India Quiz 2017 (prelims and mains)

Also known as the City of Weavers, this city is
known as the place that helped change Indian
history forever (thrice). Mythologically, it is
mentioned even in the Mahabharata.
1.

2.
• Under who’s reign in the Delhi Sultanate was the kingdom largest?
• (King - not dynasty)

3.
Where?
• Commemorating
Independence
day

Government of India in its letter No. 870 R.T. dated August 7, 1883
addressed to Bombay Government said: “… it has been represented
that considerable inconvenience is caused by the custom generally in
force which prevents native gentlemen from being present on the
platform to meet a friend or relative coming by train or to accompany
him on his departure. The Government of India fully recognized the
necessity of preventing the undue crowding of railway platforms, but it
is thought that the grievance complained of might be to a great extent
remedied, without inconvenience to railway working, by the adoption,
at the principal stations, of a system lately introduced by the Sind,
Punjab & Delhi Railway at Lahore of ____________”
What is blanked out?
4.

6.
• The British before leaving India, had planned to create a new country
for Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Burmans.
• Although the plan did not materialize, where did they plan to
establish this country?

‘X’ was famously invited by Saddam Hussein to
head the Nuclear Programme of Iraq. In fear for
his life, he fled Iraq without informing the
governments of either country overnight.
He is one of the fathers of India’s Nuclear
programmes.
9.

Popularly considered the gravest mistake of Partition, this
district which had a 98% non-muslim population was
awarded to Pakistan. It is now dominated by a 86% muslim
population. The representative association of the people
of this district resolved not to abide by the award and
hoisted the Indian flag.
10.

In Rajasthan, Rabari herdsmen
worship a deity called Pabuji, who
is considered to be an incarnation
of Laxman. He is supposed to
have introduced ‘X’ in Rajasthan,
strangely enough from Lanka.
11.

This iconically dressed
horse belonged to a
famous Indian King. It has
been made to look like an
elephant because of the
use of elephant by the
commander of the rival
army. Name the King.
12.

Founded by an Indian freedom fighter, more than 50000
vehicles mfd by X are used by the Indian Army. At 60
million passengers/d, it carries more people than the
Indian Railways.
13.

A foreigner who writes about India for ‘an
audience that doesn’t primarily know India’, as he
himself quotes.
Has widely been hailed as ‘The most famous
narrative historian of India’, despite not being an
Indian.
14.

When a panel under Bibek Debroy was made to
look into the common causes of rail accidents in
the country in June 2015, it gave a common
cause for most accidents: neglect on driver’s
part. What was given to be the foremost cause of
neglect, especially on long journeys?
15.

X and Y published their iconic book in 1935. It was
soon adopted by schools in India, Pakistan and
Burma. The book was originally written to cater to the
demand for a quality textbook for the children of
British Officers. The content in the books is largely
based on another book by JC Nesfield.
Identify X and Y. The series of textbooks is still in
use at many Indian schools. While semantic change
has dated the original books, they continue to enjoy
considerable popularity and updated versions are
now in common use.
16.

India Quiz 2017 (prelims and mains)

In 1940 when it happened, the Congress widely condemned it.
Nehru issued an official condemnation. However, in 1962, he said
‘We are in the debt of X, who gladly kissed the noose so that we
may be free.’
ID X.
17.

X = actual answer
Y = most voted answer
18.

19.
• When the states in India were re-organized in the 1950's, under the
States Reorganisation Act, the then Government of Kerala gave X
district to Tamilnadu (because majority of the population spoke Tamil
in the district) in exchange for Y district from Tamilnadu.
• Till 1956 X was a part of reconstituted Travancore-Cochin State . This
is the reason some temples in X district are built in Kerala style. The
Padmanabhapura palace in X district in fact is still owned and
maintained by Kerala but is surrounded on all sides by Tamil Nadu

Types of Indian Temples
architecture

22.
• This is a temple in Delhi NCR: Believed to be
the birthplace of X, a temple in Bisrakh,
Greater Noida, is dedicated to X. The temple
has obviously faced the wrath of several
people who believe in the power of Y, but
that hasn't changed the stand of the
institution that is situated in a village that
derives its name from X's father, Vishrava.

