Recently, a series of uprisings of people referred to as ‘Arab Spring’ originally started from

The answer is D) Tunisia. The Arab Spring began in December 2010, when Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, set himself on fire to protest harassment and humiliation by officials. Mass protests followed, and President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country in January 2011. This was the first regime to fall in the wave.

Why the others are wrong:

• Egypt (A): Protests in Tahrir Square began in January 2011, after Tunisia had already removed Ben Ali. Hosni Mubarak resigned in February 2011. Egypt was a follower, not the starting point.
• Lebanon (B): Lebanon had its own protest movements, such as the Cedar Revolution of 2005 and the 2019 anti-corruption protests. Neither was the origin of the Arab Spring.
• Syria (C): The uprising started in March 2011, after Tunisia and Egypt. It later became a civil war.

Core concept: the Arab Spring as a regional diffusion of protest, driven by youth unemployment, authoritarianism and social media. For Mains GS-2 (International Relations), Tunisia is also the one case where a democratic transition largely held, which is why it is often studied as a model. Its 2014 constitution and the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet are useful examples.

Trap: Aspirants pick Egypt because Tahrir Square dominated global media coverage. Ask which country moved first in the sequence, not which protest was the most visible.