SSC
In which year was Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, the Hindustani classical vocalist of the Kirana gharana, awarded the Bharat Ratna?
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Answer: Option B — 2008
Detailed Solution
Explanation
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (1922-2011) was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, in 2008. The award was announced in November 2008 and presented to him in February 2009.
Bhimsen Joshi was born in Gadag, Karnataka. As a boy, he was so eager to learn music that he left home at the age of about 11 and travelled across India in search of a guru. He finally learnt music from Sawai Gandharva (Rambhau Kundgolkar), a disciple of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan, the founder of the Kirana gharana. He became the most famous singer of the Kirana gharana, known for his powerful voice, his breath control, his fast and intricate taans and his deep emotional expression. He was also famous for his devotional songs (abhangs and bhajans) in Marathi and Kannada. He started the Sawai Gandharva Music Festival in Pune in 1953 in memory of his guru, and it is now one of the most important classical music festivals in India. He also sang in the famous national integration song "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" (1988). He received the Padma Shri (1972), the Padma Bhushan (1985) and the Padma Vibhushan (1999).
Only a few musicians have received the Bharat Ratna: M.S. Subbulakshmi (1998), Pandit Ravi Shankar (1999), Lata Mangeshkar (2001), Ustad Bismillah Khan (2001), Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (2008) and Bhupen Hazarika (2019).
Why not the other options?
- ✗1999 is the year in which Pandit Ravi Shankar received the Bharat Ratna.
- ✗2001 is the year in which Lata Mangeshkar and Ustad Bismillah Khan received the Bharat Ratna.
- ✗2015 is the year in which Madan Mohan Malaviya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee received the Bharat Ratna.
💡 Exam tip
Learn the musicians who received the Bharat Ratna with their years: M.S. Subbulakshmi (1998), Ravi Shankar (1999), Lata Mangeshkar and Bismillah Khan (2001), Bhimsen Joshi (2008) and Bhupen Hazarika (2019).💬 Discussions on this question
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Awards & Honours — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Awards & Honours, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers national and international awards: Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards, gallantry awards, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Jnanpith and Sahitya Akademi awards, sports awards, Nobel Prizes, the Ramon Magsaysay Award and other global honours, along with the fields they recognise and notable winners. Static questions ask about the field each award is given for, the year it started, and the first winners. For example, the Jnanpith Award is for literature and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award is for cinema. Questions on recent winners change every year, so revise those from the latest announcements and treat older winner lists as background only. Practise the awards and honours questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.