ART AND CULTURE                                                                         

1. Swami Shraddhanand and Arya Samaj                                             

2. Belum Caves festival                                                                        

GEOGRAPHY                                                                                     

1. Mahadayi dispute                                                                             

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                        

1. Andhra’s concept of three capitals                                                    

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS                                                   

1. Significance of Iran, China, Russia holding joint naval drill in Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman                                                                 

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY                                                

1. A hundred Tibetan gazelles                                                              

ART AND CULTURE

Swami Shraddhanand and Arya Samaj

GS PAPER - 01 ART AND CULTURE - Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Context :

• On December 23, 1926, Arya Samaj missionary Swami Shraddhanand was assassinated by a man called Abdul Rashid.

Swami Shraddhanand :

• Swami Shraddhanand was born on February 22,1856 at village Talwan in Jalandhar district in Punjab province.

• In the early 1880s, he came into contact with Swami Dayanand, the founder of the Arya Samaj.Shraddhanand also wrote a book called Hindu Sangathan.

• By 1923, he focussed primarily on the shuddhi movement(reconversion to Hinduism).

• Shuddhi Movement was started by Arya Samaj to bring back the people who had converted to Islam and Christianity from Hinduism.Swami Dayanand Sarawati played a prominent role in the shuddhi movement.

• In 1923, he also became the president of Bharatiya Hindu Shuddhi Sabha created with an aim of reconverting Muslims specifically Malkani Rajputs in the western United Province.

• He was also against the then prevailing social inequality in Indian society particularly untouchability which he termed as a curse and a blot on the reputation of the Hindus.

Arya Samaj:

• Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement that was founded by Dayanand Saraswati in 1875 in Bombay.

• The movement believes in the infallible authority of the Vedas.

• The Motto "Krinvanto Vishwam Aryam" which means "To Make the World Noble".

• The central objectives of Arya Samaj is to eradicate Ignorance (Agyan), Indigence or Poverty (Abhav) and Injustice (Anayay) from this earth.

• Ideals of Arya Samaj

  • Vedas are the revealed wisdom and they are the only source of religious knowledge.

  • There is only one God who is omnipresent and all powerful.

  • The Arya Samaj condemns superstitions, idol worship and the caste system.

  • The Hindu Religion, based on the Vedas, is superior to all other religions. Thus the Arya Samaj prevented conversion of Hindus to other religions.

  • Started a counter movement called Shuddhi to bring the Hindu converts back to Hinduism.

  • To raise the standard of Women, it opposed child marriage and the purdah system. It advocated widow remarriage and opened orphanages. Special schools and colleges were also opened for girls.

  • The Arya Samaj helped to establish Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (D.A.V.) schools & colleges in North India to impart education in western sciences and Sanskrit. In 1886, the first D.A.V. college was established in Lahore. The educational institutions established by the Arya Samaj blended the scientific approach of the west and the spiritual philosophy of the East.

                                                                                                                     Source :- Indian Express

Belum Caves festival

GS PAPER - 01 ART AND CULTURE - Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Context :

• Andhra Pradesh Government will be hosting the Belum Caves festival in January 2020 to popularise the Belum caves.

Belum Caves :

• Belum Caves, also known as Belum Guhalu in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh is the second-longest cave in the Indian subcontinent open to the public.

  • The longest natural cave in the Indian subcontinent is Krem Liat Prah caves in Meghalaya.

• The cave is more than a thousand year old, and was formed by the constant flow of underground water over a period of time.

• Geographical Features:

  • These caves are renowned for their speleothem structures (Speleothems are secondary mineral deposits formed in a cave), such as stalactite and stalagmite formations.

• Historical Background:

  • The caves were occupied by Jain and Buddhist monks many centuries ago. The presence of 4500 years old vessels from the pre-Buddhism era ensures the same.

                                                                                                                                                           Source :- The Hindu

GEOGRAPHY

Mahadayi dispute

GS PAPER - 01 GEOGRAPHY  - geographical features and their location- changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Context :

• Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s stand that environment clearance (EC) is not required for Karnataka’s Kalsa-Bhanduri drinking water project on the Mahadayi River.

Background :

• The sharing of the waters of Mahadayi river is a cause of dispute between the governments of Karnataka and Goa. The Karnataka government proposes to divert some water from the Mahadayi river to the Malaprabha River basin as part of the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project. Goa has been opposing the Kalsa-Bhanduri project.

• Mahadayi Water Tribunal under Interstate River Water Disputes Act had been constituted to decide the sharing of the river waters by the riparian states.

