Category: History

A political party recently marked the  138th foundation day of Indian National Congress (INC) on December 28.

How the INC was founded?

• The INC was founded on December 28, 1885.
• The organization was founded by the English bureaucrat Allan Octavian Hume.
• On that day, 72 social reformers, journalists, and lawyers gathered at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay for the first session of the INC.

Stated objectives of INC included-

• First, the amalgamation of all the various elements that comprise India’s population into a single national whole.
• Second, the nation’s gradual regeneration along all lines, spiritual, moral, social, and political; and third, the consolidation of the union between England and India.

Real motive behind: ‘Safety Valve’ Theory

• At the time, the goal of this group was not to demand independence from the ongoing colonial rule, but rather to influence British government policies in favor of Indians.
• Its goal is frequently described as providing a “safety valve” as a time for Indians to air their grievances and frustrations.
• According to Mr. Hume, the Congress organization was “only one result of the labors of a body of cultured men, mostly Indians, who hound themselves together to labor silently for the good of India.”

Transformation toward freedom movement

Ans. Famous for 3P’s: Prayers, Protest and Petitions

• The party’s efforts to change colonial administrators’ attitudes and policies regarding Indian rights and powers continued.
• Members frequently demonstrated against British colonialism, such as the Bengal famine and the drain of wealth from India.
• However, at this point, protests were typically limited to prayers, petitions, and protests, including letters to authorities.
• As British rule continued, there were growing differences in how the party should function.

Strength of INC

• Diverse participation: Having members who held different ideological positions was one of the party’s biggest strengths, helping it appeal to a broad section of Indian society.
• Pan-India organization: Its popularity spread throughout the country.

INC was initially criticized

• Non-effective: Hume and the party were chastised by the British for attempting to change existing systems that favored them, and by some Indians for failing to produce significant results.
• Elite-organization: The party was mostly made up of educated, upper-class people who had likely studied abroad.

Splits and reconvening

• In Surat in 1906, there was a split between the’moderates’ led by Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Surendranath Banerjea, and the ‘extremists’ led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
• While Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai wanted the Congress to boycott the Prince of Wales’ visit in protest of the Bengal partition a year before, the moderates were opposed.
• However, by 1915, the Bombay session saw these two groups reuniting as one.
• Even after the party came to completely dominate successive general elections under PM Jawaharlal Nehru, the pattern of splits and eventual cohesion continued.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-politics/on-congress-foundation-day-a-brief-history-of-the-party-8348538/

Experts and environmentalists have expressed concern about the proposed location of a mega oil refinery in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district’s Barsu village.

Geoglyphs

• Geoglyphs are a form of prehistoric rock art, created on the surface of laterite plateaus.
• They are made by removing a part of the rock surface through an incision, picking, carving or abrading.
• They can be in the form of rock paintings, etchings, cup marks and ring marks.

Ratnagiri’s geoglyphs

• Geoglyph clusters cover approximately 900 kilometers of the Konkan coastline in Maharashtra and Goa.
• Porous laterite rock, which lends itself to such carving, can be found in abundance throughout the region.
• The Ratnagiri district has over 1,500 pieces of this art, also known as “Katal Shilpa,” spread across 70 sites.
• Humans and animals such as deer, elephants, tigers, monkeys, wild boars, rhinoceros, hippopotami, cattle, pigs, rabbits, and monkeys are depicted in the geoglyphs.
• They also include a large number of reptilian and amphibian creatures like tortoises and alligators, as well as aquatic animals like sharks and sting rays and birds like peacocks.

Why are they significant?

• Ratnagiri’s prehistoric sites are one of three Indian attractions that could soon become World Heritage Sites. Jingkieng Jri, a living root bridge in Meghalaya, and Sri Veerabhadra Temple in Andhra Pradesh’s Lepakshi are the other two.
• The geoglyph clusters are also examples of advanced artistic skills, demonstrating the evolution of etching and scooping techniques in rock art.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-culture/ratnagiri-geoglyphs-8344954/

The President of India tweeted her greetings to the nation on December 19, Goa Liberation Day, which is observed annually to commemorate the success of ‘Operation Vijay,’ which was launched by the Indian armed forces in 1961 to defeat Portuguese colonial forces and liberate Goa.

What is the news?

• Goa was liberated 15 years after India gained independence.
• Last year, Prime Minister Modi accused Nehru of abandoning satyagrahis by refusing to send the Indian Army to liberate Goa, despite the fact that 25 of them had been killed by the Portuguese Army.

