1966 to decide how the Punjab should be divided on a linguistic basis, and its report fixed which districts and tehsils would go to Haryana, which would remain with Punjab and which would form Chandigarh and the hill areas transferred to Himachal Pradesh. The Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 gave effect to it.

Option A, the Dhar Commission of 1948, examined the demand for linguistic provinces soon after independence and advised against it. Option B, the commission under Fazl Ali, produced the report of 1955 that led to the States Reorganisation Act of 1956. Option D, the Sarkaria Commission of the 1980s, examined relations between the Union and the states and has no connection with the formation of Haryana.

The correct answer is A, Amarkantak. The Narmada rises at Amarkantak on the Maikal range in Anuppur district and flows westward through a rift valley lying between the Vindhya range in the north and the Satpura range in the south. Because it flows through a rift rather than over a broad plain, it ends in an estuary in the Gulf of Khambhat instead of building a delta. The Son river also rises at Amarkantak but flows east to join the Ganga.

Option B, Multai in Betul district, is the source of the Tapti, the other large westward flowing river of the peninsula. Option C, the Janapav hills near Mhow in Indore district, is the source of the Chambal, which flows north to the Yamuna. Option D, Bhedaghat near Jabalpur, is not a source at all but the place on the Narmada where the Dhuandhar falls cut through marble rocks.

The correct answer is B, Bhagwat Dayal Sharma. He took office as the first Chief Minister when the state was created on 1 November 1966, and Dharma Vira was its first Governor. Sharma later served as Governor of other states as well, and a medical university at Rohtak carries his name, which is a useful way to fix the fact in memory.

Option A, Bansi Lal, became Chief Minister later and is remembered for the electrification and irrigation drive in the state, but he was not the first. Option C, Devi Lal, was Chief Minister in the nineteen seventies and eighties and afterwards Deputy Prime Minister of India. Option D, Rao Birender Singh, was the second Chief Minister of Haryana, which makes him the closest trap in this question. The order to remember is Sharma first, then Rao Birender Singh.

The correct answer is B, Barasingha. Kanha National Park, spread over the Mandla and Balaghat districts, is famous for bringing the hard ground barasingha, or swamp deer, back from the edge of extinction. The barasingha is the state animal of Madhya Pradesh, and Kanha is the only home of this particular hard ground variety. The park is also a well known tiger reserve and its forests are associated with the setting of the jungle book stories.

Option A, the Asiatic lion, survives in the wild only in the Gir forest of Gujarat. Option C, the one horned rhinoceros, is found in Kaziranga and other parks of Assam and in the Terai. Option D, the snow leopard, lives in the high Himalaya, in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim. None of these three is linked with the forests of central India.