Shyamji Krishna Varma

Indian revolutionary leader Shyamji Krishna Varma was born on 4th October, 1857 in Mandvi town of Kachchh district of Gujarat. He is known for founding the Indian Home Rule Society, India House and The Indian Sociologist in London.

Shyamji Krishna Varma was impressed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj .  He was an admirer of Herbert Spencer, a Victorian sociologist who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest". 

He worked as an assistant to Monier Williams, a professor of Sanskrit in the Oxford University.

In 1883 Shyamji Krishna Varma graduated from Balliol College in Oxford and was called to the Bar in 1884. In 1881, he attended the Berlin Congress of Orientalists.

In 1905, Krishnavarma founded the Indian Home Rule Society and India House.  India House became a meeting-place for Indian revolutionaries in London.

Krishna Varma shifted his base to Paris in 1907 to avoid arrest by the British Government due to the political activities of India House. He was also disbarred from practising law by the Inner Temple. He published the journal The Indian Sociologist where he wrote against the colonial government. He died in Geneva in 1930. 

History MCQs – Set 11 - Modern India

Q.1. The revolutionaries who were arrested in the Central Assembly Bombing Case were?

A. Bhagat Singh & Chandrashekar Azad

B. Bhagat Singh & Batukeshwar Dutt

C. Bhagat Singh & Sachindranath Sanyal

D. Jatindra Nath Das & Bhagat Singh

Q.2. Rani Gaidinliu was the fearless freedom fighter from:

A. Manipur 

B. Tripura

C. Mizoram

D. Nagaland 

Q.3. The treaty of Srirangapatnam was signed between Tipu Sultan and

A. Robert Clive

B. Cornwallis

C. Dalhousie

D. Warren Hastings

Q.4. Who among the following was the first English President of the Indian National Congress?

A. George Yule

B. Alfred Webb

C. Henry John Stedman Cotton

D. William Wedderburn

Q.5. Both the processes of transfer of power and the partition of India were hurried through in ____ days?

A. 72

B. 94

C. 86

D. 92

Q.6. Albuquerque captured Goa from the ruler of

A. Golconda

B. Vijaynagar

C. Ahmednagar

D. Bijapur 

Q.7. The two Home Rule Leagues in India were led by:

A. Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant.

B. Annie Besant and G.K. Gokhale

C. Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Pheroze Shah

D. Annie Besant and K.T. Telang.

Q.8. The East India Company received the zamindari of the 24 parganas from:

A. Siraj-ud-Daulah 

B. Mir Jafar

C. Mir Qasim

D. Chanda Sahib 

Q.9. The founders of Theosophical Society, Colonel Olcott and Madame H.P. Blavatsky set up their first office in India in:

A. Thiruvananthapurami

B. Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu

C. Cochin, Kerala

D. Adyar, Madras

Q.10. When the Simon Commission visited India, the Viceroy of India was ___.

A. Lord Irwin 

B. Lord Willingdon

C. Lord Linlithgow

D. Lord Reading

Answers

1-B

Notes: Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt had hurled bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi on April 8, 1929. 

Batukeshwar Dutt and Bhagat Singh were members of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.

Among those present in the Central Legislative Assembly when the bombing took place were Motilal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Madan Mohan Malaviya,  Sir John Allsebrook Simon (of the Simon Commission).

2-A

Notes: Rani Gaidinliu was a Naga woman revolutionary leader and successor to the political movement launched by the Naga leader Haipou Jadonang (1905-31) to derive away the British from Manipur. She was born in 1915. 

After the execution of Jadonang in 1931 by the British, Rani Gaidinliu led a popular rebellion against the British rule at the young age of sixteen.

Rani Gaidinliu was described by Jawaharlal Nehru as the Rani of the Nagas.

3-B

Notes: The Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790-92) came to an end by the Treaty of Seringapatam (also called Srirangapatinam or Srirangapatna), signed 18 March 1792. Its signatories included Lord Cornwallis on behalf of the British East India Company, representatives of the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maratha Empire, and Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore.

