NATIONAL IAS ACADEMY SUPER40 (BOOKLET NUMBER – 22) CONTACT: 9632334466

PRESENTS

SUPER 40 SERIES TOP 40 PDFS FOR UPSC PRELIMINARY EXAM 2019

BOOKLET NUMBER - 22

IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARIES PART 1

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NATIONAL IAS ACADEMY SUPER40 (BOOKLET NUMBER – 22) CONTACT: 9632334466

IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARIES PART 1

550th Anniversary of Gurunanakji

 Government of has decided to commemorate 550th Birth Anniversary of Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji from November, 2018 at national as well as international level in a befitting manner.  Chairs in the name of Sh. Guru Nanak Dev Ji will be set up in UK and Canada.  A National Institute of Inter Faith Studies will be set up in Punjab.  Guru Nanak was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated worldwide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Pooranmashi, the full-moon day in the month of Katak, October–November.  He set up a unique spiritual, social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtues. 500th Anniversary of Kabir’s death

 Kabir was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint, whose writings, according to some scholars,influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement.  Kabir's verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib.  His most famous writings include his dohas or couplets.  Kabir is known for being critical of both Hinduism and Islam, stating that the former was misguided by the Vedas, and questioning their meaningless rites of initiation such as the sacred thread and circumcision respectively.

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 Kabir suggested that True God is with the person who is on the path of righteousness, and thus considered all creatures on earth as his own self, and was passively detached from the affairs of the world.  Kabir's legacy survives and continues through the Kabir panth("Path of Kabir"), a religious community that recognises him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects.  Its members are known as Kabir panthis. 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi

 Two year long celebrations to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi was launched.  Mahatma Gandhi was born in Porbandar on October 2, 1869 and received primary education in the city.  After moving to Rajkot, where his father took on the role of a counsellor, Gandhi joined Alfred High School in the city at the age of 11 and even lost a year when he got married at the age of 13 and struggled through school due to his father’s ill health.  Gandhi was good at English, fair in arithmetic, weak in geography, good in conduct and bad in handwriting.  In the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, the school was later renamed as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi High School and was closed in May 2017 to make way for a museum.  He completed his schooling in Ahmedabad in 1887.  In 1888, Mahatma Gandhi enrolled in Samaldas Arts College which was one of the few degree granting institutions in the region at the time.  The college also boasts of being the alma mater for Pandit .  Gandhi later dropped out of the course and returned to Porbandar.  After dropping out of college, Gandhi expressed his wish to pursue law.  He promised his family that he would abstain from women, meat and alcohol and journeyed to England in order to study law at the University College London’s (UCL) Faculty of Law.  He was “called to the bar” at the age of 22 and returned to India on news of his mother’s death.

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150th anniversary of Mirza Ghalib

 Mirza Ghalib is the poetical surname of Asad Ullah Khan, the most-loved, read and quoted poet of Urdu language across the globe.  At the age of 11, he wrote his first poem and was a master of many languages like Urdu, Persian and Turkish.  Ghalib was one of the important poets in the court of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II.  Mirza Ghalib was bestowed with royal titles of “Dabber-ul-Mulk” and “Najm-ud-daulah” by the emperor, who was also his student. 150th anniversary of Periodic table elements

 The Periodic Table of Chemical Elements is one of the most significant achievements in science, capturing the essence not only of chemistry, but also of physics and biology.  2019 will be the 150th anniversary since Dmitry Mendeleev discovered the Periodic System and has been proclaimed the "International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements" (IYPT2019).  1869 is considered as the year of discovery of the Periodic System by the Russian scientist, Dmitri Mendeleev.

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 The IYPT 2019 also commemorates the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements.  The International Year aims to recognize the importance of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements as one of the most important and influential achievements in modern science reflecting the essence not only of chemistry, but also of physics, biology and other basic sciences disciplines. 150th anniversary of Dr

 Bhagwan Das was an Indian Theosophist and public figure. For a time he served in the Central Legislative Assembly of British India.  He became allied with the Hindustani Culture Society and was active in opposing rioting as a form of protest.  As an advocate for national freedom from the British rule, he was often in danger of reprisals from the Colonial government.  He was awarded the in 1955.  Das joined the in 1894 inspired by a speech by .  Das joined the during the Non-co-operation movement . 150th anniversary of Divorce Act, 1869

 The act originally called the Indian Divorce Act was framed to cover all the Christians residing in India but excluding the princely states and the settlements occupied by Portugal and France.  The act was mainly built upon the Matrimonial causes Act, 1857 which was applied in England.

