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  • Nagoba Jatara

    The month long Nagoba Jatara recently concluded in Adilabad dist. of AP.

    Nagoba Jatara

    • Nagoba Jatara is a tribal festival held in Keslapur village, Inderavelly Mandal[1] Adilabad district, Telangana, India.
    • It is the second biggest tribal carnival and celebrated by Mesaram clan of Gond tribes for 10 days.
    • Tribal people from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh belonging to the Mesram clan offer prayers at the festival.
    • It starts in pushya masam. A ceremony of ‘bheting’ is it’s integral part where the new brides are introduced to the clan god during first jatra afer their marriage
    • The few hundred Raj Gond and Pardhan Adivasis, men clad in pure white dhoti-kurta and the pagdi headgear and women in the traditional colourful nau-vari Maharashtrian style saree.
    • The temple for which a new structure is coming up is dedicated to the serpent god, known as Shri Shek to the aboriginal people, and is the centre of all activities during the week long festivities.

  • Beating Retreat Ceremony

    The Beating Retreat ceremony recently took place at Vijay Chowk. The ceremony, which takes place on January 29 every year, marks the culmination of the four-day Republic Day celebrations.

    What is the Beating Retreat function?

    • ‘Beating Retreat’ marks a centuries old military tradition, when the troops ceased fighting, sheathed their arms and withdrew from the battlefield and returned to the camps at sunset at the sounding of the Retreat.
    • The military tradition began in 17th century England, when King James II ordered his troops to beat drums, lower flags and organise a parade to announce the end of a day of combat.
    • The ceremony was then called ‘watch setting’ and took place at sunset after firing a single round from the evening gun.
    • The ceremony is currently held by Armed Forces in the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and India, among others.

    How did it begin in India?

    • Beating the Retreat’ has emerged as an event of national pride when the Colours and Standards are paraded.
    • The ceremony traces its origins to the early 1950s when Major Roberts of the Indian Army indigenously developed the unique ceremony of display by the massed bands.
    • Section D (Ceremonials) at the Ministry of Defence conducts the event.
    • The ceremony consists of musical performances by the bands, who each year play Indian and western tunes.

  • Liberation of Auschwitz

     

    • Yesterday on January 27th survivors of the Holocaust and international heads of state marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
    • During the Second World War, the government of Nazi Germany killed approximately 17 million people across Europe in half a dozen camps specifically designated for killings.
    • Of these seven killing centers, the camp at Auschwitz, perhaps the most well known, was the largest in size.

    Why is January 27 an important date in Holocaust history?

    • During the final stages of the Second World War, months before the fall of Nazi Germany, Nazi officials began forcibly moving prisoners between the camps spread across Europe.
    • Called ‘Death Marches’, this forcible displacement on foot over long distances in the bitter cold, with little to no food resulted in many deaths.
    • Some researchers believe that prisoners were moved from camps to prevent the liberation of prisoners held inside these camps and to also remove evidence of crimes against humanity perpetrated by Nazi officials.
    • Prisoners who were very ill and disabled were left to die in the abandoned camps.

    Rescue of Auschwitz

    • Allied forces advanced from the West while soldiers belonging to the Red Army of the Soviet Union began entering concentration camps and killing centers across Europe, liberating survivors.
    • The first camp that the Red Army soldiers liberated was the Majdanek camp in Poland in July 1944.
    • The Army entered Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, finding hundreds of sick, starving and exhausted prisoners, who had somehow survived.
    • In 2005, the UN-designated January 27 as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

    What occurred during the liberation of Auschwitz?

    • Along with surviving prisoners, the Red Army also found hordes of items belonging to the prisoners that had been stripped from them by Nazi officials when they first arrived at Auschwitz.
    • The prisoners were so weak after having been starved for prolonged periods of time, that despite medical intervention, many died days after their rescue.
    • Several soldiers in the Red Army and in the Allied troops later gave testimonies concerning the sights that awaited them when they first entered the camps in Auschwitz and elsewhere.
    • Although Nazi officials had destroyed many warehouses and crematoria where property looted from prisoners had been stored and where bodies had been disposed, liberating troops still found evidence of the crimes and brutality perpetrated against the prisoners.