Under the terms of the treaty Tipu Sultan had to surrender of nearly half of Mysorean territory to the victorious allies. 

4-A

Notes: George Yule served as the fourth President of the Indian National Congress in 1888 at Allahabad.

5-A

Notes: On February 20, 1947 British Prime Minister Clement Attlee declared the British would quit India before 30th June 1948. The processes of transfer of power and the partition of India were hurried by 72 days. India was partitioned on the basis of the "Indian Independence Act". The Indian Independence bill was introduced on 4th July, 1947. It received Royal assent on 18th July, 1947 and came into force on 15th August, 1947.

Clement Attlee of Labour Party was the British Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951.

6-D

Notes: Yusuf Adil Khan of Adil Shahi Dynasty of Bijapur  was succeeded by his 13-year old son Ismail Adil Khan. As soon as he took the reigns of the kingdom, he has to cede Goa in 1510 to the Portuguese under their governor Afonso de Albuquerque.

7-A

Notes: Home Rule League was led by Indian nationalist Bal Gangadhar Tilak and British social reformer and Indian independence leader Annie Besant. 

8-B

Notes: The name 24 Parganas is derived from the number of parganas or divisions contained in the Zamindari of Calcutta which was ceded to the East India Company by Mir Jafar in 1757.

9-D

Notes: Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 in New York in the USA by Madame H. P. Blavatsky and Colonel H. S. Olcott. They came to India in January 1879 and set up the headquarters of the society at Adyar, presently a suburb of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. 

10-A

Notes: Simon Commission , also known as the Indian Statutory Commission, came to India in 1928.

Vijnaneshwara : Medieval Indian Jurist

Smṛrti is a class of literature comprising law books. Many medieval Indian jurists wrote lengthy commentaries on the Smriti literature. Of these the most important was Vijnaneshwara who wrote at the court of great Western Chalukya emperor Vikramaditya VI (r. 1076 – 1126 CE). Western Chalukyas are also known as the Chalukyas of Kalyani.  

Vijnaneshwara's treatise, Mitakshara played a very important part in forming the civil law of modern India. Mitakshara is a commentary on the law book of Yājñavalkya,

Nuakhai Juhar Festival

 Nuakhai Juhar Festival is an agricultural festival chiefly celebrated in Western Odisha. 

Celebrated primarily by tribal people, this festival falls on the day right after Ganesh Chaturthi.
Nuakhai Juhar is a celebration of the harvest, which is being celebrated on September 20 this year. 

The word ‘Nuakhai’ is translated into ‘Nua’ (i.e., new) and ‘Khai’ (i.e., eating).

Nuakhai Juhar is the most prominent harvest festival celebrated in Odisha. It is a festival of worship of food grain. As per the ritual, Nabanna or the newly harvested rice has been offered to the presiding deity of the presiding deity of western Odisha, the Goddess Samaleswari..

Though celebrated throughout Odisha, the districts of Kalahandi, Sambalpur, Balangir, Bargarh, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sonepur, Boudh, and Nuapada are the places where people celebrate Nuakhai on grand scale. 

Karnataka's Hoysala Temples Now India's 42nd UNESCO's World Heritage site

'Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysala', the three Hoysala temples in Karnataka, have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

These temples are the Chennakeshava temple at Belur, Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebidu and The Keshava temple at Somnathapura. While the first two are in Hassan district, the third is in Mysuru district. 

All the three temples are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Nominations were entered as ‘’The Sacred Ensembles of Hoysalas’’.

While the Chennakeshava temple and Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebidu were on the UNESCO’s tentative list since 2014, the Keshava temple at Somanathapur was appended to the other two monuments under the tentative list and all the three were officially nominated by the Centre as India’s entry for 2022-23 in February in 2022.

