The Mahar regiment has had a circuitous journey — from serving the British during the Anglo-Maratha wars to its distinguished service post-Independence.
At the centre...
The Koregaon celebration by Dalits questions the dominant notion of nation and nationalism. This is making upper caste groups anxious, and they are calling it “anti-national”.
Canada faces serious foreign interference issues, but these challenges must not be weaponized to unfairly target friendly and important allies like India.
In Episode 1544 of CutTheClutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta looks at some top economists pointing to the pitfalls of ‘currency nationalism’ with data from 1991 to 2004.
The decorated Naga officer from Manipur also served as envoy to Myanmar & Nagaland chief secy. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a museum dedicated to the Tawang hero Thursday.
While we talk much about our military, we don’t put our national wallet where our mouth is. Nobody is saying we should double our defence spending, but current declining trend must be reversed.
But what it holds true , today we are seeing a new tide of dividing India , these media houses like print, quint , scroll has come to destroy country unity.
There is actually no comparison between the two battles except in both battles Britishers were facing resistance from both insiders and outsiders . And in both battles they used Indians as their facesavers . But still battle of Saragarhi is unique in the sense that there sikh regiment fought it for their own principles , dharm and pride against cruel invaders .And here in this koregaon battle , Britishers used Indians to fight against Indians . And now after many decades the same battle is being used to poison the minds of Indians against Indians alone . Battles fought worldwide are only for victory , territorial expansions and for religious disbeliefs .(Or it always got a religious undertone to it ) But here in India , from ages Indians always fought for the honour , truth , justice and principles . That’s how battle of koregaon or the role of mahars will always be considered as substandard or will not get any acknowledgement from Indians at least . We cannot recognize koregaon battle at par with that of saragarhi .
You mean anything against brahmin is equal to against dharma and principles. What a hypocrisy and substandard comment i have seen
Firstly huge applaud for inspiring writing very similar to Mr. Prakash Ambedkar drawing cribbing pitiness to the plight of Dalits in Maharashtra.
1. Dalits exists in each and every state and almost all the communities (parsis and christians) doesn’t seem to have them at least in Maharashtra.
2. What Koregaon Bhima Sena did was an utter sense of stupidity and anti national celebration. Apart from Mr. Bajirao being a Peshwa do you have any idea what he was!
If he was would have lived at least 10 more years people like you would be seen in rawalpindi railway tracks selling peanuts. Thereby we would have less policemen and crime in this country.
You speak high of Dalits. Have you ever considered the reason why they are treated that way. On Ambedkar Jayanti they come in large numbers free of costs in Dadar Shivaji Park without taking any bathe for days openly shit in front of our houses and urinate on our streets. They drink local country wine and touch boobs of women jogging early morning in shivaji park.
You expect us to behave with them decently. If this country was Afghanistan we would have taken a AK47 and shot each and every one of them and celebrated that day as Anti Ambedkar Day shitty people.
You seem full of hatred toward ‘dalits’ the word dalits is popularised by dr bhimrao Ambedkar you dalits means broken/ shattered the word is derived from sanskrit. he believed the dalits were in every part of india and the idea was to give reservation to indians who are educationally, socially, or religiously etc at disadvantaged compared to forward castes. forward castes are Indians who are Educationally, Socially, religiously, etc at advantage. why you thing a particular community will do something bad because you doesn’t belong to it. so people think all indian men are rapist, Hindus are cow piss drinker, Muslims are terrorists, but we all are individuals, humans, why blame entire nation, religion, or particular group because of few wicked peoples. it seems you are not aware of their history, all of the dalits were considered Untouchables by hindu castes and killed, raped, burnt burried alive, because of hindu castes and sanatana dharm because back then most of Hindus were killing these people.. because they are avarna. it took them thousands of years to get freed from hindu slavery.. dr bhimrao Ambedkar believed in equality and it was needed to help our fellow indians.. we should look above religions and castes.. we are indians. do you remember 2006 Khairlanji massacre where hindus killed dalits because of hindu views so should be blame hindus for some hindus heinous crimes? no we shouldn’t we should embrace each other. hindus should stop treating dalits as Untouchables and avarna and while dalits should trust Hindus anf stop hating on hindus and particularly Brahmins then will be able to solve this problem.. when 2 groups are in a great rivalry it’s their duty to take a step and embrace em love em, forgive em and forgive yourself too.
comments shows how intolerant we Indians became to others opinion and truth which doesn’t suit the jingoistic class.
This writer is a communist who wants to divide India , the print, quint , scroll are all the same which want to destroy India u ity and it’s society. Which country has given reservation. Even today, upper caste people have said clearly we apologise for our ancestors mistake and this is what is given in form of reservation and respect in each field. But, people think that it is not correct.
kudos to the writer for highlighting the truth .
& high hail to this Canadian cum indin nationalist akshay kumar
Indeed truth is bitter
the truthfulness in the article and
the bitterness in comments clearly proves that
You can no longer speak truth in this modern india..
u can no longer hail dalit or Muslims in positive light.
Today the people of India are witnessing the glimpse of British era policies like Divide & Rule and Official secrets act !
shame on us for electing this fascist government and the effects of this are clearly visible on common man which is dreadful.
plz vote wisely this time in 2019 our future depends on it so as the future of our country.
Dilip Mandal doesn’t know history to an extent that he shall comment on it. Peshwas never dislodged the Chhatrapati. They were the prime minister of the Maratha throne and never were the king themselves. The battle of Koregaon Bhima is a mystery since the British themselves have written conflicting accounts of it. Valor of the Mahars was never questioned in any political system. Even Peshwas well appreciated their strengths and had Mahar soldiers as a coveted group in their army. The comments I read above are more from emotions than from facts. It is rather a farfetched thought that ThePrint would highlight facts and not twist them.