    What made Auschwitz unique?

    • Historical records show that despite attempts by Nazi officials to obliterate prisoners, particularly those at Auschwitz, there were survivors who lived to provide testimony against Nazi officials.
    • Several factors set Auschwitz apart from other camps across Europe.
    • The camp at Auschwitz had originally been built to hold Polish political prisoners but by March 1942, it became one of the main centres for the Nazi’s Final Solution to the Jewish Question.

    Aftermath of the Holocaust

    • Trials were held against Nazi officers and people who worked inside the camps in various capacities and perpetrated crimes against humanity in the camps of Auschwitz and elsewhere in Europe.
    • These individuals included both men and women, many who escaped accountability for their crimes after the fall of Nazi Germany.
    • To evade justice, many SS officers changed their identities and escaped to other parts of Europe, the US and to other parts of the world.
    • The camps at Auschwitz have become an important reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust and in 1947 the government of Poland made the site a state memorial.
    • In 1979, UNESCO added the Auschwitz memorial to its list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

  • Explained: Why are there more men than women in the field of STEM?

    Across the world, there are more men who are active in science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM) than women. Of the 866 Nobel winners so far, only 53 have gone to women.

    Sociology behind the gender-divide

    • Research shows that when men and women apply for jobs — be in the labour market, or in places where high level qualifications are demanded, men candidates engage in self-promotion, and are boastful while equally qualified women are more ‘modest’ and ‘undersell’ themselves.
    • Even in groups and situations where men and women are present as colleagues, the views of women are either ignored or listened to less seriously than those of men.
    • As a result, women tend to underestimate their ability relative to men, especially in public settings, and negotiate less successfully.

    Why this imbalance?

    The authors suggest three socio-psychological reasons, namely:

    1. masculine culture
    2. lack of sufficient early exposure to computers, physics and related areas compared to boys in early childhood and
    3. gender gap in self-efficacy

    Stereotypes and role models

    I] Masculine culture

    • The masculine culture is due to stereotyping that men are fitter for certain jobs and skills than women, and that women are more ‘delicate’, ‘tender’ and thus unfit for ‘hard’ jobs.
    • In addition, there are not enough female role models whom women may admire and follow.

    II] Lack of exposure

    • The lack of exposure in early childhood to certain fields and the supposed stereotyping of computer field practitioners as ‘nerds’ with social awkwardness would seem to have played a role from women shying away into other fields.

    III] Gender gap in self-efficacy

    • The ‘gender gap in self-efficacy’ appears to have arisen as a result of the above two, and leads to a worry in girls’ and women’s minds as to ‘whether I am really only fit for certain ‘soft’ fields and jobs or a feeling of diffidence.
    • This is clearly a reflection and product of masculine culture.
    • But then, even when we turn to life sciences, where both men and women compete for positions and career advancements in universities and research labs, this gender disparity is glaring.

    India is no better

    • The men rule roosts here too in India. India has been a patrilineal society with the notion that women need not take on jobs, and that this notion has only recently been revised.
    • Women form only 10-15% of STEM researchers and faculty members in the IITs, CSIR, AIIMS and PGIs.
    • In private R & D labs, there are very few women scientists.

  • Nagardhan Excavations

     

    • Recent archaeological excavations at Nagardhan near Nagpur have provided concrete evidence on the life, religious affiliations and trade practices of the Vakataka dynasty that ruled parts of Central and South India between the third and fifth centuries.
    • After a 1,500 year-old sealing was excavated for the first time, a new study in Numismatic Digest has tried to understand the Vakataka rule under Queen Prabhavatigupta.

