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

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...