India Quiz

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QUIZ MASTER

Shivam Sanoria
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Round 1
Question 1.
Recently, when a UNESCO world heritage site in Delhi reopened for the first time after
the pandemic-related lockdowns, the visitors saw a number of empty display boxes in a
museum located in its premises. This resulted in social media flooding with images of an
empty display box with an alleged claim of a rare personal belonging of ‘X’ gone missing.
This distinctive item was gifted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by X’s family, which
was placed in the museum in 2019, by Modi himself, when he inaugurated the museum,
dedicating it to X.
Soon after, it was clarified by the Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Survey of
India, that the artefact had not gone missing, but was loaned out to another prestigious
monument, located in the eastern part of the country.
Identify the item being talked about and also the reason why it was loaned out.
Safety Slide
Answer- Netaji Subhash
Chandra Bose’s Cap, Loaned to
Victoria Memorial Hall for his
125th Birthday Celebrations
Question 2.
On 11 April 1955, Kashmir Princess, a chartered Lockheed L-749A constellation
aircraft owned by Air India, got damaged mid air by a bomb explosion, crashing
into the South China Sea while en route to Jakarta, Indonesia.
The target of the attack was the Chinese Premier, Zhou Enlai, who happened to
have missed the flight due to a medical emergency. At Prime Minister Nehru’s
insistence X was told to join the investigation, which became his first breakthrough
case.
Very few photographs of X exist, due to his low-profile nature, even though he
happened to play a key role in two of India’s greatest triumphs during the 1970s,
the Bangladesh War and the Sikkim’s merger with India.
Identify X.
Safety Slide
Answer-R.N.Kao
Question 3.
A place of ancient existence, X, which derives its name from a hill, at whose
feet it is situated, is a kilometre long foothill stretch from Shankar Villa, the
office of the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan
(UNMOGIP) in the west to the last Dogra ruler, Hari Singh’s erstwhile palace,
Talay Manzil.
In early August 2019, a statement, now known as the ‘ X declaration’, was
issued by a group of politicians to defend the “identity, autonomy and special
status of Jammu & Kashmir against all attacks and onslaughts whatsoever”.
Identify X.
Safety Slide
Answer-Gupkar
Question 4.
Awarded for achievements towards world recognition for Pakistan or an
outstanding service for the country, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz is regarded as the
highest award one can achieve in Pakistan since the higher award
Nishan-e-Pakistan is awarded only to foreign Heads of States.
A highly restricted and prestigious award, roughly equivalent to USA’s
Presidential Medal of Freedom and Order of the British Empire, and is the first
category award of Order of Imtiaz and even though it is a civilian award, it can
also be awarded to military personnel and worn on the uniform.
However, the award is not limited to citizens of Pakistan and can be awarded
to foreign nationals as well. Who is the only Indian recipient of this honour as
of yet?
Safety Slide
Answer-Dilip Kumar
Question 5.
In his book Nanda Devi: A Journey to the Last Sanctuary, British travel writer Hugh
Thompson recounts how the American climbers were asked to use an Indian sun tan
lotion to darken their skins so that they didn't evoke suspicion among locals; and how
the climbers were told to pretend that they were on a "high altitude programme" to
study the effects of low oxygen on their bodies. The porters who carried up the
nuclear luggage were told it was a "treasure of some sort, possibly gold”.
All this was in respect to an espionage mission carried out by the IB and CIA in
response to the nuclear tests conducted by China. The same came into limelight in
the recent past, with many people speculating the lost nuclear device of this
operation as a cause of an unfortunate occurrence.
Identify the following operation and what had it allegedly caused?
Safety Slide
Answer-Operation Hat, Flash Floods in
Uttarakhand
Question 6.
The three doors of the this temple represent life, birth and death.
While the first door, that stands for preservation and protection for the soul, gets
you a glimpse of the preceding diety’s face.
Through the second door, which stands for creation, you can have a darshan of
Lord Brahma, the creator. Apart from that the iconographical element that gives
this temple its name is also visible from here.
The third door represents the final part of human life as after leaving the body,
the soul reaches the Lord's feet, which are visible from there.
The structure of which temple is this the description of?
Safety Slide
Answer- Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple
Question 7.
While the Constituent Assembly was slotting 'items' into the Union and State Lists,
H.V. Kamath proposed to add ‘__X__’ to the Union List, which promptly made the
assembly members to burst into laughter, yet Kamath was unmoved:
“within the last fifty years there has been more advanced in the various fields of
science than in the previous five hundred years...researches in X-rays, medicine, jet
propelled planes of which we hear so much today, we can expect many big changes in
the near future. The advance has been remarkable, phenomenal…”
For Kamath, ___X___would emerge from the predicament that humans were
likely to encounter in the future ‘when the earth becomes more and more
populated and congested’.
What did he propose to be a part of the union list?
Safety Slide
Answer: Interplanetary travel
Question 8.
Aastha Khanna was working as an assistant director in filmmaker Shakun Batra’s
upcoming movie, when on the director’s insistence she happened to discover the role of
a/an _____ ______. After searching relentlessly to hire a/an ______ _______ in
India, she realised that the role was nonexistent in the country and thus began her
journey to fill a gaping void in the film and television industry, becoming the first
certified person for this job.
This job came into existence in the wake of the me too movement as people there
realised that performers were being put in vulnerable positions. People don’t realise that
scenes with childbirth, on-screen hugs and kisses with minors are also considered
______, as in them the child artists and minors are performing not with their parents
but actors playing the role of their parents or guardians, hence the job to ensure their
safety, consent and comfort becomes of the utmost importance.
What job is being talked about?
Safety Slide
Answer-Intimacy Coordinator
Question 9.