    Nagardhan

    • Nagardhan is a large village in Nagpur district, about 6 km south of Ramtek taluka headquarters.
    • Archaeological remains were found on a surface spread over a 1 km × 1.5 km area. The researchers excavated the site during 2015-2018.
    • The existing village sits on top of the ancient habitation. The Nagardhan Fort stands south of present-day Nagardhan village.
    • This was constructed during the Gond Raja period and later renovated and re-used by the Bhosales of Nagpur during the late 18th and 19th centuries.

    Importance of the excavation

    • Very little was known about the Vakatakas, the Shaivite rulers of Central India between the third and fifth centuries.
    • All that was known about the dynasty, believed to hail from the Vidarbha region, was largely through some literature and copperplates.
    • There were assumptions that the excavated site of Nagardhan is the same as Nandhivardhan, the capital city of the eastern branch of the Vakatakas.
    • It was after archaeological evidence from here that Nagardhan was understood to have served as a capital of the Vakataka kingdom.

    The seals so found

    • It is the first time clay sealings have been excavated from Nagardhan.
    • The oval-shaped sealing belongs to the period when Prabhavatigupta was the queen of the Vakataka dynasty.
    • It bears her name in the Brahmi script along with the depiction of a conch.
    • The presence of the conch, scholars say, is a sign of the Vaishnava affiliation that the Guptas held.
    • The sealing was traced on top of a mega wall that researchers now think could have been part of a royal structure at the capital city of the kingdom.

    Who was Queen Prabhavatigupta?

    • The copperplate issued by Queen Prabhavatigupta starts with a genealogy of the Guptas, mentioning the Queen’s grandfather Samudragupta and her father Chandragupta II.
    • These are strong indicators of Vaishnava signatures on the royal seals of the Vakatakas reiterate that Queen Prabhavatigupta was indeed a powerful woman ruler.
    • Since the Vakataka people traded with Iran and beyond through the Mediterranean Sea, scholars suggest that these sealings could have been used as official royal permission issued from the capital city.
    • Besides, these were used on documents that sought mandatory royal permissions.

    Why are the findings on Queen Prabhavatigupta significant?

    • Scholars say Queen Prabhavatigupta was among a handful of women rulers in India to have reigned over any kingdom during ancient times.
    • The Vakataka rulers were known to have forged several matrimonial alliances with other dynasties of their times.
    • One of the key alliances was with Prabhavatigupta of the mighty Gupta dynasty, which was then ruling north India. The Guptas were way more powerful than the Vakatakas.
    • After marrying Vakataka king Rudrasena II, Prabhavatigupta enjoyed the position of Chief Queen.
    • When she took over the Vakataka kingdom, after the sudden demise of Rudrasena II, her stature as a woman Vakataka ruler rose significantly.
    • This is evident from the fact that the sealings were introduced and issued during her period as a ruler, that too from the capital city of Nagardhan.

    Why is the sign of Vaishnava affiliation important?

    • The Vakataka rulers followed the Shaiva sect of Hinduism while the Guptas were staunch Vaishnavites.
    • Excavators say that many religious structures indicating affinity to the Vaishnava sect, and found in Ramtek, were built during the reign of Queen Prabhavatigupta.
    • While she was married into a family that belonged to the Shaiva sect, the queen’s powers allowed her to choose a deity of worship, that is, Lord Vishnu.

    What else has been excavated from Nagardhan so far?

    • Earlier results from the excavations here had traced evidence in the form of ceramics, ear studs of glass, antiquities, bowls and pots, a votive shrine and tank, an iron chisel, a stone depicting a deer, and terracotta bangles.
    • Some terracotta objects even depicted images of gods, animals and humans, along with amulets, scotches, wheels, skin rubbers and spindle whorls.
    • An intact idol of Lord Ganesha, which had no ornaments adorned, too was found from the site.
    • This confirmed that the elephant god was a commonly worshipped deity in those times.
    • On the means of living of the Vakataka people, researchers found animal rearing to be one of the main occupations.
    • Remains of seven species of domestic animals — cattle, goat, sheep, pig, cat, horse and fowl — were traced in an earlier study by the team.

