SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 20 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 18 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.

What was the key contribution of Baikuntha Shukla in the Indian freedom struggle?

(a)He led the Champaran Satyagraha
(b)He protested against Simon Commission
(c)He assassinated a government approver
(d)He founded the HSRA

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Baikuntha Shukla, a revolutionary from Bihar and a member of the HSRA, killed Phanindra Nath Ghosh on 9 November 1932.

Ghosh had been an HSRA member who turned approver, a government witness, and his evidence was used against Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, hanged in 1931. Shukla was hanged in Gaya Central Jail on 14 May 1934 → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
He led the Champaran Satyagraha — The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was led by Mahatma Gandhi for the indigo cultivators of Bihar. Shukla shared the state, not the campaign.
(b)
He protested against Simon Commission — The Simon Commission (1928) met protests across India, and the protest at Lahore was led by Lala Lajpat Rai. Shukla is remembered for the 1932 killing of an approver.
(d)
He founded the HSRA — The HSRA was formed in 1928 at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi, by reorganising the Hindustan Republican Association. Shukla was a member, not a founder.

Concept

An approver is an accomplice who turns government witness and testifies against former comrades in return for a pardon. To the revolutionaries, that testimony was betrayal, since it sent comrades to the gallows.

Phanindra Nath Ghosh had been a key HSRA member before turning approver. Shukla's killing of him in 1932 was an act of revolutionary retribution, and it cost Shukla his life.

Sources spell the approver's name both Phanindra and Phonindra Nath Ghosh.

Key facts

Baikuntha Shukla killed Phanindra Nath Ghosh, an HSRA member turned approver, on 9 November 1932.
Ghosh's evidence was used against Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, who were hanged in 1931.
Shukla was hanged in Gaya Central Jail on 14 May 1934.
The HSRA was formed in 1928 at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi.

Study next

The Lahore Conspiracy Case and the trial of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and RajguruFrom the Hindustan Republican Association (1924) to the HSRA (1928)

Common traps

Picking 'He founded the HSRA' because Shukla was a member: the association was formed in 1928 by Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and others.
Picking the Champaran Satyagraha because Shukla was from Bihar: Champaran was Gandhi's campaign of 1917.

Here a lesser-known revolutionary is tested by a single act. The HSRA itself is an option at 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.8, which keys the Ghadar Party as the group started in San Francisco.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: History — all 218 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.