State Exams Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, Certiorari. Certiorari is called a postmortem because it is issued after a lower court or tribunal has already passed its order, to quash that order. The word means 'to be certified' or 'to be informed'. The Supreme Court issues it under Article 32 and the High Courts under Article 226, when a lower body has acted without jurisdiction, gone beyond its powers or broken the rules of natural justice. Prohibition and certiorari make a neat pair: prohibition stops a case while it is still going on, while certiorari cancels a decision that has already been made. Option A is wrong because prohibition is preventive and is issued before the final order, not after it. Option B is wrong because mandamus, meaning 'we command', orders a public official or body to perform a legal duty. Option D is wrong because quo warranto, meaning 'by what authority', asks a person to show his right to hold a public office. Exam tip: prohibition prevents, certiorari cures, and only certiorari is the postmortem writ.

The correct answer is B, Kaka Saheb Kalelkar. The first Backward Classes Commission, set up by the President under Article 340 in January 1953, was headed by the Gandhian writer Kaka Kalelkar. It submitted its report in 1955, but the Centre did not accept its main recommendations. The second Backward Classes Commission was set up in 1979 under B. P. Mandal, a former Chief Minister of Bihar, and its 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in central jobs was implemented in 1990. The 102nd Amendment of 2018 later gave the National Commission for Backward Classes constitutional status under Article 338B. Option A is wrong because Jagjivan Ram, also from Bihar, was a Dalit leader and Deputy Prime Minister, not the head of this commission. Option C is wrong because B. D. Sharma was an IAS officer known for his work on tribal rights. Option D is wrong because the first commission had only one chairman, Kalelkar. Exam tip: first commission Kalelkar 1953, second Mandal 1979, NCBC made constitutional in 2018.

The correct answer is A, Block-level body. The Panchayat Samiti is the middle tier of Panchayati Raj and works at the block level. The 73rd Amendment of 1992 made a three-tier system part of the Constitution: the Gram Panchayat at the village level, the Panchayat Samiti at the intermediate or block level, and the Zila Parishad at the district level. Article 243B lets a State skip the middle tier only if its population is below 20 lakh. The three-tier idea came from the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee of 1957, and Rajasthan was the first State to adopt it, at Nagaur on 2 October 1959. Option B is wrong because the district-level body is the Zila Parishad. Option C is wrong because the Gram Panchayat is the lowest tier, formed for a village or a group of villages. Option D is wrong because the Panchayat Samiti works at only one level, the block. Exam tip: village is Gram Panchayat, block is Panchayat Samiti, district is Zila Parishad.

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, Article 120 (1). Article 120 fixes the language of Parliament, and its proviso lets the presiding officer allow a member to speak in the mother tongue. Article 120 (1) says that business in Parliament shall be transacted in Hindi or in English. Its proviso adds that the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or the Speaker of the Lok Sabha may permit any member who cannot express himself properly in Hindi or English to address the House in his mother tongue. Article 210 gives the same power to the presiding officers of State Legislatures, so an MLA in Patna can also be allowed to speak in Maithili or Bhojpuri. Option A is wrong because Article 110 defines a Money Bill. Option B is wrong because Article 122 (2) protects presiding officers from the courts when they regulate the business of the House. Option D is wrong because neither Article 110 nor Article 122 deals with the language of the House. Exam tip: Article 120 is the language of Parliament, Article 210 the language of State Legislatures, and Article 343 the official language of the Union.

The correct answer is A, Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla. Both were sentenced to death in the Kakori case and hanged in December 1927. On 9 August 1925, members of the Hindustan Republican Association stopped a train at Kakori near Lucknow and took away government money to fund their fight. Four of them were hanged: Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh, while Chandrashekhar Azad escaped arrest. The friendship of Bismil, a Hindu, and Ashfaqulla, a Muslim, is still remembered as a symbol of unity. Option B is wrong because Vasudev Chapekar was hanged for the 1897 killing of the plague commissioner Rand in Pune, and Savarkar was sent to the Cellular Jail, not hanged. Option C is wrong because Khudiram Bose was hanged in 1908 for the Muzaffarpur bomb attack in Bihar, and Prafulla Chaki shot himself at Mokama to avoid arrest. Option D is wrong because Surya Sen was hanged for the Chittagong armoury raid and Udham Singh for killing Michael O'Dwyer in London. Exam tip: Kakori 1925 means Bismil, Ashfaqulla, Lahiri and Roshan Singh.

