Category: History

Parrot Lady of Khajuraho

Why in News?

  • About 26 repatriated Indian antiquities will be exhibited and displayed in the national capital in order to spread awareness on the prevention of illicit trafficking of antiquities.
  • Among the antiquities displayed, the “Parrot Lady of Khajuraho” sculpture was a major attraction.

Parrot Lady of Khajuraho:

  • The “Parrot Lady of Khajuraho” is a 900-year-old sandstone sculpture.
  • This is a three-foot-long sculpture that is exquisitely carved and depicts a lady with a parrot near her right ear which symbolises love.
  • A few historians believe that the “Parrot Lady” may have been the queen of Khajuraho portrayed as the majestic ‘Abhisarika’ or cupid-struck lady, always engaged in conversation with her pet parrot.
  • The sculpture was smuggled from Delhi to Canada (Toronto) and was brought back to India from Canada in 2015 in accordance with the 1970 UNESCO Convention.
  • The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is the nodal agency for dealing with antiquities and about 244 stolen or missing artefacts have been repatriated to India to date.

BATTLE OF GALLIPOLI

Why in News?

  • Recently Turkey’s President has compared the struggle of Kashmiris with that of Turkey during World War I. India has strongly objected to the comparison of the Kashmir situation to the Battle of Çanakkale/Gallipoli of World War I (1914–18).
  • It has to be noted that in September, 2019 Turkey had already raised the Kashmir issue in the United Nations General Assembly.

Background Info:

World War I:

  • World War I was fought between the Allied Powers and the Central Powers during 1914 – 1918.
    • Allied Powers: The main members were France, Russia, and Britain. The United States joined the Allies after 1917.
    • Central Powers: The main members were Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

About Gallipoli Campaign (1915-16):

  • The Battle of Gallipoli or the Dardanelles Campaign was an unsuccessful attempt by the Allied Powers to control the sea route from Europe to Russia during the World War I.
  • The campaign began with a failed naval attack by British and French ships on the Dardanelles Straits (connecting the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea) involving British and French troops.
  • Failure: Lack of sufficient intelligence and knowledge of the terrain, along with a fierce Turkish resistance (Ottoman army), hampered the success of the invasion.
  • It is considered to be one of the bloodiest battles of World War I leading to the death of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides.

Significance of the Battle:

  • The Battle resulted in the downfall of Winston Churchill and the emergence of the Turkish military hero, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
  • The event is today one of the central pillars of the modern Turkish identity.
  • The campaign is also seen to have seeded Australian and New Zealand National Consciousness.

RAKHIGARHI AND FOUR OTHER SITES TO BE DEVELOPED AS ICONIC SITES

Why in News?

  • Union Budget (2020-21) has proposed to develop Rakhigarhi (Hisar District,Haryana) and 4 other archaeological sites in Hastinapur (Uttar Pradesh), Shivsagar (Assam), Dholavira (Gujarat) and Adichanallur in (Tamil Nadu) as iconic sites with Onsite Museums.

1. About Rakhigarhi:

  • Rakhigarhi is the largest Harappan site in the Indian subcontinent.
  • Other large sites of Harappan civilization on Indian sub-continent are Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Ganveriwala in Pakistan and Dholavira (Gujarat) in India.
  • At Rakhigarhi, the excavations are being done to trace its beginnings and to study its gradual evolution from 6000 BCE (Pre-Harappan phase) to 2500 BCE.
  • The site was excavated by Amarendra Nath of ASI.

Recent Findings:

  • Recently, a study of DNA from skeletal remains excavated from the Harappan cemetery at Rakhigarhi found that the people in the Harappan Civilization have an independent origin.
  • This study negates the theory of the Harappans having Steppe pastoral or ancient Iranian farmer ancestry.

2. About Hastinapur:

  • Hastinapur is a city in the Meerut district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
  • Described in Hindu texts (Mahabharata and Puranas) as the capital of Kuru Kingdom, the city also finds its mention in the ancient Jain texts.

