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Wazir Ram Singh Pathania, and the memory of Shahpurkandi

Poster describing Shahpurkandi Fort (courtesy Panjab Digital Library ) Pathankot. A sleepy border town today. A land of bravehearts, and more renowned for a terror attack on the air base in 2016. Yet, there was once a history of Pathankot that few remember in public memory today. Especially of Shahpur Kandi. Shahpur Kandi is a Fort that falls in Punjab today. It used to be part of the premise of the Nurpur princely state. Nurpur was ruled by the Pathanias, a dynasty that was known as much for bravery and wit as it was for its patronage of art, patronizing the Nurpur shaili of Pahari paintings. Yet, at least nine years before the Indian war for Independence that took place in 1857, an uprising shook the British East India Company to its core. It was 1848, and Ram Singh Pathania, who was going incognito post the collapse of the Lahore Durbar, had decided to repatriate himself with his father Sham Singh Pathania to Nurpur. Taking the title of Wazir there, these supposedl...

Of Raja Daya Dhata and the Nurpur Master Golu

Recently, it came to my notice that Nurpur shaili of Pahari paintings too had a series of masters that have been feted well. Of course, most of them are confined to the Rasamanjari collection in terms of fame, what was interesting to note of this school was the presence of a family tradition. Portrait of Golu - Courtesy Met Museum In their catalogue of a selection of Indian paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, John Guy and Jorrit Britschgi have pointed out that unlike say Basohli, where no documentation of the existence of painter families, there are inventory lists ( bahis ) for the painter Devidasa from Nurpur. Despite the proximity of the schools, this claim of divergence seems an oddity. It is well known how the Jasrota clan who were the original patrons of the Basohli school had also patronized Pandit Seu and his son Nainsukh of Guler, who were rather famous master artisans of the Guler school of paintings. Such a claim does not make sense therefore and sh...

Short Shrift Faced by Myanmar's Burmese Indians

Sri Kali Hindu Temple in Yangon . It was built by Tamil migrants whilst Burma was part of British India. The actions against Indians in Myanmar remains a blind spot in our history and neglect towards Indians. Indians, who were derogatorily called 'kalas' were the biggest diaspora in Myanmar when it became independent. However, Indians had a significant role in the economy of the province. Money lending to mom and pop stores - every aspect was peppered with the presence of Indians. The xenophobic policies of the government remained ignored for decades. Burma was ruled from India by the British till the 1930s, and subsequently got independence around the same time as India. The new government of Burma took a number of measures meant to strengthen economic interests of Burmese against the foreigners; however, in effect, these measures were targeted essentially at Indians and Chinese. The 1948 Land Alienation Act forbade sale of land to non-Burmese. The Burma Land...

Three Occasions When the Idea of a Vishal Himachal Came Calling

The idea of a hill state in today's India seems somewhat obvious. However it was not the case. Barring Jammu and Kashmir and the exceptions of territories given to Tripura, Manipur and Nagaland, the hilly regions especially of North India were certainly not seen from the view point of an independent political identity fit for statehood within the Indian state with favor. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons The circumstances surrounding the formation and recreation of Himachal Pradesh is in itself a case study of aspirations coalescing with vision and foresight of a few, and deserve a longer answer. When Himachal Pradesh was born in 1951 following the Constitution's adoption, it had the status of a type C state. Some other states with such a status included some princely states or special cases like Delhi. However, it bore little resemblance with the present day Himachal Pradesh. There was great territorial overlap between Punjab, Haryana and Himachal's territories of the present d...

The Interesting Raja Suraj Dev

Temple at Babor (Courtesy: Jammu Daily ) The history of the Himalayan states of North-west India remains a subject of much obscurity, with thinly packed materials available, as historians like Karuna Goswamy have remarked. In the midst of all this, documents like the Rajdarshani or the Vanshavalis in other regions has served to be a much valuable work. While so called credible historians criticize them as sources of history given fanciful claims, it is interesting that the same cabal also does not hesitate to refer to similar fanciful accounts elsewhere, as for example is the case for Mahavamsa of Sri Lanka. Absence of archaeological evidence is a call for more such work, and not the case of 'unreliability' as some would claim. Be that as it may, the Rajdarshani as was written by Ganesh Das Badehra is an interesting account for it did have instances of the 8th-13th century AD period that can be verified in historical sources that we know of, especially for instance the Chamb...

The Two and a Half Wars India Won against China

Commemorative Stamp of Zorawar Singh History is a nebulous creature, or perhaps more like a Medusa, which when one stares directly in the face, results in petrification. To that extent, it is interesting to note how the Communist Chinese narrative of one and a half wars that were won against India that was first thrown up by the murderous demagogue Mao Tse Tung to justify a sense of superiority over India. The problem with all shades of Marxists and Maoists is that the cherry picking of history is a habit that fails even basic scrutiny. The power of narrative holds only so long as gatekeepers to information are able to secure it. Once the horses bolt the stables, it is beyond redemption, however hard they try. If there was one and a half war for China, there were two and a half wars won by India that could be invoked to provide a cure for selective amnesia and cherry picking of history that would petrify a large section of the China apologia. History offers lessons to those w...

The Genius That Was Mola Ram

Painting of Mola Ram showing a girl approaching a black buck and playing a sitar (Courtesy: Victoria and Albert Museum Collection Just a few days ago I was going through a fascinating book written by Mukandi Lal about the Garhwal school of Pahari painting. Though the school, which took off in Raja Prithipat Shah’s reign around 1658, the school became associated with one man and his family - the legendary Mola Ram. Mola Ram was born in 1743, and went on to live for a whole 90 years. He was essentially a painter as part of the family profession that was goldsmith ( Sunar ) by caste, and was based out of Srinagar, which used to be the capital of Garhwal state till Tehri (which now lies submerged) came up due to a malevolent move by the British East India Company. Mola Ram stands out as a painter as per art historians as he managed to create his own signature style that took elements of the Kangra school of art and brought in interesting layers to the art form from other school...