The correct answer is A, Shri Krishna Singh. Shri Krishna Singh, better known as Sri Krishna Sinha, led the formation of the Bihar branch of the Swaraj Dal in 1923. The Swaraj Party itself was founded on 1 January 1923 by Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru, who wanted to enter the councils and oppose the government from inside. The split that led to it came at the Congress session held at Gaya in Bihar in December 1922, where Das was president and his council-entry plan was voted down. Sri Krishna Sinha, called Bihar Kesari, later became the first Chief Minister of Bihar and held the post from 1946 until his death in 1961. Option B is wrong because Ramlal Shah did not found the Swaraj Dal in Bihar. Option C is wrong because Bankim Chandra Mitra is not the person credited with it either. Option D is wrong because Sachindra Nath Sanyal was a revolutionary who founded the Hindustan Republican Association in 1924. Exam tip: Gaya session 1922, Swaraj Party 1923, Bihar unit under Sri Krishna Sinha.

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 A, Bimbisara. Bimbisara founded the Haryanka dynasty of Magadha and began Magadha's rise as the strongest of the sixteen Mahajanapadas. His capital was Rajagriha, today's Rajgir in Nalanda district, and he was a contemporary and admirer of Gautama Buddha. He grew his power through marriages: with the Kosala princess who brought Kashi as dowry, with Chellana of the Licchavis of Vaishali, and with Khema of Madra. He also conquered Anga, the region around present-day Bhagalpur, which gave Magadha control of trade on the Ganga. Option B is wrong because Brihadratha founded the older dynasty of Magadha, the one to which Jarasandha belonged. Option C is wrong because Ajatashatru was Bimbisara's son and successor, not the founder. Option D is wrong because only one ruler, Bimbisara, founded the dynasty. Exam tip: the Haryanka line runs Bimbisara, Ajatashatru, Udayin, and Udayin shifted the capital to Pataliputra.

The correct answer is C, Pavnar, Maharashtra. Vinoba Bhave lived in his ashram at Pavnar near Wardha and began the individual Satyagraha from there on 17 October 1940. Gandhiji launched this limited protest after rejecting the August Offer of 1940, to show that India had not agreed to be dragged into the Second World War. Only chosen individuals would make an anti-war speech and court arrest, so that the war effort was not disturbed by a mass movement. Gandhiji picked Vinoba Bhave as the first satyagrahi and Jawaharlal Nehru as the second. Option A is wrong because Punnapra-Vayalar in Travancore saw a communist-led uprising in 1946. Option B is wrong because Nadiad in Kheda is linked with the Kheda Satyagraha of 1918. Option D is wrong because the individual Satyagraha began from one place, Pavnar. Exam tip: August Offer 1940, then individual Satyagraha from Pavnar; Vinoba first, Nehru second.

The correct answer is C, Holt Mackenzie. Holt Mackenzie, a Company official, devised the Mahalwari system in 1822 for the North-Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency. Under it, the whole village or estate, called a mahal, was treated as one unit, and the revenue was fixed with the village community or its headmen, who were jointly responsible for paying it. Unlike the Permanent Settlement, the demand was revised from time to time. Under Lord William Bentinck the system was improved and spread to Agra and Awadh, and later to Punjab and parts of Central India. Option A is wrong because Lord Hastings was the Governor-General of the time, known for the Anglo-Nepal and Third Anglo-Maratha Wars, not for designing this system. Option B is wrong because Lord Cornwallis brought the Permanent Settlement of 1793 in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. Option D is wrong because only Holt Mackenzie devised the Mahalwari system. Exam tip: Permanent Settlement is Cornwallis 1793, Ryotwari is Munro and Read, Mahalwari is Holt Mackenzie 1822.

The correct answer is A, village headman. Under the Delhi Sultans, the Muqaddam or Chaudhari was the headman of the village and helped collect land revenue from the peasants. The village was the smallest unit of the Sultanate. Above it came the pargana under an Amil, the shiq under a Shiqdar, and the province, or iqta, under a Muqti or Wali. Along with the Khut, the headmen enjoyed many privileges, and Alauddin Khalji is remembered for cutting them down so that they paid taxes like ordinary peasants. Option B is wrong because revenue officials such as the Amil worked at the pargana level, above the village. Option C is wrong because the village accountant was the Patwari, who kept the land and revenue records. Option D is wrong because the term meant only one post, the headman. Exam tip: Muqaddam or Chaudhari is the headman, Patwari is the accountant, and Alauddin Khalji curbed the Khut, Muqaddam and Chaudhari.

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.

The correct answer is A, Cyril Radcliffe. The British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe chaired both the Punjab and the Bengal Boundary Commissions in 1947. Each commission had four judges, two named by the Congress and two by the Muslim League, and when they could not agree the final decision fell to Radcliffe. He had never been to India before and was given only about five weeks for the job. His award was made public on 17 August 1947, two days after independence, and the line he drew is still called the Radcliffe Line on India's borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Option B is wrong because Moon was a British civil servant in Punjab who later wrote about Partition; he did not head the commissions. Option C is wrong because A. V. Alexander came to India in 1946 as a member of the Cabinet Mission. Option D is wrong because one person, Radcliffe, headed both commissions. Exam tip: Cabinet Mission 1946 was Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps and Alexander; the 1947 border was Radcliffe's.