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Discover Roots of Christianity in India with Siddhartha Sarma’s, “Carpenters and Kings”

Two hundred years before the advent of Vasco da Gama, Western Christianity-which comprises the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and Protestant denominations today-had already arrived in India, finding among its diverse people and faiths the Church of the East already at home since the beginning of Christianity.

Carpenters and Kings by Siddartha Sarma is an account of how global events, including the Crusades and the Mongol conquests, came together to bring Western Christianity to India.

A gripping narrative of two diagonally opposite impulses in Christianity: of humble scholars trying to live the Christian ideal, and of ambitious ecclesiastical empire-builders with more earthly goals.

Here’s what Siddartha has to say about his research methodology for the book:


The germ of the idea for Carpenters and Kings came many years ago when I was writing my thesis for a pre-doctorate in war studies at the University of Glasgow. I specialized in the Later Crusades, which is a fairly new discipline in medieval history and is seeing a lot of exciting new research in the West. My thesis was a comparative study of three crusade proposals, which were strategy manuals by scholars in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries on how to recover the Holy Land which had been retaken by Muslim armies previously. One of the proposals was by William of Adam, a Dominican who would become Archbishop of Sultanieh in Persia. William wanted to launch a crusade from India and was the only such writer to make such a plan centred on the subcontinent. My supervisor suggested that it would be a good idea if we referred, for context, to a comprehensive secondary source on pre-colonial European scholarly engagement with India, to explain what William and others like him were doing in the subcontinent. We discovered that there was no such work. My supervisor found that strange and said it was a large gap in scholarship.

One reason for this gap is the history of Christianity in India is not studied much by Indians themselves. The other reason is Western scholarship has engaged with colonialism and with the Mughal Empire, but not with Europe’s idea of India in the pre-colonial period to the extent needed.

In December 2017, I realized I had completed research for such a book, and began writing it in January 2018.

The book is divided into three sections: Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the colonial period. The history of Christianity in the third period is far better documented than in the first two, so I have engaged only with a few specific aspects of it for the book.

Carpenters and Kings covers two millennia of people and events across three continents. Research for this took nine years. I resolved, when I began writing it, to base it as much on primary sources as possible, with secondary sources to be used only for context where absolutely required. In the process I examined forty-six manuscripts and primary sources connected to the history of Christianity in general and Western Christianity in particular in the subcontinent. Ideally, anybody attempting to parse these primary sources should have access to and fluency in ten or eleven source languages, including Latin, Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Pahlavi, Mongolian, Mandarin, French, German and Danish. Here I had to make an allowance for my limited or nonexistent knowledge of most of these languages.

In the section on Antiquity, I examined the writings of pre-Christian writers like Herodotus and Strabo and early Christian scholars including Eusebius of Caesaraea. While the former two wrote about pre-Christian Roman and Greek engagement with India, Eusebius examined the tradition of the apostle Thomas preaching in India.

The legend of the Indian Christian martyrs, Barlaam and Josaphat, based on the life of Buddha, existed in several languages in the Middle Ages and has since been translated into all the major languages of the world. I examined English translations of the legend and compared them with translations from other languages, such as the Balavariam in Georgian. My Greek is not up to the rigorous standards required for academic research, so I relied on translations of Greek works where necessary, such as with Herodotus, or the writings of the Greco-Egyptian polymath Ptolemy, and, particularly, The Christian Topography of the Egyptian Christian monk Cosmas, who travelled to India and found a thriving Christian community in the sixth century. This section also includes an explanation of the beginning of various schisms within Christianity, arising from several councils held in the Roman Empire in the closing centuries of Antiquity. I referred to primary sources in Latin and English secondary sources for this.

Research for the section on the Middle Ages was considerably easier. Excellent secondary sources exist for the Crusades, to which I referred, in addition to some primary manuscripts. The book also made it necessary to engage with the history of the Mongol Empire, for which I referred to Urgunge Onon’s wonderful English translation of The Secret History of the Mongols, in addition to translated Arabic and Persian sources, as well as Latin manuscripts on European diplomatic exchanges with the Mongol Great Khans and the Ilkhanate of Persia.

