SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 11 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 13 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.

Who was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2025 for empowering women by teaching traditional Bengali folk percussion?

(a)Gokul Chandra Das
(b)Farooq Ahmad Mir
(c)Shyam Bihari Agrawal
(d)Sheen Kaaf Nizam

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Gokul Chandra Das of West Bengal received the Padma Shri for 2025 in the field of Art. He plays the dhak, the Bengali drum of Durga Puja, and has trained women as professional dhakis in a craft traditionally practised by men → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Farooq Ahmad Mir — Farooq Ahmad Mir of Jammu and Kashmir is also a 2025 Padma Shri in Art, but for Kashmir's Kani shawl weaving, not Bengali percussion.
(c)
Shyam Bihari Agrawal — Shyam Bihari Agrawal of Uttar Pradesh is a 2025 Padma Shri in Art, a wash and tempera painter from Prayagraj rather than a folk drummer from Bengal.
(d)
Sheen Kaaf Nizam — Sheen Kaaf Nizam, the pen name of Rajasthan's Shiv Kishan Bissa, received his 2025 Padma Shri in Literature and Education as an Urdu poet.

Concept

The Padma awards, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, are announced each year on the eve of Republic Day, and each award is listed with a field and a state.

All four people in the options are on the 2025 Padma Shri list, so the item turns on field and work. The dhak is Bengal's large drum, played above all at Durga Puja, and its players have traditionally been men.

Key facts

Gokul Chandra Das, West Bengal: Padma Shri 2025, Art. He plays the dhak.
Farooq Ahmad Mir, Jammu and Kashmir: Padma Shri 2025, Art.
Sheen Kaaf Nizam (Shiv Kishan Bissa), Rajasthan: Padma Shri 2025, Literature and Education.
Shyam Bihari Agrawal, Uttar Pradesh: Padma Shri 2025, Art.

Study next

Padma awards 2025: awardees by field and stateFolk percussion of India by region: dhak, dhol, chendaKani shawl weaving of Kashmir

Common traps

Picking Farooq Ahmad Mir because he too is a 2025 Padma Shri in Art. His art is Kani shawl weaving, not Bengali drumming.
Ignoring the regional clue. Bengali folk percussion points to the dhak and to an awardee from West Bengal.

The same awardee is asked as a pairing at 14 Sep 2025, 9:00 AM, GA Q.12, which keys 'Gokul Chandra Das – Folk Music' as the correct pair and rejects 'Farooq Ahmad Mir – Literature'.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Culture — all 246 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.