10 PM Current Affairs Quiz #1 July 1, 2019

Pottery, because of its indestructible quality, is a reliable identifying mark of a culture and an important means of archaeological classification. Different cultures are identified by their characteristic pottery. We have the Ochre-Coloured Pottery Ware (OCP) which is dated earlier than 1000 B.C., the Painted Grey Ware (PGW) which roughly dated between 800-400 B.C., the Black and Red Ware (BRW) which lies in between the two and the Northern Black Polished (NBP) Ware which is dated between 500-100 B.C. The first three pottery types are basically encountered in the Indo-Gangetic divide and the upper Ganga valley, including the Doab. The Northern Black Polished Ware (NBP) has its centre of origin in the middle Gangetic plain and spread out into Central India and the Deccan during the Mauryan period.

The settlement of Kalibangan is located in Rajasthan along the dried up bed of the river Ghaggar. As pointed out.earlier this area had the largest concentration of the Harappan settlements. Kalibangan was excavated in the 1960s under the guidance of B.K. Thapar. This place has yielded evidence for the existence of Pre-Harappan and Harappan habitations. It shows significant variation from Harappan in the sphere of religious beliefs. Some scholars have suggested that Kalibangan might have been part of the ‘Eastern Domain’ of the Harappan Civilization. In the areas of present day Haryana, East Punjab and Western U.P. Harappan sites like Bara, Siswal and Alamgirpur have been distovered. They give evidence of the presence of distinct local traditions in pottery along with the Harappan pottery. Kalibangan might have been a mediator between the Harappan cultural zone and the eastern provinces.

Scholars have given different answers to the question as to why did the civilization end? Some scholars, believing in a dramatic collapse of the civilization, have looked for evidences of a calamity of catastrophic proportions, which wiped out the urban communities. Some of the more plausible theories for the decline of the Harappan civilization are:

1. a) That it was destroyed by massive floods
2. b) That the decline took place because of the shift in the course of rivers and the gradual drying up of the Ghgggar-Hakra river system
3. c) That barbarian invaders destroyed the cities
4. d) That the growing demands of the centres disturbed the ecology of the region and the area could not support them anymore.

The Aitchison Committee on Public Services (1886), set up by Dufferin, recommended—

• dropping of the terms ‘covenanted’ and ‘un-covenanted’;
• classification of the civil service into Imperial Indian Civil Service (examination in England), Provincial Civil Service (examination in India) and Subordinate Civil Service (examination in India); and,
• raising the age limit to 23

In March 1931, a special session of the Congress was held at Karachi to endorse the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. Six days before the session (which was held on March 29) Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were executed. Throughout Gandhi’s route to Karachi, he was greeted with black flag demonstrations by the Punjab Naujawan Bharat Sabha, in protest against his failure to secure commutation of the death sentence for Bhagat and his comrades. While disapproving of and dissociating itself from political violence, the Congress admired the ‘bravery’ and ‘sacrifice’ of the three martyrs.

• The Delhi Pact or Gandhi-Irwin Pact was endorsed.
• The goal of purna swaraj was reiterated.
• Two resolutions were adopted-one on Fundamental Rights and the other on National Economic Programme- which made the session particularly memorable.