India Trivia
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108 free India trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
55 free India trivia questions with answers. These Indian trivia questions cover the whole country, not just the Taj Mahal: the states and languages, the Indus Valley and the Mughals, Ashoka and Gandhi, the flag and the anthem, Diwali and Holi, cricket and Bollywood, ISRO's Moon landing, Ramanujan's taxicab number, and the food that only arrived with the Portuguese. It is written for anyone - Indian or not - who wants a fair, factual quiz about India rather than a list of cliches. Easy questions come first (capital, independence day, national animal) and the set works up to details that will stretch a Delhi quiz team: who designed the flag, where India played its first Test, which village out-rains Cherrapunji. Use it for a classroom, a Diwali party round, or a solo test. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and carries its source, so the dates and figures are the real ones.
30 of 108 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital of India?
New Delhi
New Delhi, a planned city beside old Delhi, was inaugurated as the imperial capital in 1931, replacing Calcutta; Mumbai is the larger city by population.
Q 02India ranks where among the world's countries by land area?
Seventh
Seventh: only Russia, Canada, China, the USA, Brazil and Australia are larger by area. By population India overtook China in 2023 to become the largest.
Q 03On what date did India gain independence from Britain?
15 August 1947
India became independent on 15 August 1947, the midnight Nehru marked with his 'Tryst with Destiny' speech; 26 January 1950, when the constitution took effect, became Republic Day.
Q 04Which river gives India its name?
The Indus
The Greeks called the river Indos; ironically most of the Indus now flows through Pakistan. The constitution's other name for the country is Bharat.
Q 05Which ancient urban culture flourished in the subcontinent around 2500-1900 BCE?
The Indus Valley Civilisation
The Indus Valley Civilisation: its cities Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had grid streets and covered drains, and its script has never been deciphered.
Q 06How many states does India have?
28
India has 28 states since Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised into union territories in 2019; the newest state before that, Telangana, was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
Q 07Which is India's most populous state, with almost 200 million people at the 2011 census?
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh had 199.8 million people at the 2011 census, about a sixth of India; Sikkim, with about 610,000, was the least populous state.
Q 08How many languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule of India's constitution?
22
The Eighth Schedule lists 22 languages, from Assamese to Urdu. Hindi is the most spoken first language at about 44%, and the constitution names no single national language.
Q 09India's founding legal charter, in force since 26 January 1950, holds which world record?
Longest written national constitution
The longest written national constitution: it originally ran to 395 articles and 22 parts, took nearly three years to draft, and was hand-lettered by calligrapher Prem Behari Narain Raizada.
Q 10How many spokes does the Ashoka Chakra at the centre of the Indian flag have?
24
The Ashoka Chakra has 24 spokes. The navy-blue wheel is taken from the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath, which is also India's national emblem.
Q 11Who designed the Indian national flag?
Pingali Venkayya
Pingali Venkayya, a freedom fighter from Andhra, presented the tricolour design to Gandhi in 1921. For decades every flag had to be made of khadi; the rule was relaxed in 2021.
Q 12What is the national animal of India?
Bengal tiger
The Bengal tiger replaced the Asiatic lion as India's national animal in the early 1970s, when Project Tiger launched; the 2022 census counted about 3,680 wild tigers in India, roughly three quarters of the world's total.
Q 13Which bird is India's national bird?
Indian peafowl
The peacock got the job in 1963; the elephant is separately the 'national heritage animal' and the Ganges river dolphin the national aquatic animal.
Q 21Gandhi's 1930 Salt March covered about 388 km from Ahmedabad to which coastal village?
Dandi
Dandi, on the Gujarat coast, where on 6 April 1930 he picked up a lump of natural salt to defy the British monopoly; the march from Sabarmati Ashram took 24 days and drew worldwide coverage.
Q 22Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is observed worldwide as what?
International Day of Non-Violence
The UN declared 2 October the International Day of Non-Violence in 2007. In India it is Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday; the honorific Mahatma means 'great-souled'.
Q 23Before returning to India, Gandhi spent 21 years practising law and organising protest in which country?
South Africa
Q 14India's national anthem, 'Jana Gana Mana', was composed by whom?
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore wrote 'Jana Gana Mana' in 1911; his 'Amar Shonar Bangla' later became Bangladesh's anthem. The separate national song is Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's 'Vande Mataram'.
Q 15In 1913 the poet of Gitanjali became the first non-European to win which honour?
Nobel Prize in Literature
Rabindranath Tagore won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature for Gitanjali, the first non-European laureate in that category; he renounced his British knighthood after the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Q 16Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for whom?
His wife Mumtaz
More than 20,000 workers laboured on the white-marble mausoleum in Agra from 1632; Shah Jahan was eventually buried beside her.
Q 17On the bank of which river does the Taj Mahal stand?
Yamuna
The Taj Mahal stands on the south bank of the Yamuna at Agra; it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 and was voted one of the New 7 Wonders of the World in 2007.
Q 18Who founded the Mughal Empire after defeating the Sultan of Delhi at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526?
Babur
Babur, a descendant of both Timur and Genghis Khan, founded the dynasty in 1526 and wrote a candid memoir, the Baburnama; the Mughal court language was Persian.
Q 19Which Mughal emperor pushed the empire to its greatest territorial extent?
Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb's Deccan conquests took the Mughal Empire to its greatest extent by his death in 1707, covering almost the whole subcontinent; the last emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was exiled to Burma after the 1857 uprising.
Q 20Emperor Ashoka embraced Buddhism and non-violence after the brutal conquest of which region?
Kalinga
Kalinga, on the Odisha coast, fell to Ashoka around 261 BCE with enormous slaughter; his remorse is recorded in his rock edicts. He ruled the Mauryan Empire from Pataliputra around 268-232 BCE.
South Africa, from 1893 to 1914: he was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg for sitting in a first-class carriage, an episode he called a turning point.
Q 24Who was India's first prime minister?
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru served from independence in 1947 until his death in May 1964, 16 years and 286 days; his birthday, 14 November, is celebrated in India as Children's Day.
Q 25Diwali, the festival of lights, is traditionally linked to the homecoming of which figure to Ayodhya?
Rama
Rama's return to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile and his defeat of Ravana is the story behind the lamps; celebrants light diyas, draw rangoli and set off fireworks, and many honour Lakshmi, goddess of wealth.
Q 26Holi, the festival of colours, marks the arrival of which season?
Spring
Spring: Holi falls on the full moon of Phalguna, usually in March, as winter ends; the night before, bonfires called Holika Dahan burn to mark good over evil.
Q 27Holi's association with Radha and Krishna makes which region its spiritual heartland?
Braj, around Mathura
Braj, the region around Mathura and Vrindavan where Krishna is said to have grown up; in its town of Barsana women famously chase men with sticks in the 'Lathmar Holi'.
Q 28Roughly how many free meals does the Golden Temple's community kitchen in Amritsar serve each day?
Over 100,000
Over 100,000: the langar feeds anyone regardless of faith, about 100,000 meals on an ordinary day and more on festivals; the shrine's four entrances symbolise that openness, and its gold leaf was donated by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1830.
Q 29Which gathering, rotating among Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain, is the world's largest?
Kumbh Mela
About 660 million people attended in 2025; UNESCO added it to its intangible heritage list in 2017.
Q 30What is Bollywood?
The Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai
The Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai; the name blends the city's former name with Hollywood and covers only Hindi cinema. India as a whole makes more films than any other country.