12 JUNE 2023

Topic 1 : Captagon pills

Context: As global isolation of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad comes to an end with the Arab League reinstating Syria as its member, the discussions on the trade of Captagon pills have taken the centre-stage once again.
 

What is captagon?

• Captagon is a highly addictive amphetamine-type drug.
• It is produced mainly in Syria and widely smuggled across West Asia.
• They were manufactured to help treat attention deficit disorders, narcolepsy and other conditions.
   

What do amphetamine-based drugs do?

• It stimulate the central nervous system, providing a boost of energy, enhance someone’s focus, let someone stay awake for longer periods of time, and produce a feeling of euphoria.
• Captagon or other amphetamine-type drugs usually stay in the blood for around 36 hours.
• When taken orally, their peak effect occurs one to three hours after consumption, and effects last for as long as seven to 12 hours.

Side effects

• Consumption of amphetamines can cause:
  • loss of appetite and weight,
  • heart problems such as fast heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and heart attack, which can lead to death.
  • high body temperature,
  • skin flushing,
  • memory loss,
  • problems thinking clearly, and
  • stroke.Topic 2 : Ram Prasad Bismil

Context: 126th birth anniversary of Ram Prasad Bismil was commemorated recently.

Key details about his life:

• Early life:
  • He was born into a Rajput Tomar family.
  • Ram Prasad Bismil learnt Hindi from his father and Urdu from a maulvi who lived nearby.
  • He also went to an English medium school.
  • He joined the Arya Samaj and became a prolific writer and poet, penning patriotic verses in Hindi and Urdu under pen names like ‘Agyat’, ‘Ram’, and the one that is most known – ‘Bismil’ (meaning ‘wounded’, ‘restless’).
  • At the age of only 18, he penned the poem Mera Janm (My Birth), venting out his anger over the death sentence handed out to Arya Samaj missionary Bhai Parmanand.
• The Mainpuri Conspiracy
  • Bismil was not willing to “negotiate” or “beg” for his country’s freedom.
  • if the British did not accede, he was willing to take it by force, as one of his most famous poems, Ghulami Mita Do illustrates.
  • To achieve his ends, he started a revolutionary organisation called Matrivedi (The Altar of the Motherland) and joined forces with fellow revolutionary Genda Lal Dixit.
  • In 1918, Bismil wrote arguably his most famous poem, Mainpuri ki Pratigya, which was distributed across the United Provinces in pamphlets.
  • That year, in order to collect funds for his fledgling organisation, her carried out at least three instances of looting at government offices in Mainpuri district.
• Founding the Hindustan Republican Association
  • He released a collection of poems called Man ki Lahar and also translated works such as Bolshevikon ki Kartoot (from Bengali).
  • He initially worked gathering support for the Congress-led Non-Cooperation Movement but after Gandhi called it off post the incident at Chauri Chaura in 1922, Bismil decided to start his own party.
  • Thus the Hindustan Republican Association was formed with Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Sachindra Nath Bakshi and Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee as founding members.
  • Figures such as Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh would also later join the HRA.
  • Their manifesto, largely penned down by Bismil, was officially released on January 1, 1925 and titled Krantikari (Revolutionary).
  • It proclaimed  that the immediate object of the revolutionary party in the domain of politics is to establish a federal Republic of United States of India by an organized and armed revolution.
• The Kakori Train Action
  • The train robbery at Kakori in August 1925 was HRA’s first major action.
  • Revolutionaries planned to rob the train between Shahjahanpur and Lucknow, which often carried treasury bags meant to be deposited in the British treasury in Lucknow.
  • On August 9, 1925, as the train was passing the Kakori station, about 15 km from Lucknow, Rajendranath Lahiri, a member of the HRA who was already seated inside, pulled the chain and stopped the train.
  • Subsequently, around ten revolutionaries, including Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan, entered the train and overpowered the guard.
  • They looted the treasury bags (containing approx Rs 4,600) and escaped to Lucknow.
  • Due to a misfiring Mauser gun, one passenger (a lawyer named Ahmad Ali) was killed during the robbery.
• Death and legacy
  • After an eighteen month long trial, Bismil, Ashfaqullah and Rajendranath Lahiri were sentenced to death.
  • The sentence was carried out on December 19, 1927.Topic 3 : Nutri Garden Project in Lakshadweep

Context: Prime Minister of India has praised the results of the Nutri Garden Project in Lakshadweep.
 

Key details:

• The project was launched in the island archipelago under the ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ initiative in 2022.
• In this project 1,000 farmers were provided with vegetable seeds.
• As a successful result of this programme, the supply of vegetables in the region has increased.
• To make the island archipelago self-reliant in production and supply of vegetables, seeds of okra, tomato, brinjal, chilli, amaranthus etc and grow bags and organic fertilizers were distributed to 1,000 farmers selected from the various islands.
• Over 8,000 fruit saplings of various varieties and spices saplings were also provided to them.
• Significance:
  • Supply of fresh vegetables in Lakshadweep has increased for ensuring nutritional security of the local population.
  • The programme has been a huge success resulting in increased supply of fresh vegetables/fruits to the islanders and income guarantee to the farmers.

