On which date 'Uttar Pradesh Day' is celebrated ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, 24th January. Uttar Pradesh Day, or UP Diwas, is observed on 24 January because that is the date in 1950 on which the province then called the United Provinces was formally renamed Uttar Pradesh. Note what the day marks — a RENAMING, not the creation of a new State. The territory had been reorganised as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh in 1902, was shortened to simply 'United Provinces' in 1937, and took the name Uttar Pradesh on 24 January 1950, two days before the Constitution came into force. The observance itself is recent: it was proposed by the then Governor, Ram Naik, the State government announced it in May 2017, and it has been formally celebrated since 24 January 2018 with cultural programmes, awards and displays of the State's One District One Product crafts. That recency is the point of the question — it is a State-specific current-affairs item that entered the calendar only a few years before this examination.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) One day off, and familiar for an entirely different reason: 25 January is National Voters' Day, observed since 2011 to mark the foundation day of the Election Commission of India. It has no connection with the naming of Uttar Pradesh.  (b) 23 January is the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, observed as Parakram Diwas since 2021. A national commemoration, but not a State one, and unconnected with the renaming of the United Provinces.  (c) The strongest pull in the set, because 26 January is Republic Day and sits only two days after the correct answer. The proximity is not a coincidence — the United Provinces was renamed on 24 January 1950 and the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950 — but the two events are distinct, and UP Diwas commemorates the renaming.

Concept: Most Indian States observe a foundation or statehood day, and the dates fall into two families. Some mark the creation of a new State — Uttarakhand on 9 November 2000, Jharkhand on 15 November 2000, Chhattisgarh on 1 November 2000, Telangana on 2 June 2014. Others, like Uttar Pradesh, mark the renaming or reconstitution of a unit that already existed, which is why the UP date sits in January 1950 rather than in the States Reorganisation year of 1956. Uttar Pradesh's own boundaries changed once more after that, when the thirteen Himalayan districts were separated in November 2000 to form Uttaranchal, later renamed Uttarakhand — a fact worth holding alongside the UP Diwas date, because several UPPSC questions turn on whether a place was in Uttar Pradesh before or after 2000.

State PCS 2022 Q88 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2022 Q88 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer