SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 16 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.

The revolution of 1857 started in May from which of the following cantonments in India?

(a)Lucknow
(b)Jhansi
(c)Kanpur
(d)Meerut

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The rising of 1857 broke out in the Meerut cantonment on 10 May 1857, when sepoys of the 3rd Light Cavalry refused the greased cartridges, freed the comrades jailed the day before and turned on their officers.

They marched overnight to Delhi and proclaimed the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II the leader of the revolt.

Option (d) is the cantonment that fits the stem's own month of May. Lucknow, Jhansi and Kanpur rose in the weeks after Delhi had fallen to the rebels.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Lucknow — Lucknow rose later, under Begum Hazrat Mahal in the name of the boy nawab Birjis Qadr, and became a long siege — but it did not begin the revolt.
(b)
Jhansi — Jhansi is remembered for Rani Lakshmibai's resistance, which came after the rising had already spread from Delhi, not for a May outbreak.
(c)
Kanpur — Kanpur rose under Nana Saheb and saw the siege of Wheeler's entrenchment, again after Meerut had already mutinied.

Concept

The immediate spark was the greased cartridge of the new Enfield rifle, which sepoys believed was greased with cow and pig fat and which had to be bitten open before loading.

Mangal Pandey's attack at Barrackpore on 29 March 1857 came first, but it was an individual act and was put down. The general mutiny began at Meerut on 10 May.

From Meerut the rebels went straight to Delhi, and the choice of Bahadur Shah II as figurehead turned a military mutiny into a political revolt with a claimant to legitimacy.

The paper calls it the revolution of 1857. British records call it a mutiny and Indian nationalist writing calls it the First War of Independence.

The name changes with the writer. The Meerut starting point does not, and that is what the question turns on.

Key facts

The revolt began at Meerut on 10 May 1857.
Mangal Pandey's attack at Barrackpore took place on 29 March 1857.
The Meerut sepoys reached Delhi and proclaimed Bahadur Shah II as their leader.
The trigger was the greased cartridge of the Enfield rifle.

Study next

Centres of 1857 and their leaders — Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi, Bareilly and ArrahCauses of the revolt — the Doctrine of Lapse, the annexation of Awadh and the cartridgeThe Government of India Act 1858 and the transfer of power from the Company to the Crown

Common traps

Choosing Kanpur or Lucknow because their sieges are better remembered than the Meerut outbreak.
Confusing Mangal Pandey's March act at Barrackpore with the May outbreak at Meerut.

SSC pushes the same event one date deeper: 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.22 asks the date on which the Meerut soldiers set out for Delhi, and keys 10 May.

So the place and the date are both askable from the same three lines of narrative. Learn Meerut and 10 May together.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.