  • Operation Alberich

    The recently released ‘1917’ movie tells the story of two British soldiers during the WWI in Operation Alberich, the strategic retreat in which their troops were taken back to the Hindenburg Line in 1917.

    What was Operation Alberich?

    • Operation Alberich is considered among Germany’s most important operations on the Western Front in 1917, as well as one of its most extreme due to the ‘scorched earth’ policy employed.
    • In World War I (1914-18), the Allied Powers — principally France, the British Empire, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the US (after 1917) — fought and defeated the Central Powers — mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey.
    • The war caused destruction and suffering on unprecedented levels, and only led to a bigger conflict, World War II, two decades later in 1939.
    • The war manoeuvre involved the systematic destruction of 1,500 square kilometres of French territory by the German army after it decided to retreat to a newly constructed defence line.
    • The German army leadership had decided that the war must shift temporarily to the shorter and more easily defensible Hindenburg Line. The Operation took place in February and March 1917.

    Course of action

    • The shortening of the war front was drastic, and is considered the war’s biggest military construction project.
    • The planning for the approximately 130-km Hindenburg Line began in September 1916, and much of it was completed in four months from October — using 5,00,000 tonnes of rocks and gravel, over 1,00,000 tonnes of cement, and 12,500 tonnes of barbed wire.
    • The scorched earth policy, which laid to waste entire villages, roads, and bridges, was meant to destroy anything that the Allies could find useful.
    • The Operation saw the complete evacuation of the area’s civilian population.

    Aftermath

    • The move is regarded as a tactical success for the Germans, as it took the Allies by surprise and delayed their advance, but is criticised for the disproportionate destruction that it caused.
    • It is considered a propaganda disaster for Germany, and was presented by the Allies as an example of “Hun barbarism”.
    • At the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed after the war, the Allies used Alberich to legitimize their claims for punitive reparations from Germany.

  • [pib] Establishment of Chairs named after eminent Women in Universities

     

    On the occasion of National Girl Child Day, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has set up 10 Chairs in different fields with an aim to carry out research activities to encourage women.

    Chairs named after eminent Women

    • The initiative is called “the Establishment of Chairs in the Universities in the name of eminent women administrators, artists, scientists and social reformers”.
    • It is being launched with the assistance of University Grants Commission (UGC).
    • The main objective is to inspire women to pursue higher education and to achieve excellence in their area of work.
    • The financial implications of the proposal is Rs. 50 lakh per Chair per year and the total expenditure for establishing ten Chairs will be approximately Rs. Rs. 5 crore per annum.
    • The Chairs are to be established for a period of 5 years initially as per the guidelines.

    The chairs proposed by UGC and approved by the Ministry are as under:

    S. No. Subject Proposed name of chair
    1. Administration Devi Ahilyabai Holkar
    2. Literature Mahadevi Varma
    3. Freedom Fighter (North East) Rani Gaidinliu
    4. Medicine & Health Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi
    5. Performing Art Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi
    6. Forest/Wildlife Conservation Amrita Devi (Beniwal)
    7. Mathematics Lilavati
    8. Science Kamala Sohonie
    9. Poetry & Mysticism Lal Ded
    10. Educational Reforms Hansa Mehta

     Functions of these chairs

    • Academic functions of the Chairs will be to engage in research and, in turn, contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the area of the study, strengthen the role of university/academics in public policy making etc.
    • The University will review the progress of the Chair annually and submit a final report on the activities and outcome of the Chair to the UGC after five years.
    • However, the UGC may undertake the exercise of reviewing the Chair for its continuance, at any stage.

  • Explained: The Kashmir Pandit tragedy

     

    It is 30 years since the “exodus” from the Valley of its minority Hindu Kashmiri Pandit community.

