Railway
The song 'Ekla Chalo Re' (Walk Alone) was written by:
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Answer: Option A — Rabindranath Tagore
Detailed Solution
"Ekla Chalo Re" ("Walk Alone") is a Bengali patriotic song written and composed by Rabindranath Tagore in 1905, during the Swadeshi movement against the Partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon. Its opening line is "Jodi tor dak shune keu na ashe, tobe ekla chalo re" ("If no one answers your call, then walk alone"). The song encourages a person to keep going on the right path even if nobody else joins.
The song became very popular during India's freedom struggle. Mahatma Gandhi loved it and is said to have drawn great strength from it, especially during his walk through riot-hit Noakhali in 1946-47. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose also admired it. It was first published in the magazine "Bhandar" in 1905 and is part of the "Swadesh" section of Tagore's songs.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) wrote over 2,000 songs, known as "Rabindra Sangeet". Among them:
"Jana Gana Mana", the national anthem of India.
"Amar Shonar Bangla", the national anthem of Bangladesh.
The national anthem of Sri Lanka, "Sri Lanka Matha", was written by Ananda Samarakoon, who was a student of Tagore and was inspired by him.
Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for "Gitanjali", becoming the first non-European Nobel laureate. He founded Visva-Bharati at Santiniketan.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote "Vande Mataram" in his novel "Anandamath".
- ✗Kazi Nazrul Islam, the "Rebel Poet" and national poet of Bangladesh, wrote songs called "Nazrul Geeti".
- ✗Sarojini Naidu, the "Nightingale of India", wrote English poetry.
Quick tip
Remember: "Ekla Chalo Re" = Tagore, 1905, Swadeshi movement, Gandhi's favourite; Tagore wrote anthems of India and Bangladesh.
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Music & Musical Instruments — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Music & Musical Instruments, 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 Indian classical music, its two main traditions (Hindustani and Carnatic), gharanas, ragas and talas, folk music styles, and the musical instruments of India along with the artists who are famous for playing them. It also includes the four classes of instruments: string (tata), wind (sushira), percussion (avanaddha) and solid (ghana). Exam questions usually pair an instrument with its maestro, such as the sitar with Pandit Ravi Shankar, the shehnai with Ustad Bismillah Khan or the santoor with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Other common questions ask about the origin of a gharana, the instrument a folk style uses, or the class an instrument belongs to. Making a two-column list of instruments and artists is the quickest way to revise. Practise the music and musical instruments 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.