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  • Why do we have Leap Years?

     

    The year 2020 is a ‘leap year’, meaning the month of February will have 29 days instead of 28, and the total number of days will be 366 instead of 365. This was also the case in 2016, and 2024 will again be a leap year.

    Leap Years

    • A calendar is meant to correspond to the Earth’s seasons.
    • For this, the number of days in a calendar needs to match the time required by the Earth to orbit the Sun.
    • The time required by the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun is approximately 365.242 days. But years are usually only 365 days.
    • To adjust for the extra 0.242 days in the orbital period, which becomes almost one full day in four years, the calendar adds an extra day once every four years.
    • This approximates the time to 365.25 days, which is close to the actual 365.242 days.

    But is that not inaccurate?

    • Yes, it is. And further adjustments are made to the Gregorian calendar, the calendar we follow today.
    • The Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582. Before that, the calendar followed was the Julian calendar, introduced in 45 BC.
    • The calendars were different in their treatment of leap years.
    • The Julian calendar had leap days every four years, but since it still did not accurately conform to the Earth’s precise orbit time, it kept falling behind with respect to natural seasons over the centuries.
    • By the 16th century, the Julian calendar had fallen out of tune with the natural seasons by almost 10 days.
    • To correct this discrepancy, Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 decreed that the day of October 4 that year would be followed directly by October 15 – thus covering up the error.
    • The Pope also modified the leap year system in the Julian calendar. That new system came to be known as the Gregorian calendar.

    What is the new system?

    • In the Gregorian calendar, a century year (a year ending with 00) is not a leap year, even though it is a multiple of 4. Thus, the year 2100 will not be a leap year.
    • But even this does not provide total accuracy. To ensure that, some century years remain leap years. In the Gregorian calendar, leap years include those century years which are exactly divisible by 400.
    • Thus, 2000 remained a leap year even though it ended with 00.
    • The Gregorian calendar reduces the margin of error under the Julian calendar, thus keeping days more in tune with seasons.

  • International Mother Language Day

     

    Friday, February 21 was International Mother Language Day.

    International Mother Language Day

    • It has been observed since 1999 to promote “linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism”, according to the UN.
    • Of the world’s 6,000 languages, 43% are estimated as endangered, according to the UN.
    • On the other hand, just 10 languages account for as many as 4.8 billion speakers — over 60% of the world population.
    • Globally, English remains the most widely spoken language with 1.13 billion speakers in 2019, followed by Mandarin with 1.17 billion, according to the online database Ethnologue.

    Why February 21?

    • UNESCO declared International Mother Language Day in 1999, to commemorate a 1952 protest against West Pakistan’s imposition of Urdu as the official language of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
    • According to a report, police opened fire on demonstrating Dhaka University students and “some people were killed”.
    • When thousands thronged the university the next day, police fired again, killing more people.
    • In Bangladesh, since 1953, February 21 is observed as Ekushe Day, after the Bengali word for twenty-one.
    • According to the South Asia Democratic Forum, five among those killed were recognised as “language martyrs — Abul Barkat, Abdul Jabbar, Rafiquddin Ahmad, Abdus Salman and Shafiur Rahman.

    Data on Indian languages

    • Hindi is third with 615 million speakers while Bengali is seventh with 265 million.
    • In India, Hindi is the most spoken language with over 528 million speakers in 2011, as per the Census.
    • Bengali had 97.2 million speakers in 2011, followed by Marathi (83 million), while other languages with over 50 million speakers are Telugu (81 million), Tamil (69 million), Gujarati (55.5 million) and Urdu (50.8 million).
    • Percentage trends from 1991 to 2011 underline the growth of the most widely spoken language, Hindi, which was spoken by 39.29% of the Indian population in 1991, and whose share grew to 43.63% in 2011.
    • For other languages in India’s top 12, the 2011 percentage share has fallen when compared to that in 1991.

  • What did Harappan people eat?

    The National Museum in New Delhi has hosted “The Indus dining experience” a food event based on the food pattern of Indus valley civilization.

