- In one of his articles, Harsha of Kashmir, a Hindu Iconoclast? Koenraad Elst writes that whenever the destruction of Hindu temples by Muslims is mentioned, the opponents argue that Hindus have done similar things to Buddhists and Jains – a largely untrue allegation. So when Mr. Salil Tripathi made the same allegation, B Shantanu decided to investigate.
- An important event this month was the Rama Janmabhumi verdict. Commenting on this Koenraad Elst explains how the lies of some eminent historians have been exposed.
- Continuing with Ayodhya, at varnam, we had a post which explained why eminent historians are angry with the verdict.
- In a post about Alberuni, Arundhati writes about his visit to India
- Based on the writings of the Huguenot traveller and scribe Jean Chardin, Fëanor writes about the Indian economy of the 17th century.
- In 1774, the French flag was hoisted in the Zamorin’s palace. But why didn’t Calicut become a French colony? Maddy has a very interesting story
So there we are. I am still missing “three names” (let alone “many” examples) but as I had promised in my comment #17, I did spend several hours reading online materials, archives and asking my readers/acquaintances to find out more. I have drawn a blank.
Today, I feel sorry for the eminent historians. They have identified very publicly with the denial of the Ayodhya evidence. While politically expedient, and while going unchallenged in the academically most consequential forums for twenty years, that position has now been officially declared false. It suddenly dawns on them that they have tied their names to an entreprise unlikely to earn them glory in the long run.
Finally, dismissing the argument by some historians that the structure beneath the mosque could not be a temple because of the discovery of animal bones, “HC was also surprised to note the “zeal” in some of the archaeologists and historians appearing as witnesses on behalf of the Sunni Waqf Board who made statements much beyond reliefs demanded by the Waqf.”
Alberuni tries his best to understand other civilizations on their own terms and looks for common ground between his own religion and the religions of India. He is still unable to completely avoid his own frame of reference – for example, the assumption of the concept of One God as being inherently superior (remind me again, exactly why is the worship of one invisible being superior to the worship of more than one invisible being)?
Gold and silver from the Americas and Europe simply poured into India. Being an agricultural and industrial powerhouse, and to all intents and purposes self-sufficient in food, India was able to export away most of its surpluses. And, with a large population base that was able to work for cheap (and with inflation being next to zero for well-nigh on a couple of centuries), India was able to produce goods so competitively priced that even factoring in the risks of international trade, they still were cheaper than local products in Iran and the Ottoman domains.
Just imagine, if all had gone in the directions that Monsieur Duprat had wished, Calicut would have been a French Colony and instead of eating chicken biriyani at Sagar we would have been ordering Bouillabaisse or Coq au vin or some such strange stuff like frogs legs sautéed in wine in some French restaurant
The next edition of Indian History Carnival will be up on Nov 15th. Send your nominations to varnam dot blog @gmail or as a tweet to varnam_blog
JK
Do you have an opinion on the proposed reconstruction and rescuscitation of Nalanda University with the help of Amartya Sen? At first I was delighted, but now I’m dejected as I think Amartya’s influence might create another awful leftist university which will appropriate the glorious name of Nalanda, just like Oxford and Harvard have been expropriated and hollowed out. Thoughts?
Contemplationist, I have not looked at that into detail. Ressurecting Nalanda is indeed good. What we need to pay attention is what is getting supressed in the new avatar.