• In August 2018, Mahadayi Water Tribunal verdict permitted Goa to use 24 tmcft, Karnataka to use 5.4 tmcft (including 3.9 tmcft for export outside the basin) and Maharashtra to use 1.33 tmcft for consumptive purposes.

• The tribunal also directed the Centre to set up the Mahadayi Water Management Authority to implement its report and final decision.

• Karnataka approached the Supreme Court challenging the Water tribunal’s allocation of water to the states.

Karnataka Argument :

• To resolve the severe water crisis in its northern districts of Bagalkot, Gadag, Dharwad and Belagavi, Karnataka had been planning to divert water from the Mahadayi to dams and barrages since the 1970s.

• Karnataka believes that surplus water from Mahadayi drains into the Arabian sea and, therefore, it should be better utilised by diverting it into the deficit basin in Malaprabha to meet the basic water needs of the people.

Goa Argument :

• Goa is worried that the proposed inter-basin water transfer would harm the sensitive ecology of the Western Ghats.

• Goa argues that its population is dependent on the river’s natural path and any move to divert it would affect its fragile ecosystem.

• The Mahadayi holds a special significance for Goa because it is one of the few sweet-water sources in the state and the proposed move would affect water supply for drinking and irrigation.

                                                                                                                                                 Source :- The Hindu

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Andhra’s concept of three capitals

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - State Legislatures - structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.

Context :

• The Andhra Pradesh cabinet has deferred taking a decision on relocating the state capital to three separate locations.

Background :

• The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister had announced that Andhra Pradesh could have three decentralised capitals on the lines of South Africa.

• The new capital being developed at Amaravati could become the Legislative Capital.The port city Visakhapatnam as the Executive Capital and Kurnool as the Judicial Capital.

South Africa’s Model :

• In South Africa,there are three cities that serve as the capitals of the country– Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative) and Bloemfontein (judicial).

• This arrangement was a result of the Second Boer War (1899-1902) in which Britain annexed the two Afrikaner speaking states -– the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (also called Transvaal Republic).

• The Cape of Good Hope then remained in the British Empire, becoming self-governing in 1872 and uniting with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa in 1910.

Other examples of multiple capital cities:

• In Sri Lanka,Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the official capital and seat of national legislature while Colombo is the de facto seat of national executive and judicial bodies.

• Malaysia has its official and royal capital and seat of national legislature at Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya is the administrative centre and seat of national judiciary.

In Indian States :      

• Among Indian states, Maharashtra has two capitals namely Mumbai and Nagpur (which holds the winter session of the state assembly).

• Himachal Pradesh has capitals at Shimla and Dharamshala (winter).The former state of Jammu & Kashmir had Srinagar and Jammu (winter) as capitals.

                                                                                                             Source :- Indian Express

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Significance of Iran, China, Russia holding joint naval drill in Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context :

• Iran, China and Russia began a joint naval exercise in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman

Naval Exercise:

• The aim of this exercise is to bolster security of international maritime commerce, combatting piracy and terrorism and sharing information and experience.

• The exercise began in the port city of Chabahar in southeastern Iran and are due to continue in northern parts of the Indian Ocean.

• The exercise comes at a time of heightened tensions between the US and Iran after the United States had withdrawn from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in May,2018.

Significance :

• The Gulf of Oman where the exercise is being held is a critical waterway as it connects the Arabian Sea to the Strait of Hormuz.

• It is located between energy producers countries namely Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman (the exclave of Musandam), and the United Arab Emirates(UAE).

• A fifth of the world’s oil passes through this waterway — around 30% of all sea-borne crude oil globally.

• Since 2019, the region around the Gulf of Oman has been a focal point of global tensions.

  • In June 2019,two tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman.The ship were carrying oil and other transporting a cargo of chemicals near the strategically important Strait of Hormuz. The US has blamed Iran for the attack but Iran had denied the allegations.

                                                                                                                Source :- Indian Express

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

A hundred Tibetan gazelles

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• Recently,the Tibetan gazelles has been in the news for its declining population since the last decade.

Tibetan gazelles:

• Tibetan gazelles are also known as goa (Procapra picticaudata).They are a species of antelope that inhabits the Tibetan plateau.

• The Tibetan gazelles are endemic to the Tibetan plateau and given its wide distribution across Tibet, Ladakh and parts of Sikkim.

• They are listed as Near Threatened in the IUCN red list.

• Tibetan gazelles fur lacks an undercoat.It consists of long guard hairs only and is notably thicker in winter.

Threats :

• According to recent assessments,the population of Tibetan Gazelles is on the decline since the last decade.

• Hunting and intensified livestock grazing are the primary causes of the decline of the Tibetan gazelle.

                                                                                                                Source :- The Hindu

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