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Vellore Mutiny!!

Am writing after about 4 months. No, I wasn't busy. Have, in fact had nothing to do all this while. Landed a job and got done with my research internship. And now that the session starts again, am back blogging. Best wishes to everyone on the 60th Independence Day. Marking the ocassion, I'll write about this fairly unkown mutiny. This post also appears at http://mutiny.in, where I have started writing lately.


Not many of us know about the Vellore Mutiny of 1806 which preceeded the Sepoy Mutiny by more than half a century. I too was unaware of it until I came across this article in The Hindu a few Sundays back. The reason here was again the resentment in the ranks over the rules imposed by the British officers. Hindus were prohibited from wearing religious marks on their foreheads and Muslims were required to shave their beard and trim their moustache. Interestingly, Tipu Sultan's family was imprisoned in the Vellore fort since his defeat and death in 1799. This gave the soldiers confidence to go ahead with the rebellion. Notice here the parallels with the mutiny of 1857, where the reason for the rising were the greased cartridges and the soldiers fought to bring Bahadur Shah back to power.

Two hours after midnight, on July 10, the sepoys surrounded the fort and killed most of the British. The rebels seized control by dawn, and raised the flag of the Mysore Sultanate over the fort. Tipu's princes, though were reluctant to take charge. Here the plan went astray as some of the soldiers started looting the Britisher's houses. By 9.30 on the morning of July 10, the East India Company regained control of the fort.

I am sure by now, there would have been a handful of movies made in the Hollywood has such an incident taken place in America, here it doesn't even get a mention in the school history books. A bi-centennial commemoration stamp was issued in July at a low key affair, the only mention of which I find on the net, ironically, is on the BBC Website.

I dread to think of the day when August 15th would be covered only by the foreign press.

Baisakhi

It's the Punjabi Harvest Festival today. Also the day, Khalsapanth was established. Greetings to All.
Me and PSR have started a quizzing blog. Do visit :)

My G-G-G-Generation

The only image which is vivid in my mind of my life before I was five is the self-immolation of an 18-year old. Agneepath released during that time and Amitabh Bachchan was the last man on fire I saw. To me at that time, the two incidents didn't have any meaning. I couldn't differentiate or relate the reel from the real. But that was the period and specifically those incidents which marked the transition from the old to the new, the end of a decade and a half of political, social and economic unrest in the country-the Emergency, the fall of Indira Gandhi, the first non-Congress Government and subsequent economic depression which lasted like for ages, Operation Bluestar, the rise of a young Prime Minister and the first khichdi government.


Rajeev Goswami's act forced V.P. Singh to resign and pull back his proposed implementation of Mandal Commission's recommendations. The chain of events led to the formation of the new Congress Government and marked the beginning of 'My Generation' comprising the urban youth born in the 80s. The last 15 years have more or less been smooth for India. We have witnessed tremendous economic growth. Had grand celebrations to mark 50 years of Independence. We will turn 60 next year. The world has taken note of us for things other than being a land of mysticism and poverty. Life has been straight out of a mushy hindi movie. Nothing except girls to struggle or fight for. We have had everything served on a platter. The age of instant gratification. Patriotism to us means going for a popcorn flick on Republic Day (read: Rang de Basanti).

Of course, there have been insurgenices in the North and the North-East. People have had to leave their homes in spite of living in a free country. There were the Bombay Blasts. The Gujarat Riots. And the occasional molestation of a woman.
But these are the events that affect only the other-primarily the poor and the weak. We could never be affected by any of these. Arjun Singh's declaration then, to increase the reservation comes as a shocker and suddenly we find newspapers carrying headlines that students will flee the country and online petitions being signed. It's all so fashionable. "Lookie Lookie, I signed an online petition". Give me a break. Does anyone really believe that an online petition will cause a ruffle? No one has come out in the open to oppose this decision except the press of course, but that's because they have to hunt for new stories to make more money.
No, the Arjun Singhs and the political parties are not to be blamed. If there is anyone to be blamed, it's us. We have been careless enough never ever to raise our voice. No one goes to cast their votes. Everyone's running after money.
Those who can't move out of the country are still hoping for that someone else to come and save them. I do not ask people to put themselves on fire. This is a wake-up call. We have to realize our responsibilities and act accordingly, else I am sure there is more coming up.

P.S. Goswami died an anonymous death in February 2004.

Tagged!!

Ravi tagged me and tells me that I am supposed to write down 10 things about myself no one here knows about.

1. My family originally belongs to Gujrat district in West Punjab. They moved over to this side in March '47.

2. My childhood hero was Kapil Dev and I actually used to pray to god that I become like him when I grow up. I myself don't remember any of this, but whenever I go to attend marriage of a far-off cousin, some relative, whom I have never met before comes up and asks me, "Kaise ho Kapil Dev?" which is a sure sign that it's my brother who's been spreading all these stories.

3. All the women in my life (read my mother and my aunt) think I am the most boring person in the world.

4. At one point of time (in Class VIII), my favorite actor (?) was Shahrukh Khan. Phew!! I cannot be more frank than this. It took me 15 minutes to decide whether to write it or not. But I can justify this. He was the favorite actor of the best-looking female I have known in my life. And the only girl I have flirted (by a 12-year old's standards, yes I was flirting) with. She actually ran away with a class XII guy. Sigh

5. First movie I saw in a cinema hall was Rahul Roy's Junoon (don't go by the rating) with older boys of the colony. They actually managed to squeeze me in without buying a ticket. And when the usher came with his torch, they made me go under the seat. Adding to the fear factor of the movie were the rats running around in the hall.

6. Have a recurring dream in which I am falling down from a mountain. Very Nice!

7. Used to be a very innocent kid at school. Didn't understand what my friends meant when one of them said, "Maine aaj USA dekha" and the others asked, "Kiska?"

8. Would like to be remembered as a nasty person after I am gone. Have been unsuccessful so far in building this reputation barring a few exceptions.

9. Hate ostentatiousness. Guess that's contradictory to me being a Punjabi.

10. I find tagging to be a stupid concept. So, I won't take it further.

Bollocks To AICTE

In February this year, AICTE published this notice in all the major daily publications stating that it is mandatory for all colleges/universities/institutes to get affiliated to the council and they must apply for accredition by March 07, 2006 failing which legal action will be taken against the institute.


Refer to this article in today's Indian Express. DA-IICT is a University under an act passed by the Gujarat Legislature and is recognised by the UGC.
AICTE, in a similar incident took Bharthidasan University to court 5 years ago. The Supreme Court ruled that it is not obligatory for a university, created under an Act of a competent legislature, to seek and secure prior approval of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to start a department for imparting a course or programme in technical education or a technical institution as an adjunct to the university itself to conduct technical courses of its choice and selection.

Going by this ruling, the above incident must be viewed as a contempt of court.

Oh and by the way, none of the IITs is approved by the Council.
Also read posts by Bhavesh and Naresh

Trivia Blog

I have started a trivia blog. Will post some useless piece of information daily. Do visit.