The Partition of India in 1947 has been touted as the World's most complex divorce!
It couldn't have been described better as India & Pakistan fought over every movable & immovable assets leading to crazy stories
A #HistoryTour that revisits crazy anecdotes from 75 yrs ago! 🧵
The first thing was the name itself. Congress claimed the name India rejecting a proposal to be named 'Hindustan' instead
Since Pakistan was seceding, India held on to the name and it's international recognition like the UN entities etc.
The next was money. HM Patel & Mohammad Ali were entrusted to figure out who gets the cash in banks. They got into a fight, so Sardar Patel locked them into a room & told not to come out until they resolved
Pakistan got 17.5% of the Cash in return to cover 17.5% of India's debt
Currency notes follow money right? There was only one press which could print money and India had it. Pakistan didnt have a mint to print their own money!
So, they made a provisional currency taking Indian Rupee notes and rubber stamping 'Pakistan' on it!
Next was Govt assets! Chairs, tables, mirrors, shelves, clocks etc across the country was counted and had to be split separately
Officials started to hide their best typewriters in fear of losing it & tried to give away their broken desks instead! All offices turned into a mess!
A great story comes from Lahore. In the city's police station, along with the furniture an additional split was needed. The police band was split a flute & a trumpet for Pakistan, drums and cymbals for India!
A trombone was left & a fist fight started on who gets it!
The most ironical split was with the Indian Library. Who will get the books?! The national archives had some great books.
The Encylopedia Brittanica was split alternate volumes to each. Dictionaries were ripped alphabetically A-K for India and L-Z for Pakistan! 🥺🥺
Pakistan wanted half of Taj Mahal to be broken and shipped to them as it was built by Mughals. India claimed Indus river not to flow to Pakistan as it was sacred to them for millenia.
Such impractical fights also made the news. Obviously to no avail.
The Viceroy had 12 regal horse driven carriages. 6 in gold and 6 in silver. Mountbatten proposed who gets which set to be decided by a coin toss.
Major Govind Singh & Major Yacoub Khan, heads of the presidential guards went into the toss. Govind shouted 'Heads' &..... he won!
It was not just the people who had to move but books, bank notes, chairs etc had to move!
Moving houses is itself a pain today. Imagine what it took to move countries! Stories such as this makes one wonder on craziness of history!
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What is happening in Manipur?
Who is fighting with whom?
Why?
The answer involves history & geography.
A simple explainer 🧵
Manipur is full of mountains. And one large valley in the middle called the Imphal Valley.
The mountains are mainly populated by the Kuki people and the Naga people.
The valley is populated by a third clan - the Meitei people.
2/n
Basis historical evidences, its the Meitei & the Naga who have lived in this area from earlier times. A large expansion of Kuki tribe happened during the British era who encouraged more Kuki settlers to balance power against other tribes as part of their 'Divide and Rule policy'
#OnThisDay July 15th, 1799 - A remarkable discovery of a single slab of stone changed our understanding of human history!
It was the finding of the 'Rosetta Stone' by Napoleon's army while trying to build a fort!
Join me on a history tour to visit this crazy story! 🧵
The story starts all the way around 3000 BC when the ancient Pharaonic Egyptian civilization started. We know the Pyramids & the Sphinx but another major relic from then are the Hieroglyphics - an advanced pictorial script that the Egyptians used in their wall inscriptions!
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It was the main script for communication for those in the Nile Delta for more than 2000 years & it was mainly pictorial mixed with grammar and syllables.
But by 300 BC Egypt was under Greek rule, hieroglyphics was being slowly forgotten for the new Greek & Latin scripts 3/n
Lets say you've a simple well in your backyard. One day suddenly you find out that it's hiding a 1000 yr old historic monument!
Imagine the shock & thrill you'll feel as it unravels
Join me to hear one such actual wonder story in Ep3 of #ArtTreasuresofIndia
Rani Ki Vav! 🧵
First the story. 11thC AD. Modern day Gujarat was ruled by the Chaulukya Dynasty with Bhima I as it's king & Udayamati as it's queen. The landscape was part desert & arid like. Water management was a key priority & creating water bodies was a very royal act! 2/n
As Bhima I died, Udayamati was grieving him. It was the time when everyone built temples. But Udayamati decided to build an inverted temple of sorts. 65m long & 20m wide and 28m deep strucutre!
A step well built by the queen in memory of her king - Rani Ki Vav!
This time we travel back 1000 years ago to look at an artwork of astounding beauty commissioned by Rajendra Chola, the all conquering Chola emperor
Join me on a tour to visit the 'Chandesa Anugraha Murthi' - an Indian art marvel
🧵
First the story. In the Chola country, along the banks of the river Vanni in a small village a pious man Yajnadatta is blessed with a son who is named Vicharasarman.
Vicharasarman was very intelligent & one day he sees the village cowherd beating the cows.
2/n
Angry at him, Vicharasarman takes upon himself to tend the village's cows & his love ends up producing a bounty of milk.
Seeing the excess milk going waste, he builds a sand Linga & starts bathing it with the milk everyday & meditates upon Lord Shiva in front of it
3/n
India is facing a poor monsoon this year with many states with deficit rainfall 😰
One of the main reasons for this worrisome situation is the 'El Nino' weather system which has set in this year
Join me in this Geography Explainer on what El Nino is & how it impacts you! 🧵
First lets understand how monsoons form due to winds from the pacific ocean. The Pacific covers almost half the surface area of earth & affects global climate
In a normal year, warm winds blow across the pacific in western direction - from South America to Aus to Asia
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As summer progresses, these warm winds heat up the ocean near India which leads to more evaporation in these waters & leads to formation of the monsoon cloud systems & we promptly get monsoon rains across the country at the start of June