THREAD: 8200

1/50
In January 2010, officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA noticed strange goings-on at the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, about 200 miles south of Tehran. The centrifuges at the facility were being decommissioned at an unusual rate. 2/50
Centrifuges are fragile and tend to break down, with an estimated 10% annual failure rate. In November 2009, there were 8,700 at this facility, so around 800 were expected to fail by the end of 2010. But this was still January, and the inspectors had already counted 2,000.

[THE FORGOTTEN MASTERSTROKE]
1/25
Wires, electronics, explosives, and other wares were smuggled into Iran over the course of a year. Covertly. One small piece at a time. All meant for in situ assembly. When finally put together, the contraption weighed nearly a ton. At its heart was a Belgian-made FN MAG machine gun. 2/25
As should be an easy guess, this was in preparation for an assassination. The year was 2020. Target? A high-profile IRGC asset, big enough to enjoy the highest levels of State protection. You likely guessed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, but you’re wrong.

This is Sajit Chandra Debnath, a 42-year-old Bangladeshi with two business degrees and a doctorate from Japan’s Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. Born in an influential Hindu family not far from Dhaka, Sajit coauthored over two dozen papers on business studies and taught at his Japanese alma mater for over five years. Even took a Japanese wife. This is him now. I mean as of 2014. Or 2008, who knows. What happened?

Sometime before 2008, Sajit converted to Islam. Sometime before 2008 because we don’t know for sure. 2008 is when he was first noticed sporting a beard by his family. Which he tried hiding behind a surgical mask then.

[QQT: HINDUISM VS GEOLOGY]
1/16
Here’s a fun little thought exercise courtesy Bhaktivinoda Thakur, a 19th century Vaishnavite reformer. We humans are wired for pattern recognition. Thakur spotted one in the most unlikely of places—Vishnu’s avatars. 2/16
So the idea is that Vishnu’s avatars closely follow our planet’s and humanity’s evolution over millions of years. In other words, the Dashavatara is a functional mnemonic for geological and civilizational ages. Remember one, you’ll remember the other and in the right order.

To paraphrase, “the British took wealth from India and the Mughals didn’t.”

Not the first time this has been said, but the statement reeks of ignorance at best and apologia at worst. In a few quick tweets, let’s assess this claim against recorded history. Before all else, let’s be very clear on one thing:

Not taking wealth out of India does not inherently negate loot. The same lot that absolves Mughal loot because they “called India home” also demonizes the “1%” for looting India even though they too call India home.

[QQT: THE SCOURGE OF GOD]

This is the story of how two civilizations lost their Golden Age, almost simultaneously. The story begins with a legend in a distant East China, just north of the Yellow River.

Long before it drops into the sea, the Yellow River makes a serendipitous bend known as the Ordos Loop. Serendipitous because the three-way irrigation offers the basin an excellent grassland that once attracted many nomadic tribes seeking greener pastures. Unfortunately, the Qin polity just South of this bend saw grave threat in these northern barbarians and drove them out.

The nomads then coalesced under the leadership of a man named Toumen. They called themselves Xiongnu. This united confederacy quickly grew into a political force in its own capacity with Toumen at the top. But they weren’t the only such polity in the region; to their West was another—the Yuèzhīs.

Now Toumen had a son, Modu, who emerged as a contender for the Xiongnu leadership toward the end of the 3rd century BC. With a direct command of 10,000 horsemen, Modu was keen on replacing his father on the throne. This is where the legend emerges—the legend of the whistling arrow.
The whistling arrow was a three-stage loyalty test developed by Modu for his army. The enchanted arrow, as the name suggests, made a whistling sound as it flew off the bowstring. The directive was simple—shoot in the whistle’s direction, whatever be at the other end. Fail to do so, and you die.

Modu took his first shot. It was a wild beast. His ten thousand men were now obliged to blindly shoot theirs in the exact same direction. Of the 10,000, goes the legend, only 5,000 followed suit. The remaining hesitated out of compassion and were swiftly executed.

Stage two, second shot. This time it was Modu’s favorite horse. Again, 2,500 followed blindly, but the rest hesitated knowing it was their commander’s favorite beast. Horses were sacrosanct in this culture. Those who hesitated were, again, summarily executed. 1,250 remained.

