Agra is home to Balochi families, many of whose elders arrived after 1947. Though they consider themselves lucky to escape persecution, yearning of freedom from Pakistan remains.
Modi likes to paint his political rivals as meat-and-fish-gobbling quasi-Muslims who present 'Muslim' manifestos, appease Muslims, and can’t hope to represent India.
Historian Neha Vermani spoke about the role of food in Aurangzeb's court. Mughals were also selective vegetarians, she says. It was a Sufi method of 'soul purification'
New York-based PEN America criticises curriculum revision by NCERT for school textbooks that include changes to sections on Mahatma Gandhi’s death & trimming of Mughal history.
Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, noted for building the Jantar Mantars, was described as a ‘servant’ of the Mughal palace on a descriptive board outside the Samarkand Observatory.
In most standard textbooks, the story of the Delhi Sultanate is accorded primacy as the ‘main’ narrative while parallel empires in the south and east are categorised as ‘regional’ kingdoms.
The Ahmeds have taken care of the tomb of Aurangzeb — who ordered execution of Chhatrapati Shivaji’s son Sambhaji & is thus a polarising figure in Maharashtra — for six generations.
Not all bulldozers will get the same TV treatment. JCB in Delhi gets the best carpet coverage. But if you want to be an overnight TV star, pick a religious angle.
The collusion between the new class of bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen and trade union bosses perpetuates itself partly because of the short-run benefits and partly because they see no way out of the system, wrote author MH Mody in 1980.
IAF is firming up plans to revamp airlift capabilities with medium transport aircraft that will be assembled in India & serve as its main workhorse. Embraer is leading contender as of now.
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