For a good amount of time now, I have been witnessing history pages popping up in the light of politics and religion claiming to be "researchers" (which is an insult to researchers who spend their entire life in reading and understanding history and have degrees) and people actually believing every word that these pages, websites and people say. So here is my own brief understanding of how to actually "read" history. 1. Find a topic (can be an event, a person, a dynasty) 2. Look up popular writers on the topic. (Check out their international recognitions, degrees and area of expertise) 3. Look up books with good reviews. 4. Pick your book. Make sure it has a reference and a Bibliography given. 5. Cross-check facts with the references given. Read up on the books given in the bibliography. 6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the next book. 7. If you are reading about dynasties, make sure you read their contemporary accounts, in the earliest possible translation and modern tr...
On the occasion of Maharana Pratap's 486th Birth Anniversary, here is an article I have been meaning to write for a long time. While some of it is personal, other parts are researched. Some parts of this article (art subsection) are reproduced from another article written by me for UPAJ India's magazine Manthan in 2022. Ideally, this was supposed to be two parts, but I did not wish to make it so. Cenotaph at Chawand Veer Shiromoni Hinduja Suraj Maharana Pratap Singh Sisodiya, as he is officially called, the thirteenth Custodian of the royal house of Mewar, a land that now lies in the south-western fringes of the Aravallis of Rajasthan, has been, for the longest time in Indian History, regarded as the first freedom fighter. Resisting invasion into his state, holding his post as king, his life and career had been scrutinised time and again, narratives changed according to popularity rather than evidence. His idea of independence inspired many; his strategy of guerrilla warfare wa...