UPSC Essentials: Daily Subject-wise quiz — History, Culture, and Social Issues (Week 3)

QUESTION 1

With reference to the Hoysaleshwara temple, consider the following statements:

1. The Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebidu was built in the 13th century during the reign of the Hoysala King, Vira Narasimha II.

2. The temple follows Vaishnavism tradition.

3. The sculptures inside the temple depict scenes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavata Purana.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

QUESTION 2

Which of the following statements is not correct with respect to Chola Empire?

(a) The empire emerged during the mid-9th century under King Rajaraja I.

(b) They were the first empire with grand commercial and territorial ambitions outside the Indian subcontinent.

(c) The maritime outreach was used for trade.

(d) The expansion of the Chola empire led to the establishment of new capital at Gangaikondacholapuram, built to commemorate the victory over the Pala dynasty.

QUESTION 3

It is a fortified citadel and an early capital city of the Qutb Shahi dynasty. It is an ensemble of military structures, ramparts, bastions, religious structures such as mosques, and temples; residential structures such as palaces; water systems such as canals, fountains, and landscaped gardens.

The above lines refer to which of the following monument?

(a) Vijayanagar Fort

(b) Golconda Fort

(c) Bellary Fort

(d) Srirangapatna Fort

QUESTION 4

Consider the following:

1. Minor

2. Change of marital status during pregnancy.

3. Women with physical disabilities.

4. Mentally ill women

Which of the following category of women are allowed to terminate a pregnancy between 20 to 24 weeks?

(a) 1, 3 and 4 only

(b) 2, 3 and 4 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

QUESTION 5

De-notified tribes were recently in the news. They are best defined as:

(a) The communities that move from one place to another rather than living in one place all the time.

(b) The communities that were ‘notified’ as being ‘born criminal’ during the British regime under a series of laws starting with the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871

(c) Tribal communities that are identified by specific signs such as primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness to contact with the community at large, and backwardness.

(d) The communities that were ‘notified’ as the vulnerable tribe.

QUESTION 6

Consider the following pairs:

        Place                                        State

1. Sivasagar                                     Meghalaya

2. Dholavira                                    Gujarat

3. Rakhigarhi                                  Haryana

4. Adichanallur                              Andhra Pradesh

Which of the pair(s) given above is/are correctly matched?

(a) Only one pair

(b) Only two pairs

(c) Only three pairs

(d) All four pairs

QUESTION 7

Who started Amitya Sabha to nurture philosophical discussions on monotheism in Vedanta and to campaign against idolatry, casteism, child marriage, and other social ills?

(a) Raja Ram Moha Roy

(b) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

(c) Anne Besant

(d) B.R Ambedkar

QUESTION 8

Consider the following statements about National Achievement Survey (NAS):

1. It is a nationwide survey carried out by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

2. The first edition of NAS was carried out in 2001.

3. This exercise is carried out once every decade, usually during the census.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 1 and 3 only

(c) 2 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

ANSWERS TO MCQs

1. (c)

FYI:

— The Ministry of Culture had nominated the Hoysala Temples of Belur, Halebid, and Somnathapura in Karnataka for the World Heritage List for the year 2022-2023.

— The Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebidu is the most exemplary architectural ensemble of the Hoysalas extant today. It was built in 1121 CE during the reign of the Hoysala King, Vishnuvardhana Hoysaleshwara.

— The Hoysaleswara temple follows the Shaivism tradition but includes themes from Vaishnavism and Shaktism, along with Jainism images.

— The sculptures inside the temple depict scenes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavata Purana.

— Along with this temple, the nearby Kesava temple in Belur has also been proposed to be listed under UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

— It is one of the protected monuments of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which takes care of their conservation and maintenance.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

(Other Source: whc.unesco.org)

2. (a)

FYI:

— The Cholas date as far back as the third century BCE, and very little evidence exists about the early Cholas, apart from the early Tamil literature of the third Sangam, and the references made about them in an ancient Graeco-Roman periplus written in the early centuries of the Common Era.

— The Chola Empire emerged in the mid-ninth century under King Vijayalaya Chola. The Chola empire was at its most expansive under Arulmozhivarman, who acceded to the throne in 985 CE and adopted the regnal title of Rajaraja or king of kings.

