Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 26

The correct answer is B, Siddha. AYUSH expands as Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, so the letters stand for five traditional systems in which the S is Siddha, the Tamil system of medicine associated with the Siddhars of south India. Option A is wrong because surgery is a branch of modern allopathic practice and is not one of the AYUSH systems, though Sushruta is remembered in Ayurveda for surgical technique. Option C is a real system, Sowa-Rigpa of the Himalayan region, which the ministry also looks after and which is sometimes written into the longer form, but it is not what the S of the acronym itself stands for. Option D is wrong because spa therapy is not a recognised system of medicine in India at all.

The correct answer is A, Bengal Gazette. The Bengal Gazette, also called the Calcutta General Advertiser and popularly known as Hicky's Gazette, was started by James Augustus Hicky in 1780 and is the first newspaper published in India. It attacked senior officials of the East India Company and was suppressed within two years. Option B is wrong because Samachar Darpan, brought out from Serampore in 1818, is the first newspaper in an Indian language, Bengali, but not the first newspaper in the country. Option C is wrong because Bombay Samachar, started in Gujarati in 1822 by Fardunjee Marzban, is the oldest newspaper in India still in print, a different distinction. Option D is wrong because Udant Martand of 1826 is the first Hindi newspaper. All four carry a first, so read the stem closely.

The correct answer is C, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Azad launched the Urdu weekly Al-Hilal in 1912 to carry the nationalist argument to Urdu readers and to oppose the separatist politics of the time. When the paper was proscribed under the press laws he started Al-Balagh in 1915. Option A is wrong because Mohammad Ali Jauhar founded the English weekly Comrade in 1911 and the Urdu daily Hamdard in 1913. Option B is wrong because Zafar Ali Khan edited the Urdu paper Zamindar from Lahore, which was also repeatedly penalised. Option D is wrong because Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of the Aligarh movement, belongs to an earlier generation and is associated with the journal Tahzib-ul-Akhlaq, not with Al-Hilal. Azad later became the first Education Minister of independent India. The title Al-Hilal means the crescent, and the paper's circulation was large enough for the government to treat it as a serious threat.

The correct answer is B, Unity, Faith, Sacrifice. The Indian National Army took 'Ittehad, Etmad, Qurbani' as its motto, and those three words mean unity, faith and sacrifice.

Subhas Chandra Bose reorganised the INA at Singapore in 1943 and gave it the war cry 'Jai Hind' and the marching song 'Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja'. The army had a women's regiment named after Rani Lakshmibai, which was led by Captain Lakshmi Sahgal.

Option A, Unity and Discipline, is the motto of the National Cadet Corps. Option C, Do or Die, was Gandhi's call to the people in the Quit India Movement of 1942. Option D, Service before self, is a general service slogan and was not the motto of the INA.

Exam tip: INA — motto Ittehad, Etmad, Qurbani; slogan Jai Hind; founded 1942 and reorganised by Bose in 1943.

The correct answer is B, Bega Begum, the widow of Humayun. Bega Begum, also called Haji Begum because she had made the pilgrimage to Mecca, had the tomb built at Delhi from about 1565 and engaged the Persian architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyas for it. It is the earliest surviving charbagh tomb in India and the ancestor of the Taj Mahal, and it was the first Mughal building to use red sandstone with white marble inlay on this scale. Option A is wrong because Akbar was a boy when his father died and the credit in the chronicles goes to the widow, not the son. Option C is wrong because Nur Jahan belonged to Jahangir's reign two generations later and built the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah at Agra. Option D is wrong because Sher Shah Suri was Humayun's rival, and his own tomb stands at Sasaram in Bihar.

The correct answer is D, Foreign Policy of India. Panchsheel is the name given to the five principles that guide India's conduct towards other countries.

The five are mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. They were written into the preamble of the agreement on trade and intercourse with the Tibet region of China, signed by Jawaharlal Nehru and Zhou Enlai on 29 April 1954. The word itself comes from Buddhist usage, where the five rules of conduct are called panchsheel, and these principles later fed into the non-aligned movement.

A is wrong: the Fundamental Duties were added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976 and now number eleven. B is wrong: NITI Aayog is a policy think tank set up in 2015 and has nothing to do with this term. C is wrong: inter-state relations are dealt with in Articles 261 to 263 of the Constitution.

Exam tip: Panchsheel means the five principles signed by Nehru and Zhou Enlai on 29 April 1954, the base of India's non-alignment.

The correct answer is B, the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra and the Moskva. BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile built by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya, and its name joins the Brahmaputra of India with the Moskva of Russia, the river that runs through Moscow. It can be fired from land, ships, submarines and aircraft. Option A is wrong because Brahmastra and Mosaic form no part of the name, although Brahmastra appears in mythology. Option C is wrong because the name honours the two countries and not individuals. Option D is wrong because there is no Brahma Modular System; the missile is named for geography, which is the point the question tests.

