UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

The gesture joins the thumb and forefinger of each hand into a circle, the wheel, and holds them before the chest, marking the turning of the wheel of law in the deer park at Sarnath, where the Buddha preached to his first five disciples.

In the Bhumisparsha, or earth-touching, mudra the Buddha sits with the left hand in his lap and the right hand lowered with the fingers pointing to the ground, calling the earth to witness that he had earned the right to enlightenment against the temptations of Mara.

Article 368(2) lists the provisions whose amendment needs a special majority in each House and, in addition, ratification by the legislatures of not less than one-half of the States: the election of the President, the extent of the executive power of the Union and the States, the Supreme Court and…

It added clauses to Articles 75 and 164 so that the total number of ministers, including the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister, cannot exceed fifteen per cent of the total number of members of the Lok Sabha or of the State Legislative Assembly, with a floor of twelve ministers…

It added Article 31B and the Ninth Schedule so that the zamindari abolition and land reform laws of the States could not be struck down for violating the Fundamental Rights, and it also added reasonable restrictions on the freedom of speech in Article 19(2) and Article 15(4) for the advancement…

The amendment also made a three-tier structure, five-year terms, reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women, a State Election Commission and a State Finance Commission compulsory.

It repealed Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31 and put the right to property in a new Article 300A in Part XII, so that no person may be deprived of his property except by authority of law.

It inserted Article 246A, which gives both Parliament and the State legislatures the power to make laws on goods and services tax, Article 269A for the levy and collection of integrated GST on inter-State supply, and Article 279A, under which the President constituted the GST Council with the Union Finance…

It inserted Article 21A, which gives every child of the age of six to fourteen years the right to free and compulsory education in such manner as the State may determine by law; the law that followed was the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

The first general election held on the new franchise was that of 1989.

It inserted the Tenth Schedule, which disqualifies a member of Parliament or of a State legislature who voluntarily gives up the membership of the party on whose ticket he was elected, or who votes against the party whip.

It is called the Mini-Constitution because no other single amendment has changed so much of the Constitution at once.

He took charge in March 1947, announced the plan of 3 June 1947 under which the country was divided, and after the Indian Independence Act of 1947 came into force he continued as the first Governor-General of the Dominion of India until June 1948.

During it the provincial elections of 1937 were held under the Government of India Act of 1935, India was taken into the Second World War without consulting the legislatures and the Congress ministries resigned in 1939, the Muslim League passed the Lahore Resolution of 1940, the August Offer was made…

The movement began with the Dandi March of March 1930 against the salt law, and after the first Round Table Conference the Viceroy Lord Irwin negotiated a pact with Mahatma Gandhi on 5 March 1931: political prisoners were to be released, the making of salt for domestic use on the…

The Rowlatt Act was passed in March 1919 under him, and on 13 April 1919 General Dyer ordered troops to fire on an unarmed gathering at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar; the Hunter Committee was appointed to inquire into it and Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest.

The transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi was announced by King George V at the Delhi Durbar of December 1911, during Hardinge's term, and the same Durbar annulled the partition of Bengal.

He announced the partition of the Bengal Presidency in July 1905 and it came into force on 16 October 1905, creating the province of Eastern Bengal and Assam; the official reason was administrative convenience, but the real purpose was to divide the Hindu and Muslim population and weaken the nationalist…

His Resolution on Local Self-Government of 1882 proposed boards for rural and urban areas with a majority of elected non-official members and a non-official chairman, and asked that they be given control over local funds, which is why he is remembered as the father of local self-government in India.

The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 required the publisher of an Indian language newspaper to execute a bond and allowed the government to seize the press if seditious matter was printed, while English newspapers were left untouched; it was therefore called the gagging Act.