Himachal Archives

1533 Painting of the Likeness of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq (source: Agha Mehdi Husain)  History has so many lessons and anecdotes hidden in its womb, and sometimes it becomes rather difficult to even search them. It is like trying to discover the innermost layers in an onion, where you fail to realize where the original bud lies underneath the layers that you keep peeling away. This is unfortunately the case of the history of the larger Punjab Hill states region, where historical research seems to be stuck in a rut and there is a lack of effort to revisit history and see the nuances once again. Be that as it may, it is rather interesting at times when you stumble across instances that make you wonder how it slipped your eye all this while.  As is still claimed, the history of the Pathania rulers of Nurpur tends to become clearer only in the middle ages, as more 'reliable' sources start referring to the region and its rulers. One such source was the history of the Muslim conquests w...

Himachal Pradesh since its present formation in 1967 has distinguished itself with significant progress on the human development indices unlike several hill states, even Himalayan countries, on many fronts. The state scores well on several indices. It is just behind Kerala on the Sustainable Development Goals Index of NITI Aayog for the year 2020. It has an 82.80% Literacy rate, which is well ahead of the national average at 74%. The district hospitals in the state successfully meet the requirement of the necessary ratio on a per lakh basis. While there are genuine concerns around the public debt and the high unemployment rate, by and large the state performs rather well on most socio-economic indicators. However, that was not the case at the time of the birth of the present Himachal Pradesh state. Remotely situated populations, lack of income for people and widespread poverty and abysmal education and healthcare facilities had created a situation that if not addressed suitably would h...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...