The Jnanpith Award is given for excellence in which of the following fields?

The correct answer is A, MS Subbulakshmi. M S Subbulakshmi, the Carnatic vocalist from Madurai, received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1974 in the category of public service, the first Indian musician to be honoured by that award. She was also the first musician to be given the Bharat Ratna, in 1998, and she is remembered for singing at the United Nations General Assembly in 1966 and for the Suprabhatam and Bhaja Govindam recordings heard in homes every morning. The Magsaysay Award, named after a President of the Philippines, is often called Asia's Nobel Prize. B is wrong because Zakir Hussain, the tabla player, has not been given this award. C is wrong because Bhimsen Joshi received the Bharat Ratna in 2008 but not the Magsaysay. D is wrong because Bismillah Khan, the shehnai player, received the Bharat Ratna in 2001. Exam tip: Subbulakshmi, Magsaysay 1974, Bharat Ratna 1998, first musician for both.

The correct answer is B, 1999. Pandit Ravi Shankar received the Bharat Ratna in 1999, along with Amartya Sen and Gopinath Bordoloi. He was the sitar player who carried Hindustani classical music to concert halls abroad, worked with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and taught George Harrison of the Beatles, and he played at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. He had already been given the Padma Bhushan in 1967 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1981, so the Bharat Ratna was the last of the three. A is wrong because 1998 was the year of the awards to M S Subbulakshmi and C Subramaniam. C is wrong because no Bharat Ratna was conferred in 1996. D is wrong because the 1995 conferment does not include him. Exam tip: Ravi Shankar, sitar, Bharat Ratna 1999, in the same year as economist Amartya Sen.

The correct answer is C, Philippines. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is named after Ramon Magsaysay, the seventh President of the Philippines, who died in an air crash in 1957. The award was created that same year by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in New York with the agreement of the Philippine government, and it is presented every year at Manila on 31 August, his birth anniversary. It honours greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia and is often called Asia's Nobel Prize. Vinoba Bhave was its first Indian recipient, in 1958. A is wrong because Myanmar has no link with the award, though some of its citizens have won it. B is wrong because Magsaysay was never connected with Malaysia. D is wrong because Sweden is associated with the Nobel Prize, not with the Magsaysay Award. Exam tip: Ramon Magsaysay - President of the Philippines; award instituted in 1957 and given at Manila; first Indian winner Vinoba Bhave.

The correct answer is B, Satyajit Ray. He received the award in 1967 in the category of journalism, literature and creative communication arts, for his films. His first film, Pather Panchali, had appeared in 1955, and he was later given the Bharat Ratna and an honorary Academy Award.

Option A, Bimal Roy, directed Do Bigha Zamin and Madhumati and won National Film Awards, but not the Magsaysay. Option C, Mrinal Sen, was a leading director of the same period, known for Bhuvan Shome and Akaler Sandhane, and is the closest distractor because he belongs to the same Bengali cinema. Option D, Ritwik Ghatak, directed Meghe Dhaka Tara and is honoured in film history but received no such award. Among Indian recipients of the Magsaysay, Ray is the one from cinema.

The correct answer is B, Geetanjali Shree. Her Hindi novel Ret Samadhi was translated into English by Daisy Rockwell as Tomb of Sand, and it won the International Booker Prize in 2022. It was the first book in any Indian language to win that prize, and the money was shared equally by the author and the translator, as the rules require.

Option A, Mridula Garg, is a well-known Hindi writer who received the Sahitya Akademi Award, but not this prize. Option C, Krishna Sobti, was a major Hindi novelist and a winner of the Jnanpith Award, and her stature makes her a plausible answer. Option D, Mannu Bhandari, wrote Aapka Bunty and other landmarks of Hindi fiction. All four are Hindi writers of standing, so the question rests on remembering the single name attached to 2022.