State Exams 2018 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, the Governor of the State. Under Article 316, the Chairman and the other members of a State Public Service Commission are appointed by the Governor. The provisions on public service commissions sit in Part XIV of the Constitution, Articles 315 to 323. A member of a State commission holds office for six years or until the age of 62, whichever comes first. The twist a paper setter loves is removal: although the Governor appoints them, only the President can remove them, under Article 317, and the Governor can only suspend a member while the matter is referred to the Supreme Court. Option A is wrong because the UPSC Chairman has no role in choosing the head of a State commission. Option B is wrong because the President appoints the UPSC Chairman, not the head of the BPSC or any other State commission. Option D is wrong because the Chief Minister only advises; the formal appointment is made by the Governor. Exam tip: appointed by the Governor, removed by the President, term six years or age 62.

The correct answer is C, 1885. The Bengal Tenancy Act was passed in 1885, under Viceroy Lord Dufferin, to protect tenants in Bengal and Bihar from their zamindars. The Permanent Settlement of 1793 had made the zamindars owners of the land and left the peasants open to rising rents and eviction. After the Pabna agrarian revolt that began in 1873, the government promised relief, and the 1885 Act gave occupancy rights to a ryot who had held land in a village for twelve years and put limits on raising his rent. The date is easy to hold because the Indian National Congress was also founded in 1885. Option A is wrong because in 1868 tenants still depended on the weak Rent Act of 1859. Option B is wrong because in 1881 the new law was still being prepared. Option D is wrong because the Act was passed in only one year, 1885. Exam tip: Permanent Settlement 1793, Pabna revolt 1873, Bengal Tenancy Act 1885.

The correct answer is B, Tabaqat-i Nasiri. Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote this Persian history in Delhi around 1260 and gave the first account of Bakhtiyar Khilji's raid on Bihar. Minhaj dedicated the book to Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud, which is where its name comes from. He describes how Bakhtiyar's men attacked what they took to be a fort, only to find it was a Buddhist monastery full of shaven-headed monks, and he notes that such a place was called a vihara, the word behind the name Bihar. Paper setters also link Bakhtiyar with the ruin of Odantapuri, Nalanda and Vikramashila, and with his later capture of Nadia in Bengal. Option A is wrong because Al-Biruni wrote about India in the eleventh century, long before this raid. Option C is wrong because Hasan Nizami's Taj-ul Maasir is the court history of Muhammad Ghori and Qutbuddin Aibak. Option D is wrong because Yahya Sirhindi's Tarikh-i Mubarak Shahi is a fifteenth-century work of the Sayyid period. Exam tip: Bakhtiyar's Bihar raid is told by Minhaj in Tabaqat-i Nasiri.

The correct answer is C, William Finch. Finch was the English traveller who described Akbar's palace of forty pillars in the Allahabad fort and the huge labour force behind it. He was an agent of the English East India Company and landed at Surat in 1608 with Captain William Hawkins, who went on to the court of Jahangir. Finch then travelled through northern India and wrote detailed notes on Agra, Lahore and Allahabad, which is why his account is used as a source for Akbar's buildings. Akbar founded the Allahabad fort in 1583 at the meeting point of the Ganga and the Yamuna. Option A is wrong because Niccolao Manucci was a Venetian who served the Mughals in Aurangzeb's time and wrote Storia do Mogor. Option B is wrong because Tavernier was a French jewel merchant who described Shah Jahan's Peacock Throne. Option D is wrong because Abdul Hamid Lahori was Shah Jahan's court historian and wrote the Padshahnama. Exam tip: Hawkins and Finch came under Jahangir; Tavernier and Bernier saw Shah Jahan; Manucci served under Aurangzeb.