Static general knowledge is the larger part of every UPSC general studies paper. The notices name the same areas again and again: the history of India and the national movement, Indian and world geography, polity and the Constitution, the economy and social development, and general science with environment and ecology. The balance shifts from exam to exam. NDA puts about half of its General Knowledge part on Physics, Chemistry and General Science. CSE favours polity, modern history, environment and the economy. CAPF adds security and human rights, and CDS spreads its questions across polity, history, geography, the economy and school science.
GK24's GK notes are written topic by topic in English and Hindi, as short, fact-first chapters that are easy to revise. They cover Indian Polity, Indian History, Geography, Indian Economy, General Science, Environment and Ecology, Art and Culture, Computer, and the fact lists of awards, sports, books and days. A new chapter is added in each subject as the series grows. Each note carries practice questions, and those that have appeared in an exam say which exam and year. Start with Polity and modern history, then Geography, the Economy and Science. Read a note, take its topic quiz, and come back to it in your monthly revision.
Sama Chakeva, in which sisters make clay birds and sing farewell songs for their brothers, belongs to which region of Bihar?
Sama Chakeva is a festival of the Mithila region of north Bihar, beginning on Kartik Purnima, when the migratory birds arrive.
Read the full explanation →During the Shravani Mela, kanwariyas carry Ganga water from which place in Bihar to the Baidyanath shrine at Deoghar?
Sultanganj in Bhagalpur district is the starting point of the Shravani Mela.
Read the full explanation →The Sonepur fair, described as the largest cattle fair in Asia, begins on which day?
The Harihar Kshetra fair at Sonepur opens on the full moon of Kartik and runs for about a month, with cattle, horses, birds and handicrafts on sale, a theatre ground, and traders from several states.
Read the full explanation →The Sonepur fair is held at the confluence of which two rivers?
Sonepur in Saran district lies opposite Patna at the point where the Gandak, coming down from Nepal, joins the Ganga, and the fair is held on that bank from Kartik Purnima.
Read the full explanation →Which is the chief prasad of Chhath, made of wheat flour and jaggery?
Thekua is a hard sweet made from wheat flour and jaggery, fried in ghee or oil and pressed in a wooden mould, and it is the offering most closely identified with Chhath.
Read the full explanation →The main worship of Chhath falls on which day of the month of Kartik?
The festival takes its very name from shashthi, the sixth day of the bright half of Kartik, on which the evening offering to the setting sun is made.
Read the full explanation →The Chhath festival of Bihar is dedicated chiefly to which deity?
Chhath is kept for the Sun God, Surya, along with Chhathi Maiya, and the whole ritual is built around the sun: the vratis stand in water and offer arghya, that is water and prasad, first to the setting sun on the evening of shashthi and then to the rising sun…
Read the full explanation →Which Nawab of Awadh, writing under the pen name Akhtarpiya, composed thumris and devised the Rahas dance drama?
The last Nawab of Awadh was a trained dancer and a prolific writer who composed thumris under the pen name Akhtarpiya, among them the celebrated Babul mora naihar chhuto hi jaye, and who devised the Rahas, a court dance drama on the Krishna theme that drew on Raslila.
Read the full explanation →Raslila, the dance drama on the life of Krishna in which the actors are called swarups, belongs to which region?
Raslila enacts the childhood and the rasa of Krishna in the land of his legend, mixing sung verse, dance and spoken dialogue.
Read the full explanation →Alha, the heroic ballad of Alha and Udal, is the folk song tradition of which region?
Alha is sung in the Bundelkhandi region of southern Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining districts of Madhya Pradesh, especially around Mahoba, and it narrates the battles of the warrior brothers Alha and Udal of the Chandela court.
Read the full explanation →The Marris College of Hindustani Music, now Bhatkhande Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, was founded at Lucknow in 1926 by
Bhatkhande was the musicologist who collected and notated Hindustani compositions and arranged the ragas into the ten thaat system still taught in schools.
Read the full explanation →Bismillah Khan of Varanasi, honoured with the Bharat Ratna, was a master of which instrument?
Ustad Bismillah Khan of Varanasi took the shehnai, until then an instrument of weddings and temple gateways, on to the concert platform and made it a solo classical instrument.
Read the full explanation →Which pair of towns are the two main centres and styles of Nautanki?
Nautanki grew into two recognised styles, the Hathras style in which the sung music and the verse metres dominate and the audience comes for the singing, and the Kanpur style in which dialogue, acting and stagecraft carry more of the play.
Read the full explanation →Ramlila, the traditional performance of the Ramayana, was placed by UNESCO on which list?
Ramlila is a living performance tradition rather than a building or a document, so it was inscribed in 2008 on the list that UNESCO maintains for intangible heritage, the same list that carries Kutiyattam, Vedic chanting and Ramman from India.
Read the full explanation →The Charkula dance belongs to which region of Uttar Pradesh?
Charkula is danced in the Braj country around Mathura, where a woman balances a tiered wooden pyramid hung with rows of lighted earthen lamps, traditionally counted as one hundred and eight, on her head and moves to Rasiya songs of Krishna.
Read the full explanation →Which instrument dominates a Nautanki performance?
Nautanki is played on an open platform to an audience of hundreds, often through the whole night, so it needs an instrument that carries.
Read the full explanation →Which gharana of Kathak developed in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh?
The Lucknow gharana of Kathak took shape in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh, who was himself a dancer and a composer of thumris under the pen name Akhtarpiya.
Read the full explanation →Who became the first Governor of Rajasthan when the post of Rajpramukh was abolished in 1956?
The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 ended the hereditary office of Rajpramukh, which had been filled by a former ruler, and replaced it with a Governor appointed by the President in the ordinary way under the Constitution.
Read the full explanation →Manikya Lal Verma was the Prime Minister of which of these unions?
When Udaipur joined the Rajasthan Union on 18 April 1948 the enlarged body was named the United State of Rajasthan, with Udaipur as capital, the Maharana of Udaipur as Rajpramukh and Manikya Lal Verma, the founder of the Mewar Praja Mandal, as Prime Minister.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following was added to Rajasthan under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956?
The seventh stage, on 1 November 1956, brought the Abu Road tehsil from Bombay state into Rajasthan, together with Ajmer-Merwara and the Sunel Tappa area, and this is how Mount Abu became a part of Rajasthan.
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