Background

• Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the forces of the Sultan of Bjiapur, Yusuf Adil Shah, in 1510, and Goa became a Portuguese colony.
• The next four and a half centuries saw one of Asia’s longest colonial encounters, with Goa caught between competing regional and global powers.
• It experienced a religious and cultural ferment that resulted in the emergence of a distinct Goan identity that is still contested today.
• By the turn of the twentieth century, Goa had begun to see an increase in nationalist sentiment against Portugal’s colonial rule, coinciding with the anti-British nationalist movement.

Beginning of freedom movement

• Tristao de Braganza Cunha, known as the “Father of Goan Nationalism,” founded the Goa National Congress at the Indian National Congress session in Calcutta in 1928.
• Ram Manohar Lohia, a socialist leader, led a historic rally in Goa in 1946, calling for civil liberties and freedom, as well as eventual integration with India.
• This was a watershed moment in Goa’s independence struggle.
• Simultaneously, there was a belief that civil liberties could not be won through peaceful means, and that a more aggressive armed struggle was required.
• This was the viewpoint of the Azad Gomantak Dal (AGD), whose co-founder Prabhakar Sinari is one of the few remaining freedom fighters.
• Finally, Goa was liberated on December 19, 1961 by swift Indian military action that lasted less than two days.

Recognition of Goa

• The Supreme Court of India upheld the annexation’s legality while rejecting the continued application of occupation law.
• Portugal recognised Indian sovereignty in 1974 through a treaty with retroactive effect.
• Forced annexations, including the annexation of Goa, are considered illegal under the jus cogens rule because they occurred after the UN Charter entered into force.

Why was Goa left un-colonized?

• However, as India moved toward independence, it became clear that Goa would not be free any time soon due to a number of complex factors.
• No immediate war: PM Nehru believed that if he launched a military operation (as in Hyderabad) to depose the colonial rulers, his image as a global peacemaker would suffer.
• Partition Trauma: The trauma of Partition and the massive rupture that followed, combined with the war with Pakistan, prevented the Indian government from opening another front.
• Internationalization of the problem: This may have prompted the international community to intervene.
• No demand from within: Gandhi believed that much more groundwork was needed to raise people’s consciousness and bring the diverse political voices emerging within under a common umbrella.

Why did Nehru wait until December 1961 to launch a full-scale military offensive?

• India could no longer be seen delaying Goa’s liberation because: Portuguese offensive against Satyagrahis: The firing incident elicited a strong reaction from the Government of India, which severed diplomatic and consular ties with Portugal in 1955.
• India as a torchbearer of decolonization: With decolonization and anti-imperialism as pillars of its policy, India firmly established itself as a leader of the Non-Aligned World and Afro-Asian Unity.
• African nations’ criticisms: In 1961, an Indian Council of Africa seminar on Portuguese colonies heard strong views from Africans who saw this as impeding their own struggles against the ruthless regime.
• Colonialism Weakening: The delegates were convinced that the Portuguese empire would fall the day Goa was liberated.

Data from the Census of India show that between 1880 and 1920, around 100 million Indians died as a result of British policies in India, according to Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel’s new study on India’s experience under colonial rule. Their approach is to determine excess mortality, which is the difference between actual deaths and possible expected deaths.

Assumptions made by their study

• Prior to colonial domination, India’s mortality rate is not thought to have been very different from that of modern-day England.
• Deaths caused by colonial policy between 1880 and 1920: Estimates for additional deaths between 1880 and 1920 as a result are 50 million in the first case and 160 million in the second. The authors choose a middle number of about 100 million for the number of deaths brought on by colonial policy in India.
• The number is higher than famine-related mortality in other nations: They note that this number is higher than the number of people who died from hunger in “the Soviet Union, Maoist China, North Korea, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and Mengistu’s Ethiopia” to put things into perspective. According to them, this offers a clear evaluation of the effects of the Raj on India.

Analysis of the effects of colonial rule in India

• It is impossible to assess the effects of colonial authority using changes in national income: Indian colonial rule’s effects have been measured mostly by changes in national wealth. However, there are hardly any reliable income statistics during the eighteenth century. However, data on the population dates back to the first Indian Census in 1871.
• Rise in death rate: After 1881, British India’s mortality rate is observed to have increased continuously, reaching an increase of about 20% by 1921. Given that it is unusual for a nation’s mortality rate to increase consistently due to natural causes, this may indicate that the living conditions deteriorated throughout this time.
• The mortality rate in British India decreased since the last census, but no famine was reported: The last census taken in British India, in 1931, showed a decline in mortality, but the final famine to be documented in the nation wasn’t over yet. In Bengal, it happened in 1943, the final five years of nearly 200 years of British colonial control.

