India Quiz

Run-up to Nihilanth’18: India
Quiz
Rai and Rai

Rules:
● Scoring - Pounce : +20/-10 Bounce : +10/0
● Everything else is BS, let’s start.

Q1.
Mohan Rakesh's Ashad ka ek din, Surendra Varma's Athavan Sarga and Krishna
Kumar's Asti Kashchid Vagarthiyam are plays depicting the less known life of
which litterateur?

Q2.
Raja Maharaj Singh was the first post-independence Governor of Bombay. He has
also played one first-class cricket match, captaining Bombay Governor's XI
against a touring Commonwealth XI, in which he was dismissed by Jim Laker for
the score of 4 runs. What first class record does he thus hold?

Ans. Oldest first class debut and Oldest to play first
class cricket

Q3.
Her first appearance on the silver screen was as part of a bevy of dancers in the
1961 Telugu movie Pandava Vanavasam. She had to wait seven more years for
her next role, but this one catapulted her to fame. Her directorial debut was a TV
serial called Noopur, which was about a Bharatanatyam dancer going to America.
Who?

Q4.
Kulbushan Pandit joined the Bombay police force and became an Inspector at the
Mahim Police Station in the 1940s. Given his irreverence to senior officers, he
knew that he did not stand much of a chance of quickly rising through the ranks.
So he made a drastic career change. By what name do we know him better?

Q5.
He was born in Alwar district of Rajasthan in the year 1501. His father was a
purohit who moved to Rewari in present day Haryana and became a trader. He
rose to become a military chief of Adil Shah Suri. He opportunistically managed to
get control of Delhi following which his coronation took place at Purana Quila on
7th Oct 1556. Who?

Q6.
The bricks used to build this building were brought from Burma. The building had
seven wings, with a central tower. The wings forked out of the tower in straight
lines, much like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. A large bell was kept in the tower
to raise an alarm in any eventuality. What nickname did this building have, which
evoked the deep seas and a sense of exile?

Q7.
This term was coined by Indian sociologist M N Srinivas in a 1955 paper titled The
Social System of a Mysore Village. He used it to refer to the political influence a
patron had over his client. The anthropologist F G Bailey popularized its use to
refer to caste politics, but it has now come to describe the politics of other
community characteristics like religion, language, economic status. What term?

Q8.
He has translated Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Clandestine in Chile into Bengali, is
said to be able to quote from memory 500 songs of Tagore, lives in a two-
bedroom flat in south Kolkata with his librarian wife and daughter, doesn't have a
cellphone, and is addicted to cigarettes. He is usually clad in white dhoti and
kurta. Who?

Q9.
In Madagascar they are called pousse-pousse, they were introduced in Dublin in
1996, and the colourful ones run by Zulus in Durban are very popular with
tourists. In India, there have been attempts to ban them, and specifically the West
Bengal government did ban them in Nov 2006. What?

Q10.
In Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh, the mother of the protagonist Moraes
"Moor" Zogoiby is a famous artist by name of Aurora. On which Hungary-born
painter is this character modeled?

Q11.
He was awarded a Padma Bhushan in 1982; his biography, titled Touch Play was
released in 2006; the younger generation though would know him more for
being the father of a famous person. Who is he?

Q12.
In 1992, nearly 35 years after his death, he was conferred the Bharat Ratna. And,
for the first time, the Government sent the nation’s highest civilian award by
registered post, to his ailing octogenarian nephew in Calcutta. Which Indian
leader?

Q13.
The case Champakkam Dorairajan vs. State of Madras (1951) concerning
admissions of backward classes to educational institutions, led B. R. Ambedkar,
then Law Minister, to pilot the first ever what?

Ans. Amendment to the Indian Constitution

Q14.
This 12th century Indian classic, comprising of couplets arranged in groups of
eight, was first translated into English b y Sir William Jones in 1792. Barbara
Stoler Miller did a critically acclaimed translation under the name Love Song of
the Dark Lord in 1977. Identify the work.