The core of the book is the accounts of European scholars and monks who travelled to and lived in India in the Middle Ages, between 1291 and 1336. Several of these writers, including William of Adam, are now obscure. English translations of some of these manuscripts exist, but they date so far back in the nineteenth century that the English itself needs explanatory notes. I undertook to translate these texts, providing context where necessary, correcting what I felt were errors by British colonial-era translators, or where subsequent research in the intervening 150 years has shed more light on events in the Middle Ages. Research for this section took me approximately four years to complete.

There are three chapters in the section on the colonial period, each dealing with the Portuguese, the Danes and the British respectively. For the section on the Portuguese and the legacy of the Goa Inquisition, I referred to secondary works by Indian scholars, while for the section on the papal bulls, which led to the legitimization of Portuguese excesses in India, I referred to the original manuscripts in Latin. For the chapter on the Danes at Tranquebar, in what is now Tamil Nadu, I referred to English translations of writings by Danish and German Lutheran chroniclers of the Tranquebar mission and the history of the Danish East India Company in India.

My area of specialization and the focus of the book is the Middle Ages, so I had to exercise considerable caution in studying and analysing sources for Antiquity and the colonial period, in order to draw causal connections between events spanning these periods and the extensive geography of this story.

Apart from reading and analysing these texts, I had to spend a considerable amount of time trying to understand the characters of this story, big and small, the humble carpenters and great kings, their mindsets and motivations, their thoughts and actions, which is always a rewarding exercise for a historian or researcher. I hope that my attempt at piecing this fascinating story together from the writings of these scholars and historians down the centuries has worked. I am grateful to the writings of these people and the quality of their minds. We stand on their shoulders.


Get your copy of Carpenters and Kings today!

Five cases that you will never forget from Arita Sarkar’s Kidnapped

In 2016, approximately ten people were abducted every hour in India. Of them, six were children.

Kidnapped by Arita Sarkar brings to life investigations by the police, eyewitness accounts and the perspectives of the accused, recreating each case in painstaking detail. Some of the victims you read about will never come home, but their stories will stay with you.

Read on to know about 5 kidnapping cases that you will never forget:

Case 1: Tarannum Fatema (3 year old) 

Tarannum Fatema’s disappearance baffled the police as there were no significant clues. The police officer working on the case remembered it as one of the goriest he had seen in his career.

“He lured the girl into his flat by promising her chocolates. Once inside, he used chloroform, which he had apparently stolen from his college, to render her unconscious. ‘When her sister and mother came to look for her, [redacted] panicked and strangled her with the wire of his mobile charger’ ”

~

Case 2: Ritesh(7 year old) and Mukta(11 year old) Jain

The story of Ritesh and Mukta Jain is one that most parents in Coimbatore are familiar with. Their brutal murder has made people more cautious and watchful of their children’s movements.

“Though cases of kidnapping are fairly common in Coimbatore, the police claim that this case, where the kidnappers were faced with charges of kidnapping, rape and murder, was the first of its kind.”

~

Case 3: Franshela Vaz (8 year old)

While most kidnappings in India are motivated by money, Franshela’s was different.T he kidnapper had never intended to demand a ransom. Driven by anger, he had always wanted to kill her, according to the police.

” ‘The man who murdered my daughter slept in the drawing room of my house. He had no shame at all. Even after killing her, he had the audacity to come and live in our house and pretend to look for her as well.’ ”

~

Case 4: Adit Ranka (13 year old)

In tough times, the support of one’s family is something most people rely on. In Chandrika’s case, however, her fight to get justice for her son pitted her against other members of her rather close-knit family.

“Since the case involves her close relatives, Chandrika didn’t wish to appeal against the verdict. But she did pin her hopes on the state government who she thought would appeal against the order given by the sessions court. Neither the police nor the prosecution, however, felt the same.”

~

Case 5: Anant Gupta (3 year old)

The kidnappers themselves never explained why they chose Anant and maintained that he was a random target.

“The police investigation found that Chhatrapal, the mastermind, was inspired by various movies. The police described Chhatrapal as an ‘overambitious person’ who had acted in a telefilm and wanted to try his hand at movies.”


