West Bengal GK: Geography, History and Culture

The correct answer is B, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. West Bengal is the only Indian state that touches three foreign countries: Nepal lies to its north west, Bhutan to its north and Bangladesh to its east along a long eastern frontier. Option A is wrong because West Bengal does not reach the Chinese border; Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh lie between. Option C is wrong because Myanmar borders Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, none of which touches West Bengal. Option D is wrong for the same reason regarding China and because it leaves out Bangladesh, the longest of the state's three international borders. Connected to this is the Siliguri corridor in the north, the narrow strip between Nepal and Bangladesh called the chicken's neck, which is the only land link to the north eastern states.

The correct answer is C, the Calcutta High Court. It was established in 1862 under the Indian High Courts Act of 1861, a few days before the High Courts at Bombay and Madras, which makes it the oldest in the country; its jurisdiction also extends beyond the state to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Option A is wrong because the Bombay High Court, though set up in the same year under the same Act, came after Calcutta. Option B is wrong for the same reason in the case of the Madras High Court. Option D is wrong because the Allahabad High Court was established later, in 1866, and had its seat first at Agra. The trio created under the 1861 Act, with Calcutta first, is the standard form of this question.

The correct answer is A, 1948. The Corporation was created soon after independence to control the floods of the Damodar, a river so destructive that it was called the sorrow of Bengal, and it was modelled on the Tennessee Valley Authority of the United States, combining flood control, irrigation, power generation and navigation in one body. Option B is wrong because 1956 is the year of the States Reorganisation Act, a separate landmark. Option C is wrong because 1962 has no bearing on the Corporation; it is the year the Paradip port was inaugurated in Odisha. Option D is wrong because 1975 is the year the Farakka Barrage on the Ganga was commissioned, which is also in West Bengal but is a different project with a different purpose, namely diverting water into the Hooghly.

The correct answer is B, Gitanjali. The collection of devotional poems, which Tagore himself rendered into English, won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, making him the first Indian and the first non European to receive the award. He also wrote the national anthems of India and of Bangladesh. Option A is wrong because Anandamath is the novel of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the work in which the song Vande Mataram appears. Option C is wrong because Gora is indeed a novel by Tagore but is not the work for which the prize was given. Option D is wrong for the same reason: Chokher Bali is another of his novels, not the Nobel work. Remember three names together: Gitanjali for Tagore, Anandamath for Bankim Chandra and Jana Gana Mana for the anthem.

The correct answer is B, to divert water into the Hooghly and flush silt from the approach to Kolkata port. The Ganga splits in West Bengal, with the main stream going into Bangladesh as the Padma and the Bhagirathi and Hooghly running south past Kolkata. The Hooghly was silting up and the port becoming hard to reach, so the barrage at Farakka was built to send a guaranteed flow down that channel. Option A is wrong because the barrage is not a hydroelectric project. Option C is wrong because the Dooars tea gardens lie far to the north and are not served by it. Option D is wrong because flood control on the Damodar is the work of the Damodar Valley Corporation set up in 1948, a different project that candidates often confuse with this one.

The correct answer is C, the Royal Bengal tiger. The Sundarbans, shared between India and Bangladesh, is the one place where tigers have adapted to a tidal mangrove habitat and are known to swim between islands. Sundarbans National Park was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 and the wetland was designated a Ramsar site in 2019. Option A is wrong because the Asiatic lion survives only in the Gir forest of Gujarat. Option B is wrong because the one horned rhinoceros is associated with Kaziranga in Assam and with Jaldapara in northern West Bengal, not with the Sundarbans. Option D is wrong because the snow leopard lives in the high Himalaya, in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Pair each animal with its one famous habitat.

The correct answer is A, 1757. The battle was fought on 23 June 1757 at Palashi in the Nadia region, where Robert Clive defeated Siraj ud Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, largely through the defection of Mir Jafar, and the victory made the Company the real power in Bengal. Option B is wrong because 1764 is the year of the Battle of Buxar, fought in Bihar against the combined forces of Mir Qasim, Shuja ud Daulah and Shah Alam the Second, which led to the grant of the Diwani in 1765. Option C is wrong because 1772 is when Warren Hastings became Governor of Bengal. Option D is wrong because 1793 is the year of the Permanent Settlement introduced by Lord Cornwallis. Keep the sequence Plassey, Buxar, Diwani, Permanent Settlement in order.

The correct answer is B, Rabindranath Tagore. Santiniketan in Birbhum district grew around the school and later the university Visva Bharati that Tagore founded there, teaching in the open air and joining Indian and world traditions, and it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2023. Option A is wrong because Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897, with its headquarters at Belur Math on the Hooghly, a different site. Option C is wrong because Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1828 and is remembered as the father of the Indian Renaissance, but he is not connected with Santiniketan. Option D is wrong because Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar is remembered for the campaign for widow remarriage and for reform of Bengali education.

The correct answer is B, Darjeeling tea. Grown on the slopes of the Darjeeling hills in northern West Bengal, it was the first product in India to be registered under the geographical indications system, which protects a name that identifies goods as coming from a particular place and having qualities owing to that origin. West Bengal is also the second largest tea producing state after Assam and the largest producer of jute. Option A is wrong because basmati rice was registered much later and only after prolonged dispute. Option C is wrong because Kanchipuram silk from Tamil Nadu, though an early registration, was not the first. Option D is wrong because the Alphonso mango of Maharashtra received its tag considerably later. A second fact worth carrying with this one is that West Bengal is also the largest producer of jute in India, so a question on the state’s crops can be answered from the same cluster.

The correct answer is B, Belur Math. Situated on the west bank of the Hooghly near Howrah, Belur Math is the headquarters of both the Ramakrishna Mission and the Ramakrishna Math, and its main temple is built in a style that deliberately blends Hindu, Islamic and Christian architectural elements. Option A is wrong because Dakshineswar, on the opposite bank, is the Kali temple where Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa served as priest; it is closely linked to the movement but is not its headquarters. Option C is wrong because Santiniketan is Rabindranath Tagore's town and the seat of Visva Bharati. Option D is wrong because Bishnupur in Bankura district is known for its terracotta temples of the Malla kings and for Baluchari sarees, not for the Mission.