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https://twitter.com/SridharSubbara3/status/1621934046291820545

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GemsOfINDOLOGY

@GemsOfINDOLOGY

Dec 18

🧵 THREAD: Sambhar Lake didn’t become salty by accident.
It is the chemical footprint of the Aravallis. 🧂⛰️

Erase the hills, and the lake doesn’t shrink.
It dies.

#SaveAravalli

@narendramodi @PMOIndia @mygovindia @TVMohandasPai @CPCB_OFFICIAL @PIB_India @moefcc 1/
Sambhar Lake sits at the NE edge of the Aravalli Range.
This is not coincidence.
It is a tectonic basin formed along ancient Aravalli fault lines.

No Aravallis → no Sambhar.
Simple geology. Ignored policy.

https://twitter.com/64098246/status/2000106252786114883

2/
The Aravallis are ~3.2–2.5 billion years old.
Among the oldest folded mountains on Earth.

Sambhar exists because these rocks fractured, weathered, subsided.
Deep time created today’s salt.

Not “desert evaporation folklore”.

https://twitter.com/64098246/status/2000106252786114883

Read 10 tweets

GemsOfINDOLOGY

@GemsOfINDOLOGY

Dec 17

1/
#GemsofASI #2 : British ASI manuals still rule India.
Not symbolically. Institutionally.

India became independent in 1947.
Its archaeology did not.

The Archaeological Survey of India still operates on conservation doctrines framed between 𝟏𝟗𝟎𝟒–𝟏𝟗𝟑𝟖, designed for colonial governance—not for a living civilisation.

#Decolonisation

2/
The 𝐀𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐭, 𝟏𝟗𝟎𝟒 wasn’t written to protect Indian culture.
It was written to **control it**.

Its goals were explicit:
• Centralise authority
• Isolate monuments from locals
• Treat ritual use as damage
• Convert living sites into silent ruins

This logic never left ASI.

3/
British conservation doctrine insisted:
“Preserve the monument in the condition in which it is found.”

In Europe, that meant stabilising already-dead ruins.

In India, it meant 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐝-𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡.

One rule. Two civilisations. Very different consequences.
scribd.com/document/44447…

Read 13 tweets

GemsOfINDOLOGY

@GemsOfINDOLOGY

Dec 16

1/9
Ever hear of the Santhal Hul? Two years BEFORE the 1857 "Sepoy Mutiny" that history books love to call India's "first war of independence," the Santhal tribes rose up in 1855 against British exploitation. This was pure grassroots fury – bows and arrows vs. an empire. Let's dive in. 🏹

2/9
Background: The British "invited" Santhals to clear forests in the Rajmahal Hills (Damin-i-Koh, now Jharkhand/Bihar/WB) for farming and revenue. Sounded good – until zamindars, moneylenders (mahajans), and corrupt officials turned it into a nightmare. Debt traps, land grabs, exorbitant interest, forced labor. Santhals called outsiders "dikus" – exploiters.

3/9
The spark: Brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu (plus Chand, Bhairav, and sisters Phulo & Jhano) claimed divine visions from Thakur Bonga (their god) commanding them to rebel and establish Santhal rule. On June 30, 1855, at Bhognadih village, 10,000+ Santhals gathered, took oaths, and declared war on the dikus.

Read 9 tweets

GemsOfINDOLOGY

@GemsOfINDOLOGY

Dec 15

#GemsOfASI #1

ASI was founded in 1861, not to protect India’s past—but to manage it.

The Archaeological Survey of India was created by the British Empire, staffed by military engineers, and embedded inside colonial administration. The name "Survey" itself says it all.

This matters.

2/
ASI’s first Director General, Alexander Cunningham, was a Royal Engineers officer.

His training was not in living cultures.
It was in surveying, mapping, classification, and control.

Archaeology was an imperial tool.

3/
The mandate was clear:
• Identify ruins
• Catalogue monuments
• Standardise interpretation
• Detach sites from communities

A living civilisation is unpredictable.
Ruins are manageable.

Read 11 tweets

GemsOfINDOLOGY

@GemsOfINDOLOGY

Dec 12

🧵🏰 What kind of fort gets called "minor" at 2,700 feet with multi-tiered defences visible for miles?

The kind that didn't fit colonial narratives. Rayadurgam Fort, Anantapur — massive, sophisticated, erased.

We're still using their textbooks. The stones outlasted empires. The lie outlasted the stones.

#GemsofASI MNI#20

1/15

🛕 Built by 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐚 𝐍𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐤𝐚 (1520s–30s), this was a Vijayanagara frontier fort controlling movement between AP & Karnataka. Colonial historians later downgraded it as "minor". Minor? A 2,700-ft citadel controlling two regions. But the empire narrative couldn't accommodate decentralised power. So it became "minor".

2/15

⛰️ At ~𝟐,𝟕𝟐𝟕 𝐟𝐭, Rayadurgam was built for surveillance: long-range visibility, multi-tiered access paths, natural cliffs turned to defence. But British-era archaeology catalogued it under 'regional ruins'. Right — altitude high, curiosity low. Classic imperial scholarship.

3/15

Read 15 tweets

GemsOfINDOLOGY

@GemsOfINDOLOGY

Dec 9

1/ They taught us the British ended Sati. Saved us from our barbarism. 🕊️

Then why did Sati cases spike from 1 in 8 years to 5000 per year under British rule?

Why did cases DROP under Mughal emperors?

Let's talk about the history they never taught you. 🧵

2/ From 1900 BCE to 1900 CE—2,500 years—historians found fewer than 500 verified Sati incidents.

That's one every 8 years. Rare. Tragic. But rare.

Between 1813-1829, just 16 years under British rule, they documented THOUSANDS.

What changed?

3/ In 1813, British administrators LEGALIZED Sati.

They created two categories:
"Legal" Sati (voluntary)
"Illegal" Sati (forced)

By defining legal Sati, they gave official sanction. Approval.

Court of Directors later admitted Indians saw this as a RECOMMENDATION. 💰

Read 12 tweets

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