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Topic 4 : Indo-US cooperation in agriculture

Context: A brief history of the US role in independent India’s agricultural development is useful in the context of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to the US, for strengthening the “global strategic partnership” between the two countries.

The first Agricultural University

• In 1950, Major H.S. Sandhu, who led the reclamation of Uttar Pradesh’s Tarai region, and the state’s Chief Secretary A.N. Jha visited the US and saw the land-grant universities there.
  • These institutions, set up on public land, engaged in agricultural education as well as research and extension activity.
  • This was unlike the agricultural and veterinary colleges in India that merely taught and produced graduates.
• The two officials recommended to the Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant that a US land-grant model agricultural university be established in the densely-forested Tarai area near the Himalayan foothills.
• The state government made available 14,255 acres of land and, in December 1958, passed the UP Agricultural University Act.
  • The UP Agricultural University (later renamed as G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology) was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on November 17, 1960.
• It led to as many as eight agricultural universities coming up within eight years, mostly at the initiative of the chief ministers themselves.

• All the eight universities received the US Agency for International Development’s assistance for training of faculty and provision of equipment and books.
• Each was further linked to a US land-grant institution

The Green Revolution’s seeds

• Around 1957-58, M.S. Swaminathan, a scientist got in touch with Norman Borlaug, who came to India only in March 1963, following a request placed to the Rockefeller Foundation (US).
• He sent the seeds of four Mexican wheat varieties bred by him, which were first sown in the trial fields of IARI and the new agricultural universities at Pantnagar and Ludhiana.
• By 1966-67, farmers were planting these in large scale and India, from being an importer, turned self-sufficient in wheat.
   

Significance:

• It resulted in competition to do-good, extending to “fighting world hunger” and sharing of knowledge and plant genetic material that were viewed as global public goods.
• India, contrary to popular perception, wasn’t aligned to either bloc at least till the sixties.
• The strategy of non-alignment paid off then.Topic 5 : The Sengol

Context: Union Home Minister appealed to the people of Tamil Nadu to elect more than 25 MPs of in the 2024 Lok Sabha election to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for installing Sengol, a legacy of the Chola era, in the new Parliament House.
 

Key details:

• What is the sengol?
  • Measuring five feet in length, this gold coated silver sceptre features an intricately carved ‘nandi’ at the top, which is meant to represent the concept of justice.
• When was it made and by whom?
  • It was made during the time of Independence in 1947, when the British handed over power to India.
• Why was it made?
  • Lord Mountbatten, the last British viceroy, wanted to mark the epoch moment of the ceremonial transfer of power from the British to the Indians.
• Who was given the sengol?
  • The late Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru received this sengol from Tamil Nadu and he accepted this as a symbol of achieving independence.
  • It is a sign of a shift of power from Britishers to The people of this country.
  • It was the head of ancient Shaivite math Thiruvavaduthurai Aadeenam math that presented the Sengol to Nehru in 1947.
• What does the sengol stand for today?
  • The sengol has since assumed importance as the sceptre of righteousness.
  • It is a reminder of India’s diversity and the birth of a great nation.
  • The one who receives Sengol is expected to have a fair and just rule.
• What is the significance of Sengol?
  • During the Chola period, the Sengol was of great importance during the coronation ceremonies of kings, and was symbolic of transfer of power from one ruler to the next.Topic 6 : The Matuas

Context: Trinamool Congress leader accused a political party of desecrating the holy place of the Matuas by harassing women devotees in West Bengal.
 

Harichand Thakur

• Harichand Thakur was born in 1812 in Orakandi in Bangladesh in a peasant farmer family of the Thakur community (SC community).
• Thakur, whose family was Vaishnavite Hindus, founded a sect of Vaishnavite Hinduism called Matua.
• This was adopted by members of the Namasudra community, who were then also known by the common pejorative name of Chandalas and considered untouchable.
• The sect, opposed to caste oppression, later attracted adherents from other communities marginalised by the upper castes, including Malis and Telis.
• Thakur’s followers consider him God (hence called him Thakur) and an avatar of Vishnu or Krishna.
• Thus, he came to be known as Sri Sri Harichand Thakur. 

Who are Matuas?

• Originally from East Pakistan, the Matuas migrated to India during Partition and after the creation of Bangladesh.
• However, a sizable number are yet to get Indian citizenship.
• The Matua Mahasangha is a religious reform movement that was formed by Harichand Thakur in East Bengal in the mid-1800s.
• Political significance:
  • The Namasudras form one of the largest chunks of SCs in Bengal, comprising 17.4 per cent of the population as per the 2001 Census data.
  • They are in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act through which the matuas can get their long standing demand for Indian citizenship.

Traditional Chola practice

• It was a traditional Chola practice for Samayacharyas (spiritual leaders) to lead the coronation of kings and sanctify the transfer of power, which is also considered a kind of recognition for the ruler.
• Tamil kings had this sengol (a Tamil word for sceptre), which is a symbol of justice and good governance.
• The two great epics Silapathikaram and Manimekalai records the significance of a sengol.