[Note: incomplete] April 2nd, 2002 With the death of Queen Mother Elizabeth, half a century after that of her husband George VI, the last person to use the ‘Imperial’ title for India has passed on. Her husband ceased to be Emperor in 1947 when India and Pakistan became independent of Britain. The inscript ‘Ind. Imp.’… Continue reading Death of the Last British Empress of India
Nov 1, 2001 Book Review For Biblio. Remembrance of Days Past: Glimpses of a Princely State During the Raj. By Jahanara Habibullah (Oxford University Press 134 pages). The title is reminiscent of a Marcel Proust classic. The present book essays a different kind of nostalgia with far fewer pages[134] and quite as many as seventy-five… Continue reading Book Review: Remembrance of Days Past: Glimpses of a Princely State During the Raj. By Jahanara Habibullah
August 13th, 2001 Communal riots: did they occur earlier than the British Period of Indian History [1757-1947]? Is it right to hold the British responsible for creating and nurturing the Hindu-Muslim divide which led to the Partition of India in August 1947? While the entire blame for the Hindu-Muslim divide cannot be ascribed to the… Continue reading Communal Riot 1720 AD (Part I)
August 8th, 2001 As the majority in India is Hindu by birth and increasingly aggressive about being so we shall take an example from the history of this community to show that being Hindu by itself does not make people better. Nepal is the only Hindu monarchy in the world. The ruler or King is… Continue reading The Hindu Kingdom of Nepal 1843-47
July 16th, 2001 Mauritius figures in Indian media today on account of its being a tax haven. All FFIs or Foreign Financial Institutions operating in India are registered in Mauritius to escape the liability of the Indian Capital Gains Tax.
July 1st, 2001 In today’s or 21st Century India “politician” means “crook”. A hundred years ago when political life was just beginning for Indians after the lull following the massacres of 1857/1858 getting involved meant great idealism, suffering and sacrifice. Today talk of martyrs and patriots is likely to be ignored. Or dismissed a la… Continue reading The heroic end of Susil Kumar Sen
June 29th, 2001 The story of the conversion of Susil Kumar Sen from a meek and mild bhadralog boy into a gun and bomb terrorist shows how a brutal ruler drives the subject peoples to violence.
March 9th, 2001 Around 1800 when most of India had been conquered by the East India Company, the British deliberately set about creating the tools necessary to perpetuate their rule. The Marquess of Wellesley created a new ‘native’ language which was to be learned at Fort William by young Britishers required to administer India. The… Continue reading Dillee as Capital of the British Empire: The idea of what constitutes a sacrilege
February 8th, 2001 We return to the accusation that ‘Itihaas’ suffers from prejudice, partiality and lack of balance. Perhaps it would be as well to provide some details of the machinations of British historians of the 19th Century.
Column for 1st June 2003 The attempt to resurrect memories of Muslims opposed to partition and Pakistan has caused some little stir. A correspondent writes: Allah Baksh was premier (those days chief ministers were known by this designation) of Sind during the eventful days of the Quit India movement of 1942 as head of… Continue reading More on Allah Baksh