Ans. Gita Govind (by Jayadeva)

Q15.
The title of this 1960 film was inspired by the title of Nobel laureate Mikhail
Sholokhovs epic 4-part novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”. The story was inspired
by the life of Shankar Maharaj, a Gandhian who gave up his job as village school-
teacher to work with a tribe classified as criminal by the British administration.
Identify.

Ans. Jis Desh mein Ganga Behti hai

Q16.
The person now acknowledged as India's first woman historian began work on
her book in the late 1500s in response to a request from her nephew for
information about the lives of his father and grandfather. She modelled her
writing on the rough -and-ready style favoured by her father. Annette Beveridge,
who put together the first English translation of this book (1902), chose to refer to
her as Princess Rosebody. Who?

Ans. Gulbadan Begum (Author of Humayun Nama)

Q17.
When Steven Spielberg’s film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released in 1982 by
Columbia Pictures, many, including Arthur C. Clarke, saw striking similarities in
the movie to X’s unfinished 1967 project called The Alien. X had discussed the
collapse of the project in a 1980 Sight & Sound feature. X believed that
Spielberg's film " would not have been possible without my script of The Alien
being available throughout America in mimeographed copies." Besides E.T.,
many pointed out that another earlier Spielberg film, Close Encounters of the
Third Kind (1977), was also inspired by The Alien. In 2003, Rakesh Roshan
produced Koi... Mil Gaya, another movie based on extra-terrestrial encounters. In
response to allegations of plagiarism of E.T., Roshan said that his movie
paralleled X’s unfinished version more closely than Spielberg’s film. Identify X.

Q18. Sonnet written by Vikram Seth as a tribute to
whom?King of the Columnists and prince of hosts,
Hero of cats (twenty at least) who feed
Under your aegis, trencherman of toasts —
Scotch, naturally, not French — God knows we need
Humour and courage, tolerance and wit
When hope is scarce and murder’s blessed by prayer,
And every bully, oaf and hypocrite
Nurtures his flock on hatred and hot air.
Threats to your life have not made you less bold.
Sexcess can’t spoil you. May you scatter your words
Inimitably on for decades more —
No less amused and generous than your old
Grandmother, standing by the courtyard door
Halting her prayers to feed and chide the birds

Q19.
In the news earlier in the last year
● Vadi majuviraṭṭu (closed space)
● Vēli viraṭṭu (open ground)
● Vaṭam manjuviraṭṭu (tied with a rope)
These are the 3 variants of which controversial practice?

Q20.
Senior Indian Astrophysicist Meghnad Saha was the head of the X Reform Committee under
the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It was Saha's effort, which led
to the formation of the Committee. The task before the Committee was to prepare an
accurate X based on scientific study, which could be adopted uniformly throughout India. It
was a mammoth task. The Committee had to undertake a detailed study of different Xs
prevalent in different parts of the country. There were thirty different Xs. The task was
further complicated by the fact that religion and local sentiments were integral to those Xs.
India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in his preface to the Report of the Committee,
published in 1955, wrote: “They represent past political divisions in the country… Now that
we have attained Independence, it is obviously desirable that there should be a certain
uniformity in the X for our civic, social, and other purposes, and this should be done on a
scientific approach to this problem.” X?

Ans. Calendar/Indian National Calendar/Saka
Calendar

Q21.
X is categorised as a heterodox school of Indian philosophy. It is considered an
example of atheistic schools in the Hindu tradition. X holds direct perception, and
conditional inference as proper sources of knowledge, embraces philosophical
skepticism and rejects Vedas, Vedic ritualism, and supernaturalism. Ajita
Kesakambali is credited as the forerunner of the X, while Brihaspati is usually
referred to as the founder of this philosophy. X?