23. Connect the following (inexhaustive)
Bunt
Garo
Khasi
Jaintia
Maliku
Nair

24.
• ______ introduced a new service around Raksha Bandhan this year
called X to its app that allowed users to send gifts to their contacts
along with customized X. Now, the company has decided to rename
the service to Y, following its feud with India Post.
• According to Department of Posts, India Post has the sole right to use
the word X under the IPO Act rules and regulations.
• X and Y please

25.
• X is a phrase literally translating to ‘Be and it is’, that occurs several
times in the Qur'an. It refers to creation by Allah.
• X was used in a qawwali in a 2011 Bollywood movie.

1.
• This name for this community comes from Semitic Arabic root word
____ which means “leaving one’s tribe”
• These communities have sustained themselves over generations by
"adopting" boys who are in abject poverty, rejected by, or flee, their
family of origin.
• Surprisingly, most of the members although not all, are born
unambiguously male.
• Some members undergo an initiation rite into the community known
as nirvaan (liberation)

2.
• Alia Bhatt in the movie Udtaa Punjab is a migrant laborer from Bihar
and is unnamed through out.
• In one of the final scenes of the movie, Alia is in a beach, presumably
Goa. Shahid Kapoor asks Alia over phone what her real name is.
• What does Alia answer to this question?
• According to Sudip Sharma, the scriptwriter, the answer is an allusion
to a particular drug.

Mary jane. Allusion to marijuana

Excerpt from a recent newspaper report:
KOLKATA: The state government taken up the responsibility to bring __
________ to the mainstream of the society. This year, about 30 __
________ would take charge of the kitchen at the food pavilions that
the State Fisheries Development Corporation (SFDC) will set up at
several Puja pandals across the city, as part of the government initiative.
Officials said a number of __ ________ are getting old and with age, they
are losing their earning. "It is not only about woman empowerment. As they
age, these women need to be rehabilitated in different jobs. The initiative of
SFDC to train the selected __ ________ for running the food stalls is just
step to this endeavour," said an official.
Fill in the blanks.
3.

Uttama villain, Kamal Hassan’s movie poster, shows a
portrait photograph of an artist of a particular dance
form. ID the dance form
4.

• The opening line, of something we have all heard – “You see, the
whole country of the system is juxtapositioned by the hemoglobin in
the atmosphere” ... "sophisticated rhetorician intoxicated by the
exuberance of your own verbosity” - is an almost exact quotation
from a speech in the Parliament of the United Kingdom given by
British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in 1878. Disraeli (who was
referring to William Ewart Gladstone) used the word "inebriated"
rather than “intoxicated"
5.

• The banquet went on in this fashion for over two hours, but the only
words that came from Nehru’s mouth were about the meal in front of
them. Finally, X could stand it no longer and asked: “Mr Prime
Minister, what is your opinion of Communist China?” Nehru listened
with an absent expression, and answered, “Mr ________, have you
tasted one of these delicious apples?” “Mr Prime Minister, have you
read Mao Tse-tung?” “Ah, Mr ________, how pleased I am that you
have liked the apples.”
6.

Official Court Languages
1. Akbar (Mughal)
2. Qutub-ud-din Aibak (Mamluk)
3. Chandragupta I (Gupta)
4. Krishnadeva Raya (Vijaynagar)
5. Kanishka (Kushana)
6. Kujula Kadphises (Kushana)
7. Mir Osman Ali Khan (Asaf Jahi Nizam)
8. Tipu Sultan (Mysore)

1. Kujula Kadphises (Kushana) - Greek

2. Kanishka (Kushana) - Bactrian

3. Chandragupta I (Gupta) - Sanskrit

4. Qutub-ud-din Aibak (Mamluk) - Persian

5. Akbar (Mughal) - Persian

6. Krishnadeva Raya (Vijaynagar) - Telugu

7. Tipu Sultan (Mysore) - Persian

8. Mir Osman Ali Khan (Asaf Jahi Nizam) - Urdu

1. Kujula Kadphises (Kushana) - Greek
2. Kanishka (Kushana) - Bactrian
3. Chandragupta I (Gupta) - Sanskrit
4. Qutub-ud-din Aibak (Mamluk) - Persian
5. Akbar (Mughal) - Persian
6. Krishnadeva Raya (Vijaynagar) - Telugu
7. Tipu Sultan (Mysore) - Persian
8. Mir Osman Ali Khan (Asaf Jahi Nizam) - Urdu

