UPSC Essentials | Mains answer practice — GS 1 Questions on Quit India Movement and Nagara style temple (Week 50)

QUESTION 2

What is the Nagara style of temple architecture? List out its characteristics.

General points on the structure of the answers

Introduction

QUESTION 1: The Quit India Movement marked a turning point in India’s fight for independence. Discuss.

Introduction:

— In 1942, the people of India, led by Mahatma Gandhi, commenced the pivotal final phase of the independence movement. It was a massive anti-colonial uprising on a magnitude never witnessed before, and it delivered a clear message that the British Empire in India was about to end.

— The British mercilessly destroyed the truly people-led movement, but by then it was evident that nothing short of their complete departure was acceptable to India’s masses.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in the body of your answer:

— Although the movement’s ability to spark insurrection was limited at the national level, it achieved regional success, particularly in Satara, Maharashtra, Talcher, Orissa, and Midnapore.

— The local inhabitants successfully established parallel governments in Midnapore’s Tamluk and Contai subdivisions, which continued to function until Gandhi personally ordered that the leaders disband in 1944.

— A tiny insurrection took place in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh’s easternmost district. People overturned the district administration, broke into the jail, freed the arrested Congress leaders, and founded their own independent government.

— It took weeks for the British to reestablish their authority in the district. The Quit India Movement in rural Bengal was motivated by peasants’ dissatisfaction with the increasing war taxes and forced rice exports.

— All members of the Congress Working Committee (national leadership) were incarcerated as well. Despite a lack of clear leadership, huge rallies and demonstrations occurred around the country.

— Workers remained missing in large numbers, and strikes were called. Not all demonstrations were peaceful; in some locations, explosives burst, government buildings were set on fire, power was turned off, and transportation and communication links were damaged. The government arrested almost ten thousand people.

Conclusion:

— On August 8, 1942, Gandhi addressed the people in the Gowalia Tank maidan in Bombay (Mumbai). “The mantra is: ‘Do or Die’. We shall either free India or die trying; we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery,” Gandhi said.

— However, though the movement was quelled, it changed the character of the Indian freedom struggle, with the masses rising up to demand with a passion and intensity like never before: that the British masters would have to Quit India.

(Source: Explained: How the Quit India movement gave a new direction to India’s freedom struggle, amritmahotsav.nic.in)

Points to Ponder

Cripps Mission

Other movements led by Mahatma Gandhi

Related Previous Year Questions

What was the difference between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore in their approach towards education and nationalism? (2023)

Bring out the constructive programmes of Mahatma Gandhi during Non-Cooperation Movement and Civil Disobedience Movement. (2021)

QUESTION 2: What is the Nagara style of temple architecture? List out its characteristics.

Introduction:

— The Nagara temple architecture style arose in northern India during the fifth century CE, during the late Gupta dynasty.

— In North India, it is typical to construct an entire temple on a stone platform with steps going up to it. Furthermore, unlike in South India, it does not typically feature extensive boundary walls or gates.

— Nagara temples are divided into various categories based on the shape of the shikhara.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in the body of your answer:

Characteristics

— Nagara temples are built on a raised plinth, with the garbha griha (sanctum sanctorum) — where the idol of the deity rests — the most sacred part of the temple.

— The garbhagriha is always located directly under the tallest tower.

— Shikhara (literally ‘mountain peak’), the most distinguishable aspect of Nagara style temples.

— A typical Nagara style temple also comprises a circumambulatory passage around the garbha griha, and one or more mandapas (halls) on the same axis as it. Elaborate murals and reliefs often adorn its walls.

Basics of Nagara style. (Express Sketch)

Modes of Nagara architecture

— Depending on the period and geography, Adam Hardy wrote in his highly influential The Temple Architecture of India (2007) identifies five modes of Nagara temple architecture — Valabhi, Phamsana, Latina, Shekhari, and Bhumija.

Valabhi: It begins as a masonry rendering of the barrel-roofed [wooden] structure, simple or with aisles, familiar through chaitya halls [prayer halls, most associated with Buddhist shrines].

Phamsana: A formalisation of multi-eave towers, wedded to a piling up of slabs.

Latina: A shikhara which is a single, slightly curved tower with four sides of equal length. The tenth century onwards, composite Latinas began to emerge, giving rise to Shekhari and Bhumija styles.

Shekhari: The Shekhari shape has attached sub-spires or spirelets, echoing the main shape. These may run up most of the face of the shikhara, and be of more than one size.

Bhumija: It has miniature spires, in horizontal and vertical rows, all the way to the top, creating a grid-like effect on each face.

Conclusion:

— Vimanas of Dravida style temples are typically smaller than the large gatehouses or gopurams, which are the most visually prominent architectural aspects in a temple complex. Furthermore, while shikharas appear in southern Indian architectural literature, they exclusively relate to the dome-shaped crowning cap above the vimana.

— The Ram temple in Ayodhya was inaugurated on January 22, designed in the Nagara style of temple architecture.

(Source: What is the Nagara style, in which Ayodhya’s Ram temple is being built by Arjun Sengupta, ncert.nic.in)

Points to Ponder

Features of Dravida style temples

Examples of Nagara and Dravida style temples

Related Previous Year Questions

How will you explain that Medieval Indian temple sculptures represent the social life of those days? (2022)

Chola architecture represents a high watermark in the evolution of temple architecture. Discuss (2013)

Previous Mains Answer Practice

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 49)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 48)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 50)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 49)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 49)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 50)

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