Recurring famines: How are they recorded?

• British justifications for the empire: Harvard historian Niall Ferguson has proposed justifications such as “English patterns of land tenure, the English language, finance, the common law, Protestantism, team sports, the limited state, representative assemblies, and the idea of liberty.”
• The famines are not mentioned: The famines, which began almost immediately after the East India Company took control of Bengal, the deindustrialization of India in the nineteenth century, the loss of wealth, or the deteriorating food security as peasants in India were compelled to grow commercial crops for export in order for Britain to balance its trade are not mentioned.
• Population growth yet an improvement in life expectancy: Since 1947, there have been no famines in India, which supports the theory that British policy there contributed to the country’s history of frequent famines. Despite a population increase brought on by a substantial decline in death rates, this is the case. Improvements in living conditions are undoubtedly indicated by the declining mortality rate. According to the Census, Indians’ life expectancy at birth increased more in the 1950s than it had in the seventy years before.

Census as a double-edged sword

• After 1947, there was a rise in gender disparity in India. It suggests that gender disparity in India is getting worse. The proportion of females to males in the population would be a straightforward indicator of this. This ratio would supposedly gravitate toward one if there were no circumstances, such as foeticide, that reduce women’s chances of living long lives. According to the Census of India, other than in a few isolated regions of the nation, we have never reached that level in recorded history.
• While this is troubling in and of itself, the fact that this ratio has progressively decreased since 1947 makes it much more troubling. It began slowly increasing in 1991 after falling for 40 years starting in 1951. However, it was still lower in 2011 than it was in 1951.
• Compared to women, men have a longer life expectancy: So, despite the fact that it did so quickly after Independence, at least in the early years, men’s life expectancies rose more quickly than those of women.

@the-end

The Census of India not only clarifies the dangers of British rule but also highlights potential obstacles. At the G-20, India sang Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, suggesting that the world’s nations are a family. It is in our best interests to guarantee that everyone in our own family has the same freedoms.

By comparing Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s departure from the Uddhav Thackeray-led camp in Maharashtra to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s fabled escape from Agra, Maharashtra Tourism Minister Mangal Lodha recently stirred up controversy. Political parties and other organisations that regard Shivaji as a Maratha icon without comparison in the past or present harshly criticised his remarks.

Political background

Eknath Shinde’s “revolt” against party leadership and CM Uddhav Thackeray in June this year led to the fall of the coalition government of the Shiv Sena, NCP, and the Congress. He has since taken the reins of Maharashtra as its CM.

Chhattrapati Shivaji Maharaj

• Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (1630–1680): He was born in the modern-day state of Maharashtra on February 19, 1630, at Shivneri Fort in the district of Pune. He was the son of Jijabai, a powerful and determined woman who was the epitome of self-respect and decency, and Shahaji Raje, a general who spent his life serving many Deccan Sultans.
• Intent on turning his father’s domain of present-day Pune into an independent Maratha state, Shivaji Maharaj founded the Maratha kingdom. In the 17th century, he divided the several Deccan states into an autonomous Maratha kingdom. At the time of his death, he controlled about 300 forts over a region spanning the Konkan coast from Surat to close to Goa, which was protected by the important Western Ghats.
• Power struggles between modern kingdoms: The Mughals and a number of Sultanates, primarily Bijapur, Golkonda, and Ahmadnagar, were contending for dominance of the Deccan at this period. These Sultanates would become tributary to the Mughal Empire as Mughal authority increased, with the kings and ruling clans receiving posts in the Mughal court (while frequently continuing to quarrel among themselves).
• Lifetime battles and conflicts for Swaraj: At the age of 16, he engaged in hostilities with the Adil Shahi Sultanate of Bijapur. He would spend the remainder of his life battling different foes, creating the groundwork for the Maratha Empire, which would dominate over a significant portion of the Indian subcontinent until the 19th century.
• Forts were crucial in his era: Early in his life, he realised that capturing and retaining significant forts was the key to maintaining dominance in the Deccan—or, for that matter, in many other locations in India at the time. His tactics would therefore be focused on seizing forts in key areas, frequently on hilltops. As his area of influence grew, he also renovated and constructed new forts.