Aahukhana near Burhanpur was originally planned to be the site of

Rauza e munawwara but as the soil of Burhanpur had termites, it was
not considered as the suitable site for it. As a result logistics stole
Burhanpur’s place in history.

What is being talked about?

Safety Slide
Answer-Grave Of Mumtaz Mahal
Question 10.
Indira Gandhi vs Raj Narain(1975) case delivered a landmark judgement which laid
down that the “Parliament is by law and not the other way round.”
The Supreme Court held that the 39th Constitutional Amendment 1975 is
violative of the principle of Separation of Power. Further it stated that the
amendment was violative of Article 14 as well , as it creates an unequal position
for specific members against others.
Apart from that what makes this judgement historic, was the fact that it was the
first instance where _X_ was applied .

What is X?
Safety Slide
Answer: First use of basic structure doctrine
Question 11.
Neecha Nagar is a 1946 Indian Hindi-language film, directed by Chetan
Anand, written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and Hayatullah Ansari, and
produced by Rashid Anwar. It was a pioneering effort in social realism in
Indian cinema and paved the way for many such parallel cinema films by
other directors, many of them also written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. It
starred Chetan Anand's wife Uma Anand, with Rafiq Ahmed, Kamini
Kaushal, Rafi Peer, Hamid Butt, and Zohra Sehgal. It was a Hindi film
adaptation in an Indian setting of Maxim Gorky's 1902 play The Lower
Depths.
What unique distinction does this fim hold among other Indian films ?
Safety Slide
Answer: Only
Indian film to be
ever awarded a
Palme D’or
Question 12.
An adornment that became a prominent part of this artist’s attire was
actually gifted to him by a fan when he was in trouble due to the cold. He
stated in his autobiography that -"It was the month of December and I had
gone to Kashmir to take part in a event. Apart from the fact that it was
bitterly cold, it was snowing.” A fan then noticed his discomfort and came on
the dais to give him adornment. Finding some warmth the artist then
became confident and gave a lively performance. And since then he wore it
everywhere he went.
Who is being talked about here and what adornment?
Safety Slide
Answer-Manna Dey and his Kashmiri Cap
Round 2
Question 13.
The most visible contribution that the Zorastrian communities have made to
Indian life, especially in Bombay, is the Irani café. When the initial Irani
immigrants to the city were looking for ways of making a living in the city, one
such way they found was to open cafés. Several of these joints happened to be
the corner shops, with some of the surviving ones still having that distinction,
which could be prominently spotted from a distance.

