Sahityaki - India Quiz Finals - Personalities Round

1.
a) He was part of the 3 member committee for the depressed classes which negotiated the Poona pact with Mahatma Gandhi in 1932 along with MC Rajah and BR Ambedkar.

b) He was born in Dharwad in 1875, and had by his sporting prowess forced the Brahmins of the Deccan Gymkhana—eager to beat the British Poona Gymkhana—to take him into the team. A few years later, he was recruited by the Poona Gymkhana, and then the Bombay Hindu Gymkhana, who even admitted his brothers—Shivram, Ganpat and Vithal. He was a role model for Dr BR Ambedkar.

c) He was the first spinner in the Indian cricket team.

2.
a) He contributed a sum of Rs 22,000 in the 1920s for CV Raman’s path breaking research which won him the Nobel.

b) He was a man of strange contrasts. He staunchly supported Gandhi's Harijan campaign and was even the Harijan Sevak Sangh president but at a later age said, "My grandsons disagree with me but I think caste is what holds this country together. Abolish caste and India is in trouble."

c) One of his favourite sayings was, "Money is easy to make but difficult to spend properly. Starting his business career as a jute broker at the age of 16, he migrated from the deserts of Rajasthan to a rented room in Calcutta with his brother. Three decades later, their company was India's 13th largest managing-agency firm.

3.
a) After retirement this British official went to Shimla where he studied birds, organized observations all over the country and published the first book written on Indian birds. He also authored Agricultural Reform of India, and the three-volume classic The Game Birds of India.

b) As a young man he had made his career in India and during the Sepoy Mutiny he was the District Magistrate at Etawah between Delhi and Cawnpore. Only 7 seven soldiers were hanged on his judgments and he contrived a new form of gallows which made their death quick and painless.

c) Born in London to a Radical MP,, joined the Bengal Civil Service at the age of 20. In Etawah, he introduced free primary education and founded a vernacular newspaper, Lokmitra (People's Friend).

4.
a) He is said to have witnessed the reigns of eight Delhi Sultans.

b) He has named his four divans or collections: Tuhfa-tus-Sighr (Offering of a Minor), Wastul-Hayat (The Middle of Life), Ghurratul-Kamaal (The Prime of Perfection) and Baquia-Naquia (The Rest / The Miscellaneous).

c) One of his couplets:

Raftam ba tamaasha-e kanar-e ju-e,
Deedam balab-e aab zan-e hindoo-e;
Guftam sanama baha-e zulfat chi bu-ad?
Faryaad bar aavurd ke dur dur muye.

(I went to enjoy the beauty of the river-side and saw an Indian lady at the ghat. “Oh, idol of mine,” said I, “what is the price of your tresses?” and she replied, dur dur muye- ‘go away you wretch’ (so in Hindi) or ‘every single hair of mine has pearls in it’ (so in Persian). (dur dur muye is a popular abusive word still found in much of north India)

5.
a) He is an NRI born in Adampur Mandi village of Hisar district in Haryana. Initially, he was a rice packer. Food Corporation of India needed storage space for 14 million tonnes of food grain. It was his brainwave to use polyethylene sheets to cover the grain and store it in the open.

b) His next ambitious plan is called Agrani, which has been cleared by the government in August this year.

c) His brand names are letters of the alphabet.

6.
a) In the photograph he has a lolling attitude due to his hemorrhoids.

b) He was the first viceroy to give a speech at his swearing in ceremony.

c) Held the imperial assemblage to proclaim the queen as empress of India and gifted all rulers of India a raise of 2 in the guns in their salute and also gave them banners and gold medals.

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