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NDTV
6 days ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Naveen Patnaik Flags Omission of Odisha's Paika Rebellion From NCERT History Textbook
Former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday expressed concern over the exclusion of the 1817 Paika Rebellion from the latest Class 8 history textbook released by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Calling it a "watershed moment in Odisha's history," Patnaik said the move undermines the sacrifices of the Paikas, who revolted against British rule nearly four decades before the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. "I had urged the Government of India several times to declare it as the first war of Independence. The omission of the epic rebellion from NCERT textbooks is a huge dishonour to our brave Paikas, 200 years after the rebellion," Patnaik said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). He urged Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to ensure justice is done to the Paika Bidroha and to the people of Odisha. However, NCERT issued a clarification on Monday night, stating that the recently released Exploring Society: India and Beyond is the first in a two-volume Social Science textbook series for Class 8. The council confirmed that regional resistance movements, including the Paika Rebellion of Odisha and the Kuka Movement of Punjab, will be included in the second volume, which is currently in its final stages and expected to be released between September and October 2025. In a detailed press note dated July 16, 2025, NCERT said the new textbook has been developed in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023. It aims to offer students an integrated, multidisciplinary understanding of India's geography, economic life, governance, and history-covering the period from the 13th century to the mid-19th century. NCERT stated that the book was designed to avoid overloading students with information and instead focuses on fostering critical thinking. "All facts presented are based on well-known primary and secondary academic sources. A note titled 'History's Darker Period' has also been included on page 20 to help learners view the content in the right context," the council said.
The Hindu
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Temples of social justice
Recently, a political controversy erupted in Tamil Nadu on the issue of diverting temple funds for building colleges. Beyond the political debates, the issue throws light on a unique social justice model around the regulation of secular practices associated with religion. This model, predominantly developed in the erstwhile Madras Presidency, draws strength from a 200-year-old legislative framework which continues till date. It has gained more acceptance in south India. As elections approach in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, clarity on the issue will help diffuse attempts to polarise voters around it. Religious endowments law Through the Religious Endowment and Escheats Regulation 1817, the East India Company set up the earliest legislative architecture around regulation of religious endowments. When the British Crown assumed direct control over Indian territories in 1858, Queen Victoria issued a proclamation stating that the sovereign would restrict interference in religious affairs. This was necessary as there was concern about losing face from the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, which was triggered by religious issues. However, the withdrawal of the British government from religious affairs was not complete. In fact, in the Madras Presidency, various British officials argued for continued oversight of religious endowments. Finally, the British government settled for a balanced approach: the sovereign would not interfere with practices that were essentially religious, such as rituals, but would exercise control over the lands and secular aspects of the religious endowments. The idea of the government supervising religious institutions came to be crystallised when the Justice Party was elected in 1920. One of the earliest legislative interventions by the Justicites was Bill No. 12 of 1922: Hindu Religious Endowments Act. When it was introduced in the Madras Legislative Council, it faced opposition, mainly due to the provision in the law that allowed surplus temple funds to be diverted for other purposes. The nub of the issue was whether funds provided to a temple could be used for secular purposes. The matter was debated and settled in 1925, when the law was enacted. Since then, every revised version of the plenary law, including the current law — The Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959 — has retained the provision of surplus funds. Also read | Activist alleges 'criminal misappropriation' of temple funds by T.N. HR&CE Dept, Madras High Court calls for response Section 36 of the 1959 Act permits the trustees of religious institutions to appropriate any surplus funds for any purposes listed under the law, with the prior sanction of the Commissioner. 'Surplus' means any amount remaining after adequate provisions have been made for the maintenance of the temple and training of its officials. The Act also empowers the Joint Commissioner or the Deputy Commissioner to appropriate funds in cases where the original purpose has become impossible to fulfil. Endowments to temples have a long and rich history. Temples received lavish donations from the sovereign rulers from as far back as in 970 AD, when the Chola empire was at its peak. Historian Anirudh Kanisetti writes that Sembiyan Mahadevi, a Chola queen, made strategic donations of land and kind to temples. The practice continued during the Vijayanagara kingdom. Temples were not just places of worship; they were socio-cultural hubs and were also used for educational purposes. This is confirmed by the inscriptions on temple walls and the spacious mandapams (pillared halls) which were used to hold educational or cultural events. So the original intent argument would also support the theory of utilising temple resources for educational purposes. The 1959 Act has been tested and upheld by constitutional courts. Among the permissible uses of surplus funds under the 1959 Act is the establishment and maintenance of universities or colleges (Section 66). These educational institutions are also required to make available the study of the Hindu religion or Hindu temple architecture. Seen within this framework, building colleges from temple funds is not only legal, but a logical extension of these provisions. Social justice legacy The controversy around the use of temple funds cannot be restricted to discussing legal propositions, however; it also carries ideological and sociopolitical significance. In the pre-colonial era, the motivation for the rulers to support large-scale endowments was that the temples acted as channels through which State resources could be allotted for important welfare projects. Through colonial rule, the British East India Company and the Crown viewed sovereign involvement in the management of temple affairs as necessary for reasons of revenue and maintenance of local control. Over the last century, the Self-Respect Movement, which emerged from the Madras Presidency, viewed the regulation of temples and oversight of their resources as a critical feature of anti-caste reforms. Without this, there would have been no temple entry legislation in 1936 and 1947. Today, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are among the few States where governments have appointed priests from backward classes after a prolonged legal struggle. Ultimately, any argument against government control of temple affairs would be striking at the root of social justice. The role of the government in ensuring that surplus funds are appropriated in a lawful manner is settled. Any reversal of this would only result in a set back of the long legacy of social justice and religious reforms that south India has pioneered.