Our history is full of these kind of ‘so called betrayals’ for instance The presidency armies were the armies of the three presidencies of the East India Company’s rule in India, later the forces of the British Crown in India, composed primarily of Indian sepoys. the ‘Bengal Army’ It was recruited from Bhumihar, Bihari Rajputs and Pathan soldiers . while ‘Bombay army’ was primarily composed of maratha, rajputs, muslims, mahars, mangs, chamars etc. on the other hand ‘madras army’ was full of different kind of indians as well. and all these presidency armies were involved in different battles against the enemies of EIC AND British raj. they fought our own people. sikhs, dogras, gorkhas, marathas, pathans, muslims, mahars, mangs, chamars, rajputs, and all kind of indians who used to be a part of armies of BR and EIC. Its not cool to call em traitors or betrayers because there were separate indian kingdoms and Empire and they rulers were from a specific caste and religion and dominated and ruled over us while under British raj we came forward us one ‘indian’ and got independence on own creation of republic of india which is a democracy. for the people, by the people. be United, unekta mein ekta. jay hind!
Saragarhi & Bhima Koregaon were important battles no doubt but not of as much historic significance as the battle of Plassey, which laid the foundations of British rule here. In the battle of Plassey too, the East India Co. used soldiers of so called ” backward ” communities to defeat an Indian ruler. Indians do not celebrate the battle of Plassey or the battle of Seringapattan as they resulted in defeats of Indian rulers. But some people in India would like to celebrate Bhima koregaon for reasons best understood by them alone.
I Thank You brother for your cool words for ‘battle of Plassey’ where indian bengal subah and ‘FEIC’ Fought against GB’s EIC With the help of Madras & Bombay European Regiments mostly indians including rajputs, marathas, brahmins and mahars. in this battle Indias biggest empire known as Mughaliya Sultanate was defeated by invading foreigners British forces. it sad that people forget how we Indians were cheated by our own men. ‘Siege of Seringapatam’ was one of the saddest military conflicts where Hyderabad and british forces fought against great tipu sultan and defeated him with help with bengal army and madras army.
Drawing parallel between two battels seams to an agenda driven attempt
Please note that author was live reporting in both Bheema Koregaon war and Battle of Saragarhi. He have actual recorded statement of each and every soldier of both wars.
That’s how he came to conclusion that both war were same.
It’s a free country with free press and freedom to speak, and writer has got every right to do same for inciting communal separation.
He also deserves promotion and fame in his life and constitution provides him right to do so.
If by any chance, you feel that you are offended, then it’s your problem.
Main problem is Modi, due to his ‘ swachh bharat yojna’, people are not getting chance to litter on road, so hence your mind is the best place to litter.
Dear Author, keep littering. We are here for you.
The writer here has done what s/he is good at i.e. spreading negativity. Few points
1. First of all not many people knew about battle of Saraghari until Akshay Kumar picked this up and this has definitely irked the writer who is from The Print. It’s a shame that no one was taught about this battle in schools but we know about each and everything about others.
2. The battle of Saraghari was against external forces so its victory has to be celebrated
3. The battle of Koregaon was with people who belonged to this region not using the country name as the writer has smartly said that the country was not thought about then, irrespective of who was from which cast and if you have defeated people belonging to this region then you cant be happy about it.
4. Common people today do not talk about cast but people like you who take forward political parties propaganda are the reason why the cast politics is still active. Shameful
5. Using the same example and ridiculous logic that you have given, are u saying that the Indian personal who arrested the legend Bhagat Singh, who were the cause of our great leaders martyrdom, we should call them heroes. What a negative thought process.
It’s because of People like you the fourth pillar of democracy has become questionable.
Let me clear to the author if he himself has not understood Saragarhi was fought between British and Afghan and Bhima Koregaon between British and Army of Marathas which are ofcourse indian moreover the battle of Saragarhi was in self defence by the Aghans who were getting paid for not attacking the British and Bhima Koregaon war was by the Marathas to get back the territory which was rightly theirs
The other of this imbalanced story is one Dilip Mandal. Being Mandal it is quite normal for him to have a bias in such stories. He should have given a thought that there are people who won’t buy his ridiculous story.
If he has the intellect and guts he should come forward and respond to the adverse comments given by various readers. Let us see his calibre as a journalist.
I think the fact that Khyber Pakhtun is not part of India post independence makes Saragarhi incident be seen in a neutral light among Indians. Same cannot be said about the Koregaon Bhima as Maharashtra are integral part of India. We have conveniently forgotten Pakhtuns fought the independence struggle with whole of India just as much as any and their leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan who was never demanded a Muslim state and wanted to join India. The same consideration of being recognised as freedom fighter should be extended to the Pashtuns as much as extended to the Peshwas.
Hence I this more of an anti-Dalit attitude than anti-Islamic attitude fuelled by the our ignorance of the near history.
During Peshwa rule, lower caste people were tortured and were treated as animals which was a brahmanical tradition imposed in our country since thousands of years and still this culture is followed in many parts of country.. .bhima koregaon war should not be seen as Victory of British, but victory of mahars against age old tradition of brahmical system(peshwas )of treating lower caste people as animals ,as there slaves.. ..BHima koregaon War story should be included in our syllabus or a movie should be made on it as it reflects pride of our country in uprooting age old traditions…
People are not in possession to digest any opinion which goes against their mindset. They don’t know that at the time of battle of saragarhi, pathan was also part of india. If culprit jinna and all not demanded pakistan then this worrier tribe would be part of India. You can’t see map of RSS showing afaganistan in India. Don’t try to see it in religious frame. Mahabharat era Ghandhar is also near to saragarhi. So they were not foreigners until division of india. Being muslim is not a foreign nationale, if so then in pakistan punjab, most of population is Jat but they all are muslim. In india Jat are Sikh and Hindu. So you can’t see any community in religious mirror.
