SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 22 of 98

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.

Bhupen Hazarika was one of the most well-known personalities from the state of ________.

(a)Nagaland
(b)Odisha
(c)Manipur
(d)Assam

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Bhupen Hazarika belonged to Assam, which is option (d).

He was born at Sadiya in Assam in 1926 and sang, wrote and composed in Assamese, drawing on Borgeet and the folk music of the Brahmaputra valley. His river songs, among them 'Bistirno Parore', carried that voice across India.

He also worked in Hindi cinema, composing the music for Rudaali.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Nagaland — Nagaland has no claim on him. Hazarika's language, audience and subject matter were Assamese, and his songs are tied to the Brahmaputra rather than to the Naga hills.
(b)
Odisha — Odisha is a different cultural region altogether, associated with Odissi and the Jagannath tradition. Hazarika worked in Assamese, in the Brahmaputra valley.
(c)
Manipur — Manipur shares the North East with Assam, which is what makes it tempting, but Hazarika was born at Sadiya in Assam and built his career in Assamese music and cinema.

Concept

Bhupen Hazarika (1926-2011) is the towering figure of modern Assamese culture — singer, lyricist, composer and film-maker.

He carried Assamese folk forms and Borgeet into film music, and his songs about the Brahmaputra made a regional voice a national one.

The honours worth memorising: the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1992, the Padma Bhushan in 2001, the Padma Vibhushan in 2012, and the Bharat Ratna in 2019, conferred posthumously.

SSC asks him from either end — the man, wanting his state, or the state and the honour, wanting the man.

Both need the same three anchors: Assam, Assamese song, and the Bharat Ratna of 2019.

Key facts

Bhupen Hazarika was born in 1926 at Sadiya in Assam and died in 2011.
He received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1992 and the Bharat Ratna in 2019, the latter posthumously.
He composed the music for the Hindi film Rudaali.
The Dhola-Sadiya bridge over the Lohit in Assam, opened in 2017, is officially named the Bhupen Hazarika Setu.

Study next

Bharat Ratna recipients from the arts and the year of each awardDadasaheb Phalke Award winners and what the award recognisesCultural figures of the North East and the state each belongs to

Common traps

Grouping all North Eastern names together and picking Manipur or Nagaland by rough proximity.
Confusing the Padma Vibhushan of 2012 with the Bharat Ratna of 2019.

The same man is asked from the opposite direction at 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.22 — which singer from Assam was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2019.

Learn the two together. One gives you the state from the name, the other gives you the name from the state and the award, and a single card covers both.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.