Indian Express
19-07-2025
- General
- Indian Express
Knowledge Nugget: Why Mangal Pandey's role in revolt of 1857 matters for your UPSC exam
Take a look at the essential concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up on your knowledge. Here's your knowledge nugget on Mangal Pandey and other prominent leaders' contributions to the Revolt of 1857. (Relevance: UPSC has asked questions on the Revolt of 1857 in both Prelims and Mains. Also, the contribution of Mangal Pandey holds immense significance in the outbreak of the revolt, making it an important topic for your UPSC exam.) On March 29, 1857, Mangal Pandey fired a shot at the Sergeant Major of his regiment at Barrackpore near Kolkata, triggering a great event in the history of Modern India — the Revolt of 1857, or the Sepoy Mutiny, or the First War of Indian Independence. With it ended the rule of the East India Company over India with Queen Victoria's Proclamation of 1858. It changed the British system of colonial rule in India with the enactment of the Government of India Act 1858 which appointed a Viceroy as the Crown representative in India in place of the Governor General of India. Lord Canning became the First viceroy under this new system. 1. Mangal Pandey was born on July 19, 1827, in Nagwa village in Ballia district in a Bhumihar Brahmin family. He joined the East India Company's army at the age of 22 as a soldier in the 6th company of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry. 2. He refused to use the newly introduced Enfield rifle. It was believed that the new Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket issued to the sepoys of the East India Company came with a cartridge dipped in beef and pork fat, which made it anathema to both Hindu and Muslim sepoys, who had to bite open the cartridge to load the weapon. 3. On March 29, 1857, Pandey mutinied and fired at his Senior Sergeant Major. He was overpowered and hanged on April 8, 1857, by the order of a Court Martial at Lal Bagan in Barrackpore. His regiment was disbanded, like the 19th infantry at Behrampore, for showing resentment. 4. Mangal Pandey was hanged to death by the Company on April 8. He belonged to the kingdom of Awadh, which had been treacherously annexed by Lord Dalhousie in 1856 on the grounds of misgovernance. It was not under the Doctrine of Lapse introduced by Dalhousie to annex other regions. It was introduced by Lord Dalhousie during his time as the Governor-General of India (1848–56). According to this doctrine, the adopted heir to the throne was not allowed to acquire the state, and the state automatically 'lapsed' into British dominion if the ruler died without any natural, biological heir. The territories of Satara (1848), Punjab (1849), Sambalpur (1850), and Jhansi and Nagpur (1854) were annexed under it. Bahadur Shah Zafar II was the Delhi emperor from 1836 to 1857. He was the second son of and became the successor to his father, Akbar II. After the failure of the Revolt of 1857, he was exiled to Rangoon in British-controlled Burma, and the Red Fort was illegally captured by the British on September 19, 1857. He lived in prison till his death in 1862. 5. Notably, Awadh was a region that supplied large numbers of soldiers of war to the Company's army. There were 75,000 soldiers from Awadh, and almost every agricultural family in the kingdom had a representative in the army. Whatever happened in Awadh was of immediate concern to the Sepoy. 6. The deposition of the Nawab and the confiscation of the villages of taluqdars during the land revenue settlement of 1856 caused outrage. Some 14,000 petitions were received from the Sepoys about the hardships they faced on account of the revenue system. Mangal Pandey represented the discontent that the misery of British rule had brought upon peasant families. 7. Next, the soldiers of the 7th Awadh Regiment rose in defiance, and they also met the same fate. After this, the incidents of disobedience, incendiarism, and arson were reported from the army cantonments in Ambala, Lucknow, and Meerut, until finally, the Meerut sepoys started the revolt on 10 May. 8. The marching band of sepoys from Meerut reached the Red Fort and appealed to Bahadur Shah II, the elderly Mughal emperor who was a pensioner of the East India Company, to become their leader to provide legitimacy to their cause. After much persuasion, he yielded and was proclaimed Shah-en-shah-i-Hindustan. Leaders across the northern region joined the revolt to provide leadership. Here are some of the prominent leaders that you shouldn't miss. 1. Nana Sahib: He was the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao II, the last Maratha peshwa (ruler), who assumed the leadership from Kanpur. Lord Dalhousie has refused the extension of the pension of his adoptive father to him, and the threat from sepoys made him join the revolt. He provided a strong front; however, in 1859, he was driven into the Nepal hills, where he is thought to have died. 2. Begum Hazrat Mahal: Begum, one of the younger queens of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, was a freedom fighter who made major contributions to the revolt of 1857. She took command of the revolt from Lucknow. She took charge of the affairs of the state after the British annexed it in 1856, exiling the nawab, and leaving the kingdom without a leader, in a chaotic mess. She crowned her son, Birjis Qadr, as the royal heir of Awadh. Ultimately, she escaped to Nepal with her son and a clutch of followers under adverse circumstances in 1859. She maintained her opposition through 20 years of exile in Nepal, until she died in 1879. 