1. Andhra govt banned the 100-year-old play ‘Chintamani Padya Natakam’?
GS Paper 1: Indian Art and Culture.
Context:
- The Andhra Pradesh government has outlawed a play that has been performed for over a century, titled ‘Chintamani Padya Natakam.’
What is ‘Chintamani Padya Natakam’ and how does it work?
- It was composed in 1920 by dramatist Kallakuri Narayana Rao, who was also a social reformer, and first performed in 1921.
- Chintamani is a prostitute and a follower of Lord Krishna who finds redemption via the singing of bhajans, which are devotional songs to the Lord.
- In the course of his courtship, Subbi Shetty, an Arya Vysya businessman, loses his fortune as well as his family as a result of his attraction to Chintamani and her beauty.
- The drama is performed all across the state, primarily in rural regions, and is often included at festivals and fairs.
What exactly is the source of the debate around it?
- The original play was intended to convey a social message, but it has been adapted only for the sake of amusement over the years.
- Subbi Shetty, the key character of the play, is ridiculed throughout, particularly for having lost all of his fortune to his vices.
- Aside from that, the material and speech are obscene, and the central figure is always shown as a small, dark-colored individual.
- The entire community is stigmatised as a result of the way Shetty’s character is presented in the film.
What is the reason for its prohibition?
- Over the course of several years, the Arya Vysya group has petitioned governments to prohibit the performance because they believe it represents them in a poor manner.
Is it possible that the ban might have been avoided?
- The state government looked into the option of removing Shetty’s character from the play rather than imposing a blanket ban on it, but determined that he was a major part in the production.
2) HelioSwarm and MUSE
GS Paper 3: Awareness in space.
Context:
- NASA has selected two science missions – the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) and the HelioSwarm – to aid in our understanding of the Sun’s dynamics, the Sun-Earth connection, and the constantly changing space environment. The Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) will study the Sun’s dynamics, the Sun-Earth connection, and the constantly changing space environment.
- These missions will provide more in-depth insights into our cosmos and provide crucial information that will aid in the protection of astronauts, satellites, and communications signals like as the Global Positioning System (GPS).
MUSE
- The MUSE mission will aid scientists in their efforts to better understand the processes that drive the heating of the Sun’s corona and the eruptions that occur in that outermost zone, which are at the root of space weather.
- In addition to using a powerful instrument known as a multi-slit spectrometer to observe the Sun’s extreme ultraviolet radiation and obtain the highest resolution images of the solar transition region and the corona ever captured, the mission will provide deeper insight into the physics of the solar atmosphere.
HelioSwarm:
- This project, known as HelioSwarm, is a constellation or “swarm” of nine spacecraft that will gather the first multiscale in-space observations and measurements of changes in the solar magnetic field and movements of the solar wind, known as solar wind turbulence, in the solar wind.
Helosphere:
- The heliosphere is the outermost atmospheric layer of the Sun, and it includes a vast portion of the solar system.
- Turbulence is caused by the movement of solar winds through the heliosphere, which is affected by their interactions with planetary magnetospheres and disturbances such as coronal mass ejections.