3. About Shivsagar:

  • Sivasagar (“the ocean of Shiva”) is a city in the state of Assam, India.
  • The city gets its name from the big lake, Sivasagar, situated in the heart of the city.
  • The lake was commissioned by the Ahom king Siva Singha.
  • This city is surrounded by the Dehing rainforest, where the Dihing (Brahmaputra) and Lohit rivers meet.

4. About Dholovira

  • Dholavira is located in Rann of Katch of Gujarat.
  • It is the fifth largest of eight major Harappan sites.
  • The site was discovered in 1967-68 by J. P. Joshi, of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

 

 

 

PAIKA REBELLION (1817)

Why in News?

  • On September 27-28, President Ram Nath Kovind will visit Odisha’s Khorda district to lay the foundation of a memorial dedicated to the 1817 Paika Rebellion.
  • Paika memorial is a project planned and proposed by the central government.

Paika Rebellion of Odisha (1817):

  • Paikas had been recruited since the 16th century by kings in Odisha from a variety of social groups to render martial services in return for rent-free land (nish-kar jagirs) and titles.
  • After entering Odisha in 1803, the British introduced new revenue settlements, due to which many Odia proprietors ended up losing their lands to absentee Bengali landlords.
  • Changes in the currency and revenue systems meant the Odias had to pay taxes in silver, which was more expensive for them, and resulted in their further marginalisation and oppression.
  • In 1817, some 400 Kondhs, who belonged to the state of Ghumsur, banded together to revolt against the British.
  • Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Mohapatra Bharamarbar Rai, the highest-ranking military general of King of Khorda Mukund Dev II, led the Paikas to join the uprising.
  • During the course of the rebellion, government buildings in Banapur were set on fire, policemen and British officials were killed, and the treasury was looted.
  • The uprising lasted for a few months but was eventually crushed by the better-equipped and trained forces of the East India Company.
  • Bakshi escaped to the jungles, and ultimately surrendered in 1825 under negotiated terms.

Nationalist Movement or A Peasant Rebellion?

  • The Paika Rebellion is one among the peasant rebellions that took place in India when the British East India Company was expanding its military enterprise.
  • Because these uprisings violently clashed with European colonialists and missionaries on many occasions, their resistance is sometimes seen as the first expression of resistance against colonial rule — and therefore considered to be “nationalist” in nature.

Why Is the Rebellion Being Remembered Now?

  • In April 2017, to mark the 200th anniversary of the Paika Rebellion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi honoured descendants from 16 families that were associated with the uprising.
  • In July 2017, the Odisha government decided to formally ask the Centre to declare the rebellion as the “first war of independence in Indian history”. On this, then Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda had said, “In the real sense, the rebellion of Khorda in 1817 is the first well organised rebellion against the British.”
  • In May 2018, after a review of school textbooks, the NCERT introduced a page on the Paika rebellion in the Class-8 history textbook. In December 2018, Prime Minister Modi released a stamp and a coin to commemorate the rebellion.

DADABHAI NAOROJI’S BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

Context:

  • September 4, 2019 was the 194th birth anniversary of Dadabhai Naoroji, the “Grand Old Man of India”, who was among the first leaders who stirred national consciousness in the country.

About Dadabhai Naoroji:

  • Born in 1825 at Navsari, in present-day Gujarat
  • Apart from having a distinguished political career, Naoroji was also a professor of Gujarati, mathematics, and natural philosophy, and also worked as a businessman.
  • Naoroji’s lasting intellectual contribution was to expound the ‘Drain Theory’.
  • He was closely involved with the Indian National Congress in its early phase, and served as the first Indian member of the British parliament.

Early work in England:

  • Naoroji began rousing public opinion in England on Indian issues in 1855, after he moved from India to Liverpool for business.
  • His first agitation, in 1859, concerned recruitment to the Indian Civil Service (today’s IAS).
  • In 1865 and 1866, Naoroji helped found the London Indian Society and the East India Association
  • The two organisations sought to bring nationalist Indians and sympathetic Britons on one platform.
  • As the secretary of the East India Association, Naoroji travelled in India to gather funds and raise national awareness.