The corner shops were usually cheaper than the other establishments on the
block because of the less likeliness to be bought by the majority population, due
to a specific reason, which didn’t apply to the Iranis, who happily bought these
properties at throwaway prices.

What was the reason of the cheap prices of those properties?

Safety Slide
Answer: Hindus, who were in majority,
considered corner shops auspicious as per Vaastu.
Question 14.
The end of World War I saw Indian soldiers of British Indian Army
bringing X back with them as a dietary supplement, with the Punjab,
Bengal and Madras Presidencies becoming the early adopters of X.
Many well-to-do Indians took to drinking X as a family drink in the early
1940s and 1950s, with the same becoming a sort of status symbol in
upper middle class Indians and the rich classes.
Identify X, which as of 2012, became the most widely consumed
packaged beverage in India, after bottled water.
Safety Slide
Answer:Horlicks
Question 15.
The beginnings of the following tradition, according to a legend, were humble
with only a handful of people attending to the words of X, who began it in
Bombay’s Green Hotel in 1958. As word spread of his expertise, clarity of thought,
insights and cutting wit, his audience soon multiplied manifold. For more than
three decades after, the same became a Bombay staple with thousands craving to
listen to it: rich, poor and middle class alike, which more or less became as
significant as the one, which was carried out by the finance minister of India.
Yet this tradition came to a halt in the early 1990s because of X’s advancing years,
while some say he took this decision because of its un-necessity in a post-liberal
India.
Identify the the tradition and X.
Safety Slide
Answer- Nani Palkhiwala,
Tradition: Budget Speeches
Question 16.
In the song ‘Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyar Ke Charche’, in 1968 film ‘Brahmachari’,
actress Mumtaz draped herself in an orange low-waist, unconventional
pre-pleated saree, which featured gold gota borders and a frilled hemline.

The saree, draped in a new and stylish manner became so popular that still
people know it by the name of ‘Mumtaz Saree’ which was also influenced the
saree-gowns of today.

To whom can the designed of this iconic saree be attributed?

Safety Slide
Answer-Bhanu Athaiya
Question 17.
Ghazi Malik, who was the governor of Dipalpur in Punjab, once suggested his overlord of building a
fort on a hillock in the southern portion of his capital, due to the place’s strategic brilliance. The
king jokingly told Malik to build the fort himself when he would become the king.

It so happened, that when the king’s sons proved incompetent as rulers, Malik orchestrated a coup,
becoming the monarch himself, and now to realise his dream of creating the fortress, he made it
mandatory for all the workers in his capital to be employed in the construction work.

At the same time, Y was getting a baoli (step-well) constructed. Hence by day, the city’s labourers
would work on the fort; by night, on the baoli. The same enraded Malik, who forbade the sale of oil
to Y, so no lamps could light up the construction site at night. Yet Y magically turned the water in
his tank to oil, and cursed the fort, to either be inhabited by herdsmen or remain unoccupied,
which it remains till date, even with its brilliant architecture.

Which historic fortress is being talked about? Also identify who Y was.
Safety Slide
Answer-Tughlaqabad Fort , Y- Nizamuddin Auliya
Question 18.
A stone pillar, known quite simply as the Zero Mile Stone, stands in the this
city, which was set up during the days of the British Raj, which according
some say it marked the then geographical centre of India.
Having various distances have been marked on the same, there is also a
presence of other such pillars in the country which are living relics of the
Great Trigonometric Survey of India — a cartographic or mapping exercise
that mapped the contours of India. A survey pillar stands in North Parganas,
Bengal. Started in 1802 by the East India Company, it was completed nearly
seventy years later in 1871. In the process, four surveyors, including George
Everest started and completed their terms.
Where is the Zero Mile Stone located.
Safety Slide
Answer-Nagpur
Question 19.
X initially named as Cyrus, but one of his aunts changed his name as she had
heard that a man named Cyrus had been sent to jail.
On His death, his friends grumbled that even foreigners such as Lord
Mountbatten were accorded greater respect in death by India. However Y
(another nation) paid glowing tributes to X on his death.
Identify X and Y and why did Y pay tribute to X.
Safety Slide
Answer: X-Field Marshal
Sam ‘Bahadur’
Manekshaw,
Y-Bangladesh
Question 20.
Here are some of the shortest tenures overseen by respective Prime Ministers of
India:
● X: 13 days.
● Atal Bihari Vajpayee: 16 days.
● Chaudhary Charan Singh: 170 days.
● Y: 223 days.
● HD Deve Gowda: 324 days.
Although Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Chaudhary Charan Singh had shorter tenures than
Y, his career saw an exception, which could also be observed in that of X.
Identify X & Y and what exception makes them different from rest of the Indian Prime
Ministers?
Safety Slide
Answer: X- Gulzarilal Nanda
Y- Chandrashekhar

