The communist infiltration of the revolutionary movement was a matter of concern to its leaders. Here is a letter from Rashbehari Bose to Sachin Sanyal 1938. It also tells us about the links to Japan before the war. 1/n
On the second page, Rashbehari clearly talks of how the British were quite happy to use communists to break the freedom movement in order to perpetuate their rule. Although his great faith in a benign Japan may have been misplaced. 2/n
It should be clear that Indian revolutionaries were more than aware of how the colonial government was using British communists like Rajni Palme to infiltrate their movement. The writer Yashpal is just one example of a planted informant. 3/n
Here is another letter where Rashbehari tells Sachin Sanyal to support Netaji within the Congress. Contrary to popular belief, there were many revolutionaries in the Congress and it is with their support that Netaji won against the Gandhians. 3/n
In 1938, Sachin Sanyal was released after a decade in prison. Rashbehari wrote a letter of introduction to GD Birla. Few know that GD Birla had helped the revolutionaries in the 1914 by hiding guns stolen from the Rodda arms heist. 4/n
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The new ASI dig at Rakhigarhi is throwing up some amazing finds from early, mature and late Harappan periods. Some are multi-storey buildings. These are just from a small area; there still are huge unexplored mounds. 1/n
Sanjay Manjul and his team have also found evidence of a “stadium” with layered seating on both sides. Also piles of terracotta balls near the gates. Were these used for slings against attackers? 2/n
A new skeleton has also been found. A deep trench at the bottom of mound 3 has found pottery at 6m depth suggesting a pre- Harappan habitation 6000 BCE (not yet carbon dated). 3/n
What happens in US universities if you do not follow the official line. This "cleansing" first happened in humanities and social sciences, now STEM. The spectacular decline of these institutions could not have faster. 1/n
My family is well known for its opposition (often armed) to Western hegemony but we always had great respect for their universities. My great grandfather Nalinaksha, a revolutionary, won a scholarship to LSE in 1920s. Despite writing part of his thesis in a London prison.... 2/n
.... he too had great admiration for Western universities. The main attraction of Western universities was intellectual freedom. In India, intellectual debates end by quoting authority and not first principle reasoning or empirical evidence; still largely true. 3/n
Now that India's strong growth performance is no longer in doubt, let me deal with some common questions raised about India's economic performance: "FDI is going to Vietnam and not coming to India"; "Bangladesh now has a higher per capita income" and so on. 1/n
At the onset,let it be clear that B'desh and Vietnam are friendly countries & we do not grudge them their good fortune. Nonetheless, as shown below, India consistently gets far more FDI than Vietnam and the gap, if anything, is widening in the long run. (World Bank data) 2/n
Of course, Vietnam is a much smaller economy and their FDI inflow is proportionately bigger for their size - but that is a wholly different point than saying that India is losing the battle for global investment (individual instances notwithstanding). 3/n
I am just making a common-sense point on the Apple alert issue. Just read the language of the notification. It is full of loaded language like "because of who you are or what you do" - hardly a technical alert. Also odd how it states "state-sponsored" without any proof 1/n
Email version of the alert mentions that some unnamed "experts" would be needed to help the supposed target of this "state-sponsored" cyber attack/hack. This is suspicious; surely Apple, the world's largest company, would be recommending its own support team and not "experts" 2/n
The message version of the alert is the oddest. It directs the supposed "target" to an non-profit called Access Now. Why would Apple ask you speak to external experts in an NGO? Why not its own in-house team? Just asking an obvious common-sense question... 3/n
Spent my Sunday retracing on foot part of the trail that INA and Japanese troops had followed on the Kohima campaign of 1944. Beautiful place but must have been very tough in monsoon conditions 1/n
I have trekked in many places, but this trail is very special as Netaji personally used this route into India. Even in dry conditions, sections can be very slippery because of the kind of soil. 2/n
Also visited Ruzazhou village where Netaji stayed for 9 days. The villagers have lovingly preserved the hut and the bed where he slept like sacred relic. Among the most hospitable people I have ever met. 4/n
Income tax return statistics were recently used by some commentators to suggest that India's income inequality worsened between 2013-14 & 2021-22, & that gross income of lowest 25% of taxpayers actually declined. This is inaccurate interpretation of the data on several counts 1/n
At onset, note that dataset relates to tax payers, not a survey of general population; extrapolating to income distribution is tricky. Rising pool of high-income taxpayers, for instance, reflects many factors from better compliance to middle-class moving up; both good things 2/n
If such data must be used for income inequality, better to plot & look at shape of the curve. As can be seen clearly, there was bunching of incomes at bottom rung in 2013-14 with a long tail. By 2021-22, the bunching is in the middle. Many in the bottom rung moved into middle 3/n