Famous Personalities Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Vidyadhar Bhattacharya designed Jaipur.

Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, a Bengali architect in the service of Sawai Jai Singh II, planned the city of Jaipur, founded in 1727, on a grid of wide streets and rectangular blocks following the principles of Vastu Shastra.

Jaisalmer, Bundi and Ajmer are much older cities that grew without such a single plan.

Answer: A

The recipient was Smt. Ratan Shastri.

Ratan Shastri co-founded the women's institution Banasthali Vidyapith in Tonk district with her husband Hiralal Shastri, later the first Chief Minister of Rajasthan. For her work in women's education she received the Padma Shri in 1955 and the Padma Bhushan in 1975.

Kishori Devi and Anjana Devi Choudhary are remembered for their part in the peasant and freedom movements of Rajasthan, and Rama Devi was a freedom fighter; none of them received this pair of awards in these years.

Answer: C

The answer is Smt. Ratan Shastri.

Ratan Shastri co-founded the Banasthali Vidyapith, the women's university in Tonk district, with her husband Hiralal Shastri, and devoted her life to the education and welfare of women and children. She was honoured with the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan and the Jamnalal Bajaj Award.

Shree Lal Joshi, Tilak Gitai and Arjunlal Prajapati were honoured for their work in the arts, not for the upliftment of women and children.

Answer: A

The Padma Vibhushan awardee is Dr. Mohan Sinha Mehta.

Mohan Sinha Mehta of Udaipur was an educationist and public servant who founded the Vidya Bhawan Society and Seva Mandir and served as an ambassador and as Vice-Chancellor of Rajasthan University. He received the Padma Vibhushan in 1969.

Anil Bordia, the educationist behind Lok Jumbish, received the Padma Bhushan, a lower award, and the other two names are not Padma Vibhushan recipients from Rajasthan.

Answer: D

She received the Padma Shri for Literature and Education.

Rani Lakshmi Kumari Chundawat (1916-2014) was a writer who collected and retold Rajasthani folk tales and wrote in Rajasthani and Hindi, and she was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1984 in the field of literature and education. She was also a member of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly and of the Rajya Sabha.

Her award was not in trade and industry, social work or civil service.

Answer: D

The answer is Ratan Shastri.

Banasthali Vidyapith, the women's university at Banasthali in Tonk district, grew out of a small school started in 1935 by Pandit Hiralal Shastri and his wife Ratan Shastri after the death of their daughter Shanta. Ratan Shastri is honoured as its co-founder and guiding spirit; Hiralal Shastri later became the first Chief Minister of Rajasthan.

Kaali Bai is remembered as the young Bhil girl of Dungarpur who died in 1947 trying to save her teacher, and Rama Devi was a freedom fighter of Odisha. Neither founded Banasthali, and nor did Kishori Devi.

Answer: B

The patriarch of journalism was Pt. Jhabarmal Sharma.

Jhabarmal Sharma of Shekhawati edited and wrote for many Hindi papers from the early twentieth century and wrote extensively on Rajasthan's history. He is remembered in Rajasthan as the Bhishma Pitamah, or patriarch, of journalism.

Karpurchand Kulish founded the newspaper Rajasthan Patrika in 1956, Komal Kothari was a folklorist, and Durgadas Rathore was a seventeenth-century Marwar general.

Answer: A

Hawa Mahal was designed by Lal Chand Ustad.

Hawa Mahal, the 'Palace of Winds' in Jaipur, was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. It was designed by the architect Lal Chand Ustad in the form of Krishna's crown, with 953 small windows (jharokhas) through which the women of the court could watch the street unseen.

Man Singh and Umaid Singh are rulers' names, not the architect, and Guman Chand is not associated with the building.

Answer: D

The 1956 Padma Vibhushan for social work went to Janki Devi Bajaj.

Janki Devi Bajaj, wife of Jamnalal Bajaj, worked in the freedom movement and in Gandhian constructive work, and later in the Bhoodan movement. She was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1956.

The others are Rajasthan figures from other contexts. Kaali Bai was the young Bhil girl killed at Rastapal in Dungarpur in 1947 while defending her teacher. Anjana Devi Chaudhary was a woman leader of the Bijolia peasant movement. Ratan Shastri co-founded Vanasthali Vidyapith; she is not the 1956 Padma Vibhushan the question asks about.

Answer: D

The Grammy was awarded to Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt of Jaipur, who devised the Mohan veena, a modified slide guitar, won the Grammy Award in 1994 for A Meeting by the River, recorded with the American guitarist Ry Cooder.

The other three are distinguished Rajasthanis in other fields. Dr. P.K. Sethi, an orthopaedic surgeon, developed the Jaipur Foot artificial limb. Komal Kothari was a folklorist and ethnomusicologist who founded the Rupayan Sansthan. Karpur Chand Kulish founded the newspaper Rajasthan Patrika.