SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 2 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.

Sido and Kanhu were leaders of which of the following tribal rebellions?

(a)Munda Rebellion
(b)Santhal Rebellion
(c)Moplah Rebellion
(d)Kol Rebellion

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Sido and Kanhu Murmu were the brothers who led the Santhal rebellion, the Hul of 1855-56, in the Rajmahal hills belt of what is now Jharkhand.

Santhal cultivators settled in the Damin-i-Koh tract had been pushed into debt by moneylenders and outsiders, backed by Company revenue demand and police. In June 1855 the brothers called a mass gathering at Bhognadih and declared that authority at an end.

The rising was crushed by 1856, and the region was afterwards administered separately as the Santhal Parganas.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Munda Rebellion — The Munda ulgulan of 1899-1900 in Chhotanagpur was led by Birsa Munda. It is a different rising, a different leader and four decades later than the Santhal Hul.
(c)
Moplah Rebellion — The Moplah (Mappila) rebellion of 1921 was a tenant uprising in Malabar, in present-day Kerala — a different community and region, and two generations later.
(d)
Kol Rebellion — The Kol uprising of 1831-32 was also in the Chhotanagpur belt and also against outsiders taking tribal land, but it came a generation before the Hul and had its own leaders.

Concept

SSC's tribal-resistance questions are a matching exercise: leader, rising, region.

The Santhal Hul belongs to the middle of the nineteenth century. Santhals had been settled in the Damin-i-Koh to clear forest and farm it; revenue demand, moneylender interest and a hostile police turned that settlement into bondage.

Sido and Kanhu Murmu, with their brothers Chand and Bhairav, raised the cry against the whole apparatus of dikus — outsiders. The Company answered with troops and martial law, and the rising ended in 1856.

Hul is the Santhali word for the rising. 30 June is observed as Hul Diwas after the Bhognadih gathering of 1855.

Key facts

Sido and Kanhu Murmu led the Santhal Hul of 1855-56.
The rising began with a gathering at Bhognadih in June 1855, in the Rajmahal hills.
Birsa Munda led the Munda ulgulan of 1899-1900, a separate rising in Chhotanagpur.
The Moplah rebellion of 1921 took place in Malabar, in present-day Kerala.

Study next

Birsa Munda, the ulgulan and the Chotanagpur Tenancy ActDamin-i-Koh and the settlement of Santhals under Company ruleThe Moplah rebellion of 1921 and its agrarian causes

Common traps

Birsa Munda is the tribal leader most candidates memorise first, and his name pulls answers towards the Munda rebellion.
The Kol and Santhal risings share the Chhotanagpur-Rajmahal belt, so region alone will not separate them.

SSC returns to tribal risings by leader, by year and by region.

Birsa Munda is asked through Janjatiya Gaurav Divas on 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.8, the Khurda uprising of 1817 is asked by region on 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.25, and Guru Ghasidas and the Satnami movement on 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.6.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.