Hades on why Indians prefer to ‘make’ their own history:
Nehru was of course human. But India’s first Prime Minister wasn’t human—he wouldn’t be allowed to be anything of that sort, really. The thing is, every nation needs its heroes and villains to exist. It needs a narrative. And so does India. [...]
Pick up a regular [...]
Archive for the 'History' Category
A very interesting blog that has a huge collection of old pictures, some of them taking us as far back in time as the 1850s! Definitely worth a visit.
Be the change. CSM is not sure Gandhi said it, but the line, as he points out, is becoming quite popular thanks to Barack Obama:
obama massively popularised “be the change”.
the quotations page says that gandhi said – “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
there are many websites with BTC fundas.
1. [...]
Digging up the past ….
Published by September 7th, 2009 in Culture, History, India and Women. 0 CommentsRukshana Nanji stumbled upon a female human skeleton as old as three thousand five hundred years, while digging a site in Navadatoli in Madhya Pradesh. Back in the early nineties this was a stunning discovery when historians believed the Harappen Culture to be existent around the Indus. A masters degree in Archeology and Ancient History [...]
Today is our heritage..
Published by July 2nd, 2009 in Gender & Sexuality, History, Human Rights, India, Justice, LGBT, Prejudice, Regulation and Religion. 5 CommentsDilip says – today gives reason for every Indian to celebrate:
Well, the best news of I don’t know how long is what transpired in the Delhi High Court today. The judges there did overturn Section 377. No longer are our gay brothers and sisters breaking the law by doing what the rest of us do [...]
Proud of the Statues
Published by July 2nd, 2009 in Dalit, Government, History, Justice, Politics, Prejudice and Society. 3 CommentsPrabin tells you why he is proud of Mayawati’s statues:
So I believe, what is disconcerting to the political parties about the statues that Mayawati unveiling and the Memorials she is constructing is not the wastage of precious resource – there are a lot many instances of govt. squandering revenues and tax payers money- but the [...]
Silence and resistance
Published by June 25th, 2009 in Caste, Dalit, Feminism, Gender & Sexuality, History, Human Rights, Patriarchy, Politics, Prejudice, Violence and Women. 0 CommentsAnu explains that silence doesn’t mean the absence of resistance:
This on the face of it seems like pretty sound explanation, so with a magic wand if we push the upper caste down the ladder, upper caste men lose their ‘manhood’ when their women are appropriated and humiliated, right? Any caste that finds itself at the [...]
Afanasii Nikitin
Published by June 24th, 2009 in Books, History, India, Language, Media, Travel and World. 2 CommentsFëanor translates Afanasii Nikitin’s fifteenth century memoirs of his travel to India (Journey Across Three Seas):
Who was Nikitin? He was a merchant of Tver, a principality abutting the Mongol domains in Russia. He set out down the Volga sometime in the 1470s with some merchandise, was robbed by Tartars, and decided that he could not [...]
Adnan learns about the tradition of chillas:
I was surprised and asked him to wait for a while so that I could take a look at the chilla. The gate had ‘Ya Ghaus dastgir‘ written in nastaliq Urdu. I sensed that it was Sufi-inspired shrine a la mazaar though of a different kind.
And there were dozens [...]
Lohia and the ‘People’s Movement Left’
Published by June 18th, 2009 in Activism, Capitalism, Caste, Democracy, Development, Economy, History, Politics, Science & Technology and Theory. 0 CommentsAmit Basole evaluates Lohia in a ‘time of crisis’ in the Indian left movements:
Along with the question of Eurocentrism, the question of the type of economic development was Lohia’s most fundamental theoretical challenge to Marxism. Marxists have been by and large unwilling to confront the possibility that industrialism and not capitalism may be the primary [...]
Memsaab discovers the ‘wit and humour’ of Baburao Patel:
From the players, Raj Kapoor as Raj Kumar Saxena thrusts himself on the screen most of the time obviously presuming too much attraction in his antics and outpourings. With the exception of some scattered pieces his clowning falls flat and where he tries to ape Charlie Chaplin [...]
The other side of every stand
Published by June 13th, 2009 in Caste, History, India and Politics. 0 CommentsMircea says the historian in India today has few options:
One can always be a card-carrying communalist, writing textbooks about Muslim invasions and finding a safe home in the arms of the BJP. One can be a righteous leftist going on about protest and resistance while the backyard burns from Naxalite murders and bombs. Or, one [...]
Samyuktha PC pays a tribute to Lala Deen Dayal who ‘used his lens to show us the “ways of seeing” back in Colonial India’:
Lala Deen Dayal (1844-1905) used his lens to show us the “ways of seeing” back in Colonial India, of the British and the nationalist. This was time before automatic cameras, and definitely [...]
Savarkar’s apology
Published by June 2nd, 2009 in History, India, Politics, Religion and South Asia. 0 CommentsA Dalit analyses Savarkar’s petition for clemency to the British:
That Savarkar did not participate in any freedom struggle activities post his cellular jail is an established fact…as promised in the letter.
