Today is the 110th Birthday Anniversary of Faiz Ahmad Faiz. His story is incredible.

Joined the Indian Army in 1942 (WW2).
Supported the Naval Mutiny.
Attended Gandhi’s funeral in Delhi.
Nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature.
Received the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962.

#Thread

#Thread on "Kashi (Varanasi), From Birth to Death and Death to Moksha."

Located on the left bank of the Ganga, Varanasi is one of the 7 holy cities of the Hindus. According to the Vamana Purana, two rivers named Varuna and Assi originated since the beginning of the timei

The name Varanasi originates from the two tributaries of the Ganges, the Varuna &the Assi, which flows at its northern & southern boundaries. The land lying between them was named 'Varanasi'. Its original name was derived from the word 'Kashi', 'Kaasha', which means brightness.

By the way, kashi is mentioned in many Vedic literatures. Kaushitaki Upanishad mentioned about the places like Kashyas and Videhas. Ajatashatru has been declared as the ruler of Kashi or Videha in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Apart from this, Kashi &Videha are also mentioned in

Shankhayan & Boudhayan Srotasutra.

It also mentions about Kashi joining the Kosala after the independent state got destroyed. It is often referred as adjectives such as 'city of temples', 'religious capital of India', 'city of Shiva', 'city of lamps', 'city of knowledge' etc.

Famous American writer Mark Twain writes: " banaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”

In the Middle Ages it was a part of the Kannauj kingdom and later it was ruled by Pala kings of Bengal.

Many have accused the Narendra Modi government of not doing enough to change the biased historical narratives set in motion during the 54 years of Congress rule.
The #ChauriChaura centenary celebrations is one such initiative to set right, a historical wrong.

Thread begins.

What is the Chauri Chaura incident?
On February 4, 1922 at Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, a procession was taken out in support of Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement.
The police, on orders from the British government, fired on the peaceful march, triggering an outrage.

First a little background to the incident and why the face-off happened with the British administered police.
The protest was called against the atrocities that was unleashed on the locals when the Non Cooperation movement started in Gorakhpur. Several leaders were arrested.

A group of 2,000 people gathered to protest as part of Gandhi's call for Non Cooperation with the British. The crowd swelled soon.
The police were ordered to fire in the air to disperse the crowd. This further agitated them.
Then the police fired at the protestors, injuring many.

A long but must read thread. Udaybhan Rathore and myth making in Maratha history: An analysis. This is the thread on Udaybhan Rathore, who he was and how over the time period, his life was portrayed in maratha chronicles and pseudo history. (1/n)

Udaybhan rathore was the head of Bhinai thikana (84 villages) in Ajmer. He was the direct descendant of the famous Rao Chandrasen, Raja of Marwar (4th generation) who resisted Akbar all his life and never made any alliance with mughals like Maharana Pratap. (2/n)

Later in 1783, Maharaja of Jodhpur gave title of Raja to Bhinai family for their military service. Bhinai family and their direct descendant Raja Sh Mayuraj Singh still lives in Ajmer. Anyway coming to Udaybhan Rathore and story of Tanaji. (3/n)

Jai Singh's march on Shivaji and treaty of Purandar (1665) is a well known episode to repeat here. After getting the hill forts from Shivaji under the treaty, Jai Singh didn't have enough man-power to man every one of the small forts because of his next (4/n)

campaign against Bijapur. Jai Singh personally took over a couple of important forts like Kondhana (Sinhgarh), Purandar etc. Others were given to some mughals or their fortification walls destroyed. Jai Singh died in 1667 near Burhanpur while enroute to the north. (5/n)

The insidious thing about how people gaslight Hindus about the erasure of our ancestors' oppression is that they often do it in soft and civil(izing) tones. And it always comes from people who seem to otherwise care about oppression, people who are "well read" and "progressive".

Theirs is a quiet violence, clear and flowing as if it were beautiful and natural and peaceful, even as it corrodes and expands the edges of the hollowness created by lies. Silencing is a kind of acid.

Move on, I had been told for years. The past is in the past.

Except how do people move on from something they are either never told to study or told to never study? How do they move on from a past that is far worse than what they’ve been told (or not told)? How do they move on from a past that keeps reinventing itself today?

Sometimes when I speak of the erasure of Hindu persecution, I am gently, smugly corrected (it is always done civilly), "Indu, the information is there. No one is trying to hide it."

(That's how gaslighting works, right? It is arrogant and maddening and untethered to reality.)

Because the FACT is that’s not true at all. There are innumerable, insidious, systemic ways that people are hiding the truth. Ways that are supported and sustained by institutions, by scholars, by media conglomerates, by Hindu (American) politicians, proud internet trolls...

#FarmReforms
#FarmBills

Who Is Protesting and Why?

Reforms have proved controversial. In Sept, BBC wondered whether they were a “death warrant” for farmers.

Some worry whether reforms might lead to the end of wholesale markets and guaranteed

Currently, the government offers a minimum support price that acts as a safety net for farmers. Even though the government has promised to retain such a price, farmers fear its withdrawal over time.

There is an added fear that big private players will offer good money to farmers in the beginning, kill off their competition and then pay little for agricultural produce.

Farmers might go from the local monopsonies of APMCs to the national oligopoly of Amazon-like behemoths.

It is important to remember that the government offers price support only for the staple crops of the Green Revolution.

Other crops do not qualify, nor do fruits and vegetables.

Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming number of protesters are farmers from India’s northwest, the region that has benefited most from the old system. In particular, they belong to Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, the birthplace of the Green Revolution.