MPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 26 of 100

Correct — option (2), 'C and D are correct.' Group C — Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab — names four of the five classical rivers of the Punjab (the fifth being the Jhelum), all of which join the Indus (Sindhu) system: the Beas joins the Sutlej, the Ravi and Chenab converge with the Sutlej-Beas combination, and the resulting flow joins the Indus in Pakistan's Punjab province before the river continues to the Arabian Sea. Group D — Kabul, Kurram, Swat, Jhelum — names the Indus's major western/right-bank tributaries flowing in from Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier region (Kabul, Kurram, Swat), together with the Jhelum, which joins the Chenab and so ultimately feeds the Indus from the east. Every river in both C and D genuinely belongs to the Indus drainage system, which is why option (2) is correct. Groups A and B fail because each smuggles in a river that belongs to the Ganga system instead: the Kosi, a major left-bank Himalayan tributary of the Ganga rising in Nepal, appears in both A and B and has no connection to the Indus at all, and B additionally lists the Gandak, Ghagra and Son, all of which are Ganga tributaries in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh — none of them drain into the Indus. A single misplaced river is enough to disqualify an entire group in this kind of item, which is exactly what happens to A and B here.

• (1)A and B are correct — Both named groups are wrong. Group A lists the Kosi alongside genuine Indus tributaries (Jhelum, Chenab, Sutlej), but the Kosi is a major Himalayan tributary of the Ganga, not the Indus, which disqualifies the whole group. Group B is entirely Ganga-system rivers — Gandak, Kosi, Ghagra and Son all join the Ganga in the Bihar–Uttar Pradesh stretch — and contains no Indus tributary at all.
• (3)B and D are correct — Group D (Kabul, Kurram, Swat, Jhelum) is correctly identified as genuine Indus tributaries, but group B is wrongly included. Every river in B — Gandak, Kosi, Ghagra, Son — belongs to the Ganga drainage system in the Indo-Gangetic plain, not the Indus, so pairing B with D mixes one correct group with one that is entirely wrong.
• (4)A and C are correct — Group C (Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab) is correctly identified as genuine Indus tributaries — the classical rivers of Punjab — but group A is wrongly included alongside it. Group A lists the Kosi together with three real Indus tributaries (Jhelum, Chenab, Sutlej); the Kosi alone is enough to disqualify the group, since it is a Ganga tributary rising in Nepal and draining through Bihar, with no link to the Indus system.

The Indus (Sindhu) river system drains north-western India and Pakistan, fed on its eastern side by the five rivers of the Punjab — Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, which give the region its name (panj-ab, 'five waters') — and on its western side by rivers descending from Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier, chiefly the Kabul, Kurram, Gomal and Swat. The Ganga system, by contrast, is fed from the north by Himalayan rivers such as the Gandak, Kosi, Ghagra and Gomti, and from the south by peninsular rivers such as the Son and Chambal-Yamuna system. The two river systems do not share tributaries — a river belongs to one drainage basin or the other — which is the fact this question is built to test.

MPSC frequently tests drainage-system classification by mixing a few genuine tributaries of one river with one or two rivers borrowed from a different system, exactly as this item does by planting the Kosi (a Ganga tributary) inside two otherwise-plausible Indus lists. The efficient defence against this style of question is not memorising long lists river-by-river but memorising each river system as a fixed, closed set — the five Punjab rivers plus the western hill tributaries for the Indus, and the Himalayan-plus-peninsular tributaries for the Ganga — so that a smuggled-in river from the wrong system stands out immediately rather than blending in.

• The Indus (Sindhu) system's eastern tributaries are the five rivers of Punjab: Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.
• The Indus's western tributaries, joining from Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier, include the Kabul, Kurram, Gomal and Swat rivers.
• The Kosi, Gandak and Ghagra are major Himalayan tributaries of the Ganga, not the Indus, all converging with the Ganga in the Bihar–Uttar Pradesh plain.
• The Son is a major peninsular (south-bank) tributary of the Ganga, rising in the Amarkantak plateau, unrelated to the Indus system.
• The Jhelum joins the Chenab, and the combined Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej flows join the Indus mainstream in the Pakistani Punjab before the river reaches the Arabian Sea.

• Assuming any Himalayan river must belong to the Indus system simply because it descends from the same mountain range — the Kosi, Gandak and Ghagra are Himalayan but belong to the Ganga system
• Treating a list as correct once most of its rivers check out, without verifying every single name — one misplaced river is enough to disqualify the whole group in this question style
• Confusing the Punjab's five rivers (Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, Sutlej — all Indus tributaries) with the major Ganga tributaries of the eastern Gangetic plain

MPSC's river-and-drainage questions regularly use this 'which group(s) are correct' format, testing whether a candidate can classify several rivers by drainage system simultaneously rather than recalling one river in isolation. The recurring trick is planting a single river from a neighbouring, geographically adjacent system (here, the Ganga's Kosi placed among Indus tributaries) inside an otherwise accurate list, so verifying every name in a group — not just the majority — is the transferable skill this style of question rewards.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following rivers is a major tributary of the Ganga, and NOT a tributary of the Indus ?

  • (a)Chenab
  • (b)Sutlej
  • (c)Kosi
  • (d)Jhelum

  Answer(c) Kosi — the Kosi is a major Himalayan tributary of the Ganga, rising in Nepal and draining through Bihar; Chenab, Sutlej and Jhelum are all tributaries of the Indus system.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The five rivers of Punjab, which together give the region its name, are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and which other river, all tributaries of the Indus ?

  • (a)Sutlej
  • (b)Ghagra
  • (c)Gandak
  • (d)Son

  Answer(a) Sutlej — the five Punjab rivers are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, all draining into the Indus system; Ghagra, Gandak and Son are Ganga-system rivers.