IZ #24.027 - [Shelf Aware] ‘Naam Namak Nishaan’: a quiz book on the Indian Armed Forces
#ShelfAware #Books #History #India #Military
“Shelf Aware” is a weekly series from IZ, featuring questions on one book, movie or artefact from my collection.
Apart from producing officers and doctors, Pune’s AFMC also produces quizzers by the dozen. In 2023, five of them published “Naam Namak Nishan”, a quiz book on the Indian Armed Forces. I happen to know all of them, and so today, I’m featuring a sample of enjoyable questions from the book, with their permission. I also did a short email interview about the origins of the book, which I include below. It’s an unusual compilation that serves as a guide to a world of traditions, stories, and the odd quirkiness. (The book is available on all the usual platforms.)
All questions are from the book, I have slightly edited them for reasons of space here.
1. In 1690, the Maratha ruler Rajaram Chhatrapati auctioned a small building on the Coromandel Coast (later Fort St David, at one point in time the British HQ of southern India) to the English. A few villages around the fort were also to be transferred to English hands. By what unusual method were these villages chosen?
2. First coming to attention in Jessore in 1824, this disease had mystified doctors across the North-east and Bengal. In 1901, while examining the spleen of a dead soldier in Dum Dum, Calcutta, a pioneering future director general of the Army Medical Corps would discover oval bodies in the spleen that would solve the mystery of the ‘Assam Fever’. What disease?
3. Which lyricist and singer, famous for being a lyricist for many songs in movies such as Bobby, Amar Prem, Sholay, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge etc., worked for many years in both the Royal Indian Navy and the independent Indian Army before moving to a career in films?
4. Sukarno, the president of Indonesia from 1945-1967, had a significant bonhomie with US allies in South Asia, especially Pakistan, with whom he had signed a mutual defence agreement. In Sept 1965, Sukarno stunningly offered the visiting Pakistani ambassador aid in an ambitious naval venture, which would catch India unawares in a territory distant from its mainland. What was this far-fetched Indonesian offer?
5. Army Day is celebrated on 15 January every year to commemorate the date when Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa took over as the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army on 15 January 1949. However, 27 October is celebrated as Infantry Day to recognize which seminal event in the history of a newly independent India?
6. One of the most important towns of J&K, it was a prominent Buddhist site in the post-Maurya, Kushana & Gupta eras, lying on the Silk Route branch from Taxila. It is said that Jehangir's eyesight was restored due to the cool winds of the Chenab near this town, due to which he named it the 'light of the eyes' in Persian. Identify this strategic town.
#interludez
I asked the authors how the book came about. In the words of Dr. Anmol Dhawan, on behalf of the group (lightly edited):
“It started when Anurakshat "Doc" Gupta was in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, and stumbled upon the commanding officer of a Royal Army regiment who used to conduct fortnightly quiz events in his unit - 10 questions on the unit, 20 on the Royal Army, and 10 on UK history and related stuff - with the top prize being relief from two guard duties!
Doc was reading books on WW2 and another on Afghanistan and making notes for potential quiz questions. That's when it first struck him that he could compile a quiz on Indian military history. By 2009, that evolved into exploring writing a book. In 2021, he got in touch with Penguin and started looking for co-authors. He approached Arnabh and me some time in 2021. I had organised a quiz on Indian colonial history when I was in college and a lot of it was to do with the British Indian Army; that formed the backbone of the colonial-era questions. Hitesh and Sagnik got added to the project in 2022 and came up with a stellar set of questions in a very short time. Each of us had our unique style and strength, and we tried to balance individuality with efforts for standardisation.
The first draft was sent in 2022 and after iterations and editing and the necessary approvals, the book was finally published in the summer of 2023, about 14 years after the idea to write this book first came to mind.”
I had two more questions for them. They appear after the answers.
