History
Who are X and Y?
Y - Martin Luther King Jr.
Here are the results of an election. Figure out the year in which year this election was contested.
1977
Here is a map of a sea trade route. Identify the five cities.
Mercator turned the globe into a flat map. To do so, he had to adjust the sizes of some countries depending on their distance to the equator. Here are three maps where one country’s outline has been laid over others to get a sense of size. Identify each country.
Apartheid
2. Nelson Mandela
3. He fought against it
Founded in 2010, the Kochi Muziris Biennale takes place every two years. It is a large art festival with various artists ranging from students to the experienced exhibiting their work. The aim is to promote art, culture, heritage, and education.
What is Muziris and why would this be chosen for the name?
Muziris is an ancient port city. The name was chosen because of the parallels with Kochi and the themes of culture and heritage in the festival.
What connects these cities? (not in order, not exhaustive)
Constantinople
Konya
Baku
Tbilisi
Yerevan
Damascus
Baghdad
Tabriz
Samarkhand
Kabul
Multan
Jaisalmer
Pataliputra
Chang’an
The Silk Road or Silk Route
The most populated city in the Americas, Mexico City, is built on the ruins of another famous historical city, Tenochtitlan. The nomadic Mexica tribe believed that they were given a prophecy. One day, they would stop wandering and settle down and build a famous city that would be unrivalled. The location of this city would become apparent when they see an eagle perched on top of a cactus with a snake in its beak. And it happened. Unfortunately, the cactus was on a swampy, marshland adjacent to a lake. But not wanting to ignore the prophecy, they began to build. Using landfills and floating gardens, they reclaimed land and built what eventually became the capital of the Aztec empire. It was a grand city and ran on canals and dams that were built to allow easy transport and clean water.
The city, now known as Mexico City, has grown to house 22 million people today. It has expanded and there is no longer a lake there anymore. As a result of all of this, what do you think is happening to the city at a rate of 50 cm per year?
It is sinking!
This is an exhaustive list.
1. B.R. Ambedkar
2. Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution
Which of these laws in India are not real?
None. All of them are real and exist today.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of X’s largest undertakings. Through this project, X builds ports, dams, important government buildings, bridges and roads, and a Digital Silk Road in countries in Africa and Asia that do not have the resources to build for themselves. This includes countries like Angola, Nigeria, the Sudan, Sri Lanka, Laos, Pakistan, the DRC, and Mozambique.
1. Identify X
2. Explain how this initiative benefits X
1. China
2. Debt, increased global influence and presence
In order to access India, China, and the rest of Asia by sea, Europeans had to go around the Cape of Good Hope. The French, who had control over the northern part of Africa, took on an ambitious project to dig a channel of water through a strip of land. They created X and dramatically reduced the amount of time required to travel to Asia and the eastern parts of Africa.
However, that wasn’t the only part of that area that is strategically important. A little further south of X is another small strip of water through which ships must pass. Those who control these, control much of the shipping routes between the West and the East. Identify X and Y and the countries that control them.
X - Suez Canal (Egypt)
Y - Strait of Hormuz (Iran/Oman)
Identify the war from the description
Two sides are going to war. Side A has roughly 3,000 soldiers while side B has over 50,000. It should have been a simple outcome for the latter. But two things happened.
First, it rained. Once side B saw that their gunpowder and cannons were useless, they thought the same would be true for side A. They had more men. So, they decided to charge. But side A had kept their gunpowder dry by covering it, and still had cannons to use.
Second, the right arm of side B’s army had secretly made a deal with side A, and retreated just when they were needed most.
The result was that side A won the battle and much of history changed with it.
Battle of Plassey
In 2007, Vedanta Limited, an Indian multinational mining company, began setting up a large factory in Lanjigarh, south Odisha. Rich in bauxite, the area was to yield large profits for the company. However, even in 2026, the company has not yet received permission to mine. The large factory now acts as a refinery. Bauxite is mined in other states and countries and brought to this refinery for processing. This is largely due to protests from the Dongria Kondh community. The Niyamagiri mountain range, in which Lanjigarh is located, is home to the Dongria Kondh tribe. To them, the mountain is god and mining it is simply unthinkable. Violence, protests, and legal battles have ensued in the years since 2007 and, as it stands, Vedanta has had to walk accept temporary defeat. Instead, they have begun trying a different tactic that has a much higher chance of success.
What do you think this tactic is?
Education.
KISS school, Bhubaneswar provides fully free residential schooling to 30,000 adivasi children each year. Vedanta Resources is in partnership with KISS
Around 25% of the world’s oil travels through the Middle Eastern sea routes. With a war going on in the area, there is expected to be a large oil shock that will affect the entire globe. And yet, the war has been going on for months, and nothing seems to have changed. Is the oil shock only media propaganda?
1. a. Oil tankers are slow and take a long time to move
b. Countries have reserves
c. Oil is available from other sources too
2. a. Construction
b. Transportation
c. Food scarcity
d. Inflation
e. Electricity
f. Unemployment
g. Governments can fall to elections or insurgency
Identify these flags
1 - British India or flag of the Viceroy and Governor-General of India (1885 onwards)
2 - East India Company 1600-1707
3 - Mountbatten’s proposed flag for India