Awards & Honours Mixed Quiz: Set 23

The correct answer is A, Major Somnath Sharma. He commanded a company of the 4th Battalion of the Kumaon Regiment at Badgam near Srinagar in November 1947 and held off a far larger force of raiders until he was killed; the Param Vir Chakra, instituted on 26 January 1950 with effect from 15 August 1947, was conferred on him posthumously as the first award of the decoration. Option B, Captain Vikram Batra, received the Param Vir Chakra for the Kargil conflict of 1999, more than fifty years later. Option C, Subedar Joginder Singh, was honoured for the war with China in 1962 at Tongpen La. Option D, Major Shaitan Singh, was honoured for the stand at Rezang La in the same war of 1962. All four are genuine recipients, so only the first matters here.

The correct answer is B, Rabindranath Tagore. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for Gitanjali, becoming not only the first Indian but the first Asian of any country to receive a Nobel Prize. Option A, C. V. Raman, won the Physics prize in 1930 for the scattering effect named after him, and he was the first Indian to win in a science subject, which is a different first and the most common confusion in this question. Option C, Mother Teresa, received the Peace Prize in 1979 and was the first woman holding Indian citizenship to be honoured. Option D, Hargobind Khorana, shared the Medicine prize in 1968 for work on the genetic code, but he had taken American citizenship by then and is counted as a laureate of Indian origin.

The correct answer is B, Article 18. Article 18 abolishes titles and forbids the State from conferring any title except a military or academic distinction. The civilian awards survive because they are treated as decorations and not as titles, and for the same reason a recipient may not write Bharat Ratna before or after a name. The Supreme Court upheld the awards on this reasoning in the Balaji Raghavan case decided in 1995, after they had been suspended from 1992. Option A is wrong because Article 14 guarantees equality before the law. Option C is wrong because Article 21 protects life and personal liberty. Option D is wrong because Article 51A lists the Fundamental Duties, which were inserted by the Forty-second Amendment in 1976 and have nothing to do with titles.

The correct answer is C, 1954. The Bharat Ratna was instituted on 2 January 1954 by President Dr Rajendra Prasad, on the same day as the Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, and the first awards were conferred later the same year on C. Rajagopalachari, C. V. Raman and S. Radhakrishnan. Option A is wrong because 1950 is the year the Constitution came into force, which is often used as a distractor in award questions. Option B is wrong because 1952 marks the first general election and has no connection with the civilian awards. Option D is wrong because 1955 is the year in which the rules were amended to allow posthumous conferment; candidates who remember that amendment often give 1955 as the year of institution, which is the trap this question is built on.

The correct answer is B, Bhanu Athaiya. She won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design in 1983, for the film Gandhi released in 1982, sharing it with John Mollo, and she was the first Indian to win an Oscar in any category. Option A, Satyajit Ray, received an Honorary Academy Award in 1992 for lifetime achievement, which is a different kind of award and came nine years later; he is therefore the first Indian to receive an honorary Oscar, not the first Indian winner. Option C, A. R. Rahman, won two Oscars in 2009 for the music of Slumdog Millionaire, for original score and for the song Jai Ho. Option D, Resul Pookutty, won in the same year for sound mixing in the same film. The trap in this question is the word first.

The correct answer is A, Mother Teresa. The Templeton Prize was established in 1972 by Sir John Templeton for exceptional contribution to affirming the spiritual dimension of life, and Mother Teresa, the founder of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, received the very first award in 1973; she went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. B is wrong because Baba Amte, who worked with leprosy patients at Anandwan in Maharashtra, received the Templeton Prize in 1990. C is wrong because the fourteenth Dalai Lama received it in 2012, long after the first award. D is wrong because Pandurang Shastri Athavale, the founder of the Swadhyaya movement, received it in 1997. All four are genuine recipients, so only the year separates the right answer from the rest.

