English in India – UGC NET – Solved PYQs

Q. 1- 50

1. Which of the following arrangements of English novels is in the correct chronological sequence? (UGC NET June 2011)
(1) Kim, A Passage to India, Sons and Lovers, Brave New World
(2) Sons and Lovers, A Passage to India, Kim, Brave New World
(3) Kim, Sons and Lovers, A Passage to India, Brave New World
(4) Brave New World, Kim, Sons and Lovers, A Passage to India

2. Who, among the following Indian writers in English, has created an identifiable imagined locale? (UGC NET June 2011)
(1) Mulk Raj Anand
(2) Raja Rao
(3) R.K. Narayan
(4) Anita Desai

3. Which of the following novels by V.S. Naipaul is set in Africa and carries Conradian echoes? (UGC NET June 2011)
(1) The Mystic Masseur
(2) A Bend in the River
(3) A House for Mr. Biswas
(4) The Mimic Men

4. Here is a list of Partition novels which have ‘violence on the woman’s body’ as a significant theme. Pick the odd one out: (UGC NET Dec 2012)
(1) The Pakistani Bride
(2) What the Body Remembers
(3) Train to Pakistan
(4) The Ice-Candy Man

5. Match the translators in List I with the English translations of Indian Literature texts in List II (UGC NET Dec 2012)

Codes:

6. In which of his essays does Homi Bhabha discuss the ‘discovery’ of English in colonial India? (UGC NET Dec 2012)
(1) “Signs Taken for Wonders”
(2) “Mimicry”
(3) Nation and Narration
(4) “The Commitment to Theory”

7. From the following list, pick out a woman character who does not belong to Amitav Ghosh’s novels: (UGC NET Dec 2012)
(1) Ila
(2) Urvashi
(3) Sonali
(4) Piyali

8. Which is the correct sequence of the novels of V.S. Naipaul? (UGC NET Dec 2012)
(1) The Mystic Masseur – Miguel Street – The Suffrage of Elvira – A House for Mr. Biswas
(2) Miguel Street – The Mystic Masseur – A House for Mr. Biswas – The Suffrage of Elvira
(3) The Suffrage of Elvira – Miguel Street – The Mystic Masseur – A House for Mr. Biswas
(4) The Mystic Masseur – The Suffrage of Elvira – Miguel Street – A House for Mr. Biswas

9. In his poem “A Morning Walk” Nissim Ezekiel talks about a ‘Barbaric City sick with slums…’. Identify the city: (UGC NET Dec 2012)
(1) Calcutta
(2) Banaras
(3) Bombay
(4) Agra

10. Pick the odd man out of the following members of the subaltern group: (UGC NET Dec 2012)
(1) Ranajit Guha
(2) Partha Chatterjee
(3) Dipesh Chakrabarty
(4) Sumit Sarkar

11. Which of the following book by V. S. Naipaul is subtitled The Caribbean Revisited? (UGC NET Dec 2012)
(1) In a Free State
(2) A Bend in the River
(3) The Middle Passage
(4) An Area of Darkness

12. Who among the following writers asserted ‘Commonwealth Literature’ does not exist? (UGC NET Dec 2012)
(1) Amitav Ghosh
(2) Salman Rushdie
(3) V.S. Naipaul
(4) Nirad Chaudhari

13. Salman Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands is (UGC NET June 2012)
(1) a discussion of imperialist assumptions.
(2) an essay that propounds an anti essentialist view of place.
(3) an existential lament on triumphant colonialism.
(4) an orientalist description of his favourite homelands.

14. Identify the correctly matched pair: (UGC NET June 2012)
(1) Amitav Ghosh – All About H. Hatterr
(2) Anita Desai – Inheritance of Loss
(3) Shashi Deshpande – A Bend in the Ganges
(4) Salman Rushdie – The Enchantress of Florence

15. Of the following characters, which one does not belong to A House for Mr. Biswas? (UGC NET June 2012)
(1) Raghu
(2) Ralph Singh
(3) Dehuti
(4) Tara

16. Which of the following poets wrote the essay “Naipaul’s India and Mine”? (UGC NET June 2012)
(1) Kamala Das
(2) R. Parthasarathy
(3) A. K. Ramanujan
(4) Nissim Ezekiel

17. Which of the following novels is NOT a Partition novel? (UGC NET June 2012)
(1) Azadi
(2) Tamas
(3) Clear Light of the Day
(4) That Long Silence

18. Identify the correctly matched pair of translators and translations. (UGC NET June 2012)

Codes:

19. What is the correct combination of the following? (UGC NET June 2012)

(1) I-c; II-d; III-b; IV-a
(2) I-d; II-a; III-b; IV-c
(3) I-c; II-a; III-d; IV-b
(4) I-d; II-c; III-a; IV-b

20. Select from among the following plays, the one that best suits the description below: (UGC NET Dec 2013)

I. Alyque Padamsee invited its author to write it.
II. The play had communalism as its theme.
III. This play was banned from the Deccan Herald Theatre Festival.
IV. The play was produced by Playpen in Bangalore in July 1993.

(1) Dance like a Man
(2) Where There’s a Will
(3) Final Solutions
(4) The Wisest Fool on Earth

21. During the colonial era, the British used to call the Indian languages vernaculars. We do not use this word for our bhashas because (UGC NET Dec 2013)

I. we consider English to be equally vernacular.
II. verna is, literally a home-born slave.
III. Not all Indian languages are Indo-European.
IV. the natives of India were never slaves.

(1) IV
(2) II and IV
(3) III
(4) I and III