Leader of The Indian National Congress:

  • In 1885, Naoroji became a vice-president of the Bombay Presidency Association, was nominated to the Bombay legislative council by Governor Lord Reay, and helped form the Indian National Congress.
  • He was Congress president thrice, in 1886, 1893, and 1906.
  • At the 1906 Congress session in Calcutta Dadabhai Naoroji declared that the goal of the Congress was to attain Swaraj.
  • The first session of the Congress in 1885 passed a resolution calling for the formation of a standing committee in the British House of Commons for considering protests from legislative bodies in India.
  • Naoroji dedicated his efforts towards this objective when he returned to England in 1886.

Election to The British Parliament:

  • Naoroji first ran for the British Parliament in 1886, but did not get elected.
  • His second bid in 1892 was successful, when he won the Central Finsbury seat on a Liberal Party ticket.
  • In the British Parliament, Naoroji worked to bring Indian issues to the fore. In 1893, he helped form an Indian parliamentary committee to attend to Indian interests. The membership of the committee significantly grew in numbers in the coming years, becoming an important lobbying force.
  • Naoroji was a vocal critic of the colonial economic policy in India. In 1895, he became a member of the royal commission on Indian expenditure.
  • A moderate himself, Naoroji acted as a liaison between nationalist Indians and British parliamentarians.

Drain Theory:

  • Dadabhai Naoroji was among the key proponents of the ‘Drain Theory’, disseminating it in his 1901 book ‘Poverty and Un-British Rule in India’.
  • Naoroji argued that imperial Britain was draining away India’s wealth to itself through exploitative economic policies, including India’s rule by foreigners; the heavy financial burden of the British civil and military apparatus in India; the exploitation of the country due to free trade; non-Indians taking away the money that they earned in India; and the interest that India paid on its public debt held in Britain.

DIXON PLAN OF 1950

Context-

  • The idea of dividing Jammu and Kashmir into two or more parts has a chequered history, tracing its origin to the Dixon Plan of 1950.

Who Was Dixon?

  • Owen Dixon was an Australian jurist chosen by the United Nations to mediate between India and Pakistan on the J&K issue.
  • His report of September 1950, suggested a package that did not find acceptance from India.

Dixon Plan:

  • Plan had assigned La­dakh to India and northern areas and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to Pakistan, besides splitting Jammu between the two. It had proposed a plebiscite in the Kashmir valley.
  • He saw the river Chenab as a natural border.
  • This would have meant that most of the Muslim-dominated areas of what is Indian-administered Kashmir would go to Pakistan, but the Hindu-dominated area would have remained with India.
  • The plan met with opposition from those with pro-independence sentiments, but it had a more serious flaw. The large wave of migration caused by the imposition of such a border would involve the displacement of many thousands of people, which could itself lead to violence.
  • Limited Plebiscite
    • A plebiscite be taken “by sections or areas” and the allocation of each section or area be made according to the result of the vote.
    • Without holding a plebiscite, areas certain to vote for India and those certain to vote for Pakistan “be allotted accordingly and the plebiscite be confined only to the uncertain area”. The “uncertain area” according to Sir. Dixon appeared to be the “Vale of Kashmir and perhaps some adjacent country.”
  • Ambedkar:
    • B.R. Ambedkar, after quitting as Law Minister from the Jawaharlal Nehru Ministry, had suggested the formation of three zones: the area held by Pakistan, the Valley and Jammu Ladakh.
    • He had also favoured a plebiscite only in the Valley.

