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GS Paper: GS1

  • The long road to Net Zero

    India has joined a high-profile group of countries pledging for net-zero target by 2070.

    What does Net-Zero mean?

    • Net-zero, which is also referred to as carbon-neutrality, does not mean that a country would bring down its emissions to zero.
    • That would be gross-zero, which means reaching a state where there are no emissions at all, a scenario hard to comprehend.
    • Therefore, net-zero is a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by absorption and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

    What’s the difference between gross zero and net-zero?

    • Gross zero would mean stopping all emissions, which isn’t realistically attainable across all sectors of our lives and industry.
    • Even with best efforts to reduce them, there will still be some emissions.
    • Net-zero looks at emissions overall, allowing for the removal of any unavoidable emissions, such as those from aviation or manufacturing.
    • Removing greenhouse gases could be via nature, as trees take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or through new technology or changing industrial processes.

    What is carbon negativity?

    • It is even possible for a country to have negative emissions if the absorption and removal exceed the actual emissions.
    • *Bhutan has negative emissions because it absorbs more than it emits.

    What is the outlook for India’s emissions?

    • Analysis of India’s growth path points to rising GDP per capita, with a rise in carbon emissions in the short term, primarily from energy.
    • There is pressure from absolute increase in population and consumption, but population growth is slowing.

    India’s major emission sources

    • In terms of sectoral GHG emissions, data from 2016 show that electricity and heat account for the highest share (1.11 billion tonnes).
    • It is followed by agriculture (704.16 million tonnes), manufacturing and construction (533.8 million tonnes), transport (265.3 million tonnes), industry (130.61 million tonnes).
    • Land-use change and forestry (126.43 million tonnes) is also a major source.
    • Other fuel use (119.04 million tonnes), buildings (109.2 million tonnes), waste (80.98 million tonnes), fugitive emissions (54.95 million tonnes) accounts for major urban sources.
    • Aviation and shipping (20.4 million tonnes) accounts for the least source of emission.

    Immediate interventions that can be made

    • Legal mechanism: India needs to create a legal mandate for climate impact assessment of all activities.
    • Investment: This can facilitate investment by dedicated green funds.
    • Wholistic participation: Public sector institutions promoted by the government, co-operatives and even market mechanisms will participate.
    • Renewable energy: The 500 GW renewables target needs a major boost, such as channeling more national and international climate funding into decentralized solar power.
    • Hydrogen economy: Another emerging sector is green hydrogen production because of its potential as a clean fuel. India has a National Hydrogen Mission now in place.
    • Waste Management: India’s urban solid waste management will need to modernise to curb methane emissions from unscientific landfills.
    • Stored carbon mitigation: Preventing the release of stored carbon in the environment, such as trees and soil, has to be a net zero priority.

    Role of developed countries

    • India’s argument is that it has historically been one of the lowest emitters of GHGs.
    • The impetus has to come from the developed economies that had the benefit of carbon-intensive development since the Industrial Revolution.

    Way forward

    • These plans need a political consensus and support from State governments.
    • Net-zero will involve industrial renewal using green innovation, green economy support and supply chains yielding new jobs.
    • It also needs low carbon technologies, zero-emission vehicles, and renewed cities promoting walking and cycling.
    • The industry will need to make highly energy-efficient goods that last longer, and consumers should be given a legal right to repair goods they buy.

     

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  • UNESCO picks Srinagar as ‘Creative City’

    The UNESCO has picked up Srinagar among 49 cities as part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) under the Crafts and Folk Arts category.

    What is UCCN?

    • UCCN created in 2004, is a network of cities that are thriving, active centers of cultural activities in their respective countries.
    • These cities can be from all continents with different income levels or with different levels of populations.
    • UCCN believes that these cities are working towards a common mission by placing creativity at the core of their urban development plans to make the region resilient, safe, inclusive and sustainable.
    • Ministry of Culture is the nodal Ministry of the Government of India for all matters in UNESCO relating to culture.

