General Awareness ยท English Language

Indian Literature and Authors

9,599 Questions

Indian Literature and Authors is a crucial topic for competitive exams, focusing on famous writers, notable books, and literary awards. Questions cover various regional, postcolonial, and historical texts. This collection helps test takers prepare effectively for general awareness sections.

Famous Indian authorsNotable Indian novelsPostcolonial literatureLiterary award winnersRegional Indian literature

Indian Literature and Authors Questions

Multiple choice general knowledge
  1. Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay

  2. jarasondho

  3. Parasuram

  4. Tarashankar Bandopadhyay

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone, 1958) is based on a short story by Parasuram (pen name of Rajsekhar Basu), a well-known Bengali humorist. The other listed authors belong to different literary traditions.

Multiple choice general knowledge
  1. Tarashankar Bandopadhyay

  2. Bivutibhuson Bandopadhyay

  3. Bivutibhuson Mukhopadhyay

  4. Satyajit Ray

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Satyajit Ray's film Jalsaghar (The Music Room, 1958) is based on a short story by Bengali writer Tarashankar Bandopadhyay. The other named authors (Bibhutibhushan, Satyajit Ray himself) are associated with different works, not Jalsaghar.

Multiple choice general knowledge
  1. Premendra Mitra

  2. Bimal Kar

  3. Maink Bandopadhyay

  4. Purnendu Patri

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

In Ray's Kapurush-O-Mahapurush (1965), Kapurush was based on a story by Premendra Mitra and Mahapurush on Birinchibaba by Parasuram. Parasuram was in fact Premendra Mitra's own pen name, so the two-different-writers framing is a trick; the intended answer is Premendra Mitra.

Multiple choice general knowledge
  1. Subroto Bagchi

  2. Arindam Choudary

  3. Arvind Adiga

  4. Shiv Khera

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

'Go Kiss the World' is a memoir by Subroto Bagchi, co-founder of Mindtree, an Indian IT services company. The book is part memoir and part instructional life story, offering insights on leadership, entrepreneurship, and life lessons drawn from his personal journey. Bagchi is known for his motivational writing and business philosophy.

Multiple choice general knowledge math & puzzles
  1. H.G. Wells

  2. Khushwant Singh

  3. James Jeans

  4. Thomas Moore

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Khushwant Singh authored "We Indians," a collection of essays exploring Indian society, culture, and politics from a unique perspective. H.G. Wells was a British science fiction writer, James Jeans a physicist, and Thomas Moore an Irish poet.

Multiple choice general knowledge
  1. Jayant Mahapatra

  2. Sarthak Mahaptra

  3. A.K Ramanjuan

  4. Raja Rao

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Jayanta Mahapatra, an eminent Indian English poet from Odisha, was the first poet to receive the Sahitya Akademi Award for English poetry in 1981 for his work 'Relationship'. He is a pioneering figure in Indian English literature, known for his distinctive poetic voice that blends Indian sensibility with modernist techniques. Option B has a misspelling - 'Sarthak' should be 'Jayanta'.

Multiple choice general knowledge
  1. Ramachndra Guha

  2. Raja Roa

  3. Jayant Mahaptra

  4. A.K Ramanujan

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Jayanta Mahapatra (misspelled as Mahaptra) was indeed the first Indian poet to receive the Sahitya Akademi Award for English poetry in 1981 for his work 'Relationship'. Note that options have typos (Ramachndra, Raja Roa should be Rao, Mahaptra should be Mahapatra).

Multiple choice general knowledge
  1. Paraja

  2. Amrutrara Santana

  3. Mati Matala

  4. Dadi Budha

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Gopinath Mohanty received the Jnanpith Award in 1973, primarily for his novel 'Mati Matala' (The Soil and the Stones). While he wrote other notable works like 'Paraja' and 'Amrutara Santana', 'Mati Matala' was the magnum opus that earned him India's highest literary honor. 'Dadi Budha' is another significant work but not the Jnanpith winner.

Multiple choice general knowledge
  1. n.r narayanamoorthy

  2. shiv khera

  3. arundathi roy

  4. arindam choudry

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

'You Can Win' is a famous self-help book by Shiv Khera, focusing on personal development and motivation. N.R. Narayanamurthy (A) is the co-founder of Infosys. Arundhati Roy (C) wrote 'The God of Small Things'. Arindam Choudhuri (D) is a management guru but not the author of this specific book.

Multiple choice general knowledge culture
  1. Rabindranath Tagore

  2. Bankimchandra Chatterjee

  3. Saratchandra Chatterjee

  4. Michel Madhusudhan Dutta

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Saratchandra Chatterjee (also spelled Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay) wrote 'Pather Dabi' in 1926. Rabindranath Tagore wrote 'Gora' and 'Ghare Baire'; Bankimchandra wrote 'Anandamath' and 'Durgeshnandini'; Michael Madhusudhan Dutta wrote 'Meghnad Badh Kavya'. Pather Dabi is a classic Bengali novel about the revolutionary movement.

Multiple choice general knowledge culture
  1. The Captive Lady

  2. The Wonderful Lady

  3. Song Showerings

  4. Song Offerings

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Gitanjali translates to 'Song Offerings' in English - this was the collection of 103 English poems that Tagore himself translated from his Bengali works. This work earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, making him the first non-European to receive this honor.

Multiple choice general knowledge culture
  1. Rabindranath Tagore

  2. Bankimchandra Chatterjee

  3. Michael Madhusudan Dutt

  4. Vidyasagar

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Michael Madhusudan Dutt pioneered the sonnet form (amitrakshar chhanda) in Bengali literature, introducing the 14-line structure with rhyme schemes that were previously unknown in Bengali poetry. He was inspired by Western literary traditions and adapted the sonnet form to Bengali, creating a new poetic style.

Multiple choice general knowledge culture
  1. Rabindranath Tagore

  2. Bankimchandra Chatterjee

  3. Michael Madhusudan Dutt

  4. Vidyasagar

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar is credited with modernizing and simplifying the Bengali script. He reformed Bengali typography by reducing the complexity of certain letters, introducing punctuation marks adapted from English, and making the script more suitable for printing presses, which revolutionized Bengali publishing.

Multiple choice general knowledge culture
  1. Premendra Mitra

  2. Sukanta Bhattacharjee

  3. Kabi Najrul Islam

  4. Rabindranath Tagore

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Sanchita is one of Kazi Nazrul Islam's most famous poetic collections, published in the 1930s. It contains many of his revolutionary and spiritually-themed poems that established him as a major voice in Bengali literature alongside Tagore.