SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 22 of 99

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.

With reference to Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, on which of the following dates did the soldiers at Meerut start their journey to Delhi?

(a)29 March
(b)10 May
(c)2 June
(d)19 April

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The sepoys at Meerut broke out on 10 May 1857 and marched through the night to Delhi, reaching it on 11 May, where they proclaimed the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar as their leader.

The immediate provocation was the punishment of troopers of the 3rd Light Cavalry, court-martialled and jailed for refusing the greased cartridges. Option (b) is the day the march to Delhi began.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
29 March — 29 March 1857 is Mangal Pandey's attack on his officers at Barrackpore, near Calcutta. It comes before the outbreak and belongs to a different cantonment.
(c)
2 June — 2 June matches nothing in the Meerut-to-Delhi sequence. The march took a single night, which is why the Delhi proclamation is dated 11 May.
(d)
19 April — 19 April is not a date the Meerut narrative turns on. The chain to hold is cartridge refusal, court martial, outbreak on 10 May, Delhi on 11 May.

Concept

The revolt is asked as a chain of dates, and only a few of them are fixed points.

The greased cartridges issued for the new Enfield rifle, rumoured to be smeared with cow and pig fat, were the immediate trigger. At Meerut the troopers who refused them were court-martialled and imprisoned, and their comrades rose on 10 May 1857.

Delhi fell to the rebels the next day and Bahadur Shah Zafar became the symbolic head of the rising, which is what gives the Meerut date its weight.

The stem uses the phrase Sepoy Mutiny, the colonial term. Indian historiography calls the same events the Revolt of 1857 or the First War of Independence, and the paper of 26 Sep 2024, 09:00 calls it 'the revolution of 1857' — the label moves, the date does not.

Key facts

The Meerut sepoys revolted on 10 May 1857 and reached Delhi on 11 May.
Mangal Pandey attacked his officers at Barrackpore on 29 March 1857.
The rebels at Delhi proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar as their leader.
The Government of India Act, 1858 transferred the administration of India from the East India Company to the British Crown.

Study next

The 1857 centres and their leaders — Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi, BareillyThe Government of India Act, 1858 and the Queen's ProclamationMangal Pandey, Barrackpore and the greased cartridge episode

Common traps

29 March is a genuine 1857 date, and choosing it means answering Barrackpore instead of Meerut.
The Delhi proclamation falls one day after the outbreak, so 10 and 11 May both look right to a hurried reader.

SSC asks 1857 by place as well as by date — the cantonment where the revolt began in May is asked on 26 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.16.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.