SSC
'My Country My Life' is the autobiography of which Indian politician?
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Answer: Option B — L. K. Advani
Detailed Solution
- Advani. "My Country My Life" is the autobiography of Lal Krishna Advani, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former Deputy Prime Minister of India. It was published in March 2008.
About the book:
It covers Advani's life from his birth in 1927 in Karachi (in Sindh, now in Pakistan), his early association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and his migration to India after Partition.
It describes his work in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, his imprisonment during the Emergency (1975-77), his role in founding the BJP in 1980, the Ram Rath Yatra of 1990, and his years as Union Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister (2002-2004).
It is a long book of nearly 1,000 pages.
About L. K. Advani:
- He served as Union Home Minister (1998-2004) and Deputy Prime Minister (2002-2004) in the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
- He was the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in the 2009 general election.
- He received the Padma Vibhushan in 2015 and the Bharat Ratna in 2024.
Political memoirs by other Indian leaders:
- Atal Bihari Vajpayee: known for his poetry collections, such as "Meri Ekyavan Kavitayen".
- Jaswant Singh: "A Call to Honour" and "Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence".
- Pranab Mukherjee: "The Dramatic Decade", "The Turbulent Years" and "The Coalition Years".
- Manmohan Singh: "Changing India" (five volumes).
- V. Narasimha Rao: the semi-autobiographical novel "The Insider".
- Natwar Singh: "One Life Is Not Enough".
- K. Gujral: "Matters of Discretion".
- Sharad Pawar: "On My Terms".
Why not the other options?
- ✗Atal Bihari Vajpayee is known for his poems; "My Country My Life" is not his book.
- ✗Jaswant Singh wrote "A Call to Honour" and a book on Jinnah.
- ✗Pranab Mukherjee wrote a three-volume memoir beginning with "The Dramatic Decade".
Quick tip
Remember: "My Country My Life" = L. K. Advani (2008; Bharat Ratna 2024); "The Turbulent Years" = Pranab Mukherjee; "The Insider" = P. V. Narasimha Rao; "Matters of Discretion" = I. K. Gujral.
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Books & Authors — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Books & Authors, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers famous books and their authors, including ancient Indian texts, works of the freedom struggle, classic and modern literature, autobiographies of famous people, and recently published books by well-known personalities. Questions usually name a book and ask for its author, or the other way round. Ancient and historical books, such as Arthashastra (Kautilya), Indica (Megasthenes) and Gitanjali (Rabindranath Tagore), are tested most often. Autobiographies are another favourite, so learn titles such as 'My Experiments with Truth' (Mahatma Gandhi) and 'Wings of Fire' (A. P. J. Abdul Kalam). Practise the books and authors questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.