    Objective of UCCN

    • Placing creativity and the creative economy at the core of their urban development plans to make cities safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable, in line with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

    The 7 categories for recognition under UCCN are as follows:

    • Crafts and Folk Arts
    • Design
    • Film
    • Gastronomy (food)
    • Music
    • Media Arts
    • Literature

    Previously, 3 Indian cities were recognized as members of UCCN namely-

    • Jaipur-Crafts and Folk Arts (2015)
    • Varanasi-Creative city of Music (2015)
    • Chennai-Creative city of Music (2017)
    • Mumbai-Film (2019)
    • Hyderabad- Gastronomy (2019)

     

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  • A brief history of India’s Poverty Levels

    Poverty in India had increased between 2012 and 2020.

    What is Poverty?

    • Fundamentally, the concept of poverty is associated with socially perceived deprivation with respect to basic human needs (Tendulkar, 2009).
    • This is a crucial definition to consider since the Tendulkar committee’s estimation method is the last officially recognized method for arriving at poverty numbers in India.

    A relative term

    • If you think about it for a moment, poverty is a “relative” concept.
    • Poverty is essentially about how you are “relative” to those in your surroundings.
    • For example, with Rs 1,000 in your pocket, you may be “rich” if those around you have no more than Rs 100 with them.
    • But, in another setting, say around those who have no less than Rs 10,000 with them, you will come across as “poor”.
    • As such, as long as there are variations in the income and/or wealth levels in a society, there will be “poverty”.

    What is abject poverty?

    • Apart from the relative nature of poverty, there is such a thing as abject poverty.
    • It typically refers to a state where a person is unable to meet its most basic needs such as eating the minimum amount of food to stay alive.

    What is a Poverty Line?

    • From the point of view of policymaking, poverty levels typically refer to some level of income or expenditure below which one can reasonably argue that someone is poorer than the rest of the society.
    • The whole point of the bulk of policymaking is to improve the living standards of the poorest in the country.
    • But to design policies, one must first know what the target group is, how much does it earn (or spend, since robust data on income is not easily available).
    • This is done by choosing a “poverty line” — or a level of income or consumption expenditure that divides the population between the poor and non-poor.

    Why define a Poverty Line?

    The purpose behind choosing a poverty line is two-fold.

    (A) To accurately design policies for the poor

    • Doing so allows you to target your policies towards the two poorest people in the country.
    • Often such policies are redistributive in nature — such as giving subsidised food grains or providing some kind of social security like MGNREGA.
    • In an ideal world a government would have the resources to help everyone in the economy but in reality, even the government’s works within some financial or budgetary constraints.

    (B) To assess the success or failure of government policies over time

    • Over time the overall GDP doubles but the income of the general public falls.
    • Hence the government would know that its policies are not bearing fruit.

    Poverty Estimation in India

    • Planning Commission Expert Group (1962): It formulated the separate poverty lines for rural and urban areas at ₹20 and ₹25 per capita per year respectively.
    • VM Dandekar and N Rath (1971): They made the first systematic assessment, based on National Sample Survey (NSS) data. They suggested providing 2250 calories per day in both rural and urban areas.
    • YK Alagh Committee (1979): It constructed a poverty line for rural and urban areas on the basis of nutritional requirements and related consumption expenditure.
    • Lakdawala Committee (1993): It suggested that consumption expenditure should be calculated based on calorie consumption as earlier. State specific poverty lines should be constructed. It asked for discontinuation of scaling of poverty estimates based on National Accounts Statistics.
    • Tendulkar Committee (2009): The current official measures of poverty are based on the Tendulkar poverty line, fixed at daily expenditure of ₹27.2 in rural areas and ₹33.3 in urban areas is criticised by many for being too low.

    What has happened in India’s fight against poverty?

    • There are two ways to assess India’s performance.
    1. One is to look at the headcount ratio of poverty which is the percentage of India’s population that was designated to be below the poverty line
    2. The other variable to look at is the absolute number of poor people in the country
    • If one looks at the headcount ratio then India made rapid strides since 1973.
    • Even though India is home to possibly the largest number of poor people in the world, there has been no official update on India’s poverty levels since.

    Who oversees the Poverty Level?

    • Poverty levels are updated by using the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which is conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) once every five years.
    • The last such survey was conducted in 2017-18.
    • That survey reportedly showed that for the first time in four decades consumer expenditure in India had fallen.

    What are the latest findings?

    • Poverty levels, as well as the absolute number of poor, had risen between 2011-12 and 2017-18.
    • The government claimed that the survey suffered from “data quality” issues.
    • The next round of the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) was supposed to be conducted in 2021.

    Causes of rise in Poverty

    • GDP growth decline: It is a fact that India’s GDP growth rate had registered a secular deceleration between the start of 2017 and 2020.
    • Jobless growth: The second and related factor is the unprecedented rise in joblessness.
    • Wages decline: Millions were pulled out of poverty between 2004 and 2011 due to sharp rise in non-farm employment and associated wages. But for many of those workers, real wages have either fallen or stagnated.
    • Pandemic impact: Covid induced lockdown sent millions of workers back to villages, seeking MGNREGA work at minimum wages.

     

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  • Sixth Mass Extinction?

    A paper published recently has come up with a new reason behind the first mass extinction, also known as the Late Ordovician mass extinction.

    Species Extinction

    • Extinction is a part of life, and animals and plants disappear all the time. About 98% of all the organisms that have ever existed on our planet are now extinct.
    • When a species goes extinct, its role in the ecosystem is usually filled by new species, or other existing ones.

    What is Mass Extinction?

    • Earth’s ‘normal’ extinction rate is often thought to be somewhere between 0.1 and 1 species per 10,000 species per 100 years.
    • This is known as the background rate of extinction.
    • A mass extinction event is when species vanish much faster than they are replaced.
    • This is usually defined as about 75% of the world’s species being lost in a ‘short’ amount of geological time – less than 2.8 million years.

    How many mass extinctions have there been?

    Five great mass extinctions have changed the face of life on Earth. We know what caused some of them, but others remain a mystery:

    [I] Ordovician-Silurian ME

    • It occurred 443 million years ago and wiped out approximately 85% of all species.
    • Scientists think it was caused by temperatures plummeting and huge glaciers forming, which caused sea levels to drop dramatically.
    • This was followed by a period of rapid warming. Many small marine creatures died out.

    [II] Devonian ME

    • It took place 374 million years ago and killed about three-quarters of the world’s species, most of which were marine invertebrates that lived at the bottom of the sea.
    • This was a period of many environmental changes, including global warming and cooling, a rise and fall of sea levels and a reduction in oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
    • We don’t know exactly what triggered the extinction event.

    [III] Permian ME

    • It happened 250 million years ago, was the largest and most devastating event of the five.
    • Also known as the Great Dying, it eradicated more than 95% of all species, including most of the vertebrates which had begun to evolve by this time.
    • Some scientists think Earth was hit by a large asteroid which filled the air with dust particles that blocked out the Sun and caused acid rain.
    • Others think there was a large volcanic explosion that increased carbon dioxide and made the oceans toxic.

    [IV] Triassic ME

    • It took place 200 million years ago, eliminating about 80% of Earth’s species, including many types of dinosaurs.
    • This was probably caused by colossal geological activity that increased carbon dioxide levels and global temperatures, as well as ocean acidification.

    [V] Cretaceous ME

    • It occurred 65 million years ago, killing 78% of all species, including the remaining non-avian dinosaurs.
    • This was most likely caused by an asteroid hitting the Earth in what is now Mexico, potentially compounded by ongoing flood volcanism in what is now India.

    What caused first ME?

    • The cooling climate likely changed the ocean circulation pattern.
    • This caused a disruption in the flow of oxygen-rich water from the shallow seas to deeper oceans, leading to a mass extinction of marine creatures.
    • Ordovician Sea has familiar groups like clams and snails and sponges.
    • Many other groups are now very reduced in diversity or entirely extinct like trilobites, brachiopods, and crinoids.

    The sixth mass extinction

    • We are currently experiencing a sixth mass extinction as the result of human-induced climate change.
    • There have been several theories behind each mass extinction and with advances in new technologies, researchers have been uncovering more intricate details about these events.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2018

    The term “sixth mass extinction/sixth extinction” is often mentioned in the news in the context of the discussion of:

     

    (a) Widespread monoculture Practices agriculture and large-scale commercial farming with indiscriminate use of chemicals in many parts of the world that may result in the loss of good native ecosystems.

    (b) Fears of a possible collision of a meteorite with the Earth in the near future in the manner it happened 65million years ago that caused the mass extinction of many species including those of dinosaurs.

    (c) Large scale cultivation of genetically modified crops in many parts of the world and promoting their cultivation in other Parts of the world may cause the disappearance of good native crop plants and the loss of food biodiversity.

