Indian History & National Movement - GS questions based on daily current affairs

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
The Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications has commemorated great deeds and achievements of following eight personalities of Bihar by releasing stamps on them:

• Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha
• Karpoori Thakur
• Dashrath Manjhi
• Vidyapati
• Kailashpati Mishra
• Kunwar Singh
• Phanishwar Nath Renu
• Sri Krishna Sinha

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:
Gaya Prasad Katiyar was one of the most dedicated soldiers of India’s freedom struggle. Gaya Prasad Katiyar was born at Jagadishpur (UP).

He joined Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in 1925 and got connected with Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh.

Later he participated on Lahore Conspiracy Case and was arrested from Saharanpur in 1929.

He joined the hunger strike at Lahore Jail with his co prisoners.

Later he was transported to Cellular jail in Andaman and again he participated on hunger strike there.

He was repatriated in 1937 but again arrested and transported to cellular jail from where he was released in 1946.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• The Defence Accounts Department traces back its history to 1747 where the first Pay Master was appointed for paying the Garrison at Fort Williams, Kolkata.
• The Department was re-designated as Defence Accounts Department from Military Accounts Department in 1951.
• It is one of the oldest departments of India.

ANSWER: Opening ceremony of the Banaras Hindu University

Explanation:

• Gandhi's first public address in India was on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the Banaras Hindu University in February 1916, which was distinguished by the presence of many magnets and princes and of the Viceroy himself.
• Speaking in English he shocked them all.
• He also passed critical comments on the Princes, as a result many princes walked out.

ANSWER: Sabarmati Ashram

Explanation:

• At the end of his wanderings, Gandhi settled down on the bank of the river Sabarmati, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, where he founded an ashram in May 1915.
• He called it the Satyagraha Ashram.
• This was later known as Sabarmati Ashram.

ANSWER: 1901

Explanation:

• The annual meeting of the Indian National Congress was being held in Calcutta under the president ship of Dinshaw Wacha.
• Gandhi attended the session. It was his first contact with the Congress.
• At the Calcutta session in 1901 Gandhi had an opportunity to meet Congress Leaders like Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, Lokmanya B. G. Tilak, G. k. Gokhale, and others.
• He returned to South Africa in 1902.

ANSWER: Both 1 and 2

Explanation:

• Lok Sabha MP has to choose a Gram Panchayat from within his/her constituency and Rajya Sabha MP a Gram Panchayat from the rural area of a district of his/her choice in the State from which he/she is elected.
• Nominated MPs may choose a Gram Panchayat from the rural area of any district in the country.
• In the case of urban constituencies, (where there are no Gram Panchayats), the MP will identify a Gram Panchayat from a nearby rural constituency.
• The Gram Panchayats once selected by members of Parliament (whose tenures have ended on account of resignation or otherwise) would be continued as such under SAGY irrespective of whether activities have already been initiated in the GP under SAGY or not.
• The newly elected MPs will have the option to select the GP of their choice and two more subsequently by 2019.

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:

• Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay’s (Panditji) theories were put in practice by two of his colleagues. Panditji’s vision was guiding beacon for them
• Dattopant Thengadi founded the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which went on to become the biggest trade union in the country.
• He also launched the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and famously turned down a Padma Bhushan from the Vajpayee government because he disapproved of its policies.
• Nanaji Deshmukh set up the Deen Dayal Research Institute, which created a model of rural development based on self-reliance.
• The fact that it boosted economic prosperity in the several hundred villages in Chitrakoot where it was applied attracts a great deal of attention from development agencies worldwide and drew fulsome praise from former President APJ Abdul Kalam.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay certainly favoured economic freedom and opportunities for entrepreneurship, and criticized the government of the day for stifling avenues of investment.
• He emphasized decentralization of the economy, so as to empower local communities to make economic and developmental choices.
• He did not favour big business; he preferred the Gandhian ideal of large production from small units, “manufacture by the masses for the masses”.
• In agriculture, he favoured land ownership and strongly opposed Soviet-style cooperatives.
• He was no admirer of the planning process and strongly critiqued all the Five-Year Plans for failing to focus on employment, infrastructure, agricultural production, education and public health.

ANSWER: Advaita

Explanation:

• Upadhyaya claimed that Integral Humanism followed the tradition of Advaita developed by Adi Sankara.
• Non-dualism represented the unifying principle of every object in the universe, and of which humankind was a part.
• This, claimed Upadhyaya, was the essence and contribution of Indian culture.
• The philosophy of Integral Humanism advocates the simultaneous and integrated program of the body, mind and intellect and soul of each human being.
• His philosophy of Integral Humanism, which is a synthesis of the material and the spiritual, the individual and the collective, bears eloquent testimony to this.