Thread by @dikgaj

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind No need to stop at Satavahana: u cd make even the Mauryas marathas. Its a bit tiring as I am reluctant to fuel the regional supremacy bit. It took a lot of goading for you to, even obliquely, acknowledge that first Maratha raid into Bengal was to replace one jihadi with another.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind The fact that u wr aware of this came in ur tweets first trying to pass it off as "tormented Afghan muslim appeal", but well, Mir Habib's name was a lot difficult to spell out. I wd hv expected this straight right at the beginning. Thats how history is falsified for false pride.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind Rabindranath was a "sir" for some time, but if he is the sole cane to whip Bengal with, then u shd also respect his sentiments in relinquishing the title: so not refer to him by his "prior" title that he rejected. But lets go deeper into the poet.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind The poet also wrote a poem where he highlights an incident to illustrate that the "common Hindu" of different regions did not take kindly to Maratha imposition or their regional elite's collaboration with Martha elite.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind "shinde ashiche shonge tahar firingi shenapti/ sadare tader charibe durga angya tomar prati/" The keeper of the fortress finally commits suicide before handover as he had given a oath that he wdnt surrender the fort while he was still living: suicide was a solution to the dilemma

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind Two things abt the poet here, u need to grasp: poet always extolled personal sacrifice, esp blood/life or one's own as a sign of resistance even in explicitly militant context without killing in return: he does this repeatedly -Sikh gurus, "durgesh dumraj", Jaysingha in Visarjan.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind But in the poem on durgadhip "Dumraj", he is also giving vent to the dissatisfaction in the lower ranks or commons to the surrender to Marathas by hindu elite. I dont want to but can quote other parts from his writings that I remember that will complicate this further.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind This doesnt imply that the poet was necessarily accurate, but just to make u aware that u will be on quicksand if u base on his one poem. Regarding contemporary "sources" you cited, I wish I had time to quote them extensively. The picture of welcome u paint will vanish.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind Muslim semi-mercenary units, who do both the legendary Maratha depredation on popns (less ethical under later chiefs) as well as mullah depredations, coming to install one jihadi replacing the current one, will not be great PR of supposed "pure" Hindawi Swaraj intent on Bengalis.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind I cd go to great lengths on Gaekwars of Baroda, but won't. Just will say that that under their direct handover of tax-farming to their financier - Baroda became the primary laundering centre of EIC revenue/loot from Bengal. Their cooperation with with Brits wr among the earliest.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind So while they might have done good work in social reform and restructuring, their cooperation and facilitation of EIC cd also be held as contributing to whatever EIC did in Bengal - and what EIC did amounted effectively to genocide and weakening of resistance of Bengal to Brits.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind Social reform for "oppressed classes" is laudable, but is not unique to Gaekwars. Whatever else Chaintanya can be accused of, his movement seems to have at least empowered Bengalis in a way that "oppressed" sections cd not be mobilized on caste lines unlike reformed Maharashtra.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind Marathas allowed a Tilak to go under, while raising a Gokhale to dominance and a Gandhi to power. The spark lit by Tilak-Aurobinda-Deuskar shows that Bengal never lost that spirit you talk of. Maybe you shd look at Marathas again and check.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind Since you refuse to recognize the importance of terrain, some other time, I will have to write on the history of Marathas between fall of Devagiri Yadavs and birth of Shivaji. His daddy even helped to liquidate the last of the Vijaynagara survivors. Many other examples wd come up

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind as for your sage advice on digging trenches and building forts, let me remind you that the fort didnt save the Brits from the nawabs army in Calcutta. They fled and those captured, whined about their own cell they wr thrown into.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind Earlier Portuguese had built a fort - ended up with their women taken away as slaves. Many Bengali Hindu chiefs who built forts and tried to resist. On the flat plains they cdnt withstand the full armies with resources and numbers from northern plains which supplied the Mughals.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind In the more hilly western and eastern fringe, the Hindu resistance was more successful. However, the terrain even in the hilly parts are far easier to penetrate with standard plains large armies than the Ghats. I hv extensively trekked both, and anyone with sense wd agree.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind A simple comparison of locations of early Maratha forts wd make it amply clear why it wd hv been far easier to build up a resistance in the Ghats agaisnt the Mughal army which wd not be able to maneuver to its full capacity as they wd be able to on flat plains of central Bengal.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind anyway, tu-tu-mein-mein is something I wanted to desperately avoid. I dont like what you are doing here. Its looking at a very edited version of history, for a specific political gyan giving, that is actually very impolitic and undiplomatic.

@MaharashtraDhrm @From_Himalaya @bidesh_desh @abhivaarta @maidros78 @RituRathaur @DuttaSoumyojit @Aban__Ind Both regions hv made errors, had natural advantages and disadvantages. BOTH regions need to learn from them, no need to needle each other to feel-good, and look to collaborate for what needs to be done. But dont falsify history by selection.