    (d) Mankind’s over-exploitation/misuse of natural resources, fragmentation/loss, natural habitats, destruction of ecosystems, pollution and global climate change.

     

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  • Life, work and legend of Adi Shankaracharya

    PM has unveiled a 12-foot statue of Adi Shankaracharya at Kedarnath, where the acharya is believed to have attained samadhi at the age of 32 in the ninth century.

    Adi Shankaracharya (788-820 AD)

    • Adi Shankaracharya was an Indian philosopher and theologian whose works had a strong impact on the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta.
    • He founded mathas, which are believed to have helped in the historical development, revival and propagation of his philosophy.
    • The story recounted today has been reconstructed from multiple Shankaravijayas (Conquests of Shankara) written over the centuries.

    Birth and death

    • He is said to have been born in Kaladi village on the bank of the Periyar, the largest river in Kerala.
    • He is believed to have attained samadhi at Kedarnath; however, Kanchi and Thrissur are also talked about as places where Adi Shankara spent his last days.

    His literary works

    • Adi Shankara is generally identified as the author of 116 works.
    • Among them the celebrated commentaries (bhashyas) on 10 Upanishads, the Brahmasutra and the Gita, and poetic works including Vivekachudamani, Maneesha Panchakam, and Saundaryalahiri.
    • He composed the Kanakadhara Stotram, following which there was a rain of golden amlas, which brought prosperity to the household.
    • It has also been claimed that Adi Shankara composed texts like Shankarasmrithi, which seeks to establish the social supremacy of Nambuthiri Brahmins.
    • His great standing is derived from his commentaries of the prasthanatrayi (Upanishads, Brahmasutra and Gita), where he explains his understanding of Advaita Vedanta.

    His philosophy: Advaita Vedanta

    • Advaita Vedanta articulates a philosophical position of radical nondualism, a revisionary worldview which it derives from the ancient Upanishadic texts.
    • According to this, the Upanishads reveal a fundamental principle of nonduality termed ‘brahman’, which is the reality of all things.
    • Advaitins understand brahman as transcending individuality and empirical plurality.
    • They seek to establish that the essential core of one’s self (atman) is brahman. It is pure non-intentional consciousness.
    • It is one without a second, nondual, infinite existence, and numerically identical with brahman.
    • This effort entails tying a metaphysics of brahman to a philosophy of consciousness.

    Do you know?

    There are six major schools of Vedic philosophy—Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedanta, and five major heterodox (sramanic) schools—Jain, Buddhist, Ajivika, Ajñana, and Charvaka.

    Shankara’s contested legacy

    • Custodians of the caste system cite from Shankara’s commentaries to justify the unequal and unjust social order.
    • It is argued that the Advaita Vedanta borrowed the categories of Buddhist thinkers and called him the Prachhanna Buddha (Buddha in disguise).
    • Sri Narayana Guru offered a radical reading of Advaita Vedanta to dismantle the theory and praxis of caste.

    His political appropriation

    • His works transcends the political boundaries of his time.
    • The mathas are believed to have established in Sringeri, Dwaraka, Puri, and Joshimath for the spread of Advaita Vedanta.
    • They are seen as custodians of Hinduism, and Shankara’s digvijaya (conquest) often interpreted as a near nationalistic project where faith, philosophy and geography are yoked together to imagine a Hindu India.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. Which one of the following pairs does not form part of the six systems of Indian Philosophy?

    (a) Mimamsa and Vedanta

    (b) Nyaya and Vaisheshika

    (c) Lokayata and Kapalika

    (d) Sankhya and Yoga

     

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  • Global Methane Pledge

    The Global Methane Pledge was launched at the ongoing UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.

    What is the Global Methane Pledge?

    • Global Methane Pledge is an agreement to reduce global methane emissions.
    • One of the central aims of this agreement is to cut down methane emissions by up to 30 per cent from 2020 levels by the year 2030.
    • The pledge was first announced in September by the United States and the European Union.
    • So far, over 90 countries have signed this pledge.

    Why methane?

    • According to the UN, 25 % of the warming that the world is experiencing today is because of methane.
    • Methane is the second-most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, after carbon dioxide.
    • According to IPCC, methane accounts for about half of the 1.0 degrees Celsius net rise in global average temperature since the pre-industrial era.