    Food of Harappans

    • Archaeological evidence from Indus Valley sites (c. 3300 BC to 1300 BC) in present-day India and Pakistan suggests that a purely vegetarian meal will not provide a complete picture of what the Harappan people ate.
    • To judge from the quantity of bones left behind, animal foods were consumed in abundance: beef, buffalo, mutton, turtles, tortoises, gharials, and river and sea fish.
    • Apart from meat, the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation grew and ate a variety of cereals and pulses.
    • There is archaeological evidence for cultivation of pea (matar), chickpea (chana), pigeon pea (tur/arhar), horse gram (chana dal) and green gram (moong).
    • Several varieties of wheat have been found at Harappan sites, as well as barley of the two-rowed and six-rowed kinds.
    • There is evidence that the Harappans cultivated Italian millet, ragi and amaranth, as well as sorghum and rice.
    • Oilseeds such as sesame, linseed, and mustard were also grown.

  • Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED)

     

    An extraordinary measure to protect 25 million people and important economic regions of 15 Northern European countries from rising seas has been proposed. It is called Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED) enclosing all of the North Sea.

    Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED)

    • The scientists have proposed the construction of two dams of a combined length of 637 km — the first between northern Scotland and western Norway.
    • It would be 476 km and with an average depth of 121 m and maximum depth of 321 m; the second between France and southwestern England, of length 161 km, and average depth of 85 m and maximum depth of 102 m.
    • A/c to scientists, separating the North and Baltic Seas from the Atlantic Ocean is considered to be the “most viable option” to protect Northern Europe against unstoppable sea level rise (SLR).
    • They have also identified other regions in the world where such mega-enclosures could potentially be considered, including the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Red Sea.

    The rationale behind

    • The concept of constructing NEED showcases the extent of protection efforts that are required if mitigation efforts fail to limit sea level rise.
    • While NEED may appear to be “overwhelming” and “unrealistic”, it could be “potentially favourable” financially and in scale when compared with alternative solutions to fight SLR, the research argues.
    • The researchers classify the solutions to SLR into three categories of taking no action, protection, and managed retreat — and submit that NEED is in the second category.
    • While managed retreat, which includes options such as managed migrations, may be less expensive than protection (NEED), it involves intangible costs such as national and international political instability, psychological difficulties, and loss of culture and heritage for migrants.
    • NEED, the paper says, will have the least direct impact on people’s daily lives, can be built at a “reasonable cost”, and has the largest potential to be implemented with the required urgency to be effective.

    Viability of NEED

    • The researchers have estimated the total costs associated with NEED at between €250 billion and €550 billion.
    • They referred to the costs of building the 33.9-km Saemangeum Seawall in South Korea and the Maasvlakte 2 extension of the Rotterdam harbour in the Netherlands as examples,
    • If construction is spread over a 20-year period, this will work out to an annual expense of around 0.07%-0.16% of the GDP of the 15 Northern European countries that will be involved.
    • Also the construction will “heavily impact” marine and terrestrial ecosystems inside and outside the enclosure, will have social and cultural implications, and affect tourism and fisheries.

  • In news: 1946 Royal Indian Navy Mutiny

     

    Seventy-four years ago on February 18, 1946, some 1,100 Indian sailors or “ratings” of the HMIS Talwar and the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Signal School in Bombay declared a hunger strike, triggered by the conditions and treatment of Indians in the Navy.

    RIN Mutiny

    • A “slow down” the strike was also called, which meant that the ratings would carry out their duties slowly.
    • The morning after February 18, somewhere between 10,000-20,000 sailors joined the strike, as did shore establishments in Karachi, Madras, Calcutta, Mandapam, Visakhapatnam, and the Andaman Islands.
    • One of the triggers for the RIN strike was the arrest of a rating, BC Dutt, who had scrawled “Quit India” on the HMIS Talwar.
    • The day after the strike began, the ratings went around Bombay in lorries, waving the Congress flag, and getting into scraps with Europeans and policemen who tried to confront them.

    Their demands

    While the immediate trigger was the demand for better food and working conditions, the agitation soon turned into a wider demand for independence from British rule. The protesting sailors demanded:

    • release of all political prisoners including those from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA),
    • action against the commander for ill-treatment and using insulting language,
    • revision of pay and allowances to put RIN employees on a par with their counterparts in the Royal Navy,
    • demobilisation of RIN personnel with provisions for peacetime employment,
    • release of Indian forces stationed in Indonesia, and better treatment of subordinates by their officers

    Upsurge of nationalism

    • The RIN strike came at a time when the Indian nationalist sentiment had reached fever pitch across the country.
    • The winter of 1945-46 saw three violent upsurges: in Calcutta in November 1945 over the INA trials; in February 1946, also in Calcutta, over the sentencing of INA officer Rashid Ali; and, in that same month, the ratings’ uprise in Bombay.
    • This chain of events led to the “mounting fever of excitement affecting the whole political climate”.
    • Soon, ordinary people joined the ratings, and life came to a virtual standstill in both Bombay and Calcutta. There were meetings, processions, strikes, and hartals.
    • In Bombay, labourers participated in a general strike called by the Communist Party of India and the Bombay Students’ Union. In many cities across India, students boycotted classes in solidarity.
    • The response of the state was brutal. It is estimated that over 220 people died in police firing, while roughly 1,000 were injured.