The only Prime Ministers

who didn’t hoist the National
Flag on the Red Fort.
Question 21.
During the 1946 provincial election, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar had no hope in hell of
making it to the 296-member Constituent Assembly elected by the provincial
assemblies.
But then a miracle happened. X invited Ambedkar, who was down in the dumps -
to Bengal where the Muslim League was in power and got him elected to the
Constituent Assembly in the twinkle of an eye. However after the partition
Ambedkar occupied the seat in the constituent assembly vacated by MR Jayakar.
While X, even though a Non-Muslim would go on to offer his alligence to the
newly formed Pakistan, becoming the first Law and Labour Minister in Liaquat Ali
Khan’s cabinet.
Identify X.
Safety Slide
Answer- Jogendra Nath Mandal
Question 22.
HMS Minden was a Royal Navy 74-gun Ganges-class third-rate ship of the
line, launched on 19 June 1810 from Bombay, India. She was named after the
German town Minden and the Battle of Minden of 1759, a decisive victory of
British and Prussian forces over France in the Seven Years' War. She was
launched from the Duncan Docks in Bombay, India, and was built of teak.
Who was responsible in the construction built HMS Minden whose services
were acquired by EIC in 1736 & why is this ship important to the history of
USA ?
Safety Slide
Answer: Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia, Star
Spangled Banner was written aboard this ship
Question 23.
Associated with the Mewati gharana of music, X claimed to have became
the first Indian from his category to be given this accolade by the
International Astronomical Institution.

However Anoushka Shankar, the daughter of legendary Pandit Ravi

Shankar, challenged this claim, stating herself to be the first recipient to
be given such honour in 2017.

Identify X, who is known for his mixing of khayal and Bhakti rasa and the
honour which become a reason of dispute between him and Shankar.
Safety Slide
Answer-Pandit Jasraj, First Indian
Musician to get a planet named after them
Question 24.
X was founded in 1942 by Champaklal Choksi, Chamanlal Choksi,
Suryakant Dani and Arvind Vakil due to a ban on a certain product by the
British.
Over the years this company proved its relevance and has passed every
test of time with ‘flying colours’ and was also awarded the ‘sword of
Honour’ by British Safety Council.

What is being talked about, which got its first overseas outlet got set up in
Fiji?
Safety Slide
Answer-Asian Paints
MEGA CONNECT
 ● 6 Questions
● Pounce: +10/-5
● Bounce: +5
Rules ● Direct: +10
● Mega Connect Answer - at any
MEGA CONNECT stage. One attempt each team.
● Points for Mega Connect:
+30/-25(decreases by 5)
Question 1 (+30/-25)
In 1822 Colonel James Todd stumbled upon a huge hemispherical mass of dark
granite beside the path leading up to X, which carried some historical edicts
on it. Todd had the writing on the edicts faithfully copied and sent to the great
scholar James Princep in 1837.
Princep decoded the Brahmi script in which they were written with an iron
pen and established that the Orissan rock edict and the X edict were basically
identical, which helped establish Emperor Ashoka as a genuine historical
figure.
Identify this edict, a replica of which can be found outside the entrance of
Delhi’s National Museum.
Safety Slide
Answer- Girnar Edict
Question 2. (+25/-30)
While the Tamil Buddhist tradition, developed in Chola literature, holds that
Rishi Agastya learnt Tamil from the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, the existence
of whose whose temple has been recorded by the Chinese traveler Xuanzang
in the South Indian hill ______, which is identified by many as X.

The Tamil Hindu tradition is of the view that Lord Shiva and Lord Murugan
taught Agastya the Tamil language, who then constructed a Tamil grammar, at
this place.

