Arunachal Pradesh GK: Tawang, Tribes, Rivers and Exam Facts

The correct answer is C, Itanagar. Itanagar stands in Papum Pare district at the foot of the hills and has been the seat of government since the territory was being readied for statehood. Its name comes from Ita Fort, a brick fort of about the fourteenth or fifteenth century that still stands in the town, ita meaning brick. Option A, Pasighat, is wrong; founded in 1911 on the Siang in East Siang district, it is the oldest town of the state, which is why it is offered here. Option B, Tawang, is wrong; it is the home of Tawang Monastery, the largest in India, and of the sector that saw the fighting of 1962, but it is a district headquarters in the far north-west. Option D, Ziro, is wrong; it is the Apatani valley in Lower Subansiri, known for its paddy-cum-fish fields. Naharlagun is the railhead for Itanagar and Donyi Polo Airport at Hollongi serves it.

The correct answer is D, 1987. Under the State of Arunachal Pradesh Act, 1986 the Union Territory became the twenty-fourth state of India on 20 February 1987, the same day on which Mizoram became the twenty-third state. Option A, 1972, is the commonest wrong answer; on 20 January 1972 the North East Frontier Agency was merely renamed Arunachal Pradesh and raised to a Union Territory, not a state. Option B, 1975, is wrong; that is the year the Union Territory received a Legislative Assembly and Prem Khandu Thungan became its first Chief Minister. Option C, 1986, is wrong because it is the year Parliament passed the Act, which came into force only in February of the next year. Goa followed as the twenty-fifth state on 30 May 1987, so the three entries are usually tested together.

The correct answer is B, Siang. The Yarlung Tsangpo of Tibet turns round the Namcha Barwa massif and enters India in Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang, also written Dihang; in Assam, after it is joined by the Lohit and the Dibang near Sadiya, it takes the name Brahmaputra, and in Bangladesh it is the Jamuna. Option A, Lohit, is wrong but is a real river of the state; it is one of the two tributaries that join the Siang to form the Brahmaputra, and Parasuram Kund stands on it. Option C, Barak, is wrong; the Barak, also called the Surma, drains southern Assam around Silchar and belongs to a different system altogether. Option D, Teesta, is wrong; it rises in Sikkim, flows through north Bengal and joins the Brahmaputra only in Bangladesh. The chain Tsangpo, Siang or Dihang, Brahmaputra, Jamuna is worth memorising as a single line.

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 B, Namdapha National Park. Namdapha lies in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh near the Myanmar border, is the largest national park in north-east India, and is famous as the one protected area said to hold four big cats: the tiger, the leopard, the snow leopard and the clouded leopard. Option A, Kaziranga, is wrong; it is the one-horned rhinoceros park of Assam, on the Brahmaputra, and a World Heritage Site. Option C, Manas, is wrong; it too lies in Assam, on the border with Bhutan, and is both a tiger reserve and a World Heritage Site. Option D, Keibul Lamjao, is wrong; it is the floating park on Loktak lake in Manipur, home of the sangai deer. Mouling in Upper Siang is the second national park of Arunachal Pradesh, and Pakke and Kamlang are its other tiger reserves.

The correct answer is B, China. The McMahon Line was drawn at the Simla Convention of 1914 between British India and Tibet and is named after Sir Henry McMahon, then foreign secretary of the Government of India. It runs along the crest of the eastern Himalaya and forms the northern boundary of Arunachal Pradesh with Tibet, now part of China; China has never accepted it, and the war of 1962 was fought along it at Namka Chu, Se La and Walong. Option A, Myanmar, is wrong; the eastern boundary of Arunachal Pradesh with Myanmar is a different line, crossed at Pangsau Pass on the old Stilwell Road. Option C, Bhutan, is wrong; Bhutan lies to the west of the state and its boundary has its own history. Option D, Nepal, is wrong; Nepal does not touch Arunachal Pradesh at all, Sikkim and West Bengal lying between them.