    About Methane

    • Methane is a greenhouse gas, which is also a component of natural gas.
    • There are various sources of methane including human and natural sources.
    • The anthropogenic sources are responsible for 60 per cent of global methane emissions.
    • It includes landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial processes.
    • The oil and gas sectors are among the largest contributors to human sources of methane.
    • These emissions come primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, decomposition in landfills and the agriculture sector.

    What is Coal-based Methane?

    • CBM, like shale gas, is extracted from unconventional gas reservoirs — where gas is extracted directly from the rock that is the source of the gas (shale in case of shale gas and coal in case of CBM).
    • The methane is held underground within the coal and is extracted by drilling into the coal seam and removing the groundwater.
    • The resulting drop in pressure causes the methane to be released from the coal.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. With reference to two non-conventional energy sources called ‘coalbed methane’ and ‘shale gas’, consider the following ‘statements:

    1. Coalbed methane is the pure methane gas extracted from coal seams, while shale gas is a mixture of propane and butane only that can be extracted from fi ne-grained sedimentary rocks.
    2. In India abundant coalbed methane sources exist, but so far no shale gas sources have been found.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

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    Why is dealing with methane important for climate change?

    • Methane has a much shorter atmospheric lifetime (12 years as compared to centuries for CO2).
    • However, it is a much more potent greenhouse gas simply because it absorbs more energy while it is in the atmosphere.
    • The UN notes that methane is a powerful pollutant and has a global warming potential that is 80 times greater than carbon dioxide, about 20 years after it has been released into the atmosphere.

    Back2Basics: CO2 Equivalents

    • Each greenhouse gas (GHG) has a different global warming potential (GWP) and persists for a different length of time in the atmosphere.
    • The three main greenhouse gases (along with water vapour) and their 100-year global warming potential (GWP) compared to carbon dioxide are:

    1 x – carbon dioxide (CO2)

    25 x – methane (CH4) – I.e. Releasing 1 kg of CH4into the atmosphere is about equivalent to releasing 25 kg of CO2

    298 x – nitrous oxide (N2O)

    • Water vapour is not considered to be a cause of man-made global warming because it does not persist in the atmosphere for more than a few days.
    • There are other greenhouse gases which have far greater global warming potential (GWP) but are much less prevalent. These are sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).
    • There are a wide variety of uses for SF6, HFCs, and PFCs but they have been most commonly used as refrigerants and for fire suppression.
    • Many of these compounds also have a depleting effect on ozone in the upper atmosphere.

     

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  • [pib] Manipuri Basanta Raasa

    As part of the celebrations of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, a celebration of Destination North East India, dance and music of Manipur was organised.

    Manipuri Raas Leela

    • The Raas Leela, also referred to as Manipuri Dance, is one of the major Indian classical dance forms, originating from the state of Manipur.
    • The dance form is based on Hindu Vaishnavism themes, and exquisite performances of love-inspired dance drama of Radha-Krishna called Raas Leela.

    Notable features

    • It is marked by a performance that is graceful, fluid, sinuous with greater emphasis on hand and upper body gestures.
    • It is accompanied with devotional music created with many instruments, with the beat set by cymbals (kartal or manjira) and double-headed drum (pung or Manipuri mrdanga) of sankirtan.
    • The dance drama choreography shares the plays and stories of Vaishnavite Padavalis, that also inspired the major Gaudiya Vaishnava-related performance arts found in Assam and West Bengal.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2017:
    With reference to Manipuri Sankirtana, consider the following statements:
    It is a song and dance performance.
    Cymbals are the only musical instruments used in the performance.
    It is performed to narrate the life and deeds of Lord Krishna.
    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
    (a) 1, 2 and 3.
    (b) 1 and 3 only
    (c) 2 and 3 only
    (d) 1 only

    Post your answers here.

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  • India offers ‘Panchamrita’ Strategy for Climate Conundrum at Glasgow

    PM Modi has proposed a five-fold strategy called the ‘Panchamrita’ for India to play its part in helping the world get closer to 1.5 degrees Celsius on the first day of the global climate meeting in Glasgow.

    What is Panchamrita?

    • ‘Panchamrita’ is a traditional method of mixing five natural foods — milk, ghee, curd, honey and jaggery. These are used in Hindu and Jain worship rituals. It is also used as a technique in Ayurveda.
    • The PM euphemistically termed his scheme as ‘Panchamrita’ meaning the ‘five ambrosia’.
    • Under Panchamrita’, India will:
    1. Get its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030
    2. Meet 50 per cent of its energy requirements till 2030 with renewable energy
    3. Reduce its projected carbon emission by one billion tonnes by 2030
    4. Reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45 per cent by 2030
    5. Achieve net zero by 2070

    Key takeaways of PM’s speech

    (a) Commitment for climate action

    • India consists of 17 per cent of the world’s population but contribute only five per cent of emissions.
    • Yet, it has left no stone unturned in doing our bit to fight climate change.
    • At Paris, India was making promises not to the world but to itself and 1.3 billion Indians, PM said.

    (b) Climate finance

    • The 2015 Paris CoP where the Paris Agreement was signed was not a summit but a sentiment.
    • The promises made till now on climate finance were useless.
    • When we all are increasing our ambitions on climate action, the world’s ambition could not stay the same on climate finance as was agreed at the time of Paris.

    (c) India’s track record

    • India was fourth as far as installed renewable energy capacity was concerned.
    • The Indian Railways has pledged to make itself net-zero by 2030. This will result in an annual 60 million tonnes reduction in emissions.
    • India initiated the International Solar Alliance for solar energy.
    • It has also set up the coalition for disaster resilient infrastructure for climate adaptation.

     

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  • [pib] BASIC Countries

    The Union Environment Minister has delivered the statement on behalf of the BASIC group of countries at the UN Climate Change Conference underway at Glasgow.

    Who are the BASIC Countries?

    • The BASIC countries (also Basic countries or BASIC) are a bloc of four large newly industrialized countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
    • It was formed by an agreement on 28 November 2009.
    • The four committed to act jointly at the Copenhagen climate summit, including a possible united walk-out if their common minimum position was not met by the developed nations.
    • This emerging geopolitical alliance, initiated and led by China, then brokered the final Copenhagen Accord with the United States.

    What is the Copenhagen Accord?

    • The Copenhagen Accord is a document signed at COP 15 to the UNFCCC on 18 December 2009.
    • The Accord states that global warming should be limited to below 2.0 °C (3.6 °F).
    • It does not specify what the baseline is for these temperature targets (e.g., relative to pre-industrial or 1990 temperatures).
    • In January 2010, the Accord was described merely as a political agreement and not legally binding, as is argued by the US and Europe.
    • It is not legally binding and does not commit countries to agree to a binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose round ended in 2012.
    • According to the UNFCCC, these targets are relative to pre-industrial temperatures.

     

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  • Shri Guru Nanak Jayanti to be declared World Pedestrian Day

    The Punjab Police has proposed that the birth anniversary (Gurpurab) of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev be declared as ‘World Pedestrian Day’.

    Why is Guru Nanak Dev considered the world’s most notable and revered pedestrian?

    • The founder of Sikhism, Shri Guru Nanak Dev had traveled far and wide during the 15th and 16th centuries.
    • It is believed that Nanak Dev, along with his companion Bhai Mardana, undertook most part of his journeys on foot.
    • He aimed to spread the message of oneness and to break barriers across faiths by engaging in spiritual dialogues.

    Places visited by him

    • From Mecca to Haridwar, from Sylhet to Mount Kailash, Guru Nanak visited hundreds of interfaith sites related to Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and Jainism.
    • His journeys are referred are also called udaasis. At some sites, gurdwaras were constructed to commemorate his visit.
    • Later his travels were documented in texts called ‘janamsakhis’.
    • These sites are now spread across nine nations as per current geographical divisions — India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, China (Tibet), Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan.

    Motive behind Punjab Police’s proposal

    • The idea is to spread awareness on road safety for pedestrians by introducing Guru Nanak Dev’s own life as an inspiration.
    • The best results are achieved only when the community is mobilized for a cause.
    • Walking is a universal form of travel. It is the best way which convey equality amongst all.

    Try answering this PYQ:

    Q. Consider the following Bhakti Saints:

    1. Dadu Dayal
    2. Guru Nanak
    3. Tyagaraja

    Who among the above was/were preaching when the Lodi dynasty fell and Babur took over? (CSP 2018)

    (a) 1 and 3

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 2 and 3

    (d) 1 and 2

     

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