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 The Supreme Court has said that the principles and rules established by the House of Lords shall be applicable by the Indian courts in cases governed by the Divorce Act.  Although the court expressed its displeasure by saying that incorporation of a statute cannot go this far. 125th anniversary of Pietermaritzburg train incident

 South African and Indian senior officials have marked the 125th anniversary of the day in which Indian independence activist Mahatma Gandhi was thrown out of the whites-only section of a train in a ceremony linking his legacy with that of .  On 7 June 1893, a young Mahatma Gandhi was forcibly removed from the first class, whites-only carriage of a train in Pietermaritzburg. 125th anniversary of Annie Besant Arrival

 Annie Besant was a British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer, orator, and supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule.  In 1867, Annie, at age 20, married Frank Besant, a clergyman, and they had two children.  However, Annie's increasingly unconventional religious views led to their legal separation in 1873.  In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky, and over the next few years her interest in grew, whilst her interest in secular matters waned.

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 She became a member of the Theosophical Society and a prominent lecturer on the subject.  As part of her theosophy-related work, she travelled to India.  In 1898 she helped establish the Central Hindu Schooland in 1922 she helped establish the Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board in Mumbai, India.  She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress.  When World War I broke out in 1914, she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India, and dominion status within the British Empire.  This led to her election as president of the India National Congress, in late 1917. 125th anniversary of Chicago World Parliament of Religions

 The Parliament of World’s Religions, held for the first time in 1893, from September 11 to September 27, saw eminent personalities from around the world at the same forum.  Swami Vivekananda addressed the audience first on September 11 followed by the closing speech on September 27.  At the closing ceremony of the Parliament of World’s Religions, Swami Vivekananda stressed upon world harmony, and how religions, while co-existing with one another, must preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth 100th birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela

 South Africa on Wednesday marked 100 years since Nelson Mandela's birth with a "town hall" forum hosted by Barack Obama and a walk led by the anti-

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apartheid leader's widow among a series of tributes.  His birthday on July 18 is marked annually around the world as "Mandela Day", and the Nelson Mandela Foundation called for people to "take action and inspire change" in his name on the centenary year.  Mandela, who died in 2013, remains a global icon for his long fight against white- minority rule and for his message of peace and reconciliation when he was released after 27 years in prison. 100th birth anniversary of Government of India Act 1919

 The Government of India Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5 c. 101) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.  It was passed to expand participation of Indians in the government of India.  The Act embodied the reforms recommended in the report of the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, and the Viceroy, Lord Chemlsford.  The Act covered ten years, from 1919 to 1929.  This Act represented the end of benevolent despotism and began genesis of responsible government in India.  It was set to be reviewed by the Simon Commission in 10 years.

100th birth anniversary of I.K Gujral

 Inder Kumar Gujral was an Indian politician who served as the 12th Prime Minister of Indiafrom April 1997 to March 1998.

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 Gujral was the third PM to be from the Rajya Sabha, the first being and the second H. D. Deve Gowda (June 1996 - April 1997) and followed by Manmohan Singh (May 2004 - May 2014). 100th anniversary of Rowlatt Act

 India marked the 100th anniversary of the Amritsar massacre, one of the worst atrocities of British colonial rule and one for which London has yet to apologize.

 The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, as it is known in India, saw British troops fire on thousands of unarmed people in Amritsar on April 13, 1919.  The number of casualties is unclear, with colonial-era records showing about 400 deaths, while Indian figures put the number at closer to 1,000.  In March 1919, the British colonial government passed the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, or the Rowlatt Act, extending repressive measures in force during World War I (1914-18).  These included incarceration without trial, and caused widespread anger, particularly in the northern Punjab region, with Mahatma Gandhi calling for a nationwide general strike.

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