Study Guide · Chapter 12
Mnemonic Index
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Every "Memory hook" from this book gathered in one place for a single fast-drilling pass. Cover the right-hand column and see how many you can reproduce from the trigger phrase alone.
| # | Section | Trigger phrase | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | How to Memorise | "Categorise by field before by name" | Five drawers — Civilian, Military, Arts & Letters, Sports, International |
| 2 | How to Memorise | "Anchor to hierarchy position" | Every award learned as a ladder-rung, not a bare name |
| 3 | Bharat Ratna | "1954: three pillars of a new republic" | First batch — Rajagopalachari, Radhakrishnan, C.V. Raman |
| 4 | Padma Awards | "Vibhushan outranks Bhushan outranks Shri" | The three-tier Padma ladder, V-B-S descending order |
| 5 | Gallantry | "Chakra for peace, Vir Chakra for war" | Ashoka/Kirti/Shaurya Chakra (peacetime) vs Param Vir/Maha Vir/Vir Chakra (wartime) |
| 6 | Param Vir Chakra | "Five wars, five clusters" | Grouping all 21 PVC recipients by conflict, not as one flat list |
| 7 | Jnanpith vs Sahitya Akademi | "Jnanpith judges the journey, Sahitya Akademi judges one stop" | Lifetime body of work vs one specific published work |
| 8 | Arts Akademis | "1952, 1954, 1954: performing arts led" | Sangeet Natak Akademi (1952) is oldest; Sahitya + Lalit Kala Akademi (1954) followed |
| 9 | Khel Ratna | "Rajiv Gandhi gave way to the Wizard of Hockey, in 2021" | Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna renamed to Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna |
| 10 | Sports Awards | "Ratna for the player, Dronacharya for the guru" | Khel Ratna/Arjuna (athletes) vs Dronacharya (coaches) |
| 11 | Nobel Laureates | "Only Raman stayed home for science" | C.V. Raman is the only science Nobel laureate who was a resident Indian citizen at the time |
| 12 | Nobel Prize | "Stockholm hosts five, Oslo hosts one" | Only the Peace Prize is decided/awarded in Norway; all others in Sweden |
| 13 | Science Awards | "Bhatnagar builds young India's scientists, before 45" | Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize's under-45 eligibility |
| 14 | Common Traps | "Ashoka Chakra is NOT below Param Vir Chakra" | Equal-apex-rank, two separate tracks |
| 15 | Padma Awards | "Padma opened its doors in 2015" | Public self-nomination reform, distinct from the award's 1954 founding |
| 16 | Gallantry hierarchy | "Most numerous at the base, rarest at the apex" | Vir Chakra/Shaurya Chakra (base, frequent) vs Param Vir Chakra/Ashoka Chakra (apex, rare) |
| 17 | Arts Akademis | "Every akademi has an annual award and a rarer fellowship above it" | The shared two-tier template across Sangeet Natak, Sahitya, and Lalit Kala Akademis |
| 18 | Sports Awards | "Tenzing climbed where medal tables don't reach" | Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award vs conventional competitive-sport awards |
| 19 | Nobel Prize | "The Nobel is never posthumous; Bharat Ratna often is" | Contrast between Indian and international award posthumous conventions |
| 20 | International Awards | "Before entering electoral politics" | Arvind Kejriwal's 2006 Magsaysay Award predates his political career |
| 21 | Bharat Ratna | "The 1977–80 gap explains the odd jump in your timeline" | The genuine suspension of civilian awards, 1977–1980 |
| 22 | Jnanpith | "Vagdevi speaks for every language, not just one" | The Jnanpith trophy's goddess-of-speech symbolism |
| 23 | National Film Awards | "Ray's triple crown, all in one final year" | Satyajit Ray's Phalke Award, Honorary Oscar, and Bharat Ratna |
| 24 | Gallantry design | "Vajra strikes four times on the PVC" | The Param Vir Chakra's thunderbolt motif, unique among the six gallantry medals |
| 25 | Named-after-people | "One person, many plaques" | The same namesake (Bismillah Khan, Indira Gandhi) anchoring multiple, unconnected awards |
| 26 | Nobel deciding bodies | "Sweden's Academy for words, Karolinska for the body, Royal Academy for everything else" | Which Swedish institution decides which Nobel category |
| 27 | Maha Vir Chakra | "Decades can pass before a medal catches up to the deed" | Devayya's 1988 MVC for a 1965 act — conferral year vs act year |
| 28 | Civilian awards | "One single 1954 creation, four tiers at once" | Bharat Ratna and all three Padma awards instituted together in 1954 |
| 29 | Gallantry precedence | "All six gallantry medals outrank service medals, but sit below Bharat Ratna" | The combined order-of-wear across civilian and military honours |
| 30 | Sports namesakes | "Arjuna plays, Dronacharya coaches — same epic, two awards" | The shared Mahabharata guru-shishya root of the Arjuna and Dronacharya awards |
| 31 | International Awards | "Mother Teresa's decade: Templeton, then Nobel, then Bharat Ratna" | Her 1973 Templeton Prize, 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, and 1980 Bharat Ratna, in sequence |
| 32 | Nobel history | "Marie Curie, twice over, in two different sciences" | The only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields |
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