SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 24 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

’Poush Mela’ is a unique festival celebrated in which of the following Indian states?

(a)Uttar Pradesh
(b)Madhya Pradesh
(c)Himachal Pradesh
(d)West Bengal

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Poush Mela is held at Santiniketan, in Birbhum district of West Bengal, on the grounds of Rabindranath Tagore's Visva-Bharati.

The name carries the answer. Poush is a month of the Bengali calendar, running through late December and January, and the fair takes place within it.

It began as a Brahmo observance of the Tagore family at Santiniketan and grew into a fair of Baul singers, craftspeople and traders → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Uttar Pradesh — Poush is a Bengali month, not a north Indian one. Uttar Pradesh's great fairs are the Magh Mela and the Kumbh at Prayagraj, fixed by a different calendar cue altogether.
(b)
Madhya Pradesh — Madhya Pradesh's best-known cultural gathering is the Khajuraho Dance Festival. The mela in the question is tied to Santiniketan in Birbhum, and does not travel.
(c)
Himachal Pradesh — Himachal Pradesh's fair calendar runs to the Kullu Dussehra and the Lavi fair at Rampur, both tied to the hill year. Poush Mela belongs to Bengal.

Concept

Poush Mela grew out of the Brahmo observance held at Santiniketan by the Tagore family and became a fair of Bengal's folk culture.

Its signature is Baul music — the wandering minstrel tradition of Bengal, sung to the ektara — alongside handloom, terracotta, kantha embroidery and leather craft brought in by village artisans.

Santiniketan itself is the campus Rabindranath Tagore built into Visva-Bharati, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023, which put it back into current-affairs range for exams.

Festival-to-state items are answered on the language of the name as much as on recall. Poush is Bengali, Bihu is Assamese, Onam is Malayalam — the word places the state before the fact does.

Key facts

Poush Mela is held at Santiniketan in Birbhum district, West Bengal.
Poush is the Bengali calendar month spanning late December and January, and the fair is named after it.
Santiniketan was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023.
Baul songs of Bengal are inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage.

Study next

Fairs of West Bengal: Poush Mela, Gangasagar Mela and Joydev KenduliBengali calendar months and the festivals fixed to themUNESCO World Heritage Sites and intangible heritage entries from India

Common traps

Reading Poush as a Hindi-belt name and picking a northern state.
Confusing Poush Mela with the Gangasagar Mela, also in West Bengal but held at Sagar Island in January.

Santiniketan itself is asked on 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.2 — who established it and when, keyed to Rabindranath Tagore, 1901.

The same festival-to-state shape is asked at 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.16 (Atla Taddi, Andhra Pradesh), 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.9 (Sardhana Christian Fair, Uttar Pradesh) and 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.16 (Khajuraho Dance Festival, Madhya Pradesh).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.