An expert from International Commission on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) concluded the site visits covering all the three temples in September 2022 and the monuments were officially inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites during the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee, which is being held in Saudi Arabia.

Chennakesava Temple, Belur

Chennakesava Temple at Belur / Image Source

Commissioned by Hoysala ruler Vishnuvardhana in 1117 AD, the Chennakesava temple took 103 years to complete. This Vishnu temple has three entrances and is intricately carved with sculptures and pillars.

An absolute must see destination in any cultural tour of India, Belur, located on the banks of the river Yagachi in Hassan district, was the capital of the powerful south Indian dynasty of the Hoysalas. Belur is home to the awe-inspiring Chennakesava Temple, a fine specimen of Hoysala architecture. 

Hoysaleswara temple, Halebidu 

The-Hoysaleswara-Temple-in-Halebidu

17 km away from Belur is the 12th century Hoysaleswara temple at Halebidu.  Hoysaleswara temple is a cultural extravaganza. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, the temple was also built during the reign of King Vishnuvardhana. Its construction started around 1121 CE and was complete in 1160 CE.

Previously known as Dorasamudra or Dwarasamudra, Halebid was the Hoysala capital before Belur. 

Chennakesava Temple, Somanathapura

Keshav-Temple-in-Somanathpur

The Chennakesava Temple, also referred to as Chennakeshava Temple and Keshava Temple, is a Vaishnava Hindu temple on the banks of River Kaveri at Somanathapura in the Mysuru district of Karnataka. 

The temple was consecrated in 1258 CE by Somanatha Dandanayaka, a general of the Hoysala King Narasimha III. 

Santiniketan in the Indian state of West Bengal  was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as the 41st site. 

West Bengal’s Santiniketan Inscribed On UNESCO World Heritage List

Credit: Twitter/UNESCO

Santiniketan in the Indian state of West Bengal  has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. UNESCO is an acronym for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that works for world peace through global cooperation in the fields of education, culture and the sciences. 

India has been striving for long to get a UNESCO tag for this cultural site located in the Birbhum district of West Bengal. 

It was at Santiniketan where poet Rabindranath Tagore built Visva-Bharati over a century ago. 

About Visva-Bharati University

Visva-Bharati is an university located in Shantiniketan in  West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it Visva-Bharati, which means the communion of the world with India. 

Until independence it was a college. Soon after independence, the institution was given the status of a central university in 1951 by an act of the Parliament. 

When founded in 1921, it was named after Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore until Visva-Bharati Society was registered as an organization in May 1922.

Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European to win the Nobel literature prize, was proponent of open-air education and introduced that system at the university, which is still continuing.

Kalibangan : World’s first furrowed field

"Well-regulated streets (were) oriented almost invariably along with the cardinal directions, thus forming a grid-iron pattern. (At Kalibangan) even the widths of these streets were in a set ratio, i.e. if the narrowest lane was one unit in width, the other streets were twice, thrice and so on...Such a town-planning was unknown in contemporary West Asia." - B.B. Lal

The Indus Valley Civilization  site of Kalibangan is situated on the southern bank of the Ghaggar (Sarswati) river in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan. Here we find evidence of the world’s first furrowed field. Traces of pre-Harappan culture have also been found.  The excavations at Kalibangan were conducted by BB Lal and BK Thapar from 1961-69.  

Fire worship was prevalent in Kalibangan where rows of distinctive fire alters with the provision of ritual bathing have been found. 

Like other Indus Valley towns Kalibangan was divided into two parts, fortified town and a lower town. The lower town at Kalibagnan was also fortified. 

Desiccation of Ghaggar

The decline of Kalibangan is attributed to the drying of the river Ghaggar (Sarsvati). The inhabitatnts of Kalibangan seem to have deserted the settlement around 1700 B.C. Unlike the other major Indus Valley Civilization cities located on the Indus river, Kalibangan was located on a different river.