    Significance of the events

    • The RIN revolt remains a legend today. It was an event that strengthened further the determination among all sections of the Indian people to see the end of British rule.
    • Deep solidarity and amity among religious groups was in evidence, which appeared to run counter to the rapidly spreading atmosphere of commuanal hatred and animosity.
    • However, communal unity was more in the nature of organisational unity than a unity among the two major communities.
    • Within months, India was to be devoured by a terrible communal conflagration.

    Final nail in the coffin

    • This revolt was different from the other revolts in the sense that, after 1857 it was the first time that the British realized that the Royal Indian forces were no more obedient to the British commands and were in concurrence with the overall defiant nationalist sentiments prevailing in the entire country.
    • Mutinies are usually confined to a particular station, establishment or ship. However, this was the first instance when the entire service joined the revolt.
    • Most striking feature was that it was directed against the British government and not against superior officers – not a single officer, British or Indian, was harmed.
    • Fearless action by the masses was an expression of militancy in the popular mind. Revolt in the armed forces had a great liberating effect on the minds of people.
    • It displayed that the armed forces no longer obeyed the British authority rather it was the nationalist leaders who held sway over them. The RIN revolt was seen as an event marking the end of British rule.

    Aftermath

    • The leaders realized that any mass uprising would inevitably carry the risk of not being amenable to centralized direction and control. Besides, now that independence and power were in sight, they were eager not to encourage indiscipline in the armed forces.
    • It was immediately after this revolt that PM Atlee dispatched the Cabinet Mission to India, so it is also inferred that the mutiny hastened the process of transfer of power to India.
    • It is also important to mention that the revolt came to an end after the nationalist leaders, Sardar Patel and Mohammad Ali Jinnah on receiving a request to intervene by the British, issued a statement calling upon the mutineers to surrender.

  • Specie in news: ‘World’s largest’ subterranean fish

     

    Systematic exploration of the Meghalayan caves has been underway for almost 30 years and hundreds of kilometres of cave passages have been explored and mapped. In a cave in a remote forested area of Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills a research expedition found large specie of a subterranean fish (occurring under the earth’s surface).

    About the fish

    • The blind fish was over 40 cm. It has not been named so far.
    • It is nearly five times the mean length (85mm/8.5 cm) for all known subterranean fish to date.
    • The only other species exceeding 300mm (30 cm) in length are eel-like Synbranchidae with nothing like the bulk of the new fish.
    • The 250-known subterranean (occurring under the earth’s surface) fish species around the world measure only around 8.5 cm on average.
    • The specialists say that possibly one (or more) populations of these fish became isolated deeper in the caves and over generations became adapted to the dark, losing their eyes in the process.

    Closest resemblance

    • The experts feel that the fish species is very similar to the Golden Mahseer or the Tor Putitora, one of the most famous game fish of the Himalayan rivers.
    • Unique characters that distinguishes it from the Golden Mahseer is the lack of pigmentation, a lack of eyes and of course, its subterranean habitat – being locked in caves.
    • There are ‘normal’ Golden Mahseer in the area too but there is not much surface water (at least in the dry winter months) so fish end up in the cave pools and underground rivers.

    Features of Subterranean ecosystems

    • Subterranean ecosystems are considered extreme, high-stress environments characterised by darkness, truncated food webs and food scarcity.
    • Despite this, they harbour exceptional vertebrate and invertebrate taxa (21,000+ species), many of which are evolutionarily unique, and relics of ancient fauna given their long-term isolation.
    • Many cave fish show different adaptations – some don’t have eyes, some have reduced eyes, some don’t have fins, some have weird body shapes.

  • Permanent Commission to Women in Indian Army

     

    • The Supreme Court brought women officers in 10 streams of the Army on a par with their male counterparts in all respects, setting aside longstanding objections of the government.
    • The case was first filed in the Delhi High Court by women officers in 2003 and had received a favourable order in 2010. But the order was never implemented and was challenged by the government.

    Women in Army: Background of the case

    • The induction of women officers in the Army started in 1992.
    • They were commissioned for a period of five years in certain chosen streams such as Army Education Corps, Corps of Signals, Intelligence Corps, and Corps of Engineers.
    • Recruits under the Women Special Entry Scheme (WSES) had a shorter pre-commission training period than their male counterparts who were commissioned under the Short Service Commission (SSC) scheme.
    • In 2006, the WSES scheme was replaced with the SSC scheme, which was extended to women officers. They were commissioned for a period of 10 years, extendable up to 14 years.
    • Serving WSES officers were given the option to move to the new SSC scheme or to continue under the erstwhile WSES.
    • They were to be, however, restricted to roles in streams specified earlier — which excluded combat arms such as infantry and armoured corps.

    2 key arguments shot down

    • The Supreme Court rejected arguments against a greater role for women officers, saying this violated equality under the law.
    • They were being kept out of command posts on the reasoning that the largely rural rank and a file will have problems with women as commanding officers. The biological argument was also rejected as disturbing.
    • While male SSC officers could opt for permanent commission at the end of 10 years of service, this option was not available to women officers.
    • They were, thus, kept out of any command appointment, and could not qualify for government pension, which starts only after 20 years of service as an officer.
    • The first batch of women officers under the new scheme entered the Army in 2008.

    Arguments by the govt.

    • The government put forth other arguments before the Supreme Court to justify the proposal on the grounds of permanent commission, grants of pensionary benefits, limitations of judicial review on policy issues, occupational hazards, reasons for discrimination against women and rationalization on physiological limitations for employment in staff appointments.
    • The apex court has rejected these arguments, saying they are “based on sex stereotypes premised on assumptions about socially ascribed roles of gender which discriminate against women”.
    • It has also said that it only shows the need “to emphasise the need for change in mindsets to bring about true equality in the Army”.

    Implications of the judgement

    • The SC has done away with all discrimination on the basis of years of service for grant of PC in 10 streams of combat support arms and services, bringing them on a par with male officers.
    • It has also removed the restriction of women officers only being allowed to serve in staff appointments, which is the most significant and far-reaching aspect of the judgment.
    • It means that women officers will be eligible to tenant all the command appointments, at par with male officers, which would open avenues for further promotions to higher ranks for them.
    • It also means that in junior ranks and career courses, women officers would be attending the same training courses and tenanting critical appointments, which are necessary for higher promotions.

    Way Forward

    • The implications of the judgment will have to be borne by the human resources management department of the Army, which will need to change policy in order to comply.
    • But the bigger shift will have to take place in the culture, norms, and values of the rank and file of the Army, which will be the responsibility of the senior military and political leadership.
    • After the Supreme Court’s progressive decision, they have no choice but to bite the proverbial bullet.

  • Battle of Çanakkale/Gallipoli

    India issued a strong demarche to Turkey over its outspoken President Erdogan’s comments in Pakistan. Erdogan has criticised India’s policy in Jammu and Kashmir and compared it with that of Turkey during World War I.

    Gallipoli campaign

    • The Battle of Çanakkale, also known as the Gallipoli campaign or the Dardanelles campaign, is considered to be one of the bloodiest of World War I, during which the Ottoman army faced off against the Allied forces, leading to the slaughter of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
    • In March 1915, with the war in Europe stalemated in the trenches, Winston Churchill, then Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty, devised a plan to take control of the Dardanelles.
    • The plan was to capture strategic strait connecting the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and thus reach Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) at the mouth of the Bosporus.
    • By taking Constantinople, the Allies hoped to break the Turks, who had recently entered the war on the side of Germany.

    The massacre

    • The Allies carried out a heavy naval bombardment of Turkish forts along the shores of the Dardanelles, and when that failed, followed up with what was the biggest amphibious landing in military history at the time.
    • However, what the British and their allies had hoped would be the turning point in the war ended up as a catastrophe.
    • In the nine months upto January 1916, when the Allies called off the campaign and evacuated, more than 40,000 British soldiers had been killed, along with 8,000 Australians. On the Turkish side, some 60,000 had perished.

    Legacy of the battle

    • The battle resulted in a demotion for Churchill and the emergence on the Turkish side of the young military hero, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
    • But the legacy of Gallipoli goes far beyond its military aspects — the event is today one of the central pillars of the modern Turkish identity.
    • The campaign is also seen to have seeded Australian and New Zealand national consciousness — April 25, the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, is observed as ANZAC Day, the day of national remembrance for the war dead.

  • Erstwhile State of Rampur

    Erstwhile royals of the state of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh are fighting over the assets and legacy of Nawab Raza Ali Khan, who acceded to the Indian Union at the time of Independence.  The Supreme Court ended India’s longest-running civil dispute last year, and the process of evaluating the inheritance is currently ongoing.

    The state of Rampur

    • The state of Rampur was founded by Nawab Ali Muhammad Khan, the adopted son of Sardar Daud Khan, the chief of the Rohillas in Northern India.
    • The Rohillas were Afghans who entered India in the 18th century as the Mughal Empire was in decline, and took control of Rohilkhand, at the time known as Katehr.
    • In 1737, Nawab Muhammad Khan received the territory of Katehr from Emperor Muhammad Shah, only to lose everything to Nawab Wazir of Oudh in 1746.
    • Two years later, he assisted Ahmad Shah Durrani in his conquest of India, recovering all his former possessions.
    • Over the next two centuries the Rampur royals, earlier a warring clan, struck deep roots, and with the blessings of the British, began to build one of the richest principalities in the country.

    Patrons of the arts, culture

    • The Rampur royals have played an important role in the socio-cultural history of the Ganga-Yamuna belt.
    • They run the Amir Raza library in Rampur, once known as the official darbar of the Nawab, which is home to some 15,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Turkish, as well as a seventh-century Quran.
    • The library also houses 2,500 specimens of Islamic calligraphy, 5,000 miniature paintings, and 60,000 printed books, besides the extremely rare Persian translation of Valmiki’s Ramayana, which is believed to have been Emperor Aurangzeb’s personal copy.
    • In the 19th century, the royals established courts of law and a standing army, and built irrigation works. In the 20th century, they set up sugar and textile mills.
    • Many Hindus were employed in senior administrative positions in the state. Nawab Raza Ali Khan was known to have written poetry in Bhojpuri for Holi.
    • The Rampur court was also a great patron of the arts, and is known to have patronised Ghalib and Begum Akhtar, as well as the tabla player Ahmad Jan Thirakwa, sarangi player Bundu Khan, sarod player Fida Hussein Khan, been player Wazir Khan, and the kathak dancers Acchan Maharaj and Kalka Prasad.

    After Independence

    • Rampur, under Nawab Raza Ali, was the first kingdom to accede to India in 1949, becoming the only Muslim-majority district in Uttar Pradesh.
    • Soon after accession, the Nawab handed over the official royal residence, the Rampur Qila or Fort, built in 1775, to the Indian government, along with several other properties.
    • In return, the Indian government bestowed two key rights to the Nawab — he was granted full ownership of the properties, and guaranteed succession to the gaddi or rulership of the state based on customary law, which gave exclusive property rights to the eldest son.
    • When Raza Ali Khan died in 1966, he had three wives, three sons, and six daughters.
    • His eldest son Murtaza Ali Khan succeeded him as head of the state, as per custom.
    • The government recognised him as the sole inheritor of all his father’s private properties and issued a certificate to this effect. But his brother challenged this in the civil court.

  • Person in news: Dara Shikoh

     

    The Ministry of Culture recently set up a panel of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to locate the grave of the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh (1615-59) nearby Humayun’s Tomb complex in Delhi.

    Dara Shikoh’s legacy

    • The eldest son of Shah Jahan, Dara Shikoh was killed after losing the war of succession against his brother Aurangzeb.
    • Dara Shikoh is described as a “liberal Muslim” who tried to find commonalities between Hindu and Islamic traditions.
    • He translated into Persian the Bhagavad Gita as well as 52 Upanishads.

    Antithesis to Aurangzeb

    • Some historians argue that if Dara Shikoh had ascended the Mughal throne instead of Aurangzeb, it could have saved thousands of lives lost in religious clashes.
    • Dara Shukoh was the total antithesis of Aurangzeb, in that he was deeply syncretic, warm-hearted and generous — but at the same time, he was also an indifferent administrator and ineffectual in the field of battle.

    The remains of Dara Shikoh

    • According to the Shahjahannama, after Aurangzeb defeated Dara Shikoh, he brought the latter to Delhi in chains.
    • His head was cut off and sent to Agra Fort, while his torso was buried in the Humayun’s Tomb complex.
    • Italian traveller Niccolao Manucci gave a graphic description of the day in Travels of Manucci, as he was there as a witness to the whole thing. That is the basis of the thesis.