The third and final stage involved an even more difficult target—Modu’s favorite wife! Of course, many refused to kill their leader’s favorite wife. And met the very fate you’d expect.

Now, Modu was left with just a tiny fraction of his original headcount. But he knew these were blindly loyal men ready to charge, kill, and die at his command, however absurd.

He was ready.

[AURANGZEB’S MOST UNDERRATED HUMILIATION]

“Gauhati and Kamarupa do not belong to the Mughals. It was through mere chance that they fell into the hands of the Mughals for a few seasons. Now God has given them back to us. When He pleases to give them back to the brother-sovereign, the Mughal emperor, he will then get Gauhati, and not before that.”

Thus read the message. An Ahom servant had just delivered it to the Rajput king Ram Singh camped in Sualkuchi, some twenty miles from Guwahati on the other side of the Brahmaputra. He was there to snag Lower Assam for his suzerain, Aurangzeb. The message was from the Ahom general in Guwahati in response to an earlier appeal for surrender.

The above snippet is only part of the response to Singh’s appeal. Should the Ahoms refuse to surrender without a fight, Ram Singh had threatened, it’d only warrant a one-hour battle for the Rajputs to take Guwahati. To further humiliate the Ahoms, he even offered them war implements in case they needed some. While the general conveyed the impossibility of a surrender in his reply, he also added that the Ahoms were prepared to fight till the last drop of their blood and that it the Rajput “has come over a long distance undergoing fatigue in his journey, and the provisions may be inadequate for his own purpose. Our Majesty the Heavenly King has nothing unavailable to him. If the Rajput Raja falls short of materials, let him ask me and I shall try to oblige him.”

This war of words was part of a far more protracted psychological warfare the likes of which are rare to find in medieval history.

In response, a Rajput servant named Devakinandan brought the general a bag of poppy seeds. “This is how numerous we are,” was the implication. To which the general dispatched Ahom servants Nim and Ramcharan with a tube filled with sand. “This is the characteristic of our soldiers. They’re as numerous and as dissoluble as this sand.”

WHEN DID RAM LIVE?

Experts place him between 800 and 400 BC.

But many disagree. Of course, that’s a highly Iindophobic position. So what does the other side believe?

Let’s ask six of them. Brace for some spectacularly outrageous numbers. The first on our list, and this is in no chronological order, is a former ISRO scientist with a keen interest in Vedic literature. Fun combo, right? His name is Jijith Nadumuri Ravi.

Last year in February, this gentleman concluded a most meticulous research on Vedic literature and self-published his findings in “The Geography of Ramayana. A Geographical Journey into the Rama Era.” Here, he dated not just the epics but also the Vedas.

His date for Rigveda? 1900 BC.
His date for Ramayana? 1920 BC.

So, Valmiki composed his epic before Vyas finished his scripture? Who knows.

[HAGIA SOFIA AND THE LIES]

Let’s find out.

Claim: The conversion of the Hagia Sofia Church to a mosque came after a fair and square real-estate deal. The Sultan conquered Constantinople and in his infinite grace, chose to buy out the property instead of just taking it by brute force.

Hmm...sounds reasonable. I mean, when have Muslims ever taken anything by force? Anyway, snark aside, let’s dig in...objectively. Not an easy exercise, though, mind you, since the claimant(s) never post any evidence backing their claim. At least none that I have seen, and at least not this one. If you have, feel free to enlighten us humans.

Also, I am choosing to SS instead of QT as a matter of personal preference. I welcome you to tag him should you crave a confrontation. With that out of the way, let’s start... Here’s exhibit A. The Fall of Constantinople 1453 by Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman, Steven Runciman for short. The name might not ring a bell but it should if you enjoy Byzantine history as an area of interest. Best known for his work on the Crusades, his Fall of Constantinople is universally lauded as the single most authoritative and detailed recounting of the event in question.

So Mehment conquered Constantinople in the summer of 1453 after a long siege. This is considered the first major battle to employ gunpowder as an article of warfare. Without getting into the gory details of the siege, let’s get straight to the basilica.

