The Bhakra Dam, whose reservoir is the Gobind Sagar, is built on which river?

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 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.

The correct answer is B, Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, who founded the settlement around the sacred tank that gave the city its name. Option C is wrong, though close: Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, completed the Harmandir Sahib and installed the Adi Granth in it in 1604, but the city itself was his predecessor's foundation, and examiners set these two against each other. Option D is wrong because Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru, raised the Akal Takht facing the Harmandir Sahib and gave the community its martial turn. Option A is wrong because Guru Angad Dev, the second Guru, is remembered for standardising the Gurmukhi script, not for founding Amritsar. Maharaja Ranjit Singh later covered the shrine in gold, which is why it is known as the Golden Temple.