Kidnapped documents ten cases of child abduction from across the country, Arita Sarkar investigates the bone-chilling details of the disappearance of each child. AVAILABLE NOW!

Six Reasons Why You Should Read ‘Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds’

It’s the summer of 1969, and the shock of conflict reverberates through the youth of America, both at home and abroad. As a student at a quiet college campus in the heartland of Indiana, Terry Ives couldn’t be farther from the front lines of Vietnam or the incendiary protests in Washington.

But the world is changing, and Terry isn’t content to watch from the sidelines. When word gets around about an important government experiment in the small town of Hawkins, she signs on as a test subject for the project, code-named MKULTRA. But behind the walls of Hawkins National Laboratory—and the piercing gaze of its director, Dr Martin Brenner—lurks a conspiracy greater than Terry could have ever imagined.

Are you excited to unravel the mysterious happenings in Stranger Things? Here are a few surprises that await you!

While the third season of Stranger Things will be released this coming July, after what feels like the longest wait for fans. But, if you’re missing much-needed news from Hawkins,  you can explore more of Eleven’s backstory in the book.

The book Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds is set much further back in time, in the year 1969 – 14 years before the TV show.

 It follows the journey of  Terry Ives, as she participates in the hush-hush CIA MKULTRA programme with Dr Brenner – not realising she was pregnant with Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown in the hit series, at the time. Fans will get to know the first glimpse at Eleven’s dad, and find out what exactly happened between Terry and him all those years ago.

While in season 2 of the show, viewers were introduced to Eleven’s sister, Kali, which proved to be quite divisive, Stanger Things: Suspicious Minds sheds light on some of the questions we all have about the show.

The book finally reveals how the Upside Down was first discovered, and why it’s so important to Dr. Brenner and the leaders of MKULTRA.


A mysterious lab. A sinister scientist. A secret history. If you think you know the truth behind Eleven’s mother, prepare to have your mind turned Upside Down in this thrilling prequel to the hit show Stranger Things.

 

7 Reasons Why Indian Economy Didn’t Recover After the Global Financial Meltdown

Puja Mehra’s book The Lost Decade is a reconstruction of the ten years after the global financial  shock of 2008, in which the Indian economy could not achieve its potential or its pre-crisis growth momentum. Prior to the global financial crisis, India’s economy was growing impressively. But after the shock,  that momentum could not be achieved again due to the influence of politics on policies. Puja Mehra explains this failure of the Indian economy to regain the pre-crisis momentum in her book with sharp analysis and in-depth reporting, drawing on her journalistic experience, of the policy decisions taken by two different governments in the last ten year.

Here we chart a few of the reasons discussed in the book for the continued state of decline in the growth of the economy:

1. The shock of the financial crisis in September 2008 slowed the economy for one year. It rebounded a year later, but that recovery was not sustained.

2. In the following year after the financial crisis had hit the country, the then finance minister’s policy decisions and approach only weakened the recovery. Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, who the finance minister wrongly assessed the need of the hour and rolled out a third fiscal stimulus package even though two stimulus packages were already in place.

3. Furthermore, he sharply increased allocations for social-sector spending by the finance ministry without factoring in the revenue position. As a result, the fiscal deficit expanded even as the economy’s capacity for absorbing the fund releases in a productive manner failed to keep pace. 

4. The failure to focus on reforms  in the recovery period in 2009, further weakened the industrial sector that was already reeling under impact of the global economic downturn that followed the global financial shock. 

5. After a tedious and slow recovery of the country’s economy during the years 2012-15, economic growth was hampered yet again by the failure to address the problem of bad bank loans in a timely and effective manner.

6. The incumbent government chose to prioritise the infrastructure sector, rather than concentrating on the bad bank loans, resolving which was more important for building the growth momentum. 

7. Even by 2018, the rates of increase of investments, consumption and exports, the three engines of growth in the economy, were not robust enough, and the sustained high GDP growth seen in the runup to the September 2008 shock was still out of reach for the Indian economy. 

 


The Lost Decade tells the story of the slide and examines the political context in which the Indian economy failed to recover lost momentum.

You might have misunderstood Muhammad Bin Tughlaq all your life. Read why in these 6 points!