    The run-up: 1980s to 1990

    • Sheikh Abdullah had died in 1982, and the leadership of the National Conference passed on to his son Farooq Abdullah, who won the 1983 election.
    • But within two years, the Centre broke up the NC, and installed dissident Ghulam Mohammed Shah as Chief Minister. This led to huge disaffection and political instability.
    • The Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) stepped up its activities, and the hanging of the militant leader Maqbool Bhat in 1984 added to the sense of foreboding.
    • In 1986, after the Rajiv Gandhi government opened the Babri Masjid locks to enable Hindus to offer prayers there, ripples were felt in Kashmir too.
    • In Anantnag, the constituency of then Congress leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, there was a series of attacks on Hindu temples, and shops and properties of Kashmiri Pandits, blamed on separatist and secessionists.
    • Pandits had begun to be targeted. Eminent persons of the community were being shot dead.

    The night of January 19, 1990

    • Matters came to a head on January 19. By then, the Farooq Abdullah government had been dismissed and Governor’s Rule imposed.
    • According to accounts published by many eminent Kashmiri Pandits, there were threatening slogans over loudspeakers from mosques, and on the streets.
    • Speeches were made extolling Pakistan and the supremacy of Islam, and against Hinduism. Finally, the Kashmiri Pandit community decided to leave.

    The Gawkadal Massacre

    • On January 20, the first stream began leaving the Valley with hastily packed belongings in whatever transport they could find. A second, larger wave left in March and April, after more Pandits were killed.
    • On January 21, the CRPF gunned down 160 Kashmiri Muslim protesters at the Gawkadal Bridge, which has come to be known as the worst massacre in the long history of the conflict in Kashmir.
    • The two events — the flight of the Pandits and the Gawkadal massacre — took place within 48 hours.

    How many Pandits left?

    • According to some estimates, notably by the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), of 75,343 Kashmiri Pandit families in January 1990, more than 70,000 fled between 1990 and 1992 and continued until 2000.
    • The KPSS has placed the number of Kashmiri Pandits killed by militants from 1990 to 2011 at 399, the majority during 1989-90.
    • Some 800 families have remained in the Valley through these three decades.

    Role of the administration

    • The other contentious question about the exodus is the role played by the administration, and more specifically that of the J&K Governor, Jagmohan.
    • Newly appointed, he had arrived in Srinagar on January 19.
    • The Kashmiri Muslim view of the exodus is that he encouraged the Pandits to leave the Valley and thus gave a communal colour to what was until then a non-religious Kashmiri cause.
    • The Kashmiri Hindu view is that this is a disingenuous interpretation.
    • They believe that Kashmiri Muslims, with whom they had lived amicably for centuries, drove them out with a vengeance in a frenzy of Islamism that they could not have imagined even months earlier.
    • The truth, many commentators have concluded, may have been somewhere in the middle.

    The question of return

    • Those who had means rebuilt their lives elsewhere in the country — Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad have Pandit populations, also Jaipur and Lucknow — or went abroad.
    • The fleeing Pandits did not think they would never return to the Valley. But as the situation in Kashmir spiraled into a full-blown militancy, return began to look remote if not impossible.
    • The longing to return to the Valley did not diminish over the years, though it may have become more an idea than a real ambition.
    • Successive governments have promised that they will help this process, but the situation on the ground in Kashmir has meant this remains only an intention.
    • There is an acute realization in the community that the Valley is no longer the same that they left behind in 1990.
    • In many cases, their properties were either immediately vandalised or sold quickly by the owners to Kashmiri Muslims. Many fell into disrepair.

  • ‘Time to Care’ Report

     

    The report ‘Time to Care’  was recently released ahead of the 50th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

    ‘Time to Care’ Report

    • It is published by Oxfam International.
    • Its calculations are based on the latest data sources available, including from the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s Global Wealth Databook 2019 and Forbes’ 2019 Billionaires List.