How can we even compare those 2 battles? The writer of the article has clearly lost his mind or has been paid/forced to write this half witted article!
Excellent article and people who reduculed this article and believe peshwas were nationalist then they are either morons or castists. Peswai was the worst regim for untouchable in Maharashtra. Untochables were demeaned, degraded, humiliated on daily basis. Post desolution and disgraceful defeat of peshwai at the hands of untouchables these so called nationalists Brahmins joined British army and tried their best to shut down the mahar batallion.
There is valour and romance in Saragarhi. The fact of a platoon of soldiers fighting to the last man and last bullet. What is the romance in the battle of Koregaon. Or stories of valour that fire the imagination of people.
Nice attempt to twist the logic. By comparing these two, one of which was clearly against outsider and second one with our own people for British.
Some people never knows how to solve the problem by thier own way.
Author have very cleverly tried to distort the facts. Well fight of peshwa with british was for their own land which british wanted to capture. And fight at sargarhi was to save country from barbarism of attackers.
In bhima koregaon, british were attackers and in sargarhi pashtuns were.
Author is just dividing people on the lines of caste.
Shameful. I am sure author is commie.
Let Me start by saying this
The author is nothing more than a moron…..
but has some points right
the mahars we’re a brave clan as well and the greatest Chatrpati Shivaji Maharaj had them in his army but the peshwas were casteist(remember not Bajirao of Bajirao Mastani-the later peshwas)
the mahars were humiliated often publically….
however, the marathas had many “muslims” in their team as well who fought against the mahars but this is never mentioned as this goes against their dalit-muslim gatbandhan narrative
Even now a lot of upper caste Hindus are ok with marrying off their daughters to “beef eating” whites and also beef eating muslims if they speak good English but they have a problem with dalits……and always curse reservation…..
and the fucking moron has mentioned peshwas were not freedom fighters – agreed but has termed tipu sultan’s regime as keeping the British out of the subcontinent…..
what good did the fucking tipu sultan’s government did with the dalits….or upper caste Hindus?
o yes, I remember he paid the upper caste brahmins to frame a story that the marathas have looted all the temple and he gave money to rebuild temple…..if only the mother fuckers understood that it was a political stunt because tipu sultan’s was not in a great position fighting with the marathas, although the marathas didn’t win
This message is for the author and the editor.
You guys look like paid by someone to diminish the valour of Sikhs.
You have no idea how to compare two wars.
Obviously you both are absolutely illiterate and it’s amazing how u got the name of Modi in this article.
You must apologise in your own channel…other wise it’s a matter of a few days you will get a legal notice by some one soon.
Start packing up.
The author is ridiculous and doesn’t know an ounce about the Koregaon incident. The battle of Koregaon was fought for “mother land” by the Brahmin Peshwas who were a part of the Maratha empire and not ones who took over the Maratha empire . Only a few dalits helped the British .They were present on Peshwa’s side as well ! Relating Koregaon incident with the Sikh incident is ridiculous !
What a shoddy article.
Look at the blatant bias-
“Neither the Peshwas nor the Pashtuns can be called freedom fighters as they were fighting their own regional battles”
But
“the Fourth Anglo-Mysore war, which ended the sultanate of Tipu Sultan. With him dying in this battle, the hope of ousting the British from Indian subcontinent ended”
First, the whole “mahar vs peshwa” framing peddled by the author was a political move on Ambedkar’s part, and simply does not stand up to historical scrutiny : for example, the MARATHA CONFEDERACY against whom the British Empire was fighting in 1818 included the lower-caste Dhangars (Holkar), Muslims/Pathans and the tribal pindharis on the peshwa’s side AGAINST the British for whom the Mahars were fighting. So “mahar vs peshwa” is just one narrative…in the case of Saragarhi, there is no counter narrative which makes the whole thing simpler for Bollywood to turn into a consumable commodity. Bhima Koregaon cannot be compared with Saragarhi because “good Sikhs fighting bad Afghans” is much easier for Bollywood than “good Mahars and others fighting bad Brahmin rulers , though most soldiers weren’t Brahmins, and others”. Bollywood’s reluctance to engage with complicated storylines has little to do with
Brahminism, and everything to do with the mediocrity of its utterly commercialised cinema. There are many other complex historical stories (Bose for example) that Bollywood ignores.
So, in conclusion, I would say that it is extremely lazy to take two diverse events (the only thing in common being that they were “battles”) and throw in facile rants against “Brahminism”, RSS and whatnot. And I’m not even from the Right.
After story on Scroll comparing Airstrikes to Immaculate conception, I thought media will learn. Alas not true.
Saragarhi is famous as it was a last stand that changed history. Had they surrendered British rule in the region would have fallen as their sacrifice gave British time to reinforce defenses.
If there has to be a comparison it would be Battle of Rezang La. Where soldiers sacrificed to the last man for loyalty to their country.
As far as Bhima Koregaon is concerned the author is Blissfully Ignorant that this celebration of Victory happens every year since B R Ambedkar started it. What was different this year? Well as the author Refuses to Acknowledge that there was a concerted effort to incite violence and strife. If you do not believe in premeditated effort kindly explain the sudden appearance of Brahmin-hate messages on social media. Fake messages from Sambhaji death to 26/11, all starting then and suddenly vanishing immediately after.
Dear Supposedly senior reporter, kindly remember the Ethics you are expected to have. And if inciting communal hate is the job given to you by your editor, atleast be subtle about it to escape any backlash.
Dr. Yogesh Karnik BDS
What a shame that you publish this article which divides the people on caste line.
Peshwas were fighting the battle under Maratha king,these pseudo intellectuals have done more harm to our country than the real enemy.they can’t see the real picture and push their own narrative by misreading the history.
