Who was the architect of the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata?

The correct answer is A, Maharashtra. The Aga Khan Palace stands at Pune in Maharashtra. It was built in 1892 by Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III, partly as famine relief work for the surrounding villages, and it mixes Italianate arches with wide Indian verandahs over five acres of built space. The palace entered the freedom struggle in August 1942, when the colonial government used it as a detention centre during the Quit India movement and interned Mahatma Gandhi, Kasturba Gandhi and Gandhi's secretary Mahadev Desai there. Both Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai died in confinement at the palace, and their samadhis stand in its garden. Aga Khan IV donated the building to India in 1969 and it now houses the Gandhi National Memorial. Option B is wrong because Uttar Pradesh is associated with colonial buildings such as the Muir College and the Lucknow Residency, not this palace. Option C is wrong because Kerala's colonial heritage is Dutch and Portuguese, as at Bolgatty Palace in Kochi. Option D is wrong because Madhya Pradesh has no building of this name.

The correct answer is D, King George V. The Gateway of India at Apollo Bunder in Mumbai was raised to mark the landing of George V and Queen Mary in December 1911, the visit on which the Delhi Durbar was held and the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi was announced. The royal couple actually saw only a cardboard model; the stone arch designed by George Wittet in the Indo-Saracenic manner, in yellow basalt with a central dome and jaali screens, was completed in 1924. The same arch was the point from which the last British troops left India in 1948. Option A is wrong because Edward VII visited India in 1875 as Prince of Wales and is linked instead to the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai. Option B is wrong because George I never came to India and reigned in the early eighteenth century, before Crown rule. Option C is wrong because William IV reigned from 1830 to 1837, in the era of Company rule, and made no visit to India.

The correct answer is A, Victorian Gothic. The station, built as Victoria Terminus and designed by Frederick William Stevens, is the finest Victorian Gothic Revival building in India, with pointed arches, a ribbed central dome, turrets, stained glass, gargoyles and a stone figure of Progress on the dome. It was completed in 1888 as the headquarters of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004; the wider precinct around it was inscribed in 2018 as the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai. Option B is wrong because Baroque in India means the Portuguese churches of Old Goa, such as the Basilica of Bom Jesus. Option C is wrong because Dravidian is the temple style of the south, marked by a vimana and a gopuram, as at Thanjavur. Option D is wrong because Nagara is the north Indian temple style with a curvilinear shikhara, as at Khajuraho.

The correct answer is C, Edwin Lutyens. Sir Edwin Lutyens designed the Viceroy House on Raisina Hill, renamed Rashtrapati Bhavan after independence, and it was completed in 1929. The building has about 340 rooms, a copper central dome drawn from the Sanchi stupa railing, a Durbar Hall under that dome, carved elephants, chhajjas that throw off the monsoon and chhatris on the roofline, all set on a classical plan. Lutyens also laid out the plan of New Delhi and designed the India Gate. Option A is wrong because Herbert Baker, who worked alongside Lutyens, designed the North and South Blocks of the Secretariat and the circular Parliament House. Option B is wrong because Robert Tor Russell designed Connaught Place and the Eastern and Western Courts. Option D is wrong because Henry Irwin worked in the south and in Shimla, designing the Amba Vilas Palace at Mysuru and the Viceregal Lodge.

The correct answer is B, Herbert Baker. Sir Herbert Baker designed the old Parliament House, then called the Council House, which was begun in 1921 and opened in January 1927 by the Viceroy Lord Irwin. Its circular plan carries an open colonnade of sandstone columns and three chambers inside for the Council of State, the Central Legislative Assembly and the Chamber of Princes. Baker also designed the North Block and the South Block of the Secretariat that flank the approach to Raisina Hill. Option A is wrong because Lutyens designed the Viceroy House and the India Gate and planned the city, though he and Baker disagreed sharply over the gradient of the approach road. Option C is wrong because Emerson designed the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. Option D is wrong because Major Charles Mant worked on Indo-Saracenic princely palaces, including the Laxmi Vilas Palace at Vadodara.