National Games of India: History, Hosts and Mascots

The correct answer is A, Lahore. The first edition was staged in 1924 at Lahore, then the chief city of undivided Punjab, under the name the All India Olympic Games, and its purpose was to create a national meet from which an Indian team could be picked for the Olympic Games. For the next decade and a half the competition moved every two years between the large cities of British India. Option B, Bombay, is the strongest distractor because the 1940 edition was held there, and that is the edition at which the name was changed to the National Games; the city is right for the renaming and wrong for the founding. Option C, Calcutta, hosted an edition in the late nineteen thirties and was then the largest city in the country, which makes it plausible but incorrect. Option D, Madras, also hosted editions in the early decades but was not the venue of the first. Fix the pair as Lahore for 1924 and Bombay for 1940.

The correct answer is B, 1940. The competition had been held since 1924 under the name the All India Olympic Games, and at the Bombay edition of 1940 it was renamed the National Games, which it has remained ever since. Option A, 1924, is the year of the first edition at Lahore, when the older name was still in use, so it marks the founding and not the renaming. Option C, 1947, is the year of independence and is offered because a change of national name seems natural at that moment, but the renaming had already taken place seven years earlier. Option D, 1985, is a real milestone for a different reason: the New Delhi edition of that year reorganised the Games on the pattern of the Olympic Games, bringing in a host state, a torch relay, a mascot and a far wider list of disciplines, but it did not change the name. Keep the three dates in order: 1924 founded, 1940 renamed, 1985 restructured.

The correct answer is B, Indian Olympic Association. The Indian Olympic Association is the national Olympic committee of the country, and it conducts the National Games in partnership with the Olympic association of the host state, deciding the list of disciplines, approving the venues and ratifying the results, with support from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Option A, the Sports Authority of India, is a government body that runs training centres, coaching schemes and sports science support for athletes, so it assists the Games without organising them. Option C, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, governs only cricket and has no role in a multi-sport event; cricket has not been a regular National Games discipline. Option D, the National Sports Development Fund, is a financing mechanism through which money is channelled to athletes and federations, not an organising body. The simple rule is that the national Olympic committee runs the domestic Olympic-style Games.

The correct answer is B, Gujarat. The 36th National Games were held in Gujarat in 2022, spread across Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Bhavnagar, with the mascot Savaj, an Asiatic lion cub chosen because the Asiatic lion survives in the wild only in that state. Option A, Goa, hosted the next edition, the 37th, in 2023, with the mascot Moga the gaur, so it is the closest wrong answer. Option C, Kerala, hosted the 35th edition in 2015, with Ammu the great hornbill as mascot, and had also hosted in 1987. Option D, Uttarakhand, hosted the 38th edition in 2025, with Mauli the Himalayan monal. The sequence worth memorising is Kerala for the 35th, Gujarat for the 36th, Goa for the 37th and Uttarakhand for the 38th, since questions on this topic almost always come from these four.

The correct answer is A, Asiatic lion. Savaj was a cub of the Asiatic lion, and it was chosen as the mascot of the Gujarat edition of 2022 because the Gir forest of Gujarat is the only place in the world where that subspecies survives in the wild, making the lion the obvious emblem of the host state. Option B, the Indian bison or gaur, was the basis of Moga, the mascot of the Goa edition of 2023, since the gaur is the state animal of Goa. Option C, the great hornbill, was the basis of Ammu, the mascot of the Kerala edition of 2015, the great hornbill being the state bird of Kerala. Option D, the snow leopard, is a Himalayan animal and has not been a National Games mascot; at Uttarakhand in 2025 the mascot was Mauli, a Himalayan monal, which is the state bird. The general rule that answers all such questions is that the mascot comes from the wildlife of the host state.