Sikh history is great they sacrifices deserve respect. In all sectors of life having loving nature , caring taking langar free of cost at any point of earth like Khalsa aid people , fighting for the Hindus form converted into Muslims to fought bravely in army and defence forces. There history is great and should be in the text books but the irony is that they never takes credits and and not greedy for appriciation ie why our history is not available in the books of cbse syllabus . By internet is full with their true story of their secrifices.
Battle of saragarhi was last stand, it showed the valour of 21 sikh warriors who refused to surrender or run but die instead for honour but battle of Korean bhima was battle between two armies, kindly do not compare it in terms of caste but in terms of valour, British company consisted of persons of various caste and regilion origins, the author of this article should not unnecessarily create difference where there is none.
I really sympathise with u r IQ level, it was British Army vs Peshwa..battle by Peshwa for freedom and by British Army for grabbing land. Ok British Army won but even those days army never been castist or communal. Now since few socially troubled (may b) people were part of that army, so u can’t say it was Brahmin vs them…it was Peshwa vs British army.. period. So British can make movie on this not Indian
The author has no idea of Battle of Bhima Koregaon. He should have properly researched before writing this article.
The battle of Koregaon had Mahar, Maratha etc soldiers on both sides,Peshwa and British. In fact, the contingent of Peshwa Army,which attacked the British position, after crossing Bhima river, were mostly Arab mercenaries (Muslims) in the service of Peshwa.
Saragarhi battle is different. Sikhs were lead by a Sikh. They perished to the last man. Their defensive walls had been breached by Pathans.
Bhima Koregaon British contingent was lead by British captain who had good natural defenses around him. It was British captain’s grit and valour that his group didn’t give up.
That’s what British record says.
And Peshwa army posse (mostly Arab mercenaries) didn’t have that determined leadership, unlike Pathans in case of Saragarhi.
Also, it is wrong to say that that koregaon was a battle between Mahars and Marathas.There were some Marathas and some Mahars fighting on both sides.
Please research properly the battle of Bhima Koregaon was fought by the Marathas to get back their territory so it doesn’t matter if the British Army had some Indians or not so don’t make it Marathas and Mahr war and divide people and Saragarhi was self defence against Afghan army
Dude are you -blind/ insane/ oblivious/ fool/ stupid or anything such like all these adjectives? One battle was fought against foreign invaders and another , well , against your own country men. Would you accept that on the same platform? Boss let me get back to the dictionary and find you some more bizarre words which you rightfully deserve!!!
When the Peshwas fought against other local kings , which side would you take ? All of them were our “countrymen” after all.
It is better to analyse whether Paeshwas were good rulers or no. Their being good Indians does not arise , since a unitary Indian State did not exist then.
The justification for Kesar lies in the dramatic geography and the bravery of a handful against hundreds , while KOregaon may not have such drama behind it.
Initially I thought the print is a revolutionary media against autocratic government and work for democratic right and freedom of press and I gave donation for it but it has an agenda that is to divide majority hindus and form a coalition of muslim and dalits ,, communal media I want my money back
Battle of Saragrahi was well known to have been fought by a martial clan against the uncouth Afghan raiders who , in whichever sense were never considered a part of modern India however it begs question of how the author slyly has tried to draw parallels and colour the otherwise white canvas with castecism and battle of castes. It truly brings out what’s going on in one’s mind
I am at a loss of words how can a educated person compare saragarhi and Koregaon in the same breath. Very poor editorial oversight. Shame.for printing such an article.
This author is just creating divide between dalits n others . The basic difference is Sikhs fought against an invading enemy while bhima koregaon was fought against our own people. As the author himself writing that it ended peshva rule. That is why it is not celebrated if dalits had chosen otherwise than our history may be different today.
N for God’s sake stop all this u r only dividing people.
Ha ha. Manuwadi manuwadi. I wonder when these people will come out of it.
Just enjoy the progress of our country in the safe hands of Modiji. Sabka saath sabka Vikas.
And never underestimate sikhs patriotism and bravery.
Yes. It is trivioul irony of Indian history which is written to suit manuvadi systems. The mulniwasi of Indian origin was never given their dues in the past.
Like it or not, Brahmins have been able to turn anything against them as anti hindu and in turn anti national. Secondly other castes do not want to align with dalits as they think they are aligning with low castes. Thirdly there is no separate dominant land(state) , where dalit are powerful irrespective of political ups and downs. Fourthly dalit have yet to become economic indecent. Once these things happen, dalit will have their history, and be sure this will happen, written all over places in india
Battle of Saragrahi was against the Afghans whereas the battle of Koregaon was sgainst our very own Indian King. The battle of Koregaon was treachery and those who fought for the British should be termed as traitors….
The battle of Saragrahi was fought in Pashtun territory. The Sikh soldiers were part of an imperial army and fought for colonialists. Hence, in both cases, Indians were fighting for ignoble causes.
There had been more than two battles in India and the neighbourhood. This is a typical lazy intellectualism of Indians, asking why this why not that ? what about this ?
If you want to make a movie or write a book go ahead and do it yourself !
British army vs Indian. Sikhs and mahars fighting against Indian people for money. Kal laxmi bai ko marnai valo ko bharat ratan dai daina. Iis karan bharat gulam raha
That’s because the narrative of Dalits rising against Brahminical forces is a myth. The battle was not an uprising. The Mahars happened to be part of the squad formed by British officer to fight against the Peshwas. Amongst the squad were also Marathas, Rajputs, Muslims and Jews. Amongst dead were also similar diverse groups. It was used by Ambedkar a symbolic victory back in 1927, and fair enough. But today it’s just being used to flame communal disharmony, just like this article.
You must mention it this way at the footer… The Author is a senior journalist and a big time Modi Hater. I am amused how you slaves find a way to link everything to PM Modi and his government .. you guys are so shit scared of one man… losers.
Comment:Finally very well effort to write true history. Writer is really a brave person. The history told by writer is true .