3. Veer Kuwar Singh: At the age of 80, Kuwar Singh was the chief organiser from the Bhojpur region of Bihar against the British East India Company during the revolt. He led the siege of Aarah for eight days. He was a master of guerrilla warfare and was able to elude the British for quite some time. At the battle of Jagdishpur, April 23, 1858, he was able to win back his homeland from the Britishers. He died of injuries, passing on the mantle to his successor and brother Amar Singh II. 4. Rani Laxmibai: Rani Laxmibai, original name Manikarnika, was born in Varanasi, was the leader of the revolt from Jhansi. In 1842, she was married to the Maharaja of Jhansi, Gangadhar Rao Newalkar. The couple adopted a son, Damodar Rao. However, after the death of the Maharaja, the British East India Company refused to recognise his claim to the throne under the Doctrine of Lapse. It became the factor for Rani to join the rebellion. In 1858, General Hugh Rose arrived in Jhansi leading his forces. It is then that Rani Laxmibai decided to take up arms to arms to defend her state. 5. Khan Bahadur Khan: The city of Bareilly was one of the strongholds during the rebellion of 1857 and remained so for nearly a year. Here, the resistance was led by an 82-year-old Khan Bahadur Khan. He put up a strong fight against Sir Colin Campbell, who was then the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army and marching towards Bareilly. In an action that lasted for nearly six hours and nearly cost the renowned war correspondent his life, the British forces were successful in making Khan's force retreat and take over the city. 6. Maulvi Liaqat Ali: He took control of the uprising from Allahabad. He enforced law and order in the city and made Khusro Bagh as his military operational headquarters. In 1872, he was arrested at Bombay Railway Station by British officials and was sentenced to transportation for life to the penal settlement of Andaman. (1) What was/were the object/objects of Queen Victoria's Proclamation (1858)? (UPSC CSE 2014) 1. To disclaim any intention to annex Indian States. 2. To place the Indian administration under the British Crown. 3. To regulate the East India Company's trade with India. Select the correct answer using the code given below. (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3 (2) Consider the following pairs: Which of the following pairs is/are correct? (a) 1 and 4 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1, 3 and 4 only (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Source: Remembering Mangal Pandey, and the legacy of the revolt he inspired, Knowledge Nugget: Why is the Revolt of 1857 important for UPSC? ) Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X. 🚨 Click Here to read the UPSC Essentials magazine for July 2025. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at Khushboo Kumari is a Deputy Copy Editor with The Indian Express. She has done her graduation and post-graduation in History from the University of Delhi. At The Indian Express, she writes for the UPSC section. She holds experience in UPSC-related content development. You can contact her via email: ... Read More
Arab News
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Empress Market: a Karachi commerce icon built to bury ashes of a rebellion
KARACHI: In the heart of Karachi's Saddar neighborhood, the Empress Market stands as a towering relic of British colonial ambition, where the scent of fresh produce mingles with the sharp tang of spices, and shopkeepers hawk everything from live poultry to antique coins. But few realize that underneath its ornate clocktower and gothic arches lies a darker, forgotten history that is stained by rebellion and retribution for those who took part in the 1857 uprising against British rule in the Indian Sub-continent. It was at this site where the British executed scores of mutineers and their local sympathizers after they got to know of their plans and later constructed this magnificent market between 1884 and 1889 to prevent the place from becoming a commemorative site. 'The Empress Market building has a very unique architectural design, but apart from its design, its history is very interesting, which actually reveals why it was built in the first place,' Tania Ali Soomro, a Karachi-based architect, told Arab News this week, elaborating on the site's grim past. 'The rebels of the freedom struggle would be punished here. The method of punishment was such that they would be tied in front of cannons and then fired upon.' The 1857 mutiny, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny, was a major uprising in India against the rule of the British East India Company, which began with a revolt by Indian soldiers of the Company in Meerut on May 10 that year and later spread to Delhi, Kanpur, Agra and Lucknow. Though the uprising ultimately unsuccessful, it demonstrated the widespread discontent with British rule and paved the way for the rise of the Indian nationalist movement. Historian Gul Hassan Kalmati notes in his book, 'Karachi — Glory of the East,' that following the failed rebellion, four mutineers, including Sooraj Bali Tivari and Ram Din Panday, were tied to the cannons and executed at the site of Empress Market. Citing a confidential British document, titled 'Secret document number D/223/1857, dated 14th September 1857, Secret Branch,' Kalmati writes Tivari and Panday had led soldiers of the 21st Native Infantry Regiment, but two informants, Ram Bane and Lakhshman Gadari, alerted the British and thus failed the rebellion. 'The local people had started celebrating this place as a commemorative site. They would light oil lamps there and began to renovate it like a shrine,' Soomro said, adding this burgeoning memorial prompted the British to act. 'To erase this memory, the British decided to create something which is public and holds strong social value. As a result, the market was established at this location.' In her book 'The Dual City: Karachi During the Raj,' Yasmeen Lari, a celebrated Pakistani architect, agrees with the notion. 'Although the imperialists were particular in commemorating significant events, it is not surprising that a plaque was not placed at the site of the Empress Market to mark the spot where native sepoys had been executed,' she writes. The market was named in honor of Queen Victoria, the then Empress of India, with its Gothic architecture reflecting British authority with local adaptations. 'If we talk about the design, the architectural style of this building is Gothic, but it has been built in a somewhat localized and contextualized way,' Soomro said, adding the building was designed by James Strachan, who was an engineer. 'His distinct style, including linearity, pointed arch windows and the clock tower, can be seen across several buildings he designed, including DJ Science College and Sindh Madrasatul Islam [in Karachi].' Lari describes the market as a 'very handsome building designed in what is known as the 'Domestic Gothic Style'.' 'While the use of the alien Gothic form was understandable, the presence of an atrium was highly unusual for the time,' she writes in her book. 'With a frontage of 231 feet on Preedy Street, its four galleries, each 46 feet wide, surround the generous size courtyard, 130 feet by 100 feet. The single-story building is not pretentious except for the tall central tower that rises to a height of 140 feet.' The market was so beautiful that while praising it, Commissioner Pritchard had said that the 'only one other market [that] surpassed it in the whole Presidency was the 'Crawford Markets' of Bombay,' according to Lari. The most monumental feature of the building is its clock tower, which is positioned right at the center of the front wing. It was designed in a very symmetrical manner, with the front and back being exactly the same. It has two levels. The first level features an arched entrance at the very bottom and then there is a balcony above it. The balcony is adorned with beautiful wrought iron grills. The second level has the clock installed and above that, the canopy of the tower serves as the cover for the structure. Each wing of the market was originally dedicated to a separate function, a different type of shopping, according to Soomro. In some areas, there were wet groceries, and in others, dry groceries. While this zoning has blurred, the market remains a vibrant hub. 'It's a very historic and old market, and the best thing about it is that you can find everything in bulk — it's called a one-stop shop,' said Zia Shahid, a regular at Empress Market. 'From vegetables to dry fruits, from groceries to various other items, you can get everything here at very good rates.' But it isn't just the wide variety of items that attract shoppers to the market. Many visit the place due to its magnificent structure and to take photos. 'We had heard a lot about how the art of photography stands out here in this market, in its own unique way,' said Afaan Adnan, a 21-year-old student, unaware of the site's bleak past. 'We needed to take some pictures in which we could tell stories. Empress Market is a key part of Karachi, where countless stories unfold. We are here to capture them.' But for shopkeepers like Y.B. Sethna, Empress Market is deeply personal as his family has been here since 1938. 'In 1938, my grandfather came to the market... After 1946, there was Partition, so the person he was working with at the time left and he said to my grandfather, 'you've worked hard with us, so why don't you take over this shop?',' he said, adding that his grandfather, father and uncle used to run the grocery shop before him. Sethna's long association with the market has kept him from moving elsewhere. 'When I was seven years old, they [Sethna's grandfather and other elders] would hold my hand and bring me here,' he said, adding people often ask him why he didn't open a shop at a less crowded place with relative calm. 'The attachment I had with this place was so strong that I couldn't leave it.'
