India's history syllabus is Mughal centric , Delhi centric and doesn't provide sufficient space to Indian heroes is something we have been hammering at on SM for past 15 years now.
Everyone providing their squirrel's share has made some dent in this medieval history narrative.

Another narrative which we have missed out - is the history of India's Industrial progress.
1. Britain GAVE US industrial progress and industries.

2. Indian Industrialists were basically people in cahoots with the goras.

👆Our textbooks describing India's industrial progress.
It fits in nicely with the ' demonise industry' narrative which the Left is so fond of.
Fact is that Indian Industrialists had to struggle in the face of anti Indian policies, vicious trade practises and gross abuse of power by the Empire.
Destruction of Indian shipping industry
Indian industry faced an uphill task ...
How the Opium cash crop created famine on an industrial scale in Bengal https://twitter.com/authorAneesh/status/1172584634598744064?s=20
No industry, not even in the private ones set up by the British, could an Indian rise to the top management.
The success of Walchand, Birla and others needs to be seen in this context.

GD Birla had to face racism from Calcutta's Scot dominated Jute Industry.
Indian Shipping should perish, so British shipping may flourish

- Mahatma Gandhi
GD Birla decided to break into Brit dominated Jute Industry.

Britain played with their CURRENCY value to deny Birlas a level playing ground.
Finally he bought some land to set up the mill. Calcutta's Scot and Brit merchants bought land AROUND his plot of land.

Deal dead.
Imagine the mortification when they were gifted with License Raj in Independent India.
https://twitter.com/authorAneesh/status/1247528263464800257?s=20
" Business Legends " by Gita Piramal is a good book covering some aspects of this topic.

Saga of Scindia is another one.
Once I accompanied a bunch of 11-12 year olds (this I think was in 2017) on a trek to Tikona, a fort near Pune. Told them about forts, history, conservation etc.

One 12 year old luminary came up to me and said:

" I can name the six Muslim kings of India"
Then he recited Mughal poem from Babur to Aurangzeb.

I asked him whether he had heard of Chhatrapati Shivaji. Thankfully he had.

Ok name his two sons.
Complete blank look - like finding out for the first time Chhatrapati Shivaji had children !

That's how bad the situation is. Kids have the brains to retain info, we are providing them with bhusa 😒
You can follow @authorAneesh.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled:

By continuing to use the site, you are consenting to the use of cookies as explained in our Cookie Policy to improve your experience.