A thread on Indian Knowledge Systems - Past, Present & Future

Credits: IIT Kharagpur

#NationWithArnab

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

Just like Bhagat Singh, Faiz was considered a Hero in Undivided British India. During WW2, Faiz served with a unit led by Akbar Khan, a left-wing officer and future Pakistan Army general.

Faiz rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

There was a mass recruitment of Indians especially socialist & communist activists into the British Indian Army and RIN (Navy) for war efforts against Nazi Germany after 1941.

However, once the war was over, the newly recruited men turned against the British, 1946 Naval Mutiny.

His poem Subh-e Azaadi (The Dawn of Freedom, August 1947) records his disappointment with the partition of the Indian subcontinent.

Faiz was imprisoned for more than 4 years after partition in a fake case popularly called "Pindi Conspiracy Case".

Communist party of Pak was banned soon after that Rawalpindi Conspiracy case.

He was held in solitary confinement in Sahiwal and Hyderabad (Sindh) jail and was even deprived of writing material. Faiz was again imprisoned in 1958 (Ayyub Khan’s martial law).

J. Farish, a member of the Bombay government, writes in his letter in 1838~

"The natives of India must be kept down by a sense of our power, or they must willingly submit from a conviction that we are wiser, more just, and more humane to improve their conditions."

He further writes, "If well-directed, the progress of education would undoubtedly increase our moral hold over India, but, at the same time, we should also ensuring that it does not lead the Natives to a consciousness of their own strength."

As the Colonial government wanted natives to help British surveyors and engineers in their work, it translated the Engineering curriculum to vernacular languages. The first such attempt was made in a college set up in Bombay by Elphinstone, with Lt. George Jervis as its director.

Also, Colonial authorities found it much simpler and politically wiser to create a class of cheaply paid but loyal Indian low-level bureaucrats to help staff the provincial offices and act as a buffer or intermediary class to stand between the government and the masses.

Charles Trevelyan, Macaulay's brother-in-law, wrote in his book On the Education of The People of India (1838), "We British should not try to instill in the native a deep grasp of subjects, but to force them to ape & recite English, and metaphysics in the most slavish fashion."

@sriram_ET Agree. One point on Bihar though- at least the APMC monopoly repeal had already happened in Bihar well before this law passed at the Union level. So it wouldn’t be an issue anyway. But I totally agree with the broader point- this is a protest concentrated only in one state.

#KnowYourHistory - 001

#AsalBharat - How Sanatan Dharma brings out heroes even Avengers may not match up with -

Today is the day when in 1923, a braveheart took birth in the home of Dr. Amarnath Sharma, an officer in the Armed Medical Corps of the then British Indian Army. He was not extremely studious, but was brilliant at sports and other physical activities.

He followed into the footsteps of his illustrious family, and joined the British Indian Army as a 2nd Lieutenant, right into the middle of World War II. Later on, he would gain name by fighting against all odds at Badgam in November 1947, getting martyred when he was only 24.

This was Major Somnath Sharma, the first recipient of India's highest gallantry award, the Param Vir Chakra. But did you know that the medal was designed by his own brother's mother in law? -

Yes, call it a twist of irony, or sheer coincidence, but the Param Vir Chakra was actually designed by the mother in law of Major Somnath Sharma's brother, whose name was Savitri Bai Khanolkar. Even more interesting is the fact she was not a Bharatiya by birth either -