Manipur PSC Prelims Paper 1 Mock Test - 7 - Manipur CSCCE MCQ

• In the matters of administration, the British introduced equality before law, took away the judicial functions of the Caste Panchayats and gradually opened the doors of administrative services to all castes. Moreover, the new educational system was wholly secular and, therefore, basically opposed to caste distinctions and the caste outlook. As modern democratic and rationalist ideas spread among the Indians, they began to raise their voice against the caste system.
• The Brahmo Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj, the Arya Samaj, the Ramakrishna Mission, the Theosophists, the Social Conference and nearly all the great reformers of the 19th century attacked it. Even though many of them defended the system of the Four Varnas, they were critical of the caste (Jati) system.
• In particular, they condemned the inhuman practice of untouchability. They also realized that national unity and national progress in political, social and economic fields could not be achieved so long as millions were deprived of their right to live with dignity and honour.
• The growth of the National Movement played a significant role in weakening the caste system. The National Movement was opposed to all those institutions which tended to divide the Indian people. From the beginning, the Indian National Congress and, in fact, the entire National Movement opposed caste privileges and fought for equal civic rights and equal freedom for the development of the individual without distinctions of caste, sex or religion. All his life Gandhiji kept the abolition of untouchability at the forefront of his public activities. In 1932, he founded the All-India Harijan Sangh for this purpose.
• His campaign for the ―root and branch removal of untouchability‖ was based on the grounds of humanism and reason. He argued that there was no sanction for untouchability in the Hindu Shastras. Since the middle of the 19th century, numerous individuals and organizations worked to spread education among the untouchables to open the doors of schools and temples to them, to enable them to use public wells and tanks, and to remove other social disabilities and distinctions from which they suffered. As education and awakening spread, the lower castes themselves began to stir. They became conscious of their basic human rights and began to rise in defence of these rights.
• In Maharashtra, in the second half of the 19th century, Jyotiba Phule, born in a lower-caste family, led a life-long movement against the Brahmanical religious authority as part of his struggle against upper-caste domination. He regarded modern education as the most important weapon for the liberation of the lower castes. He was the first to open several schools for girls of the lower castes.
• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who belonged to one of the Scheduled Castes, devoted his entire life to fighting against caste tyranny. He organized the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation for the purpose. Several other Scheduled Caste leaders founded the All-India Depressed Classes Association.
• In Kerala, Sri Narayan Guru organized a life-long struggle against the caste system. He coined the famous slogan: “One religion, one caste and one God for mankind.” In south India, the nonBrahmins organized, during the 1920s, the Self-Respect Movement to fight the disabilities which the Brahmins had imposed upon them. Numerous Satyagraha Movements were organized all over India jointly by the upper and the depressed castes against the ban on the latter‘s entry into temples and other such restrictions. The struggle against untouchability could not, however, be fully successful under the alien rule. 

• Mahatma Gandhi was requested by Rajkumar Shukla, a local man, to look into the problems of the farmers in the context of indigo planters of Champaran in Bihar. Gandhi went to Champaran with Rajkumar early in 1917 accompanied by Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-Haq, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parekh, and J.B. Kripalani.
• Whereas, Indulal Yajnik assisted Gandhi in Kheda satyagraha. So, Statement 1 is not correct.
• Mahatma Gandhi was assisted in Kheda Satyagraha by Sardar Vallabhai Patel and other local lawyers and advocates such as Indulal Yagnik, Shankarlal Banker, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya, and Ravi Shankar Vyas. Anasuya Sarabhai also played a major role in the Kheda satyagraha and was also one of the first signatories of the ‘Satyagraha Pledge’ created by Gandhi to oppose the Rowlatt Bill. So, Statement 2 is correct.
• Gandhi organized the third campaign in Ahmedabad where he intervened in a dispute between the mill owners and workers. Gandhi knew Ambalal Sarabhai, a millowner, as the latter had financially helped Gandhi’s Ashram. Moreover, Ambalal’s sister Anasuya Sarabhai had reverence for Gandhi. He was assisted by Anasuya Sarabhai organized daily mass meetings of workers, in which he delivered lectures and issued a series of leaflets on the situation. So, Statement 3 is correct.

Additional Information:

MAHATMA GANDHI
Champaran Satyagraha

• The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was the first Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi in India and is considered a historically important revolt in the Indian Independence Movement.
• It was a farmer's uprising that took place in the Champaran district of Bihar, India, during the British colonial period. The farmers were protesting against having to grow indigo with barely any payment for it.
• When Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915 and saw peasants in northern India oppressed by indigo planters, he tried to use the same methods that he had used in South Africa to organize mass uprisings by people to protest against injustice.
• Champaran Satyagraha was the first popular satyagraha movement.
• Other popular leaders associated with Champaran Satyagraha were Brajkishore Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Ramnavmi Prasad, and Shambhusharan Varma.