Muhammad bin Tughlaq – Tale of a Tyrant by Anuja Chandramouli is an attempt to recreate the life and times of Muhammad bin Tughlaq and clamber into the chaotic headspace of one who was considered to be a “mad monarch”.

Modern historians concur that he has been terribly misunderstood, and so-called scholarly accounts from the likes of Ibn Battuta, Barani and Isami reek of bias. He was exceedingly unpopular among the followers of his own faith for daring to be tolerant to his subjects who belonged to other religions, failing to zealously guard the principles of Islam from idolatry and heresy, and raising non-believers to high posts instead of dealing with them using the savagery he was infamous for.

This listicle attempts to demystify Muhammad bin Tughlaq:


The challenges of ruling an unwieldy empire where Tughlaq’s subjects in the various provinces had their own language and customs, and all of whom were uniformly proud and prickly about their roots, proved too much for him.

 


In this fictional retelling, Anuja Chandramouli, one of India’s best mythology writers, reimagines Muhammad bin Tughlaq‘s life and times in incredible detail to bring to life the man behind the monarch.

Meet the boy who will Change the Destiny of the World, and the others from ‘Astra: The Quest for Starsong’

“The world should burn . . . burn like a star!”

The balance of the world is askew.The winds speak of a terror from the south. Ravana, the Lord of Lanka, is on the march. Seers whisper that he has awakened Starsong, a mythical astra of the gods. And that he thirsts for this weapon that will make him invincible. But there is one thing that he hasn’t considered. Up high in the glistening tower of the city of Ulka is a boy, held captive.

Today is the day Varkan, the young prince of Ashmaka, will taste freedom. Today is the day he will lay claim to his destiny as the wielder of Starsong. And along the way, perhaps he will change the destiny of the world itself.

Meet the characters from Aditya Mukherjee  and Arnav Mukherjee’s new book, Astra: The Quest for Starsong 


Varkan’s father passed away mysteriously, taken by a ‘madness’. Then his mother seemed to succumb to the same madness and was imprisoned as his  uncle took over the kingdom. He was kept locked up in one of the towers in the palace. However, he never gives up. He plots again and again to escape, and finally does. When he finds the responsibility of the Astra on him, he embraces it since it is a mission given to him by his mother, and he feels the secret of his father’s demise lies with the Astra

 

Tara can’t help provoke people to get a reaction from them. She’s also very intelligent and deeply cares about nature, animals and her grandfather, even though she troubles him. Though she and her grandfather travel as gypsies, they are secretly the Regent and Princess of Gandhara, Ashmaka’s old ally.

 

All Princes of Ashmaka get an elephant, and Varkan got gifted Daboo when they were both children. However, as Daboo grew up he didn’t grow much physically, and he’s the smallest elephant in Ashmaka. That doesn’t stop him from being very brave, very loyal and always up for an adventure. (If anything he tends to overcompensate…)


Read Astra: The Quest for Starsong to find out what happens!

The Story Behind my New Book

by Tanaz Bhathena

The Beauty of the Moment began as a short story, one that I didn’t think I would write, because I’m usually uncomfortable writing about anything that’s too close to my own life.

The story, titled Last Days, First Days, was structured as a series of flashbacks and flash forwards, the flashbacks set in an Indian secondary school in Saudi Arabia, the flash forwards in a public high school in Canada. There was a girl named Susan, a boy who was not named Malcolm, and the story wasn’t about love, but about culture shock.

I grew up in the city of Mississauga, one of the most diverse cities in the greater Toronto area, with a large population of South Asians and Arabs, but the books that I read and the movies I saw catered primarily to a Caucasian demographic.

As a sixteen year old I realized quickly that wearing any Indian clothing made me stand out—and not in a good way. After a racist incident, where a girl tried to run me over with her bicycle, I eschewed my salwar-kurtas and stuck to Western wear for the longest time.

Now, over eighteen years after that incident, things have changed along with the demography. Indian culture has gained popularity in North America—largely thanks to the powers of Bollywood and globalization. Wearing Indian clothing doesn’t make you stand out any more than wearing Western clothing.

