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Who was the first woman to win the Literature prize?

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1909 was awarded to Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf “in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings.”
Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was born in Östra Emterwik, Värmland, Sweden. She was brought up on Mårbacka, the family estate, which she did not leave until 1881, when she went to a teachers’ college at Stockholm. In 1885 she became a teacher at the girls’ secondary school in Landskrona. She had been writing poetry ever since she was a child, but she did not publish anything until 1890, when a Swedish weekly gave her the first prize in a literary competition and published excerpts from the book which was to be her first, best, and most popular work. Gösta Berlings Saga was published in 1891, but went unnoticed until its Danish translation received wide critical acclaim and paved the way for the book’s lasting success in Sweden and elsewhere. In 1895 financial support from the royal family and the Swedish Academy encouraged her to abandon teaching altogether. She travelled in Italy and wrote Antikrists mirakler (1897) [The Miracles of Antichrist], a novel set in Sicily. After several minor works she published Jerusalem (1901-1902) [The Holy City], a novel about Swedish peasants who emigrated to the Holy Land and whom she had visited in 1900. This work was her first immediate success.

 

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Who is the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize?

The board of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian to receive a Nobel Prize, one of the highest honours in the world. He won the prize in the Literature category in 1913 for his poetry collection “Gitanjali”.

Born in 1891 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Tagore was well known for his poetry, songs, stories, dramas, which included portrayals of people’s lives, philosophy and social issues.

Born in a wealthy family, Tagore was home-schooled, but went to England to study further. A few years later, he returned to India without a formal degree. While managing his family’s estates, he got a closer look at the impoverished rural Bengal. A friend of Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore participated in India’s struggle for independence. In fact, the national anthem that we sing today is one of the many stanzas of hymn composed by Tagore.

While he originally wrote in Bengali, Tagore reached out to a wider audience by translating his works into English. “Gitanjali” is a collection of more than 150 poems, which includes Tagore’s own translations of some of his Bengali poems. It was originally published in Bengali in 1910 and in English in 1912, with a preface by English poet W.B. Yeats. Some of Tagore’s acclaimed works include “Ghare Baire” (“The Home and the World”); “Sesher Kabita” (“Farewell My Friends”). “Kabuliwala”, “Gora”, “My Boyhood Days”, “Gitabitan, “and “The Post Office”.

Following the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919, Tagore returned his Knighthood for Services to Literature, which g=he was awarded in 1915.

Through his ideas of peace and spiritual harmony, the Nobel Laureate paved a new way of life based on his ideals of Brahmo Samaj. His contribution to education too is unparalleled. He founded the Visva Bharti University in Santiniketan, focusing on developing the child’s imagination and promoting stress-free learning.

Tagore passed away in 1941 at the age of 80.

 

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In 2001, who became the second vocalist to receive the honour?

Lata Mangeshkar (born as Hema Mangeshkar on 28 September 1929)) is an Indian playback singer and music director. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. She has recorded songs in over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in Marathi, Hindi, Bengali and Assamese.

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was bestowed on her in 1989 by the Government of India. In 2001, in recognition of her contributions to the nation, she was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour and is only the second vocalist, after M. S. Subbulakshmi, to receive this honour. France conferred on her its highest civilian award, the Officer of the Legion of Honour, in 2007.

Lata is the eldest child of the family. Meena, Asha, Usha, and Hridaynath, in birth order, are her siblings; all are accomplished singers and musicians.

Lata received her first music lesson from her father. At the age of five, she started to work as an actress in her father’s musical plays (Sangeet Natak in Marathi). On her first day of school, she left school because they would not allow her to bring her sister Asha with her, as she would often bring her younger sister with her.

 

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In 1998, which Carnatic vocalist from Tamil Nadu became the first musician to be honoured with the award?

Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi is a name that is synonymous with the world of Carnatic music. This flawless singer, whose voice almost had a divine power, is the first singer to be presented with India’s highest civil honour, the Bharat Ratna. When she was honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay award, which is considered as Asia’s Nobel Prize, she became the first Indian musician to do so. Subbulakshmi, fondly addressed as M.S by her fans, was a true pioneer of anything that has to do with women empowerment. She led by example and showed the way to contemporary women of her era. 

Subbulakshmi began her training under her mother Shanmu kavadiver Ammal. She then went on to learn the nuances of Carnatic music under Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. While learning Carnatic music, she also learnt and mastered Hindustani music under the famous vocalist Pandit Narayanrao Vyas. M.S was a quick learner and thus finished her education at a young age.

The great talent that M.S possessed brought a galaxy of fans. Her fan list included the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Lata Mangeshkar, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Kishori Amonkar. Mahatma Gandhi once commented that he would rather hear Subbulakshmi utter the lyrics of the songs rather than hear someone else sing it. While Jawaharlal Nehru called her the ‘Queen of Music’, Bade Ghulam Ali defined her as the ‘Goddess of perfect note’. In the year 1998, M. S. Subbulakshmi became the first musician to be honored with India’s highest civilian award.

 

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Widely known as Sudhakantha, which singer-musician from Assam was given the award posthumously in 2019?

Bhupen Hazarika, who was posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna in 2019, was a singer, balladeer, poet, lyricist and film maker who was widely admired not only in native Assam but across the country.

He started out as a child actor and wrote and sang his first song at the age of 10. His famous song, `O Ganga, tum bhati ho kyun’ is sung across homes in India. Hazarika created his own ode to the Brahmaputra. His song on Bangladesh’s liberation was very popular and he was well-known in Nepal.

Hazarika was popularly known as Bhupenda in Assam and awaded with titles like Sudhakantha.

He had joined the BJP ahead of 2004 Lok Sabha elections impressed by the performance of Atal Bihari Vajpayee government though he desisted bondage of a political party. He had also been an independent member of the Assam Assembly.

 

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Which economist received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics Sciences in 1998 and awarded the Bharat Ratna a year later?

Amartya Sen is an Indian economist and philosopher. He has worked in India, the United Kingdom and the United States.

He was born on November 3rd, 1933, to a Bengali family of Santiniketan in West Bengal. He is the second Indian after Rabindranath Tagore to receive a Nobel Prize.

Sen’s first book ‘Collective Choice and Social Welfare’ was launched around 1970. This book was considered to be one of the most influential monographs that speak about the issue of primary welfare, justice, equality and individual rights.

His publication ‘Development as freedom’ got the recognition of the Nobel Prize committee. In 1992 he came up with his book ‘Inequality Re-examined’ which covered all the important themes of his work. In 1998 he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contribution to ‘Welfare Economics’. He also won the Bharat Ratna award IN 1999, the highest civilian award in India and the National Humanities Medal ward in 2011.

 

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In 1976, which chief minister of Tamil Nadu was given the award posthumously?

Kamaraj was awarded India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously in 1976. The domestic terminal of the Chennai airport is named “Kamaraj Terminal”. Marina beach road in Chennai was named as “Kamarajar Salai”. North Parade Road in Bengaluru and Parliament road in New Delhi were also renamed after Kamaraj. Madurai Kamaraj University is named in his honour. In 2003, the Government of India released a commemorative coin on his birthday.

After Nehru’s death in 1964, Kamaraj successfully navigated the party through turbulent times. As the president of INC, he refused to become the next Prime Minister himself and was instrumental in bringing to power two Prime Ministers, Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1964 and Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi in 1966. For this role, he was widely acclaimed as the “kingmaker” during the 1960s.

When the Congress split in 1969, Kamaraj became the leader of the Indian National Congress (Organisation) (INC(O)) in Tamil Nadu. The party fared poorly in the 1971 elections amid allegations of fraud by the opposition parties. He remained the leader of INC(O) until his death in 1975.

