Quiz No.6

A quiz on August 15. From Nehru to present day India

1. Why is July 18, 1947, a significant date?

2. Lord Mountbatten said the chosen date for Independence came out of the blue but also was the second anniversary of what incident?

3. How was the country referred to between August 15, 1947 and January 26, 1950, when it became a republic?

4. Where and to whom did Jawaharlal Nehru deliver the famous “Tryst with Destiny” speech?

5. Apart from Lord Mountbatten, who else served as the Governor General of the Dominion of India?

6. Where was Mahatma Gandhi on that historic day?

7. What ‘natural’ Independence Day gift did Bapu send through an emissary to Nehru and Sardar Patel?

8. Which princely state in Gujarat initially acceded to Pakistan, after Independence, before becoming part of India?

9. In which acclaimed book is the protagonist Saleem Sinal born at midnight of August 15, 1947?

10. Name the two Asian countries that share their freedom or liberation date with India.

11. Which Indian nationalist and spiritual guide, who is associated with a commune in Pondicherry, was born on August 15?

12. Who was the President of India during the Golden Jubilee of the historic day in 1997?

13. Which Bharat Ratna’s performance on Independence Day was a highlight every year from 1947 till his death in 2006?

14. From where does the Prime Minister address the nation on

August 15?

15. Name the much acclaimed multi-starrer, dubbed “Film of the Millennium” by BBC India in 1999, released on August 15 in 1975.

Answers: 1. The Royal Assent was given on that date to the Indian Independence Act; 2. Japan’s surrender after WWII; 3. ‘Bharata Adhirajya’ or Dominion of India; 4. To the Constituent Assembly in the Parliament House on August 14-15, 1947; 5. C. Rajagopalachari; 6. He was in Calcutta (now Kolkata) trying to bring peace after communal clashes; 7. A dry leaf; 8. Junagadh; 9.Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie; 10. South Korea and Bahrain; 11. Sri Aurobindo; 12. K.R. Narayanan; 13. Ustad Bismillah Khan; 14. Red Fort; 15. “Sholay”.