Questions tagged [india]
A country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east.
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Is Mahaabhaarata a myth or verity? [closed]
Mahaabhaarata is an epic of ancient India. Is it a myth or verity? Are there any archaeological shreds of evidence to support it?
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What led to the alternate definition of secularism in India?
I was reading this post explaining how secularism is understood in India, it turns out that it is quite different from how it is understood in a dictionary/ in the west.
In the West, the word secular ...
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What was the Indian nobility's reaction to the construction of Veeranam Eri (வீராணம் ஏரி)?
Background Information
In the South of Medieval India, there was a wealthy and powerful empire called the Chola Empire.
In between the years 907-955 AD, the king (or Raja) Parantaka the First (...
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Is there a source for this anecdote about Chandragupta Maurya, battle strategies and hot rice? [closed]
An anecdote (1) about Chandragupta Maurya indicates he learnt that attacking margins is a better battle strategy than attacking the center, and that this insight came from a hot dish (possibly hot ...
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Is there any evidence of the miracles of Tulsidas?
Several miracles are attributed to the great medieval poet and philosopher Tulsidas, among them reviving the dead, and one of the ones that most caught my attention was his arrest by Emperor Akbar. ...
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Did the Indus Valley Civilization use cotton as a writing material?
Cross-posted from Skeptics SE
In his book, Science and Secrets of Early Medicine, Jürgen Thorwald writes about the script of the Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa civilizations: (in rough translation)
Seals, ...
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Why did the British Empire try to criminalize cannabis in India three times when they had good experience with its taxation?
The British Empire passed a taxation act on cannabis in India in 1798, apparently for the well-being of the natives. What the most likely motivation behind the taxation act is, I don't know.
In 1838, ...
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Is the Krishna (a god within Hinduism), an appropriated historical figure?
Some people on quora etc, put claims to redefine the events within in the Hinduism theology as verifiable & scientifically true historical events and in such an attempt, the Mythological narrative ...
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Were there religious wars between two sects in Hinduism?
Shaivism and Vaishnavism, are two major sects within the umbrella of Hinduism, each with a different deity as their Supreme God.
This difference, is thought to have, in the ancient and even recent ...
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What's the earliest researched based evidence for Holi?
Holi is an important festival in Hinduism, generally falling between the months of February to April, as per the relevant calculations of the Hindu Luni-solar calendar.
I'd like to have an account ...
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What do these lines on the origins of Hindu/Muslim communal consciousness mean?
From The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India by Paul R. Brass:
Historical analysis of Hindu-Muslim communal conflict, its causes and preconditions, has been highly contentious ...
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Does the idea of white Europeans being the “true Aryans” come from the British India? [closed]
I have recently had a conversation with a man from India over the Internet and he told me this interesting claim.
He said that "Aryan" meant "noble" in Sanskrit, and the British, ...
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How many British and British affiliated Indians lost their lives in the Indian freedom struggle?
There is a lot of material on how many Indians lost their lives, killed or missing in the British colonial era.
But how many people affiliated to the East India Company and later, the British Empire ...
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Is Rama Setu a historical proof of Ramayana?
Can Rama Setu be a historical proof of Ramayana?
Rama's Bridge or Rama Setu,[b] is a chain of limestone shoals, between Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, off the south-eastern coast of ...
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Why could no one reach the southernmost tip of India?
The southernmost tip of India was almost always occupied by the regional kingdoms of the region like Chola Chera Pandya and so on. However, no Indian empire was able to conquer it from the north. May ...
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Why are there so few Greeks and Macedonians in India? [closed]
India has be entered by people of various cultures which has led to cultural diversity but considering the fact that the Seleucid empire had ies and friendship with Indian empires why aren't there ...
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What was the Chola kings ancestry?
Chola King Rajendra Chola's copper plates indicate that the Cholas were descendants of the Solar Dynasty Kings of India. Are there any other evidences available and is there a dynasty tree available?
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Why are pre-Harappan strata grouped together with Early Harappan strata? Does this not obfuscate the development of the civilization?