That Savarkar opposed congress and Gandhiji(who backed his release from cellular jail) is an established fact…. as promised in the letter
That Savarkar diverted lacks of [...]
Film Telangana 2009
Published by May 29th, 2009 in Culture, Development, Globalisation, History, Human Rights, India, Language and Politics. 1 CommentInteresting site, seems to have been started to co-ordinate a film contest for short films on Telangana Culture, Resources, Issues, Places, People, History & Struggles, which is scheduled to end on 31st May, 2009. Some interesting films have been submitted. I liked the page Telangaanam which features clips with popular ballads by Yadagiri, Suddala Hanumanthu, [...]
Why the Green Revolution wasn’t such a blessing
Published by May 28th, 2009 in Caste, Dalit, Development, Economy, History, Indiaspora, Politics, Prejudice, Religion and Violence. 0 CommentsVidya Bhushan Rawat looks at the roots of the current conflict in Punjab:
Problem is in our perception about Punjab as a casteless society where Sikhism grew. The fact is that inspite of great preaching in the Guru Granth Saheb and their own sacrifices, the leadership that emerged in Punjab is upper caste dominated feudal Sikhs. [...]
Violence in Vienna
Published by May 27th, 2009 in Caste, Dalit, History, Indiaspora, Prejudice and Religion. 1 CommentAmardeep Singh reflects on the violence in Vienna and tries to ‘imagine a narrative that led to these events’:
Then, when a new temple opens, many of the heterodox members of the congregation jump at the chance for a different kind of experience. The new temple is run by heterodox Ravidasias, who do things slightly differently [...]
The Carvakas
Published by May 25th, 2009 in Culture, History, India, Literature, Religion and Secularism. 0 CommentsNamit Arora throws some light on the Carvakas, the tradition of materialistic thought in ancient India:
According to the Carvaka, the soul is only the body qualified by intelligence. It has no existence apart from the body, only this world exists, there is no beyond—the Vedas are a cheat; they serve to make men submissive through [...]
‘The Shan sines again’
Published by May 19th, 2009 in Culture, Democracy, General Elections 2009, Government, History, Language and Politics. 0 CommentsRama says the Shan sines again in Bengal:
It took 32 years for the ghost of Siddhartha Shankar Roy to be buried, and for the self-destructive negativism underlying much of life in Bengal to be set aside. Bengal has rejoined the national mainstream. It has been part of a national wave, and played a significant part [...]
A Window Into the Past
Published by May 10th, 2009 in Books, Culture, History and Society. 0 CommentsPlus Ultra posts an excerpt from the book “Sketches of India, written by an Officer for Fireside Travellers at Home”.
Published in 1821, it gives a fantastic description of the life and style of native in Madras at that time.
There is a group of native women returning to their houses with water : they are of [...]
Abhik Majumdar writes about the history of the relationship between the Congress party and Dr Ambedkar, in light of the recent allegations made by Advani and reiterated by Mayawati.
Ambedkar was forced to seek election from Bengal, a province he did not have much connection with, because he lacked the requisite support in his home province [...]
The Assam Agitation: A Subjective History
Published by May 6th, 2009 in Children, History, Human Rights, India, Language, Law and order, North East, Politics, Prejudice, Religion, Spotlight Series, Terrorism, Travel, Violence and Women. 1 Comment[ This is Essay No. 37 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
The Assam Agitation: A Subjective History
by Nitoo Das
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But then, I believe, all histories are subjective.
I was seven when the Assam Agitation started in 1979. I was ‘promoted’ to the next class without a final examination. I do not remember [...]
The Great Indian Circus
Published by March 31st, 2009 in Business, Caste, Culture, Dalit, General Elections 2009, History, Human Rights, India, Media, Politics, Religion, Secularism, Society and Women. 1 CommentMaloy Krishna Dhar, ‘having seen Indian elections since 1952 as a school kid, managing a couple of these exercises during service career in the IB, manipulating a few on orders of the ruling cabal and witnessing the bones, marrows, and soul of the Indian electoral process’ describes an encounter with an election manager of a [...]
An Alternative History
Published by March 20th, 2009 in Books, Caste, Dalit, History and India. 0 CommentsMy narrative is alternative both to the histories promulgated by some contemporary Hindus on the political right in India and to those presented in most surveys in English–imperialist histories, all about the kings, ignoring ordinary people. But the texts tell us not just who was the ruler but who got enough to eat and who [...]
The long march
Published by March 19th, 2009 in Activism, Democracy, History, Justice, Politics and South Asia. 0 CommentsWhat are the lessons of the ‘long march’ for Pakistanis? Khurram Shafique looks toward wisdom from Muhammad Ali Jauhar, first modern historian of Pakistan:
“Patience and hope,” writes Layla to Qais in the famous love poem by Nizami Ganjavi (whose 800th death anniversary falls this year, incidentally). “Do not look at the sower casting seed, but [...]
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