UPSC Prelims 2017 · Question 20 of 99
UPSC Prelims 2017 question on Chaliha Sahib Nanda Raj Wari Warkari
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2017
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectArt and Culture
- TopicIndian Culture
- DifficultyHard
- TypeMatch
Consider the following pairs:
Traditions - Communities
1. Chaliha Sahib Festival — Sindhis
2. Nanda Raj Jaat Yatra — Gonds
3. Wari-Warkari — Santhals
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
Show answer
Answer: A. 1 only
Verdict
The answer is 1 only. Chaliha Sahib is correctly matched with the Sindhis, but the other two pairings are wrong.
Analysis
Pair 1 is CORRECT. Chaliha Sahib is a Sindhi festival involving a forty day period of fasting and devotion. Pair 2 is INCORRECT. The Nanda Raj Jat is a Himalayan pilgrimage associated with the Nanda Devi temples across Garhwal and Kumaon and belongs to the people of Uttarakhand, not the Gonds of central India. Pair 3 is INCORRECT. The Wari or Warkari tradition is the annual pilgrimage to Pandharpur in Maharashtra and belongs to the Warkari sect of Maharashtra, not to the Santhals of eastern India.
Source
Press reporting on the Pandharpur Wari.
How to crack it
This is an unconventional question, so work by regional plausibility rather than by recall. Nanda Devi is unmistakably a Himalayan name and the Gonds are a central Indian people, so pair 2 fails on geography alone. Pandharpur is equally clearly Maharashtrian while the Santhals belong to the eastern plateau, so pair 3 fails the same way. Two geographic mismatches close the question even if the Sindhi festival is unfamiliar.