(1) I don't understand why some sites are called early Harappan because these sites are pre-Harappan so why we use wrong name with that. Can any one explain?
From 'India's Ancient Past' by RS Sharma, ...
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Did the emperor Ashoka really build hospitals or is that a myth?
I've seen a lot of sources claiming that Emperor Ashoka (c. 268 to 232 BCE) of the Mauryan dynasty, the dynasty that ruled most of the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BC, was responsible for ...
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Who actually won Battle of the Hydaspes? [duplicate]
The battle resulted in a Greek victory and the surrender of Porus.
Wikipedia says Alexander won the battle.
Porus’ defeat of Alexander at the Battle of Hydaspes (Jhelum) – N.S.
Rajaram
But voice of ...
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Who were Alexander's historians that wrote about Indian social conditions?
I'm reading Ancient India, and in Chapter 12, it is written that
Alexander's historians also give us important information about social and economic conditions. They tell us about sati system, fine ...
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Why was the Tea Horse Route through Tibet less prevalent than the Silk Road route through Tarim Basin, for contact between China and India?
The two major travellers to India, Faxian and Xuanzang visited India from the circuitous western route, while the third one Yijing travelled by sea. Xuanzang described hardships in his journey, and ...
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In Indian census, were the children of a Thug recorded as “Yet to Be Thug”?
I read (can't remember where at the moment) that in a population census (probably around 1911) the child of a thug used to be recorded as "yet to be thug" in profession column in India. ...
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Who used to present the Indian Order of Merit?
I was reading about the Indian Order of Merit, and the Battle of Saragarhi in particular. All of the martyred soldiers were, for instance, conferred with the highest gallantry award for natives of ...
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Is there a quote that expresses Mill's opposition to Indian democracy?
I heard in a talk that John Stuart Mill was in favor of democracy in his own country but against democracy in India, I read the following in a paper -
Mill’s support of British imperialism may seem ...
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After the 1947 India Partition, why did Sikhs & Hindus fleeing Pakistan travel to Delhi rather than stay in Amritsar?
After 1947 Partition of India, why did Sikhs and Hindus (escaping newly created Pakistan) not stay in a nearby city such as Amritsar, but instead migrate another 400 miles away to Delhi?
According to ...
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Why did British Gen. Frank Messervy oppose the invasion of Kashmir?
According to Wikipedia:
In October 1947, Messervy had become aware of the mobilization of Pashtun tribesmen in the North-West Frontier Province for the invasion of Kashmir. The governor George ...
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Did Jinnah in 1947 or 1946 forsake his demand for Pakistan on the condition of maximum autonomy for the provinces within the united India?
Is this true that Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the All India Muslim League in 1947 or 1946 accepted the proposal for freedom for a united India if the provinces could be granted maximum autonomy within ...
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Why do we study Mughals as part of medieval history of India and European conquest as modern India? [closed]
Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, came to power in 1526. Aurangzeb, the last Mughal ruler (not counting later Mughals), died in 1707.
The Portuguese came to India in 1498 and by 1510 they had ...
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Why did the USA suspend military aid to Pakistan in 1965? [closed]
Look at the following image (Image Source):
There is an instant slump of military aid of the USA to Pakistan from 1966 onward. It seems like the USA suspended aid to Pakistan just after the 1965 Indo-...
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Was the title of Pasha bestowed or used in the Indian subcontinent?
Was the title of pasha often bestowed or used in the Indian subcontinent before, say, 1914? If so, which authority bestowed these titles? Are there any well-known examples of pre-1914 pashas?
The ...
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How was early Indian history re-constructed? [closed]
I heard that ancient Indian history was reconstructed from Iranian/Persian and Chinese texts that survived til today. Is this true? Also what were the other major sources used?
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When and how did Seethekami, the tribal version of Ramayan, come into existence amongst the Haalaki in Karnataka?
Ramayan, an ancient Sanskrit text, though true or not forms an integral part of numerous cultures not only in India but in several Asian countries.
But across cultures and this text is not consistent ...
