SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 10 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.

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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.

Who is the author of the book 'The Argumentative Indian'?

(a)Amartya Sen
(b)Shashi Tharoor
(c)Ramachandra Guha
(d)Arvind Subramanian

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity is by Amartya Sen, published by Allen Lane in 2005.

Its essays trace India's long tradition of public debate and intellectual pluralism, and argue that this tradition matters for democracy and secular politics today.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Shashi Tharoor — Shashi Tharoor wrote An Era of Darkness and The Great Indian Novel. The Argumentative Indian is Amartya Sen's essay collection.
(c)
Ramachandra Guha — Ramachandra Guha is the historian of India After Gandhi. The Argumentative Indian is Sen's, not his.
(d)
Arvind Subramanian — Arvind Subramanian, a former Chief Economic Adviser, wrote Eclipse, on China's economic rise. The 2005 essay collection is Sen's.

Concept

Amartya Sen is an economist and philosopher. He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 and the Bharat Ratna in 1999.

The Argumentative Indian (2005) collects his essays on India's history and identity. Its thread is that India's habit of argument and dissent is a resource for democracy, secularism and the reduction of inequality.

Key facts

The Argumentative Indian (2005) is by Amartya Sen.
Sen won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998.
Sen received the Bharat Ratna in 1999.
Sen's other books include Development as Freedom and The Idea of Justice.

Study next

Books by Indian economists: Amartya Sen, Jagdish Bhagwati, Raghuram RajanBooks on modern Indian history by Ramachandra Guha and Shashi Tharoor

Common traps

Picking Tharoor or Guha because they also write on Indian history and identity.

Book-and-author items also appear at 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.10 (Half the Night is Gone, Amitabha Bagchi). Sen himself is an option at 19 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.2, on the Prof CR Rao Centenary Gold Medal.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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