June 2020
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  

Foreign Policy Watch: India-China

Postscript to a tragedy at Galwan

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Galwan valley.

Mains level: Paper 2- India-China relations

The article suggests the approach that India should adopt in its policy toward China. Long term view of the situation is crucial. But some short term steps is also necessary.

Prelude to 1962 War

  • Revolt in Tibet and granting asylum to the Dalai Lama in March 1959 can be seen as start of tensions in relations.
  •  In October 1959, there was a face-off between Indian and Chinese troops at Kongka La.
  • With the conflict in 1962,  there was very little room for a reasoned, negotiated settlement on the boundary question between the two countries.

2020 is not same as 1959 for both India and China

  • Both nations have grown immensely in strength and stature on the world stage – even military wise.
  • Their relations have substance and a diversity of content in a manner absent in the 1950s – like the economic relations.
  • Hence, there is a need to not blame each other and find solutions instead of descent towards a full-blown conflict with China.

Weighing the options carefully

  • India at present is struggling at multiple fronts:
  • 1) COVID-19 crisis demands the full attention of the government.
  • 2) Economy is stagnant and needs recovery.
  • 3) Tensions on other fronts – Pakistan persist and Nepal dispute in the Lipulekh/Kalapani area.
  • Thus, the call by warmongers should be evaluated, that too critically.

Evolving comprehensive China policy

  • Strong political direction, mature deliberation and coherence are keys to handling the situation.
  • Army’s role can involve tactical adjustments and manoeuvres to deter the Chinese.
  • But comprehensive China strategy should be left to those tasked with national security policy.
  • Chinese transgressions in Sikkim and Ladakh can provide learning lessons for our future strategy.
  • A complete strategy would involve military, diplomatic and political levels.

Future plan of action – Defence

  • India should take the initiative on a timely and early clarification of the LAC.
  • Identify areas of conflict and mark such areas as demilitarized by both sides through joint agreement.
  • At the same time, India must stand resolute and firm in the defence of territory in all four sectors of the border.
  • Contacts between the two militaries — joint exercises and exchanges of visits of senior Commanders — should be scaled down for short term future.
  • Diplomatic channels must continue to be open and should not be restricted in any way as they are essential in the current situation.
  • A border settlement is part of long term strategy.

Future of business, trade and investment between two countries

  • Indian businesses in China and Chinese business operations in India can expect tougher future.
  • The scenario on trade and investments could encounter similar obstacles.
  • Areas of on national security, as in the cyber field and in telecommunications (5G) should take necessary reduction in import of Chinese items.

 India should strengthen alliances

  • The events in Galwan Valley should be a wake-up call to re invent it’s South and easAsia policy.
  • This is an opportunity for India to align its interests much more strongly with the U.S. as a principal strategic partner.
  • India should also infuse more energy into its relations with Japan, Australia, and the ASEAN.
  • The time has also come for India to reconsider its stand on joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
  • To disengage from economic involvement with China, and build the capacities and capabilities it needs in manufacturing, and in supply chains networks closer home, India has to think in the long terms.

Consider the question “The context of changing relations with China has forced India to reconsider the depth of its engagement with other countries. In light of this examine the changes India’s foreign policy adopt in dealing with other countries.”

Conclusion

Galwan incident is a wake up call for us. In every aspect, engagement with China needs a re look. And that also includes an increased level of engagement in South Asian neighborhood.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

Revealing the secrets Arctic holds

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Icesat 2, Cryosat 2

Mains level: Paper 1- Arctic ice and how it influence climate change

This article is about Polarstern, is an icebreaker, which traversed the Arctic Ocean to study the aspects related to ice there. Here, we will look at some of these aspects. These aspects are-monitoring of the ice, difficulty in measuring the thickness, rate of melting of ice and relations with cloud formation.

Arctic: A recorder and driver of climate change

How is it a recorder of climate change?

  • It is a recorder because of two co-related factors, these are-
  • 1) The visible difference between ice and water.
  • 2) The obvious relationship between global temperatures and the amount of ice around.
  • Two factors together shows in an easily graspable way how things are changing.
  • The extent of the Arctic sea ice in summer has declined by 30% in the past 30 years, and that loss is accelerating (see chart).

How is it a driver of climate change?

  • The Arctic is also a driver of climate change, because the whiteness of ice means it reflects sunlight back into space, thus cooling Earth.
  • Whereas the darkness of open water means it absorbs that light.
  • The less of the reflection of sunlight and the more absorption of light will result in a faster rise in global temperatures.