Kheda Satyagraha

• Because of the drought in 1918, the crops failed in the Kheda district of Gujarat.
• According to the Revenue Code, if the yield was less than one-fourth of the normal
• production, the farmers were entitled to remission.
• The Gujarat Sabha, consisting of the peasants, submitted petitions to the highest governing authorities of the province requesting that the revenue assessment for the year 1919 be suspended.
• The government, however, remained adamant and said that the property of the farmers would be seized if the taxes were not paid.
• Gandhi asked the farmers not to pay taxes.
• Gandhi, however, was mainly the spiritual head of the struggle.
• It was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a group of other devoted Gandhians, namely, Narahari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya, and Ravi Shankar Vyas, who went around the villages, organized the villagers and told them what to do, and gave the necessary political leadership.
• Patel, along with his colleagues, organized the tax revolt which the different ethnic and caste communities of Kheda supported.
• The revolt was remarkable in that discipline and unity were maintained.
• Even when, on non-payment of taxes, the government seized the farmers’ personal property, land, and livelihood, a vast majority of Kheda’s farmers did not desert Sardar Patel.
• Those Indians who sought to buy the confiscated lands were socially ostracised.
• Ultimately, the government sought to bring about an agreement with the farmers.
• It agreed to suspend the tax for the year in question, and for the next; reduce the rate increase, and return all the confiscated property.
• The struggle at Kheda brought a new awakening among the peasantry.
• They became aware that they would not be free of injustice and exploitation unless and until their country achieved complete independence.

Ahmedabad mill strike

• In March 1918, Gandhi intervened in a dispute between cotton mill owners of Ahmedabad and the workers over the issue of discontinuation of the plague bonus.
• The mill owners wanted to withdraw the bonus.
• The workers were demanding a rise of 50 percent in their wages so that they could manage in the times of wartime inflation (which doubled the prices of food grains, cloth, and other necessities) caused by Britain’s involvement in World War I.
• The mill owners were ready to give only a 20 percent wage hike.
• The workers went on strike. The relations between the workers and the m ill owners worsened with the striking workers being arbitrarily dismissed and the mill owners deciding to bring in weavers from Bombay.
• The workers of the mill turned to Anusuya Sarabhai for help in fighting for justice.
• Anusuya Sarabhai was a social worker who was also the sister of Ambalal Sarabhai, one of the mill owners and the president of the Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association (founded in 1891 to develop the textile industry in Ahmedabad), for help in fighting for justice.
• Though Gandhi was a friend of Ambalal, he took up the workers’ cause.
• Gandhi asked the workers to go on a strike and demand a 35 percent increase in wages instead of 50 percent.
• Gandhi advised the workers to remain non-violent while on strike.
• When negotiations with mill owners did not progress, he undertook a fast unto death (his first) to strengthen the workers’ resolve.
• But the fast also had the effect of putting pressure on the mill owners who finally agreed to submit the issue to a tribunal.

• In 1534 AD the Portuguese gained possession of Bombay, after the Treaty of Bassein was signed between them and Bahadur Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate. In 1612, a battle was fought between the British and the Portuguese at Surat for the possession of Bombay, which ended the Portuguese monopoly over trade in India. 
• In 1661, under the Treaty of Whitehall, Bombay changed hands as it was presented to King Charles II as part of the dowry, when he married Princess Catherine de Braganza of Portugal. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• The Treaty included a secret provision that it would be used to protect the Portuguese settlements in India. It involved a mutual defence pact against the aggressive and expanding Dutch East India Company. 
• The French East India Company was founded on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English and Dutch trading companies in the East Indies. Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• Rural indebtedness and large-scale alienation of agricultural land to non-cultivating classes was a countrywide phenomenon in rural India during the last quarter of the 19th century. Faced with peasant uprisings in Bengal and Maharashtra the Government could not wait for a similar rebellion in Punjab before it would act. The communal complexion of the Punjab rural situation and the martial character of the Sikhs called for early effective action.
  • Following its annexation by the British in 1847, Punjab province witnessed several significant developments—individualization of property rights in land, fixation and rigorous collection of land revenue in cash, the introduction of a new legal-administrative system, construction of a road and railway network, canal-building activities and a colonization program, commercialization of agriculture and increased monetization of economic transactions.
  • These developments created a situation which, in turn, gave rise to two related problems –agricultural indebtedness and land transfer.
• As early as 1895 the Government addressed a circular to the provincial governments suggesting the advisability of imposing restrictions on the alienation of agricultural land. The famines of 1896-97 and 1899-1900 resulted in large-scale distress and brought the matter into sharp focus. The Punjab Land Alienation Act, 1900 was passed "as an experimental measure " to be extended to the rest of the country if it worked successfully in Punjab.
  • The Act divided the Punjab population under three heads viz., the agricultural classes, the statutory agriculturist class (those who though not belonging to the agricultural class long settled interests in the land) and the rest of the population including the moneylenders.
  • Restrictions were imposed on the sale and mortgage of the land from the first category to the other two categories, though members of the second and third category could sell or mortgage land as they pleased.
  • The Punjab peasant was also given partial relief against the oppressive incidence of land revenue demand by the Government whereby the state land revenue demand was not to exceed 50% of the annual rental value of the land.
• Hence option (d) is the correct answer.

