Did Ganesh Narayan Kolhatkar inspire Gandhi for Charkha & secularism?

It is no secret that hand-spinned clothes and secularism became the cornerstone of  Mahatma Gandhi’s movement. Gandhi was actually a fulfilment of Ganesh Kolhatkar’s prophecy made in 1868 that “those who wish to be remembered in the future history of India, ought not to shrink back from undertaking this work (of making clothes in India and boycott British made cloth)”. 

Was Jayaprakash Narayan a commander of Subhas Chandra Bose in India?

In the areas where war is waged or which the Japanese occupy or where they infiltrate, the foreigner’s civil rule will weaken or come to an end. In these areas we must establish a Swaraj Government. In the name of this Government we must appeal to retreating units of the Indian Army to stay behind and become the people’s army.

Jayaprakash Narayan in words of Yusuf Meherally

He stayed in America for nearly eight years and studied at five different Universities. He started as a student of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry and then devoted years to the study of Biology, Psychology, Economics and Sociology. He had several times interrupted his studies in order to earn enough to carry on at his University for a term or two. He had worked as a farm labourer for ten hours a day, as a packer in a jam factory, as a mechanic in an iron concern, as a waiter in a restaurant. He had tried his hand as a salesman. When, therefore, he returned to India in 1929, it was not as a raw student looking forward to a comfortable life, but as one who had seen life at close quarters and was fully determined to devote himself to public life.  

EVM planned by the Election Commission of India in 1989

The machine (EVM) could also eliminate booth-capturing as it would become possible for the Election Commission to introduce mobile polling stations to take the machines to the doorsteps of the people, especially the weaker sections.

No, Maulana Azad didn’t oppose reservation for Pasmanda

The idea of reservation to OBCs (Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs) came about in 1990 after the Mandal Commission recommendations were implemented. The reservation under article 341 defined only SC community and most of these Pasmanda castes don’t come under this identification.

Democracy was believed to be a western idea by Maharaja of Banaras

Democracy is an occidental idea. A Hindu cannot comprehend it as long as he is a Hindu. It is against his religious belief. The divisions of Varna are the basis of his religion. He cannot see without distress a Brahman or Kshtriya serving a Sudra. A Brahman may beg or even may die, yet he will never touch a dish from which a Sudra has partaken food.

Nehru wrote this note in praise of the cartoonist Shankar in 1937

Kesava Shankar Pillai, considered to be the father of political cartoons in India, worked as a cartoonist for the Hindustan Times till 1946 before starting his own journal ‘Shankar’s Weekly’. Below is the text of a note written for the public by Jawaharlal Nehru (then the President of Congress) on 24 February 1937. Nehru had famously told him after becoming the Prime Minister, “Don’t Spare me, Shankar”.

Unveiling the Palestine Movement: Jamiat Ulamai Hind’s Historic Struggle for Justice and Freedom

In a historic proclamation, Maulana Asad Madni, leader of Jamiat Ulamai Hind, shared the formation of the All India Palestine Committee. This committee was established in August 1967, to address the grave issue of the loss of the Holy Places, including Baitul Muqaddas, Palestine, and other Arab territories seized by Israel.

Jamiat Ulamai Hind played a significant role in the Indian Freedom struggle against British rule, stood firmly against the division of India and emphasized the importance of justice and the security of Arabia. The formation of this committee highlights the commitment of Jamiat Ulamai Hind to the cause of Arab victims of Israeli aggression and the freedom of Afro-Asian countries from imperialist control.

Sir Sultan Ahmed fought for united India risking his own life

Recently Sultan Palace of Patna has been in the news for the very same reason. The Bihar Government wants to demolish it while the people of Patna want to save this heritage building. For most of them, it is an issue concerning a heritage building but it is much more than that.

Sultan Palace was built by Sir Sultan Ahmed almost a century ago. Sir Sultan Ahmed is mostly remembered as a jurist and educationist but very few in India remember him as a person who campaigned against the partition and put his life in danger to keep India united.

Yes, you read it correctly. On 27 October, 1947, Sultan Ahmed was held hostage at his official residence in Hyderabad by 30,000 Razakars of Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen led by Qasim Rizvi, the leader of Razakars. Wielding swords this huge band of Razakars took an army battalion led by Brigadier Gilbert to stop.