SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 3 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

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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.

Which of the following statements about Hola Mohalla festival of Punjab is correct?

(a)It is celebrated mainly by women through crafts and songs in Patiala.
(b)It showcases martial arts, langars, and Nihang mock battles at Anandpur Sahib.
(c)It is a harvest festival observed in Punjab just before Diwali.
(d)Hola Mohalla is celebrated on the same day as Holi.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Hola Mohalla is the Sikh festival Guru Gobind Singh began at Anandpur, in Punjab.

It is martial at heart. Nihang Singhs stage mock battles and displays of fighting skill, while pilgrims hear kirtan and poetry and eat at langars.

Even the name says so: a mohalla is an organised procession in the form of an army column, with war drums and standard-bearers.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
It is celebrated mainly by women through crafts and songs in Patiala. — The festival's home is Anandpur Sahib, not Patiala, and Nihang martial displays, not women's crafts and songs, define it.
(c)
It is a harvest festival observed in Punjab just before Diwali. — Hola Mohalla comes in spring, usually the day after Holi. It is a martial gathering, not a harvest festival, and nowhere near Diwali.
(d)
Hola Mohalla is celebrated on the same day as Holi. — It usually falls on the day after Holi, the second day of the lunar month Chet, not on Holi itself.

Concept

Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, started Hola Mohalla at Anandpur as a day of mock battles and martial display.

It is usually held the day after Holi, on the second day of the lunar month Chet, and the celebration at Anandpur Sahib lasts three days.

Nihang Singhs lead the displays of fighting skill. Around them run kirtan, poetry contests and langar, the free community kitchen.

The same-day-as-Holi statement is the tempting one. Hola Mohalla usually falls the day after Holi, though in some years the two coincide, so that statement fails as a description of the festival.

Key facts

Hola Mohalla was started by Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, at Anandpur.
It is usually held the day after Holi, on the second day of the lunar month Chet.
The main celebration at Anandpur Sahib lasts three days, with mock battles, kirtan, poetry and langar.

Study next

Gurpurab and the birth anniversaries of the Sikh GurusBaisakhi and the founding of the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib in 1699Gatka, the Sikh martial art

Common traps

Treating Hola Mohalla as Holi itself, when it usually falls the day after.
Placing it at Amritsar or Patiala rather than Anandpur Sahib.

Hola Mohalla's religion is asked at 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.2, and it is a distractor at 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.24 on Guru Nanak's birth anniversary.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Culture — all 163 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.