I framed these India related quiz for the group Quizcraft. You can also have a look at the group for more action.

Just reproducing it here. The answers have also been provided at the bottom.

India Quiz

1. This pre-independence era Bollywood film incorporated a patriotic song that became very popular. The lyrics warn outsiders to stay away from the sacred motherland and it was worded carefully to avoid British censorship and it rather mentions Britain’s enemies. The young lyricist went on to achieve more success later on and is most remembered for another patriotic song in 1960s. Identify the film and the lyricist.

2. He achieved fame in the 1920s as a politician for his courageous struggle against the British officials in a certain widely publicized scandal of those times. Later on, he joined Congress and rose to prominence but his opposition and unsubstantiated allegations against the high command led to his expulsion. Nevertheless, he is now remembered for lending his name to a prime location in his city of birth.

3. This film X consciously tried to break away from the exotic image of India and its culture in the western eyes. It was also one of the earliest Indian films to collaborate with foreign studios and was based on a verse of the same name by an English poet. The co-director Y also played the lead role and the female lead role went to an Anglo-Indian actress Z who debuted with this film and went on to become one of the earliest stars of that era. Identify X, Y and Z.

4. X made his film debut as a retired clerk harassed by a property-developer and his lawyer. He went on to do several small roles in important films and TV movies including one based on his own magnum opus based during the era of India’s final freedom struggle and partition. While he was a late entrant in the field of acting, his brother Y was a well-known and respected actor in his own right. Identify both.

5. X is a lesser known event in Indian history that basically is a set of sporadic rebellious activities against the British by the ascetic communities in Eastern India during the late 18th century. While they did not achieve much success, they were immortalized by Y almost a century later. Y’s work was called Z which also received a film adaptation in the 1950s. Identify X, Y and Z.

6. There are multiple myths about this historical character from ancient India (pre-Mauryan era). One of the myths goes as follows,

His father didn’t have any children for a long time. So he consulted a soothsayer who told him that a hermit living in the mountains would be reborn as his son but the father was impatient and killed the hermit and the son was born soon afterwards. The soothsayer now said that due to his sins the son would kill the father one day. So the father had the kid thrown from a tower but he escaped. In due course, he grew in strength a held his father captive and starved him to death. Who?

7. X was a 19th century English statesman who was assassinated while inspecting a penal colony of convicts by Y, who was languishing in that remote prison. X was instrumental in founding a well-known college aimed at educating the Indian elite with western culture and orientations. Not much is known about Y or his motivations but for the fact that he shares his last name with a popular Pakistani cricketer. Identify.

8. This 1941 film starred two of the biggest stars X and Y, of early Bollywood talkies and dealt with a very famous event of Indian history that aroused patriotic feelings among the viewers in those turbulent times. While X was also the director of the film, Y played X’s role in another film of 1965 based on the same event. Identify X and Y.

9. He moved to the US and changed his last name and acted in a few Hollywood silent films as well as Broadway shows. In his prior avatar, he also worked for Indian football Association. Who is he? Why does he feature in this India themed quiz?

10. Identify this place that is said to have derived its name fromthe wife of a Rajput chieftain. The urs of saint Sarkar Sabir Pak, one of the leading lights of the Chisti Order is celebrated here every year in the month of May June at the glimpse of the moon of Rabi ul Awwal. It houses a centre of education that is one of the oldest of its kind in India.

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India Quiz Answers

1. “Door hato aye duniyawaalon, Hindustan hamara hai!” from the film Kismat (1943). Poet was Kavi Pradeep who went on to pen “Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon” later on.

2. Khurshid Framji Nariman. The Nariman Point in Mumbai is named after him which is one of the oldest business districts in the country and also among the most expensive in the world.

3. X = Light of Asia
Y= Himansu Ra
Z= Sita Devi (Renee Smith)

4. X= Bhisham Sahani
Y= Balraj Sahani

5. X= Sanyasi Rebellion
Y= Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
Z= Anandamath

6. Ajatasatru, the son of Bimbisara of Magadha.

7. X= Lord Mayo who established the Mayo College
Y= Sher Ali Afridi

8. X= Sohrab Modi (Played Porus in the film 1941 film where Kapoor played Alexander)
Y= Prithviraj Kapoor (Who played Porus in 1965 film with Dara Singh playing Alexander)

9. Norman Pritchard (Trevor), who represented Indian in the 1900 Paris Olympics and was the first one from the country to win a medal. In fact he won two silver medals.

10.Roorkee. It houses one of the oldest engineering colleges in India which was later converted into an IIT. The Sufi Saint in question is Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari.