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Oct 17, 2022 18 tweets 11 min read Read on X
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#Thread on British plan to 'CIVILIZE' 'Uncivilized-Indians'
Src:Richard Hey 1811 ImageImage
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Britishers carried out research on Indian people, literature, scripture behaviour and presented their report to 'The House of Commons, UK' in 1813 April.

We will see how conversion to #CHRISTIANITY is akin to CIVILISING in following thread. Image
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The two gentlemen John Malcolm and Dr Buchanan speaks high of #hindus moralities, modalities and vividities. Malcolm calls Hindustan as Great World In Miniature. Image
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For Britishers, CIVILIZATION means obedient to one GOD. However, to them Indian multivariate culture was UNCIVILISED. They called Indians as Barbarians who should be turned CIVIL theough 'EDUCATION' i.e. Image
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Robertson agreed that Indians were very civilised till 15th Century when portugese first arrived. However, tyrannical and intolerant reign of #Moghuls and British conquests rendered all Public Institutions neglected and discontinued.
Leading to 'UNCIVILISATION' Image
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Their research found faultlines in the form of few #Hindus favourably disposed towards #Britain. Image
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To 'CIVILIZE' uncivilised Children (Hindus in this case). They devised 4 GENERAL PRINCIPLES
1️⃣To make Hindus feel IMPOTENT and incapable of making decisions.
2️⃣ Don't interfere with #Hindus existing state of happiness while educating them

7/n ImageImage
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3️⃣ rd principle was to Administer 'Instructions' to unlearnt Child. He should not feel an individual but a part of some WHOLE.
4️⃣Child(Hindu) should be trained with 'GOOD HABITS' ImageImage
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To apply principles of civilization, Britishers focussed on issues of SATI pratha and Infanticides although, not convinced with degree of its prevalence.
They applied 2nd principle of civilization to those who have 'FORFEITED' their cast to convert easily Image
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3rd Principle of administering INSTRUCTION was applied on Hindu literature.

W. Jones himself said "Wherever we direct our attention to HINDU LITERATURE, the notion of INFINITY presents itself. Let us not be discouraged" Image
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They were able to find few communicative Hindus open for scrutiny of Hindu literature.

Children were targeted for 'Christian Civilization' ImageImage
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4th Principle of Civilization was applied to industrialise ample land in Bihar, Benaras, Bengal and make 'UNCIVILIZED' develope good habit. Image
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The Britishers' focussed on letting in Hindus in to the churches out of curiosity and that was seen as a big step towards Conversion.
The pastors were assigned duties to find SICK and INFIRM for consolation and relief (a potential for convert) ImageImage
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Narrations were drawn to deal with possible situation of inconsistencies in Bible and Vedas.

for EG. Question of Jesus incarnation while Christianity doesn;t promote re-birth should be answered that God never became MAN except to check the disorders existing in our society. Image
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Since #Sanskrit and #persian were not commonly spoken, hence local translation (e.g. Bengalee, Hindi, etc.) of NEW Testaments were preferred to be administered.

Few chosen ones were intended to send to EUROPE to view their advancement in Christianity than being #Hindu ImageImage
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Addressals to possible situations were summarised.
EG.
1. Question the ORIGIN of Vedas
2. If #VEDAS are infinite, How #Vyasa was able to reduced them in finite numbers that too unadultered, unperverted. ImageImageImageImage
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3. Challenge Hindus for their system of punishment with mere fine for kiIIing while capital punishment for theft in some cases. ImageImageImageImage
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From the reading, It appears to me, that Euro-Indologists studied our holy scriptures to suit their policies of colonization.

They translated VEDAS with literal and wrong connotation to convince not so educated. They targeted Children and uneducated ones first.

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More from @GemsOfINDOLOGY

Feb 10
Thread 3

WHEN WOMEN WERE LINEAGE, NOT DEPENDENTS
(Travancore, matriliny, 1920s)

1️⃣
Here is the part most people don’t expect.

These systems did not vanish in antiquity.
They survived into the 20th century.

This is not rock art.
This is documentation. Image
2️⃣
In parts of Kerala and Travancore, lineage followed the woman.

Property.
Household identity.
Social continuity.

Children belonged to the mother’s line.
Not the father’s surname.

This was not chaos.
It was a functioning social order.
3️⃣
Relationships were recognised through custom, not sacrament.

Sambandham-type unions existed.
Women could enter and exit relationships.
Sexual exclusivity was not the foundation of legitimacy.

A child did not need a certified father to be socially valid.

That detail matters.
Read 7 tweets
Feb 7
1️⃣ Every art history course starts in Greece.

But here's what they don't mention: almost every Greek painting from the Classical period is gone. Lost.

Meanwhile, in India, 700 years of continuous wall paintings still exist.

Let's talk about what survives vs what we worship. Image
2️⃣ Ajanta Caves.

Painting phases dated 2nd century BCE – 5th century CE.

That means: Ajanta begins before Alexander. And continues after Rome adopts Christianity.

This isn't parallel art. This is a continuous painting tradition spanning 700 years. Image
3️⃣ Where are Greek paintings from 480–323 BCE?

Answer from classical scholarship: almost entirely lost.

What survives:
• Roman wall paintings (1st c. BCE–1st c. CE)
• Literary praise by Pliny the Elder
• Copies, not originals

An origin remembered by texts vs one preserved in pigment.Image
Read 7 tweets
Feb 5
1️⃣ The first diamond ever touched by human hands came from Indian soil. Golconda mines, 4th century BCE. We didn't dig for profit. We picked them from riverbeds like pebbles. 💎

Then someone realized they could own what the earth gave freely. Image
2️⃣ 1600s: Golconda diamonds weighed 23 million carats annually. The world's entire supply. Tavernier documented it. Shah Jahan embedded them in the Peacock Throne.

We controlled brilliance itself. Image
3️⃣ 1739: Nadir Shah walks into Delhi. Walks out with the Kohinoor and the Peacock Throne. Combined worth? Impossible to calculate. The throne alone held 26,733 gems.

First lesson: What glitters gets taken. Image
Read 8 tweets
Jan 30
1/ ASI admits stone jars occur across Assam, Laos, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

That admission changes everything. Once you acknowledge geographic spread, local narratives collapse. Interpretation must go regional. 🧵 Image
@himantabiswa @ASIGoI @MinOfCultureGoI @tourismgoi @gssjodhpur @UNESCO 2/ ASI records no present-day tribe claims authorship.

That's not ambiguity. That's normal. Mortuary traditions outlast populations, languages, identities by millennia.

Continuity ≠ authorship. Image
3/ ASI calls them ancestral bone repositories — already placing them in secondary burial systems.

The same function archaeologically proven at the Plain of Jars.

Function aligns across regions. Not coincidence. Image
Read 7 tweets
Jan 22
1/10
Meet Bhagirathi — the river that dragged Ganga from Shiva's hair to earth.

Rigveda calls her "the one who flows with the speed of thought."

Today? A trickle dying before Gangotri even starts.

From cosmic torrent to seasonal sewer. Thread 🧵 Image
2/10
Bhagirathi begins at Gaumukh — "cow's mouth" glacier.

1935: 300-meter ice wall, roaring.
2025: Snout retreated 3+ km uphill. Glacier lost 25% volume since the 1960s.

Your Himalayan trek selfie is on her corpse. 📸❄️ Image
3/10
Vedic seers saw her as divine:
नदीं न संनादतीं दमूनसम् (RV 10.75.4)
"The river that roars like a bull in rut."

Now? Summer discharge down 40% since 1990.
Sometimes she doesn't reach Devprayag to become "Ganga."

Literal identity crisis. 🏔️💧 Image
Read 10 tweets
Jan 22
You already know that for over 2,000 years, Indian smiths forged steel so sharp it cut European swords in half. So resilient it became legend across continents.

By 1900, those same smiths were classified as backward. Primitive. Incapable of innovation.

What happened between? 🧠⚔️ You don't know!!

A 5-step manual for erasure. READ On 👇

#decolonisation #UncropTheTruth

1/7Image
Step 1: Extract the technique

Indian wootz steel arrived in British laboratories in 1795. Samples were analysed, chemical compositions documented, papers published in the Royal Society. The steel was credited to "Eastern origin." The smiths who forged it? Unnamed. Untraced. Irrelevant.

The technique was extracted. The technician was erased.

2/7Image
Step 2: Disrupt the ecosystem

Wootz steel required specific forests for charcoal, particular ores, seasonal smelting cycles. Colonial forest laws between 1855–1878 criminalized wood collection, turned smelting zones into "reserved land," cut access to raw materials.

The furnaces went cold. Not because knowledge disappeared, but because resources were locked behind permits the smiths couldn't obtain.

3/7Image
Read 7 tweets

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