Monitoring the Arctic’s ice

  • At the moment this is monitored mainly by satellite.
  • Measuring the extent of the Arctic’s ice from space is easy.
  • Measuring its thickness is trickier.
  • From orbit, this is done by a mixture of radar and laser beam.
  • Icesat 2, an American craft, provides laser-altimeter data that record the height above sea level of the top of the snow that overlies the ice.
  •  Cryosat 2, a European one, uses radar to penetrate the snow and measure the height of the top of the ice itself.
  • The thickness of the ice in a particular place can then be calculated by applying Archimedes’ principle of floating bodies to the mixture of ice and snow, and subtracting the thickness of the snow.
  • But there is a view that the data collected by these two satellites may be inaccurate, leading to an overestimation of the ice’s thickness.

Let’s understand why the data about thickness could be inaccurate

  • When all is working perfectly, the return signal for Cryosat 2 comes exactly from the boundary between the ice and any overlying snow.
  • But, that this is not always what happens.
  • Variables such as layering within the snow, along with its temperature and salinity, might affect the returning radar signal by changing the snow’s structure and density.
  • This could cause the signal to be reflected from inside the snow layer, rather than from the boundary where it meets the ice.
  • If that were happening, it would create the illusion that the ice beneath the snow is thicker than is actually the case.

How topography of Arctic ice matters

  • Though sea ice is solid, it is not rigid.
  • It forms but a thin skin on the ocean—varying in depth from around 30cm in summer to a couple of metres in winter—so is readily moved by wind and current.
  • As the ice moves it stretches and cracks in some places.
  • Large cracks formed in this way are called leads, because they are wide enough to “lead” a ship.
  • In other places, by contrast, movement makes the ice thicker.
  • As individual panes of ice butt up against each other, they create ridges that can be metres high.
  •  But even from the ship’s deck one can watch leads opening and ridges forming around the vessel.
  • Observations suggest that winter the ice has been particularly mobile—and has thus become particularly rough, with a surprising number of ridges.

So, how these ridges affect the rate at which ice melts?

  • These ridges may affect the rate at which the ice melts—but to complicate matters, this could happen in two opposing ways.
  • Ridges make ice thicker, and thicker ice melts more slowly.
  • On the other hand, a ridge projects down into the sea as well as up into the air (Archimedes, again), so it may stir up water from below the surface.
  • Deep water is warmer than the surface layer, so this stirring would serve to increase melt rates.
  • Moreover, to add to the confusion, ridges are prone to having pieces of ice fall off them into the sea, to form small blocks known as brash.
  • This brash, having more surface area per unit volume than unbroken ice, melts faster.

How cloud formation is affected by cracks in Arctic ice

  • On most parts of Earth clouds form as droplets of water condense around “seeds” of dust or organic molecules.
  • In the Arctic, there is little dust.
  • Biological activity, too, is in short supply compared with elsewhere—and is, moreover, conducted mainly below the barrier of the sea ice.
  • It might, therefore, be expected that there would be few seeds present for clouds to form around.
  • And yet, clouds are present.
  • Cloud seeds there tended to be compounds containing sulphur, nitrogen, chlorine, bromine or iodine.
  • Presence of these molecules suggests their link with cracks in the ice sheets.
  • This means that more cracks in the ice sheet could lead to more clouds in the Arctic.
  • What overall effect that might have on the climate is unclear.
  • Summer clouds would reflect sunlight back into space, cooling the planet.
  • Those formed in winter, when the sun is below the horizon, would serve as insulation, warming it.
  •  Two opposite outcomes are possible—or perhaps the net effect will be that they cancel each other out.

Conclusion

Properly disentangling the interactions between Arctic ice, atmosphere and ocean life will require data collected across a full year—for the contrast between winter and summer at the poles is greater than anywhere else on the planet.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Coronavirus – Economic Issues

We must aspire for nurturing economy

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Paper 3- Issues of inclusive growth

The sight of thousands of migrant workers walking thousands of kms back home after lockdown has been the watershed moment for the collective conscience of our country. This made us think about the present economic model and policies we have been adopting. So, the answer to the problems created by the present model lies in building “nurturing economy”. What is nurturing economy? Read to know…

Broadly, we can summarise the impact of pandemic as-

  • Unemployment is shooting up.
  • Supply chains of food and essentials have been disrupted.
  • Dark clouds of economic recession are on the horizon.