The correct answer is C, France and Germany. The Maginot Line was the chain of concrete forts that France built along its border with Germany.

It is named after Andre Maginot, the French war minister who pushed the project through, and it was built in the 1930s after the First World War to stop another German invasion. The line was deep, heavily armed and widely thought to be impregnable, but it covered only the German frontier. In 1940 the German army simply went around its northern end through the Ardennes in Belgium and France fell in six weeks, which is why a Maginot Line is now a byword for a defence that is strong in the wrong place.

A is wrong: no such line divides Namibia and Angola. B is wrong: the United States and Canada are separated by the 49th Parallel. D is wrong: the Germany and Poland boundary is the Oder Neisse Line, fixed after the Second World War.

Exam tip: Maginot Line is France and Germany, while the Siegfried Line was Germany's own answering line of defences.

The correct answer is A, Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Ram Mohan Roy brought out Mirat-ul-Akhbar in Persian from 1822, besides the Bengali Sambad Kaumudi from 1821, and he closed the Persian journal in protest when the Licensing Regulations of 1823 required a licence to print. He also petitioned against those regulations, which is why he is counted among the first defenders of press freedom in India. Option B is wrong because Devendranath Tagore led the Brahmo Samaj after Roy and is associated with the journal Tattvabodhini Patrika. Option C is wrong because Harish Chandra Mukherjee edited the Hindu Patriot, which exposed the oppression of indigo planters in Bengal. Option D is wrong because Fardunjee Marzban started the Gujarati paper Bombay Samachar in 1822. Sambad Kaumudi is also the paper through which Roy campaigned against sati before its abolition in 1829.

The correct answer is C, San Francisco Conference. The Charter of the United Nations was signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945, at the close of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, by the delegates of fifty nations; Poland signed a little later and so the organisation began with fifty-one original members. The Charter came into force on 24 October 1945, once the five permanent members of the Security Council and a majority of the others had ratified it, and that day is kept as United Nations Day. The name United Nations was coined by President Franklin Roosevelt. Option A is wrong because The Hague is the seat of the International Court of Justice, not the place of signing. Option B is wrong because London is where the General Assembly held its first session, in January 1946. Option D is wrong because no United Nations conference was held at Berlin. Exam tip: signed 26 June 1945 at San Francisco and in force from 24 October 1945.

The correct answer is B, Muhammad Adil Shah. The Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur in Karnataka is the tomb of Muhammad Adil Shah of the Adil Shahi dynasty and was finished in about 1656. Its single chamber is covered by a dome of roughly forty-four metres in external diameter, among the largest masonry domes anywhere, and the whispering gallery below it carries sound right around the drum. Option A is wrong because Ibrahim Adil Shah II built the Ibrahim Rauza at Bijapur, a smaller and more finely carved tomb that is often called the Taj Mahal of the Deccan. Option C is wrong because Yusuf Adil Shah founded the dynasty in 1489 and did not build this tomb. Option D is wrong because Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah belonged to the rival Qutb Shahi house of Golconda and built the Charminar at Hyderabad.

The correct answer is A, 1962. The Sino-Indian War was fought between 20 October and 21 November 1962, when China attacked across the Himalayan frontier. The fighting ran in two separate theatres, Aksai Chin in Ladakh in the west and the North East Frontier Agency, today Arunachal Pradesh, in the east. China declared a unilateral ceasefire on 21 November 1962 and kept Aksai Chin. Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister and the reverses cost Defence Minister V. K. Krishna Menon his post; the war pushed India to enlarge its army and raise mountain divisions trained for high altitude. Option B is wrong because no India-China war took place in 1969. Option C is wrong because 1973 is remembered for the Kesavananda Bharati judgment and the launch of Project Tiger, not a war. Option D is wrong because 1964 is the year Nehru died. Exam tip: 1962 with China, 1965 and 1971 with Pakistan, 1999 Kargil.

The correct answer is B, Lord Lytton. The Vernacular Press Act was passed in 1878 under Lord Lytton and applied only to newspapers printed in Indian languages, not to English papers, which is why it was called the Gagging Act. The Amrita Bazar Patrika escaped it by turning itself into an English paper overnight. Option A is wrong because Lord Ripon is remembered for repealing the Act in 1882, along with the Local Self Government Resolution and the Hunter Commission on education. Option C is wrong because Lord Curzon's name goes with the partition of Bengal in 1905 and the Indian Universities Act of 1904. Option D is wrong because Lord Dufferin was Viceroy when the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885. Lytton is also associated with the Delhi Durbar of 1877 and the Arms Act of 1878.

