Rajasthan 2024 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, Bhulabhai Desai. Bhulabhai Desai led the defence at the Red Fort trials of the Indian National Army officers, and his argument that the soldiers of a recognised army were fighting for their country's freedom turned the trials into a public cause. The first trial, held from November 1945, was of Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, charged with waging war against the King. The Congress set up an INA Defence Committee whose members included Jawaharlal Nehru, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Asaf Ali and Kailash Nath Katju. The men were convicted but the sentences were remitted after countrywide protests. A is wrong because Sardar Patel organised relief and funds, and did not appear in court. B is wrong because Aruna Asaf Ali was a leader of the 1942 movement, not a lawyer in the case. C is wrong because K. M. Munshi, though a lawyer, is remembered for his work in the Constituent Assembly. Exam tip: Red Fort trials 1945-46, defence led by Bhulabhai Desai.

The correct answer is B, Amaravati. The panel showing the submission of the mad elephant Nalagiri, sent by Devadatta to kill the Buddha and calmed by him in the street of Rajagriha, is among the best known carvings of the Amaravati stupa on the lower Krishna in Andhra Pradesh. The Amaravati school flourished under Satavahana patronage and worked in white limestone, filling its panels with crowded, slender and flowing figures.

Option A, Bharhut, is a Sunga period stupa in Madhya Pradesh whose railings carry Jataka scenes labelled in Brahmi. Option C, Mathura, is a school of red sandstone sculpture in the north and not the site of this panel. Option D, Sanchi, is famous for its stupa gateways with scenes of the Buddha's life shown through symbols, but the Nalagiri panel belongs to Amaravati.

The correct answer is B, because pattvaya was the guild of silk weavers, not of washermen. The washermen had their own body, known as the rajaka guild. The famous Mandasor stone inscription of the time of Kumaragupta records a guild of silk weavers who migrated from Lata in Gujarat to Dasapura and built a temple of the Sun there, and it is the best known reference to this craft group. Option A is correctly matched, since a shreshthi, the word behind today's seth, was the rich merchant banker who headed a guild. Option C is correctly matched, because a puga was a corporation whose members followed different callings, unlike a shreni, which brought together the workers of one craft. Option D is correctly matched, as a sartha was a body of traders travelling together, and its leader was called a sarthavaha. Exam tip: shreni is one craft, puga is many trades together, sarthavaha leads the caravan, and rajaka means washerman.