cbkwgl
cbkwgl

A proud Indian with interests in Indian History and Contemporary Politics.

History

Alexander in Afghanistan – The Unknown Disaster

Alexander was neither the first nor the last who suffered in Afghanistan - but he is easily the one who suffered the most. In spite of criss-crossing Afghanistan many a time, all he was able to achieve is a series of failures. His marriage to the daughter of Oxyartes, a Sogdian noble was the only thing which changed his fortunes and allowed him to scamper back to Persia where he died of battle wounds.

History

Ahom Foundation Legends – Stories of Animist India

The Tribal India coexisted with the mainstream India for millenia but maintained it's own traditions. There was a bidirectional flow of influence and syncretism being such perfect that the tribal religions are treated as a part of Hindu whole. Ahoms are one of the last tribes which migrated into India. Till the last, they maintained their traditional customs but modelled their religion on the traditional Hindu structure. Their foundation myth and other traditional culture reminds one how different they are from other Indians and at the same time, how same they are, to other Indians.

History

Kakatiya Empire and Islam – conquest and unparalleled fightback

The Kakatiyas were a tough nut to crack for the Islamic Armies from the start. But, the spectacular speed with which Kakatiya Empire collapsed was actually the reason why Delhi Sultanates weren't able to gain a foothold in the South - simply put, the Empire disappeared but not it's armies. The resistance the armies put meant that Delhi Sultanate wasn't able to set it's foot in the territory for the next 300-350 years.

History

Jinnah’s Petty Revenge – Operation Polo and the unneeded bloodshed

Tens of thousands died in Operation Polo. The Nizam didn't achieve anything by that grandstanding. Neither did Jinnah achieve anything by Hyderabad fighting India. But, one would see that, to satisfy his petty ego, Jinnah goaded the Nizam to take a belligerent stand leading to huge losses in life and property.

History

Sri Krishna Deva Raya or Prithviraj Chauhan – Whom should india follow today?

If you are asked to choose between Krishna Deva Raya and Prithviraj Chauhan as a role model for India, whom would you choose? Both were products of their generations and acted as is the expectation. For one, Dharma is to follow the rule book, for the other Dharma is perseverance and safety of his people. What lessons can they teach us, and what can India learn from the way the both handled the things?

History

Alauddin Khilji’s Devagiri Raid of 1296 – Fact or Fiction?

While we assume at face value that Alauddin Khilji raided Devagiri and took the fort, a reconstruction of the same is nearly impossible. Yadava Territory extended deep into Bundelkhand, Ramadeva was the last pre-Islamic king to rule Kashi and build a temple there and the distances involved from the borders of Yadava Empire, the troop strength of Alauddin Khilji and the contemporary politics of Deccan make one wonder if the raid really happen.

Analysis

Robert Caldwell and his Dravidian Theory – how long should we tolerate?

Robert Caldwell came up with some fantastic ideas - Dravidian Language Family which is related with Scythian and even Australian Language Families and not Sanskrit, a supposed Scythian Invasion which ejected the Dravidians out of North India - and the Scythians themselves faced the same fate in the hands of Aryans, and many such. These fantastic ideas are still held in high esteem - if not in whole, but in parts and have wrought unexplainable damage to the Indian narrative.

Asia

The Stronger China Becomes, The Weaker it becomes – patterns in chinese history

China is a unique case. Peace leads to trade and prosperity in the interior of China. Prosperity leads to unequal distribution of wealth between the territories which benefitted from the trade and areas which didn’t benefit. While coast based trade means coast gets richer at the expense of the producer, land based trade means more raids from the Steppes. And more raids in the interior means more armies sent to fight the armies and more armies means more taxation. People are unhappy they are taxed more, armies are unhappy centre is not supporting them enough. And this erupts into a rebellion in China major enough to kill millions and lead to the collapse of whole Chinese Government. It’s not a one-off affair – it happened again and again. Almost every dynasty which ruled China ended because of disturbances in the interior. And Ladakh has a potential to trigger another Dynastic Cycle.

History

Rise of Russia and Fall of Persia in Eastern Caucasus

The Russian blood shed in Asia, on the shores of the Araks and the Caspian Sea, is no less precious than that shed in Europe on the shores of Moscow and the Seine, and the bullets of the Gauls and Persians cause the same suffering - Kotlyarevsky