Books and Authors Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The Second Sex was written by Simone de Beauvoir.

The French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir published Le Deuxieme Sexe in 1949. Its analysis of how women have been defined as the 'Other' made it a founding text of modern feminism.

Arundhati Roy wrote The God of Small Things, Roxane Gay Bad Feminist, and Joanne Rowling the Harry Potter series.

De Beauvoir's best-known line from the book is that one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.

Answer: B

Three Thousand Stitches was written by Sudha Murthy.

Sudha Murty's Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives (2017) is a collection of true stories; its title story tells of her work with the devadasi women of Karnataka, who later gave her a quilt of three thousand stitches.

Sushma Swaraj was a political leader, and the other two names are not associated with this book.

Sudha Murty, chairperson of the Infosys Foundation for many years, has written widely in both English and Kannada.

Answer: C

The key's answer is Menas Oreya.

'Maturaa Kahani' is given in the question as a collection of Munda folk stories. The author named in the key could not be confirmed: no library catalogue or reference work found lists a book of that title or an author of that name, so the answer rests on the Commission's key.

Nothing found links Dominic Bara, Bhiku Tirkey or Ram Dayal Munda to the book either, so none of the other options could be ruled out by a source.

Answer: B

The priest is Father Camill Bulcke.

Camille Bulcke (1909-1982), a Belgian Jesuit who spent his working life in Ranchi, wrote the doctoral thesis Ramkatha: Utpatti aur Vikas (Ramkatha: origin and development), the standard study of how the Rama story spread across languages and countries. He also compiled an English-Hindi dictionary, and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974.

Hoffmann is known for the Encyclopaedia Mundarica, Hahn for his work on the Kurukh language, and Lievens for the Chotanagpur mission of the 1880s, so none of them is linked with Ramkatha.

Answer: A

The author is K.S. Singh.

Kumar Suresh Singh, an IAS officer and anthropologist who later directed the Anthropological Survey of India, wrote Dust-Storm and Hanging Mist (1966), his study of Birsa Munda and the Ulgulan. It was later reissued as Birsa Munda and His Movement 1872-1901.

S.C. Roy wrote the classic ethnographies The Mundas and Their Country and The Oraons of Chota Nagpur, but not this book; J.C. Jha wrote on the Kol insurrection, and B. Virottam on the history of the Nagvanshis.

Answer: D

The key's answer is Father Peter Shanti Navrangi.

The question asks who wrote a 1963 Nagpuri biography of Jesus Christ. The book's title and its author could not be confirmed from any source found, so this answer rests on the Commission's key and not on a checked record.

The other three options are not named as its author in any source found. Father J. Hoffmann is known for the Encyclopaedia Mundarica, which is not a Nagpuri work of 1963, and the options do not give any other detail, such as a publisher, that would separate the names. The explanation is therefore limited to the key.

Answer: B

The 1910 Santhal Parganas district gazetteer is by L.S.S. O'Malley.

Lewis Sydney Steward O'Malley of the Indian Civil Service wrote the Bengal District Gazetteers for many districts of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa between 1906 and 1910, including Santal Parganas (1910).

P.C. Roy Chaudhury revised the Bihar district gazetteers after independence, in the 1960s, so his volumes are much later. J. Reid is not the gazetteer's author, and E.E. Evans-Pritchard was an English anthropologist of Africa, best known for his work on the Nuer and Azande.

Answer: C

Pairs 1 and 3 are correct, so the answer is 1 and 3 only.

Vedadhikara Nirupanam, which argues that all castes have the right to study the Vedas, is by Chattampi Swamikal. Acharabhushanam is by Pandit K.P. Karuppan, the reformer and poet of the Cochin Pulaya and fishing communities.

Atmopadesa Satakam, the hundred verses of self-instruction, is by Sree Narayana Guru, not Ayya Vaikunda Swami, whose teachings are in the Akilattirattu. So pair 2 is wrong.

Answer: A

The correct order is Oru vazhiyum kure nizhalukalum, Agnisakshi, Alahayude Penmakkal, Aaraachaar.

1. Oru Vazhiyum Kure Nizhalukalum, T.A. Rajalakshmi: 1960.
2. Agnisakshi, Lalithambika Antharjanam: 1976.
3. Alahayude Penmakkal, Sarah Joseph: 1999.
4. Aarachar, K.R. Meera: 2012.

All four are novels by women writers, which is the link the question relies on. Every other option either opens with a later novel or puts Aarachar, the most recent, anywhere but last.

Answer: A

The correct matching is A-II, B-IV, C-I, D-III.

Rajni Kothari wrote on caste and politics (A-II); C.P. Bhambri wrote The Indian State (B-IV); Mohit Bhattacharya is the author of a standard text on Public Administration (C-I); and Granville Austin wrote Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian Experience (D-III).

The other options pair at least two authors with the wrong books, such as giving Austin's book to Kothari.