The correct answer is C, M. S. Subbulakshmi. The Carnatic vocalist M. S. Subbulakshmi received the Bharat Ratna in 1998 and was the first musician in the list. Option A is wrong because Lata Mangeshkar, the playback singer, was honoured in 2001, three years later. Option B is wrong because Bismillah Khan, the shehnai player from Varanasi, was honoured in the same year as Lata Mangeshkar, 2001. Option D is wrong because the Hindustani classical vocalist Bhimsen Joshi received the award in 2008. The sitar player Ravi Shankar, honoured in 1999, also comes after Subbulakshmi, so the order to remember is Subbulakshmi in 1998, Ravi Shankar in 1999, Lata Mangeshkar and Bismillah Khan in 2001 and Bhimsen Joshi in 2008. The wider point to hold is that six musicians appear in the list in all, drawn from Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, film playback singing and the shehnai, and a question may ask for any one of them by instrument or by gharana rather than by name.

The correct answer is B, Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania, who received the Gandhi Peace Prize in its first year, 1995, for his work for peace and for the poor of Africa. Option A is wrong because Nelson Mandela was not the first recipient of this prize; he is remembered above all for the Nobel Peace Prize of 1993, which he shared with F. W. de Klerk of South Africa. Option C is wrong because Baba Amte, who worked among people affected by leprosy at Anandwan, received it in 1999. Option D is wrong because Desmond Tutu, the South African archbishop, is remembered chiefly for his Nobel Peace Prize of 1984. Along with the first recipient, learn the Indian institutions on the list: the Ramakrishna Mission, ISRO and Gita Press of Gorakhpur.

The correct answer is B, Devika Rani. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest honour in Indian cinema, was instituted in 1969 to mark the birth centenary of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, who made Raja Harishchandra in 1913, and the first award went to the actress Devika Rani, who was also a founder of Bombay Talkies. Option A, Prithviraj Kapoor, received the award in 1971, and his was a posthumous honour. Option C, B. N. Sircar, the founder of New Theatres in Calcutta, received it in 1970 as the second recipient, which makes him the closest distractor. Option D, Pankaj Mullick, the composer and singer, received it in 1972. The chain of the first four years is worth memorising in order, because the question is sometimes asked about the second recipient instead.

The correct answer is C, 1995. The Gandhi Peace Prize was instituted by the Government of India in 1995, the year marking the one hundred and twenty fifth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and it is given for social, economic and political change through non-violence, to an individual or an institution, Indian or foreign. Option A is wrong because 1969 is the year the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted, on the centenary of Gandhi's birth. Option B is wrong because 1985 is the year the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development was instituted, a different prize given by a trust and presented on 19 November. Option D is wrong because 2001 has no award of this kind attached to it. The jury of the Gandhi Peace Prize is chaired by the Prime Minister, which is another fact papers ask for.

The correct answer is B, peepal leaf. The Bharat Ratna is a medallion shaped like a peepal leaf, about an inch and three-eighths wide, bearing a sun on the front with the words Bharat Ratna below it in Devanagari, and the State Emblem with the motto Satyameva Jayate on the reverse. The recipient also gets a Sanad, a certificate signed by the President, and there is no cash grant with the award. Option A is wrong because the lotus is the design used on the Padma series of awards, where a lotus flower appears on the medal. Option C is wrong because no civilian award of India uses the banyan leaf, though the banyan is the national tree. Option D is wrong because the mango, though the national fruit, has no place in the design of these awards.

The correct answer is A, Republic Day and Independence Day. The two lists are announced on 26 January and on 15 August, and the medals are presented later at investiture ceremonies by the President, who is the Supreme Commander of the armed forces. Option B is wrong because Army Day on 15 January and Navy Day on 4 December are service days marked by parades and demonstrations, not the occasions for announcing the awards. Option C is wrong because Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October is not connected with military honours. Option D is wrong because Vijay Diwas on 16 December, kept for the victory of 1971, is a day of remembrance and not an announcement date. Padma awards are announced only on Republic Day. The names of the recipients appear in the Gazette of India along with the citation.

