Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (History, Art & Culture)| October 26th 2020

when the Company’s rule was m ore securely established, the view gained ground that the State would benefit more from periodical settlements.
Further, in certain parts of the Company’s territories, viz., the U.P. (now Uttar Pradesh) and the Punjab, there were well organised village communities and, barring a portion of the U.P., there were no local chieftains or large farmers of land in this area.
These areas thus presented a different problem, and settlement was concluded with village communities and the villagers were held jointly and severally responsible for the payment of revenue. This came to be known as the Mahalwari system of land revenue, as the land revenue was assessed on the ‘mahal’.
In some parts of Madras, the land revenue was directly settled with individual ryots in view of, the difficulty of making settlements with the whole villages. This initiated the ryotwari system which was later introduced in Bombay and other neighboring provinces.
Both these systems—mahalwari and ryotwari involved detailed surveys of fields and classification of lands according to soil. The assessments were fixed not in perpetuity but for a definite period.
Source: NCERT

Under Lord Hastings (Governor General from 1813 to 1823) a new policy of “paramountcy” was initiated.
Now the Company claimed that its authority was paramount or supreme, hence its power was greater than that of Indian states.
In order to protect its interests it was justified in annexing or threatening to annex any Indian kingdom.
This view continued to guide later British policies as well.
Source: Spectrum

Charles Metcalfe (Governor General – 1835 – 36) known as the “liberator of the Indian press”.
He repealed the Licensing regulation, 1823.
During his tenure Printing Press grew rapidly.
The new Metcalfe act 1835 required the publisher to follow a registration procedure and give a precise account of premises of publication.
Source: NCERT

itler’s astounding success and the fall of Belgium, Holland and France put England in a conciliatory mood.
As the war in Europe had undertaken a new turn, the dominant Congress leadership was again in a dilemma.
Both Gandhi and Nehru strongly opposed the idea of taking advantage of Britain’s position. The Congress was ready to compromise, asking the
British government to let it form an interim government during the war period but the government was not interested.
The government came up with its own offer to get the cooperation of India in the war effort. Linlithgow announced the August Offer (August 1940) which proposed:
Dominion status as the objective for India;
Expansion of viceroy’s executive council which would have a majority of Indians (who would be drawn from major political parties);
Setting up of a constituent assembly after the war where mainly Indians would decide the constitution according to their social, economic and political conceptions, subject to fulfillment of the obligation of the government regarding defense, minority rights, treaties with States, all India services; and
No future constitution to be adopted without the consent of minorities.
Source: Spectrum

By early 1915, Annie Besant had launched a campaign to demand self-government for India after the war on the lines of white colonies.
She campaigned through her newspapers, New India and Commonweal, and through public meetings and conferences.
At the annual session of the Congress in 1915, the efforts of Tilak and Besant met with some success. It was decided that the Extremists be admitted to the Congress.
Although Besant failed to get the Congress to approve her scheme of Home Rule Leagues, the Congress did commit itself to a programme of educative propaganda and to a revival of local-level Congress committees.
Not willing to wait for too long, Besant laid the condition that if the Congress did not implement its commitments, she would be free to set up her own league—which she finally had to, as there was no response from the Congress.
Tilak and Besant set up their separate leagues to avoid any friction.
There was an informal understanding between both the leagues wherein Tilak’s league worked in Maharashtra (except Bombay), Karnataka, Berar and the Central Provinces. Besant’s league worked in the rest of the country.
Tilak’s league had its headquarters in Delhi. It had 6 branches. Besant’s league had 200 branches and was a looser organisation compared to Tilak’s.
Source: Spectrum

Kathi Samu is an ancient and historical martial art which originated in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Kathi basically means sword and Kathi Samu is a martial art which is fighting with swords.
Kathi Samu is an ancient skill which was mastered by the royal armies of Andhra Pradesh.
The Royal Kings practiced this skill as it was used in wars against their enemies and also it was considered to be a matter of pride to master Kathi Samu.
The soldiers of the army were taught this martial art for the sole purpose of wars against enemies.
According to research, Kathi Samu is said to be in existence for over 7000 years even before Aryan dynasty came into India.
Source: The Hindu

Kurumba art is a unique tribal art form found in the Nilgiris. It was discovered by the C.P.Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation and presented to the world.
Eluthu paarai is an ancient 3000-year-old rock-art site in the Kothagiri region of the Nilgiris.
The Kurumbas – a tribe of hunters and medicine men – believe that the art were the work of their ancestors.
In the late 20th century during the course of a project of the C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation to survey and document the art and craft traditions of four Nilgiri tribes, the existence of an old artist – the only one left in the tribe – was discovered.

• The art are primarily ritualistic, describing various facets of tribal life in the remote forests of the Nilgiris.
• The Kurumbas love the hills and have an exquisite style of art. Originally, they drew with burnt twigs and coloured the art with a resin extracted from the bark of the Kino tree (Pterocarpus marsupium).
• Some of the art still use this method, which is slow and cumbersome, but beautiful. On paper, they have learned to use water and poster colours, which flow easier.
• The figures are flat and similar to Warli, with rectangular bodies. However, in spite of the 2-dimensional nature of the stick figures, the Kurumba artists are able to create lines of simple and fluids movements.
• The Kurumba trainees made large art on handmade paper and board, besides painted cards, notepad covers, etc.
• The choice of themes became more versatile as they gained confidence, and their choice varied from the vegetables and tubers to weddings and functions in their community.
• The depictions were of nature – trees and mountains, driving away bees while gathering honey, weddings and festivals.
• The solemnity of tribal life with prayers to the forefathers and communal participation at every stage of life was also brought out in the art.

Source: Envis

Pattachitra or Patachitra is a general term for traditional, cloth-based scroll painting, based in the eastern Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal.
Pattachitra art form is known for its intricate details as well as mythological narratives and folktales inscribed in it.
The name Pattachitra has evolved from the Sanskrit words patta, meaning canvas, and chitra, meaning picture.
Pattachitra is thus a painting done on canvas, and is manifested by rich colourful application, creative motifs, and designs, and portrayal of simple themes, mostly mythological in depiction.
The traditions of pattachitra paintings are more than thousand years Most of these paintings depict stories of Hindu deities.
A traditional per formative art from eastern India- the patachitra tradition is an integral part of intangible heritage and is an important essence of folk and traditional media.
Source: Nitin Singhania

Gandhiji was requested by Rajkumar Shukla, a local man, to look into the problems of the farmers in context of indigo planters of Champaran in Bihar.
The European planters had been forcing the peasants to grow indigo on 3/20 part of the total land (called tinkathia system).
When towards the end of the nineteenth century German synthetic dyes replaced indigo, the European planters demanded high rents and illegal dues from the peasants in order to maximise their profits before the peasants could shift to other crops.
Besides, the peasants were forced to sell the produce at prices fixed by the Europeans.
When Gandhi, joined now by Rajendra Prasad, Mazharul- Haq, Mahadeo Desai, Narhari Parekh, and J.B. Kripalani, reached Champaran to probe into the matter, the authorities ordered him to leave the area at once.
Gandhi defied the order and preferred to face the punishment. This passive resistance or civil disobedience of an unjust order was a novel method at that time.
Finally, the authorities retreated and permitted Gandhi to make an enquiry.
Source: Spectrum

The Government of Ripon desired the provincial governments to apply in case of local bodies the same principle of financial decentralization which Lord Mayo’s Government had begun towards them. For his contributions, Lord Ripon is called father of local self-government in India.
Source: Spectrum