Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon – December 4

The Battle of Palkhed was fought on February 28, 1728 at the village of Palkhed, near the city of Nashik, Maharashtra, India between the Maratha Peshwa, BajiRao I and the Nizam-ul-Mulk of Hyderabad. The Marathas defeated the Nizam.

The battle of Ambur (3 August 1749) was the first battle of the Second Carnatic War, and saw Anwar-ud-Din, the incumbent Nawab of the Carnatic, defeated and killed by an allied army formed by the new Nizam of Hyderabad, the French, and a claimant to the Nawabship of the Carnatic.

The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757

Battle of Wandiwash, (Jan. 22, 1760), in the history of India, a confrontation between the French, under the comte de Lally, and the British, under Sir Eyre Coote. It was the decisive battle in the Anglo-French struggle in southern India during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63).

• The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, 1856, also Act XV, 1856, enacted on 25 July 1856, legalized the remarriage of Hindu widows in all jurisdictions of India under East India Company rule was drafted by Lord Dalhousie.
• The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company between 1845 and 1846 under Lord Hardings I (1844–48)
• The Second Anglo-Sikh War was a military conflict between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company that took place in 1848 and 1849 under Lord Dalhousie
• Lord Mayo Organised the Statistical Survey of India
• Annexation of Coorg took place in 1834 by Lord W. Bentick (1833–35)

• MacDonnell Commission was appointed by Lord Curzon in 1901 and it submitted its report in the same year.
• Lord Curzon set up a Police Commission under Sir Andrew Frazer in 1902-03. On the basis of recommendation of this commission, a basic structure of Indian domestic intelligence developed and remained almost same till 1947.
• The Indian Universities and the colleges were slowly becoming cradle of propaganda against the Government. To bring the universities under control, Lord Curzon appointed Raleigh Commission under Sir Thomas Raleigh. The Raleigh Commission had only one Indian member, SyedHussainBelgrami.
• Education Commission was appointed by Lord Rippon in 1882 under the chairmanship of Sir William Hunter to review the progress of education in India, since Wood’s dispatch of 1854.

Theosophists advocated the revival and strengthening of the ancient religions like Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. They recognized the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul. They also preached the universal brotherhood of man. As religious revivalists, the Theosophists were not very successful. But they made a peculiar contribution to developments in Modern India.

It was a movement led by westerners who glorified Indian religious and philosophical traditions. This helped Indians recover their self-confidence, even though it tended to give them a sense of false pride in their past greatness.

Arundel committee was appointed in 1906  to suggest political reform. The important recommendations of the committee were as follows:

1.)Special Budget committee to consider the budget proposal before it is laid before the government

2.)Enlargement of viceroy’s legislative council and election of members

Important note:

Harcourt butler committee was appointed to investigate the relation between princely state and British empire.

Stratchey commission was appointed to find cause of 1880 famine and recommend suitable measures to tackle it

Advaita:

• This is the oldest and most widely acknowledged Vedantic school. Advaita means “non-duality.”
• Its first great consolidator was AdiShankaracharya
• According to Advaita, Brahman is the only reality, and there exists nothing whatsoever which is not Brahman. The appearance of dualities and differences in this world is a superimposition on Brahman, called Maya. Maya is neither existent nor non-existent, but appears to exist temporarily.
• When a person tries to know Brahman through his mind, due to the influence of Maya, Brahman appears as God (Ishvara), separate from the world and from the individual. In reality, there is no difference between the individual soul (Jivatma) and Brahman (Paramatma).
• The spiritual practices such as: devotion to God, meditation & self-less action etc. purifies the mind and indirectly helps in perceiving the real.
• The only direct cause of liberation is self-knowledge which directly removes the ignorance. After realization, one sees one’s own self and the Universe as the same

One of the most important and prominent rebellion which took place after 1857 was the Munda Rebellion. The Mundas traditionally enjoyed certain rights as the original clearer of the forest which was not given to the other tribes. But this land system was getting destroyed in the hands of the merchants and moneylenders long before the coming of the British. But when the British actually came into these areas they helped to destroy this system with a rapid pace when they introduced contractors and traders. These contractors needed people to work with them as indentured laborers.  This dislocation of the Mundas at the hands of the British and their contractors gave birth to the Munda Rebellion.

The most prominent leader of this rebellion was BirsaMunda who was more aware than the others as he had received some education from the Missionaries. He encouraged the Mundas to fight against the superstitions, renounce animal sacrifices, stop taking the intoxicants, wear the sacred thread, and to continue the traditional tribal worship in the sacred grove. The Munda rebellion was essentially a revivalis movement that aimed to eliminate all the foreign elements from the Munda society in order to make it retain its original pure character.

The political and agrarian elements were then induced into the religious movement. Since 1858, Christian tribal peasants began to lead an offensive against the alien landlords and the bethbegari system through lawsuits. This movement was popularly known as Mulkailadai or Sardariladai.