Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 8

The correct answer is B, Asola Bhatti. The Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary lies on the southern Delhi Ridge, the last northern spur of the Aravalli range, and covers old mining land that has been restored to thorn forest. It is the only wildlife sanctuary of the territory, which has no national park at all, and it shelters nilgai, jackal, civet, porcupine and a large number of birds.

Option A, Sultanpur, is a national park in Gurugram district of Haryana and a Ramsar site, not a Delhi sanctuary. Option C, the Okhla bird sanctuary, lies on the Yamuna at the Delhi border but falls in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh. Option D, Surajpur, is a wetland in the same Uttar Pradesh district. Being close to Delhi is what makes all three good distractors.

The correct answer is B, Kerala. Kolathunadu, Valluvanad and Thekkumkoor were small medieval kingdoms, or swaroopams, of Kerala. Kolathunadu, ruled by the Kolathiri rajas, lay in north Malabar around present-day Kannur; Valluvanad spread over the Palakkad and Malappuram area and is remembered for the Mamankam festival at Tirunavaya; Thekkumkoor lay in the Kottayam region and was absorbed by Travancore under Marthanda Varma in the eighteenth century. Before unification, Kerala was split among such chiefdoms along with Travancore, Cochin and Calicut, and the present state was formed on 1 November 1956 from Travancore-Cochin and the Malabar district of Madras. Option A is wrong because Karnataka's old kingdoms were the Kadambas, Hoysalas and Vijayanagara. Option C is wrong because ancient Bihar was home to Magadha, Anga and Videha. Option D is wrong because Gujarat was ruled by the Solankis of Anhilwada and the Chaulukyas. Exam tip: names ending in nadu or koor in this list point to the medieval chiefdoms of Kerala.

The correct answer is B, Jyotirao Phule. Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj, the society of seekers of truth, at Pune in 1873, to work against caste discrimination and priestly authority and for the education of the lower castes and of women. With Savitribai Phule he opened some of the first schools for girls in the region, and his book Gulamgiri argued the case against caste bondage.

Option A, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, founded the Servants of India Society in 1905 and was the political guru of Gandhi. Option C, Dhondo Keshav Karve, worked for widow remarriage and founded a women's university. Option D, Vitthal Ramji Shinde, founded the Depressed Classes Mission. All four are reformers from the same state, so the exact organisation decides the answer.

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, 1 May 1960. On that day the bilingual State of Bombay was divided under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960 into a Gujarati speaking Gujarat and a Marathi speaking Maharashtra, so both states share their formation day. Option A is wrong because 1 November 1956 is the day the States Reorganisation Act came into force, which created states such as Kerala and Karnataka but kept Bombay bilingual. Option C is wrong because 1 April 1936 is the day Odisha was carved out as a separate province, a favourite distractor in this set. Option D is wrong because 15 August 1947 is Independence Day, when Gujarat was still part of Bombay Province and the princely states of Saurashtra and Kachchh were separate. The Mahagujarat movement was the agitation that led to the division.

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 B, 1 November 1966. On that day the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 came into force: Haryana was created as a separate state, the hill districts such as Kangra, Kullu and Shimla were transferred to Himachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh was made a Union Territory to serve as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana. The Punjabi Suba movement had demanded a state on a language basis and the Shah Commission drew the boundary. Option A is wrong because 1 November 1956 is the day the States Reorganisation Act came into force, when PEPSU merged into Punjab but Haryana did not exist. Option C is wrong because 1 May 1960 is the day Bombay State was divided into Gujarat and Maharashtra. Option D is wrong because 1 November 2000 is the formation day of Chhattisgarh, not of any Punjab settlement.

The correct answer is A, the Sixty-ninth Amendment Act of 1991. It inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB into the Constitution, renamed the union territory of Delhi as the National Capital Territory of Delhi and gave it a legislative assembly and a council of ministers, with the arrangement coming into force in February 1992. The assembly can legislate on the State and Concurrent Lists except on public order, police and land.

Option B, the Seventy-third Amendment of 1992, added Part IX and gave constitutional status to panchayats. Option D, the Seventy-fourth Amendment of the same year, did the same for municipalities, and the two are often confused with this one because their dates are close. Option C, the Sixty-first Amendment of 1988, lowered the voting age from twenty-one years to eighteen. Only the Sixty-ninth deals with Delhi.

The correct answer is B, Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq. The founder of the Tughlaq dynasty built Tughlaqabad in the early fourteenth century as the third of Delhi's historic cities, with massive sloping rubble walls on a rocky outcrop in the south of the present city. His own tomb stands on a causeway across what was once a reservoir beside the fort.

Option A, Muhammad bin Tughlaq, his son, built Jahanpanah, the city that enclosed the space between Siri and Qila Rai Pithora, and is better remembered for moving his capital to Daulatabad. Option C, Firoz Shah Tughlaq, built Firozabad with the citadel now called Firoz Shah Kotla and brought two Ashokan pillars to Delhi. Option D, Sikandar Lodi, shifted his capital to Agra, and the Lodi tombs in Delhi belong to his line.

The correct answer is C, Nagpur. Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra, but Nagpur was given the status of the second capital under the Nagpur Pact when Vidarbha joined the new state, and one session of the state legislature is held there every year, usually in winter, which is why it is called the winter capital. Nagpur also has the Zero Mile marker and the Deekshabhoomi.

