NDA (II) 2025 General Ability Test · Question 21 of 147

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2025 GAT Q21?

B. Correct — B, the order S P Q R. After S1 calls 'Sufism' a nineteenth-century English coinage, S contrasts it with 'tasawwuf', the word used in Islamic texts; P then states historians have read the term 'in several ways', and Q (from 'suf', wool) and R (from 'safa', purity) list two of those ways; S6 closes with 'It may also have been suffa', the 'also' signalling a further derivation after Q and R. (Provisional — pending the official UPSC key.)

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

Provisional answers. UPSC has not yet released the official NDA 2025 answer key (it is published several months after the exam). The answers here are our best-supported answers — derived from careful subject-solving and cross-checked against independent solved papers and primary sources — and will be reconciled to the official key as soon as UPSC publishes it. They are not the official UPSC answer key.

S1. Sufism is an English word coined in the Nineteenth Century S6. It may also have been suffa, the platform outside a place of Islamic worship P. Historians have understood this term in several ways Q. According to some scholars, it is derived from suf, meaning wool R. Others derive it from safa, meaning purity S. The word used for Sufism in Islamic texts is tasawwuf

(a)Q R S P
(b)S P Q R
(c)P Q S R
(d)R P S Q

Answer

Why

Correct — B, the order S P Q R. After S1 calls 'Sufism' a nineteenth-century English coinage, S contrasts it with 'tasawwuf', the word used in Islamic texts; P then states historians have read the term 'in several ways', and Q (from 'suf', wool) and R (from 'safa', purity) list two of those ways; S6 closes with 'It may also have been suffa', the 'also' signalling a further derivation after Q and R.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Q R S P — Opens with Q ('According to some scholars, it is derived from suf'), but 'this term' has not yet been set up as having 'several ways' of interpretation — P must introduce that framing before the derivations.
(c)P Q S R — Slots S ('tasawwuf', the Islamic-text term) between the two derivations Q and R, breaking the paired 'suf/wool… safa/purity' contrast that belongs together.
(d)R P S Q — Starts with R ('Others derive it from safa'), yet 'Others' presupposes a first group already named in Q ('some scholars'), so R cannot precede Q.

Concept

A jumbled-sentence (para-jumble) item — order P, Q, R, S between fixed openers S1 and S6 using connectives ('several ways', 'Others', 'also') as sequencing clues.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
In a para-jumble, a sentence beginning 'Others derive it from…' should be placed —
- (a)first, before any group is named
- (b)after a sentence naming a first group ('some scholars')
- (c)as the fixed opening sentence
- (d)immediately after the title
Answer(b) after a sentence naming a first group — 'Others' needs an earlier group to contrast with.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which connective most reliably signals that a sentence continues a list rather than starts it?
- (a)It may also have…
- (b)Historians have…
- (c)The word is…
- (d)Sufism is…
Answer(a) 'It may also have…' — 'also' adds to items already listed.

NDA (II) 2025 GAT (all questions)NDA Previous Year Questions UPSC Prelims PYQ

(a)Q R S P
(b)S P Q R
(c)P Q S R
(d)R P S Q