Question: Who has become the first Indian-origin woman to get Blue Plaque in UK?
(a) Noor Inayat Khan
(b) Lisa Singh
(c) Christabel Chamarette
(d) Pratibha Gai
Answer: (a)
Related facts:
- On 25th February 2019, Britain’s World War II spy Noor Inayat Khan was confirmed as the first Indian-origin woman to be honoured with a Blue Plaque at her former London home.
- The Blue Plaque instituted by English Heritage honours notable people who lived or worked in particular buildings across London.
- Khan’s plaque is set to go up at 4 Taviton Street in Bloomsbury, where she lived as a secret agent during the war.
- Khan, the daughter of Indian Sufi saint Hazrat Inayat Khan, was an agent for Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II and was captured and killed by the Nazis in 1944 at just 30 years of age.
- Born in September 1914 in Moscow to an Indian father and American mother, Khan was raised in both Paris and Britain.
- She went on to become the first female radio operator to be infiltrated into occupied France, where she was tortured and killed at Dachau concentration camp.
Blue Plaque
- A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker.
By Achyutanand Pandey
Links:
https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/international/2019/02/25/fes59-uk-indian-woman.html