Post

@IndiaArtHistory

More from @monidipadey

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

@monidipadey

Aug 17

|| An example of Nexus between Criminals and Politicians, and Police Failure in W•B ~ the Murd€r of DCP Vinod Mehta on 18th March 1984 ||

The police in W•B botching up investigations (eg: Kamduni gang-r@pe case), or failing to carry out their normal duties is not new. From CPI-M to T-M-C, the trend continues.

A particularly h0rrific incident that comes to mind was the 1984 murd€rs of Vinod Mehta, a 35 year old IPS officer, then DC (Port) of Kolkata Police, and his bodyguard Mukhtar Ali.

In broad daylight, Vinod Mehta (35), and Mukhtar Ali (36), were dragged into a narrow lane in GardenReach, by a mob. Four hours later, their mut¡lated bodies were discovered.

Vinod Mehta's nak€d body was found in a drain with his eyes g0uged out. His hands and feet had been tied, and the body had multiple burn and stab wounds. Mukhtar Ali’s arms and legs had been sev€red, and what remained of his torso, was only a charred heap.

Vinod Mehta, an IPS officer from Punjab, was known as an honest officer, who could not be bribed.

1/4 … 🧵👇🏼

2/4

On the morning of 18th March, 1984 (it was a Sunday), after receiving input from the Home Secretary Rathin Dasgupta that trouble was brewing in the Garden Reach area, Mehta immediately rushed to the spot.

The local police station was informed of the DC’s visit to GardenReach (a no-go Mu$lim area), yet the police made delays, and went to check half-hour an hour later.
As they entered GardenReach, they were met with bombs and bricks. As the police stood there, they suddenly noticed Mehta's parked car, but he or his bodyguard were nowhere to be seen.
Few policemen then went to his house to check if he was there. Not finding him at home, finally the police was forced to launch a manhunt in the GardenReach area.

3/4

Garden Reach, which is termed as “Mini Pakistan,” is a no-go zone. The place is a den for Mu$lim smugglers, and many of them are from Bangladesh, who have illegally settled there over many years.

As these illegal BD Mu$lim smugglers prospered, so did some of the local policemen, who had good rapport with the smugglers, which helped them to earn a lot of money.

Vinod Mehta had become a major threat to these smugglers, because of his frequent raids on their illegal establishments.

Regarding DC Vinod Mehta’s murd€r, there are two theories ~

📍As per one theory, r!0ts had been carefully preplanned, in order to bring Mehta to the area and murd€r him. Apparently a day before, the smugglers had bought many bombs, which were then lobbed in the area on Sunday morning, and subsequently a rumour was spread of communal r!0ts.

📍As per another theory, it was a revenge murder. Few days back, Mehta had ordered his men to fire at a ri0ting mob, which keeled two young men. At a protest meeting, the father of one of the keeled men had said: "I will certainly avenge the death of my son and will see that Mehta does not live long." Soon posters demanding Mehta's head appeared in Garden Reach; however, neither the local policemen nor the detective department took any action.

Read 4 tweets

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

@monidipadey

Jul 21

Re-Reading the 1971 Indo -PK war atroc!t!es on Hindu women.

It is said that the number of mass r@p€s in the 9 month long war is between 200,000 and 400,000.

Most of the r@p€ victims of the Pak!stan! Army and its allies (razakars), were Hindu women. Many of these women di€d in captivity, or later committed suic¡de, while others migrated to India.

During the war, a fatwa was declared in Pak!stan that said Hindu women could be taken as the "booty of war". Imams and MsLm religious leaders of Pak!stan openly declared that the Bengali Hindu women were 'gonimoter maal' (war booty) and they openly supported the r@p€ of these women by the PK Army.

Given below is a documented account of a young Hindu bride (17 year old) who was gang r@p€d by Pak¡stani soldiers -

“Two went into the room that had been built for the bridal couple. The others stayed behind with the family, one of them covering them with his gun. They heard a barked order, and the bridegroom's voice protesting. Then there was silence until the bride screamed ... In a few minutes one of the soldiers came out, his uniform in disarray. He grinned to his companions. Another soldier took his place in the extra room. And so on, until all six had r@p€d the belle of the village. Then all six left, hurriedly. The father found his daughter lying on the string cot unconscious and bleeding. Her husband was crouched on the floor, kneeling over his vomit.” (Bina D’Costa, pp. 121-122)

Almost 200,000-400000 women were r@p€d, giving birth to thousands of war-babies. The Pak!stani soldiers and razakars also kept Bengali Hindu women as s€X-slav€s inside the PK Army camps.

