Dear All:  Below, excerpts from a remarkable report from 1908 titled, “Why is England in India at all?“. In this report, written more than a century ago, Jabez Sutherland examines the extent to which the British Raj impoverished India.. Please read and share widely. I doubt any of our current text-books mention this aspect of “history”.
*** Excerpts from “Why is England in India at all?” by Jabez T Sutherland ***
What causes this awful and growing impoverishment of the Indian people? Said John Bright, “If a country be found possessing a most …

Dear All: It is my pleasure to publish this guest post by Amitabh Soni on “A restorative Historical Account of Victorian Holocausts“…and how these Holocausts though bigger than Hitler’s Holocaust were kept a secret by the holier than thou British establishment. Read on…
*** A restorative Historical Account of Victorian Holocausts by Amitabh Soni ***
Over the past few months I have been reading horrid accounts of British Imperialism in India.  I think, the greatest achievement of British Imperialism, was to tone down the “dislike” of the Indians towards them to such drastic …

For most Indians of my generation, Savarkar is a somewhat shadowy figure – rarely mentioned in any detail in history books; even less so at public events or occasions that commemorate India’s independence. For a small few though, he is the archetypical hero – the one who fought fearlessly against the British, the “Veer” (brave).
As some of you would know, by the time India became a republic in 1950, Savarkar was already on the path to oblivion. A few years later, he died – unsung and hardly mourned.  In the …

Did you know that the term “Secularism” – forced into the Preamble of the Constitution by Indira Gandhi during the dark days of Emergency – has not been defined in the Constitution?
The reason?
…presumably because it is a very elastic term not capable of a precise definition and perhaps best left undefined.

These are the words of Justice P Sathasivan quoted in a recent HT news-report. Lack of definition does not prevent anyone from “interpreting” what it means…and so we have Justice Sathasivan saying:
…in Indian context secularism meant “Sarva Dharma Sambhav” …

Today is the birth anniversary of one of India’s bravest women, a heroine of our struggle for Independence, Rani Lakshmi Bai. The Rani’s story is a remarkable tale of courage, determination and leadership…Her name is found in all our school text books but her story – like other historical figures – usually gets a perfunctory treatment in the classroom.
सिंहासन हिल उठे राजवंशों ने भृकुटी तानी थी
…
बुंदेले हरबोलों के मुँह हमने सुनी कहानी थी
खूब लड़ी मर्दानी वह तो झांसी वाली रानी थी

One of the finest introductions to the story of Rani …

Courtesy Sh T.K. Rama Rao:
It was the evening of October 30, 1928. Standing on the platform at a crowded public meeting in Lahore City, a person known as the ‘Lion of Punjab, ‘said in an inspiring voice:
“Every blow on our bodies this afternoon is like a nail driven into the coffin of British imperialism.”

Terrible blows had battered the chest and the body of the great man who made that stirring speech. The humiliation inflicted by the high-handedness of the British was more painful than the wounds*.
Seventeen days after the …

Many of you may have read Nitin’s recent article in Yahoo! India on an unusual approach to deal with the matter of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. As he noted, the problem is old…and a real threat to national security…(emphasis added)
“Probably the most important event in (Assam) during the last 25 years — an event, moreover, which seems likely to alter permanently the whole future of Assam and the whole structure of Assamese culture and civilization — has been the invasion of a vast horde of land-hungry Bengali immigrants, mostly Muslims, …

I am grateful to Sh Krishen Kak for giving me permission to publish his article titled, “MOTHER INDIA and MODERN INDIA – The Mother Tongues or a National Language?”. The article first appeared in Eternal India (India First Foundation), June 2010:77-90. This is a slightly revised version.  Please read on and share widely (emphasis mine).
*** CAUTION: Long Post ***
MOTHER INDIA and MODERN INDIA: the Mother Tongues or English? by Krishen Kak

Each and every window in the house of language opens to a different …

Start your weekend with these excerpts from a conversation between Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and an IAS probationer, Shri Yuvaraj Karan in 1950, reproduced from the print edition of the monthly magazine “Secularism Combat” (thanks Jiggs).
…Shri Yuvaraj Karan, a former IAS Officer, who is also one of the escapees from Pakistan has written a book “Understanding Partition” published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. When he was at the IAS training institute in Dehradun, in the first batch IAS trainees, Jawaharlal Nehru was invited to address them. At the end of Shri …

…the ones who ought to be remembered today.
*** 79 years ago on this date ***
BHAGAT SINGH, RAJGURU AND SUKHDEV EXECUTED
NO “LAST INTERVIEW” WITH RELATIONS
DEAD BODIES SECRETLY DISPOSED OF

Front Page of the Lahore Tribue, March 1931 (Thanks Amitabh).

All photographs courtesy (and copyright) ShahidBhagatSingh.org
Oh, today also happens to be the 70th anniversary of the infamous Lahore Declaration that put paid to any hopes of a united independent India. 16 years after that resolution, Pakistan declared itself the world’s first Islamic Republic. Some of you may know that Lahore traces its name …