Invisible cost of pandemic

  • The visible cost of the pandemic in terms of the lives lost are being counted by the day.
  • But the invisible cost of hunger and impoverishment of the most vulnerable sections is yet to be effectively addressed.
  • Vulnerable section- our workers, the poor and the migrants, particularly women, are at receiving end of these invisible cost.

Health of economy before pandemic

  • The pandemic came at one of the worst possible times.
  • India’s economy has been in deep trouble since 2016.
  • In 2019-20, even before the pandemic happened, our GDP growth had dropped to 4.2 per cent, lowest growth seen in the last 11 years.
  • Even the oil prices dropped at their historic low.
  • Non-food bank credit is a good indicator of overall economic robustness.
  • By December 2019, the growth of non-food bank credit had dropped to below 7 per cent. ( lowest in the last 50 years.)

What happened to economy after the pandemic?

  • After the pandemic arrived, matters, of course, got worse.
  • In March, $16 billion of foreign capital exited the country, which is an all-time record for India.
  • India’s unemployment rate shot up to a record high of 23.8 per cent in April.
  • In the same month, Indian exports dropped by 60 per cent.
  • This was one of the biggest drops seen in any emerging market economy in the world.
  • There is a genuine risk that this year our growth will drop to an all-time low, beating the record plunge of 1979-80.

So, the pandemic has forced us to think about the building a nurturing economy, one in which Gandhiji’s Talisman is followed in word and spirit, one in which John Rawls ideas are implemented.

So, What building a nurturing economy involves?

  • Our economic and political policies must not be ends in themselves.
  • Instead, these policies should involve instruments for building a society that is secular, inclusive and nurturing.
  • It should be a society where people of all religions, caste, race and gender feel wanted and at home.
  • Environment sustainability and focus on green economy is also part of nurturing economy.
  • We should strive to create a society that respects knowledge, science and technology, and culture.

Threefold crisis emerging out of our exploitative behaviours

  • The outcome of our exploitative behaviour is a threefold crisis which describes India’s current predicament.
  • 1) Rising poverty and unemployment despite abundance.
  • 2) Rising intolerance and violence.
  • 3) Environmental catastrophe.

Consider the question “Pandemic and the predicament of migrant labours has highlighted the lack of inclusive growth in our economy. And we must look for the solution to such shortcomings in our approach. In light of this, suggest the changes that our economy must embrace to ensure inclusive growth.”

Conclusion

Our ambition should not be to make India the richest nation in the world. India should be an example of an equitable society, where people are not abandoned without income and work, where no one feels the insecurity of being a minority, and of being discriminated against.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Foreign Policy Watch: India-China

Why Ladakh matters to India and China?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Ladakh and its topography

Mains level: India-China border disputes

This article from IE discusses this cold, dry, high altitude territory with its extremely scarce vegetation that makes it a point of disagreement between India and China.

Practice question for mains:

Q. India’s boundary disputes with its neighbourhood are the legacy of its colonial past. Analyse.

Ladakh: The Cold Desert of India

  • Ladakh is the highest plateau in India with much of it being over 3,000 m.
  • It extends from the Himalayan to the Kunlun Ranges and includes the upper Indus River valley.
  • The importance of Ladakh is rooted in complicated historical processes that led to the territory becoming part of the state of J&K, and China’s interest in it post the occupation of Tibet in 1950.

Beginning of the Chinese claim

  • In July 1958, an official monthly magazine in China published a map of the country that would in the next few months become a bone of contention between India and its East Asian neighbour.
  • The map in question showed large parts of the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) and the Himalayan territory of Ladakh as part of China.
  • Soon after ‘China pictorial’ came out with the new Chinese map, the leaders of both countries began writing to each other frequently regarding Ladakh.
  • The exchange of letters between Jawaharlal Nehru and his Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai was followed by the Sino-Indian war of 1962.
  • The war also led to the formation of the loosely demarcated Line of Actual Control (LAC) running through Ladakh.

The Integration of Ladakh into India

  • Historically and culturally the state was intrinsically linked to neighbouring Tibet.
  • Language and religion linked Ladakh and Tibet; politically too, they shared a common history.
  • Ladakh was part of the Tibetan empire which broke up after the assassination of King Langdarma in 742 CE.
  • Up until the Dogra invasion of 1834, Ladakh was an independent Himalayan state, much the same way as Bhutan and Sikkim.
  • As the Sikhs acquired Kashmir in 1819, Emperor Ranjit Singh turned his ambition towards Ladakh.
  • But it was Gulab Singh, the Dogra feudatory of the Sikhs in Jammu, who went ahead with the task of integrating Ladakh into Jammu and Kashmir.