(Image is of a teenage girl r@p€d by a PK soldier who left her war baby with the missionaries of charity for adoption)

Author Bina D’Costa tracked down the Australian doctor, Geoffrey Davis, who was brought to Dhaka by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the UN. Davis was tasked with performing late-term ab0rt¡Ons, and facilitating large scale international adoption of the war babies born to the r@p€d Hindu Bengali women.

D’Costa’s conversation with Dr. Davis was published in a Bangladeshi publication. There are details of women being t!ed to trees and gang r@p€d, breasts hack€d off, dumped in mass graves, and held in Pakistani r@p€ camps.

Dr. Geoffrey Davis said that the 200,000 to 400,000 r@p€ victims were an underestimation. The Pakistan army would “keep the infantry back and put artillery ahead and they would shell the hospitals and schools. And that caused absolute chaos in the town. And then the infantry would go in and begin to segregate the women. Apart from little children, all those were s€Xually matured would be segregated..And then the women would be put in the compound under guard and made available to the troops ... Some of the stories they told were appalling. Being r@p€d again and again and again. A lot of them died in those r@p€ camps. There was an air of disbelief about the whole thing. Nobody could credit that it really happened! But the evidence clearly showed that it did happen."

Read:
Bina D'Costa, 2011. Nationbuilding, Gender and War Crimes in South Asia.

Margaret Alston, 2015. Women and Climate Change in Bangladesh, p. 40.

New York Times report, 'Horrors of East Pakistan Turning Hope into Despair', Malcolm W. Browne.

Herbery Bodman and Tohidi Nayereh Esfahlani (1998). Women in Muslim societies: diversity within unity.

Ami Birangona Bolchhi ("I, the heroine, speak") by Nilima Ibrahim.

Read 4 tweets

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

@monidipadey

Apr 27

Hinduism in China.

Hinduism is still present in China, though it is now in minuscule numbers. However archaeological evidences suggest there was once a thriving presence of Hindus in different provinces of medieval China.

In photos is the Kaiyuan temple, in Quanzhou, a province of southeast China. According to the historians, there were more than a dozen Hindu temples, including two big shrines, in Quanzhou and the surrounding villages, which were built by a group of Tamil traders who lived here during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) periods.

In 1271, a visiting Italian merchant recorded that the Indian traders "were recognised easily. These rich Indian men and women mainly live on vegetables, milk and rice, unlike the Chinese who eat meat and fish."

The Kaiyuan temple show many Shaiva motifs, similar to the ones seen on temples in Tamil Nadu of the same period (10th-14th centuries).

@LostTemple7

In the 1930s, many murtis of Narasimha were unearthed from Quanzhou during an archaeological excavation by Wu Wenliang. Among other Hindu artefacts, images depicting Puranic stories associated with Vishnu and Shiva were also found, showing a style similar to what is seen on temples in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh of the same period (10th -14th centuries).

Besides the Tamil traders, Indians entered China through the Kamrup route (Assam) via Burma into south Chinese province of Yunnan, as well as other southwestern regions of modern China. This is supported by by the discovery of Shiva-linga and yoni in Jianchuan caves, while many other Hindu artefacts were found during excavation of Dali temple in Yunnan.

Another route to enter China was through Kashmir, and it was this route that carried Buddhism to China.

(All images from Google)

My post is in context to a Hanuman murti photo that I had shared on Hanuman Jayanti. The murti was from China, and few then had said there was no Hinduism ever in China, and the hanuman murti was actually from a jataka tale of Buddhism.

Read 4 tweets

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

@monidipadey

Apr 21

FYI @ambedkariteIND
The first photo is that of the Hindu Devi Sri - Gajalakshmi. The two elephants that are bathing her are the two nidhis- Sankha and Padma. This iconography is clearly defined in the Vishnudharmottara (III. 82, 7 ; and 82, 10).
Sri is also found described in Sri-Sukta of the RV and in the Taitttiriya Upanishad.

The wrong identification of Sri-Gajalakshmi images as Maya, the mother of Buddha, was made by Alfred Charles Auguste Foucher (1865–1952), a French scholar, who had made another wrong claim- Buddha image had Greek origins.

Read Anand Coomaraswamy’s article on “Early Indian Iconography” for correct history and interpretation of Gajalakshmi.