• X had rejected Amitabh Bacchan since he felt that his voice was too
familiar and would his aim of taking the audience to a period of 1893
would fail from the very first scene itself.
• “I was shocked and argued with X, why this had not occurred to him
before asking me to go and ask Amitji. But Amitji took it sportingly
and told me that he was relieved since all his films for which he had
done a voiceover had miserably flopped” says Y.
• However X changed his mind and finally decided that Amitabh
Bacchan would be doing the role. Y again went and told Amitabh that
X had gone mad. Amitabh din’t utter a word but reminded Y that he
was superstitious and he brought bad luck
• X and Y
1.

Ashutosh Gowariker and Amir Khan
• Amitabh for Lagaan

• Both the Bene Israel and the Baghdadis had vibrant musical traditions
in the 1930s. The Bene Israeli repertoire was in Marathi, drawing its
themes from the Psalms and other Biblical sources.
• To Mumbai’s ears, the music of the Baghdadis must have seemed far
more exotic.
• Some of these Jewish tunes made their way to wider audiences.
Among these was Habibi, which became X in the 1956 film CID.
• One of the sisters in the Ma’atuk family, a Jewish family in Byculla,
sang it to the music director, OP Nayyar, who adapted this song.
• This song was later remade in a 2015 movie.
2.

X – Jata kaha hn Diwane, Bombay Velvet

• The Nawayath are a Muslim community with highest concentratation
mostly in X, a town in Uttara Kannada in Karnataka. They also have
sizeable pockets in Udupi district and some parts of Tamil Nadu. It is
an ethnic society, having its own unique traditions and distinct
cultural identity.
• They speak their own language called Nawayath which is a mix of
Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Marathi with Konkani as its base.
• The name X coincides with the surname of a gruesome terrorist
infamous for a bomb blast in India
• MLA Mankala Subba Vaidya from X, is upset at the “terror tag”
casually used for the town. “A few youth may be involved in terror
cases, but giving the town such branding is unacceptable.”
3.

Yasin Bhatkal
• From the 2013 Hyderabad Blast case.

4.
September 5 has long been celebrated as Teacher's Day in India. But this
year, Lucknow celebrated something else on Sept 5. Here's a news excerpt:
'Lucknow: It’s morning as usual on Tuesday and as the sun wore on a mad
rush for____ began in the city. Though__- have been a staple part of the
Indian diet, few knew that September 5 was celebrated as World -___ Day.
Raju, a worker at the famous Sharma tea stall in Lalbagh, said, “We had the
usual stock of___, but after 10 am, there was mad rush like never before. We
could not understand the reason, until one of the buyers told us it was
World__ Day. Then we replenished our stocks and by evening we sold thrice
the amount of our usual sales.” The stall sells only___, buns and tea and is
one of the most famous___ joint in. Talking about variations of a___, deputy
manager of a five star hotel, Shabahat Hussain, said, “There are more than
14 variations of___ in Lucknow and the difference lies in their filling.
Fill in the blank.

• In 2014 General Elections, Prashant Kishor is credit to have come up
with 'Chai pe Charcha' to popularise the humble origins of Shri
Narendra Modi. In Punjab Assembly poles, he came up with a slightly
sophisticated version on similar lines for the Congress. What was the
new version?
5.

• There is a very famous saying in Maharashtra which goes: Hote Jiva
Mhanun Vachle X (i.e. Because Jiva was there X lived). The legend
goes that Y betrayed X by trying to kill him with a dagger hit on his
back under the pretext of a friendly hug. But X was smart enough to
have worn armour on the back and managed to pull out Y’s guts using
the ‘waagh-nakh’ (tiger claws) or bichwa hidden in his hands. Upon
this Y shouted ‘Daga..dhokha..(Betrayal..Treachery)’ (regardless of the
fact that he attempted to kill X first). Responding to Y’s wails, his body
guard Sayad Banda tried to go for X’s head with a sword but before he
could succeed, Jiva who was X’s bodyguard, chopped off the hand in
which Banda held the sword.
• ID X and Y (Hint: It’s Rhyme Time)
6.