The correct answer is B, Goa. The 37th National Games were held in Goa in 2023, the state hosting them for the first time after a long wait, with events spread across Panaji and other centres and with the mascot Moga, a gaur or Indian bison, the state animal of Goa. Option A, Gujarat, hosted the previous edition, the 36th, in 2022, with the mascot Savaj, so the two are easily reversed and it is worth fixing the order as Gujarat then Goa. Option C, Jharkhand, hosted an earlier edition at Ranchi in 2011. Option D, Assam, hosted at Guwahati in 2007 and was the first north-eastern state after Manipur to stage the event. Remember the recent run in order of year: Kerala in 2015, Gujarat in 2022, Goa in 2023 and Uttarakhand in 2025.

The correct answer is A, gaur, the Indian bison. Moga was modelled on the gaur, the large wild cattle of the Western Ghats which is the state animal of Goa, and it was chosen as the mascot when Goa hosted the 37th National Games in 2023. Option B, the Asiatic lion, was the basis of Savaj, the mascot of the Gujarat edition of 2022, and the lion belongs to Gujarat alone in the wild. Option C, the Nilgiri tahr, is the state animal of Tamil Nadu and a mountain goat of the Western Ghats, which makes it a plausible southern choice but it has not been a National Games mascot. Option D, the Himalayan monal, is the state bird of Uttarakhand and was the basis of Mauli, the mascot of the 38th edition in 2025. The reliable shortcut once again is to ask which animal belongs to the host state.

The correct answer is B, Uttarakhand. The 38th National Games were held in Uttarakhand in 2025, with competition spread over Dehradun, Haldwani, Rudrapur, Haridwar and other centres, and with Mauli, a Himalayan monal, as the mascot; the monal is the state bird of Uttarakhand. Option A, Himachal Pradesh, is the other Himalayan state of the western range and is offered because the two are frequently interchanged, but it did not host this edition. Option C, Goa, hosted the previous edition, the 37th, in 2023, so it is the closest wrong answer in the sequence. Option D, Madhya Pradesh, has hosted Khelo India Youth Games but not a National Games edition of this period. The recent chain to memorise is Kerala in 2015 for the 35th, Gujarat in 2022 for the 36th, Goa in 2023 for the 37th and Uttarakhand in 2025 for the 38th.

The correct answer is B, Services Sports Control Board. The Services Sports Control Board enters a single contingent known simply as Services, made up of sportspersons serving in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and because the armed forces recruit and train athletes from across the country this team has been among the most successful in the medal table across editions. Option A names the Railways Sports Promotion Board, which does run a large sports establishment and fields teams in national championships of individual federations, but it is the Services contingent that is the standing non-state team at the National Games. Option C is wrong because the Sports Authority of India trains athletes and supports the event rather than entering a team of its own. Option D names a combined universities side, which belongs to the inter-university championships and to the Khelo India University Games rather than to the National Games.

The correct answer is B, 2018. The first edition of the Khelo India School Games was held at New Delhi in 2018 under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and from the following edition at Pune the competition was broadened and renamed the Khelo India Youth Games, with under-seventeen and under-twenty-one categories and a long-term scholarship for selected athletes. Option A, 2014, is too early and belongs to no edition of these Games. Option C, 2020, is the year the Khelo India University Games began, with the first edition at Bhubaneswar in Odisha, so it is right for a different competition in the same family and is the commonest trap here. Option D, 2022, is the year of the 36th National Games in Gujarat, which is a separate and senior event. Keep the family in order: School Games in 2018, renamed Youth Games from the next edition, University Games from 2020.

The correct answer is A, the New Delhi edition of 1985. Until then the National Games had been a meet of limited scale; the 1985 edition at New Delhi remodelled them on the Olympic pattern, with a much longer list of disciplines, a whole state rather than a single city as host, a torch relay, formal opening and closing ceremonies, a mascot and a medal table arranged by state, and that is the structure every later edition has followed. Option B, the Bombay edition of 1940, is a genuine milestone but for the renaming of the competition from the All India Olympic Games to the National Games, not for its restructuring. Option C, the Pune edition of 1994, was held well after the change and simply continued the new pattern. Option D, the Guwahati edition of 2007, was notable as a north-eastern host but again brought no change of structure. The three dates to separate are 1924, 1940 and 1985.