Answers
1.In 1690, the Maratha ruler Rajaram Chhatrapati auctioned a small building on the Coromandel Coast (later Fort St David, at one point in time the British HQ of southern India) to the English. A few villages around the fort were also to be transferred to English hands. By what unusual method were these villages chosen?
ANS: A cannon was shot in all directions from the fort, and all the lands that fell within that distance were awarded to the English East India Company.
2. First coming to attention in Jessore in 1824, this disease had mystified doctors across the North-east and Bengal. In 1901, while examining the spleen of a dead soldier in Dum Dum, Calcutta, a pioneering future director general of the Army Medical Corps would discover oval bodies in the spleen that would solve the mystery of the ‘Assam Fever’. What disease?
ANS: Kala-Azar, also called Leishmaniasis. Lt. Gen Leishman helped solve the mystery.
3. Which lyricist and singer, famous for being a lyricist for many songs in movies such as Bobby, Amar Prem, Sholay, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge etc., worked for many years in both the Royal Indian Navy and the independent Indian Army before moving to a career in films?
ANS: Anand Bakshi
4. Sukarno, the president of Indonesia from 1945-1967, had a significant bonhomie with US allies in South Asia, especially Pakistan, with whom he had signed a mutual defence agreement. In Sept 1965, Sukarno stunningly offered the visiting Pakistani ambassador aid in an ambitious naval venture, which would catch India unawares in a territory distant from its mainland. What was this far-fetched Indonesian offer?
ANS: An offer to annex the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for Pakistan.
5. Army Day is celebrated on 15 January every year to commemorate the date when Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa took over as the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from General F.R. Bucher on 15 January 1949. However, 27 October is celebrated as Infantry Day to recognize which seminal event in the history of a newly independent India?
ANS: This date marks the occasion when the 1st Sikh Regiment made its way into Srinagar Airfield in 1947.
6. One of the most important towns of Jammu and Kashmir, it was a prominent Buddhist site in the post-Maurya, Kushana & Gupta eras, lying on the Silk Route branch from Taxila. It is said that Jehangir's eyesight was restored due to the cool winds of the Chenab near this town, due to which he named it the 'light of the eyes' in Persian. Identify this strategic town.
ANS: Akhnoor (from aankh-e-noor, with aankh meaning 'eyes' and noor meaning 'light'). Hanging like a dagger or a chicken's neck from the Jammu and Kashmir map, it is key to the supply routes to Poonch, Rajouri, etc.
More from my interview:
Why does AFMC have such a strong tradition and ethos of quizzing, that lasts even when cadets become officers and professionals?
“AFMC is peculiar with respect to most medical colleges in that it has a deep-rooted philosophy to go beyond academics and encourage all-round development of its students and alumni. Admission to AFMC is dependent not just on performance on an MCQ exam but also an interview where candidates are asked about their hobbies and interests, and a suitable weightage is given to extracurricular interests, which helps keep the assembly line going, not just for the quiz club but also others, such as music, dramatics, arts, dance, film-making and a dozen odd sports (the latest addition being pickleball).
Every club has an officer-in-charge and other officer-mentors, who nurture and support the students and provide an inclusive culture which encourages new entrants to take up extracurricular activities. The culture in the quiz club at AFMC is fairly informal, and we have frequent in-house sessions where everyone is welcome. Several of my batchmates would turn up for these events just to see what it's like, and many of them became regular quizzers as a result.
We definitely owe it to the institution as a whole and the quiz club culture that fostered the collaboration of three commissioned officers, a civil doctor and a current cadet who are separated by three decades, each lending their unique flavour to the book.”
Recommend up to three books and three movies about the armed forces (Indian or otherwise) that you love.
Books
The World at Arms: Readers Digest Illustrated History of WW II
A History of Warfare - John Keegan
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque (as well as its film adaptation)
Movies
1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Lakshya
3. The Bridge on the River Kwai (my personal favourite movie of all time)
My thanks to the authors for their time and permission.
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