Two BCE era Gaja Lakshmi coins depicting the Hindu Devi Gajalakshmi

1. Kaushambi: Copper, 300 BCE, Gajalakshmi.

2. 1st c. BCE era Gajalakshmi coin, refer: J. Allan catalogue on coins.

3. Coin of Azilises showing Gaja Lakshmi standing on a lotus, 1st century BCE.

One of the earliest iconography , frequently found on coins, is that of Gaja-Laksmi, i.e., Laksmi standing (rarely seated), being bathed by two etephants . It appears on an uninscribed coin from Kausambi (3rd century B.C.E), coins of Visakha-deva, Sivadatta and probably also of Vayudeva of Ayodhya (1st century B.C.E), and uninscribed coins of Ujjayini (2nd-3rd century B.C.E).

Gajalakshmi was so popular that many Indo-Scythian satraps of northern India like Azilises, Rajuvula, and Sodasa had Her inscribed on their coins.

https://twitter.com/goyals_00/status/1781930614813298828

This is Buddha’s mother Maya.
Completely Different iconographic representation from Devi Gajalakshmi.

https://twitter.com/goyals_00/status/1781930614813298828

Read 5 tweets

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

@monidipadey

Apr 6

The Azad Hind Sarkar was the first 'swadeshi' government of India. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had formed this government and taken oath as the Prime Minister on 21st October, 1943. This makes him the first PM of India.

The Azad Hind government was not a token government. This provisional government was recognised by Japan, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Burma, Thailand, Philippines, Manchuria, and the Republic of China (under Wang Jingwei), while a note of congratulations was sent by Eamon de Valera (the then PM of Ireland).

The Azad Hind Sarkar had presented policies-opinions on several important matters pertaining to Indian life. It also had its own postal stamps, bank, civil code, court, currency, territory (Andaman Nicobar islands), and intelligence service. Developing all these things in a short time frame, with limited resources, and with the British still in control was no mean feat.

The Azad Hind government started working from Singapore. It had 11 ministers and 8 representatives from the INA. This government was formed with the objective of freeing India from British rule, and it was necessary to bring together all political and military resources under one government for that purpose. The Azad Hind government also allowed Netaji to hold talks with various countries, while helping in mobilising NRIs to join and support the war of independence.

Image: 10000 Rupee Note issued by the Azad Hind Bank of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

FYI @INCIndia not accepting this basic truth, the history that had actually happened, is being a perfect British slave. Of course, it suits you that way. One must not forget that Allan Octavian Hume, a former British civil servant, was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress.

https://twitter.com/felumittirr/status/1776332041115623541

@INCIndia Netaji at the Greater East Asia Conference in Japan, 1943.
The Azad Hind Sarkar facilitated Netaji to attend such conferences as a State head and mobilise global support for India against the British.

https://twitter.com/felumittirr/status/1776332041115623541

Read 5 tweets

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

@monidipadey

Feb 1

|| 31st January- the 45th anniversary of the forgotten mass*cre of Dal¡t Refugees in WB under CPI (M)- Left rule ||

On 31st January in 1979, the Marichjhanpi mass*cre took place, when the police under CPI (M) led communist government Ki!!ed Dal¡t Namashudra refugees living in Marichjhanpi island in the Sunderbans.

The namashudra refugees from East Pakistan had fled the Islam!c persecution, & settled in Dandakaranya & other parts of India, both after 1947 and 1971. During early 70s, the communists had spoken largely in favour of these refugees.

1/n 🧵..

Hearing the supportive statements by the communist leaders, in early 1978, the Da!it Bengali H¡ndu refugees started moving out from Dandakarnya and settled in the islands of Sunderbans, the main centre being at Marichjhanpi. By June 1978, about 30,000 refugees had settled in Marichjhanpi and started various livelihoods, becoming self reliant.

However by then, having used the sympathy wave for the refugees to win elections in WB, the policy of the communists towards the Dal¡t refugees changed, and they took a complete U turn.

The communists then declared that there was no space for the refugees in West Bengal, and asked them to return to Dandakaranya & other parts of the country where they had been earlier resettled.

From end of December 1978, the police & CPM cadres started harassing the settlers in Marichjhapi, ordering them to leave. Friction started as the settlers refused and drove away the CPM goons. Marichjhapi stood out in defiance against the fascism of the communist government.

Read 6 tweets

Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @monidipadey

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

Monidipa Bose - Dey (মণিদীপা)

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Send Email!