Lest We Forget - A short collection of interesting facts and events from history

"The robbery and murder practiced by the Thugs in accordance with their ritual." - Definition of thuggee from the Oxford dictionary. The " thugs " were groups of professional assassins who had specialized themselves in the art of deceiving and killing travelers on the country roads during medieval India. The word thug is derived from the Hindi word " thag ", which means thief or swindler, which itself is derived from the Sanskrit word " staghati ", which means to conceal or deceive, and was coined to refer to the infamous and secretive cult of assassins in medieval India. The word "thug" was first mentioned in a book written during the reign of Delhi king Firoz Shah Tughlaq in the 13th century. This cult is estimated to have been responsible for thousands of killings per year for over 4 centuries and continued to remain highly secretive until the 18th century, when the British in India decided to eradicate the thugs.

March 5th, 1966, Aizawl  - The only time in Indian history when the Indian Air Force bombed its own territory.  I have always stressed on how climate and nature can have a direct impact on a region's politics and human conflicts. One of the best examples from history is the Mizo revolt of 1966 and the corresponding bombing of the city of Aizawl by the Indian Air force. What is interesting is that these events appear to have started with a Bamboo flowering phenomenon called 'Mautam' in 1958. The state of Mizoram in India's far north east, with it's capital Aizawl is today considered one of India's most literate and scenic states. Named after the 'Land of the Mizos', the state is a frontier territory bordering Burma and Bangladesh. While Mizoram today is an island of peace in an otherwise militancy hotbed of North East, the situation was very different 50 years back when the Mizo independence movement started. Back then Mizoram was part of the As

Estado-Da-India or simply called as the Portuguese State of India - That's the term which defined the Portuguese rule in India. While people in India often talk of British colonization and influence on India, not many are familiar that the British were not the first european colonizers in India. It was the Portuguese who were the first in this. Even though the Portuguese are known for having ruled over the small state of Goa, not many know how deep and major influence the Portuguese had on important aspects of medieval and late modern Indian history - majorly on Politics, warfare and food habits. Portugal, a small country on the south western part of Europe, was a pioneer is sea navigation. Though today Portugal is not a major player in world politics, there was a time when this country ruled major regions of the world. Vasco-Da-Gama, a Portuguese, was the first man to circumvent Cape of Good Hope and reach India directly via sea route from Europe in 1498. This was the first

Jisko na de maula, usko de nawab Asaf-ud-Daula  - English translation as "He who does not receive (livelihood) from the Lord, will receive it from Asaf-ud-Daula." The above saying is attributed to Nawab Asaf-Ud-Daula, the 4th nawab of Awadh, for his unique famine relief measure in the city of Lucknow in the decade of 1780. The province of Awadh (modern day Central and Eastern Uttar Pradesh) was one of the richest Mughal provinces due to the fertile plains between the Ganga and Yamuna rivers. In 1784, though there was a severe drought which went on to last for 10 years. Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula To curb the loss of income from farming, the Nawab wanted to ensure that employment is provided to every person for his fair share of labour. The only measure to provide employment to maximum people was to build a monument. Thus the construction of the Bada Imambara or Big Imambara was started in 1784. This was a unique monument in the sense it was neither a Mosque nor a Mausol

It was on 15 th August 1947, that India achieved its independence from almost 200 years of British rule. A long fought struggle that began with the rebellion of 1857 and ended finally in 1947. The events leading to the transfer of power were quick. The British had advanced the transfer from 1948 to 1947, but the actual day of independence was actually decided by then Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten. Now why did Mountbatten decide the date of 15 th August? Now this is where the closure days of World War 2 come into the picture. Lord Mountbatten was then the commander of all the British forces in Asia. After the fall of Germany, Japan was still continued its fight against the Allied powers until the United States dropped the atomic bombs in 1945 on Hiroshima (6 th Aug) and Nagasaki (9 th Aug). Japan realized it could no longer continue against the most powerful weapon in human hands and 9 days after Nagasaki’s bombing, decided to surrender on 15 th August. The Ja