— When Rajaraja I came to the throne, the Cholas had gained the upper hand over the Pandyas and emerged as the primary power in the northern and eastern parts of the Tamil country.

— The Cholas, along with the Pandyas of Madurai and the Cheras were the three great kingdoms of ancient Tamilakam which roughly corresponds to present-day Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and the southern parts of Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.

— The imperial expansions of the Cholas with emerging maritime trade and conquests with respect to Sri Lanka, the Maldives, China, Java/Sumatra, and southeast Asia are evoked by Chola inscriptions.

— It is claimed that the Cholas were one of the longest-recorded dynasties in world history. At the peak of their rule in the ninth and tenth centuries, the entire area south of the Tungabhadra River was brought together as a single unit under the Cholas.

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

3. (b)

FYI:

— Golconda Fort, Qutb Shahi Tombs, and Charminar are the landmarks that symbolize the Qutb Shahi Dynasty. These three monuments together represent the earliest Qutb Shahi layer of Hyderabad’s history and belong to the Qutb Shahi dynasty that ruled the region from 1518 A.D. to 1687 A.D.

Golconda Fort

— It is a fortified citadel and an early capital city of the Qutb Shahi dynasty. It is an ensemble of military structures, ramparts, gates, bastions, and armory; religious structures such as mosques, and temples; residential structures such as palaces; water systems such as canals, fountains, and landscaped gardens.

— Golconda Fort lay on an important trade route from the port town of Masulipatam to the hinterlands and thus grew as a great trade center and an international marketplace for textiles, printed cloth, and the famous Golconda diamonds

Tombs of Qutub Shahi

— The tombs of Qutb Shahis are a mausoleum complex, a royal necropolis that comprises the tombs of the Royal family and the officials who faithfully served them, and also mortuary baths and mosques.

— The Qutb Shahi tombs complex consists of 30 tombs, mosques, and a mortuary bath. The Qutb Shahi tombs collectively constitute an outstanding example of an Indo-Muslim dynastic necropolis and are the most extensive and best epigraphically documented in all of India.

Charminar

— It is a ceremonial Gateway built to celebrate the foundation of Hyderabad, a new Millennial City, in 1591 A.D.

— Charminar stands at the crossing of two arterial axes in the old city of Hyderabad and forms the symbolic fulcrum of the city, with its four gateways oriented towards the cardinal directions.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

Source: whc.unesco.org

4. (d)

FYI:

— The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act allows the termination of pregnancy by a medical practitioner in two stages.

— For pregnancies up to 20 weeks, termination is allowed under the opinion of one registered medical practitioner.

— For pregnancies within 20 weeks, termination can be allowed if: 

(a) The continuance of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or of grave injury to her physical or mental health; or

(b) If there is a substantial risk that if the child were born, it would suffer from any serious physical or mental abnormality.

— The phrase “any woman or her partner” was also introduced in 2021 in place of the earlier “married woman or her husband” by eliminating the word “married woman or her husband” from the scheme of the MTP Act.

— For both stages, within 20 weeks and between 20-24 weeks — termination is allowed “where any pregnancy is alleged by the pregnant woman to have been caused by rape, the anguish caused by the pregnancy shall be presumed to constitute a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman”.

— Women are allowed to terminate a pregnancy between 20-24 weeks. Section 3B of the Rules under the MTP Act lists seven categories of women:

(a) Survivors of sexual assault or rape or incest.

(b) Minors

(c) Change of marital status during the ongoing pregnancy (widowhood and divorce).

(d) Women with physical disabilities

(e) Mentally ill women including mental retardation.

(f) The fetal malformation has a substantial risk of being incompatible with life or if the child is born it may suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities to be seriously handicapped.

(g) Women with pregnancy in humanitarian settings or disaster or emergency situations as may be declared by the Government.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

5. (b)

FYI:

— De-notified tribes are communities that are the most vulnerable and deprived. Denotified tribes (DNTs) are communities that were ‘notified’ as being ‘born criminals’ during the British regime under a series of laws starting with the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871.

— Nomadic and semi-nomadic communities are defined as those who move from one place to another rather than living in one place all the time.

