SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 9 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 10 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.

As per the Timurid tradition, Humayun had to share power with his brothers. Humayun had the control of Delhi, Agra and Central India, while his brother Kamran controlled which of the following regions?

(a)Deccan
(b)Afghanistan and Punjab
(c)Gujarat and Rajasthan
(d)Bengal and Bihar

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The Timurid custom of divided inheritance gave each of Humayun's brothers a share, and Kamran took the north-west: Kabul and Kandahar, and later Lahore, which is the Afghanistan and Punjab of the question.

Askari and Hindal held far smaller assignments, so Kamran was the brother with real territory and real leverage.

That division is why Humayun's defeats in the east were fatal. The frontier he might have retreated to was already in his brother's hands.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Deccan — The Deccan lay outside Mughal control in Humayun's reign. Mughal expansion into the Deccan belongs to Akbar's time and after, a generation later than this question.
(c)
Gujarat and Rajasthan — Gujarat was a campaign, not an appanage. Humayun took it from Bahadur Shah in 1535 and lost it again shortly after, and it was never assigned to Kamran.
(d)
Bengal and Bihar — Bengal and Bihar were Sher Khan's base of power, from which he defeated Humayun. They were the source of Humayun's trouble rather than a brother's province.

Concept

The Timurids treated a kingdom as family property to be shared, not as a single throne to be inherited. Every succession therefore began with a division and usually ended in a war between brothers.

Humayun succeeded Babur in 1530 and kept Delhi, Agra and the central territories. Within a decade Sher Khan had beaten him at Chausa in 1539 and at Kannauj in 1540, and he lost the throne.

He spent the following years in exile, taking refuge with the Safavid ruler of Persia, and recovered Delhi in 1555, only to die the next year.

The question's own first sentence hands you the principle. The work is remembering which brother held which province.

Key facts

Humayun succeeded Babur in 1530 and lost the throne in 1540.
Kamran held Kabul and Kandahar and extended his control to Lahore.
Sher Khan defeated Humayun at Chausa in 1539 and at Kannauj in 1540.
Humayun took refuge in Safavid Persia and recovered Delhi in 1555.

Study next

Timurid divided inheritance against later Mughal practice of a single successorSher Shah Suri's administration during the Sur interregnumHumayun's Persian exile and the recovery of Delhi in 1555

Common traps

Assigning the Deccan to a Mughal prince a generation too early.
Confusing Kamran with Askari or Hindal, whose shares were much smaller.

SSC works through the Humayun narrative one event at a time: the Battle of Chausa on 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.7, the succession from Babur on 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.10, and Akbar's coronation at Kalanaur on 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.4.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.