Geography Series - 4

Hey Guys, What’s up? In the last 3 articles, we have covered basics of Geography.

Today, we will begin with interior of Earth.

Ø  Radius of earth is 6370 Km.

Ø  2 sources tell us about earth’s interiors

o   Direct Sources –

§   Rocks at mining areas viz Gold mines in South Africa 3 km deep, “Deep Ocean Drilling Project” & “Integrated drilling ocean project” at Kola in Arctic Ocean- 12 km deep;

§  Volcanic eruptions.

o   Indirect Sources –

§  Seismic Activity,

§  Meteors,

§  Gravitation- more near poles and less at equator (as distance from center at equator is more than at the poles)

§  Magnetic Field.

o   Earthquake waves are of two types:  

Ø  Body waves generated due to release of energy at focus & move in all directions throughout body of earth. They are of two types:

o   P-waves also known as Primary Waves –

§  Faster & 1^st to arrive at surface.

§  Similar to sound waves i.e. vibrate parallel to direction of the wave.

§  Travel through solid, liquid or gaseous medium

o   S-waves or secondary waves –

§  Arrive at surface after some time.

§  Travel only through solid medium

§  Vibrate perpendicular to direction of motion.

Ø  Surface waves –

o   generated by interaction of body waves with surface of earth;

o   they are last to report on seismograph

o   Vibrate perpendicular to direction of motion.

o   Most destructive.

Emergence of Shadow Zone:

Ø  

Ø  There are some areas where waves are not reported which are known as Shadow Zones.

Ø  For each earthquake different shadow zone.

Ø  Seismographs located at any distance within 105^o from epicenter recorded arrival of both P and S waves.

Ø  Seismographs beyond 145^o recorded arrival of P waves & not S waves.

Ø  So, entire zone beyond 105^o is a shadow zone of S wave (which is little more than 40% of entire earth surface) & zone between 105^o & 145^o is a shadow zone of P waves

• Types of Earthquake

Earthquake Measurement:

1)     Ritcher Scale – measures magnitude scale i.e. energy released during the quake. It is expressed in absolute numbers, 0-10.

2)     Mercalli Scale – measures intensity scale i.e. visible damage caused. The range is from 1-12.

Ø  This was all about the Earthquake. The next article will cover Structure of the Earth & Volcanic Landforms.

Ø  Please keep posting and informing us about the series. Your feedback is important to us.

Ø  Ciao!

UPSC Preparation: Right to religion and State’s role

Introduction

All the countries in the world are more or less multicultural societies with heterogeneous identities. As we witness the spread of democracy what becomes necessary for the survival and success of democracy in these multicultural, multi religious, and multilingual societies is the presence of the secular State. Although the definition of secularism in the West means separation of state and Religion while in India secularism means every religion is treated equally. Yet the basic fact remains true for both the definitions that State should be neutral and should not favor one religion over the other. Now the question is how far a secular State should interfere?

 Secularism in The West

France practices an active form of secularism called Laïcité, which not only prohibits public exercise of religion but also actively separates public institutions from religious symbols, expressions etc. The idea of secularism in France is embedded in the republican ideology of liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Banning of head scarfs and other religious symbols is therefore a way of upholding these ideas. However incidents like killing of journalists of ‘Charlie Hebdo’  and refusal of many students to observe silence in the schools raises an important question that whether this view of secularism has been able to promote the idea of equality, liberty and fraternity or has marginalized the minority community.

Secularism in India

Indian Constitution gives Right to Religion as a fundamental right (under Article 25,26,27 and 28  )but reserves the right to regulate the religion for the purpose of maintaining public order , law  and morality. It not only provides freedom to practice one’s own religion but also prohibits public institutions like schools in imparting any religious instructions. Thus it is a mixture of both world’s understanding of secularism. There are Hindu laws ,Muslim personal laws but these are subject to law , public order and health. Time and again State as well as Judiciary has intervened to bring social reforms ,eradicate evil practices .For example , in 1998 High Court upheld the Haryana legislature’s order of disqualifying persons having more than two children on the basis of health for women and social reform and ruled that it does not interfere with the right to profess, practice or propagate the religion of one’s choice.

Other recent examples are ban of slaughter of animals in Hindu Temples By Himachal Pradesh High Court. Ban on cultural festival called “jallikattu” of South India. Prohibiting wearing of Burqa during medical examination etc. However the recent judgment of Rajasthan High Court over Jain practice of “Santhara” in the In Nikhil Soni vs Union of India , has raised the question of encroachment of fundamental right and the hidden question of minority rights. In the above case the petitioner argued that the practice of   ‘Santhara ‘  or ‘Sallekhna’( in which followers of Jainism ,in order to attain ‘Moksha’ vows to fast until death once he/she realizes that the purpose of his /her life has been served ) goes against the Fundamental right to life as well as section 306 and 309 of Indian penal code which makes abatement to suicide and attempt to suicide a punishable offence.

According to the petitioner, this practice has become a way to get rid of the elderly people as many  time these are forced upon them equating it to the practice of ’Sati’. Therefore it is the duty of the state to protect them.

The High Court took the stand that since  the respondent failed to show that ‘Santhara’ is  an essential part of Jain’s religion therefore the State should take care to prevent its practice.