Shivaji Maharaj: how he is remembered?

• Shivaji was a Maratha folk hero for two centuries following his passing, serving as an inspiration for those who fought against colonial control. His standing in history and emergence as a national hero of India were characterised by the British Raj and the ensuing anti-colonial movement.
• He went from being a folk hero to being a pan-Indian hero, according to nationalist historians, who used him as an illustration of a native Indian monarch who was able to effectively fend off and overthrow the strong and oppressive “outsiders” (Muslim rulers, including both Mughals and the Deccan Sultans). As a result, Shivaji evolved from a folk hero to a nationalist figure and was even considered a proto-nationalist.
• Stories of his valour and equitable rule were used to inspire a populace that was experiencing injustice and emasculation at the hands of the British overlords. The story of Shivaji Maharaj during the 19th and 20th centuries emphasised both his valour in battle and his righteous governance.

Shivaji Maharaj and the Mughals

• Meteoric rise: The Mughals’ suzerainty faced challenges as a result of Shivaji Maharaj’s meteoric ascension. During Aurangzeb’s expeditions in the Deccan in the 1650s, he had his first direct interaction with the Mughals. Shivaji Maharaj was able to annex more land while Aurangzeb moved north to contend for the Mughal crown.
• Using quick and clever military strategies that the Mughals could not comprehend: His strategies for dealing with the Mughals were tailored to the peculiarities of his army and the sluggish Mughal troops. He would raid and plunder Mughal strongholds using quick cavalry attacks. While he occasionally engaged in combat to successfully take and hold Mughal positions, more often than not, he simply caused chaos, raided the treasury, and fled with the Mughals in fear and disarray.
• Famous Seize of Surat: In 1664, when the local ruler was hiding in a neighbouring fort, he famously invaded the port of Surat (now in Gujarat) and pillaged one of the wealthiest and busiest trading centres of Mughal India.
• Posed the biggest threat to Aurangzeb and the ensuing Purandar Treaty: In 1665, Aurangzeb dispatched an army led by Raja Jai Singh I that numbered 100,000 soldiers and was well-equipped to defeat Shivaji as his fame and the physical extent of his control rose. After putting up a heroic fight, Shivaji was surrounded in the hill fort of Purandar.

The great escape

• After the Purandar Treaty, he was brought to Aurangzeb’s court in Agra, where he was received in 1666. He gave Aurangzeb a number of gifts, but when he wasn’t treated well in return, he felt belittled and expressed his discontent in front of the court.
• Agra was the location where Aurangzeb placed him under tight house imprisonment. Shivaji realised he had to flee to save himself and his domains because he was far from home and assistance. He started to make plans for how he would get back home and continue the battle with the Mughals.
• The ideal escape strategy: The ensuing escape of Shivaji is now a well-known legend. In the commonly reported tale, he started giving brahmans alms every day according to a complex arrangement. His home in Agra would send the charity in huge, covered baskets.
• The Mughal guards eventually stopped inspecting the contents of the baskets that daily left his home, which led to the final escape right under their noses. One day, Shivaji hid among the baskets and placed his little son Sambhaji inside a different one. Under the noses of the Mughals, Shivaji and his son departed Agra in these covered baskets.
• From there, he would go through Mughal territory in a cunning and quick disguise, living covertly until he arrived at the safer territories closer to home. In some tellings of this tale, he assumed the persona of a wandering hermit, while in others, he used a variety of masks. Although his exact route is unknown, various towns and locations he passed through are frequently mentioned in songs and folktales honouring Shivaji.
• Embarrassed Aurangzeb thought of him as his own monarch and was furious and humiliated. But he decided against engaging Shivaji in a direct argument once more. Instead, he gave Shivaji the title of Raja and promised him control over the Maratha territories as long as he recognised the Mughals as the superior race.

Coronation of Shivaji Maharaj to Chhatrapati and the ideal rule

• Shivaji had reassembled and assembled a potent army by 1669. He would quickly enter stationary Mughal and Bijapuri strongholds using his old guerilla techniques, plundering the surprised Mughals.
• Aurangzeb was preoccupied at the time with Pathan uprisings in the northwest part of his Empire. In the Konkan coast, Shivaji skillfully reclaimed his lost positions. He proclaimed himself Chhatrapati in 1674, formally establishing an independent Maratha kingdom.
• His rule was expanded over the course of the following six years as new political rules were created to replace the predominate Indo-Persian court culture. He encouraged the use of Marathi and Sanskrit in his courts and established a complex administrative structure with a “Ashta Pradhan” council of ministers.

