The MF Husain Controversy: Identity, Intent and the Rise of Militant Fascism

Sanatani bhai,

famous AJGAR (Ahir, Jat, Gujjar Aur Rajput).

Later Ch. Charan Singh used it to promote Lok Dal in UP, no?

Regards

Re: # 231

You should check this. So far as I know Gujjars were not recruited before 1857??? Even in the Punjab it was Muslim Rajput & Hindu Jat alongwith Jat & Mazhabi Sikhs. Gujjar recruitment started when the Rajputana Rifles was reorganised along mixed class company level of the famous AJGAR (Ahir, Jat, Gujjar Aur Rajput).

Also the first to mutiny were the infantry which was almost exclusively Hindu so your theory that muslim gujjars were part of this or started it is I think flawed.
Sanatani

Re: # 207

My thoughts are with you. But what do you say to the fact that has been siggested that the mutiners failed in Delhi as all supplies reaching them were plundered by the Gujjars of Meerut and Sonipat.

Sanatani

The miserable chowkstaff is back to censoring articles, they censored this one recently:

The Master Status of Inequality
http://chowk.com/ilogs/74633/40823

##116,
Actually I meant the mother not the son..but that made your day and that of people like Hamidm who know that they live a hypocritical pathetic life defending what their own quaid could not.

Kaura # 236,

We live in the world of double standards. Only for the non muslims that is. For The pureland, everything is eternally pure and absolute. We are the cause of double standards and they are intent upon removing this, so they can have only one. You can be a Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or anyone....
The troglodytes in NWFP are their friends ( and now reluctant enemies i.e if we believe them), so all this hoopla about profanity against any religion should first be tried in Peshawar..eerrr wait how about in punjab claiming Abdus Salam was the true son of soil. I am sure Tahmed and Hamidm will take up the mantle... after all they represent the true ideal secular pukistan..

Why doesn't the artist paint MohMad? and see what kind of militant fascism he faces from the followers of religion of peace.

Re: # 234 Jang

Pay was certainly one of the issues, as well. Hired help would have been needed for operations in NWFP, Punjab, Afghanistan and Sind as well, so that is not so important. 'Pandies' (as they were referred to after Mangal Pandey) did really believe that they would be losing their religion after crossing Kala Pani.

And, another tid bit, after the Mutiny, the British, on some occasions, made it a point to bury Hindus and burn Muslims.

pew yar, darlymple is wrong..he is really hyping up the evangelical stuff cause its sexy. the biggest reason for the mutiny was pay. pandies were not happy with the pay, especially for crossing the kala-pani to campaigns to rangoon, mauritius etc. crossing kala pani meant they had to leave their kheti to hired labor and loss of income.

Re: # 230 Tahmed32

"..the credit...goes to the panjabis. :-)..."

and to the Gurkhas who also fought at Delhi. Any question as to why the British came to name the Sikhs, Punjabis (from Potohar) and the Gurkhas as 'martial' (as in 'loyal') races? The Sikhs and Gurkhas nursed a grudge against the mutinous Bengal Army, since it had been used to defeat the Sikh Empire and Nepal barely a few years earlier. The Englishman was able to play upon regional differences to achieve their aims.

Re: # 231 Tahmed


The cartridge issue was the final spark that lit the mutiny. The cartridges were made of pork and beef fat, and defiled both Hindus and Muslims (and Sikhs). It was perceived as a way to break one's religion and hasten the way towards conversion.

Dalrymple's book goes into great detail about the action and court intrigue in Delhi (which was precipitated by the arrival of mutinous columns from nearby Meerut). He does not describe in as great detail about what happened in Meerut (although, there is still quite a bit of discussion. For example, the trigger point in Meerut was the excessively harsh punishment meted (courtmartial, 10 years' imprisonment with hard labor) out to 85 soldiers for refusing to use the cartridges). Although, the mutiny broke out in many places, it was in Delhi where a British victory was critical, since all the sepoys, and the rebellious kings had recognized Zafar as the legitimate Baadshah of India, with Delhi being his traditional seat of power. Thus, defeating Zafar was to prove to be critical for the British.

