Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon – April 6, 2020

He who does what is beneficial to the people of this country, be he a Muhammedan or an Englishman, is not alien. ‘Alienness’ has to do with interests. Alienness is certainly not concerned with white or black skin or religion- Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

The ‘Pakistan Resolution’ was passed at the Lahore session of the Muslim League calling for “grouping of all geographically contiguous Muslim majority areas (mainly north-western and eastern India) into independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign, and adequate safeguards to Muslims in other areas where they are in a minority”.

• The Pitt’s India Act gave the British government a large measure of control over the Company’s affairs. In fact, the Company became a subordinate department of the State. The Company’s territories in India were termed ‘British possessions’.
• The government’s control over the Company’s affairs was greatly extended. A Board of Control consisting of the chancellor of exchequer, a secretary of state and four members of the Privy Council (to be appointed by the Crown) were to exercise control over the Company’s civil, military and revenue affairs. All dispatches were to be approved by the board. Thus a dual system of control was set up.
• In India, the governor-general was to have a council of three (including the commander-in-chief), and the presidencies of Bombay and Madras were made subordinate to the governor-general.
• A general prohibition was placed on aggressive wars and treaties (breached often).

Sikh style of architecture developed in the region of modern day Punjab. It was heavily influenced by the Mughal style of architecture. Some of the features of the Sikh school are:

• The use of multiple Chhatris or kiosks on the top of the construction.
• Use of shallow cornices. The buildings had fluted domes, which were generally covered by brass and copper guilds for decoration and support.
• The arches were decorated by the use of numerous foliations.
• Example: Shri Harmandir Sahib or Golden temple. It was initiated in 1585 and completed by Arjan Dev in 1604.

Early Buddhist art in India expanded exponentially when, in 1994, archaeologists unearthed a spectacular ancient stupa outside the hamlet of Kanaganahalli in modern Karnataka State, in India’s southwest. As if by magic, a lost Buddhist monastic center from the early first millennium emerged from a shapeless mound. By virtue of its remarkable stone sculpture and hundreds of ancient stone inscriptions, Kanaganahalli instantly took its place among the most celebrated early Buddhist sites in India. One location mentioned in the inscriptions even turns up in Ptolemy’s Geographia of the 2nd century CE, a reminder of how small the world was becoming even at the beginning of the first millennium.