Ans. Charvaka/Charvaka
hinduism/Lokayata/Brihaspatya

Q22.
Even though X's name is associated with villainy, Hinduism sees a person in
terms of Gunas. It is true that Tamasic characteristics were dominant in X but he
too had Sattvic elements and this was recognized by a community in Kerala.
There is an ancient temple dedicated to him at Pavithreswaramin Kollam District
of Kerala. A throne believed to have been used by X is found in this ancient
temple. No Puja or tantric rituals are performed at the temple. Offerings to the
temple include tender coconut, silk, alcohol, etc. The temple is maintained by the
Kuravar community of the region. X?

Q23.
Allauddin Khan, was a sarod player and multi-instrumentalist, composer and one
of the most renowned music teachers of the 20th century in Indian classical
music. His daughter and disciple X, is perhaps one of the greatest exponents of
the instrument Y, a more bass sounding form of the instrument Z (of which X’s
husband W was a maestro). After X’s divorce with W(who also was a disciple of
Allauddin Khan), she refused to perform publicly and has rarely left her
apartment. ID X(the daughter), Y(the instrument), Z(the instrument), W(the
husband of the daughter)

Ans. X - Annapurna Devi (Roshanara Khan),
Y - Surbhahar, Z - Sitar, W - Pt. Ravi Shankar

Q24.
The picture on the left is that of Rini Simon Khanna and the guy on the right is
Shammi Narang. Both of them used to be news anchors for Doordarshan. Even
though you may not have seen them before on TV, millions of people hear their
voices daily. Where?

Q25.
Once found at regular intervals (every 8 miles) between Calcutta and Benares –
today they are only found in rural West Bengal – with the rest having being mined
for bricks or collapsed into ruin. These 70 feet towers were built by the British for
a particular reason in 1816- 1830. However, the introduction of something into
India from England in 1854 led to these towers being obsolete. What was the use
of these towers?

Ans. Semaphore towers using mirrors and a
telescope to send signals.
With the introduction of the telegraph, this scheme
was abandoned

Q26.
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission publishes an annual calendar. A
certain change, pertaining to this calendar was made in the 2016 edition, which
drew a lot of criticism. The chairman, Vinay Kumar Saxena the clarified that this
change was neither permanent, nor was it happening for the first time. What
change/addition was made to the annual calendar?

Ans. Replacing Gandhi with Modi

Q27.
Hindustan Times was the first to point out that this 2007 novel bore several
resemblances to the 2008 November attacks in Mumbai. The novel spoke of an
attack by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, with 12 ultra-elite commandos. The plot of used a
ship off the coast of Gujarat as well as a Thuraya satellite phone besides
describing the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower as the residence of one of the main
characters in the story. Although the author was disappointed with the
similarities, he readily agrees to being called a conspiracy theorist. Name the
author/story.

Ans. Ashwin Sanghwi/Rosabal Lines

Q28.
By the age of 40 years, X’s hair had completely turned grey. Therefore, services
of a French coiffeur were utilized during a visit to Paris. The hairdresser dyed the
hair jet black, but intentionally left out a few strands on the right side. He also
restyled it to be short at the neck and longer at the top, a pattern that fit in well
because X had curly hair. Once back home, the plum job of maintaining the look
went to a stylist named Habib Ahmed and required the routine import of a special
dye from Germany. Who is X?

Q29.
A X-meter is a non-imaging meter used to determine the yield of a nuclear
weapon. Fred Reines, who worked on the X-meter, named it so because he said
that one would have to be under the influence of X to believe that the X-meter
actually worked. Give X.

Q30.
Romila Singh is a former Samajwadi Party corporator from a city which has a long
and storied history as the country’s X capital. She is the first and only female
proprietor in this industry, and she revels in the tag of the ‘empowered woman’
that this gives her. She cites examples from history such as Joan of Arc and Rani
Lakshmibai as her inspirations. Which industry is this, which was previously
centralized in Bihar’s Munger district? Which city is this, which has posh British
Raj era region as well as ‘lanes so narrow and haphazard that they resemble the
whorls and folds of its alleged namesake’?

Ans. Kanpur, Compact Firepower Industry

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