Not every barber is dubbed as Shakespeare often, but the unparalleled legacy of a 19th-century barber from a village in Bihar tells an extraordinary story. A thread on Bhikhari Thakur aka “Shakespeare of Bhojpuri” (1/n)
Thakur was born in a poor barber family #OTD in 1887 in Kutubpur village of Chhapra district. Due to extreme poverty, he couldn’t finish his education and adopted the family profession of a barber (2/n)
After a deadly famine hit his village, the young barber soon migrated to Kharagpur, then Puri to Calcutta where he watched Cinema, Parsi theatre and visited a "naach hall" for the first time that inspired him to write and act in plays (3/n)
He returned to his village, formed a small troupe from his community and started playing Ramayana that soon to be dismayed by the upper caste people of the village. Upset with this incident, he joined the local Launda-Nach group of lower caste people (4/n)
He soon started writing and directing powerful plays, influenced by his socio-political vision amalgamated with different artistic genres, powerful subjects, Bhakti songs, lower-caste dances and innovative lighting (5/n)
Thakur’s ideology was heavily influenced by the social reform movements of the 19th century. His plays that often echoed the voice of marginalized Dalit communities and discriminated women, became heavily popular across the Bhojpuri region (6/n)
His most famous play ‘Bidesiya’ was about the plight of a village woman Pyari Sundari, whose husband migrated to Calcutta and married another woman. Due to its immense popularity, Bidesiya became a style of folk-theatre presentation (7/n)
‘Gabarghichor’ is another cult play about a woman, whose husband was a migrant and she had an illegitimate child named Gabarghichor. The story revolved around a disputed claim on the child and the plight of the mother (8/n)
‘Beti Bechwa’ strongly advocated against the malpractice of selling young brides for marriage with older men. The impact of the play was so huge that it influenced many young girls to escape from wedding venues (9/n)
His Bidesiya troupe mostly consisted of musical instruments like dholak, tabla, sitar, banshi and harmonium. He is also one of the earliest influencers to caste male artists from his Launda-Nach group as female protagonists (10/n)
The social impact of Bhikhari Thakur is unmatched in the Bhojpur region. His social message and style of direction earned him the ubiquitous nickname “Shakespeare of Bhojpuri”. How apt was that! (11/n)
Source: Performing "Bidesiyā" in Bihar: Strategy for Survival, Strategies for Performance” by Brahma Prakash and Hindustan Times
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Why does sugarcane taste so sweet in India today? India’s sugarcane wasn’t always this sweet. The reason it tastes the way it does today goes back to the stubborn brilliance of one woman who fought prejudice, doubt, and even war. Thread.
1/19
Janaki Ammal was born in 1897 in Kerala. At a time when most girls were expected to marry early, she chose science.
Botany became her world.
2/19
Janaki grew up in a large family with 19 siblings. Her father was not a scientist, but he loved tending gardens and writing about nature. From him, Janaki absorbed a way of looking at plants not just as crops, but as living wonders.
Open a Crayola box today and you’ll find hundreds of shades. But if you grew up in the 80s or 90s using Crayola art supplies, you might remember a crayon called Indian Red. And then, one day, it just disappeared. What exactly happened?
1/14
To answer that, you have to travel way beyond the Crayola factory in Pennsylvania…
all the way to a small town in Kerala, India.
In 1807, a Scottish man named Francis Buchanan was surveying the region for the East India Company.
2/14
So, who was Buchanan-Hamilton? think of him as a one-man research institute on foot: surgeon, botanist, surveyor. after Tipu Sultan’s fall, he was tasked to map and describe the south.
3/14
This year, a controversy broke out over a scene in Kesari 2. It allegedly misrepresented one of Bengal’s greatest freedom fighters, Khudiram Bose, by calling him Khudiram Singh. To understand why that name matters, we have to take a train to a small station in Bihar. Thread 1/19
The station has two platforms and is located in Samastipur district, part of the East Central Railway’s Sonpur division. To understand why the name mix-up hurt so deeply, we have to look beyond cinema. This small, unassuming train station may hold the answer. 2/19
It has worn several names over the years — Waini Railway Station, then Pusa Road Waini after the nearby agricultural university was built. Later, Waini was dropped. For decades, it was simply “Pusa Road.” 3/19
Rahul Gandhi’s startling claims of voter list fraud have sparked intense debate over India’s election integrity. Nearly a hundred years ago, a small West African country experienced one of the most extraordinary election frauds in history. What exactly took place? Thread 1/18
In 1927, Liberia went to the polls. On paper, it was just another general election. In reality, it would become a masterclass in how far those in power will go to hold on to it.
2/18
Liberia was small. Tucked away in West Africa. Founded a century earlier by freed African Americans.
Its ruling class — the Americo-Liberians — controlled everything: the courts, the military, foreign trade, and land.
3/18
Mujib’s 1974 Lahore visit was a watershed moment in Bangladesh and subcontinental politics. Hoping to gain recognition from Pakistan and China, he tried to distance Bangladesh from Indo-Soviet axis. But that it would bring greater doom never crossed his mind. Thread. 1/17
Mujib's decision to attend the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in Lahore in March 1974 - trading Pakistan’s diplomatic recognition of Bangladesh for dropping the trial of 195 heinous Pakistani war criminals - opened the flood gates of conspiratorial politics. 2/17
This decision not only destabilised Bangladesh but also helped in the resurgence of banned pro-Pak Islamic forces who fuelled communal tension and anti-India sentiments. 3/17
When a plane crashes, the world demands answers. The recent Air India tragedy left millions searching for truth. But, when all goes quiet, one device speaks: the black box. A device nobody wanted until it started telling the truth. Thread on the birth of the Black Box.
1/15
Today is Dr. David Warren’s birthday – a fitting day to remember the man behind the “black box.” It’s hard to believe now, but his life-saving device almost never meant to be built. It’s remarkable that something so essential to safety was buried under layers of red tape. 2/15
Warren’s path to inventing the black box began with tragedy. He was born in 1925. When he was nine, his father Reverend Hubert Warren mysteriously disappeared in a tiny biplane over Bass Strait. The last thing his father gave him before the flight was a crystal radio set. 3/15