Another Plan: Dickie Bird Plan, 1947:

  • Mountbatten prepared “Dickie Bird Plan” for India’s independence.
  • The main proposal of this plan was to that provinces should become first independent successor states rather than an Indian Union or the two dominions of India & Pakistan.
  • As per this plan all the provinces viz. Madras, Bombay, United Provinces of Bengal, Punjab & North West Frontier etc. were proposed to be declared Independent.
  • The states later would decide whether to join constituent assembly or not.
  • This plan was not discussed in details with leaders of India and Mountbatten discussed just informally.
  • He gave the plan a final touch and sent to London. Later when he moved to Shimla, Nehru joined him as a guest.
  • Here the details of the plan were put by Mountbatten before Nehru. Nehru rejected the plan right away and told him that this plan would invite Balkanization of India and would provoke conflict and violence.
  • Consequently, Mountbatten cabled to England that this plan was cancelled.

INDUS VALLEY SEALS

Context:

  • A recent study claims that a majority of the Indus Valley inscriptions were written logographically (by using word signs) and not by using phonograms (speech sounds units).

Paper Title:

  • Interrogating Indus inscription to unravel their mechanism of meaning conveyance.

What is Logographic

  • In Logographic system a written character that represents a word or phrase.
  • Logographic systems include the earliest writing systems; the first historical civilizations of the Near East, Africa, China, and Central America used some form of logographic writing.

Findings of Study:

  • The Study points out that the inscriptions can be compared to the structured messages found on stamps, coupons, tokens and currency coins of modern times.
  • The article mainly focusses on understanding how Indus inscriptions conveyed meanings, rather than on deciphering what they conveyed.
  • Analysing the brevity of the inscriptions, the rigid positional preferences maintained by the signs of the inscriptions, and the co-occurrence of restriction patterns demonstrated by certain classes of Indus signs it can be inferred that such patterns can never be phonological co­occurrence restrictions
  • The researcher said that the popular hypothesis that the seals were inscribed with Proto­Dravidian or Proto­Indo­European names of the seal owners does not hold water.

MONUMENTS OF VALOUR & VICTORY HOMAGE TO KARGIL WARRIORS

Why in news?

  • The Union Culture Minister inaugurated an exhibition of ‘Monuments of Valour & Victory Homage to Kargil Warriors’ on the 20th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Divas.
  • The exhibition was organized by National Monuments Authority of Ministry of Culture.

National Monuments Authority (NMA):

  • The NMA has been established under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains AMASR (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010.
  • It is chiefly engaged in the protection and preservation of monuments and sites through management of the prohibited and regulated area around the centrally protected monuments.
  • Another function is to consider grant of permissions to applicants for construction related activity in the prohibited and regulated area.
    The NMA is particularly relevant with increasing urbanisation and development.
  • The NMA is also involved in grading and classifying the monuments.

A FILM ON LIFE AND TIMES OF SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN

Why in News:

  • State broadcaster Prasar Bharati will be co-producing a feature film directed by Shyam Benegal on the life of the founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and also a documentary on Bangladesh Liberation War.

Bilateral meet

  • The decision was taken after a Bangladeshi delegation led by adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and including Bangladesh High Commissioner to India.
  • The announcement comes in the backdrop of raging debate on the National Register of Citizens in the northeast that seeks to disenfranchise Bangladeshi migrants.
  • The announcement is a culmination of a three-year dialogue between the two countries on the issue.

Liberation War

  • Co-production of a documentary on the Bangladesh Liberation War was also discussed It was mutually agreed that the director of the documentary would be from Bangladesh who would be assisted by a co-director from India.
  • A working agreement on cooperation between All India Radio and Bangladesh Betar was also agreed upon.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

  • Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, famously known as Bangabandhu was declared the first president of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, while Vice-president Syed Nazrul Islam became the acting president in the absence of Bangabandhu.

Mujibnagar Day

  • Mujibnagar Day is observed on 17th April because on this day senior leaders of Awami League assembled at Baidyanathtala—a mango orchard that was later named as Mujibnagar—in Meherpur district on April 17, to form the provisional government of independent Bangladesh.
  • On the Occasion Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina paid tributes to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, in Dhanmondi, Dhaka

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