Reaching There

The Danger of Amateur History  Although I am starting this post with Indian actor Saif Ali Khan's interview where he said "the concept of India didn't exist before the British. I don't intend to berate the actor, he is a successful actor but he is no expert in the field of history. Any celebrity blurting out some silly words is not a line in stone, especially in the age of social media where emotions can be riled up very easily and everyone has the right to free speech (including humble me).  A brief geographical history of India An article  in an online magazine quotes Hindu scriptures that describe the concept of India in great detail with corresponding scriptures as proof. We don't need to go into the far depths of our historic past to understand the concept of India. This existed even when India was an amalgamation of over 500 princely states and provinces of British India.  A brief political history of India When the British made a hurried decision to move the...

The days of 'Chacha' Nehru are long gone. He is one of the tall and prominent figure of Indian history which impacted (and still impacts) the destiny of over a billion Indians. His beliefs and decisions changed the course of history that impacts the modern political discourse to this day. He will always be scrutinized by ifs and buts not only by political parties but equally so by the common masses.  In an interview with Republic TV , Home Minister Shri Amit Shah, said, “I don't have a problem with Nehru, I have a problem with what Nehru did.” This is not a critique of Nehru as a human being either. Nehru's ideas and actions should be dissected and debated. His ideas formed the vision of India after partition of India & Pakistan in 1947. His visionary decisions still have a ripple effect in form of IIT, IIM, NID, ISRO that have been pillars of modern India as well as his "other" decisions on Kashmir in 1947, Balochistan in 1947 , with China in 1962 , conti...

As a kid I remember reading about Civil Disobedience Movement.   It sounded like a foreign but interesting topic which I never really fully understood.  And to be honest, history as a subject in the school curriculum was just a series of statements taught without any context.  I don't even remember my history class or my history teacher!   I sailed through the history of India without realizing the struggle, and sacrifice generations before me went through to free India from the chains of colonialism that leeched India for over three hundred years.  Civil Disobedience Movement galvanized the entire nation, and brought the masses from cities to villages, farmers to barristers, and turned scattered disobedience into a national movement. But, what did Civil Disobedience really entailed?   It's a question I grappled recently when I started reading ' The Man Who Saved India - Sardar Patel - And His Idea of India ' by Indic author Hindol Sengupta....