• Industrial towns: Industries constitute the prime motive force of these cities such as Mumbai, Salem, Coimbatore, Modinagar, Jamshedpur, Hugli, Bhilai, etc.

• Commercial towns: Towns and cities specializing in trade and commerce are kept in this class. Kolkata, Saharanpur, Satna, etc. are some examples.

• Garrison Cantonment towns: These towns emerged as garrison towns such as Ambala, Jalandhar, Mhow, Babina, Udhampur, etc.

  • Ambala: It is a city and a municipal corporation in the Ambala district in Haryana. It has a large Indian Army and Indian Air Force presence within its cantonment area. Ambala separates the Ganges River network from the Indus River network and is surrounded by two rivers – Ghaggar and Tangri – to the north and to the south.

  • Mhow: Mhow, officially Dr. Ambedkar Nagar, is a cantonment in the Indore district in the Madhya Pradesh state of India.

  • Babina: Babina is a cantonment town in Jhansi district in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

  • Udhampur: Udhampur is a city and a municipal committee in the Udhampur district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Named after Raja Udham Singh, it serves as the district capital and the Northern Command headquarters of the Indian Army. Hence option (c) is the correct answer

• Administrative towns and cities: Towns supporting administrative headquarters of higher order are administrative towns, such as Chandigarh, New Delhi, Bhopal, Shillong, Guwahati, Imphal, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Jaipur Chennai, etc.

The following biodiversity heritage sites, which are unique, ecologically fragile ecosystems, are located in Karnataka, - Nallur Tamarind Grove - It is popularly believed to be a relic of the Chola Dynasty that ruled nearly 800 years ago. - Hogrekan - The area has unique Shola vegetation and grassland. Its dry deciduous vegetation is linked with Bababudanagiri and Kemmangundi, adjoining Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary and Yemmedode Tiger Reserve and serving as a "Wildlife Corridor" between Kudremukha and Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. - University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bengaluru – It is considered one of the greenest areas in Bengaluru. - Ambaraguda is a revenue land between Sharavathi Wild Life Sanctuary and Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary. It has Shola vegetation which is primitive vegetation in the Western Ghats and grasslands. - Antaragange Betta in Kolar is a unique and perennial water source flowing throughout the year. - Aadi Narayana Swamy Betta in Chickballapur - had many dry-belt species protected by locals. - Mahima Ranga Betta in Nelamangala, Bengaluru – It is a prominent lung space surviving in Bengaluru. - The Urumbi area on the Kumaradhara river basin in Dakshina Kannada has a fragile environmental system and is located on the banks of the river Kumaradhara. So, Option (b) is correct.

Kármán Line is located at 100 km above sea level, it is an imaginary line that demarcates the earth’s atmosphere from space.

• Though not all scientists and spacefarers accept it, a majority of countries and space organisations recognise this boundary between earthsky and space.
• It was established in the 1960s by a record-keeping body called Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

Statement 1 is correct. Federalism is an institutional mechanism to accommodate two sets of polities—one at the regional level and the other at the national level. Each government is autonomous in its own sphere. In some federal countries, there is even a system of dual citizenship. India has only a single citizenship.

Statement 2 is correct. To prevent conflicts between the Centre and the State, there is an independent judiciary to settle disputes. The judiciary has the powers to resolve disputes between the central government and the States on legal matters about the division of power.

The term liberty does not mean that citizens have unrestricted freedom. Their liberties are subject to reasonable restrictions.

