Look at Shamrao. He is a dhangar, aged 88, visiting his ancestral place, visiting Mahadev temple, crying for his trees and cattle. He had to leave all this, vacate his forest, due to dam construction a few decades ago.

Who can challenge him in the forest? That forest is his home. He is the badshah of forest.

Shivaji's people were like this. Such people created Maratha Empire. They challenged the mighty badshah of Delhi, Aurangzeb.

They are the bhumiputra. By documenting their stories, Sayaji Shinde is doing a very noble work.

May the force be with him.

(Note: its a Marathi video but I guess you can definitely get the feel.)

https://youtu.be/prHxZKc4zgE?si=jpdXyEk3p65Hj4sT

Look at this UPSC PYQ and then read the image.

"Bring out the socio-economic effects of the introduction of railways in different countries of the world." (GS, 2023)

What a beautiful point to add in our answers. Impact of railway in boosting settler colonization and ousting the native people.

Railways as Assault on Nature

Apart from regular positive and negative points we usually write in our answers, look at this point about the impact of Railways on India during the British time:

"In India, Railways precipitated a renewed assault on nature. India's railways demanded a "prodigious consumption of mineral or vegetable food, in the shape of coal, coke, or wood," vast quantities of iron and steel, and water to supply the engines.

India's ecology menaced every scheme. Storm surges threat-ened the stability of railway bridges and the lives of thousands who built and used them. In 1897, a bridge collapsed amid late-monsoon rains in Mysore-the packed train that was crossing at the time tum-bled into a river in flood, and 150 passengers died.

As infrastructure diverted watercourses and altered drainage channels a surge of malaria followed."

- Burning Earth by Sunil Amrith

What a beautiful way of putting out the irony.

Railways didn't reduce the famine as the British claimed. In many places, it actually caused the famine.

World over the British boasted the conquest of nature in the 19th century industrial era. In India, on the contrary, they conveniently reversed the narrative and claimed 'nature is supreme' to allow millions of Indians to perish.

In today's Indian Express, doctors are suggesting that we should leave this city for 2 months... go abroad or anywhere....If you stay in this city during pollution months, you average lifespan is reduced by 12 years...!

Such advise if possible for rich... Most people earn monthly salary, or daily rozi, Neither can they afford to go to Switzerland for a vacay nor to their gaon only to miss rozi. They continue to stay in Delhi while the rich people may go for Eurotrip for a month or two. Common people's life doesn't count.

There are lines inscribed on the walls of Red Fort, that this if there is swarga anywhere on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this. I am not sure if I would agree with it today. What is true today is that if there is any shortcut on the earth to reach heaven quickly, this is it.

Stay in Delhi to die sooner. Today it is becoming a city of pollution deaths. Soon, it might become a dead city itself.

- Nikhil (with angst)

That's why one should read History of all ideologies.

♦️Was Patel against Nehru's Kashmir policy and would have preferred complete integration? Yes.

♦️ Was Patel the one who banned RSS for some time in 1948 in the wake of Gandhiji's assassination? Yes.

Both of them are telling truths. But none of them is telling the complete truth. They are just selecting the convenient facts. Together, they make the history complete for us.

That's why there should never be Cancel culture. Don't boycott any ideology with prejudice. There is grain of truth to be found everywhere. Read all, listen to all, and then form your opinion.

History is never black or white. Its always various shades of grey.

- Nikhil

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3QRCGXcWu_Q

Would you agree?

There is a proper movie on this conspiracy theory now.

In my childhood, I vaguely remember reading Pu. Na. Oak's book which makes the case for Taj Mahal to be a temple called Tejo Mahalaya. It was 1990s. Even back then I found it hard to believe.

And today, after teaching History of architecture in ancient and in medieval India for many years, I find this claim as height of absurdity.

I only hope that at the end the movie they have proved that Taj Mahal is indeed merely a Taj Mahal.

https://youtu.be/reuPpCS_GcQ?si=_7YkHhkmT0tG7Xjb

This is really funny...!
And so true...!!

I was reading IGNOU MA material and found this line. I couldn't stop laughing with this irrelevant line...! I mean, come on, this section is about importance of Bhimbetka. Not about politicians..!

What the present government is doing with its textbooks is therefore not much different from what its predecessors did. Only the colour of the paint has changed, not the intent behind painting, to put it figuratively.

What do we common people do? Where do we go? Its an impossible choice to make.

- Nikhil

PS: On a second thought, I feel that politicians world over are the same people. They have same characteristics. But academicians world over are not the same. In India, you will find enough academicians who are willing to sell their souls. Once they offer themselves in the market, there are politicians to buy them. Original sin lies with academia, not politicians.

World Cup...❤️

Although I don't expect a question on this in Main examination, in the present era, there is a very off-chance of such question in Interview, if your background and/or optional is history.

One may or may not prefer this comparison at a personal level, which I totally understand. However, as an aspirant, samay ki chaal ke saath chalna jaruri hai.

The latest book by Prof. Makarand Paranjape of JNU has provided very interesting and useful points for such comparison.

"There are newspapers after newspapers saying that monitoring stations are non-functional. If the monitoring stations are not even functioning, we don't even know when to implement GRAP (graded response action plan)… Out of 37 monitoring stations, only nine were functioning continuously on the day of Deepavali." - Today's discussion in the Supreme court case.

The stalling guidebook of Delhi bureaucrats and politicians:

First, don't collect the data as monitoring stations are non-functional.

Then manipulate data with water tankers if they started to function.

Third, Divert the attention with whataboutry (blame previous govt, neighbouring states for parali or Diwali patakhas turn by turn...)

Fourth, promise something so mega non-sense cloud seeding or sudden junking of all old vehicles.

Fifth, implement something so feeble as to have no impact like odd-even vehicles or temporary construction bans.

Sixth, people to get false feeling that at least court will do something. But his/her highnesses are also helpless. Its even more circus.

It is all about headline management, and not situation management. By this time, a few people are dead, many more ill and millions of rupees lost and intense pollution months are over. Now it is no more a priority. We will repeat the cycle next year. (cycle or circus?)

PS: The air purifier companies, mask makers, cough/bronchitis etc drug maker pharmas, ENT clinics/physicians, heart surgery hospitals - in sabka dukaan achha chal raha hai. More the pollution, merrier the business for these entities.

It will be, ironically, added to the GDP to show growth in numbers..!!!

- Nikhil