The correct answer is B, the sixth Dalai Lama. Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama and a celebrated poet, was born at Urgelling monastery, a short way from the town of Tawang, which is why the Tawang valley holds so important a place in Tibetan Buddhism. Option A is wrong, though it is a tempting choice; the fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, was born in Tibet, and Tawang Monastery was founded in the 1680s by Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso in accordance with his wishes. Option C is wrong; the thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, was also born in Tibet. Option D is wrong; the fourteenth Dalai Lama was born in Taktser in Amdo and entered India through Tawang in 1959, which is the fact students confuse with birth. Tawang Monastery, called Galden Namgey Lhatse, is the largest in India.

The correct answer is C, Apatani. Dree is the agricultural festival of the Apatani of the Ziro valley in Lower Subansiri district, kept in the middle of the year as a prayer against crop failure. The Apatani are known for terraced wet rice fields in which fish are raised along with the paddy, a landscape placed on UNESCO's tentative list of World Heritage Sites. Option A, Nyishi, is wrong; the Nyishi are the largest tribe of the state and their festival is Nyokum. Option B, Monpa, is wrong; the Monpa of Tawang and West Kameng are Tibetan Buddhists and keep Losar, the new year. Option D, Wancho, is wrong; the Wancho of Longding keep Oriah. The other pairs worth learning are Solung with the Adi, Mopin with the Galo, Si-Donyi with the Tagin, Reh with the Idu Mishmi and Sangken with the Khamti.

The correct answer is D, Nepal. Arunachal Pradesh touches three countries and Nepal is not one of them; Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh lie along the Nepal border, far to the west. Option A, China, is a real neighbour; the northern boundary with Tibet follows the McMahon Line of the Simla Convention of 1914. Option B, Myanmar, is a real neighbour on the east, the boundary running through Changlang and Tirap and crossed at Pangsau Pass. Option C, Bhutan, is a real neighbour on the west, beside Tawang and West Kameng districts. Within India the state touches only Assam and Nagaland, and it has the longest international boundary of any north-eastern state. Bangladesh is the other wrong option often used in this question; it borders West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, but not Arunachal Pradesh.

The correct answer is A, Mithun. The mithun, Bos frontalis, is a semi-domesticated bovine of the hill forests and is the state animal of Arunachal Pradesh, where it is counted as wealth and used in marriage and ceremonial exchange; it is also the state animal of Nagaland, a point examiners enjoy. Option B, Sangai, is wrong; the sangai or brow-antlered deer is the state animal of Manipur and lives on the floating meadows of Keibul Lamjao. Option C, the one-horned rhinoceros, is wrong; it is the state animal of Assam and the emblem of Kaziranga. Option D, the clouded leopard, is wrong; it is the state animal of Meghalaya, though it is indeed found in Namdapha. The state bird of Arunachal Pradesh is the great hornbill and the state tree is hollong.

The correct answer is C, Sela. The Sela pass, in the high country of the Tawang sector, carries the road from Dirang and Bomdila into Tawang town and is the best known pass of Arunachal Pradesh; Bum La, on the boundary with Tibet, and Pangsau Pass, on the Myanmar border, are the other two worth remembering. Option A, Nathu La, is wrong; it is the trading pass between Sikkim and Tibet, reopened in 2006. Option B, Zoji La, is wrong; it lies on the Srinagar–Leh road in the Ladakh region and connects the Kashmir valley with Dras and Kargil. Option D, Rohtang, is wrong; it lies above Manali in Himachal Pradesh and leads to the Lahaul and Spiti valleys. Se La is also remembered as one of the places where the fighting of 1962 took place.

The correct answer is C, North East Frontier Agency. NEFA, as it was called, was administered by the Governor of Assam on behalf of the Ministry of External Affairs rather than by the Assam government, a reflection of its position on the frontier; it was renamed Arunachal Pradesh and made a Union Territory on 20 January 1972. Option A, the Lushai Hills District, is wrong; it was renamed the Mizo Hills and became the Union Territory of Mizoram in 1972 and a state in 1987. Option B, the Naga Hills–Tuensang Area, is wrong; that was the unit from which Nagaland was created as a state in 1963. Option D, North Cachar Hills, is wrong; it is an autonomous district of Assam, today called Dima Hasao. The name Arunachal means the dawn-lit mountains.