Awards & Honours Mixed Quiz: Set 1

The correct answer is D, Overcoming social exclusion through Bharatanatyam dance performances. Narthaki Nataraj is a Bharatanatyam dancer from Madurai in Tamil Nadu and, in 2019, became the first transgender person to receive the Padma Shri, which she got in the field of art. Thrown out of her home as a teenager, she trained for years under Guru K. P. Kittappa Pillai, a descendant of the Thanjavur Quartet, and mastered the Nayaki bhava style of the Thanjavur tradition; she also runs the Velliyambalam School of Dance in Chennai. She had earlier received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2011 and Tamil Nadu's Kalaimamani title. The Padma citation therefore links her name to dance, not to any other field. A, cuisine, C, agriculture, and B, Nyayashastra, describe fields of other Padma awardees and have nothing to do with her. Exam tip: Narthaki Nataraj = Bharatanatyam, Tamil Nadu, first transgender Padma Shri, 2019.

The correct answer is B, Param Vir Chakra. It is given for the most conspicuous act of bravery or self-sacrifice in the presence of the enemy, on land, at sea or in the air, and its name means the wheel of the ultimate brave. It stands first in the order of precedence of all gallantry decorations.

Option A, the Ashoka Chakra, is the highest peacetime gallantry award and stands second in the order of precedence, so it is correct only when the question says peacetime. Option C, the Maha Vir Chakra, is the second wartime award, below the Param Vir Chakra. Option D, the Kirti Chakra, is the second peacetime award and the counterpart of the Maha Vir Chakra. The word wartime in the stem is what settles this question, so read it before marking.

The correct answer is D, Dhyan Chand Award. The Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games was instituted in 2002 to honour sportspersons who not only performed well in their playing days but kept serving the sport after retiring. It is named after Major Dhyan Chand, the hockey wizard who won Olympic gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936; his birthday, 29 August, is celebrated as National Sports Day, when all the national sports awards are given. A is wrong because the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, started in 1991-92, is the highest award for the best performance over the previous four years, and in August 2021 it was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, which is a different award from the lifetime achievement one. B is wrong because the Arjuna Award, started in 1961, is for consistent outstanding performance by active players. C is wrong because the Dronacharya Award, started in 1985, is for coaches. Exam tip: Khel Ratna best performance, Arjuna players, Dronacharya coaches, Dhyan Chand Award lifetime achievement; all given on 29 August.

The correct answer is C, 1957. The Ramon Magsaysay Award was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in New York, with the agreement of the Philippine government, in memory of Ramon Magsaysay, the third President of the Philippines, who had died in an air crash in March that year. The first awards were presented in 1958. The prize honours greatness of spirit and service to the peoples of Asia and is often called Asia's Nobel Prize; the foundation that gives it is based in Manila. Vinoba Bhave was the first Indian to receive it, in 1958. Option A is wrong because by 1965 the award had already been given for seven years. Option B is wrong because 1962 is the year Mother Teresa won it for peace and international understanding, not the year it began. Option D is wrong because 1982 is far later than the founding. Exam tip: Magsaysay Award — set up 1957, first given 1958, first Indian Vinoba Bhave, foundation at Manila.

The correct answer is C, 1952. The Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's national academy of music, dance and drama, was created by a government resolution of 31 May 1952 and formally inaugurated on 28 January 1953 by President Rajendra Prasad. It was the first of the three national academies; the Sahitya Akademi for literature and the Lalit Kala Akademi for fine arts followed in 1954. Its annual awards, the Akademi Puraskar, have been given to performing artists since 1952, which makes it the oldest national honour for the performing arts in India. The higher honour, the Akademi Ratna or Fellowship, was started in 1954. A is wrong because 1961 is the year the Arjuna Award for sports began. B is wrong because 1950 is when the Constitution came into force, not when the Akademi was formed. D is wrong because 1959 is the year the National School of Drama was set up, not the start of the awards. Exam tip: Sangeet Natak Akademi 1952 (awards from 1952); Sahitya Akademi and Lalit Kala Akademi 1954.

The correct answer is C, 1954. Both honours were instituted on 2 January 1954 by President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, and the first Bharat Ratna was conferred in the same year on C. Rajagopalachari, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman.

Option A, 1950, is the year the Constitution came into force, and candidates often attach every early institution to that date. Option B, 1952, is the year of the first general election, a landmark of a different kind. Option D, 1955, is a genuine trap rather than a random year: it is when the three Padma classes, first set up under a single name in 1954, were renamed Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. Keep the two years apart: instituted in 1954, renamed in 1955.