Conclusion

For many people, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is more than simply a name or a single individual; rather, he is an ideology, a way of life, and an inspiration for today and tomorrow that is unparalleled in history. His steadfastness, bravery, and dominance served as examples for all who came after him. His bravery knew no limits.

The three-day commemoration of Ahom General Lachit Barphukan’s 400th birthday has begun.

Lachit Borphukan

• The pivotal Battle of Saraighat, which took place in 1671 on the roaring Brahmaputra, was fought there.
• The army of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, led by Ram Singh of Amer (Jaipur), was on one side, and the Ahom General Lachit Borphukan was on the other.
• He served as a commander in the Assamese kingdom of Ahom.
• Throughout the initial stages of the conflict, Ram Singh was unable to make any progress against the Assamese force.
• The Mughals were forced to flee from Guwahati when Lachit Borphukan won the war.

Lachit Divas

• Every year on November 24, Assam celebrates Lachit Divas to honour the bravery of Lachit Borphukan.
• In the Battle of Saraighat, which took place on this day in 1671 on the banks of the Brahmaputra, Borphukan defeated the Mughal army.
• Since 1999, the Lachit gold medal, honouring his bravery, has been given annually to the National Defence Academy’s top graduating cadet.

Source—https://theprint.in/india/400th-birth-anniversary-of-assams-war-hero-lachit-borphukan-to-be-celebrated/1226146/

On November 10, the Supreme Court directed the Centre four weeks to provide a statement outlining its position on a request for the “Ram Setu” to be designated as a national historic site.

Ram Setu

• Ram Setu, a 48-km long bridge-like construction between India and Sri Lanka, is also known as Adam’s Bridge.
• The Ramayana refers to it, but little is scientifically known or verified about how it formed.

Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project (SSCP)

• The British proposed the Sethusamudram Ship Waterway Project (SSCP) as a channel to connect the Palk Strait with the Gulf of Mannar.
• Only in 2005 was the project officially launched.
• A relatively linear coral ridge known as Adam’s Bridge or Ram Setu separates the shallow sea made up of the Gulf of Mannar in the south and Palk Bay in the north.
• This connects Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka and Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu.
• If finished, the SSCP is anticipated to significantly cut the amount of time needed to go between India’s east and west coastlines.

Concerns about the project

• Computer simulations indicate that greater intensity waves may have an impact on the central, eastern, and northern regions of Palk Bay. These waves may deliver sediments. This indicates that these locations also get more silt, which makes them murkier.
• Alignment is difficult: In accordance with how the canal is aligned, the models also show that waves reach the Bay from its north and south, respectively.
• High cyclonic storm frequency Also susceptible to cyclonic storms is the region. In 1964, a storm was so strong that it completely destroyed the town of Dhanushkodi. Such storms may throw off the regional sedimentary processes.
• Finding safe locations for dumping dredged material without hurting terrestrial or marine ecosystems is thus a major concern. Dredged material may harm marine habitats when dumped.
• Ship-related water and air pollution: The air and water will be contaminated by emissions from ships travelling through the small canal. Additionally, an ecological catastrophe can result if a rogue ship carrying coal or oil is grounded or deviates from its intended course inside the canal.
• Significant Ram Setu: While environmental groups have opposed the project because of the significant environmental costs it would involve, religious organisations have opposed it because they think the structure, which is mentioned in the Ramayana, has religious significance.

Need of protection

• Marine biosphere reserves: In 1989, the Gulf of Mannar’s coral reef platforms between Thoothukudi and Rameswaram were designated as a marine biosphere reserve.
• Rich in biodiversity area: There are said to be more than 36,000 different types of plants and animals living there, and it is surrounded by mangroves and sandy coasts that are ideal for turtle nesting. Additionally, fish, lobsters, shrimp, and crabs breed here. 70 of the 600 fish species that have been identified in the area are thought to be significant commercially.
• Area already under stress: This area is already at risk from thermal plant discharge, salt pan brine runoff, and illicit coral mining. If the SSCP materialises, it will be the death knell for this delicate ecosystem and the local population’s way of life.

@the-end

The Ram Setu bears the distinctive geological traces of a turbulent past. It must therefore be conserved as both a geo-heritage structure, as defined from a scientific standpoint, and a national heritage site.

Source—https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-geoheritage-value-of-ram-setu/article66164347.ece