…are condemned to repeat it…Several weeks ago, I chanced upon the NCERT website with links to “History” text-books for middle school students in India. Curiousity led me to download some of the chapters from the text book for students of Class VII. I was angry and sad at what I discovered.
The tales of Rajput valour and their determined resistance against the Mughals find no mention in this History text for students of Class VII (Age 12-14). There is no mention of the three Jauhars of Chittor (or of the more …

As many of you would remember, today is the birth anniversary* of MahaRana Pratap of Mewar. On this occasion, some inspiring excerpts detailing the exploits of the one who never gave up…The first excerpt is about the famous ”Battle of Haldighati” as described in “The History of India: The Hindú and Mahometan Periods” by Mountstuart Elphinstone:
On June 21, 1576 (June 18 by other calculations), the two armies met at Haldighati, near the town of Gogunda in present-day Rajasthan. While accounts vary as to the exact strength of the two armies, all …

…or Shantanu’s Believe it or Not – Part IV.
Did you know these facts? Courtesy, a Sept ’09 report by Saba Naqvi in Outlook (“Allah’s Left The Building”):
4 lakh acres is the land Wakf properties account for. According to the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, K. Rahman Khan, this makes the board the third-largest landholder after the railways and defence.
…and courtesy, an Aug ’2009 report from IBN (“Debate rages on over Catholic Church properties” by D P Satish):
The Catholic Church in India owns the largest chunk of non-agricultural …

Brief post ahead of the weekend…in which I discover a new meaning of the words “Shuddho” and “Aushuddho”. Extracted from Sh CJS Walia’s review of Arun Shourie’s “EMINENT HISTORIANS: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud”
Several of Shourie’s chapters appeared first as columns. One of his readers sent him a copy of a circular sent by the West Bengal Government Secondary Board ordering revisions of Class IX History textbooks..
The accompanying pages contained two columns: Aushuddho (Errors) and Shuddho (Corrections).
Shourie provides numerous examples from these pages.
From Bharuter Itihash by Shobhankar Chattopadhyaya, published …

Many of you would remember the promise I made some days ago to share  the inspiring story about the life of Guru Tegh Bahadur-ji on this blog.
I was hoping to do last week but my visit to North-East delayed this post. That said, Guruji’s story is timeless…and will no doubt be retold many many times…What follows is my humble attempt at depicting the life of this saint.  Although we are all very familiar with Guru Tegh Bahadur’s name, his deeds – like hundreds of other proud chapters from Indian history …

I first became aware of Mata Gujri after reading a poem by my friend Gurmeet which she shared on Facebook. The poem was a tribute to Mata Gujri-ji on the occassion of Mothers’ Day. It was enough to spark my curiousity. I decided to find out more…and was not disappointed. Here – in excerpts – is the extraordinary story of Mata Gujri Ji, from the almost forgotten pages of Indian History.
In a talk Gurmeet delivered in 2004, she called Mata Gujri a  perfect woman,a “Puran Istree“.
The word “Stree” originates …