    Findings of the report

    • Although global inequality has declined over the past three decades, domestic income inequality has risen in many countries, particularly in advanced economies and reached historic highs.
    • The report said that the world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 per cent of the planet’s population.
    • The report flagged that global inequality is shockingly entrenched and vast and the number of billionaires has doubled in the last decade, despite their combined wealth having declined in the last year.
    • The Oxfam report further said “sexist” economies are fuelling the inequality crisis by enabling a wealthy elite to accumulate vast fortunes at the expense of ordinary people and particularly poor women and girls.

    Income inequality in India

    • India’s richest 1 per cent hold more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million people who make up for the bottom 70 per cent of the country’s population.
    • The total wealth of all Indian billionaires is more than its full-year budget.
    • Regarding India, Oxfam said the combined total wealth of 63 Indian billionaires is higher than the total Union Budget of India for the fiscal year 2018-19 which was at Rs 24,42,200 crore.
    • It further said women and girls put in 3.26 billion hours of unpaid care work each and every day — a contribution to the Indian economy of at least Rs 19 lakh crore a year, which is 20 times the entire education budget of India in 2019 (Rs 93,000 crore).
    • He said women and girls are among those who benefit the least from today’s economic system.
    • They spend billions of hours cooking, cleaning and caring for children and the elderly. Unpaid care work is the ‘hidden engine’ that keeps the wheels of our economies, businesses and societies moving.

    Data on earnings

    • Oxfam said governments are massively under-taxing the wealthiest individuals and corporations and failing to collect revenues that could help lift the responsibility of care and tackle poverty and inequality.
    • As per the report, it would take a female domestic worker 22,277 years to earn what a top CEO of a technology company makes in one year.
    • With earnings pegged at Rs 106 per second, a tech CEO would make more in 10 minutes than what a domestic worker would make in one year.
    • Besides, direct public investments in the care economy of 2 per cent of GDP would potentially create 11 million new jobs and make up for the 11 million jobs lost in 2018, the report said.

  • Persons in news: Warren Hastings and his Impeachment Case

    Donald Trump’s impeachment trial started in the US Senate. A precedent being discussed is that of the Warren Hastings case — the famous failed attempt by the British Parliament to impeach India’s first governor-general.

    Warren Hastings

    • Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of Bengal (and the first de facto Governor-General of India), is considered among the most significant colonial administrators to have ruled India.
    • First as the governor of Bengal (1772-1774) and then as Governor-General (1774-1785), Hastings strengthened British rule in India and made profound changes in administration.
    • Hastings’s conduct while in office was called into question after he returned to Britain in 1785, most prominently by Edmund Burke, the noted British parliamentarian and philosopher.

    What was his impeachment case?

    • In 1786, impeachment proceedings were initiated against Hastings, probing his alleged mismanagement, mistreatment of natives, and personal corruption while in India.
    • William Pitt, the then British Prime Minister, first defended Hastings, but then joined the chorus against him.
    • Hastings’s argued that ‘Western’ standards of legality could not be applied in the East.
    • But Burke insisted that under the Law of Nature, people in India were entitled to the same protection as those in Britain.
    • In 1795, however, the House of Lords acquitted Hastings, and the impeachment failed.
    • Burke warned that such a verdict would live in “perpetual infamy”, and the trial gave rise to a wider debate on the role of the East India Company in India.

    Back2Basics

    Warren Hastings and his major works

    From 1772, Warren Hastings served as Governor-General of Fort Williams and the regulating act was passed after his arrival.

    Important events under his rule :

     

    • Hastings abolished the Dual System that had been established by Robert Clive. In the Dual System, the company had Diwani rights (rights to collect revenue) and the Nizam or Indian chiefs had the administrative authority.
    • The judicial powers of the Zamindars were abolished. Civil and criminal courts were established. Two appellate courts were established at Calcutta, one for civil (Sadar Diwani Adalat) and one for criminal (Sadar Nizamat Adalat) cases.
    • Hastings abolished the system of dastaks which were misused by company officials and traders earlier.
    • He implemented several reforms in all walks of administration. The Regulating Act 1773 and Pitts India Act, 1784 were important acts passed during his tenure.