akshayxyz Posted January 31, 2012 Posted January 31, 2012 http://kaipullai.com/2012/01/18/four-little-things-that-shaped-india/ Very well written. There have to be many more 'key' events, but read it just to know the importance of these 4 key events - especially for the random/unexpected elements common to these, w/o which things could have gone totally different path.
Lurker Posted January 31, 2012 Posted January 31, 2012 Hemu was mast mast. Wonder why Hemu's story doesnt get much recognition. Many of the youngsters may not even know him. Sad.
Texy Posted February 1, 2012 Posted February 1, 2012 Wow excellent post Akshay...really enjoyed the read. Wish Hemu was successful and destroyed, beheaded, eliminated Mughals
Yoda-esque Posted February 1, 2012 Posted February 1, 2012 Good piece. Nevertheless, history cannot be defined by just one or two key moments. Social ,economic and ethnicity factors play a prominent rule . So what if Hemu would have won ? The Mughals would have tried again.If not them, the Aghans or the Turks or Persians would have done it.You cannot change the face of aggression. There are a million what-if scenarios here : - Ashoka turning to Buddhism - Prithviraj not killing Ghori - Brahminism not dominating Buddhism - Marathas not losing the 3rd battle of Panipat - Gandhi not being thrown out of the train at PieterMaritzburg - Alexander going all the way into India and the list goes on and on.... The fact is that history is also an evolution in a sense borne out out of necessity.
hari504504 Posted February 1, 2012 Posted February 1, 2012 Very nice read :) .. never knew of these people..
akshayxyz Posted February 1, 2012 Author Posted February 1, 2012 Kaipullai:laugh: I thought its some surname or something.. what is the joke?
akshayxyz Posted February 1, 2012 Author Posted February 1, 2012 Good piece. Nevertheless, history cannot be defined by just one or two key moments. Social ,economic and ethnicity factors play a prominent rule . So what if Hemu would have won ? The Mughals would have tried again.If not them, the Aghans or the Turks or Persians would have done it.You cannot change the face of aggression. There are a million what-if scenarios here : - Ashoka turning to Buddhism - Prithviraj not killing Ghori - Brahminism not dominating Buddhism - Marathas not losing the 3rd battle of Panipat - Gandhi not being thrown out of the train at PieterMaritzburg - Alexander going all the way into India and the list goes on and on.... The fact is that history is also an evolution in a sense borne out out of necessity. Without a doubt. I guess that (to say these are key events and such) is just a common pactice to attract readership. Besides, as far as I understood this guy's main gripe is the way CBSE/NCERT history text books are written, and some missing key events like the ones he blogged about. btw his other posts are also good. e.g. http://kaipullai.com/2011/11/28/the-curious-case-of-vijay-mallya-and-his-bailout-and-one-more-scam/ is quite an eye opener, esp for folks like me who do not follow politics news. I hope he has researched his facts thoroughly, but a good read nevertheless.
Lurker Posted February 1, 2012 Posted February 1, 2012 What about technology world? Didnt Motorola invent cellphone technology and then bet against the digital era, which its competitor gleefully accepted and ran with it? Motorola hedged billions on Iridium, the old mammoth 5 pound phones that were supposed to be used anywhere in the world, digital cellphone ate that up too (by and large). Technology world is filled with examples where folks have borrowed/stole ideas from some place else and then turned it around. Steve Jobs did it when he saw the mouse technology at Xerox.
The Dark Horse Posted February 1, 2012 Posted February 1, 2012 I thought its some surname or something.. what is the joke? Its the name of vadivelu(the guy in my DP) in a movie.
Mariyam Posted February 2, 2012 Posted February 2, 2012 Good read. This is a good way to make history interesting. The way history is taught (in India) is the main reason that people dislike the subject. Its always a one way street with the teacher disseminating GBs of data and students making notes. This kind of 'what if' stuff would make the student think and probably make the class more interactive. The article says that the British founded Kolkata? I thought the city existed from the ancient times and had something to do with Godess Kali/ Kali ghat, from where its derived its name??
Raghav_12 Posted February 2, 2012 Posted February 2, 2012 Very good read. People would have different opinions on certain events being key, but the concept of article and language used make it very interesting. However, if I had to make a list, I would definitely have included events around Third war of Panipat. For me third war of Panipat was definitely more important than second one.That was the single event, if gone other way, would have changed the course of Indian history. If Marathas had won that war, they would have had whole India under their control, with most of local kings, nawabs being their supporters. But, all we can say as of now, what if Maratha's had not pissed off Jat king Suraj Mal or if Ibrahim Gardi was more spot on with his attacks?
akshayxyz Posted February 2, 2012 Author Posted February 2, 2012 Almost related to the topic - there is one excellent book - "The Code Book" - by Simon Singh. It walks you through the history of cryptography and its role in some key events in history. Excellent read for technically inclined, with least possible technical details used. E.g. in WWII there was this supposedly unbreakable encoding machine "Enigma" used by Germans. Hackers at "Bletchley Park" London, broke the code and deciphered significant amount of German communication... Had Germans known this, or British/western folks didn't decipher, things could have gone quite different path. How significant was that? - this code-breaking feat was kept classified until as late as 70's!!! EDIT: Imagine, you are given Nobel prize but are not allowed to share with anyone.
The Dark Horse Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 Superbly written, another article written by the same author http://kaipullai.com/2011/09/12/the-greatest-heist-in-indian-history-how-our-history-was-changed-and-we-didnt-even-notice-part-1the-lost-eon-6th-century-b-c-to-1174-a-d/
Vijay.Sharma Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 Now if only the author learned a little bit more about our History and dumped that Aryan invasion crap
Vijay.Sharma Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 Hemu was mast mast. Wonder why Hemu's story doesnt get much recognition. Many of the youngsters may not even know him. Sad.O yes Hemu was some dude! Bloody hell if only that arrow did not blind him we wouldn't have had marauding prostituted rapists terrorizing our nation in the name of the Mughal empire. Aww those hauris turned a deadly land into an effing joke. Those bastards claimed all monuments and painted/etched some quranic verses on them and converted them into morgues. And now the world thinks these uneducated, uncivilized filth actually had the bloody intelligence and knowledge to build such great structures. We are still taught that the Qutub Minar, the Red Fort, the Taj Mahal were built by Islamic Sultanate and Mughal bastards when all they did was looted them from Rajput kings and gave back some land somewhere in return. Are Indian citizens so useless that they can't take the true History of the land? Why does the kangress sarkar not change the books? Why does the kangress sarkar order ASI to create such huge no entry zones in the Taj Mahal? Why are they so scared of the truth coming out? 100 years from now do we want the then Indians to continue to believe the crap propagated in our history books as truth. Yes there will be uprisings now but in the long run it will give India back its true History. I am sick and tired of these spineless bastards!
gs Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 Indian history textbooks are a disgrace. Everything is distorted and concocted to suit the corrupt political establishment!! Instead of propaganda, why cant histroy be presented as facts and let people draw their own conclusions?!? Inspite of all the plunder and pillage by the Islamic hordes and British, I fear this political cancer has caused the most damage to India.
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