SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 19 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 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Cheraw, the bamboo dance performed using crossed bamboo sticks, is a folk dance of which state?

(a)Mizoram
(b)Meghalaya
(c)Arunachal Pradesh
(d)Sikkim

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Cheraw is the bamboo dance of Mizoram.

Men sit facing each other and rhythmically tap and strike together pairs of long bamboo poles, while women step in and out between them.

It is the main dance of Chapchar Kut, the Mizo spring festival held when the bamboo felled for jhum cultivation is left to dry.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Meghalaya — Cheraw is not from Meghalaya. That state's Garo people celebrate Wangala, a post-harvest thanksgiving to the sun god also known as the Hundred Drums festival.
(c)
Arunachal Pradesh — Arunachal Pradesh is known for masked dances such as Bardo Chham of its Himalayan Buddhist tribes, which shows good triumphing over evil. The bamboo-pole Cheraw is Mizo.
(d)
Sikkim — Sikkim's folk dances include Chu-Faat, keyed to Sikkim at 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.8. Cheraw belongs to Mizoram, not Sikkim.

Concept

Dance-to-state pairings are recall, so anchor each dance to its people and festival.

Cheraw belongs to the Mizo people of Mizoram. At Chapchar Kut it is the main dance, performed alongside other Mizo dances such as Khuallam, Chheihlam and Chai.

The crossed bamboo poles in the stem are the giveaway. The Philippines has a similar bamboo-pole dance, Tinikling, but among the four states offered the answer is Mizoram.

Key facts

Cheraw is the bamboo-pole dance of Mizoram, with men handling the poles and women dancing between them.
Chapchar Kut, Mizoram's spring festival, falls in late February or early March, and Cheraw is its main dance.
Khuallam is also a Mizo dance, keyed to Mizoram at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.4.
Wangala, the Garo post-harvest festival of Meghalaya, is called the Hundred Drums festival.

Study next

Mizo festivals: Chapchar Kut, Mim Kut and Pawl KutNorth-eastern dances by state: Hojagiri (Tripura), Chu-Faat (Sikkim), Wangala (Meghalaya)Masked Buddhist dances of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim

Common traps

Guessing Meghalaya or Arunachal Pradesh because the North-East is known for bamboo — the name Cheraw is Mizo.
Confusing Cheraw with Khuallam: both are Mizo dances seen at Chapchar Kut, but the bamboo poles belong to Cheraw.

North-eastern dances are asked by name, one state per stem: Khuallam (Mizoram) at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.4, Hojagiri (Tripura) at 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.23, and Chu-Faat (Sikkim) at 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.8.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Culture — all 122 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.