But what it holds true , today we are seeing a new tide of dividing India , these media houses like print, quint , scroll has come to destroy country unity.
There is actually no comparison between the two battles except in both battles Britishers were facing resistance from both insiders and outsiders . And in both battles they used Indians as their facesavers . But still battle of Saragarhi is unique in the sense that there sikh regiment fought it for their own principles , dharm and pride against cruel invaders .And here in this koregaon battle , Britishers used Indians to fight against Indians . And now after many decades the same battle is being used to poison the minds of Indians against Indians alone . Battles fought worldwide are only for victory , territorial expansions and for religious disbeliefs .(Or it always got a religious undertone to it ) But here in India , from ages Indians always fought for the honour , truth , justice and principles . That’s how battle of koregaon or the role of mahars will always be considered as substandard or will not get any acknowledgement from Indians at least . We cannot recognize koregaon battle at par with that of saragarhi .
You mean anything against brahmin is equal to against dharma and principles. What a hypocrisy and substandard comment i have seen
Firstly huge applaud for inspiring writing very similar to Mr. Prakash Ambedkar drawing cribbing pitiness to the plight of Dalits in Maharashtra.
1. Dalits exists in each and every state and almost all the communities (parsis and christians) doesn’t seem to have them at least in Maharashtra.
2. What Koregaon Bhima Sena did was an utter sense of stupidity and anti national celebration. Apart from Mr. Bajirao being a Peshwa do you have any idea what he was!
If he was would have lived at least 10 more years people like you would be seen in rawalpindi railway tracks selling peanuts. Thereby we would have less policemen and crime in this country.
You speak high of Dalits. Have you ever considered the reason why they are treated that way. On Ambedkar Jayanti they come in large numbers free of costs in Dadar Shivaji Park without taking any bathe for days openly shit in front of our houses and urinate on our streets. They drink local country wine and touch boobs of women jogging early morning in shivaji park.
You expect us to behave with them decently. If this country was Afghanistan we would have taken a AK47 and shot each and every one of them and celebrated that day as Anti Ambedkar Day shitty people.
You seem full of hatred toward ‘dalits’ the word dalits is popularised by dr bhimrao Ambedkar you dalits means broken/ shattered the word is derived from sanskrit. he believed the dalits were in every part of india and the idea was to give reservation to indians who are educationally, socially, or religiously etc at disadvantaged compared to forward castes. forward castes are Indians who are Educationally, Socially, religiously, etc at advantage. why you thing a particular community will do something bad because you doesn’t belong to it. so people think all indian men are rapist, Hindus are cow piss drinker, Muslims are terrorists, but we all are individuals, humans, why blame entire nation, religion, or particular group because of few wicked peoples. it seems you are not aware of their history, all of the dalits were considered Untouchables by hindu castes and killed, raped, burnt burried alive, because of hindu castes and sanatana dharm because back then most of Hindus were killing these people.. because they are avarna. it took them thousands of years to get freed from hindu slavery.. dr bhimrao Ambedkar believed in equality and it was needed to help our fellow indians.. we should look above religions and castes.. we are indians. do you remember 2006 Khairlanji massacre where hindus killed dalits because of hindu views so should be blame hindus for some hindus heinous crimes? no we shouldn’t we should embrace each other. hindus should stop treating dalits as Untouchables and avarna and while dalits should trust Hindus anf stop hating on hindus and particularly Brahmins then will be able to solve this problem.. when 2 groups are in a great rivalry it’s their duty to take a step and embrace em love em, forgive em and forgive yourself too.
comments shows how intolerant we Indians became to others opinion and truth which doesn’t suit the jingoistic class.
kudos to the writer for highlighting the truth .
Indeed truth is bitter
the truthfulness in the article and
the bitterness in comments clearly proves that
You can no longer speak truth in this modern india..
u can no longer hail dalit or Muslims in positive light.
Today the people of India are witnessing the glimpse of British era policies like Divide & Rule and Official secrets act !
shame on us for electing this fascist government and the effects of this are clearly visible on common man which is dreadful.
plz vote wisely this time in 2019 our future depends on it so as the future of our country.
This writer is a communist who wants to divide India , the print, quint , scroll are all the same which want to destroy India u ity and it’s society. Which country has given reservation. Even today, upper caste people have said clearly we apologise for our ancestors mistake and this is what is given in form of reservation and respect in each field. But, people think that it is not correct.
kudos to the writer for highlighting the truth .
& high hail to this Canadian cum indin nationalist akshay kumar
Indeed truth is bitter
the truthfulness in the article and
the bitterness in comments clearly proves that
You can no longer speak truth in this modern india..
u can no longer hail dalit or Muslims in positive light.
Today the people of India are witnessing the glimpse of British era policies like Divide & Rule and Official secrets act !
shame on us for electing this fascist government and the effects of this are clearly visible on common man which is dreadful.
plz vote wisely this time in 2019 our future depends on it so as the future of our country.
Dilip Mandal doesn’t know history to an extent that he shall comment on it. Peshwas never dislodged the Chhatrapati. They were the prime minister of the Maratha throne and never were the king themselves. The battle of Koregaon Bhima is a mystery since the British themselves have written conflicting accounts of it. Valor of the Mahars was never questioned in any political system. Even Peshwas well appreciated their strengths and had Mahar soldiers as a coveted group in their army. The comments I read above are more from emotions than from facts. It is rather a farfetched thought that ThePrint would highlight facts and not twist them.