The correct answer is C, Ashoka Chakra. It is awarded for the most conspicuous bravery or an act of daring or self-sacrifice of the highest order away from the field of battle, and it may be given to civilians as well as to members of the armed forces.

Option A, the Shaurya Chakra, is the third peacetime award, the counterpart of the Vir Chakra. Option B, the Kirti Chakra, is the second peacetime award, the counterpart of the Maha Vir Chakra. Option D, the Vir Chakra, belongs to the wartime family altogether, which makes it wrong on two counts here. The three peacetime awards in descending order are Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra, and remembering them as one line saves time when the options mix the families.

The correct answer is B, the Padma Vibhushan. The order of precedence of the civilian honours runs Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, and the Padma Vibhushan is given for exceptional and distinguished service.

Option C, the Padma Bhushan, is one step lower and is awarded for distinguished service of a high order, and it is the commonest wrong answer because the two names sound alike. Option A, the Padma Shri, is the lowest of the three grades and is given for distinguished service in any field. Option D, the Ashoka Chakra, is not a civilian award at all but the highest peacetime gallantry award, ranking alongside the Param Vir Chakra in the gallantry list. Mixing the civilian and gallantry lists is exactly the error this option is designed to catch.

The correct answer is A, Major Somnath Sharma, of the 4th Battalion of the Kumaon Regiment, who received the award posthumously for the action at Badgam near Srinagar in November 1947. His company held off a much larger body of raiders and kept them from reaching the airfield, which allowed reinforcements to continue arriving in Kashmir.

Option B, Captain Vikram Batra, and option C, Lieutenant Manoj Kumar Pandey, both received the Param Vir Chakra posthumously for the Kargil conflict of 1999, more than fifty years later. Option D, Subedar Joginder Singh, was awarded it for an action of the 1962 conflict. All four are genuine recipients, so the question turns purely on the word first, and the answer is fixed by the year 1947. Note also that the award was instituted only in 1950 but takes effect from 15 August 1947, which is precisely why an action of November 1947 could be honoured with it at all.

The correct answer is B, C. Rajagopalachari, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman. All three were honoured in 1954, the first year of the award. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India, Radhakrishnan was a philosopher who later became President, and Raman was the physicist who discovered the effect that carries his name.

Option A groups three of the best known leaders of the period, which makes it attractive, but they were not the first set. Option C names people who were honoured in later years and is built to look plausible. Option D mixes Rajagopalachari, who was correct, with Shastri and Indira Gandhi, who belong to 1966 and 1971 respectively, the first posthumous award and the first woman recipient. A three-name question of this kind is safest answered by checking that all three names fit, not just the one you recognise.

The correct answer is B, Savitri Khanolkar. Born in Switzerland to a Swiss father and a Hungarian mother, she married an officer of the Indian Army, took Indian citizenship and made a deep study of Indian languages and tradition, which she drew on for the design of the medal and its vajra motif.

Option A, Nandalal Bose, was the artist who illustrated the manuscript of the Constitution of India, a related but different piece of work. Option C, Pingali Venkayya, designed the flag on which the national flag of India was based. Option D, Deenanath Bhargava, drew the state emblem for the illustrated Constitution. All four names belong to the making of India's national symbols, which is why they are placed together, and the medal belongs to Savitri Khanolkar.

The correct answer is B, Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was honoured in 1966, the year of his death at Tashkent, and who thus became the first person to receive the Bharat Ratna after his lifetime. Until then the honour had been given only to living persons.

Option A, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was also honoured posthumously, but much later, in 1991, so he is not the first. Option C, B. R. Ambedkar, received the award posthumously in 1990, again after Shastri. Option D, Subhas Chandra Bose, is associated with a conferment that was later withdrawn following objections about the manner of his death being treated as certain, so he is not counted in this list at all. When a question asks for the first of a category rather than merely an example, check the year attached to each name before answering.

The correct answer is C, 26 January 1950, the day the Constitution came into force and the Republic came into being. The three wartime awards were instituted on that date but were given effect from 15 August 1947, so that acts of bravery in the fighting in Kashmir could be recognised.

Option A, 15 August 1947, is the date from which the awards take effect, not the date of institution, and this fine distinction is the whole point of the question. Option B, 26 November 1949, is the date on which the Constitution was adopted, which belongs to the polity paper. Option D, January 1952, is when the peacetime awards, the Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra, were instituted. Hold the pair together: 1950 for the wartime family and 1952 for the peacetime one.

The correct answer is C, Indira Gandhi, who received the Bharat Ratna in 1971 and was the first woman to be honoured with it. She was Prime Minister at the time, and the award followed the events of that year.

