In which year did the British annex Punjab and add it to their Indian empire?

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 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 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.

The correct answer is C, Sutlej. Bhakra is a concrete gravity dam on the Sutlej in the Shivalik gorge at Bhakra, and the lake behind it is the Gobind Sagar. With the Nangal barrage downstream it forms the Bhakra Nangal project, a multipurpose scheme shared by Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan that supplies irrigation water and hydro power. Option A is wrong because the Beas is dammed at Pong, whose reservoir is the Maharana Pratap Sagar. Option B is wrong because the Ravi is dammed at Ranjit Sagar, also called the Thein Dam. Option D is wrong because the Ghaggar is a seasonal stream of the Shivalik foothills, often identified with the Vedic Saraswati, and carries no project of this size. Remember the pairs: Sutlej to Bhakra, Beas to Pong, Ravi to Ranjit Sagar.

The correct answer is B, Beas and Sutlej. Harike, also called Hari ke Pattan, was formed by a barrage built where the Beas joins the Sutlej, and it is the largest wetland of northern India. It was listed as a Ramsar site in 2002, along with Kanjli and Ropar in the same state, and the Indira Gandhi Canal, which carries water to the deserts of Rajasthan, takes off from the Harike barrage. Option A is wrong because the Ravi and the Beas do not meet inside Indian Punjab. Option C is wrong because the Ghaggar drains the south eastern corner of the state and is not a tributary of the Sutlej there. Option D is wrong because the Chenab lies in Pakistan after leaving Jammu and Kashmir and never meets the Ravi in India.