What happened under Aurangzeb?

"Aurangzeb ordered all Hindu temples to be destroyed. The number of temples destroyed by Aurangzeb is counted in four figures. Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded because he objected to Aurangzeb's forced conversions. Nehru might have known about them, but chose to keep quiet and instructed his historians to downplay Aurangzeb's destructive drive and instead praise him as a benefactor of arts. Since then Indian historians have done the same and betrayed their allegiance to truth. Aurangzeb was the Hitler, the asura of medieval India. No street is named after Hitler in the West, yet in New Delhi we have Aurangzeb Road.

People might say: 'OK, this is all true, Aurangzeb was indeed a monster, but why rake up the past, when we have tensions between Muslims and Hindus today?' The first is that no nation can move forward unless its children are taught to look squarely at their own history, the good and the bad, the evil and the pure. The argument that looking at one's history will pit a community against the other does not hold either.

Today the Shariat has been voted in Kashmir, a state of democratic, secular India, UP's Muslims have applauded, and the entire Indian media which went up in flames when the government wanted Vande Mataram to be sung, kept quiet. The spirit of Aurangzeb seems to triumph."

These are some excerpts from Francois Gautier's splendid article on Aurangzeb and our outlook towards our history.

About Scotland and a bit of its history

Haven't you wondered on seeing Scotland's football team playing in world cup why do we have Scotland's football team in the world cup? After all we don't have Maharashtra cricket team in cricket world cup, we have Indian cricket team. So why do we have Scotland (and England and Wales) team(s) and not a British football team? After all England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland are four "states" that make up UK. I am sure you would have wondered. I too could not understand this until I came to UK and visited Scotland.

The reason is that Scotland is not a "state" of UK in a way Maharashtra is a state of India. In fact England, Scotland, and Wales are never refered to as "states" of UK. Even in UK, England, Scotland, and Wales are refered to as countries that make up UK. Well, if England, Scotland, and Wales are countries, then what is UK? UK as the name suggests is a Kingdom. And England, Scotland, and Wales are component countries that (along with N. Ireland) make the United Kingdom. It takes some time to understand this and being here in UK helps.

When I was in Scotland for a few days in November, I spotted a very widespread and conspicuous contempt among the Sctoish people for England and Englishmen. A little knowledge of history of Scotland helped me understand why it was so. All through the Medieval period England and Scotland fought each other, with England often having an upper hand. The way we feel about Shivaji and Rana Pratap, the Scots talk about William Wallace, who fought fought for Scotland's freedom from English occupaction. (He was captured by the English in 1305, beheaded after brutal torture, and his limbs thrown in four corners of Britain. He was 35 years of age then).

(hope to continue later)

Beautiful Thames

A beautiful snap taken from the Golden Jubilee Bridge on Thames river in London. On one bank is London Eye (the huge wheel) and on the other bank is Westminster (British Parliament) & the Big Ben (the tower with the clock). Rays of of setting sun are beautifully reflected from a skyscraper.

Let the truth be known to all

There is a quiet controversy going round with a website alleging Rahul Gandhi having gangraped daughter of a Congress party worker in Amethi. As expected, the Indian media has swept the issue under the carpet. If it had been any other politician or celibrity the media would be sensationalized the issue, held its own investigation, given its decision and convicted the person. But not when somebody from the Nehru-Gandhi family is involved.

Internet Service Providers in India have blocked the website. The so-called intellectuals of our country to whom freedom of speech is so important are silent about it. Again that is to be expected. However other websites across the globe have picked up the issue. So you might be able to read the same stuff here, assuming that this site isn't blocked in India.

These allegations may be false. They may be true. In either case, the truth has to be investigated, told to all, and appropriate legal action has to be taken. Unfortunately like all alleged crimes of the Nehru-Gandhi family, this issue too will be covered up. Those who loathe the Nehru-Gandhi family would blindly believe this allegation to be true, many others would blindly believe it to be false, while most of the people of our country would never hear about it at all. And that's not a good thing to happen. The truth should be known to all.

Sanskrit

Our President Dr Abdul Kalam on the importance of Sanskrit.

Surya Siddhanta

I have written only 25 posts in 2006 (of which 4 are still in draft state), compared to 179 posts I wrote in 2004-05. It is not because I was too busy last year or because I have lost interest in blogging (after getting married, as you would be tempted to add). It's because I didn't have internet at home last year. But now I do have internet connection at home, so I think there will be more frequent entries on this blog than in near past. And hopefully most of those entries won't be links to articles from newspapers and other sources.

Having said that, I am too tempted to refer you to this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Standard_Time#History

An excerpt:
"One of the earliest descriptions of standard time in India appeared in the 4th century CE (i.e. AD) astronomical treatise Surya Siddhanta. Postulating a spherical earth, the book defined the prime meridian, or zero longitude, as passing through Avanti, the ancient name for the historic city of Ujjain (23°11′N 75°45′E), and Rohitaka, the ancient name for Rohtak (28°54′N 76°38′E), a city near the historic battle-field of Kurukshetra."

Unfortunately, you will never read this in any history book in India. Because the government-published history of India begins with the Mughals and ends on 15th August 1947 (while remaining silent on all the atrocities commited on the people by Muslim rulers in this period). But our great nation existed before the the marauders conquered it and has great stories to tell of that era. We have to read about it and tell it to all. In my own insignificant way I continue to do that here.