British interests in Ladakh

  • The British East India Company, which was by now steadily establishing itself in India, had lacked interest in Ladakh initially.
  • However, it did show enthusiasm for the Dogra invasion of the area, with the hope that as a consequence, a large portion of Tibetan trade would be diverted to its holdings.
  • The state of J&K was essentially a British creation, formed as a buffer zone where they could meet the Russians.

The Sino-Sikh War

  • In May 1841, Tibet under the Qing dynasty of China invaded Ladakh with the hope of adding it to the imperial Chinese dominions, leading to the Sino-Sikh war.
  • However, the Sino-Tibetan army was defeated, and the Treaty of Chushul was signed that agreed on no further transgressions or interference in the other country’s frontiers.
  • After the first Anglo-Sikh war of 1845-46, the state of J&K, including Ladakh, was taken out of the Sikh empire and brought under British suzerainty.

Chinese interest in Ladakh after the occupation of Tibet in 1950

  • The annexation of Tibet by China in 1950 sparked a newfound interest in Ladakh, and particularly so after the 1959 Tibetan uprising that erupted in Lhasa with Dalai Lama’s political asylum in India.
  • In attempting to crush the Tibetan revolt while at the same time denying its existence, the Chinese have used methods which have brought China and India into sharp conflict.
  • To begin with, the road that the Chinese built across Ladakh in 1956-57 was important for the maintenance of their control over Tibet.
  • The building of the road through Ladakh upset Nehru’s government. The diplomatic negotiations failed, and the war of 1962 followed.

Why conflict has flared up again?

  • There are two layers to this. First, up to 2013, India’s infrastructural development in that area was minimal.
  • From 2013, India started pushing for infrastructure projects there and by 2015; it became a major defence priority.
  • The second layer is the August 5, 2019 decision (to remove the special status of J&K and downgrade the state into two Union Territories).
  • From the Chinese point of view, they would have assumed that if India makes Ladakh a Union Territory, they would be reasserting its control over the entire state.
  • Moreover, it is also important to note that over time, Xinjiang which is part of Aksai Chin, has become very important to China for their internal reasons.

The dispute

  • The British legacy of the map of the territory continued to remain the ground upon which India laid its claim on the area.
  • India insisted that the border was, for the most part, recognised and assured by treaty and tradition; the Chinese argued it had never really been delimited.
  • The claims of both governments rested in part on the legacy of imperialism; British imperialism (for India), and Chinese imperialism (over Tibet) for China.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

India’s Bid to a Permanent Seat at United Nations

India gets re-elected as Non-permanent Member of UNSC

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: UNSC, NORMS

Mains level: Significance of UNSC membership for India

India gets re-elected as Non-permanent Members of UNSC with 184 out of the 192 valid votes polled in its favour.

Practice question for mains:

Q. United Nations is in need of structural reforms suiting to the needs of present times. Discuss.

What are ‘non-permanent seats’ at the UNSC?

  • The UNSC is composed of 15 members: five permanent members — China, France, Russian Federation, the US, and the UK — and 10 non-permanent members who are elected by the General Assembly.
  • The non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms — so every year, the General Assembly elects five non-permanent members out of the total 10.
  • Even if a country is a “clean slate” candidate and has been endorsed by its group, it still needs to secure the votes of two-thirds of the members present and voting at the General Assembly session — which is a minimum of 129 votes, if all 193 member states participate.

Sharing of seats

  • These 10 seats are distributed among the regions of the world: five seats for African and Asian countries; one for Eastern European countries; two for Latin American and Caribbean countries; and two for Western European and Other Countries.
  • Of the five seats for Africa and Asia, three are for Africa and two for Asia.
  • Also, there is an informal understanding between the two groups to reserve one seat for an Arab country.
  • The Africa and Asia Pacific group takes turns every two years to put up an Arab candidate.
  • Elections for terms beginning in even-numbered years select two African members, and one each within Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • Terms beginning in odd-numbered years consist of two West European and Other members, and one each from the Asia Pacific, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Current members as on today

  • The current non-permanent members of the Security Council are Belgium, Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia, and South Africa, all of whose terms end this year; and Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia, and Vietnam, whose terms end in 2021.
  • India begins its term at the beginning of 2021 and will hold the position until the end of 2022.

Has India been in the UNSC earlier?

