saikumarsha

"The Father of Indian Unrest "

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 07:06:48 +0200

Bal Gangadhar Tilak (29th Couplet) Described by British as "The Father of Indian Unrest " Tilak was born on 23.07.1856. His slogan, "Swaraj (Self Rule) is my birthright", inspired millions of Indians. His book "Geetarahasya"a classic treatise on Geeta in Marathi was written by him, in prison at Mandalay.Great journalist- editor, an authority on Vedas, Sanskrit Scholar, mathematician and a natural leader of India. Died 01.08.1920 "Swaraj is our birthright," thundered Tilak, the Lion of India.He founded schools andpublished newspapers, all for his motherland. He rotted in a distant jail at Manda lay, in Burma. he wore himself out till his last breath, to awaken his countrymen.

Author : M. S. Narasimha Murthy

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"If 5 sheep eat up all the grass in a meadow in 28 days, how many sheep will eat up the grass in 20 days?"

"Seven sheep, sir," flashed back the answer even before the teacher finished his question.

'Who is it that answered without working out the sum?" Thundered the teacher.

Two or three voices shouted, "Bal, sir."

The teacher went near Bal. He took his note book and glanced through it. Should he not at least take down the problem, let alone work it out?

"Where have you worked the sum?"

Bat, with a mischievous smile, pointed to his head with his index finger.

"You should work the problem in your. book," the teacher said.

'Why? I will do it orally," replied Bat.

Bal's classmates found it difficult to under- stand certain problems even when the teacher did them thrice. But, to Bat mathe- matics was as easy as drinking Water. Sanskrit, of course, was like peeled banana to him!

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First Indian War of Independence

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:56:54 +0200

History of India .

First Indian War of Independence

First Online: January 08,1998
Page Last Updated: July 06,2007

India's First War of Independence, termed Sepoy Riots by the British was an attempt to unite India against the invading British and to restore power to the Mogul emperor Bahadur Shah. The resistance disintegrated primarily due to lack of leadership and unity on the part of Indians, as also to cruel suppression by the British Army. It was a remarkable event in Indian history and marked the end of the Mogul empire and sealed India's fate as a British colony for the next 100 years.

Conditions
Indians working for the British Army, due to their deep traditions and faith faced numerous social barriers. In 1856 it was rumored that additional troops were to be recruited for service in Burma, where they could not follow all their religious rules, and that Christian missionary efforts among the troops were to receive official encouragement. The Zamindars (land owners) of the time wanted to protect their interests in the wake of land reforms by the British and funded anti-English activities.

The insurrection was triggered when the British introduced new rifle cartridges rumored to be greased with oil made from the fat of animals. The fat of cows was taboo to Hindus (see: Holy Cows) while Muslims were repelled by pig fat.

Violence
The violence started on May 10, 1857 in Meerut, when Mangal Pandey, a soldier in the Army shot his commander for forcing the Indian troops to use the controversial rifles. Indians constituted 96% of the 300,000 British Army and the violence against British quickly spread (hence the name Sepoy Mutiny). The local chiefs encouraged scattered revolts in hopes of regaining their lost privileges.

Siege of Delhi
Bahadur Shah II, by now the pensioned descendant of the Mogul dynasty, was popularly acclaimed as the leader of resistance. On June 8 a British relief force defeated an army of mutineers at Badli Sari and took up a position on the famous ridge, overlooking the city of Delhi. Nominally the besieging force, they were themselves besieged by the mutineers, who made a daring attempt to intercept their train. The arrival of more British reinforcements finally led to the defeat of the mutineers by John Nicholson, commander of the relief force. After six days of street fighting, Delhi was recaptured. This action was the turning point in the campaign and is known as Siege of Delhi. Bahadur Shah was captured and was exiled to Burma.

Corbis-Bettmann

The Attack of Mutineers, July 30, 1857
"One of their leaders waving his sword, shouted 'Come on my braves!"
Illustration from London Printing Company Limited

British Take Control
In spite of the loyalty of the Sikh troops, conquered only eight years before, and of the Gurkhas, the British commander, Sir Colin Campbell, had a difficult task. In addition to quelling the disturbance, he also had to protect the Ganges Valley and all of Hindustan against possible attacks from central India, to the south. Forces were dispatched from Madras and Bombay. However, the revolt had quickly spread to Kanpur and Lucknow. Kanpur, a city controlled by British on the Ganges 250 miles southeast of Delhi, surrendered to the Indian soldiers on June 28, 1857, and was the scene of a massacre before it was recaptured by the British on July 16. Lucknow, forty-five miles to the northeast, had been immediately besieged by the mutineers and was relieved by Henry Havelock's troops on September 25, five days after the final reoccupation of Delhi, the other chief center of the mutiny. However, Havelock's forces, even when joined by those of James Outram, were not strong enough to disarm and remove the enemy garrison, and they had to be relieved on November 16 by troops under Colin Campbell. The civilians of Lucknow were evacuated, but not until the siege of Mar. 9-16, 1858, had enough British troops massed to defeat the rebel army.

The final stage of the mutiny took place in central India, which was aroused by a roving band of rebels under the Maratha General Tatya Tope. After his capture and execution in April 1859, the leaderless Indians were soon pacified.

Bahadur Shah

Laxmibai of Jhansi

Tatya Tope

Why the Rebels Failed
Many native Indian states, influenced by the example of powerful Hyderabad, did not join the rebels.

Sikh soldiers of the Punjab area remained loyal to the British throughout. The Sikhs were a strong, well trained army, who the British had conquered using Indian soldiers.

The aging Bahadur Shah was neither a brave general, nor an astute leader of the people

Epilogue
In England, the mutiny proved the last straw on the heavy load of criticism and opposition which the East India Company had carried for some time. In August 1858, by the Act for the Better Government of India, its political authority was entrusted to a secretary of state. In August 1858 the British crown assumed control of India from the East India Company and in 1877 Queen Victoria was crowned as the Empress of India. The mutiny played a pivotal role in Anglo-Indian history. The British afterward became cautious and defensive about their empire, while many Indians remained bitter and would never trust their rulers again.

It was not until the emergence of Indian National Congress and Mahatma Gandhi that Indians re-gathered their momentum for home rule.

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Bhagat Singh (INDIA)

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:48:26 +0200

Sardar Bhagat Singh (1907 - 1931)

Family of Patriots

Bhagat Singh was born in a Sikh family of farmers in the village of Banga of Layalpur district of Punjab (now in Pakistan) on September 27th of 1907. His family stood for patriotism, reform, and freedom of the country. His grandfather Arjun Singh was drawn to Arya Samaj, a reformist movement of Hinduism, and took keen interest in proceedings of the Indian National Congress. Bhagat Singh's father Kishen Singh and uncle Ajit Singh were members of Ghadr Party founded in the U.S. in early years of this century to route British rule in India. Both were jailed for alleged anti-British activities. Ajit Singh had 22 cases against him and was forced to flee to Iran. Thereafter he went to Turkey, Austria, Germany and finally to Brazil to escape Black Water (Kalapani) punishment for his revolutionary activities in India.

The Jalianwala Bagh Massacre

Young Bhagat Singh was brought up in a politically charged state of Punjab which was left with a seething memory of the Jalianwala massacre of more than 400 innocent lives and thousands injured (1919). As a lad of fourteen he went to this spot to collect soil from the park of Jalianwala (bagh) in his lunch box, sanctified by the blood of the innocent and kept it as a memento for life.

Bhagat Singh was studying at the National College founded by Lala Lajpatrai, a great revolutionary leader and reformist. To avoid early marriage, he ran away from home and, became a member of the youth organization Noujawan Bharat Sabha which had memberships of all sects and religions. He met Chandrashekhar Azad, B.K. Dutt and other revolutionaries. They used to print handouts and newspapers in secret and spread political awareness in India through Urdu, Punjabi and English. These were all banned activities in India at the time, punishable with imprisonment.

