Independence Day Quiz

1)Who has written this great poem?







Ans.: Bismil Azimabadi and popularised by Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, the mastermind in the Kakori Train Robbery

2) In the Independence Struggle of India, what has been described as "Operation Trojan Horse"?

Ans.: According to a book released on October 28th, 2007 named "Some Hidden Facts: Martyrdom of Shaheed Bhagat Singh", it carries the subtitle “Secrets unfurled by an Intelligence Bureau Agent of British-India”, written by K.S.Kooner, the ‘execution’ of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev marked the execution of a conspiracy code-named “Operation Trojan Horse”, which, in effect, facilitated the pacification of the British officers in general and the prospective in-laws of the late J P Saunders in particular. Accordingly, Bhagat Singh and his associates did go through the formality of ‘hanging’ but only to the extent of breaking their necks; semi-conscious, they were taken to the Lahore Cantonment where the ‘Death Squad’, comprising Saunder’s family, shot them to quench their thirst for revenge.Since doing all this during day time could have invited a violent reaction from the people, the ‘execution’ was performed at night; for the same reason, the bullet-ridden bodies were neither sent for postmortem nor handed over to the relatives. Instead, most surreptitiously, these were taken in a lorry to a pre-fixed isolated place on a kutcha-road (6 miles away from Lahore, on the right bank of the Beas where it meets the Sutlej) and burnt to ashes. And, to put the people on the wrong track, some flesh and bones were half burnt and buried on the western bank of the Sutlej, near Hussainiwala. Two Indian agents were sent to Lahore to pose as volunteers and tell the Congress people that they had seen at Ganda Singh Wala a big burning pyre from a distance.
Believing the story, some people (including Bhagat’s sister Bibi Amar Kaur) reached the ‘hot’ spot, dug up the flesh and half-burnt bones (plus one big broken but uncharred bone which they surmised must have been the arm of Bhagat Singh, the tallest of the three) that lay buried there, and took these back to Lahore where the half-burnt stuff was ‘properly’ cremated on the bank of the Ravi in the midst of sloganeering crowds, all in tears.
This was precisely what the ‘Operation Trojan Horse’ meant to achieve — the British way of denying the martyrs the honour of a glorious farewell by the people.




3) Identify, Connect and Put Fundaez.

Ans.: Pic one is Pingali Venkaiyyah.
Pic two is Sachin Tendulkar.
Pic three is Naveen Jindal.
Pingali Venkaiyyah designed the National Flag of India. Sachin Tendulkar was in controversies for sporting the Indian Flag on his helmet. Naveen Jindal filed a writ petition in the High Court and then the Supreme Court to seek permission for the Indian citizens to fly and use the Indian Flag (decorum to be maintained) all the year round.

4) The incident is famous in Indian history as the "Key Affair". Mahatma Gandhi sent this telegram after the settlement of the affair : " First battle of India's freedom won. Congratulations". Put Fundaez about the incident.

Ans.: The British Government kept possession of the keys of the "Toshakhana" (treasury) of the Golden Temple. The Akalis protested and a mass movement started immediately in the remotest part of the state and army. Finally in on 5th January 1922, the British Governement surrendered the keys to Baba Kharak Singh, then President of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SPGC)

5) Two leaders of the Freedom Movement, Dr.Saifuddin Kitchlu and Dr.Satyapal, have an important, though tragic claim to fame. What?

Ans.: Their arrest by the British Government in India led to the protest congregation at Jallianwallah Bagh, Amritsar. The rest is a sordid history.

6) Who or What were in the Days of the Raj, reffered to as

a) 'Country Trade'

b) 'The Inster'

c) 'The Fishing Fleet'

d) 'Returned Empties'

(One point for each correct answer)

Ans.:
a)'Country Trade': Permission given to John Company servants to trade on their own, as a motivation.

b)'The Inster' : The Railwat Institue, the hub of Anglo-Indian social and sporting activity.

c)'The Fishing Fleet': The hoardes of English girls who periodically sailed to India in search of husbands from amongst their kinds in Indiad)

d)'Returned Empties': Obviously, those who failed to find them and reurtned to BlightyExtra Funda: Blighty is an English slang term for Britain, deriving from the Hindustani word Vilayati.

7) One of the most capable of the rebel leaders, his pseudonym meant, in part, 'Commanding Officer'. He was betrayed by Man Singh, the Raja of Marwar, to the British and was executed by them at Sipri (now Shivpuri in M.P.) on 18, April, 1859. Who was He?

Ans.: Tantya Tope

8) 'Na Iran ne Kiya, Na Shah Russ Nei, Angrez ko tabah kiya Kartoosh Ne'. What does this refer to?

Ans.: The greased catridge for the new Enfiled rifle issued to sepoys in 1857 had to be bitten before firing. The story goes that one day a Brahmin sepoy refused a low caste labourer a drink of water from his 'lota'. "You will soon lose your caste altogether, for the Europeans are going to make you bit catridge soaked in pork and cow fat. And then where will your caste be?" said the labourer.

9) Identify, Connect and Put Fundaez.

(Click on the image for a bigger view)

Ans.: Ans.: Sir Cyril John Radcliffe.Britain appointed Sir Cyril Radcliffe to chair two Boundary Commissions -- one for Bengal and one for Punjab. These pictures are his drawings showing the data collected by him about the population and percentage of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs based on which the Radcliffe Line was drawn between India and Pakistan.

10) Gandhiji's assasination was reported on the front page of all the newspapers in India except one. Which newspaper, Put Fundaez.

Ans.: The Hindu because the front page was dedicated to advertisements.They stopped this practice in 1958

A Small Message for All






Jai Hind