  • India’s term on the 15-member Council will be it’s eighth.
  • India has earlier been a non-permanent member of the Security Council in 1950-51, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1977-78, 1984-85, 1991-92 and 2011-12.
  • For the 2011-12 terms, India won 187 of 190 votes after Kazakhstan stood down from its candidacy.
  • Unlike Africa, which has formalized a system of rotation of its three seats, the Asia Pacific grouping has often seen contests for seats. In 2018, there was a contest between the Maldives and Indonesia.
  • On the occasions when there is a contest, the elections for non-permanent seats can go on for several rounds.
  • Back in 1975, there was a contest between India and Pakistan, which went into eight rounds, with Pakistan finally winning the seat. And in 1996, India lost a contest to Japan.

Significance

  • Terming India’s winning of a non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council one of its best performances” ever, the Union government said.
  • The strong support by almost the entire U.N. membership demonstrates the goodwill that India enjoys in the U.N. and the confidence that the international community has reposed in India.
  • India’s EAM gave India’s overall objective during its forthcoming UNSC tenure as an acronym ‘NORMS’ — New Orientation for a Reformed Multilateral System.
  • NORMS includes the push for expanding the UNSC permanent membership.

Back2Basics: United Nations Security Council

  • The UNSC is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security.
  • Its powers include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization of military action through Security Council resolutions.
  • It is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states.
  • The Security Council consists of fifteen members. Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, and the United States—serve as the body’s five permanent members.
  • These permanent members can veto any substantive Security Council resolution, including those on the admission of new member states or candidates for Secretary-General.
  • The Security Council also has 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms. The body’s presidency rotates monthly among its members.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Civil Services Reforms

What is Civil Services Board?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Civil Services Board and its functions

Mains level: Civil services reforms

Punjab government notifying Civil Services Board providing for a fixed tenure of IAS officers has left its leaders in the state upset.

Practice questions for mains:

Q. Discuss how fixed tenure for Civil Servants helps provide better administration.

What is the Civil Services Board (CSB)?

  • Civil Services Board is responsible for the entry-level recruitment and subsequent job promotions below the rank of Joint Secretary.
  • As per a state government notification dated June 2, CSB will be headed by Chief Secretary, with Personnel Secretary, and either Financial Commissioner (Revenue) or Home Secretary (who so ever is senior in the pecking order) as its members.
  • The board provides for the state to follow the Centre’s guidelines on giving a fixed tenure of at least two years for cadre officers.
  • They cannot be transferred before that and if anyone recommends their transfer then the board will examine and affect it.
  • The final authority is the Chief Minister.

Why had the previous government in the state declined to follow the Centre’s guidelines?

  • The previous government had refused to follow the guidelines on the argument that appointment and transfer of IAS officers are a prerogative of the state.
  • If their term is fixed, it had argued, it will not only create functional and administrative problems but also overstep the authority and jurisdiction of the state government.

Why are the leaders upset?

  • The political leadership of the ruling party in the state has usually always had a say in postings and transfers of district officials in the state.
  • The opposition has been known to lend supremacy to its leadership over bureaucrats in the state.
  • But ever since the ruling government has taken over, the grouse of its leaders has been that they do not get due respect in their own regime.
  • This has led to several confrontations in the past.
  • With the fixed tenure rule and Chief Secretary’s board having all power to examine a recommendation for a transfer, the leaders feel their influence has been reduced to nought and all power handed to the CS.

How do they see the board to be lending officer’s supremacy over them?

  • If any officer is to be transferred before completing his minimum tenure, the board will record the reasons for the transfer.
  • It will seek views from the concerned officer and then give a judgement on whether the tenure of the officer is to be ended mid-way.
  • The final authority will be the CM.

What is the government’s argument in its favour?

  • It says if the officials have a fixed tenure they will be able to provide better administration.
  • They will also feel safe and try to stick to the rules instead of pleasing political bosses.
  • It says every official requires 3-6 months to get into the groove at his new place of posting.
  • If he stays there for two years, it would mean better delivery and stable tenure to people.

What do the officials say?

  • They feel the rules will not be followed in letter and spirit unless a few officers go to the courts and ensure that the guidelines are followed.
  • They say that neighbouring Haryana had the board in place but the guidelines were not followed.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Judicial Reforms

Rule of Law Index and India

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Rule of Law Index

Mains level: Rule of Law in India

The Supreme Court has asked the government to treat a writ petition for setting up expert panels to boost India’s prospects in the Rule of Law Index.

