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50 free Indian States trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
India's map has never stopped moving. States have been carved out of older ones along language lines, hill districts have been promoted from territory to statehood, cities have swapped names, and the count of union territories shifted twice in a single year. Each change left a date, an act of Parliament and a capital behind it, and those details are what this quiz is built from. The 50 questions treat India's 28 states and its union territories as political units: when each was created and from what, which city governs it, which languages it recognises, and the animals, birds, dances and festivals it has chosen as its symbols. More than 30 states and territories get a question, and none gets more than three. Rivers, peaks and climate are left to the geography quizzes. It suits a school or college GK round, a pub quiz on the subcontinent, or anyone brushing up before a competitive exam. Play it on your phone with instant answers and short explanations, or print it for a table.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which state was officially called Madras State until it was renamed on 14 January 1969?
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu, meaning 'Tamil country', replaced the name Madras State in 1969, thirteen years after the old Madras Presidency had been redrawn along language lines. Chennai is its capital.
Q 02Which state, India's least populous, was the first to convert all its farmland to organic farming?
Sikkim
Sikkim decided in 2003 to go fully organic and finished the switch in 2016, the first Indian state to do so. With about 610,000 people at the 2011 census, it has fewer residents than many Indian cities.
Q 03Which state, the smallest by area, rose from union territory to India's 25th state in May 1987?
Goa
Goa had been a union territory since India took it from Portugal in December 1961; statehood came on 30 May 1987, and it remains the smallest state by area and fourth-smallest by population.
Q 04Which official name did Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, receive in 2024?
Sri Vijaya Puram
Sri Vijaya Puram became Port Blair's official name on 13 September 2024, a change the government framed as freeing the city from colonial imprints. It remains the territory's capital and largest city.
Q 05Which state, split from Punjab on linguistic lines in 1966, surrounds Delhi on three sides?
Haryana
Haryana came into being on 1 November 1966 under the Punjab Reorganisation Act. Because it wraps Delhi to the north, west and south, much of the state sits inside the National Capital Region.
Q 06Which big cat, surviving in the wild only around Gir National Park, is the state animal of Gujarat?
Asiatic lion
The Asiatic lion has been confined to Gir National Park and its surroundings since the turn of the 20th century, and its Indian population numbered just 411 in 2010 before rising steadily.
Q 07Which state, India's second most populous at the 2011 census, was created when Bombay State was split on 1 May 1960?
Maharashtra
Maharashtra was born on 1 May 1960 when the Bombay Reorganisation Act divided Bombay State between Marathi and Gujarati speakers, and the date is still kept as Maharashtra Day. Its 2011 population passed 112 million.
Q 08Which state declared Bathukamma, a nine-day flower festival of Telugu Hindu women, its state festival in 2014?
Telangana
Telangana's women arrange seasonal flowers into tall conical stacks and circle them singing, over nine days that begin on Pitru Amavasya in September or October. Bonalu is the state's other big festival.
Q 09Which Uttar Pradesh city, founded by Akbar as Ilahabas, dropped the name Allahabad in October 2018?
Prayagraj
Prayagraj became the official name on 16 October 2018, restoring the ancient Prayag at the river confluence where the Kumbh Mela gathers. Akbar had founded his Mughal city there as Ilahabas in 1584.
Q 10Which language did Nagaland's assembly declare the state's official language in 1967?
English
English was proclaimed Nagaland's official language by the state assembly in 1967 and remains the medium of instruction in its schools. Most of the population speaks it, alongside the tribal languages.
Q 11Which state, carved out of Bihar in November 2000, has a name meaning 'the land of forests'?
Jharkhand
Jharkhand was created on 15 November 2000 from the southern districts of Bihar, with Ranchi as its capital, and its name literally means the land of forests.
Q 12Which state, carved from Madhya Pradesh in 2000, is named, by popular theory, for thirty-six forts?
Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh gained statehood on 1 November 2000 with Raipur as its capital, and chhattis garh means thirty-six forts, though historians note that the 36 forts have never been identified.
Q 13Which species, the tallest of all flying birds, did Uttar Pradesh declare its state bird in 2013?
Sarus crane
Q 21Which union territory of 36 islands, run as a single district, has its capital at Kavaratti?
Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep's 36 islands fall into the Amindivi and Laccadive groups and the lone atoll of Minicoy, and the whole territory is governed as one district from Kavaratti. Only ten of the islands are inhabited.
Q 22Which hill state, India's 18th, gained full statehood on 25 January 1971 with Shimla as its capital?
