Did you know that Sikkim became part of India only as late as 1975. When India became independent Sikkim became a protectorate under India. The Sikkim state congress wanted a democratic setup and join the Indian Union. The ruler Tashi Namgyal died in 1963 and was succeeded by his son Palden Thondup Namgyal. By 1970 people wanted an end to monarchy and an agitattion started. Indian Govt appointed a Chief Administrator and in 1973 Sikkim became an associate state. Then in 1975 the constitution was amended and Sikkim became a state in the Indian Union.
Forgotten Events: How Travancore joined the Union
The present state of Kerala is made up of three princely states, Travancore, Cochin and Malabar. When the British announced their withdrawal from India, the Diwan of Travancore, Sir. CP Ramaswamy Iyer announced that Travancore would establish itself as an independent state and would not join the Indian Union.
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Forgotten Events: Wagon Tragedy
1921 was a memorable year in Kerala due to an event which happened in Turkey. The Caliphate was abandoned. This was followed by an uprising against the British by the Muslims in Malabar.
bq. Police attempted to arrest the secretary of the Khilafat Committee of Pokottur in Eranad on a charge of having stolen a pistol. A crowd of 2000 Moppilas from the neighbourhood foiled the attempt. The next day, a police party in search of Khilafat rebels entered the famous Mambaram mosque at Tirurangadi. They seized some records and arrested a few Khilafat volunteers. A rumour spread that the mosque was desecrated. Hundreds of rustic Moppilas converged on Tirurangadi and besieged the local police station. The police opened fire. The mob reacted in a mad fury. Violence spread and engulfed Eranad and Valluvanad taluks and neighbouring areas for over two months.
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Vedic Mathematics
Srijith has started a series on Vedic Mathematics. The aim is “Through a series of blog notes, I plan to present some astounding mathematical knowledge available to us in the Vedas.”
Forgotten Indians: Umar Khazi
Born in 1765 AD in a very righteous family, Umar Qazi was to become the pride of Kerala, the visionary poet and a just ruler. At the age of 11, he joined the Madrasa at Tanoor. At 13, he joined Ponnani Madrasa for higher studies. After completing his studies in Ponnani Madrasa, he was made the Qazi (judge) of Veliyankode.
Umar Qazi introduced the Non-Taxation Movement decades before Mahatma Gandhi, the father of nation and the unchallenged leader of Indian freedom struggle, started it. In 1805, Umar publicly announced his defiance of the British taxation system.
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Forgotten Indians: Pazhassi Raja
Shanti has started an interesting series to bring into our attention “various freedom fighters of India”:http://www.madhoo.com/archives/002683.php#002683. Everyone knows Gandhi, Nehru and Bose. But there are so many people who have not receieved that kind of attention. These are people we have forgotten.
Pazhassi Raja was the king of Kottayam in Kerala in late 17th century. Following an unpopular revenue policy by the East India Company, he stopped the collection of all revenues in Kottayam. Following this the British tried to capture him. He fled to the hills and led a Guerilla war against the British, but finally he was gunned down
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EVMs in India
InstaPundit has been keeping track on the debate going on about electronic voting machines and the “possible fraud”:http://www.instapundit.com/archives/010702.php.
bq. “What we know is that the machines can’t be trusted. It’s an unlocked bank vault …, a disaster waiting to happen,” said David Dill, a Stanford University computer science professor who has prompted more than 110 fellow scientists to sign a petition calling for more accountability in voting technology.
In this context it is interesting to note this announcement by the Election Commision of India that the next General Election in 2004 would be completly done using Electronic Voting Machines.
bq. Talking to newspersons after a meeting with the Delimitation Commission, headed by Justice Kuldip Singh, he said the Election Commission (EC) would require nearly one million EVMs to cover the entire country.
This is the largest election in the world in terms of the number of people who vote. And here is what the Election Commision had to say about the last elections
bq. In the 1996 election to Lok Sabha there were 1,269 candidates from 38 officially recognised national and state parties seeking election, 1,048 candidates from registered parties, not recognised and 10,635 independent candidates. A total number of 59,25,72,288 people voted.
[See: “SIFY”:http://sify.com/news/politics/fullstory.php?id=13201701, “Sameer”:http://optimystic.typepad.com/optimystic/2003/07/india_will_vote.html, “Election Commision of India”:http://www.eci.gov.in/infoeci/elec_sys/elecsys_fs.htm, “Denver Post”:http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~1540873,00.html ]
Blog Mela #23
Gene Expression has posted the 23rd edition of Bharateeya Blog Mela. We still don’t have a volunteer for hosting the 24th blog mela.
Archeology in Kutch
Some more information is out on the “Indian Government’s plan to dig up the path of the mythical Saraswati river”:http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20030725112452&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&rLink=0
bq. “We are now planning to take up excavation along the entire (Saraswati) stretch from Adi Badri in Haryana to Dhaulavira in Gujarat,” he said.
bq. On the planned excavation along the dried up Saraswati, a tourism ministry official said it was expected to reveal abandoned towns and inhabitations from the Harappan civilisation dating well before 3000 BC. The desert region of Dhaulavira in Kutch, in close proximity to the sea, is believed to have been a major port city.
And in case you did not know, this is all part of the BJP agenda to “extend the antiquity”:https://varnam.org/archives/000042.html of Indian Civilization which according to “Eminent Historians”:http://sandeep.blog-city.com/readblog.cfm?BID=35296 started only when Aryans invaded India.
In another archeological excavation in Kutch region in Gujarat “more articles”:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?artid=90546 were found giving more information on the trade we had with ancient Rome
bq. The digging has unearthed a treasure trove of archaeological artefacts?pottery, pieces of Roman period amphoras, an iron smelting foundry and evidence of human settlement dating back to about the 3rd century B.C., a contemporary of the Sunga-Kushana period.
bq. ?This is, no doubt, a very important find in Kutch, after the Harappan sites. It establishes the place as a major trade centre as well as its close contacts with the Roman world. The period when it flourished could be judged by distinct diagnostic traits like the brick size, structural remains and terracotta pottery with animal figurines,?? says head the archaeology department of M. University V.S. Sonawane.
3rd century BC was the time Alexander reached Punjab and Chanakya and Chandra Gupta Maurya established the first empire in India.
Loony Left Wing
There is a “new study”:http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/07/22_politics.shtml from UC Berkeley, located in a loony town which “opposed”:http://www.refuseandresist.org/newresistance/101901berkeley.html the US war against the Afghanistan. According to the study common psychological factors associated with political conservatism include:
* Fear and aggression
* Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
* Uncertainty avoidance
* Need for cognitive closure
* Terror management
“Shanti”:http://www.madhoo.com/archives/002658.php#002658 has a good rebuttal for this and says
bq. As you can see if you care to read the gist of the study, any study that compares Hitler, Mussolini and Ronal Reagan and says they were basically the same, you should be able to smell a huge rat. When there are aberrations to the study of course, like Stalin and other commie dictators, the study glosses over it and say they were conservative too. How fun! I thought that the hard-left ties itself into knots trying to tell us all what a ?worker?s paradise? Cuba is and how good socialism and communism are for us, if we would only listen.
Oooh I am frightened and need some cognitive closure.