Note the various factors/sub-indices on which the index is measured. There can be a direct question on these in line with:

Q. Which one of the following is not a sub-index of the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Index’? CSP 2019

(a) Maintenance of law and order

(b) Paying taxes

(c) Registering property

(d) Dealing with construction permits

Why in news again?

  • The cause of action for the petition accrued when the World Justice Project ranked India in the 69th position in its Rule of Law Index.
  • India has never been ranked even among top 50 in the Index, but successive governments did nothing to improve the international ranking of India, said the petition.
  • Poor rule of law has a devastating effect on the right to life, liberty, economic justice, fraternity, individual dignity and national integration.

What is the Rule of Law Index?

  • The Rule of Law Index is a quantitative assessment tool by the World Justice Project (WJP) designed to offer a detailed and comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice.
  • It measures countries’ rule of law performance across eight factors:

(1) Constraints on Government Powers, (2) Absence of Corruption, (3) Open Government, (4) Fundamental Rights, (5) Order and Security, (6) Regulatory Enforcement, (7) Civil Justice, and (8) Criminal Justice

WJP definition of Rule of Law

The World Justice Project defines the rule of law system as one in which the following four universal principles are upheld:

  • The government and its officials and agents are accountable under the law.
  • The laws are clear, publicized, stable and fair, and protect fundamental rights, including the security of persons and property.
  • The process by which the laws are enacted, administered, and enforced is accessible, efficient, and fair.
  • Justice is delivered by competent, ethical, and independent representatives and neutrals who are of sufficient number, have adequate resources and reflect the makeup of the communities they serve.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

Historical and Archaeological Findings in News

Kodumanal Megalithic Burial Site

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Megaliths

Mains level: Not Much

The Kodumanal excavation in Erode Dist. of Tamil Nadu has threw light on burial rituals and the concept of afterlife in megalithic culture.

Must read:

Chapter 1 | Stone Age – Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic

About these sites

  • The researchers have identified 250 cairn-circles at the village in Erode district.
  • Earlier excavations revealed that the site served as a trade-cum-industrial centre from 5th century BCE to 1st century BCE.
  • The rectangular chambered cists, each two metres long and six metres wide, are made of stone slabs, and the entire grave is surrounded by boulders that form a circle.
  • The grave could be of a village head or the head of the community as the size of two boulders, each facing east and west, are bigger than other boulders.
  • Believing that the deceased person will get a new life after death, pots and bowls filled with grains were placed outside the chambers.

What are Megaliths?

  • Megaliths are the earliest surviving man-made monuments we know of—derived from the Latin mega (large) and lith (stone).
  • Megaliths were constructed either as burial sites or commemorative (non-sepulchral) memorials.
  • The former are sites with actual burial remains, such as dolmenoid cists (box-shaped stone burial chambers), cairn circles (stone circles with defined peripheries) and capstones (distinctive mushroom-shaped burial chambers found mainly in Kerala).
  • The urn or the sarcophagus containing the mortal remains was usually made of terracotta.
  • Non-sepulchral megaliths include memorial sites such as menhirs. (The line separating the two is a bit blurry, since remains have been discovered underneath otherwise non-sepulchral sites, and vice versa.)
  • In India, archaeologists trace the majority of the megaliths to the Iron Age (1500 BC to 500 BC), though some sites precede the Iron Age, extending up to 2000 BC.

Megaliths in India

  • Megaliths are spread across the Indian subcontinent, though the bulk of them are found in peninsular India, concentrated in the states of Maharashtra (mainly in Vidarbha), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
  • According to archaeologists around 2,200 megalithic sites can be found in peninsular India itself, most of them unexcavated.
  • Even today, a living megalithic culture endures among some tribes such as the Gonds of central India and the Khasis of Meghalaya.

Literary sources

  • Megalithic culture finds several references in ancient Tamil Sangam literature. For instance, menhirs are referred to as nadukal.
  • Ancient Sangam texts lay out, in detail, a step-by-step procedure for laying a memorial stone or nadukal in honour of a fallen hero.
  • Manimekalai (5th century AD), the famous Sangam epic, refers to the various kinds of burials namely cremation (cuṭuvōr), post excarnation burial (iṭuvōr), burying the deceased in a pit (toṭukuḻip paṭuvōr), rock chamber or cist burial (tāḻvāyiṉ aṭaippōr), urn burial encapped with lid (tāḻiyiṟ kavippōr).
  • Even in the Sangam age (when kingship and a well-ordained society had emerged) the above modes of burials survived.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Join us across Social Media platforms.

💥Mentorship New Batch Launch
💥Mentorship New Batch Launch