History is intriguing in how an insignificant looking event can have enormous significance many decades later. The Rajputs in India had been the first Hindu rulers to resist the Mughals. Apart from the religious differences, it was the geographical location of the Rajput kingdoms that was responsible for their resistance. The rajputs controlled areas touching Delhi and stretching from Sind to Malwa region of central India, they initially gave resistance to the Mughal invasions but with Akbar as the emperor, things changed. Akbar initiated a policy of matrimonial alliances with Rajput houses, marrying many of the rajput princesses and aligning the rajputs to Mughal dominion. The exception to this was the House of Udaipur, which never accepted wedding proposals from mughal emperors for their daughters. One should remember that the Udaipur kings were direct descendants of the Mewar royal family. When the first Mughal king, Babar entered India in 1527, it was the Rana (King) of Mewar

There is an ancient military saying “ The Turks are known for their horsemen, the Persians for their Archers, and the Indians for their Armies ”. Alexander is regarded as one of the greatest of conquerors the world ever saw. Starting from small kingdom of Macedonia, he went on to conquer vast stretches of land in Central Asia including Ancient Persia and western India. Now we all have read in our school textbooks about how Alexander fought King Porus and after defeating Porus at the Battle of the Hydapes (the river Indus), his soldiers felt homesick and so Alexander decided to return to Macedonia. Offcourse Alexander himself could never return to Macedonia and died on his way back in Babylonia due to a mosquito bite. An emperor who ruled most of the then known world died due to a small mosquito. Now why would someone who was so determined on conquering the entire world, give up his dream after a battle with an Indian king. A fact that many historians agree on is that the

While a number of schools around the world have been awarded battle colours in recognition of their alumni serving in armies, the La Martiniere school in Lucknow, built by Claude Martin, is the only school in the world to have won Battle Honours. A battle honour is usually awarded to military units for the bravery and courage of their troops during a battle. These honours are usually printed on the regimental colours. La Martiniere school got this honour for the role played by its students in the defence of the Lucknow Residency during the Siege of Lucknow in the Indian revolution of 1857. When the siege started, 67 students of the school along with the principal and other staff were inside the Residency campus of the British. Since the british were short of troops, the boys were assigned military duties and displayed bravery during clashes with the Indian troops over the next 1 year. The most notable being them handling all the visual and telegraph communications from the Residen

The Great Game of Afghanistan – The land of Afghanistan is a mesmerizing and mysterious barren land. A land where tribal culture and customs is fiercely followed. A land of few resources, which foreign powers have tried to occupy in history and paid the price in blood. The British did it in 1842 and the Russians in 1990. On 13 th Jan 1842, a sentry at the British fort of Jalalabad (Current day Pak-Afghan border town - then part of British India) saw a wounded man riding on a half dead Horse. The man had a sword cut wound on his head and when enquired, he said he was Dr. William Brydon, Surgeon of the British Indian Expedition army in Afghanistan. When asked where the rest of the army was, he gave the legendary reply – “I am what is left of the army”. The single survivor from an army of 15,000. Portrait of injured Brydon arriving at Jalalabad fort In 1830s, the British were increasingly getting paranoid at the thought of Russia occupying Afghanistan. The Russian occupation

256 years back on the day of Makar Sankranti, 14th Jan 1761, a historic battle was fought between the Maratha and the Afghan army at Panipat, 90km north of Delhi. This is also known as the 3rd battle of Panipat, the other 2 being the battle between the Mughals and Lodhis (1526) and Hemu and Akbar's army (1556). All of these 3 battles have been turning points in Indian history. The Maratha empire, then the most powerful empire in India ruling from Arcot (in Tamil Nadu) to Attock (Current day Peshawar, Pakistan), took it onto them to defend Delhi from the invading Afghan army of Ahmed Shah Abdali. It is considered as the world's last great battle of the 18th century when 2 armies faced each other in a classic formation on the battle field. The scale of the battle can be gauged from the fact that each side had close to 50 thousand soldiers. Ultimately the Marathas lost the battle with heavy casualties on both sides. This battle would alter the future of India as well thos