The correct answer is A, ₹2,000. Section 141 of the Electricity Act, 2003 deals with the extinguishing of public lamps and says that whoever maliciously puts out a public lamp shall be punished with a fine which may extend to two thousand rupees. The Act replaced the earlier laws of 1910, 1948 and 1998 and brought the generation, transmission, distribution and trading of electricity under one statute; its neighbouring sections cover offences such as theft of electricity under Section 135 and damage to electrical works. The amount here is a ceiling, so a court may impose less. B is wrong because three thousand rupees is not the limit fixed by this section. C is wrong because the section makes no mention of two thousand five hundred rupees. D is wrong because five thousand rupees is higher than the maximum the section allows. Exam tip: Electricity Act, 2003 - Section 135 theft of electricity, Section 141 extinguishing public lamps with a fine up to ₹2,000.

The correct answer is B, Sawai Pratap Singh. The Hawa Mahal, the five-storeyed screen of pink sandstone pierced by hundreds of small windows so that royal women could watch processions in the street unseen, was built at Jaipur in 1799 by Sawai Pratap Singh, with Lal Chand Ustad as its architect. Option A is wrong because Sawai Jai Singh II founded Jaipur itself in 1727 and built the Jantar Mantar observatories, the Jaigarh fort and Nahargarh, but he died decades before the Hawa Mahal was raised. Option C is wrong because Raja Man Singh I of Amber, a general of Akbar, built the Amber Fort nearby. Option D is wrong because Maharana Udai Singh II belonged to Mewar, where he founded Udaipur and began its City Palace, not to the Kachwaha house of Jaipur.

The correct answer is C, Kerala. Anamudi stands 2,695 metres high in the Idukki district of Kerala, in the Anaimalai hills of the Western Ghats, close to Eravikulam National Park, which protects the Nilgiri tahr. It is the highest point of peninsular India and the highest point of the Western Ghats.

Option A, Karnataka, has Mullayanagiri in the Chikkamagaluru district as its highest point, which is far lower. Option B, Tamil Nadu, has Doda Betta in the Nilgiris as its highest peak, and the state shares the Anaimalai range with Kerala but not the summit itself. Option D, Maharashtra, has Kalsubai in the Sahyadri as its highest point. Since all four states lie along or near the Western Ghats, the examiner expects the candidate to know not only the name of the peak but the state that holds the summit.

The correct answer is C, Mohammad Ali Jauhar. Mohammad Ali Jauhar founded the English weekly Comrade at Calcutta in 1911 and shifted it to Delhi, and he started the Urdu daily Hamdard in 1913; he was later a leader of the Khilafat movement and president of the Congress at its Coconada session in 1923. Option A is wrong because Motilal Nehru founded The Independent at Allahabad in 1919. Option B is wrong because Pherozeshah Mehta founded the Bombay Chronicle in 1913, which B. G. Horniman edited and for whose reporting of Jallianwala Bagh Horniman was deported. Option D is wrong because Aurobindo Ghosh edited Bande Mataram, the English daily founded by Bipin Chandra Pal in 1906, and also wrote for Karmayogin. Comrade is also remembered for the article Choice of the Turks, which led to the paper being penalised and its editor interned.

The correct answer is A, Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. He built the Sun Temple at Konark in Odisha in the thirteenth century, designing the whole shrine as the chariot of the sun god with twelve pairs of carved stone wheels drawn by seven horses. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and its surviving jagamohana is the tallest part left standing, the main tower having collapsed. Option B is wrong because Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva, an earlier king of the same dynasty, began the Jagannath temple at Puri. Option C is wrong because Krishnadevaraya ruled Vijayanagara in the south and is linked to the temples at Hampi, far from Odisha. Option D is wrong because Rajendra I was a Chola emperor whose great temple is at Gangaikonda Cholapuram in Tamil Nadu.

The correct answer is B, Dr B. R. Ambedkar. Ambedkar launched the Marathi fortnightly Mooknayak, meaning leader of the voiceless, in 1920 to argue the case of the depressed classes, and he followed it with Bahishkrit Bharat in 1927 and Janata in 1930. Option A is wrong because Jyotirao Phule, the earlier social reformer of Maharashtra, founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873 and wrote Gulamgiri, but Mooknayak came long after his death in 1890. Option C is wrong because Shivram Mahadev Paranjpe edited the Marathi weekly Kal, known for its indirect, allusive attacks on the government. Option D is wrong because G. G. Agarkar worked with Tilak on Kesari and Mahratta and later edited Sudharak, parting from Tilak over the priority of social reform. Mooknayak was supported in its first year by Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, a detail that sometimes appears as a separate question.

The correct answer is B, Rajaraja I. The Brihadeeswarar temple, also called the Rajarajeswaram, was completed by Rajaraja I at Thanjavur in about 1010 and is the first of the three Great Living Chola Temples inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its vimana rises to about sixty-six metres and the capstone over the sanctum is a single massive block of granite. Option A is wrong because Rajendra I, his son, built the temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram after his victorious march to the Ganga. Option C is wrong because Rajaraja II built the Airavatesvara temple at Darasuram, the third of the group and the smallest. Option D is wrong because Kulottunga I is remembered for the revenue survey of his reign and not for any of these temples, which is why his name is a common distractor.