India Flashcards
The East India company, at its height, was worth ____
10 trillion dollars.
Basically Hindia came from Sanskrit and Pali. During mugal Samrajya, Urdu was invented with the mixture of Hindi (around 60%), Arabic (30%) and persian/Afgani. this language was invented in Lucknow the a great Mughal city in Northern India. If you speak Urdu, can be treated as Hindi because Hindi is the mother of Urdu.
Thyagaraja was a famous Carnatic music composer. Born to a Telugu Brahmin family in tiruvalur in Tamil Nadu, he was a prodigy in music and is considered one of the most influential figures in Carnatic music.
Violinist T Chowdaiah, singer KJ Yesudas and MS Subhalakshmi are examples of non brahmin contributors to carnatic music.
Devadasi were women who were temple artists. These were women of higher caste who were dedicated to serve the temple and the deity of the temple. The practiced classical Indian artistic traditions such as Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam, Kuchipudi, and Odissi. Their social status was high as dance and music were an essential part of temple worship.
Southern states contribute a lot more tax to the center as compared to northern states, but they get back a lot less. For example, for every Rs100 Tamil Nadu contributes to the center, only Rs40 comes back but for every Rs100 UP contributes to, it gets back ₹180. Southern states could be doing better because of their governance or could be just lucky because of their geography. Since they lie on the coast, it’s always been easier for trade, jobs and that has a cumulative effect on for generations. The re distribution of collected taxes for development, by the center, also depends on population. Since the hindi belt is more highly populated (fertility rate of 3+ as compared to 2 in south) they get a larger distribution of money. The more recent census data we use, the more political representation north would get as their population has continuously increased over time and south has economically prospered better, so population has decreased, which means that, given the latest census, UP will get 8 more seats and south as a whole will lose 18 seats.
Kerala VS West Bengal Muslim population. Both states have ~30% Muslims, with Kerala having 8M while WB having 30M
Hindustani (north indian) music came before Carnatic (south Indian). Obvious considering Hindustani was possible born during the vedic era refined by Natyashastra written by Bharata Muni. Hindustani music was influenced by persian music and Islamic traditions.
Mahatma Gandhi did not support inter caste marriages in the beginning. He had mentioned that he did has never eaten anything from the house of a Christian or a Muslim. He did not support his kids marrying into intercaste / inter religion marriages. Later changed his view though.
Manusmriti is an ancient Hindu law book. Among other things, it contained rules about what each caste can do. Ambedkar held that this text was responsible for the caste system in india. He held a Manusmriti book burning in 1927.
Anne Besant was a champion of human freedom. She was against the british rule in India and was in favor of self-rule for India. She was part of the INC.
A O Hume was the founder of INC. He was also the father of Indian Ornithology (study of birds) . he was bold and outspoken in questioning British policies in India.
The Poona Pact was an agreement between Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar on behalf of Dalits,[1] depressed classes, and upper caste Hindu leaders on the reservation of electoral seats for the depressed classes in the legislature of British India in 1932. It was made on 24 September 1932 at Yerwada Central Jail in Poona, India. It was signed by Dr. Ambedkar on behalf of the depressed classes and by Madan Mohan Malviya on behalf of upper caste Hindus, Faraz Shah, Sana Ejaz and Gandhi[2].
Gandhi, currently imprisoned by the British, had embarked on a fast unto death to protest against the decision made by British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, responding to arguments made by Ambedkar in the Round Table Conferences, to give separate electorates to depressed classes for the election of members of provincial legislative assemblies in British India. He wrote that separate electorates would “vivisect and disrupt” Hinduism. Ambedkar, for his part, argued that upper-caste reformers could not represent the depressed classes and that they needed their own leaders.[3]
The pact finally settled upon 147 electoral seats.[4] Nearly twice as many seats were reserved for Depressed Classes under the Poona Pact than what had been offered by MacDonald’s Separate Electorate.
The four different castes which Hinduism claims came after the British. It was never followed by Hindus before that. There were a lot more divisions the Hindus had before that. Things were not strict and were a lot more fluid. The British wanted to simplify the rule of India which resulted in the creation of this 4 castes. British made the system very rigid. it was a lot easier to mingle among the castes before the British came. It was a lot easier for a non Brahmin to become a political leader before the British came but became almost impossible after that.
Warren Hastings set out to create Hindu and Muslim laws in 1772. he took advice from a lot of Brahmin Scholars which resulted in the rewriting of Hindu laws as per Artha Shastra and bought back Vedic traditions and made it a lot more stricter.
One reason why Indian military has a lot of punjabis is because the British specifically recruiter pujabis to the army. They recruited a minority and wanted that minority as a majority in the army so that the armies loyalty is towards the british and not towards India. Because it was only 20,000 Britishers ruling over 30million Indians.
