GS1- Current Affairs

1. 1965 war with Pakistan- it’s the 60th anniversary this year, so expect a
question
2. UNESCO award for Kerala temple: Sri Vadakunnathan temple
3. Kalamandalam Satyabhama, who re-invented Mohiniyattam, passed
away recently
4. Spice route India
5. Vachana literature (dead Kannada writer): ‘to stay in one place’; time of
reflection; involves 8 days of intensive fasting, prayers, and repentance
6. Jain Paryushan festival
7. Tipu Sultan- important bc rajnikanth
8. Tharu, Madhesi, Janajati
9. Red Sanders is found commonly in AP's Seshachalam hills; prime target
for smugglers

1. On which festival is Jallikattu played?

Pongal
2. Nepal earthquake was due to a ‘thrust fault’, which occurs when a
tectonic plate forces itself on top of the other
3. What is the difference between epicenter and hypocenter of an
earthquake?
4. Maharana Pratap (Mewar)- 475th birth anniversary this year; Battle of
Haldighati and Battle of Dewar were fought between his forces (Mewar)
and Akbar’s forces; he lost the first but kind of won the second
5. What is a heat wave? (the maximum temperature exceeds 40⁰C in
the plains and 30⁰C in the hills. Further, the departure from the
seasonal average should be 5-6⁰C, while a severe heat wave is 7⁰C or
more above average)
6. Are heat waves associated with high or low atmospheric pressure
zones?
Heat waves form when high pressure aloft strengthens and remains over
a region for several days up to several weeks. This is common in summer
(in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres) as the jet stream ‘follows
the sun’. High pressure traps heat near the ground, forming a heat wave
7. Fracking and shale gas
8. Why does air density decrease as we go higher (altitude)?
9. MS Viswanathan- musician, died recently
10. Indian-Indonesian 'Top' flow ocean current
11. Jamini Roy was a famous painter who recently passed away; he drew
paintings with Santhal tribes as his subjects
12. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was the last Nawab of Awadh before the province
was acquired by the British in 1856 under the Doctrine of Lapse
13. Nabakalebar Festival: Lord Jagannath focused; held at Puri. Old idols in
temples are replaced by new ones.
14. The Stone Chariot at the Vijaya Vittala temple complex in Hampi,
Karnataka will now adorn the new Rs. 10 note
 The Stone Chariot is among the six monuments — the others are the
Red Fort in Delhi; the Sun Temple in Konark, Odisha; the Taj Mahal
in Agra; the Goa churches and the Padmapani painting in the Ajanta
Caves — to have been chosen to feature on new currency notes
 About Hampi:
 Hampi is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India located
near Hospet town in Karnataka, within the ruins of the city of
Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire
 The emperor Ashoka’s minor rock edicts in Nittur & Udegolan (both
in Bellary district, Karnataka) lead one to believe that this region
was within the Ashokan kingdom during the 3rd century BCE
 A Brahmi inscription & a terracotta seal dating to the 2nd century CE
were also discovered from the excavation site
 It is situated on the banks of the Tungabhadra River
 Hampi has various notable Hindu temples with some vedanta
mythology inside the temples, some of which are still active places of
worship.

1. Prime Minister, ShriNarendra Modi, recently inaugurated the birth

centenary celebrations of Rani Gaidinliu.
 Gaidinliu (1915–1993) was a Naga spiritual and political leader who led a
revolt against British rule in India.
 At the age of 13, she joined the Heraka religious movement of her cousin
HaipouJadonang. The movement later turned into a political movement
seeking to drive out the British from Manipur and the surrounding Naga
areas.
 Within the Heraka cult, she came to be considered an incarnation of the
goddess Cherachamdinliu.
 Gaidinliu was arrested in 1932 at the age of 16 (participation in the Civil
Disobedience Movement), and was sentenced to life imprisonment by
the British rulers. Jawaharlal Nehru met her at Shillong Jail in 1937, and
promised to pursue her release. Nehru gave her the title of “Rani”
(“Queen”), and she gained local popularity as Rani Gaidinliu.
 She was released in 1947 after India’s independence, and continued to
work for the upliftment of her people.
 An advocate of the ancestral Naga religious practices, she staunchly
resisted the conversion of Nagas to Christianity.
 She was honoured as a freedom fighter and was awarded a Padma
Bhushan by the Government of India