• The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) provides three different estimates of employment and unemployment based on different approaches / reference periods used to classify an individual’s activity status. These are the o Usual status approach with a reference period of 365 days preceding the date of survey. Hence statement 1 is not correct. 
  • Current weekly status approach with a reference period of seven days preceding the date of survey o Current daily status approach with each day of the seven days preceding date of survey as the reference period. Hence statement 2 is correct. 
• The Usual Status approach to measuring unemployment uses a reference period of 365 days i.e. one year preceding the date of the survey of NSSO for measuring unemployment. This approach records only those persons as unemployed who had no gainful work for a major time during the 365 days preceding the date of the survey and are seeking or are available for work. Thus, the estimates of unemployment obtained on the basis of the usual status approach are expected to capture long-term unemployment. 
  • The usual status approach to measuring unemployment fails to capture the short-term fluctuations in employment and unemployment caused due to seasonality in labour markets. However, Current Weekly Status (CWS) measures these short-term fluctuations very well owing to its shorter reference period of a week. Hence statement 3 is correct.
• The Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach to measuring unemployment uses seven days preceding the date of the survey as the reference period. 
  • A person is considered to be employed if he or she pursues any one or more of the gainful activities for at least one-hour on any day of the reference week. On the other hand, if a person does not pursue any gainful activity, but has been seeking or available for work, the person is considered as unemployed. 
• The current daily status approach to measuring unemployment seeks to ascertain the activity status of an individual for each day of the reference week. It reports time disposition of an individual on each day of the reference week. This means that in addition to recording the activity being pursued, time-intensity is also recorded in quantitative terms for each day of the reference week.

• Fiat money is a government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, such as gold or silver, but rather by the government that issued it. The value of fiat money is derived from the relationship between supply and demand and the stability of the issuing government rather than the worth of a commodity backing it. Cheques are not fiat money because the central bank or R.B.I. does not back them. Other parties can refuse to accept it as a mode of payment. So, Statement 1 is not correct.
• Money that has a legal sanction by the government or central bank behind it is called legal tender or legal tender money. It is money issued by the monetary authority or the government, which any person cannot refuse in payment for transactions. So, Statement 2 is correct.

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Any person not in a position to obtain essential commodities like food, shelter, and clothing is said to experience absolute poverty. Relative poverty does not concentrate on biological needs but rather makes a comparison between two people in society.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: Since 2015 World Bank used $1.90 as the international poverty rate. The new global poverty rate is set at $2.15 using 2017 prices. This means that anyone having on less than $2.15 a day is considered to be living in extreme poverty. Just under 700 million people globally were in this situation in 2017.
• Income Level is considered in Absolute Poverty It is not considered when measuring relative poverty as a person will still be considered poor despite meeting his/her basic needs

• Nitrogen exists in organic and inorganic (ammonia, nitrate) forms and in different oxidation states. Nitrogen is a highly interchangeable compound and hence undergoes transformations from one oxidation state to another according to the use of organisms. The transformations include nitrogen fixation, nitrification, denitrification and ammonification carried out by the microorganisms especially the bacteria and fungi.
• Dinitrogen is made biologically available through nitrogen fixation. The conversion process is very energy demanding and only few prokaryotes can convert N2 into biological nitrogen.
• Lightning and certain industrial process also break the dinitrogen into biological available nitrogen. Some nitrogen fixers are free living and some exhibit symbiotic relationship with the host plant eg. Rhizobium in leguminous plants; Cyanobacteria in aquatic systems. The nitrogenase enzyme present in the nitrogen fixers catalyzes the reduction of N2 to NH3 (ammonia).
• The ammonia is oxidized to nitrite and nitrate by the nitrifying bacteria through the process of nitrification. Two distinct steps are involved in nitrification. First step involves the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite via an intermediate, the hydroxylamine carried out by ammonia oxidizing bacteria.
• Ammonia oxidizing bacteria are autotrophic and involve two enzymes viz. ammonia monooxygenase and hydroxylamine oxidoreductase.
• The second step involves the oxidation of nitrite to nitrate carried out by a specific group of bacteria nitrite oxidizing bacteria. Nitrospira, Nitrobacter, Nitrococcus, and Nitrospina are few of the nitrite oxidizing bacteria. Nitrate is highly soluble in water and hence gets leached out into the water body. Hence option 1 is not correct.
• The biological nitrogen is returned back to the atmosphere by the process of denitrification. Denitrifying bacteria converts the nitrate to dinitrogen under anaerobic conditions with a series of intermediate nitrogen compounds such as NO2, NO, N2O. Denitrification is carried out by anaerobic bacteria in soils, sediments, lakes and oceans. Denitrifying bacteria are chemoorganotrophs and require carbon for its growth. ThioBacillus, Paracoccus and Pseudomonas are some of the examples of denitrifying bacteria. Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

The Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology has been entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating two out of eight national missions launched under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). These are National Mission for Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) and National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (NMSKCC).