Identify X.
Safety Slide
Answer-Pothigai/Podhigai Hills
Question 3. (+20/-15)
According to the Skanda Purana, _____ Maharishi, son of venerated Maharshi
Rishyasringa performed penance on a hillock, located in today’s Telangana, to
Lord Vishnu as Narasimha. Pleased with his penance, the Lord appeared before
him and manifested himself in five forms: Jwala Narasimha, Gandabherunda
Narasimha, Yogananda Narasimha, Ugra Narasimha and Lakshmi Narasimha.
The sage begged the Lord to remain on the hill in these forms. For this reason,
temple on the hilltop has deities of Narasimha in all five forms embedded in stone
in the main cave. Thus the X temple, deriving its name from that of the sage,
came into being which is also known as the Pancha Narasimha Kshetram.
Identify the temple.
Safety Slide
Answer-Yadadri/Yadagiri
Question 4. (+15/-10)
Malik Tejani, a shoe salesman during the pre-independence era, used to
work at a store in Colaba, Mumbai. When India became independent, the
owner of the store had to leave India owing to the crisis caused by
Partition.
An extremely passionate salesman, he took a loan from a well-wisher and
bought the store and named it X shoes, derived from the name of popular
cinema in Mumbai.
The brand founded that day now clocks a turnover of Rs 1,411 crore
annually and has a network of over 550 stores across 128 cities in India.
Identify the brand.
Safety Slide
Answer-Metro
Shoes
Question 5.(+10/-5)
After the completion of religious ceremonies by fire keeping priests in the
Zoroastrian fire temples, the attendees are allowed to come up to the
afarganyu (he urn in which the fire is kept) and place their pieces of X into
the fire, to keep it burning. Because of its high sensitivity to fire, X, which is
referred to as sukhad by Zoroastrians, serves the purpose well. Usually X is
more expensive to buy at a fire temple than at a Zoroastrian store, because it
is often viewed as a source of income for the fire temple.

Identify X, which is viewed as equally sacred in other communities.

Safety Slide
Answer- Sandalwood/Chandan
Question 6. (+5/-0)
At the time of partition, the newly formed states did not tussle over this
since Jinnah showed no desire to claim it. Indeed he believed no country
would have any desire to claim it, given its history.

Unknown to him, however, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru had already demanded

this from Mountbatten, which was later given to him. On learning this
Jinnah came furious, as it would imply his new country as a subordinate in
the subcontinent.

Curiously though, given its origin, Pakistan could have been the rightful
inheritor of this. What are we talking about?
Safety Slide
Answer- Name-‘India’
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Extras:
1. Son of the founder of the Princely state of X, Ranbir Singh became X’s Second
Maharaja after his father abdicated due to poor health. Ranbir Singh was also a
scholar in Sanskrit and Persian languages, apart from being a great temple builder
and the first ruler in India to Introduce paper currency to his state in 1877. He also
established a modern judicial system with Civil and criminal laws compiled into the
Ranbir Penal Code during his reign. To which princely state did he belong?
Extras:
2. As per the epic, Mahabharata, Samsaptakas, were the warriors from Trigarta,
who had vowed to either die or kill Arjuna as part of a larger plan by Duryodhana to
capture Yudhishthira alive. They were led by Susharma in the battle of Kurukshetra,
who was killed by Arjuna, after a fierce fight on the 17th day of the battle.

Apart from these important details of Susharma, he is also known to have

established one of the oldest forts of India which was invaded by Mahmud Ghazni in
1009 CE. Identify the fort.
Extras:
3. The first technical description of X comes from 7th century text Harishcharitra,
the biography of the Emperor Harshavardhana, the author of which, Bana noted
some people embroidering flowers and leaves on the cloth from the reverse side,
However, the earliest reference to the word X comes from Heer Ranjha, the 18th
century romantic tragedy by Waris Shah's which describes the wedding trousseau of
the female protagonist Heer and lists various clothing items having embroidered
with X.

Identify X.
Safety Slide
Answers:
1. Jammu and Kashmir
2. Kangra Fort
3. Phulkari