Option A, Mother Teresa, received the Bharat Ratna in 1980 and is therefore the second woman, not the first; she is also the standard trap in questions about the first non-Indian recipient, because she was born abroad but held Indian citizenship. Option B, Sarojini Naidu, called the Nightingale of India, died in 1949, before the award existed. Option D, M. S. Subbulakshmi, the Carnatic vocalist, was honoured in 1998 and was the first musician to receive it. Order the women recipients by year and this family of questions becomes straightforward.

The correct answer is B, Kirti Chakra. The three wartime awards have three peacetime counterparts in the same order: Param Vir Chakra with Ashoka Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra with Kirti Chakra and Vir Chakra with Shaurya Chakra. Since the Maha Vir Chakra is second in its family, its counterpart is the second peacetime award.

Option A, the Ashoka Chakra, is the counterpart of the Param Vir Chakra and stands one step higher. Option C, the Shaurya Chakra, is the counterpart of the Vir Chakra and stands one step lower. Option D, the Sena Medal, is a gallantry medal of the Army alone, with the Nao Sena Medal and the Vayu Sena Medal as its counterparts in the Navy and the Air Force, and it does not belong to the chakra series. Learn the three pairs in order and this family of questions is settled.

The correct answer is B, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, honoured in 1987. Known as the Frontier Gandhi, he led the non-violent Khudai Khidmatgar movement in the North-West Frontier Province and remained a citizen of Pakistan after partition, which makes him the first recipient who was not an Indian national.

Option A, Nelson Mandela, received the award in 1990 and was the second foreign recipient, so the order of the two is the point being tested. Option C, Mother Teresa, is the usual trap: she was born in Europe but had taken Indian citizenship well before she was honoured in 1980, so she does not answer a question about nationality. Option D, the Dalai Lama, has received other honours but not this one. Read such a question carefully, because born abroad and not an Indian citizen are two different conditions.

The correct answer is C, Vir Chakra. The Shaurya Chakra is the third of the peacetime gallantry awards and therefore corresponds to the third of the wartime awards, the Vir Chakra, both being given for acts of gallantry that rank below the first two grades.

Option A, the Param Vir Chakra, has the Ashoka Chakra as its counterpart. Option B, the Maha Vir Chakra, has the Kirti Chakra as its counterpart. Option D, the Yudh Seva Medal, is not a gallantry award at all; it belongs to the distinguished service group awarded during operations, along with the Uttam Yudh Seva Medal and the Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal. Separating gallantry from distinguished service is worth one clear line in your notes, because papers sometimes mix the two lists in the options.

The correct answer is C, Article 18, which abolishes titles and forbids the State from conferring any title except a military or academic distinction. Because of it, the Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards may not be used as a prefix or suffix to a recipient's name, and the awards were challenged on this ground before the Supreme Court upheld them in the Balaji Raghavan case.

Option A, Article 14, guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the laws. Option B, Article 16, provides for equality of opportunity in matters of public employment. Option D, Article 21, protects life and personal liberty and is the most litigated Article of the Constitution. All three belong to the Fundamental Rights, as does Article 18, which is why they appear together, but only Article 18 deals with titles. Remember the pair: Article 18 and the rule that an award is not a title.

The correct answer is C, 1967. The three peacetime gallantry awards were instituted in 1952 as the Ashoka Chakra of the first, second and third class, and in January 1967 the second and third were renamed the Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra, while the first kept the name Ashoka Chakra.

Option A, 1952, is the year of institution, not of renaming, and it is the trap the question is built on. Option B, 1962, is the year of the conflict with China and has no connection with the naming of these awards. Option D, 1972, follows the conflict of 1971 and again has nothing to do with it. Three years matter in this chapter and they should be learnt as a single line: 1950 for the wartime awards, 1952 for the peacetime awards and 1967 for their present names.

The correct answer is B, the Cabinet Secretary. The Padma Awards Committee is constituted afresh by the Prime Minister each year and is headed by the Cabinet Secretary, with the Home Secretary, the Secretary to the President and a number of eminent persons as members. Its recommendations go to the Prime Minister and then to the President.

Option A, the Home Minister, leads the ministry that administers the awards, which makes the option convincing, but the committee is not chaired at the political level. Option C, the Vice President, has no role in this process; the President confers the awards. Option D, the Chief Justice of India, is placed here because the awards were once challenged in court, but the judiciary does not select recipients. A related fact often asked alongside is that nominations may come from any citizen, including a self-nomination, since the process was opened to the public.