With reference to the National Calendar, which of the statements is/are correct ?
1. The National Calendar of India is based on Vikram Era.
2. The National Calendar is adopted from January 26, 1950.
S

Question

With reference to the National Calendar, which of the statements is/are correct ?
1. The National Calendar of India is based on Vikram Era.
2. The National Calendar is adopted from January 26, 1950.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Neither 1 nor 2. Both statements swap a real fact for a plausible-sounding wrong one. Statement 1 is wrong on the era: India's National Calendar is based on the Saka era, whose epoch is 78 CE, and not on the Vikram era (Vikram Samvat), whose epoch is 57 BCE and which remains a popular reckoning in north India, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Nepal. The two are about 135 years apart, which is exactly why examiners pair them. Statement 2 is wrong on the date: the National Calendar was adopted on 22 March 1957, corresponding to 1 Chaitra 1879 of the Saka era — not on 26 January 1950, which is the day the Constitution came into force and India became a Republic. The calendar was recommended by the Calendar Reform Committee set up under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and chaired by the astrophysicist Professor Meghnad Saha, which reported in 1955. Since 1957 the Saka dates have been printed alongside Gregorian dates in the Gazette of India, in All India Radio news bulletins, in government calendars and in communications addressed by the Government to the public. Both statements failing, the answer is (d).

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This accepts the Vikram era, which is the single most common error on this topic. The National Calendar runs on the Saka era (epoch 78 CE). Vikram Samvat is an older and widely used traditional reckoning associated with Ujjain and with the legendary Vikramaditya, but it was not the era the Government of India adopted.  (b) This accepts 26 January 1950, the date the Constitution commenced. The National Calendar came into official use seven years later, on 22 March 1957. The date in the statement is a deliberate decoy built from another famous national milestone.  (c) Both halves are wrong — the era is Saka, not Vikram, and the adoption date is 22 March 1957, not 26 January 1950 — so accepting both cannot be right.

Concept: India used dozens of regional calendars, and after independence the Government asked the Calendar Reform Committee, chaired by Professor Meghnad Saha, to design a single scientific civil calendar. Its recommendation, adopted on 22 March 1957, keeps the Saka era for numbering years and the traditional month names, but fixes month lengths so that the year is exactly a Gregorian year long: Chaitra has 30 days (31 in a leap year), the next five months have 31 days and the last six have 30. Chaitra 1 therefore always falls on 22 March, and on 21 March in a leap year. The Saka year is obtained by subtracting 78 from the Gregorian year (for dates after Chaitra 1), and the National Calendar is used alongside — not instead of — the Gregorian calendar.

State PCS 2019 Q138 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q138 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer