Month: January 2023

• The Rashtrapati Bhavan Gardens, also known as the Mughal Gardens, have been renamed Amrit Udyan.
• The designs for the Mughal Gardens were completed by Amrit Udyan Edwin Lutyens in 1917, but planting was not completed until 1928-1929.
• It covers 15 acres and features both Mughal and English landscaping styles.
• The main garden is divided into squares by two channels that intersect at right angles, creating a Charbagh (a four-cornered garden), a common feature of Mughal landscaping.
• Six lotus-shaped fountains rise to a height of 12 feet at the crossings of these channels.
• The gardens contain nearly 2500 Dahlia varieties and 120 rose varieties.

Why was it previously known as Mughal Gardens?

• The garden is designed in Persian style of landscaping or what we call as “Mughal Gardens”.
• In fact, Edward Lutyens, who designed the Viceroy’s House, now known as Rashtrapati Bhavan, used Mughal architectural details on purpose as part of the British appeasement strategy.
• There are Chajja (dripstone), Chattri (domed kiosk), Jali (pierced screen), and many other Indian architectural features used liberally.
• Mughal canals, terraces, and flowering shrubs blend seamlessly with European flowerbeds, lawns, and private hedges

Mughal Gardening in India- The Charbagh Style

• The Mughals were known to appreciate gardens. In Babur Nama, Babur says that his favourite kind of garden is the Persian charbagh style (literally, four quadrants garden).
• The charbagh structure was designed to represent an earthly utopia – jannat – in which humans coexist in perfect harmony with all elements of nature.
• These gardens, defined by their rectilinear layouts divided into four equal sections, can be found across lands previously ruled by the Mughals.
• The gardens surrounding Humanyun’s Tomb in Delhi and the Nishat Bagh in Srinagar are all built in this style, earning them the title of Mughal Gardens.
• The use of waterways, often to demarcate the various quadrants of the garden, is a distinguishing feature of these gardens.
• Fountains were frequently built to represent the “cycle of life.”

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/mughal-gardens-gets-a-new-name-amrit-udyan/articleshow/97408859.cms

This article will take you through the history of Pakistan (which is on the verge of extinction) and the facts behind its name.

Pakistan and Jinnah

• Muhammad Ali Jinnah is remembered as Pakistan’s founder, its “Qaid e Azam,” or “Great Leader.”
• He was the leader of a movement that made a flimsy idea of a sovereign Islamic state in British India’s northwestern provinces a reality.
• However, he was not the first to propose Pakistan, nor was he its first champion.

Rehmat Ali: Coining the term ‘Pakistan’

• Choudhary Rehmat Ali, the “Founder of the Pakistan National Movement,” is credited with coining the term Pakistan.
• He published a pamphlet titled “Now or Never: Are we to live or perish forever?” on January 28, 1933.
• He made a strong “appeal on behalf of the thirty million Muslims of PAKISTAN who live in the five Northern Units of India… for recognition of their national status” in it.
• He emphasised the differences between himself and the other inhabitants of India, citing religious, social, and historical grounds.
• According to many historians, this is the origin of the concept of Pakistan, which would become mainstream by the 1940s.

Ali’s appeal

• Rehmat Ali’s appeal was also a criticism of the Nationalism wave.
• During the Third Round Table Conference, he distributed pro-Pakistan pamphlets (1932).
• He advocated for a separate, sovereign entity, fearing that the Muslim minority would be absorbed by the Hindu population under the proposed constitution.
• British India, in his opinion, was not the home of a single nation, but rather the designation of a State established by the British for the first time in history.

His idea of Pakistan

• Pakistan was the name Rehmat Ali gave to the “five Northern Provinces of India” – Punjab (P), North-West Frontier Province or the Afghan Province (A), Kashmir (K), Sindh (S), and Balochistan (tan).
• He’d refer to it as Pakistan.
• He argued that this region, with its “distinct marks of nationality,” would be “reduced to a minority of one in ten,” in a united Indian federation.

Exposition of the “Two Nation Theory”

• Rehmat Ali was a businessman, not a politician. Ali’s dream became a reality in 1947.
• He also did not spend much of the 1930s and 1940s in the subcontinent, when the struggle for Pakistan was taking shape.
• His only contribution to Pakistan is his writings and ideas.
• Unlike Iqbal, who is better known as the philosopher who inspired the creation of Pakistan, Ali’s work was limited to a much smaller audience.
• However, it was crucial in the formation of Pakistan.
• His work contains the most radical exposition of the “Two Nation Theory,” which was later popularised by Jinnah and the Muslim League.

How Jinnah overtook Rehmat Ali?

• After Jinnah fell out with the Congress in 1937, things began to change.
• Rahmat Ali’s articulation of Pakistan found its way into mainstream discourse as the leader’s rhetoric became increasingly separatist.
• The famous Lahore Resolution was passed at the Muslim League’s Lahore session in 1940.
• It advocated for the geographical contiguous units in Muslim-majority areas of India’s “North-Western and Eastern Zones of India” to be grouped together to form Independent States.
• While this resolution did not mention “Pakistan,” Jinnah’s ideas were similar to those of Rahmat Ali.
• Between 1940 and 1943, Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders began using the term “Pakistan” in their speeches and correspondence.

Source: https://www.heritagetimes.in/the-man-who-invented-pakistan-choudhry-rahmat-ali/

• Since 1950, January 26 has marked the anniversary of the adoption of India’s Constitution.
• However, the Constitution was prepared well ahead of the scheduled date and was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949.
• So, why do we celebrate Republic Day on January 26th?
• The answer can be found in the history of the Indian freedom struggle, which has been commemorated on this date since 1930.
• The historic “Poorna Swaraj” declaration was officially promulgated on January 26, 1930, ushering in the final phase of India’s freedom struggle, with the goal of complete independence from British rule.

Republic Day: The context of the 1920s

• The Non-Cooperation Movement came to an abrupt end in February 1922, following the Chauri Chaura incident.
• At the time, Mahatma Gandhi believed that the country was “not yet ready” for his nonviolent protest methods.
• As a result, the 1920s saw no further mobilisation on the scale seen during the Non Cooperation Movement and the anti-Rowlatt Satyagraha.

Precursor to the Poorna Swaraj Demand

• Revolutionaries such as Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad rose to prominence in the 1920s.
• The 1920s saw the emergence of a new generation of Congress leaders such as Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Vallabhi Patel, and C Rajagopalachari, laying the groundwork for the future course of India’s freedom struggle.
• Notably, British authorities appointed the Simon Commission – a seven-man, all-European team led by Sir John Simon – to deliberate on political reforms in India in 1927.
• This sparked outrage and discontent across the country.

Nehru Report and its protagonism for Dominion Status

• Protests against the Simon Commission spread across the country for the first time since 1922, with chants of “Simon Go Back” echoing across the country.
• In response, Motilal Nehru established his own commission.
• According to the Nehru Report, India should be granted dominion status within the Empire.
• Dominions were defined as “autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, and in no way subordinate to one another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs” in the Balfour Declaration of 1926.
• Dominions were to be united by a common allegiance to the Crown and be free to associate with the British Commonwealth of Nations.

Internal disagreement within the Congress over Dominion Status

• Crucially, even within Congress, the (Motilal) Nehru Report did not enjoy universal support.
• Young leaders such as Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru wanted India to break all ties with the British Empire.
• They contended that, while India would have some autonomy under dominion status, the British Parliament and Crown would still be able to interfere in Indian affairs.
• Importantly, for both Bose and Nehru, achieving dominion status would entail India becoming a party to colonial exploitation elsewhere in the British Empire, primarily in Africa.
• With a far more radical worldview than their predecessors, Bose and Nehru saw anti-colonialism as a global political issue rather than a local political issue for India.
• However, Gandhi remained strongly in favour of dominion status, arguing that it would be a significant step forward in India’s anti-colonial struggle. His viewpoints would soon shift.

Irwin’s retreat from the Dominion status promise

• Viceroy Irwin vaguely announced in 1929 that India would be granted dominion status in the future.
• The Irwin Declaration, which was warmly received by Indians, was met with a massive backlash in Britain.
• The British people remained pro-Empire, and India was regarded as the Empire’s crown jewel.
• Importantly, as the global economy entered a slump, India was arguably Britain’s most valuable colony, with its vast land, resources, and population vital to the country’s economy.
• As a result of the pressure from his family, Irwin broke his word.

Realizing the bluff

• In a meeting with Gandhi, Jinnah of the Muslim League, and a few other leaders, he stated that he could not guarantee India dominion status anytime soon.
• This would be a watershed moment as Congress became more united on the issue.
• With the British unable to implement even reasonable reforms, Indians supported increasingly “radical” goals, the first of which was a fully independent republic.

Poorna Swaraj Issues Proclamation

• The INC’s Lahore Session met in December 1929.
• The historic “Poorna Swaraj” resolution was passed in the session on December 19.
• On January 26, 1930, the Declaration of Independence was officially promulgated.
• The Congress urged Indians to gather and celebrate “independence” on that day.
• As the country restructured its Independence strategy, Congress party workers hoisted the Indian tricolour across the country and patriotic songs were sung.
• The national movement in India “shifted from the language of charity to the language of justice” with this declaration.

Republic Day in post-Independence India

• Between 1930 and 1947, January 26 was celebrated as “Independence Day” or “Poorna Swaraj Day,” with Indians reaffirming their commitment to sovereignty on that day.
• However, on August 15, 1947, India gained independence from the British, exactly two years after the Japanese surrendered to the Allies to end World War II.
• When leaders had to choose a date to promulgate India’s new constitution, they thought January 26 would be ideal.
• Not only did this date already have nationalist significance, but the Constitution mirrored the “Poorna Swaraj” declaration of two decades prior in many ways.

Source: https://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/events/why-is-the-republic-day-of-india-celebrated-on-january-26/articleshow/97281148.cms#:~:text=The%20Indian%20Constitution%20affirms%20India's%20existence%20as%20an%20independent%20republic.&text=26%20January%20was%20chosen%20as,India's%20independence%20from%20colonial%20rule.