— A National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic, and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) was constituted in 2006 by the then government. It was headed by Balkrishna Sidram Renke and submitted its report in June 2008, in which it said, “It is an irony that these tribes somehow escaped the attention of our Constitution makers and thus got deprived of the Constitutional support unlike Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.”

— The Renke Commission estimated their population at around 10.74 crores based on Census 2001.

— A new Commission was constituted in February 2014 to prepare a state-wise list, which submitted its report on January 8, 2018, identified 1,262 communities as de-notified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

6. (b)

FYI:

— The government proposed to set up an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation under the Ministry of Culture and develop five archaeological sites as “iconic sites” at Rakhigarhi, Hastinapur, Sivasagar, Dholavira, and Adichanallur.

Place	State	Description
Rakhigarhi	Haryana	Rakshigarhi is situated in the Hissar district of Haryana and is one of the most prominent and largest sites of the Harappan civilisation. It is one of the five known townships of the Harappan civilisation in the Indian subcontinent.
Hastinapur	Uttar Pradesh	Hastinapur is situated in the Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh. The city finds its mention in the Mahabharata and the Puranas. One of the most significant discoveries made at this site was of the “new ceramic industry”, which was named the Painted Grey Ware.
Sivasagar	Assam	Sivasagar is situated in Assam and the structural remains found at the site were ceramic assemblages including vases, vessels, dishes, and bowls.
Dholavira	Gujarat	Dholavira is situated on the Khadir island of the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. This place is unique because of its complete water system. The people who lived there for an estimated 1,200 years during the Harappan civilisation are noted for their water conservation system using rainwater harvesting techniques in an otherwise parched landscape.
Adichanallur	Tamil Nadu	Adichnallur lies in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu. The site has gained attention because of three important findings: the discovery of an ancient Tamil-Brahmi script on the inside of an urn containing a full human skeleton, a fragment of broken earthenware, and the remains of living quarters.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

7. (a)

FYI:

— Ram Mohan Roy grew up within the framework of orthodox caste practices of his time such as child marriage, polygamy, and dowry. He knew a lot of languages like Bengali, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and English.

— Ram Mohan Roy grew up within the framework of orthodox caste practices of his time such as child marriage, polygamy, and dowry. He knew a lot of languages like Bengali, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and English.

— In 1814, he started the Atmiya Sabha to nurture philosophical discussions on monotheism in Vedanta and to campaign against idolatry, casteism, child marriage and other social ills.

— He campaigned for the modernisation of education, in particular the introduction of a Western curriculum, and started several educational institutions in the city.

— In 1817, he collaborated with Scottish philanthropist David Hare to set up the Hindu College (now, Presidency University).

— He followed it up with the Anglo-Hindu School in 1822 and, in 1830, assisted Alexander Duff to set up the General Assembly’s Institution, which later became the Scottish Church College.

— He advocated alongside Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar which finally led to the abolition of Sati under the governor generalship of William Bentinck in 1829.

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

8. (c)

FYI:

— A nationwide survey carried out by the Union Ministry of Education has found that between 2017 and 2021, the literacy and numeracy skills of school students in India worsened considerably across subjects and grades.

— The NAS is a periodic exercise carried out broadly in alternate years to monitor the health of the country’s school education system.

— It has been designed by the Ministry of Education along with the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to provide a snapshot of learning outcomes in key subjects — essentially “what students know and can do” — at the end of Classes 3, 5, 8 and 10.

— These classes are generally seen to mark important stages in the development of a child’s cognitive abilities.

— The first edition of NAS was carried out in 2001. In the beginning, the survey was supposed to be an independent project of the NCERT, but it was soon brought under the ambit of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the government’s flagship programme to achieve universalisation of elementary education (UEE), which has now been subsumed into the overarching Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

— Edited by Manas Srivastava

Previous Quizzes:

Polity and Governance (Week 1)

Polity and Governance (Week 2)

History, Culture, and Social Issues (Week 1)

History, Culture, and Social Issues (Week 2)

UPSC Weekly Quiz (Current Affairs)

UPSC Essentials: Daily subject-wise quiz — Economy (Week 2)

Environment, Geography, Science and Technology (Week 1)

International Relations (Week 1)

International Relations (Week 2)

International Relations (Week 3)

Tomorrow’s Quiz: Environment, Geography, Science and Technology

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