Peace and Humanitarian Awards: Nobel, Gandhi Prize and More

The correct answer is B, Oslo. Alfred Nobel's will placed the peace prize in the hands of a Norwegian body, so the winner is chosen by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the prize is presented at Oslo, the capital of Norway. Option A is wrong because Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is where the prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and economic sciences are presented, all on the same day, 10 December. Option C is wrong because Geneva is the seat of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of many United Nations bodies, but no Nobel Prize is given there. Option D is wrong because Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, which has no part in the Nobel Prizes. This division between Norway and Sweden is the single most asked fact about the peace prize.

The correct answer is A, Henry Dunant. The Swiss humanitarian Henry Dunant, whose account of the battlefield at Solferino led to the founding of the Red Cross and to the first Geneva Convention, shared the first Nobel Peace Prize of 1901 with the French campaigner Frederic Passy. Option B is wrong because Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer who became the first High Commissioner for Refugees, received the prize later, in 1922, and the Nansen Refugee Award is named after him. Option C is wrong because Woodrow Wilson, the American President associated with the League of Nations, received it for 1919. Option D is wrong because Theodore Roosevelt received it in 1906 for mediating the Russo-Japanese War. Dunant's name is the one to remember, because the Red Cross itself later won the prize three times.

The correct answer is B, the International Committee of the Red Cross, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917 and 1944 for its work in the two World Wars and again in 1963, the centenary year of its founding. Option A is wrong because UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund, received the prize once, in 1965. Option C is wrong because Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, received it once, in 1999. Option D is wrong because the World Food Programme received it once, in 2020, for feeding people in conflict zones. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is the organisation with two prizes, in 1954 and 1981, so a question may also ask for that. Remember the numbers as three for the Red Cross and two for the UNHCR.

The correct answer is B, 1979. Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work among the destitute and the dying in Kolkata through the Missionaries of Charity, which she had founded in 1950. Option A is wrong because 1973 is the year she became the first recipient of the Templeton Prize, a different award. Option C is wrong because 1980 is the year she was given the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, which came a year after the Nobel. Option D is wrong because 1962 is the year of her Ramon Magsaysay Award. All four years belong to her, which is what makes the question difficult, so learn the sequence: Magsaysay 1962, Templeton 1973, Nobel 1979, Bharat Ratna 1980. Note also that the Missionaries of Charity, the order she founded, has its headquarters in Kolkata.

The correct answer is A, Malala Yousafzai. The prize for 2014 was shared by Kailash Satyarthi of India, who founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan against child labour, and Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, who campaigned for girls' education and who remains the youngest person to receive any Nobel Prize. Option B is wrong because Nadia Murad shared the prize for 2018 with Denis Mukwege for work against sexual violence in war. Option C is wrong because Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, received it for 2019. Option D is wrong because Maria Ressa shared it for 2021 with Dmitry Muratov for the defence of free expression. The pairing of an Indian and a Pakistani in one award is the reason this question is set so often. Malala was seventeen years old when she received it, which is a fact papers ask separately.

The correct answer is C, 1995. The Government of India instituted the Gandhi Peace Prize in 1995, the year of the 125th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and it is administered by the Ministry of Culture. Option A is wrong because 1969 was the centenary year of Gandhi's birth, when other memorials were set up but not this prize. Option B is wrong because 1991 is the year of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, later renamed, and has no link with this prize. Option D is wrong because 2000 is simply a round year offered as a distractor. Learn the amount with the year: the prize carries one crore rupees along with a citation and a plaque, it may be given to a person or to an institution, and the jury is headed by the Prime Minister of India.

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, 1986. The Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust instituted this prize in 1986, two years after Indira Gandhi's death, and it is presented on 19 November, her birth anniversary, with a cash award of twenty-five lakh rupees. Option A is wrong because 1984 is the year of her assassination, not of the prize. Option C is wrong because 1991 is the year of Rajiv Gandhi's death and of prizes set up in his memory. Option D is wrong because 1995 is the year of the Gandhi Peace Prize, which is the award most often confused with this one. Keep the two apart by the giver and the money: the Gandhi Peace Prize comes from the Government of India and carries one crore rupees, while this prize comes from a memorial trust and carries twenty-five lakh rupees.

The correct answer is B, the Philippines. Ramon Magsaysay was President of the Philippines and died in an air crash in 1957; the award was created in the same year in his memory, it is presented at Manila, and it honours greatness of spirit in service to the people of Asia. Vinoba Bhave, in 1958, was its first Indian recipient. Option A is wrong because Indonesia's first President was Sukarno, after whom no such award is named. Option C is wrong because Malaysia has no award of this kind in the list asked by exams. Option D is wrong because Thailand is similarly unconnected. Do not confuse this nickname with that of the Right Livelihood Award, instituted in Sweden in 1980, which is called the Alternative Nobel Prize. The award is given in several categories, and it is not a government award of the Philippines.

The correct answer is A, the European Parliament, which instituted the prize in 1988 and awards it each year to individuals or organisations defending human rights and freedom of thought. It is named after Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet nuclear physicist who became a campaigner for civil liberties and himself won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Option B is wrong because the General Assembly declares observances and adopts resolutions but gives no such prize. Option C is wrong because UNESCO gives the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize, instituted in 1989, which is a different award. Option D is wrong because the Russian Academy of Sciences, of which Sakharov was a member, does not award the prize named after him. Malala Yousafzai received the Sakharov Prize in 2013. Sakharov himself was kept under internal exile in the Soviet Union for years, which is why his name was chosen.

The correct answer is C, the UNHCR, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which gives the Nansen Refugee Award every year to a person or a group for outstanding service to refugees. It is named after Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer who was the first High Commissioner for Refugees under the League of Nations and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922. Option A is wrong because UNICEF works for children and gives no award of this name. Option B is wrong because the Red Cross gives the Florence Nightingale Medal, instituted in 1912 for nurses. Option D is wrong because the World Health Organization gives health awards but not this one. Remember that the UNHCR has itself won the Nobel Peace Prize twice, in 1954 and 1981.

The correct answer is A, Mother Teresa. The Templeton Prize was instituted in 1972 by the investor John Templeton to honour work that explores the deepest questions of life and of the spirit, and Mother Teresa received the first award in 1973, six years before her Nobel Peace Prize. Option B is wrong because the Dalai Lama, the Nobel Peace laureate of 1989, received the Templeton Prize much later, in 2012. Option C is wrong because Desmond Tutu received the Templeton Prize in 2013, long after his Nobel of 1984. Option D is wrong because Baba Amte's honours are the Gandhi Peace Prize of 1999, the Ramon Magsaysay Award and the Padma awards, not the Templeton Prize. Mother Teresa's list of honours is asked in this indirect way very often. The prize is one of the largest in money terms among individual awards of this kind.