UPSC Essentials | Daily Quiz — History and Culture: Vivekananda, commemorative days, historical personalities and more (week 140)

2. Swami Dayananda Saraswati reinterpreted the Vedas as repositories of all knowledge, including modern scientific knowledge, and argued that the Vedas contained eternal truths compatible with science and reason—a view that was central to the reform movement he founded, the Arya Samaj.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation

From the East India Company to the British Raj, science became the language of rule. Empirical rationality was deployed as both method and justification for domination. Surveys, censuses, geological studies, and botanical classification rendered India knowable, manageable, and controllable. Science functioned as an apparatus of power.

This produced profound epistemological consequences. If science marked civilisation — and science was Western — then the absence of ‘Indian’ science became proof of Indian inferiority. Colonial ideology portrayed indigenous knowledge as pre-scientific, superstitious, and mythological. Western science was introduced not merely to educate Indians in rational methods, but to civilise them.

A profound contradiction lay embedded here. Colonial rule required Indians accept the universality of Western science while accepting their own particularity—their difference, their unfitness for equality with European rulers. Science was universal yet Western; to become modern, Indians should embrace it yet recognize it as not theirs. This created the colonial paradox: to be modern meant possessing science, yet science was Western, which meant Indians could never fully be modern without ceasing to be Indian.

This paradox generated acute intellectual anxiety among Western-educated Indian elites. Their response was to deny the Western monopoly on science. Ancient India, they argued, possessed sophisticated scientific knowledge.

Rajendralal Mitra exemplified this response. An antiquarian and archaeologist who became head of the Asiatic Society, Mitra confronted James Fergusson, the leading British authority on Indian architecture. Fergusson argued Indian stone architecture derived from Greek models via Alexander and Greco-Bactrian kingdoms. Mitra countered: Indian architecture was “perfectly self-evolved, self-contained, and independent,” equivalent to Greek classicism.

Reformers like Swami Dayananda reinterpreted the Vedas as repositories of scientific knowledge. In Satyarth Prakash, Dayananda reimagined the sacred fire (homa) as a scientific instrument for atmospheric purification, fragmenting matter into fine particles diffusing throughout the atmosphere. In debates with Christian missionaries and Muslim theologians, he invoked “the authority of profane sciences” to establish Vedic knowledge as true.

Therefore, b is the correct answer.

QUESTION 2

Consider the following statements:

1. From 1885 he conducted rigorous experimental research in chemistry and his work on mercury compounds, particularly the synthesis of mercury nitrite, was published in leading European journals.

2. As his reputation as a modern chemist grew, he immersed himself in Sanskrit alchemical texts, reconstructing what he called the “scientific spirit” of ancient Hindu natural philosophy and published A History of Hindu Chemistry: an attempt to establish the legitimacy Indian scientific modernity in a recovered classical past. 

The above statements are related to whom?

(a) Meghnad Saha

(b) Upendranath Brahmachari

(c) Mahendralal Sircar 

(d) Prafulla Chandra Ray 

Explanation

Prafulla Chandra Ray is remembered as the Father of Indian Chemistry: a pioneering experimental scientist and the founder of Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals. Yet in early twentieth-century Calcutta, Ray lived two intellectual lives at once. In the laboratory, he worked to build science for India’s future. In the archive, he worked to unearth India’s scientific legacy.

Since 1885, Ray conducted rigorous experimental research in chemistry. His work on mercury compounds, particularly the synthesis of mercury nitrite, was published in leading European journals. At the same time, as his reputation as a modern chemist grew, Ray immersed himself in Sanskrit alchemical texts, reconstructing what he called the “scientific spirit” of ancient Hindu natural philosophy.

Between 1902 and 1904, he published A History of Hindu Chemistry: an attempt to establish the legitimacy Indian scientific modernity in a recovered classical past. This pairing — laboratory science and archival history — was not accidental. Ray was deeply shaped by his correspondence with the French chemist Marcelin Berthelot. Berthelot’s project — tracing chemistry’s development from alchemy to modernity — made the history of science itself an instrument of national progress.

A history of Hindu Chemistry written by Prafulla Chandra Ray (Amazon.com)

Therefore, d is the correct answer.

QUESTION 3

Consider the following statements:

1. He was known as ‘Masih-ul-Mulk’ and played a pivotal role in founding Jamia Millia Islamia in 1920.

2. In 1921, he was elected President of the Indian National Congress in place of the previously elected President, C. R. Das, who was arrested well before the session began.

To whom are the above statements referred?

(a) Hakim Ajmal Khan

(b) Badruddin Tyabji

(c) Rahimtullah M. Sayani

(d) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Explanation

Hakim Ajmal Khan (1863–1927) was a distinguished Unani physician and nationalist leader, whose family had served as royal physicians since the Mughal period. He was appointed chief physician to the Nawab of Rampur (1892–1902) and later emerged as a key public figure.

Hakim Ajmal Khan (Wikimedia Commons)

Initially active in Muslim politics, he was associated with the Muslim deputation to the Viceroy (1906) and the founding of the Muslim League. A strong advocate of indigenous medicine, he developed the Tibbiya College in Delhi and worked for the recognition and modernization of Unani medicine. In recognition of his services in this field, the British government conferred upon him the title Haziq-ul-Mulk in 1907.

During the Non-Cooperation Movement, he resigned from Aligarh Muslim University’s trusteeship, renounced his British title, and was honoured by the Indian public with the title Masih-ul-Mulk. He played a pivotal role in founding Jamia Millia Islamia (1920) and served as Acting President of the Indian National Congress in 1921, replacing C. R. Das after his arrest.

(source: inc.in)

Therefore, a is the correct answer.

QUESTION 4

Consider the following pairs:

Which of the above given pairs are correctly matched?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 1 and 3 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3 

Explanation

As India aspires to become a leading player in an increasingly volatile global order, while simultaneously grappling with issues like communalism, social and economic inequalities, and ethnic clashes, Vivekananda’s teachings offer a lens through which to revisit the foundational questions of national unity, tolerance, and universal humanism.

Therefore, c is the correct answer.

QUESTION 5

‘Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel’ is a biography written by which of the following Nobel laureates?

(a) Louis Fischer

(b) Rabindranath Tagore

(c) Romain Rolland

(d) V. S. Naipaul

Explanation

Roman Rolland (wikimedia commons)

Romain Rolland was a French writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 “as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings”.

He was an admirer of Mahatma Gandhi,  Rabindranath Tagore and Vivekananda. He also wrote ‘ The Life of Ramakrishna’, ‘The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel.’

Therefore, c is the correct answer.

Previous Daily Subject-Wise-Quiz

Daily subject-wise quiz — International Relations (Week 144)

Daily Subject-wise quiz — History, Culture, and Social Issues (Week 139)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Polity and Governance (Week 144)

Daily subject-wise quiz —  Science and Technology (Week 144)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Economy (Week 144)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Environment and Geography (Week 143)

Daily subject-wise quiz – International Relations (Week 143)

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