Option A, Pune, was the seat of the Peshwas and is the cultural and education centre of the state, but it holds no capital status. Option B, Nashik, is known for the Kumbh at Trimbakeshwar, its grapes and the currency press. Option D, Kolhapur, is the city of the Mahalaxmi temple and of the Kolhapuri chappal. Each is a major city, but the second capital is Nagpur.

The correct answer is A, Amravati. Melghat lies in the Satpura hills of the Amravati district in Vidarbha, and it was among the first group of tiger reserves notified when Project Tiger began in 1973. The Gugamal National Park forms its core, the Tapi drains part of it, and the Korku people live in and around the forest. Melghat means the meeting of the ghats, a name that describes the folded hills of the reserve.

Option B, Chandrapur, is the district of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, the oldest national park of the state, and it is the strongest distractor here. Option C, Gadchiroli, is heavily forested but is not the seat of Melghat. Option D, Nagpur, is close to the Pench reserve, which is shared with Madhya Pradesh. Hold the pairing as Melghat with Amravati and Tadoba with Chandrapur.

The correct answer is A, Hisar. Rakhigarhi lies in the Hisar district on the dry bed of an old river course, and its mounds spread over a larger area than any other Harappan site in India, which makes it the biggest in the country. Excavations there have brought out planned streets, drains, a granary, bead workshops and burials, and the skeletons found in its cemetery have been used for studies of the ancestry of the Harappan people.

Option B, Fatehabad, holds Banawali, another important Harappan site of the state, and is the usual trap. Option C, Bhiwani, is near Mitathal, a smaller site of the same civilisation. Option D, Rohtak, has no major Harappan site, although Khokhrakot there has yielded remains of later periods. Remember the pairing Rakhigarhi with Hisar and Banawali with Fatehabad.

The correct answer is C, Gandhinagar. It is a planned city laid out in numbered sectors on the bank of the Sabarmati and named after Mahatma Gandhi, and it took over as capital after the state was formed. Option A is wrong, though it is the commonest mistake: Ahmedabad was the first capital of the new state and is still its largest city, its commercial centre and the seat of the Gujarat High Court, but not the capital. Option B is wrong because Surat, on the Tapi, is the centre of diamond polishing and textiles and was an important port of the Mughal period. Option D is wrong because Vadodara, the old Baroda of the Gaekwads, is a major industrial and cultural city but never the capital of the state. The pair to remember is first capital Ahmedabad, present capital Gandhinagar.

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.

The correct answer is B, Punjab and Haryana. Chandigarh was planned in the 1950s as the new capital of Punjab after Lahore went to Pakistan. When the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 split the state, the city was not divided: it was made a Union Territory administered by the Centre and left to serve as the capital of both the successor states. The two states also share a single High Court, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which sits at Chandigarh. Option A is wrong because the capital of Himachal Pradesh is Shimla, although Punjab's hill districts went to that state in 1966. Option C is wrong because Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan. Option D is wrong because Srinagar and Jammu are the seats of the Jammu and Kashmir administration.

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, 1966. Until then cases from Delhi went to the Punjab High Court, and a separate High Court for Delhi was set up in 1966 by an Act of Parliament, with jurisdiction that then extended over Delhi and for some years over other areas as well. It sits at Sher Shah Road in New Delhi.

Option A, 1950, is the year the Constitution came into force and the Supreme Court of India was inaugurated, which is the commonest confusion here. Option B, 1956, is the year of the States Reorganisation Act, under which Delhi became a union territory, and also the year the All India Institute of Medical Sciences was founded. Option D, 1991, is the year of the Sixty-ninth Amendment, which gave Delhi its legislative assembly.

The correct answer is A, Gharapuri. The island in Mumbai harbour that holds the Elephanta Caves is called Gharapuri locally, and the Portuguese named it Elephanta after a stone elephant found there. The caves are dedicated mainly to Shiva, and the great Trimurti bust in the main cave is their best known sculpture. UNESCO inscribed them on the World Heritage List in 1987.

Option B, Salsette, is the large island on which much of Mumbai and Thane stand. Option C, Butcher Island, is an oil terminal island in the same harbour. Option D, Madh, is a coastal locality in the north of Mumbai. All are places in or around the harbour, which is why they make good distractors, but Gharapuri is the island of the caves.

The correct answer is D, Gujarat. Its coast runs for about 1,600 km, longer than that of any other state, because the Saurashtra peninsula and the Kachchh region give it two deep gulfs, the Gulf of Kachchh in the north west and the Gulf of Khambhat in the south east. Option A is wrong because Tamil Nadu has a long eastern coastline but a shorter one than Gujarat. Option B is wrong because Andhra Pradesh has the longest coastline on the eastern seaboard yet still less than Gujarat. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra, with the Konkan coast, comes after both in length. Note the trap in the wording: among union territories and islands the answer would change, and the longest coastline of any state remains Gujarat.

The correct answer is D, Chenab. The name Punjab joins the Persian words panj, five, and ab, water, for the land watered by the Sutlej, the Beas, the Ravi, the Chenab and the Jhelum. Partition in 1947 divided the region along the Radcliffe Line and left the Chenab and the Jhelum in Pakistan, so the Chenab does not touch Indian Punjab at all; it flows through Jammu and Kashmir before crossing the border. The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 confirmed the split by allotting the eastern rivers to India and the western rivers, including the Chenab, to Pakistan. Options A, B and C are wrong because the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi all flow through or along Indian Punjab and feed its canal system, the Sutlej past Ludhiana, the Beas past Kapurthala and the Ravi along the Pakistan border.