1. What do the three lines represent?

2.
• Francis Day secured a Grant giving over to the English the village of X-patnam for a period of two years
and empowering them to build a fort and castle at that place. The Grant is dated August 1639. At last, in
February 1640, Day and Cogan accompanied by a few factors and writers, a garrison of about 25 European
soldiers and a few other European artificers, besides a Hindu powder-maker by name Naga Battan,
proceeded to X-patnam and started the English factory. They reached X-patnam on the 20th of February;
and this date is important because it marks the first actual settlement of the English at the place.
• In all the records of the times a difference is made between the original village of X-patnam and the new
town growing round the Fort. Thus we may say that the village of X-patnam existed under that name prior
to the English settlement of 1639-40 and the site of Y-patnam was that of modern Fort. The original
village of X-patnam lay to the north of the site of the Fort and within a few years of the founding of the
Fort the new town which grew up round the Fort was commonly known to the Indians as Y-patnam, either
in deference to the wishes of Damarla Venkatapathy or because the site originally bore that name. The
intervening space between the northern X-patnam and the Southern Y-patnam came to be built over
rapidly so that the two villages became virtually one town.
• The English preferred to call the two united towns by the name of X-patnam with which they had become
familiar from the first while the Indians chose to give it the name of Y-patnam.X was the name of the city
till 1996, after which it was changed to a derivative of Y. ID X and Y. (Only X fits the connect)

X = Madraspatnam Y = Chennapatnam

• After much prompting by friends and family in 1935 X finally put to
paper seven accounts of his Jungle encounters. These were then
made into a small book and 100 copies were privately published
under the title Jungle Stories and distributed amongst friends.
• Later using Jungle Stories as the basis, X wrote Y which which was first
published by Oxford University Press in 1944.
• Interestingly, In 1949 Y was read out in court by defense for a murder
charge. The police's theory was that the accused conspired to murder
the victim, the defense was that the victim was killed by a _____.
Thus the defense produced Y and read passages relating relevant
wounds and circumstances of an attack.
3.

X = Jim Corbett
Y = Man eaters of Kumaon

4.
• X was a three-mile long moat excavated around Calcutta in 1742, as a
protection against possible attacks by marauding Y.
• The Y, however, never came to the city. Later, the X proved to be
useless when the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, came and
ransacked the British settlement in 1756.
• Although the X was thought of as a protection against the possible
plunder of the Kolkata by the Y, the "natives" had to pay for the
construction of the X to protect the British seat of power, Fort
William.
• X earned Kolkatans a famous sobriquet. The area bound by X was
considered to be the original town of Kolkata.

5.
Who was the last ruling Maharaja of Jammu Kashmir = X
Which dynasty did he belong to = Y

8. What is this showing? (Not India)

1.
With the motto of ‘Pehla Hamesha Pehla’ and war cry ‘Garud ka Hoon,
Bol Pyaare’ this particular regiment of the Indian army was set up as an
elite regiment under the aegis of Gen. Kariappa soon after
independence. When India attained Independence, the Army, by and
large, and the infantry and armoured units in particular, continued to
retain the class composition laid down much earlier. Thus regiments
were either `pure class' or `mixed class' upto company level. Within
companies, men of different classes were not mixed. The then
Commander-in-Chief General KM Cariappa, OBE envisaged promoting
national integration by raising a regiment of all class mixed composition
down to section level. ID the regiment. (Hint focus on the war cry)

Brigade of guards (garud a corruption of gards)

2.
• In Marottichal, a village nestled in the hills in Thrissur district of
Kerala, X is a cerebral addiction that has saved them from alcohol
dependence.
• In the 1970s and 1980s, illicit brewing was rampant in the village. The
villagers picked up X after cheap brew threatened to destroy their
lives.
• X is common with everone in everyone and anyone from the age 8 to
80
• While in his tenth standard (now 59) C Unnikrishnan, after reading a
newspaper report left the village for a nearby city to learn X and
returned only to inroduce X to the village.

