"While we hold onto India, we are a first rate power. If we lose India, we will decline to a third rate power. This is the value of India."
- Lord Curzon in 1901, one of 11 viceroys of British India.
The British conquest of India was the invasion and destruction of a high civilization by a trading company utterly without principle and greedy of gain, overrunning with fire and sword a country temporarily disordered and helpless, bribing and murdering, annexing and stealing.
For 3,500 years before the British came on the scene and robbed her of her freedom, India was self-ruling and one of the most influential, illustrious and richest nations of the world. It was the wealth of 18th century India which attracted the commercial pirates of England.
Buckminster Fuller (1895-1893) philosopher, thinker, inventor of the geodesic dome, once said:
"The British were perhaps the most successful pirates in history. They came to India, pillaged the country in the name of trade and then enslaved it in the name of civilization."
The British did not manage India. They colonized India and did what it took to extract and exploit India ’s resources. Colonizers do that and when they have extracted and exploited as much as they can, they leave. The British left.
Whatever “development” the British did was to ensure that they could effectively exploit the country. They “built” railroads so that they could move stuff (cotton to the British mills, for example) and for administering the large population they built a telecommunications system.
They “built” an education system that was just about adequate to churn out clerks that were needed for office work. They needed mid-level management (there were only so many Englishmen for the job) and so they created the Indian Civil Services.
Britain was by far the leading slave trader out of Africa and transporter of indentured labour out of Asia. It has killed with famine, sword and fire more people than Genghis Khan, Atilla the Hun, Hitler or Stalin.
(Pic - Indian Famine 1896)
In the defense of its imperial interests it has precipitated two World Wars and is now presiding over an empire of crime that drains the poorest countries of their hard earned wealth.
Jahanara & Roshanara were daughters of #Shahjahan & sisters of #Aurangzeb & Dara Shikoh. Jahanara favored Dara, and Roshanara favored Aurangzeb.
If Jahanara was kind hearted, Roshanara was politically astute.
Cont.
During the bloody war of succession between Aurangzeb and Dara Shikoh, these two women engaged themselves in a bitter political battle within the walls of their palace that went on to dominate the larger part of their lives.
Even though the throne was ordained to pass to Dara, Aurangzeb was a man with ambition. He revolted and demanded his share of the kingdom. It was only through Roshanara’s timely information that Aurangzeb averted certain death as a part of a conspiracy.
The Story of creation of the Stock Markets.
(A Thread)
The Dutch East India Company was The World's First Public Company and the company had many ships.
So, When East Indies was discovered, explorers rushed there in hopes of finding opportunities for trade & profits.
The Voyage to those far Eastern places was dangerous filled with pirates and storms.
Majority of the ships never made it home.
Many of the businessmen and investors who financed these voyages lost a ton of dollars.
@irfhabib @IndiainDenmark @maroofculmen So, they thought of a genius ploy to help them mitigate that risk by pooling their money together.
In 1600, they formed this company called:
"Governor and company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies" I.e. The Dutch East India Company.
Today On 20th May 1498, Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut.
The ruler Zamorin, welcomed Vasco & his merchants, but was not prepared to concede to their demand to exclude the indian merchants from his port.
The Portuguese basically had come not to compete but to create a monopoly over sea trade. So, after 5 yrs Vasco returned..
In 1503 Vasco da Gama returned with a large fleet to destroy 80 ships Zamorin had assembled to defend the freedom of the seas and was successful.
Finally, in 1508 Alfonso de Albuquerque captured Goa from the sultanate of Bijapur, the Adil Shahis and laid the foundations for Portugese dominance in India.
Pic:- The 1st Church in Goa to commemorate the capture, 1510.
West Bengal has been on a decline ever since 1963, when CM of the state Bidhan Chandra Roy passed away. He reinforced the foundations of the state after partition, got the many institutions & engineering hubs.
Cont.-
Calcutta and Jadavpur used to be the prime universities in India those days. WB had the IIM, IIT, Indian Statistical Institute, the Operations Research School, Bengal Engineering College, Presidency College, SXC, Scottish Church and many other venerable institutes.
It was the HQ of Birla, JK, Bangur, and Thapar and Tata. The grand Tata Centre was built for that purpose. This was the vision of TATA'S. Most of their investment was in Jamshedpur. Most foreign companies had their India HQs in Calcutta.
The Story of 1st Indian Ink Company from Kolkata.
(A Thread)
During the 1930s, when the Swadeshi movement was at its peak, its founder Mahatma Gandhi was ferociously looking for a locally-made ink to write letters and petitions.
Cont.-
He shared this with Satish Chandra Das Gupta, a freedom fighter from WB. Credited with making Krishnadhara, India’s 1st Swadeshi ink, Gupta shared his formulation with the Maitra brothers, Nanigopal & Sankaracharya.
Newspaper clipping how Sulekha was started at Gandhi's request.
The brothers, who had just been released from jail and jumped on the opportunity to defy the British again. The deep-rooted nationalism was such that Nanigopal even left his teaching job at the Rajshahi University, as he was ordered to switch from dhoti to a suit.
When we say "the father gave her daughter's hand in marriage" do we think of an evil father casting away his child or do we think of a well dressed gentleman leading his child upto the groom in a church?
Do we ever ask ourselves what right a father has to give his daughter's hand to someone else ?
We do not.
Because everything that is from the west and it's Judeo Christian cultural backdrop is sacrosanct.
If "giving her hand in marriage" is okay , then what is so fundamentally wrong with "kanyadaan" ?
We'll , it is wrong just because it is hindu (read pagan idol worshipping natives) . Our colonial masters taught us to hate our roots and we have since continued with the practice.