The Simon Commission, Murder of Lala Lajpatrai and the Revenge

Anti-British feelings were spreading; Indians wanted some proper representation in running the administration of their country to which British reciprocated only on paper. Noticing restlessness was spreading, the British Government appointed a commission under the leadership of Sir John Simon in 1928, to report on political happenings. There was no single Indian member in this commission, and all the political parties decided to boycott the commission when it planned to visit major cities of India.

In Lahore, Lala Lajpatrai (picture) and Pandit Madan Mohan Malavia decided to protest to the commission in open about their displeasure. It was a silent protest march, yet the police chief Scott had banned meetings or processions. Thousands joined, without giving room for any untoward incident. Even then, Scott beat Lala Lajpatrai severely with a lathi (bamboo stick) on the head several times. Finally the leader succumbed to the injuries.

Bhagat Singh who was an eye witness to the morbid scene vowed to take revenge and with the help of Azad, Rajguru and Sukhadev plotted to kill Scott. Unfortunately he killed Mr. Sanders, a junior officer, in a case of mistaken identity. He had to flee from Lahore to escape death punishment.

Bomb in the Assembly

Instead of finding the root cause for discontent of Indians, the British government took to more repressive measures. Under the Defense of India Act, it gave more power to the police to arrest persons to stop processions with suspicious movements and actions. The act brought in the council was defeated by one vote. Even then it was to be passed in the form of an ordinance in the "interest of the public." No doubt the British were keen to arrest all leaders who opposed its arbitrary actions, and Bhagat Singh who was in hiding all this while, volunteered to throw a bomb in the central assembly where the meeting to pass the ordinance was being held. It was a carefully laid out plot, not to cause death or injury but to draw the attention of the government, that the modes of its suppression could no more be tolerated. It was agreed that Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt would court arrest after throwing the bomb.

It was a forgone conclusion in 1929 April 8th at Delhi Central Assembly. Singh and Dutt threw handouts, and bombed in the corridor not to cause injury and courted arrest after shouting slogans Inquilab Zindabad (Long Live, Revolution!)

Meanwhile the killers of Sanders were identified by the treachery of Bhagat Singh's friends who became "Approvers." Bhagat Singh thought the court would be a proper venue to get publicity for the cause of freedom, and did not want to disown the crime. But he gave a fiery statement giving reasons for killing which was symbolic of freedom struggle. He wanted to be shot like a soldier, and not die at the gallows. But, his plea was rejected, and he was hanged on the 23rd of March 1931. He was 24.

Bhagat Singh became a legendary hero for the masses. Innumerable songs were composed about him, and the youth throughout the country made him their ideal. He became a symbol of bravery and a goal to free India.

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Freedom

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:04:40 +0200

The Story of India's Freedom Struggle

k a a l a r a n g a Indian Paintings
History of India

Women of India

Faces of India

Click to Goto Kamat's Potpourri
The History, Mystery
and Magic of India

Picture Courtesy : National Archives
Freedom At Midnight
Freedom At Midnight
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Being Sworn in As Prime Minister

66.gif (1049 bytes) Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge...At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance 99.gif (1038 bytes)

-- Jawaharlal Nehru Claiming Independence from British
Midnight of August 14, 1947

Introduction

As the subcontinent recovers from a bloody war with fellow residents, it is very important to recognize how we got here. In the narrow mindedness of the regional fervor, it is easy to forget the sacrifices made- by Hindus and Muslims alike - from the heroics of Queen Laxmibai and Tippu Sultan to the moral conquests of Mahatma Gandhi. to liberate our motherland from the Europeans.

We are very proud to bring you this online exhibition of history, people and events leading to the creation of our great nation. We begin with a poem on what were our people's aspirations for India -or our tryst with destiny - followed by a historical narration starting from the Battle of Plassey. We provide biographies of some of the bravest soldiers of India, leaders and visionaries. Internet links to further references/surfing are also provided.

Happy Birthday India !

