Static GK
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🔒 Log in to trackClassics & freedom-era works
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| Arthashastra | Kautilya (Chanakya) |
| Gitanjali (Nobel 1913) | Rabindranath Tagore |
| Anandamath (contains Vande Mataram) | Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay |
| Godan, Gaban, Nirmala | Munshi Premchand |
| Hind Swaraj (1909), My Experiments with Truth | M.K. Gandhi |
| The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Poverty and Un-British Rule in India | Dadabhai Naoroji |
| India Wins Freedom | Maulana Abul Kalam Azad |
| Annihilation of Caste | B.R. Ambedkar |
| Unto This Last (Gandhi's Sarvodaya) | John Ruskin |
Modern Indian fiction
| Book | Author | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight's Children | Salman Rushdie | Booker 1981 |
| The God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy | Booker 1997 |
| The Inheritance of Loss | Kiran Desai | Booker 2006 |
| The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga | Booker 2008 |
| Train to Pakistan | Khushwant Singh | Partition novel |
| The Guide, Malgudi Days | R.K. Narayan | Fictional town Malgudi |
| A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth | |
| Tomb of Sand (Ret Samadhi) | Geetanjali Shree (tr. Daisy Rockwell) | International Booker 2022 |
Sports & public-life autobiographies
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| Playing It My Way | Sachin Tendulkar |
| Sunny Days | Sunil Gavaskar |
| Straight from the Heart | Kapil Dev |
| The Race of My Life | Milkha Singh |
| Unbreakable | M.C. Mary Kom |
| Ace Against Odds | Sania Mirza |
| The Test of My Life | Yuvraj Singh |
| Ignited Minds, India 2020 | A.P.J. Abdul Kalam |
Detailed notes
Ancient and classical Indian texts
| Book | Author | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Arthashastra | Kautilya (Chanakya) | Statecraft and economy of the Mauryan age |
| Rajatarangini | Kalhana | Historical chronicle of Kashmir |
| Abhijnana Shakuntalam | Kalidasa | The most famous Sanskrit drama |
| Mudrarakshasa | Vishakhadatta | Story of Chanakya and Chandragupta |
| Indica | Megasthenes | Greek envoy's account of Mauryan India |
| Harshacharita | Banabhatta | Biography of Harshavardhana |
| Panchatantra | Vishnu Sharma | Fable collection |
| Ramcharitmanas | Tulsidas | Awadhi retelling of the Ramayana |
Medieval chronicles and biographies
Baburnama - autobiography of Babur (in Turkish, the first of its kind in Indian history); Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari - Abul Fazl; Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri - Jahangir's own memoir; Padshahnama - Abdul Hamid Lahori (Shah Jahan's reign).
The freedom era and modern India
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| Anandamath (source of Vande Mataram) | Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay |
| Gitanjali (Nobel 1913) | Rabindranath Tagore |
| Hind Swaraj; My Experiments with Truth (autobiography) | M.K. Gandhi |
| Discovery of India; Glimpses of World History | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Poverty and Un-British Rule in India | Dadabhai Naoroji |
| Train to Pakistan | Khushwant Singh |
| Malgudi Days; Swami and Friends | R.K. Narayan |
| A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth |
Autobiographies and memoirs
Wings of Fire - A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela; The Story of My Life - Helen Keller; Autobiography of an Unknown Indian - Nirad C. Chaudhuri; Playing It My Way - Sachin Tendulkar; Straight from the Heart - Kapil Dev; A Shot at History - Abhinav Bindra.
Indian winners of the Booker Prize
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (1981; also the 'Booker of Bookers'); The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (1997); The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (2006); The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga (2008). Kiran Desai is the daughter of Anita Desai, who was shortlisted several times but never won.
World classics in one glance
| Book | Author | Book | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| War and Peace | Tolstoy | Crime and Punishment | Dostoevsky |
| Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen | Hamlet, Macbeth | Shakespeare |
| Iliad, Odyssey | Homer | Don Quixote | Cervantes |
| One Hundred Years of Solitude | Marquez | The Old Man and the Sea | Hemingway |
| Animal Farm, 1984 | Orwell | The Godfather | Puzo |
| The Origin of Species | Darwin | Das Kapital | Karl Marx |
| The Wealth of Nations | Adam Smith | The Republic | Plato |
| Paradise Lost | Milton | The Canterbury Tales | Chaucer |
Quick revision
- Kautilya-Arthashastra, Kalhana-Rajatarangini, Kalidasa-Shakuntalam, Megasthenes-Indica, Banabhatta-Harshacharita, Vishnu Sharma-Panchatantra.
- Baburnama = Babur's own story; Akbarnama = Abul Fazl; Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri = Jahangir.
- Gandhi-Hind Swaraj + My Experiments with Truth; Nehru-Discovery of India; Tagore-Gitanjali (Nobel 1913).
- Bookers: Rushdie 1981, Roy 1997, Kiran Desai 2006, Adiga 2008.