Both the Statements are not correct.

• Malaria is a life-threatening disease spread to humans by some types of mosquitoes. It is mostly found in tropical countries.
• Transmission: It is caused by plasmodium protozoa. The plasmodium parasites spread through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Blood transfusion and contaminated needles may also transmit malaria.
• The R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine has been recommended for use by the World Health Organisation (WHO) after meeting required safety, quality and effectiveness standards.

Types of parasites:

• There are 5 Plasmodium parasite species that cause malaria in humans and 2 of these species – P. falciparum and P. vivax – pose the greatest threat. The other malaria species which can infect humans are P. malariae, P. ovale and P. knowlesi.
• The vaccine has been developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, leveraging Novavax’s adjuvant technology.
• The R21 vaccine is the second malaria vaccine recommended by WHO, following the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine, which received a WHO recommendation in 2021.

Statement Analysis:
Earthquakes are sudden tremors of the Earth’s surface caused by the release of energy in the form of seismic waves. These waves travel outward from the point of origin, shaking the ground and sometimes causing widespread damage.
Causes:

• Tectonic plate movement: The Earth’s crust is made up of giant plates that are constantly moving. When these plates grind against each other or suddenly slip, the energy released can trigger an earthquake.
• Volcanic activity: Magma movement within volcanoes can also cause earthquakes, though generally less powerful than those caused by plate movement.

Types of Seismic Waves:

• P-waves: These are the fastest waves, traveling through the Earth’s interior. They compress and expand the ground as they pass.
• S-waves: These are slower than P-waves and can only travel through solid rock. They shake the ground from side to side.
• Surface waves: These are the slowest and most destructive waves, causing the ground to roll and sway. They travel along the Earth’s surface.

Measuring Earthquakes: Earthquakes are measured by two main scales:

• Magnitude: This measures the amount of energy released by the earthquake, based on the amplitude of seismic waves recorded on seismographs. It is a logarithmic scale, meaning that a magnitude 7 earthquake is ten times stronger than a magnitude 6 earthquake.
• Intensity: This measures the shaking felt at a specific location, considering factors like distance from the epicenter and local geology. It is not a fixed scale and can vary significantly within a single earthquake.

Impact of Earthquakes: Earthquakes can have devastating consequences, causing:

• Ground shaking: The most immediate impact, leading to building collapses, infrastructure damage, and landslides.
• Tsunamis: Large earthquakes underwater can generate tsunamis, giant waves that can inundate coastal areas.
• Liquefaction: When earthquake shaking loosens and saturates the ground, it can liquefy, causing buildings to sink and infrastructure to buckle.
• Fires: Broken gas lines and electrical sparks can ignite fires, exacerbating the damage.

Context: Earthquake and Tsunami strikes Central Japan

Ajatshatru killed his father Bimbisara and seized the throne of Magadha. Both Mahavira and Buddha died during his reign.

• Statement 1 is correct. The Satavahana rulers are known for their patronage of both Buddhist monasteries and Brahmanical temples, indicating their eclectic religious policy.
• Statement 2 is correct. The Satavahanas used Prakrit widely in their inscriptions, promoting it as a lingua franca across their territory for administrative purposes.
• Statement 3 is incorrect. There is no substantial evidence that the Satavahana dynasty had significant naval power or an extensive fleet; their maritime involvement was primarily through trade.

The Vardhana Dynasty ruled over North India, with Kannauj as its capital. It had significant control and influence in the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent.

Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor, was a great scholar of Islamic theology and jurisprudence.

The temples in Bangkok, Thailand, contain many sculptures depicting the Ramayana. This shows the influence of Indian culture on Thai art and architecture.

The emperor determined the rank of every mansabdar and allotted jagirs for the maintenance of the mansabdars.

The Zamindar was not the owner of the land and peasants could not be dispossessed of land as long as they paid land revenue.

The apparent movement of the Sun on the horizon throughout the year is due to the variation in the Earth's axial tilt. As the Earth orbits the Sun, the tilt causes different parts of the planet to receive sunlight at different angles, leading to the perceived change in the Sun's position.