Idle Man's Brain is a Devil's Workshop is what they say. But, I will say tangential reading without completing anything will make your brain a dustbin - unless the tangents themselves become a full subject. Now, I start reading about Nazi era stamps and where am I now?
Let me see what and all I had to read over that.
1Nazi stamps
Not many know that India is the only country, the tune of whose national anthem was set by Hitler's Germany. The logic is simple. India was a British colony and what best chance to get independence than approach the one
who can give you a reasonable assurance for that? And Bose did exactly that - he approached Nazi Germany. Hitler sent him to Japan and we know the story. Was Hitler bad or Churchill bad is not the question for him. How can he use Hitler to make India independent -
that's all mattered to him. There are people who knew that but refused to accept it, but it's a different topic altogether. Back to the tune. Bose is supposed to set up a government in exile and needed a national anthem.
Another interesting character from the Age of Collapsing Empires - Alexander I of Yugoslavia. A true Little Babu as what an Indian civil servant called another(Babu in this sense, approximately means Boss). Trace his career, one would see pettiness at every step -
which led to death of 30% of Serbian Population and eventually his death. In fact, he was not even the Crown Prince. His elder brother John was. But, when his brother, who was not in favour of the united Serbian lobby murdered a servant,
the outrage created was that huge that he had to relinquish his rights to the throne. When his brother Alexander became king, fearing support to his brother, Alexander got him arrested and charged him as insane. Even when Alexander was killed in 1934(by a Macedonian Bulgarian for
The day America allowed a private company to publicly brand their President as spreader of fake news, the writing was on the wall. I don't care whether it's Trump or Biden or anybody. He is the President of America and that's where the discussion should end.
The position holds a sanctity and respect and empires crumbled just because the chair is not given the respect it deserves. After India thrashed Pakistan badly in 1971 and dismemebered it, an Indian politician used the word Indira is India and India is Indira.
That is the syndrome we need to avoid. Indira is not India. Indira is not India. Indira is the Prime Minister of India and she is the official face of India. Any hatred towards Indira shouldn't become hatred for India.
Now some serious stuff. Three of the most impactful crops these missionary backed imperialists grew in India - 1. Opium to destroy China. British India in 1906 produced more drugs than Columbia and Afghanistan combined at their respective peaks.
2. Indigo leading to widespread famines in Bengal 3. Groundnut for which vast swathes of forests were chopped down because groundnut doesn't grow in shade. Anantapur still sees the devastating effects of that.
Another thread, this time, Treaties of Accession of India's Princely States. I will try to post the original documents here for as many states as I can. First one itself is on the wrong footing. 1. Junagadh's Accession to Pakistan -