Railway
Which festival held in Punjab is widely known as the 'Rural Olympics'?
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Answer: Option A — Kila Raipur Sports Festival
Detailed Solution
The Kila Raipur Sports Festival, popularly known as the "Rural Olympics", is held every year in February in the village of Kila Raipur, near Ludhiana, Punjab. It is one of the most famous rural sports festivals in India.
The festival was started in 1933 by Inder Singh Grewal, a philanthropist of the village, as a way for the farmers of the area to come together after the harvest and test their physical strength and skills. It is organised by the Grewal Sports Association. Over the years, it grew into a major event that attracts thousands of participants and spectators from India and abroad.
The festival features many traditional and unusual sports and competitions, such as:
- Bullock cart races, the most famous event of the festival.
- Races of horses, camels, dogs and mules.
- Tractor races and tug-of-war.
- Feats of strength, such as lifting heavy weights, pulling a tractor with the teeth or hair, and lifting a bicycle or a plough with the teeth.
- Traditional games such as kabaddi, as well as modern sports like hockey, athletics and cycling.
- Displays of horsemanship by Nihang Sikhs and performances of Bhangra and Gatka.
In 2014, bullock cart races were stopped after a Supreme Court ruling on animal cruelty. After the Punjab government amended the law to allow them and the Supreme Court upheld similar state laws in 2023, the bullock cart races returned to the festival.
Punjab is known for its strong traditions of physical fitness, wrestling (kushti) and kabaddi, and many Indian sportspersons, especially in hockey, athletics and wrestling, come from the state.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Hola Mohalla is the Sikh festival of martial displays at Anandpur Sahib.
- ✗Baisakhi Mela is the harvest festival fair held across Punjab in April.
- ✗Jor Mela is the Sikh gathering at Fatehgarh Sahib in memory of the martyrdom of the younger Sahibzadas.
Quick tip
Remember: The Kila Raipur Sports Festival = the "Rural Olympics", Ludhiana (Punjab), February and bullock cart races.
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Festivals & Fairs of India — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Festivals & Fairs of India, 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 the religious, harvest, tribal and cultural festivals of India, the fairs (melas) held across the country, and the states, communities and seasons linked to them. It also includes festivals listed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, such as Kumbh Mela and Durga Puja in Kolkata. Most questions ask which state celebrates a festival, which tribe it belongs to, or what event it marks. Harvest festivals are especially common: Pongal (Tamil Nadu), Onam (Kerala), Bihu (Assam), Lohri and Baisakhi (Punjab) and Nuakhai (Odisha). Fairs such as the Pushkar camel fair (Rajasthan) and the Sonepur cattle fair (Bihar) are also frequently tested. Revise festivals state by state. Practise the festivals and fairs 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.