There were many other causes of the mutiny:

a) Growing English evangelism - a new breed of priests were derisive towards Indian religions and were actively seeking converts
b) There were many religiously insensitive things that the East India Company did rather foolishly: Hindus believed sailing away from India to be a sacrilegious act, and the Company raised fears that Indian armies will be put to use overseas. The Company also curtailed pension benefits for new recruits, but it was feared that these changes would be retroactive.
c) Recruitment of caste Hindus primarily as opposed to those from all backgrounds - the caste Hindus were particularly sensitive about diet, and more likely to revolt in case of any offense
d) The summary deposition of the nawab of Awadh in 1856, and disenfranchising him. This was viewed as an insult to the caste Hindus and Muslims from UP/Bihar who were patronized by the nawab.

Tensions rose in April 1857 in Barrackpore, Bengal where Mangal Pandey (played by Amir Khan in a recent Bollywood movie, The Rising) injured two officers, and was hanged. Mutinies eventually broke out in all major cantonments of the Bengal Army in N. India, beginning at Meerut, where columns of sepoys marched on to Delhi demanding Zafar to assume the mantle of the rebellion. This would be the equivalent of three quarters of the Indian Army mutinying today in all cantonments in north India. This is how serious it was. Zafar was 82, and the Mughals had not fought a war in nearly 150 years. He was pressured to accept their leadership, and could have been killed had he not. In any case, the sepoys showed scant respect for Zafar and were ignorant of the courtly manners that were practiced in the Mughal court.
First, the sepoys, and later the British, nearly completely destroyed Delhi. It was cultural destruction and genocide by modern standards, at a scale not seen since Timur Lane’s sack of Delhi.

Pew Reseach #226 I thought the soldiers who mutinied at Meerut were gujjar muslims (not that it matters). With their main beef (!) having to do with the swine-skin from which their rifle cartridges were made. Does Dalrymple have anything to say about the Meerut action?

#228 Pew Research: So, the credit for giving the job of "Ruler of India" to the more competent candidate (i.e. the Government of UK) for spreading the Age of Reason in India (per our earlier discussion) rather than to the one who would have simply re-instated the jejune Kingship (i.e. the Last Emperor) goes to the panjabis. :-)

Unless India is purged of islamic contamination, the Country cannot become secular democracy.

Re: # 225 Tahmed

And I might add, that while the Mutiny occurred in the Bengal Army (only 7,500 out of 135,000 remained loyal), the largest, professional army in all of Asia, it was put down by reinforcements from the Punjab (mercenary Sikhs and Punjabi Muslims). There were only about 3,000 Europeans among the troops that lay siege to Delhi, and an 8-mile long siege train came down the GT Road from Ambala and Lahore.

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Re: # 225 Tahmed, one of the canards spread by English evangelists during the Mutiny was that the sepoys had raped women before killing them. There is absolutely no shred of evidence that supports this charge. However, this hardened British hearts to such an extent that they showed no mercy when the Mutiny was finally quelled. The entire city of Delhi was depopulated in September 1857, and only some Hindus were allowed back in November. The Muslims were left to fend for themselves in the hills and scrubland surrounding Delhi. The Hindu sepoys had mutinied, but the axe fell more harshly on muslim nobility all over north India. This created the first rupture in Hindu-Muslims relations, that gradually increased under British rule, and led to a final break in 1947. Not until the English Crown assumed a direct role in governing India in 1858, were the Muslims rehabilitated.

One of the causes of the Mutiny was the growing evangelism of the newly arrived clergyman who looked down derisively on both Hindu and Muslim traditions. This was in stark contrast to the first generation of British residents in Indian courts who had turned native and are called 'White Mughals' by Dalrymple.

As an aside, the changes that took place in Delhi in the last 150 years are truly monumental compared to the same time period in America. Delhi has had three cultural shifts in the period: Mughal city to Imperial English capital to a Punjabi, cosmopolitan city. A person living today in Delhi will feel out of place in a 19th century mohalla, but the same cannot be said of resident of Washington DC.