Hagia Sofia was at the time the world’s largest ecclesiastical building, larger than even the largest structure in Rome itself. The now iconic St. Peter’s Basilica was still half a century away.

The word Runciman uses is “pillage.” The city was sacked and its buildings pillaged. Another word he uses is “tradition.” It was a Muslim tradition to allow the conquering soldiers a three-day window of unrestricted plunder. They could loot, kill, enslave, and rape at will. This fate befell Constantinople’s churches too. While not much remains of most churches in the way of primary records, Runciman confirms the fate of Hagia Sofia along with three others.

“Saint Sophia [Hagia Sofia] was at once turned into a mosque,” he confirms. Taking his word as final on a subject he spent his whole life studying, isn’t such a bad idea in my view. But we’ll check out more sources, just to be sure.

The author also says that Gennadius, the Patriarch of Constantinople was taken prisoner by the Sultan. This bit is important and we’ll see why shortly.

From this point on, I’ll only pick primary sources. Eyewitness accounts, preferably.

[REVERSAL]
The temple in Ayodhya is a milestone.

Not because it’s where Ram was born or because Hindus have run out of temples. No, it’s a milestone because it’s a crucial precedent. A statement. Not of Hindu supremacy or Hindu Rashtra, but of something far more fundamental and far more encompassing than just Hindutva. Let me start with some snippets from the past.

In Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, the Jahangir recounts with pride how he once ordered a temple torn down in Benaras and a mosque built in its stead, with its parts. This was built by none other than Man Singh I of Amber. This is one of the most influential individuals in the Mughal court, we’re talking about, Hindu or otherwise.

Of course, this is just one drop in an ocean that encompasses every inhabited continent.
Whenever we talk destruction and vandalism, we imagine Mughals. But that isn’t necessarily right. The Mughals converted plenty of temples, the peak season being that of Aurangzeb (I won’t even get into his topic because that’s been done to death), that’s true. But they weren’t the first to do it. Long before the first Timurids even came into existence, there was a Delhi Sultanate that reigned just as long as the Mughals did. In light of their successor dynasty, we often tend to underestimate their barbarity.

My tweet about India’s visa ban against Canada (now lifted, I hear) yesterday seems to have offended many. Apparently, I “underestimated” India’s indispensability to Canada. So allow me to fix it here… Ethnic Indians make up less than 5% of Canada’s population. While this may seem insignificant, experts say the community’s voting diligence often places it among the list of “kingmakers” in Canadian elections where clear majority is often elusive. But before this fills your Indian chest with pride, do find out where they stand on Khalistan.

[THE STORY OF CASTE - 3: THE HARAPPANS]

For this discussion, Harappan serves as an adjective for the entire Indus Valley Civilization and not just the city of Harappa. With that out of the way, here’s a very quick lowdown on the social stratification in the Indus way of life.

1. THE HARAPPANS HAD RELIGION.

We know this because they cremated their dead (some practiced burial too, especially in Mohenjo-daro down south, but cremation was far more common elsewhere). Ritualistic disposal of the dead is universally acknowledged as a sign of belief in an afterlife, a most reasonable indicator of organized religion. Grave good and funerary urns add further support to this position. Besides, artifacts like the Pasupati seal, the Linga, the fig-leaf deity, and the Mother Goddess make it clear beyond debate that the civilization had not only an elaborate body of rituals and sacerdotal practices but a whole pantheon of diverse deities.


2. THE HARAPPANS PRACTICED SEGREGATION.

Indus cities are known for their breathtaking urban planning. Besides right-angled streets and wide thoroughfares, these cities also featured a very strong sense of segregation. The typical city was always divided into two parts—a western acropolis and an eastern lower town. The acropolis would always be on higher ground, almost always raised artificially, whereas the lower town consisted of low-cost quarters meant for the non-elites. Of course, the latter also far more vulnerable to seasonal flooding.

Besides the height, there were also walls to further separate the acropolis from the lower quarters.

Further within the lower town, walls were built to further segregate different subsections from each other. This was an incredibly insular civilization as we’ll see later.

This, and not water, is why the world’s once again scrambling to get to the Moon. It’s a crystal of something called Changesite (funny name, I know), a mineral formed over a billion years ago when the Moon still had volcanoes and “moonquakes.” The Chang'e 5, China’s first sample-return mission, discovered the mineral in 2020. It was named after the Chinese Moon goddess Cháng'é.

What makes this mineral so valuable is a) the fact that you don’t find it on Earth, and b) Helium-3.

[COWS AND GIRLS]
1/6
Here’s a little lexical piece of “patriarchy” that goes back more than 6,000 years.

Once upon a time, there lived a people called Yamnaya who raised cattle, fought wars over cattle, and risked explorations in search of greener lands…for their cattle. 2/6
In their world, as in their counterparts everywhere else from Egypt to Sumer, cows were the ultimate producers of nourishment. Which is why they literally called the animal—dhainush. Derived from dhewgh, meaning to produce, which was also the word for “to milk.”

A quick history primer for @sudhirchaudhary. And for his critics.

On May 10, 1940, Churchill took oath as PM. About 6 weeks later, France fell to Germany leaving Britain standing alone to face the formidable Nazi war machine. America was still neutral to the affairs of Europe. FDR was in his second term those days, keen on doing a third. Churchill needed money, Roosevelt needed clout. Opportune Match.

While America did well on economic front, thanks to the wildly successful New Deal, it was keen on the next big leap: International dominance.

A PAKISTAN THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN
That Bose met Hitler and sought his help is common knowledge. What isn’t as much, is that 4 years before him a Punjabi Muslim did the same to curry support for his vision of an independent Muslim homeland. This was the year of Kristallnacht. Chaudhry Rehmat Ali wanted to be known as and openly called himself the “founder of the Pakistan National Movement.” In 1933, he published “Now or Never,” a leaflet announcing his call for a separate Muslim nation. This was 2 years before Lahore Resolution.

Prejudice comes from precedence.

I tweeted that line not too long ago. Nuh offers an illustration.

Hindus claim they were attacked with stones during a religious march. So they had to act in self defense.

Should we trust them? Muslims claim the procession was far from peaceful and primed for violence by a fugitive “vigilante.”

Should we trust them?

Now both sides have motivations to make the other side look like the instigator. Both have reasons to tell the story they did.

Who is innocent?

[THE SAPTARISHIS OF OIT]
That the Aryans originated in India and later emigrated, is a squarely discredited position that still remains prominent among the fringes of scholarship.

While we understand why, we probably don’t understand the “who” very well. The scholars who field the theory against the onslaught of academicians, who continue to stand their ground against a mountain of evidence to the contrary that only keeps growing…who are they and what’s their motivation? And whence their scholarship? We attempt to answer.

[A TITANIC STORY]
1/17
The French Revolution was meant to end monarchy but ended up replacing one with another. Replaced KING Louis with EMPEROR Napoleon.

But Napoleon was no Louis. He wanted more than France. So proceeded to conquer all of Europe. Man wanted to be Alexander. 2/17
Then Waterloo happened and “Alexander” died.

But the destitution that caused French Revolution also existed outside France. Take its Germanic neighbors, for instance. So there was a German Revolution, about 30 years after Napoleon.

Part of this mess was Bavaria.

[🧵 THE STORY OF CASTE 2: UNTOUCHABILITY]
1/38
There are two dimensions to caste—endogamy and untouchability. The last time we were on the subject, we only discussed endogamy. This time, we’ll explore untouchability. And unlike the last time, we’ll start at the very beginning. 2/38
For the most part, India’s story begins with the Indus Valley Civilization. Did they have caste? They sure did class stratification. But was there untouchability? At least some seem to think so, Romila Thapar being one of them.

[🧵 THE STORY OF CASTE]
1/52
Jean-Antoine Dubois of France came to Pondicherry in French India shortly after his ordination in 1792. On one hand he was fleeing the Revolution, on the other he was seeking fresh converts for his missionary order. 2/52
8 years later, Tipu died at war and Mysore fell to the British. Dubois then moved to Mysore. Here, he handed the British resident a manuscript he’d just completed. The resident sent it to Lord Bentinck in Madras. By 1816, the work was in press.