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GANDHI RETURNS

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:43:16 +0200

Campaign for Home Rule

Gandhi became a leader in a complex struggle, the Indian campaign for home rule. Following World War I, in which he played an active part in recruiting campaigns, Gandhi, again advocating Satyagraha, launched his movement of non-violent resistance to Great Britain. When, in 1919, Parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts, giving the Indian colonial authorities emergency powers to deal with so-called revolutionary activities, Satyagraha spread throughout India, gaining millions of followers. A demonstration against the Rowlatt Acts resulted in a massacre of Indians at Amritsar by British soldiers; in 1920, when the British government failed to make amends, Gandhi proclaimed an organized campaign of non-cooperation. Indians in public office resigned, government agencies such as courts of law were boycotted, and Indian children were withdrawn from government schools. Throughout India, streets were blocked by squatting Indians who refused to rise even when beaten by police. Gandhi was arrested, but the British were soon forced to release him.

Economic independence for India, involving the complete boycott of British goods, was made a corollary of Gandhi's Swaraj (from Sanskrit, "self-governing") movement. The economic aspects of the movement were significant, for the exploitation of Indian villagers by British industrialists had resulted in extreme poverty in the country and the virtual destruction of Indian home industries. As a remedy for such poverty, Gandhi advocated revival of cottage industries; he began to use a spinning wheel as a token of the return to the simple village life he preached, and of the renewal of native Indian industries.

Gandhi became the international symbol of a free India. He lived a spiritual and ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. His union with his wife became, as he himself stated, that of a brother and sister. Refusing earthly possessions, he wore the loincloth and shawl of the lowliest Indian and subsisted on vegetables, fruit juices, and goat's milk. Indians revered him as a saint and began to call him Mahatma (great-souled), a title reserved for the greatest sages. Gandhi's advocacy of nonviolence, known as ahimsa (non-violence), was the expression of a way of life implicit in the Hindu religion. By the Indian practice of nonviolence, Gandhi held, Great Britain too would eventually consider violence useless and would leave India.

The Mahatma's political and spiritual hold on India was so great that the British authorities dared not interfere with him. In 1921 the Indian National Congress, the group that spearheaded the movement for nationhood, gave Gandhi complete executive authority, with the right of naming his own successor. The Indian population, however, could not fully comprehend the unworldly ahimsa. A series of armed revolts against the British broke out, culminating in such violence that Gandhi confessed the failure of the civil-disobedience campaign he had called, and ended it. The British government again seized and imprisoned him in 1922.

After his release from prison in 1924, Gandhi withdrew from active politics and devoted himself to propagating communal unity. Unavoidably, however, he was again drawn into the vortex of the struggle for independence. In 1930 the Mahatma proclaimed a new campaign of civil disobedience, calling upon the Indian population to refuse to pay taxes, particularly the tax on salt. The campaign was a march to the sea, in which thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea, where they made salt by evaporating sea water. Once more the Indian leader was arrested, but he was released in 1931, halting the campaign after the British made concessions to his demands. In the same year Gandhi represented the Indian National Congress at a conference in London.

V.N. O'key/Kamat's Potpourri
Smiling Gandhi
Smiling Gandhi
Photograph by V.N. O'key, circa 1945

Gandhi takes on Domestic Problems

In 1932, Gandhi began new civil-disobedience campaigns against the British. Arrested twice, the Mahatma fasted for long periods several times; these fasts were effective measures against the British, because revolution might well have broken out in India if he had died. In September 1932, while in jail, Gandhi undertook a "fast unto death" to improve the status of the Hindu Untouchables. The British, by permitting the Untouchables to be considered as a separate part of the Indian electorate, were, according to Gandhi, countenancing an injustice. Although he was himself a member of an upper caste, Gandhi was the great leader of the movement in India dedicated to eradicating the unjust social and economic aspects of the caste system.

In 1934 Gandhi formally resigned from politics, being replaced as leader of the Congress party by Jawaharlal Nehru. Gandhi traveled through India, teaching ahimsa and demanding eradication of "untouchability." The esteem in which he was held was the measure of his political power. So great was this power that the limited home rule granted by the British in 1935 could not be implemented until Gandhi approved it. A few years later, in 1939, he again returned to active political life because of the pending federation of Indian principalities with the rest of India. His first act was a fast, designed to force the ruler of the state of Rajkot to modify his autocratic rule. Public unrest caused by the fast was so great that the colonial government intervened; the demands were granted. The Mahatma again became the most important political figure in India.