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Were Tipu Sultan and his father sultans or prime ministers?
From his title, I thought Tipu Sultan was a sultan (king). However, I've read a little about Mysore Kingdom, found that it was ruled by Wodeyar family and once upon a time the kings were puppet kings ...
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Can anyone find the Cartier designs for the unmade Baroda Crown of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III?
This video, The Great Indian Crowns, featuring Jewellery Historian and Author Rene Brus, mentions a 'Crown Project' at the 14:23 mark. It was a 1930s project to make a crown for Maharaja Sayajirao ...
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How were ancient Indian mathematical texts found to modern scholarship?
Unlike e.g. Greco-Roman or Chinese texts, which were written on relatively durable writing material, most ancient Indian literature was done on palm-leaf manuscripts, which typically don't survive ...
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Is there any data that supports or refutes the claim made in this paper about the Harappan/Indus Valley civilization?
I came across an old article recently, about the collapse of the Harappan civilization. Here's the paper it is based on-
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3387054/
I found this to be the ...
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What calendar did the Maruyan Empire use?
Research has brought up conflicting answers to this question and the answers I have gotten are generally confusing and poorly written.
I'm wondering what calendar the Mauryan Empire used and what ...
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What stopped the British from granting independence to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands?
On the Wikpedia article about the History of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands:
During the independence of both India (1947) and Burma (1948), the departing British announced their intention to ...
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What was the role of the mountain ranges surrounding India in developing India's civilization?
I am reading 'The Wonder That Was India' by A.L.Basham. In chapter 1, Introduction the author says,
India's isolation has never been complete, and the effect of the mountain wall in developing her ...
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Why did Allied Command maintain passive, especially Indian units in Middle East during the years 1942 and 1943?
I have found, going through stack exchange questions, a pair of links that speak about the presence.
Those links are: Statistics on the number of divisions during WWII and the deployment of a (mostly ...
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Why would anyone from Japan be in Northern India in early 1900s?
I am trying to write a fictional history novel.
Can someone tell me why a young man from a wealthy, samurai family from Japan would be in Northern India in the early 1900s (after WW1, before WWII).
...
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Did Muslim women in colonial India before 1939 have to become Christian to divorce?
Muslim Law in India in 1939 did not accept a women's right to divorce before the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939.
Prior to the enactment of this Act, 1939 (DMMA), conversion of either spouse ...
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Is individual level data from British India censuses (1881 - 1941) available?
If not, was there ever a record of this available? What happened to these records? If available, where can I find them?
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Apart from Veer Savarkar and S.A. Dange, were there any Indian revolutionaries who filed mercy petitions to the British?
In today's Indian politics, it is often pointed out by anti-Hindutva political parties that Veer Savarkar, an Indian freedom fighter and founder of the Hindutva philosophy, wrote mercy petitions to ...
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Who was the first to conceive the “Two Nation Theory”?
This link gives the definition of Two-nation theory:
The two-nation theory is the basis of the creation of Pakistan. It
states that Muslims and Hindus are two separate nations from every
...
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Can anyone identify the regiment and rank from this photograph?
Can anyone identify the regiment this officer belongs to and his rank please? He seems to be wearing an Indian General service medal (1895-1902 pattern) with a battle clasp, but I cannot make out the ...
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Were any tactical missiles used during the 1971 Indo Pakistan war?
During the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, some Sidewinder and Atoll missiles were used in the air. The SA 2 guidline was used by the Indian side as SAM, and on sea the Indian navy struck Pakistani bases ...
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What does “MET HLS INDIA” inscribed on a bottom of brass sugar bowl mean?
I've recently inherited two old Indian brass items, bought in the 1970s (or earlier) in Poland, and I'm trying to work out where they come from.
I've easily identified the origin of the ice bucket, ...
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Why did the Chagatai Khanate cease invasions of India?
After many defeats (last in 1306?) at the hands of the Delhi Sultanate, the Chagatai Khanate ceased the invasions. What were the main reasons for this decision?
I read on wiki that many thousands of ...