But if we examine the philosophy of Jainism, then ‘Nonviolence’ emerges as it’s fundamental tenet. And Santhara revolves around this basic philosophy of non-violence in which the practitioner decides to give up food and water gradually in order to do least harm to surrounding ecosystem. This  extreme  act of non-violence leads to the salvation. What makes this issue more complicated is that Jains have been given minority status prior to General Elections and now this is seen as attack on minority rights.

Though Constitutionally India is a secular state but religion and politics are very closely linked in india. We can see political leaders preaching religion and religious leaders appealing to masses on political issues. Ban on beef in Maharashtra can be an issue of animal rights but it has been linked to Hindu  religion that the majority of Indians follow. Political identities and religious identity often overlap in such situation. There are number of pressure groups, interests groups based on religion for example –Vishwa Hindu Parishad , Bajrangdal etc. which are affiliated or associated to political parties.

The Census 2011 data on Population by Religious Communities released recently and the hue and cry over increase in population of Muslim Community and the dip in Hindu Population below 80% shows this overlapping character. While the earlier government desisted from releasing such data , this time it coincide with assembly elections in three states (Bihar, West Bengal and Assam ) , with considerable Muslim population.

Conclusion

Preamble of India establishes the ideals which the State needed to pursue i.e to secure it’s people liberty of thought , expression ,belief , faith and worship. With the 42^nd Amendment Act word “Secular” was added in the Preamble making it the core ideal of the state. Here secularism in Indian context means both neutrality (Dharm nirapeksh ) and equality of religion (sarvdharm  sambhav ). Having long tradition association of religion with politics (religious symbols ,festivals were invoked by national leaders during freedom struggle) a strict separation is not possible. Also Indian society needs state intervention to bring social reforms and protect it’s diversity. There is need to balance the rights of individuals and groups and the State’s right to interfere keeping in mind the religion – polity relationship and the consequences for the democratic political system.

Geography Series-3

Hey Guys, What’s up? Good to see you are finding this series beneficial. In the last article, we have learnt about Latitude and Longitude.

Today we will have a quick overview of Time and Date.

Ø  Local Time: Earth makes one complete revolution of 360^o in one day or 24 hours, it passes through 15^o in one hour or 1^o in 4 minutes.

o   Earth rotates from west to east, so as we move 1^o towards east, local time is advanced by 15 minutes and vice versa for westward movement.

o   Local time of areas lying east of Prime Meridian is ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and those lying westward are behind of GMT.

o   World -divided into 24 Standard Time Zones- each differs 15^o (in longitude)/1 hr (in time) from each other.

o   Indian Govt has accepted 82.5^o E for the standard time which is (82.5^o X 4 minutes = 5 hrs 30 minutes ahead of GMT).

o   US has 6 time zones, Russia has 9 time zones the highest.

International Date Line

 Ø  Imaginary line at 180^o East longitude, demarcating the change of one calendar day to the next. It lies on the opposite side of Prime Meridian

Ø  It is zigzagged to avoid splitting apart countries (such as eastern Russia and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands) into two days.

Ø  When you cross the date line, you become a time traveler of sorts! Cross to the west and it’s one day later; cross back and you’ve “gone back in time."

Question from 1999 Paper

Q1) If it is 10.00 am IST, then what would be the local time at Shillong on 92 degree East longitude?

a) 9.38 am

b) 10.38 am

c) 10.22 am

d) 9.22 am

> This was about Time and Date. With this we are done with the basic information and in the next article we will study interior of earth.

> Please keep telling us how you are finding the series. Your suggestions and reviews are important to us. Help us help you better.

Ciao !

Geography Series - 2

In the last article, we have dealt with basic introduction of Geography. Today, we’ll study about how to find location of any place & effect of Earth’s rotation and revolution around Sun.

ü  Location of any place (i.e. any place can be pin-pointed) can be find from its Latitude & longitude.

§   LATITUDE- Angle of place from the imaginary horizontal line at equator.

§  LONGITUDE: Vertical angle measured along equator east or west of the prime meridian. Any line could have been taken as Prime Meridian for measuring Longitude. So, through international agreement, zero meridian is the one which passes through Greenwich near London and this is Prime Meridian.

ü  DAY & NIGHT - Due to earth’s rotation on its own axis. Earth takes 24 hours to rotate around its axis. During rotation, the part of earth facing Sun has Day and the other part has night.

ü  Earth’s revolution- Earth takes 365-1/4 days to complete one revolution around Sun.

¨      Axis of earth is 661/2^o causing Seasons & varying length of day & night. 

§  If axis was perpendicular, equal days and nights would have been there.

§  At Arctic Circle (661/2^o) sun never rises & darkness is there on 22 December. Beyond that, number of days with complete darkness increases till North Pole where half the year there’s complete darkness. Therefore, region beyond Arctic Circle is popularly known as “ Land of the Midnight Sun”. Reverse happens during summer time.

§  In Southern Hemisphere, same process happens just conditions are reversed i.e. continuous days in winters & nights in summers

§  Dawn: Period between sunrise & full daylight; Twilight: Period between Sunset & complete darkness.

§  This was about some basic terms which UPSC may ask (Eg. Solstice & Equinox) and its always good to know such terms.

Ø  The next article will cover Time and Date Concept.

Ø  Through this series, our main objective is to provide quality material in simple and concise manner.

Ø  Guys, if you are finding this series useful, do share with your friends. Also, share your reviews and suggestions to help you serve you better.

Ø  Also, let us know if there is any specific topic you want us to cover.

Ø  Ciao !

Geography Series - I