3.
• The story goes that when Amir Khusro was once served the fruit (of
family Annonaceae) in Warangal, he enquired about its name. Upon
getting to know that it is called X, Khusro remarked, “It is difficult for a
humble man to bring upon his lips the name of this figure of modesty
(mujassama-e-______) and kind lady, erefore let this fruit be known
as Y from now on.
• Although X is the term still used for this fruit in South and West India,
it is largely referred to as Y in the north.
• In fact, in the North, X refers to another vegetable of the
Cucurbitaceae family

4.
• X is a classical Hindi song popularized by Ustad Sultan Khan of Indore
gharana in the early 1970s. Ustad Sultan Khan sang it in the 1999
Bollywood romantic drama, directed by Y, along with Shankar
Mahadevan and Kavitha Krishnamurthy.
• Although the original bandish is in Raag AhirBhairav, the newer
version in the 2016 movie, is in Raag Deshkar. Interestingly, it was Y
who gave the music for this 2016 movie.

5.
• X in the context of Hindu mythology, describes the dance performed
by Goddess Parvati as it expresses happiness and is filled with grace
and beauty. She is believed to have danced the X in response to the
male energy of the cosmic dance of Tandava performed by Lord Shiva.
• In a literal sense, X means beauty, happiness and grace.
• The 2014 album, Traces of You by Anoushka Shankar had a track that
was named X.

• When the X temple was complete, the
King Raja Raja Chola asked his sthapati
(architect) Kunjaramallan Raja Raja
Perunthachan who build the
marvellous structure - “Sthapati will
this huge structure ever fall down?”
The reply from the master craftsman
was “ Even its shadow will not fall
Raja”
• It is a hoax that the shadow never falls
on earth.
• Thus the answer was a metaphorical
expression rather than a reality.
6.

The first day of the month of Chaitra is celebrated
as a New Year in many parts of India
1. Telugu
2. Kannada
3. Marathi
4. Manipuri
5. Sindhi
Differential 2
4*n

Differential 2
• Telugu – Ugadi
• Kannada – Ugadi
• Marathi – Gudipadwa
• Manipuri – Sajibu Nongma Panba
• Sindhi – Cheti Chand

Maha connect 2
Complete and exhaustive

1.
X was the Mughal King under whom the Mughal Safavid war effectively
started. To retake Kandahar, X sent his son Y. Y actually defeated the
Persian ruler Abbas II but proved unable to capture the city after Uzbek
intervention. Identify X and Y.
X goes into connect

2.
• According to the book 'A Cultural History of Medieval India' : 'X's guise
as a reborn Vaishnavite ascetic was in stark comparison to the
demonization of fellow Mlechhas in the Bhavishya Purana.' Time
magazine included his name in its list of the Top 25 world leaders of
all time. Identify X.

3.
The Aga Khan Palace was built by Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan
III in Pune, India. Built in 1892, it is one of the biggest landmarks in
Indian history. The palace is closely linked to the Indian freedom
movement as it also served as a prison. One of the icons of the
movement to die there was Mahadev Desai. Who was the other?

4.
• Although there are many, one such
structure can be found in the Zoological
park in Delhi
• Which ruler established such structures?

7.
• X is famous for establishing a distinguished college Y and also a
recipient of the Bharat Ratna. Interestingly, X's brother was a
proponent of the Pakistan movement while X was involved in the
freedom struggle. It was under X that Y became closely associated
with the Indian Freedom movement.
• While the brother was the Education minister of Pakistan, what post
in the Indian govt did X occupy. Also, ID X.

• 8.
This famous scientist derived the Gresham's Law of Economics and the
Quantity theory of money. He is however much better known for
proposing revolutionary views on a certain generally accepted fact
during that time, and escaping persecution himself, though later
scientists like Galileo, proved not to be so lucky (because of the same).
Who was this scientist?

9.
• X is 4.2km long and is shown in the opening scene of the movie
Gandhi.
• To go westwards, we need to climb up a slope towards

India Quiz 2017 (prelims and mains)

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India Quiz 2017 (prelims and mains)