History, Art & Culture CA UPSC 2020 Set- 3

Table of Contents

Q) Consider the following statements about Khon Ramlila

Options :

Khon Ramlila ::

The Culture Department of Uttar Pradesh government organised India’s ﬁrst training and performance programme of world famous KHON Ramlila, a masked form of Ramlila art of Thailand, in collaboration with Thailand government.
It’s a form of masked dance depicting the scenes of Ramlila.
It has no dialogues and background voices narrate the whole story of Ramayana. It is also famous for its beautiful attire and golden masks.
It is included in the list of UNESCO’s Intangible cultural heritage.

With 615 million speakers all over the world, Hindi is the 3^rdmost spoken language in the world.
English is at the top with 1,132 million speakers.
Mandarin is 2^ndwith 1,117 million speakers.
February 21 – International Mother Language Day.
It has been observed since 1999 to promote “linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism”, according to the UN.
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 o cial language of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
The 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.
The Ministry of Culture recently set up a seven-member panel of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to locate the grave of the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh (1615-59) ::

Director-Monument at ASI , Mr. T J Alone heads the panel.
The panel has senior archaeologists – R S Bisht, Sayeed Jamal Hassan, K N Dikshit, B R Mani, K K Muhammed, Satish Chandra, and B M Pandey as members.

Dara Shikoh (1615 –1659) was the eldest among 4 sons and heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.
Dara was designated as a ‘’Prince of High Rank” and was favoured as a successor by his father.
Dara was a liberal-minded unorthodox
He is described as a “liberal Muslim” who tried to ﬁnd commonalities between Hindu and Islamic
He was a great patron of the arts and was more inclined towards philosophy and mysticism rather than military pursuits.
Dara Shikoh is described as “one of the greatest free thinkers of that time”.
He realised the greatness of the Upanishads and translated them, which were earlier known only to a few upper caste Hindus.
He translated into Persian the Bhagavad Gita as well as 52 Upanishads.
His translation is often called Sirr-e-Akbar (“The Greatest Mystery”)
Translations from that Persian translation have inspired a lot of free thinkers of today.

He was the total antithesis of Aurangzeb – he was deeply syncretic, warm-hearted and generous.
But Dara was also an indi”erent administrator and ine”ectual in the ﬁeld of battle.
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.

In 1657, the illness of emperor Shah Jahan triggered a desperate struggle for power among the four Mughal princes.
Dara Shikoh was killed after losing the war of succession against his brother Aurangzeb
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.

He is believed to be buried somewhere in the Humayun’s Tomb complex in Delhi, one of ~150 graves of the Mughal clan.
The expert panel has been given three months time to complete the task of identifying his tomb.
The panel will use architectural evidence from that time, and also written history and any other information that can be used as evidence.

No one knows where exactly Dara Shikoh was buried.
All that is known is that it’s a small grave in the Humayun’s Tomb complex.
Italian traveller Niccolao Manucci gave a graphic description of the day of his murder in ’Travels of Manucci’, as he was there as a witness to the whole thing.
That is the basis of the thesis.
The problem is that most graves in the complex have no names.

Recently there have been renewed attempts to compare Dara Shikoh’s legacy against that of
At a recent conclave in Delhi, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Sah Sarkaryavah or Joint General Secretary, Krishna Gopal’s called Dara Shikoh “a real Hindustani”.
A research chair was set up in Dara Shikoh’s name at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) last year. “Politics? Syncretic culture?”

One of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream projects is to reconstruct buildings built between 1911 and 1927 like North Block, South Block, Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Parliament building.
The Monsoon Session of Parliament in 2022 will be held in a newly-developed Parliament building.

The shape of the building is circular, which is based on the Ashoka Chakra.
At the centre of the building is the Central Chamber, and surrounding this are the semicircular halls that were constructed for the sessions of

Lack of space for o ces of 700+ MPs
Number of seats is bound to rise after 2026
92 years old building – structural issues
Earthquake safety issues
Multiple secretariat buildings (47) – rent
Multiple upgrades for new amenities like air-conditioning and acoustic systems leading to drilling of walls
Buildings constructed over 100 years ago such as the North and South blocks too are not earthquake
There is shortage of working spaces, parking, amenities and services
The government has invited design and architecture ﬁrms from across the globe for consultancy works by ﬂoating of a request for proposal (RFP)

Gujarat’s HCP Design won the bid to revamp Parliament, Lutyens’ Delhi
HCP Design was the Sabarmati riverfront project contractor and is redeveloping the Kashi Vishwanath temple complex

US Senate – Capitol building
White house
Westminster Palace
Heritage building tag and preservation
Should the proposed alteration itself be left to government or be open to public debate?