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Skeletons In The Cupboard: Cawnpur Well Massacre Case - Three: Tatya Tope

Born as Ramachandra Pandurang Tope (also called Tantia Tope) around 1814, he was a member of  Deshastha Brahmin  community who had access to the ruling elite of Marathas including Peshwa (Chief Minister) of Maratha confederacy based at Poona. His father Pandurang Rao Tope was a court official in the service of Peshwa, Baji Rao II, of Maratha confederacy. After the Peshwa was defeated by East India Company he was forced to move to Bithoor, and Tope family moved along with him. This gave Tatya an opportunity to get familiar with Nana Saheb and other Maratha nobles.  He was not a mercenary outsider, but an insider of Maratha royal and witnessed the decay of it.  Even though he was not a member of the royal class he was attached to administrative and military class. They enjoyed status, education and proximity to power. He took pride in the glory of the Maratha Empire and grieved over loss of its political presence. He was committed to restore the lost glory of Marathas....
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Deshastha Brahmins

Hindu Brahmin subcaste originating from Maharashtra and North Karnataka belonging to Pancha Dravida group known for their scholarly contributions.  They are concentrated in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telagana and Andhrapradesh; with Marathi and Kannada as common mother tongues. Historically engaged in priesthood, agriculture, and administration.  They were always a part of ruling elite and held positions like Peshwa and Divan.  Deshastha means resident of the land or country.  The valleys of Rivers Krishna and Godavari and the Deccan plateau were their ancestral home. 
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Thirty One: Far From The Madding Crowd: Thomas Hardy - The Fury

Next evening, Bathsheba with the idea of getting out of the way of Boldwood in the event of his coming to answer her note proceeded to fulfil an engagement made with Liddy.  Liddy had been granted a week's leave to visit her sister in Yalbury. Her sister's husband was a thriving hurdler and cattle-crib maker.  They were living in a delightful labyrinth of hazel copse not far From Yalbury. Miss Everdene was to honour them by visiting them for a day or two to familiarise with some ingenious contrivences which this man of wood had introduced into his wares.  Leaving her instructions with Gabriel and Maryann that they were to see everything for the night she set out at the close of a timely thunder-shower, which had refined the air, and gracefully bathed the surface of the land.  She had walked nearly three miles, when she saw advancing over the hill, the very man she sought to elude. Instead of his usual gait,  she saw him stunned and sluggish. Boldwood had for the...
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Skeletons In The Cupboard: Cawnpur Well Massacre - Two: Nana Saheb II

Nationalists always expose Jallianwala Bagh Massacre as an example of British Cruelties. But acts of cruelties were not new to the Indian subcontinent since the dawn of history. Literary evidence of Aryan cruelties on indigenous tribes is available in Rigveda.  Aryan chief Indra was called dasyuhata meaning the slaughterer of dasa or dasyu the indigenous peoples. Indra was Purandara  meaning the destroyer of forts, the fortified cities of Harappan civilization.  Caste is the fundamental institution of what we now call Hinduism, an exonym evolved through centuries, and put to use in the Census records by the British officials in the course of data compilation, when they were baffled by myraid of castes.  The endonym is Sanatana Dharma.  Its tool of oppression is caste system by which they subjugate people outside the four varnas. Look at the Kalinga war for wanton brutality. Later look at the Shunga Brahminical brutalities against Jain and Buddhists. Leading ...
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Thirty: Far From The Madding Crowd: Thomas Hardy - Hot Cheeks & Tearful Eyes.

Half an hour later Bathsheba entered her house.  The candle light exposed the recent flush and excitement  on her face. The farewell words of Troy, who had accompanied her to the very door, still lingered in her ears.  He had bidden her adieu for two days for a visit to Bath and spend there with his friends.  He had also kissed her a second time.  This was only at a meeting by chance and not pre-arranged and it happened after her meeting with Oak. She sank down into a chair, wild and perturbed by the fevering sequences. Then she jumped up impulsively, and fetched a desk from a side table. In three minutes, without a pause or modification, she had written a letter to Boldwood, saying mildly but firmly that she had well considered his proposal, and decided not to accept it.  She went to the kitchen to find anyone to take it to Boldwood.  As she was moving along the passage, a dialogue was going on in the kitchen, and Bathsheba and Troy were the subject o...
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Skeletons In The Cupboard: Cawnpur Well Massacre

Native runners known as sepoys or infantry men were the backbone of the East India Company army.  They constituted more than 90 per cent of the company army numbering 300 thousands.  Two months prior to the outbreak of rebellion, in the villages of northwestern provinces of India witnessed the revival of an old custom of circulating chapathis in the night by the Sepoys. It is believed that it was a secret message to be prepared for the mutiny.  How it worked  ° A runner coming at night carrying few chapathis. ° He deliver them to the chowkidar. ° Chowkidar prepares another set of chapathis. ° These are then sent to other villages through other runners. Irish reporter of Times, William Howard Russel later noted that it was a mysterious and fast method and difficult to trace the origin. It was thought that the mutineers were getting prepared. It was believed that it worked more swiftly than the British mail. It travelled from Farrukhabad to Gurgaon, from Oudh to Rohilk...
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The Archeological Tools The Early Humans Used To Process Food

The Transition from raw diet to a cooked diet didn't just change human biology; it fundamentally shifted human technology.  Before fire, tools were primarily about extraction, after fire they evolved to processing and refinement.  Hominins like Homo habilis designed their tools that helped to get them at food. Those tools were an extension of their teeth and nails. What their teeth and nails could not do their tools did. These, according to archeologists, belonged to Oldowan traditions. They comprised hammer stones, sharp flakes and choppers. Hammer stones were fist-sized stones used to bash animal bones to get at calorie rich bone marrow.  Sharp flakes were crude stone slivers capable of slicing meat away from carcass.  Choppers were large heavy cores used for separating meat from thick hides.  The Oldowan tools were first discovered at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.  Later, they had been discovered at various sites in eastern, central and southern Africa, inc...
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