- Wings of Fire-Kalam, Long Walk to Freedom-Mandela, Playing It My Way-Tendulkar.
Types of questions asked
Every way this subtopic shows up in exams — how to recognise it, the formula or logic to use, and a solved example.
Type 1: Ancient/medieval text ↔ authorcommon4 practice Q
'Who wrote Arthashastra/Rajatarangini/Akbarnama', 'Indica is an account of', Sanskrit drama questions.
- Ancient set: Kautilya-Arthashastra, Kalhana-Rajatarangini, Kalidasa-Abhijnana Shakuntalam, Vishakhadatta-Mudrarakshasa, Megasthenes-Indica, Banabhatta-Harshacharita, Vishnu Sharma-Panchatantra.
- Mughal set: Babur-Baburnama (own memoir), Abul Fazl-Akbarnama + Ain-i-Akbari, Jahangir-Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri.
- Distractors usually swap authors within the same period - eliminate by court and century.
Example: Who wrote Rajatarangini, the historical chronicle of Kashmir?
Kalhana (12th century). Arthashastra - Kautilya; Harshacharita - Banabhatta.
Type 2: Freedom-era work ↔ authorvery common3 practice Q
'Discovery of India was written by', 'Hind Swaraj', 'Anandamath', 'Gitanjali', works of Gandhi-Nehru-Tagore-Bankim.
- Gandhi - Hind Swaraj and his autobiography My Experiments with Truth; Nehru - Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History.
- Bankim Chandra - Anandamath (source of Vande Mataram); Tagore - Gitanjali (Nobel 1913).
- Dadabhai Naoroji - Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (drain theory).
Example: Anandamath, the novel that gave the nation Vande Mataram, was written by —
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Discovery of India - Nehru; Hind Swaraj - Gandhi.
Type 3: Autobiography ↔ authorvery common3 practice Q
'Wings of Fire is the autobiography of', 'Long Walk to Freedom', 'My Experiments with Truth', memoir matching.
- Wings of Fire - A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; My Experiments with Truth - M.K. Gandhi; Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela.
- Playing It My Way - Sachin Tendulkar; A Shot at History - Abhinav Bindra; The Story of My Life - Helen Keller.
- Baburnama is the earliest autobiography linked to India - Babur's own, in Turkish.
Example: Long Walk to Freedom is the autobiography of —
Nelson Mandela. Wings of Fire - Kalam; My Experiments with Truth - Gandhi.
Type 4: Booker Prize winners ↔ bookcommon2 practice Q
'Who wrote The White Tiger', 'Midnight's Children', 'The Inheritance of Loss', Booker-linking questions.
- Indian Booker winners: Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (1981), The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (1997), The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (2006), The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga (2008).
- Midnight's Children also won the 'Booker of Bookers'.
- Anita Desai was repeatedly shortlisted but never won - a favourite distractor next to her daughter Kiran.
Example: Who is the author of The White Tiger (Booker Prize 2008)?
Aravind Adiga. The other Indian Booker books: Midnight's Children-Rushdie, God of Small Things-Roy, Inheritance of Loss-Kiran Desai.
Type 5: World classic ↔ authorcommon4 practice Q
'War and Peace', 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', 'Don Quixote', 'The Republic', foreign classics and thinkers.
- Russia: Tolstoy-War and Peace, Dostoevsky-Crime and Punishment.
- Greece/Rome: Homer-Iliad + Odyssey, Plato-The Republic.
- West: Shakespeare-Hamlet/Macbeth, Austen-Pride and Prejudice, Cervantes-Don Quixote, Orwell-Animal Farm + 1984, Marquez-One Hundred Years of Solitude, Darwin-Origin of Species, Marx-Das Kapital, Adam Smith-Wealth of Nations.
Example: One Hundred Years of Solitude, a landmark of magical realism, was written by —
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia). Don Quixote - Cervantes; War and Peace - Tolstoy.
Shortcut tricks
⚡ Booker ladder — "Rushdie 81, Roy 97, Desai 06, Adiga 08"
Four India-connected Booker winners in order: Midnight's Children → God of Small Things → Inheritance of Loss → White Tiger. Geetanjali Shree (2022) won the International Booker (for translated fiction).
Example: Who wrote 'The White Tiger', the 2008 Booker winner?
Aravind Adiga.
⚡ Sports book hooks
Sunny Days = Sunil Gavaskar · Race of My Life = Milkha (the 'Flying Sikh' raced) · Unbreakable = Mary Kom (boxer) · Ace = Sania (tennis ace) · Test of My Life = Yuvraj (cancer battle).
Where students lose marks
Vande Mataram is from Anandamath (Bankim), not from Tagore's works — Tagore wrote Jana Gana Mana.
Unto This Last was written by John Ruskin; Gandhi only paraphrased it into Gujarati as Sarvodaya.
The Discovery of India was written by Nehru in Ahmednagar Fort jail (1942–46).
Practice sets — 20 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Each answer comes with a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 10 questions
Suggested time 3 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.