2. Shri Narayan Guru- 161st anniversary: Narayana Guru (1854 – 1928)

was a social reformer. He has been credited with transforming the social
fabric of kerala and changing the beliefs of keralites in ways unimaginable
at that point in time.He was born into an Ezhava family in an era when
people from such communities, which were regarded as Avarna, faced
much social injustice in the caste-ridden society of Kerala. In 1888, he
installed an idol of siva at Aravippuram in Kerala in his effort to show
that the consecration of god’s image was not a monopoly of the brahmins.
This is popularly known as Aravippuram movement.The above event also
inspired many socio religious reform movements in the south
including Temple Entry Movement.
3. Sallekhana/Santhara: The Supreme Court has restored the Jain religious
practice of a ritualistic fast unto death by staying an order of the
Rajasthan High Court, which compared it to an act of suicide
 Jains had protested against the order, saying suicide was sin, whereas
santhara was religion
 Some also argued that the order violated the Fundamental Rights
guaranteed under Article 21 and 25 of the constitution
 Santhara means a fast unto death. A person after taking a vow of
‘Santhara’ stops eating and even drinking water and awaits death;
ultimate goal is purifying body and mind and facing death voluntarily
 It is reserved only for the old and the invalid and is practised rarely
4. Bagha Jatin:In 1904, a young Jatindranath Mukherjee fought with a Royal
Bengal tiger all alone, killed it with the help of a dagger and earned the
epithet ‘Bagha Jatin’
 Bagha Jatin was the principal leader of the Yugantar party.
 He is one of the founders of the Anushilan Samiti, the principal
revolutionary organisation operating in Bengal in the early 20th
century
 Bagha Jatin proudly took the path of violence and dedicated himself to
the cause of Purna Swaraj (total independence) as opposed to the
framework of Indian National Congress
5. The basic dance steps of Mohiniattam are the Adavus – Taganam,
Jaganam, Dhaganam and Sammisram
6. Nuakhai is an agricultural festival mainly observed by people of Western
Odisha in India. The word nua means new and khai means food, so the
name means the farmers are in possession of the newly harvested rice.It
is observed to welcome the new rice of the season
7. Hailstorm: Any thunderstorm which produces hail that reaches the
ground is known as a hailstorm. Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It
consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a
hailstone
Hail formation requires environments of strong, upward motion of air
with the parent thunderstorm and lowered heights of the freezing level.
In the mid-latitudes, hail forms near the interiors of continents, while in
the tropics, it tends to be confined to high elevation.
8. Sannati is located on the banks of the Bhima in Chittapur in Karnataka.It
is a well-known Buddhist site.The only available sculpture of Emperor
Ashoka, in a limestone relief, along with his consort, was found here. It
was sculpted on the orders of an unnamed grandson of Ashoka. People
suspect that Ashoka, who had visited Sannati during his second sojourn to
south India, had died there. It is possible theAshoka’s tomb could be
somewhere among the mounds in the Sannati site
Higher inflation for perishables such as meat and fish point towards lack
of availability of cold storage facilities

9. Bathukamma is Telangana’s floral festival, traditionally celebrated by

women across the state.The festival is celebrated for nine days during
DurgaNavratri.It represents cultural spirit of Telangana.In Telugu,
‘Bathukamma’ means ‘Mother Goddess come Alive’.It is the state festival
of Telangana
10.Western Ganga Dynasty:
 It was an important ruling dynasty of ancient Karnataka. Some experts
believe that the dynasty lasted from about 350 to 1000 AD
 They are known as ‘Western Gangas’ to distinguish them from the Eastern
Gangas who in later centuries ruled over Kalinga (modern Odisha)
 After the rise of the imperial Chalukyas of Badami, the Gangas accepted
Chalukya overlordship and fought for the cause of their overlords against
the Pallavas
 The Chalukyas were replaced by the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta in 753
AD as the dominant power in the Deccan
 The Western Gangas accepted Rashtrakuta overlordship and successfully
fought alongside them against their foes, the Chola Dynasty of Tanjavur.
The defeat of the Western Gangas by Cholas around 1000 resulted in
the end of the Ganga influence over the region
 They showed tolerance towards all faiths. They are most famous for their
patronage toward Jainism resulting in the construction of monuments in
places such as Shravanabelagola and Kambadahalli
 Some more Jain temples, believed to be some of the oldest ever, have
revived interest in them