The correct answer is B, G. Sankara Kurup. The Malayalam poet received the first Jnanpith Award in 1965 for his collection Odakkuzhal, meaning the bamboo flute; the award is given by the Bharatiya Jnanpith for outstanding writing in any of the languages recognised by the Constitution. Option A, Ashapurna Devi, won it in 1976 for the Bengali novel Pratham Pratishruti and holds the related first of being the first woman to receive the award, which is why she is placed here. Option C, Umashankar Joshi, won it in 1967 for Gujarati, sharing the award that year. Option D, Sumitranandan Pant, won it in 1968 for the Hindi collection Chidambara, and he was the first Hindi writer to be honoured, another first that is frequently asked alongside this one.

The correct answer is B, U Thant. The Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding was instituted by the Government of India in 1965 and administered by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and its first recipient in that same year was U Thant of Burma, then Secretary General of the United Nations. Option A is wrong because Mother Teresa received the award later, in 1969. Option C is wrong because Nelson Mandela received it in 1979, many years before he became President of South Africa. Option D is wrong because Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Frontier Gandhi, also received the award but not as the first recipient, and he is better remembered in exams as the first non Indian to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, in 1987. Keep the award apart from the Gandhi Peace Prize of 1995.

The correct answer is B, 1990. Nelson Mandela, the leader of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and later its President, received the Bharat Ratna in 1990, the same year in which Dr B. R. Ambedkar was honoured posthumously. Option A is wrong because 1987 is the year of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's award, and he, not Mandela, was the first recipient who was not an Indian citizen. Option C is wrong because the awards conferred in 1992 went to Abul Kalam Azad posthumously, J. R. D. Tata and Satyajit Ray, and the civilian awards were then suspended until 1995 because of litigation. Option D is wrong because 1997, the fiftieth year of independence, saw the award go to Gulzarilal Nanda, Aruna Asaf Ali posthumously and A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

The correct answer is B, journalism. The Chameli Devi Jain Award for an Outstanding Woman Journalist was instituted in 1980 by the Media Foundation in New Delhi and is named after Chameli Devi Jain, a freedom fighter who was jailed during the national movement. It is the best known Indian award reserved for a woman in the profession. Option A is wrong because awards for classical music come from bodies such as the Sangeet Natak Akademi. Option C is wrong because social service is recognised by honours such as the Jamnalal Bajaj Awards. Option D is wrong because sports honours are the Arjuna, Khel Ratna and Dronacharya Awards. The examinable pair here is the award with the year 1980 and the giver, the Media Foundation.

The correct answer is B, Karnam Malleswari. She won a bronze medal in weightlifting at the Sydney Olympics of 2000, in the sixty-nine kilogram category, and became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal of any colour. Option A, P. T. Usha, is the most tempting answer because of her fame on the track, but she finished fourth in the four hundred metres hurdles at Los Angeles in 1984, missing a medal by one hundredth of a second, so she never won one. Option C, Mary Kom, won a bronze in boxing at London in 2012, twelve years after Malleswari. Option D, Saina Nehwal, won a bronze in badminton at the same London Olympics of 2012. Remember also that Abhinav Bindra won India's first individual Olympic gold, in shooting, at Beijing in 2008.

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 A, Viswanathan Anand. The chess grandmaster received the award in its first year, 1991-92, when it was called the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna; it was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2021 and remains the highest sporting honour of the country. Option B, Leander Paes, received it in 1996-97 after his Olympic bronze in tennis at Atlanta. Option C, Sachin Tendulkar, received it in 1997-98 and later became the first sportsperson to be given the Bharat Ratna, in 2014. Option D, Geet Sethi, the billiards champion, received it in 1992-93 as the second recipient, which makes him the nearest wrong answer. Keep the two other sporting awards in mind as well: the Arjuna Awards began in 1961 and the Dronacharya Award for coaches in 1985.

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.