Our history is full of these kind of ‘so called betrayals’ for instance The presidency armies were the armies of the three presidencies of the East India Company’s rule in India, later the forces of the British Crown in India, composed primarily of Indian sepoys. the ‘Bengal Army’ It was recruited from Bhumihar, Bihari Rajputs and Pathan soldiers . while ‘Bombay army’ was primarily composed of maratha, rajputs, muslims, mahars, mangs, chamars etc. on the other hand ‘madras army’ was full of different kind of indians as well. and all these presidency armies were involved in different battles against the enemies of EIC AND British raj. they fought our own people. sikhs, dogras, gorkhas, marathas, pathans, muslims, mahars, mangs, chamars, rajputs, and all kind of indians who used to be a part of armies of BR and EIC. Its not cool to call em traitors or betrayers because there were separate indian kingdoms and Empire and they rulers were from a specific caste and religion and dominated and ruled over us while under British raj we came forward us one ‘indian’ and got independence on own creation of republic of india which is a democracy. for the people, by the people. be United, unekta mein ekta. jay hind!
Saragarhi & Bhima Koregaon were important battles no doubt but not of as much historic significance as the battle of Plassey, which laid the foundations of British rule here. In the battle of Plassey too, the East India Co. used soldiers of so called ” backward ” communities to defeat an Indian ruler. Indians do not celebrate the battle of Plassey or the battle of Seringapattan as they resulted in defeats of Indian rulers. But some people in India would like to celebrate Bhima koregaon for reasons best understood by them alone.
I Thank You brother for your cool words for ‘battle of Plassey’ where indian bengal subah and ‘FEIC’ Fought against GB’s EIC With the help of Madras & Bombay European Regiments mostly indians including rajputs, marathas, brahmins and mahars. in this battle Indias biggest empire known as Mughaliya Sultanate was defeated by invading foreigners British forces. it sad that people forget how we Indians were cheated by our own men. ‘Siege of Seringapatam’ was one of the saddest military conflicts where Hyderabad and british forces fought against great tipu sultan and defeated him with help with bengal army and madras army.
Drawing parallel between two battels seams to an agenda driven attempt
The author cannot compare two battles. one was against Afghan invaders and the other was to dislodge a native Lord.
Please note that author was live reporting in both Bheema Koregaon war and Battle of Saragarhi. He have actual recorded statement of each and every soldier of both wars.
That’s how he came to conclusion that both war were same.
It’s a free country with free press and freedom to speak, and writer has got every right to do same for inciting communal separation.
He also deserves promotion and fame in his life and constitution provides him right to do so.
If by any chance, you feel that you are offended, then it’s your problem.
Main problem is Modi, due to his ‘ swachh bharat yojna’, people are not getting chance to litter on road, so hence your mind is the best place to litter.
Dear Author, keep littering. We are here for you.
The writer here has done what s/he is good at i.e. spreading negativity. Few points
1. First of all not many people knew about battle of Saraghari until Akshay Kumar picked this up and this has definitely irked the writer who is from The Print. It’s a shame that no one was taught about this battle in schools but we know about each and everything about others.
2. The battle of Saraghari was against external forces so its victory has to be celebrated
3. The battle of Koregaon was with people who belonged to this region not using the country name as the writer has smartly said that the country was not thought about then, irrespective of who was from which cast and if you have defeated people belonging to this region then you cant be happy about it.
4. Common people today do not talk about cast but people like you who take forward political parties propaganda are the reason why the cast politics is still active. Shameful
5. Using the same example and ridiculous logic that you have given, are u saying that the Indian personal who arrested the legend Bhagat Singh, who were the cause of our great leaders martyrdom, we should call them heroes. What a negative thought process.
It’s because of People like you the fourth pillar of democracy has become questionable.
Let me clear to the author if he himself has not understood Saragarhi was fought between British and Afghan and Bhima Koregaon between British and Army of Marathas which are ofcourse indian moreover the battle of Saragarhi was in self defence by the Aghans who were getting paid for not attacking the British and Bhima Koregaon war was by the Marathas to get back the territory which was rightly theirs
I don’t understand why you should compare the both situations.
What you wanted to prove here.
The other of this imbalanced story is one Dilip Mandal. Being Mandal it is quite normal for him to have a bias in such stories. He should have given a thought that there are people who won’t buy his ridiculous story.
If he has the intellect and guts he should come forward and respond to the adverse comments given by various readers. Let us see his calibre as a journalist.
I think the fact that Khyber Pakhtun is not part of India post independence makes Saragarhi incident be seen in a neutral light among Indians. Same cannot be said about the Koregaon Bhima as Maharashtra are integral part of India. We have conveniently forgotten Pakhtuns fought the independence struggle with whole of India just as much as any and their leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan who was never demanded a Muslim state and wanted to join India. The same consideration of being recognised as freedom fighter should be extended to the Pashtuns as much as extended to the Peshwas.
Hence I this more of an anti-Dalit attitude than anti-Islamic attitude fuelled by the our ignorance of the near history.
During Peshwa rule, lower caste people were tortured and were treated as animals which was a brahmanical tradition imposed in our country since thousands of years and still this culture is followed in many parts of country.. .bhima koregaon war should not be seen as Victory of British, but victory of mahars against age old tradition of brahmical system(peshwas )of treating lower caste people as animals ,as there slaves.. ..BHima koregaon War story should be included in our syllabus or a movie should be made on it as it reflects pride of our country in uprooting age old traditions…
People are not in possession to digest any opinion which goes against their mindset. They don’t know that at the time of battle of saragarhi, pathan was also part of india. If culprit jinna and all not demanded pakistan then this worrier tribe would be part of India. You can’t see map of RSS showing afaganistan in India. Don’t try to see it in religious frame. Mahabharat era Ghandhar is also near to saragarhi. So they were not foreigners until division of india. Being muslim is not a foreign nationale, if so then in pakistan punjab, most of population is Jat but they all are muslim. In india Jat are Sikh and Hindu. So you can’t see any community in religious mirror.
How can we even compare those 2 battles? The writer of the article has clearly lost his mind or has been paid/forced to write this half witted article!