Independence for India
When World War II broke out, the Congress party and Gandhi demanded a declaration of war aims and their application to India. As a reaction to the unsatisfactory response from the British, the party decided not to support Britain in the war unless the country were granted complete and immediate independence. The British refused, offering compromises that were rejected. When Japan entered the war, Gandhi still refused to agree to Indian participation. He was interned in 1942 but was released two years later because of failing health.

Times of India/Kamat's Potpourri
Men Carrying Gandhi, Noakhali
Men Carrying Gandhi, Noakhali

By 1944 the Indian struggle for independence was in its final stages, the British government having agreed to independence on condition that the two contending nationalist groups, the Muslim League and the Congress party, should resolve their differences. Gandhi stood steadfastly against the partition of India but ultimately had to agree, in the hope that internal peace would be achieved after the Muslim demand for separation had been satisfied. India and Pakistan became separate states when the British granted India its independence in 1947 (see: Tryst with Destiny -- the story of India's independence). During the riots that followed the partition of India, Gandhi pleaded with Hindus and Muslims to live together peacefully. Riots engulfed Calcutta, one of the largest cities in India, and the Mahatma fasted until disturbances ceased. On January 13, 1948, he undertook another successful fast in New Delhi to bring about peace, but on January 30, 12 days after the termination of that fast, as he was on his way to his evening prayer meeting, he was assassinated by a fanatic Hindu.

Gandhi's death was regarded as an international catastrophe. His place in humanity was measured not in terms of the 20th century, but in terms of history. A period of mourning was set aside in the United Nations General Assembly, and condolences to India were expressed by all countries. Religious violence soon waned in India and Pakistan, and the teachings of Gandhi came to inspire nonviolent movements elsewhere, notably in the U.S.A. under the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and in South Africa under Nelson Mandela.

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GANDHI RETURNS

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:42:30 +0200

Resistance to Injustice

Gandhi remained in South Africa for twenty years, suffering imprisonment many times. In 1896, after being attacked and beaten by white South Africans, Gandhi began to teach a policy of passive resistance to, and non-cooperation with, the South African authorities. Part of the inspiration for this policy came from the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, whose influence on Gandhi was profound. Gandhi also acknowledged his debt to the teachings of Christ and to the 19th-century American writer Henry David Thoreau, especially to Thoreau's famous essay "Civil Disobedience." Gandhi considered the terms passive resistance and civil disobedience inadequate for his purposes, however, and coined another term, Satyagraha (from Sanskrit, "truth and firmness"). During the Boer War, Gandhi organized an ambulance corps for the British army and commanded a Red Cross unit. After the war he returned to his campaign for Indian rights. In 1910, he founded Tolstoy Farm, near Durban, a cooperative colony for Indians. In 1914 the government of the Union of South Africa made important concessions to Gandhi's demands, including recognition of Indian marriages and abolition of the poll tax for them. His work in South Africa complete, he returned to India.

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GANDHI

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:38:19 +0200

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), also known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born in Porbandar in the present day state of Gujarat in India on October 2, 1869, and educated in law at University College, London. In 1891, after having been admitted to the British bar, Gandhi returned to India and attempted to establish a law practice in Bombay, without much success. Two years later an Indian firm with interests in South Africa retained him as legal adviser in its office in Durban. Arriving in Durban, Gandhi found himself treated as a member of an inferior race. He was appalled at the widespread denial of civil liberties and political rights to Indian immigrants to South Africa. He threw himself into the struggle for elementary rights for Indians.

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happy

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:08:38 +0200

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read

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:12:00 +0200

Is there a point to all misery? Is there some kind of lesson to be learned? If there is, I would like the lesson to end. It's hurting too much. Once again the contemplation of quitting is ever so heavy in my head. I'm kind of tired and want to sleep, but if I sleep now, I'll be up half the night and be tired all tomorrow. Why does everything have to be so hard? Why does it all seem too hard? ...

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