Ashoka ruled huge parts of modern India which extended from present day Afghanistan in north to Karnataka in South, Orrisa in East to Gujarat in west which probably constitutes 80% of present day India. So its not entirely true that India as we know today is gift of the British rule. And thanks to Ashoka’s Rock Edicts this expanse can be proven by history and archaeology as well and it cannot be judged to be someone’s figment of imagination. The problem with…
India has gained independence and atmosphere varied from ecstatic to routine depending where one lived. Sadiya, a town bordering NEFA was one such remote location. It was 7:39 PM of August 15 1950 when the tremors hit the northern hills of undivided Assam. Kaling, aged around 14 years, came to Sadiya High School to continue his studies from his village Dambuk. India has just emerged from the shackles of colonialism and stories of festivities did reach to people in Sadiya. Kaling…
The geographical proximity of India and China have led to conditions that many times we see with our neighbors. There are very few neighbors who remain to be very close and friendly in normal day to day life. Indo-China relations have never been very amicable and the future isn’t going to be that rosy as well with the world looking at these two countries which hold one third of the world’s population as the so called “bright spots” in the…
Imagine a situation, 4000 thousand years from now something happens to this world we know and everything is gone. The language we speak, the cities we have and technologies we are proud of. It just happens that someone finds one of our cities and starts finding so many different kind of stuffs like the plastics with some writings, sewers and drains, foundations of building but unfortunately nobody is able to make sense of any of those because language cannot be…
I come from the viewpoint that the racial division in India between the “fairer” Aryan north and “darker” Dravidian south is a glorified imagination of western vedic scholars and historians. The western vedic scholars did in the intellectual sphere what British army did in the political realm – discredit, divide and conquer Indians. The whole idea was to prove the “white man’s burden” and justify imperialism. Probably it gained currency in the northern part of India because it brought northerners close…
Nalanda is small town in Bihar which is famous for tourists on the Buddhist Circuit. I have been visiting Bihar from childhood days as we had relatives there and we used to visit during our summer vacations mostly every couple of years. But I had never been around much, but somehow this time it worked out and I visited Nalanda/Rajgir which is about 100 km from Patna and roads are relatively better when compared to rest of Bihar. Anyways it was…