Excellent article and people who reduculed this article and believe peshwas were nationalist then they are either morons or castists. Peswai was the worst regim for untouchable in Maharashtra. Untochables were demeaned, degraded, humiliated on daily basis. Post desolution and disgraceful defeat of peshwai at the hands of untouchables these so called nationalists Brahmins joined British army and tried their best to shut down the mahar batallion.
There is valour and romance in Saragarhi. The fact of a platoon of soldiers fighting to the last man and last bullet. What is the romance in the battle of Koregaon. Or stories of valour that fire the imagination of people.
Nice attempt to twist the logic. By comparing these two, one of which was clearly against outsider and second one with our own people for British.
Some people never knows how to solve the problem by thier own way.
Author have very cleverly tried to distort the facts. Well fight of peshwa with british was for their own land which british wanted to capture. And fight at sargarhi was to save country from barbarism of attackers.
In bhima koregaon, british were attackers and in sargarhi pashtuns were.
Author is just dividing people on the lines of caste.
Shameful. I am sure author is commie.
Let Me start by saying this
The author is nothing more than a moron…..
but has some points right
the mahars we’re a brave clan as well and the greatest Chatrpati Shivaji Maharaj had them in his army but the peshwas were casteist(remember not Bajirao of Bajirao Mastani-the later peshwas)
the mahars were humiliated often publically….
however, the marathas had many “muslims” in their team as well who fought against the mahars but this is never mentioned as this goes against their dalit-muslim gatbandhan narrative
Even now a lot of upper caste Hindus are ok with marrying off their daughters to “beef eating” whites and also beef eating muslims if they speak good English but they have a problem with dalits……and always curse reservation…..
and the fucking moron has mentioned peshwas were not freedom fighters – agreed but has termed tipu sultan’s regime as keeping the British out of the subcontinent…..
what good did the fucking tipu sultan’s government did with the dalits….or upper caste Hindus?
o yes, I remember he paid the upper caste brahmins to frame a story that the marathas have looted all the temple and he gave money to rebuild temple…..if only the mother fuckers understood that it was a political stunt because tipu sultan’s was not in a great position fighting with the marathas, although the marathas didn’t win
This message is for the author and the editor.
You guys look like paid by someone to diminish the valour of Sikhs.
You have no idea how to compare two wars.
Obviously you both are absolutely illiterate and it’s amazing how u got the name of Modi in this article.
You must apologise in your own channel…other wise it’s a matter of a few days you will get a legal notice by some one soon.
Start packing up.
The author is ridiculous and doesn’t know an ounce about the Koregaon incident. The battle of Koregaon was fought for “mother land” by the Brahmin Peshwas who were a part of the Maratha empire and not ones who took over the Maratha empire . Only a few dalits helped the British .They were present on Peshwa’s side as well ! Relating Koregaon incident with the Sikh incident is ridiculous !
What a shoddy article.
Look at the blatant bias-
“Neither the Peshwas nor the Pashtuns can be called freedom fighters as they were fighting their own regional battles”
But
“the Fourth Anglo-Mysore war, which ended the sultanate of Tipu Sultan. With him dying in this battle, the hope of ousting the British from Indian subcontinent ended”
Dilip Mandal, in name of democracy don’t try to spread hatred amongst Indians. The Print stop doing this, ask yourself was this article really needed…
First, the whole “mahar vs peshwa” framing peddled by the author was a political move on Ambedkar’s part, and simply does not stand up to historical scrutiny : for example, the MARATHA CONFEDERACY against whom the British Empire was fighting in 1818 included the lower-caste Dhangars (Holkar), Muslims/Pathans and the tribal pindharis on the peshwa’s side AGAINST the British for whom the Mahars were fighting. So “mahar vs peshwa” is just one narrative…in the case of Saragarhi, there is no counter narrative which makes the whole thing simpler for Bollywood to turn into a consumable commodity. Bhima Koregaon cannot be compared with Saragarhi because “good Sikhs fighting bad Afghans” is much easier for Bollywood than “good Mahars and others fighting bad Brahmin rulers , though most soldiers weren’t Brahmins, and others”. Bollywood’s reluctance to engage with complicated storylines has little to do with
Brahminism, and everything to do with the mediocrity of its utterly commercialised cinema. There are many other complex historical stories (Bose for example) that Bollywood ignores.
So, in conclusion, I would say that it is extremely lazy to take two diverse events (the only thing in common being that they were “battles”) and throw in facile rants against “Brahminism”, RSS and whatnot. And I’m not even from the Right.
After story on Scroll comparing Airstrikes to Immaculate conception, I thought media will learn. Alas not true.
Saragarhi is famous as it was a last stand that changed history. Had they surrendered British rule in the region would have fallen as their sacrifice gave British time to reinforce defenses.
If there has to be a comparison it would be Battle of Rezang La. Where soldiers sacrificed to the last man for loyalty to their country.
As far as Bhima Koregaon is concerned the author is Blissfully Ignorant that this celebration of Victory happens every year since B R Ambedkar started it. What was different this year? Well as the author Refuses to Acknowledge that there was a concerted effort to incite violence and strife. If you do not believe in premeditated effort kindly explain the sudden appearance of Brahmin-hate messages on social media. Fake messages from Sambhaji death to 26/11, all starting then and suddenly vanishing immediately after.
Dear Supposedly senior reporter, kindly remember the Ethics you are expected to have. And if inciting communal hate is the job given to you by your editor, atleast be subtle about it to escape any backlash.
Dr. Yogesh Karnik BDS
Why do you people make everything about Modi ? Thoda pranayaam karo yaar
What a shame that you publish this article which divides the people on caste line.
Peshwas were fighting the battle under Maratha king,these pseudo intellectuals have done more harm to our country than the real enemy.they can’t see the real picture and push their own narrative by misreading the history.
