Independent India: Triumphs and Tragedies - Part 2 Quiz

Answer: MacMahon Line

An overconfident, ill informed defence minister, a slightly callous Prime Minister and a badly equipped and a poorly trained army fighting against a well armed foe with superior numbers - this situation had all the ingredients for disaster. V Krishna Menon, the then Defence Minister, lost his job immediately and Nehru well, faded, until his death, in 1964. Simply put, he died a broken man. Surprisingly though, for the first time in Indian history, adversity brought about greater cohesion, rather than division.

The internal bickerings on language, religion and region stopped abruptly, as Indians rallied behind the government to deal with the new threat. The Chinese called a ceasefire after two weeks of fighting, and unilaterally redrew the MacMahon Line, bringing an ignominous conclusion to the debacle on the Indian side.

Answer: Tashkent

The war came to an end with a cease-fire call from the UN Security Council, with the USSR prevailing upon India to accept the cease-fire, when the latter was on the outskirts of the Pakistani city of Lahore, in a counter-thrust against the Pakistani heartland.

This war was a stalemate in terms of objectives achieved, but given that the Indian forces were equipped with less powerful weapons than the Americans had supplied to Pakistani Army, it was credible achievement on the part of the Indian military. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the mild mannered Gandhian, showed unexpected steel and resolve in his determination to counter-attack, but died in Tashkent after the cease-fire was signed.

Answer: wheat

Until the mid-1960s India was forced to import wheat from the US to prevent mass starvation, simply because agricultural growth had not kept pace with population growth and there was no way to feed the population at large. The situation was aggravated by the drought of 1961-62 and it was then felt that something needed to be done, and quickly, if India had to maintain its food security.

Answer: 44%

Never before or since have such high rates of growth been seen and, Indian agriculture finally reached a stage in the late 1970s when complete self sufficiency in grain was achieved. The "Green Revolution" mainly involved greater use of high yield crops, better insecticides and fertilizers to maximize output. For the above two questions, I must thank my fellow NALSAR University of Law student, Ms.

A Madhu Kritika, for providing most of the information, based on her as yet unpublished research project on growth in Indian agriculture. Further information on this topic may be gotten from http://www.icar.org.in, which is the research body set up in the 1960s to figure out a way to solve India's agricultural woes.

Answer: Congress(O) and Congress(R)

India's oldest political party, 14 years short of its centenary, split when internal bickering over Indira Gandhi's leadership got too heated. On the one hand were the loyalists (some would say sycophants) of the Nehru Gandhi family, with Indira Gandhii n the Congress(R), whereas the others were the conservatives (some would say the Old Guard or the vested interests), who gathered around veteran leaders like Morarji Desai.

The "O" stood for "Organization", while the "R" stood for "ruling".

Answer: Tokyo

This victory marked the 7th time the Indian hockey team won a gold in the Olympic Games. However, Indian hockey seems to have gone downhill from then on, as new technological changes occurrred which the Indians just did not seem able to adapt to.

Answer: Tamil

While anti-Hindi riots blazed all over the South, nowhere was it as fierce as in the Southern state of Tamil Nadu, where most people speak Tamil, a language as old as Sanskrit, if not older, and with a literary heritage just as rich. All other South Indian languages display Tamil influence, and it was no wonder that there was such opposition from Tamilians to what they saw was an effort to replace their rich mother tongue with a "bastardized" language (Hindi was born out of a mixture of Sanskrit and Persian). Eventually though, the agitation subsided when the government realized its error, and today the Constitution recognizes 18 languages as the national languages on a par with Hindi and English.

Answer: Indian Space Research Organization

The Indian Space Research Organisation, first formed in 1962 as Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), has been instrumental in development of several rockets and satellites, which have made Indian a world player in the field of remote-sensing satellites. For more information check out the ISRO site. Source:http://www.isro.org

Answer: West Indies

In 1961, India came very close to having one of its players become the first to be killed while playing, but Frank Worrel's (the captain of the West Indian side) blood donation and Contractor's ensured otherwise. The next batsman in, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, remembers taking guard, while staring down at the spots of Contractor's blood at the crease.

This incident made the West Indies, a feared place for Indian teams to tour for some time to come. (Source: http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr2002/fmar2002/f270320021.html)

Answer: Mansur Ali Khan, Nawab of Pataudi Jr.

India's first test win outiside the sub-continent, came against New Zealand in Dunedin, under the captaincy of the then youngest person to have captained India in test cricket, the mercurial Nawab of Pataudi Jr., Mansur Ali Khan. His father, Nawab of Pataudi Sr. had played test cricket for England, while both father and son played for Cambridgeshire in counties cricket.

India went on to win the series as well.