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh became the 18th state of the Union with Yashwant Singh Parmar as its first chief minister, five years after the hill districts of Punjab were merged into it in 1966.
Q 23Which state, a kingdom until its 1949 merger with India, is credited with giving polo to Europeans?
Manipur
The sarus crane stands up to 1.8 metres, making it the world's tallest flying bird, and Uttar Pradesh's flooded paddy fields hold the largest known population.
Q 14Which 'City of Lakes', the capital of Madhya Pradesh, suffered the Union Carbide gas leak of 1984?
Bhopal
Bhopal's Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked methyl isocyanate in December 1984, the worst industrial disaster in history. The city had been the seat of the Nawabs of Bhopal until 1947.
Q 15Which capital of Bihar occupies the site of Pataliputra, seat of the Maurya and Gupta empires?
Patna
Patna stands on ancient Pataliputra, which served as the capital of the Magadha Empire through the Haryanka, Nanda, Mauryan, Shunga, Gupta and Pala dynasties and was a seat of learning and fine arts.
Q 16Which union territory, formed from Leh and Kargil districts in late 2019, was set up without an elected assembly?
Ladakh
Ladakh is run by a Lieutenant Governor on behalf of the central government, with no elected assembly or chief minister, under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act. Leh and Kargil each keep an elected Hill Council.
Q 17Which capital of Uttar Pradesh, the 'City of Nawabs', became the seat of the rulers of Awadh?
Lucknow
Lucknow became the Nawabs' capital after the reign of the third Nawab of Awadh, and its rulers' refined, extravagant court made it North India's cultural capital. The British annexed Awadh in 1856.
Q 18Which union territory of four former French enclaves keeps French as an official language?
Puducherry
Puducherry unites four unconnected coastal enclaves, Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam, that France handed to India de facto in 1954 and formally in 1962. Tamil is official, with Telugu in Yanam and Malayalam in Mahe.
Q 19Which state, formed from two hill districts of Assam on 21 January 1972, took Shillong as its capital?
Meghalaya
Meghalaya, 'the abode of clouds', was formed from the united Khasi and Jaintia Hills and the Garo Hills, and Shillong, until then the capital of Assam, became its capital instead.
Q 20Which planned city replaced Ahmedabad as the capital of Gujarat in 1970?
Gandhinagar
Gandhinagar, a planned city laid out about 23 km north of Ahmedabad, took over as capital in 1970, a decade after Gujarat was created. Ahmedabad remains the state's largest city.
Manipur's traditional game sagol kangjei is the ancestor of modern international polo, and the state displays the world's tallest statue of a polo player, dedicated to the Meitei deity Marjing. Its ruler signed the merger in September 1949.
Q 24Which state, India's 23rd, won statehood in 1987 under a peace accord with Laldenga's rebel front?
Mizoram
Mizoram became the 23rd state on 20 February 1987 under the 1986 Mizo Accord, which ended a Mizo National Front insurgency that had begun in 1966. Aizawl is its capital.
Q 25Which festival unique to Assam comes three times a year, in April, in autumn and in January?
Bihu
Bihu comes as Rongali or Bohag Bihu in April, Kongali or Kati Bihu in October or November, and Bhogali or Magh Bihu in January. Rongali, the biggest, runs for seven days.
Q 26Which animal, whose Kaziranga population is the world's largest, is the state animal of Assam?
Indian rhinoceros
The Indian rhinoceros, the greater one-horned rhino, has its largest population at Kaziranga, which held 2,613 of Assam's rhinos in a 2008 count; the species' total passed 4,000 in 2022, with about 3,260 of them in India.
Q 27Which classical dance takes its name from a village in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh?
Kuchipudi
Kuchipudi originated in the village of the same name and is counted among the eight major Indian classical dance forms, alongside Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi and others.
Q 28Which two-day kite-flying festival fills Gujarat's skies each January around Makar Sankranti?
Uttarayan
Uttarayan marks the sun's passage into Capricorn, and Gujarat stages an International Kite Festival for it over two days each January, tied to Makara Sankranti.
Q 29Which city, famed for houseboats on Dal Lake, is the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir?
Srinagar
Srinagar is the largest city and summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, set in the Kashmir Valley along the Jhelum between the Hari Parbat and Shankaracharya hills.
Q 30Which amendment to the Constitution gave Delhi an assembly and the title National Capital Territory?
69th
The 69th Amendment inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB, creating an assembly and council of ministers for the National Capital Territory of Delhi from 1 February 1992 while keeping Delhi a union territory.