Sikh history is great they sacrifices deserve respect. In all sectors of life having loving nature , caring taking langar free of cost at any point of earth like Khalsa aid people , fighting for the Hindus form converted into Muslims to fought bravely in army and defence forces. There history is great and should be in the text books but the irony is that they never takes credits and and not greedy for appriciation ie why our history is not available in the books of cbse syllabus . By internet is full with their true story of their secrifices.
Battle of saragarhi was last stand, it showed the valour of 21 sikh warriors who refused to surrender or run but die instead for honour but battle of Korean bhima was battle between two armies, kindly do not compare it in terms of caste but in terms of valour, British company consisted of persons of various caste and regilion origins, the author of this article should not unnecessarily create difference where there is none.
I really sympathise with u r IQ level, it was British Army vs Peshwa..battle by Peshwa for freedom and by British Army for grabbing land. Ok British Army won but even those days army never been castist or communal. Now since few socially troubled (may b) people were part of that army, so u can’t say it was Brahmin vs them…it was Peshwa vs British army.. period. So British can make movie on this not Indian
The author has no idea of Battle of Bhima Koregaon. He should have properly researched before writing this article.
The battle of Koregaon had Mahar, Maratha etc soldiers on both sides,Peshwa and British. In fact, the contingent of Peshwa Army,which attacked the British position, after crossing Bhima river, were mostly Arab mercenaries (Muslims) in the service of Peshwa.
Saragarhi battle is different. Sikhs were lead by a Sikh. They perished to the last man. Their defensive walls had been breached by Pathans.
Bhima Koregaon British contingent was lead by British captain who had good natural defenses around him. It was British captain’s grit and valour that his group didn’t give up.
That’s what British record says.
And Peshwa army posse (mostly Arab mercenaries) didn’t have that determined leadership, unlike Pathans in case of Saragarhi.
Also, it is wrong to say that that koregaon was a battle between Mahars and Marathas.There were some Marathas and some Mahars fighting on both sides.
Please research properly the battle of Bhima Koregaon was fought by the Marathas to get back their territory so it doesn’t matter if the British Army had some Indians or not so don’t make it Marathas and Mahr war and divide people and Saragarhi was self defence against Afghan army
Dude are you -blind/ insane/ oblivious/ fool/ stupid or anything such like all these adjectives? One battle was fought against foreign invaders and another , well , against your own country men. Would you accept that on the same platform? Boss let me get back to the dictionary and find you some more bizarre words which you rightfully deserve!!!
When the Peshwas fought against other local kings , which side would you take ? All of them were our “countrymen” after all.
It is better to analyse whether Paeshwas were good rulers or no. Their being good Indians does not arise , since a unitary Indian State did not exist then.
The justification for Kesar lies in the dramatic geography and the bravery of a handful against hundreds , while KOregaon may not have such drama behind it.
Initially I thought the print is a revolutionary media against autocratic government and work for democratic right and freedom of press and I gave donation for it but it has an agenda that is to divide majority hindus and form a coalition of muslim and dalits ,, communal media I want my money back
Battle of Saragrahi was well known to have been fought by a martial clan against the uncouth Afghan raiders who , in whichever sense were never considered a part of modern India however it begs question of how the author slyly has tried to draw parallels and colour the otherwise white canvas with castecism and battle of castes. It truly brings out what’s going on in one’s mind
I am at a loss of words how can a educated person compare saragarhi and Koregaon in the same breath. Very poor editorial oversight. Shame.for printing such an article.
This author is just creating divide between dalits n others . The basic difference is Sikhs fought against an invading enemy while bhima koregaon was fought against our own people. As the author himself writing that it ended peshva rule. That is why it is not celebrated if dalits had chosen otherwise than our history may be different today.
N for God’s sake stop all this u r only dividing people.
Ha ha. Manuwadi manuwadi. I wonder when these people will come out of it.
Just enjoy the progress of our country in the safe hands of Modiji. Sabka saath sabka Vikas.
And never underestimate sikhs patriotism and bravery.
Yes. It is trivioul irony of Indian history which is written to suit manuvadi systems. The mulniwasi of Indian origin was never given their dues in the past.
Like it or not, Brahmins have been able to turn anything against them as anti hindu and in turn anti national. Secondly other castes do not want to align with dalits as they think they are aligning with low castes. Thirdly there is no separate dominant land(state) , where dalit are powerful irrespective of political ups and downs. Fourthly dalit have yet to become economic indecent. Once these things happen, dalit will have their history, and be sure this will happen, written all over places in india
Excellent understanding
Battle of Saragrahi was against the Afghans whereas the battle of Koregaon was sgainst our very own Indian King. The battle of Koregaon was treachery and those who fought for the British should be termed as traitors….
The battle of Saragrahi was fought in Pashtun territory. The Sikh soldiers were part of an imperial army and fought for colonialists. Hence, in both cases, Indians were fighting for ignoble causes.
There had been more than two battles in India and the neighbourhood. This is a typical lazy intellectualism of Indians, asking why this why not that ? what about this ?
If you want to make a movie or write a book go ahead and do it yourself !
British army vs Indian. Sikhs and mahars fighting against Indian people for money. Kal laxmi bai ko marnai valo ko bharat ratan dai daina. Iis karan bharat gulam raha
That’s because the narrative of Dalits rising against Brahminical forces is a myth. The battle was not an uprising. The Mahars happened to be part of the squad formed by British officer to fight against the Peshwas. Amongst the squad were also Marathas, Rajputs, Muslims and Jews. Amongst dead were also similar diverse groups. It was used by Ambedkar a symbolic victory back in 1927, and fair enough. But today it’s just being used to flame communal disharmony, just like this article.
Very true.
You must mention it this way at the footer… The Author is a senior journalist and a big time Modi Hater. I am amused how you slaves find a way to link everything to PM Modi and his government .. you guys are so shit scared of one man… losers.