It is widely believed that the #MuslimLeague had always wanted to create a nation for #Muslims, and was founded by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Not true. Jinnah was not its founder, and the League initially had no intention of creating #Pakistan. So what are the facts? #IndiaAt75
The Muslim League was created in 1906 to empower Muslims in the subcontinent and push a pro-nationalist agenda. Jinnah joined the party in 1913. The idea of Pakistan was first ideated by Muhammad Allama Iqbal, a philosopher-poet and a member of the league, in 1930.
A group of India’s elite Muslims met at Ahsan Manzil, the palace of Dhaka’s Nawab Salimullah, in 1906. At the meet, the Nawab proposed the creation of a political party for the betterment of India’s Muslims. The proposal was accepted, giving rise to the Muslim League.
Until the 1930s, the party had little mass appeal. Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq broke away and created the Krishak Praja Party in 1929. His party struck a chord with the people for its anti-zamindar stand. It became the third-largest party in Bengal’s provincial elections in 1937.
After failing to create an alliance with the Congress, Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq forged a coalition with Jinnah’s Muslim League. In October 1937, his party merged with the League. It was Huq who presented the demand for Pakistan in the Lahore Resolution on 23rd March 1940.
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Caste-based #reservations are always a subject of debate but the #quotasystem is much older than most people think. The first reservations on economic grounds were introduced in #India as early as 1902. 1/11
On 26th July 1902, an order was issued by the ruler of the princely state of #Kolhapur. It said that 50% of all vacancies in offices/government jobs will be filled by the #backwardclasses. This order sent shockwaves across British-India. 2/11
And he royal who introduced this revolutionary change was Kolhapur’s visionary ruler Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj. 3/11
Many of us are aware of the many contributions of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj of #Kolhapur to social reform, including the introduction of #reservation in government jobs for #backwardclasses in 1902. But #DidYouKnow what triggered this drastic step? 1/4
While performing religious rituals in the Panchganga River in October 1899, he noticed that the priests were not chanting mantras from the Vedas, but from the Puranas. The explanation given to him by the palace priests left him aghast! 2/4
They explained that only #Brahmins had the right to perform ‘Vedokta’ rituals and since Marathas were ‘Shudras’, they could perform rituals only from the Puranas. 3/4
In the early 20th century, India's freedom struggle entered ‘modern India’s first age of fire’, a phase where radical thinkers fuelled a #revolutionary movement against the #British in #India. 1/4 #IndiaAt75
Maharashtra and Bengal became powerhouses of revolutionary activities. As organizations like the Jugantar Party and Anushilan Samiti attracted the educated youth, revolutionaries like the Chapekar brothers and Khudiram Bose became martyrs and an inspiration for many. 2/4
But the Partition of Bengal along communal lines, in 1905, triggered a wave of violence . Violent activities under the aegis of revolutionary leaders like Aurobindo Ghosh and protests by extremist Congress leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak against the British intensified. 3/4
What was Mohandas #Gandhi doing carrying wounded #British soldiers off the battlefield in #SouthAfrica in 1899? Gandhi was merely leading by example, in the ambulance corps he set up to support the British against the Boers in the Second Boer War (1899-1902). 1/12 #war
But why would Gandhi support the British, especially since he had experienced the humiliation of racial discrimination in South Africa soon after he got there? It was #OnThisDay in 1893 that Gandhi was thrown off a train for refusing to comply with racial segregation laws. 2/12
This was more than a decade before Gandhi evolved his concept of #civildisobedience. He spent 21 years (1893 - 1914) in South Africa and went on to organize the #CivilRights movement, to raise the status of the indentured #Indian population there. 3/12 #racism
The India-Pakistan War of 1971 turned the INS Vikrant into one of India’s shining #war heroes but #didyouknow that this legendary aircraft carrier started life as the HMS Hercules in the Royal Navy? That didn’t stop her from winning glory for the #IndianNavy! 1/10 #navalhistory
It seemed as if the Vikrant - India’s first aircraft carrier - would never see action. She was 28 years old when she played a pivotal role in the ‘Bangladesh War’ of 1971; she was in poor shape; and her speed was just 25 kmph, almost half her designed speed. 2/10 #Indianhistory
But this didn’t stop the old #warship from undergoing sea trials and the rigorous training of her crew, air squadrons and their pilots, in preparation for the impending #war that pitted #India against #Pakistan for the liberation of East Pakistan, or #Bangladesh. 3/10
Many know where Bengal’s bravest son, #SubhasChandraBose - Netaji – lived in #Calcutta, as he famously escaped house arrest from his home at Elgin Road, in 1940. But not many know where Netaji’s ancestral home or ‘Desh-er-bari’ is. 1/10
Now called ‘Subhasgram’ in honour of #Netaji, it is just 25 km south of #Kolkata, in a village formerly known as Kodalia. Simple and elegant, the two-storey homestead is being restored. 2/10 #conservation
Among Netaji’s ancestors was Mahipati Bose, who was granted a jagir by the Sultan of #Bengal, Hussain Shah, near the Bose ancestral home in the early 16th century. His grandson Gopinath Bose was also granted a jagir in Purandarpur, named after his title ‘Purandar Khan’. 3/10