 

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In 1954, along with C. Rajagopalachari and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, which physicist from Tiruhirapally became the first recipient of the award?

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was an Indian physicist who made groundbreaking works in the field of light scattering. With his student K. S. Krishnan, he discovered that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the deflected light change wavelength and amplitude. This phenomenon was a new type of scattering of light and was subsequently known as the Raman effect (Raman scattering). His works earned him the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics and was the first non-white, Indian or Asian person to receive a Nobel Prize in any branch of science.

He founded the Indian Journal of Physics in 1926. He and Krishnan discovered on 28 February 1928 a novel phenomenon of light scattering, which they called “modified scattering,” but more famously known as the Raman effect. The day is celebrated by the Government of India as the National Science Day every year in commemoration of the discovery. Raman moved to the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in 1933 to become its first Indian Director. There he founded the Indian Academy of Sciences the same year. He established the Raman Research Institute in 1948 where he worked to his last days.

In 1954, the Government of India honoured him with the first Bharat Ratna (along with politician C. Rajagopalachari and philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan), its highest civilian award. He later smashed the medallion in protest against Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s policies on scientific research.

 

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In 1998, which Carnatic vocalist from Tamil Nadu became the first musician to be honour posthumously in 1997?

MS Subbulakshmi, a carnatic singer, was the first musician ever to receive this honour. She won the award in 1998. Her voice and singing skills were admired by many great people such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Sarojini Naidu.

Subbulakshmi gave her first performance at the prestigious Madras Music Academy in 1929, when she was 13 years old. The performance consisted of singing bhajans (Hindu hymns). The academy was known for its discriminating selection process, and they broke tradition by inviting a young girl as a key performer. Her performance was described as spellbinding and earned her many admirers and the moniker of musical genius from critics. Soon after her debut performances, Subbulakshmi became one of the leading Carnatic vocalists.

By the age of seventeen, Subbulakshmi was giving concerts on her own, including major performances at the Madras Music Academy.

She travelled to London, New York, Canada, the Far East, and other places as India’s cultural ambassador. 

 

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Which independence activist, best-known for hoisting the Indian Flag in Bombay during the Quit India Movement, was given the honour posthumously in 1997?

Aruna Asaf Ali was an Indian educator, political activist, and publisher. An active participant in the Indian independence movement, she is widely remembered for hoisting the Indian National flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan, Bombay during a Quit India Movement in 1942. Post-independence, she remained active in politics, becoming Delhi’s first Mayor.

Aruna Asaf Ali became a member of Indian National Congress after marrying Asaf Ali and participated in public processions during the Salt Satyagraha. She was arrested on the charge that she was a vagrant and hence not released in 1931 under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact which stipulated release of all political prisoners. Other women co-prisoners refused to leave the premises unless she was also released and gave in only after Mohandas K. Gandhi intervened. A public agitation secured her release.

In 1932, she was held prisoner at the Tihar Jail where she protested the indifferent treatment of political prisoners by launching a hunger strike. Her efforts resulted in an improvement of conditions in the Tihar Jail but she was moved to Ambala and was subjected to solitary confinement. She was politically not very active after her release, but at the ending of 1942, she took part in the underground movement. She was active in it.

On 8 August 1942, the All India Congress Committee passed the Quit India resolution at the Bombay session. The government responded by arresting the major leaders and all members of the Congress Working Committee and thus tried to pre-empt the movement from success. Young Aruna Asaf Ali presided over the remainder of the session on 9 August and hoisted the Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. This marked the commencement of the movement. The police fired upon the assembly at the session. Aruna was dubbed the Heroine of the 1942 movement for her bravery in the face of danger and was called Grand Old Lady of the Independence movement in her later years. Despite the absence of direct leadership, spontaneous protests and demonstrations were held all over the country, as an expression of the desire of India’s youth to achieve independence.

 

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