In publishing, things were changing, too. Writers in the YA community in America were the ones driving the change, forming an organization called We Need Diverse Books in 2015. In Canada, the Festival of Literary Diversity began in Brampton. Both organizations advocated for more inclusivity in the stories that were being produced and in the writers who were telling the stories. #OwnVoices, coined on Twitter by Corinne Duyvis, was turning into a revolution. More and more readers were demanding diverse stories—and that too by authors who had lived their characters’ experiences.

My first book, which you all know as A GIRL LIKE THAT, would likely still be languishing in a slush pile at a publishing house if not for these movements.

When the time came for me to write another book, I went back to Last Days, First Days and wondered: What if this were a novel?

I’d read a few books starring Indian American teen protagonists such as Tanuja Desai Hidier’s brilliant Born Confused. Yet, there were few if any books about first- or second-generation Indian Canadian teens. And there were no books that I came across that were actually set in Mississauga.

Back when I was a teenager—or even eight years ago (when I wasn’t), I wouldn’t have thought it possible to write a story about these things. I didn’t see myself on the page in North American fiction and I had grown used to my own exclusion.

So I went back to the story I had written, tore it apart and started rewriting a story that had my heart all over it.

I wanted to write a book that broke the monolithic view that North Americans can have of Indians, not realizing how diverse people from my birth country really are. I also wanted to show the world what life is like for Indians in the diaspora—with a focus on the griefs and the joys of displacement.

This book combines all three of my identities: Canadian, Saudi and Indian. Like Susan, I do not fit into a neat little compartment or category. But writing this book allowed me to realize that it is okay to stand out at times. To even step outside our comfort zones.

For me, writing a romance definitely was out of my comfort zone. So was allowing my characters to be teenagers and make the mistakes I made when I was that age.

The Beauty of the Moment is not perfect. It certainly isn’t the single best representation of Indian Canadian teens—and I don’t want anyone to see it that way. But I do hope that there will be teen readers who will be able to see themselves in the story and that there will be even more teens who will use the book as a window to cultures and experience different from their own.

Furthermore, I hope other writers—teens and adult—will be inspired add their tales to the repertoire of #ownvoices stories.

If the story you want to read hasn’t been told yet, the you must write it.

The world is waiting for you.


Tanaz Bhathena’s new book, The Beauty of the Moment tells the story of

9 Thankfully Fictional Fathers Who Will Make You Appreciate Your Own Dad a Little More!

This Father’s Day, while you celebrate your father and his contribution to your existence, let us take a moment to look at some of the not-so-great fathers ever written, in some of the greatest books ever written and sympathize with their unfortunate offspring. These fictional fathers, from ragingly violent to downright deranged, will hopefully make you appreciate your own so much more!

Go through our hall of paternal shame and decide if your own father deserves a few extra presents as a mark of your gratitude! After all, ‘to quote one of our Dubious Dads, ‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!’


Laius in King ‘Oedipus’-Sophocles

The legends surrounding the royal house of Thebes inspired Sophocles (496–406 BC) to create a powerful trilogy of mankind’s struggle against fate. King Oedipus tells of a man who brings pestilence to Thebes for crimes he does not realise he has committed and then inflicts a brutal punishment upon himself. With profound insights into the human condition, it is a devastating portrayal of a ruler brought down by his own oath

Terrible dad 101- Having been told by an oracle that his newborn son is destined to kill him. Laius binds the infant’s feet together with a pin and orders his wife to kill him.

 

Walter Morel in ‘Sons and Lovers’ – D.H. Lawrence

Taking its autobiographical inspiration from D.H. Lawrence’s experience of growing up in a coal-mining town, Sons and Lovers is a vivid account of the conflict between class, family and personal desires.

The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul – determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal mines. But conflict is evitable when Paul seeks to escape his mother’s suffocating grasp through relationships with women his own age. Set in Lawrence’s native Nottinghamshire, Sons and Lovers is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations.

Terrible dad 101-Alcoholic, violent and weak and insecure of his own position in his family

 

King Lear in ‘King Lear’ – Willliam Shakespeare

In William Shakespeare’s moving tragedy of political intrigue and family strife, the ageing King Lear, tired of office, decides to split his kingdom between his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia; but the decision to allot their share based on the love they express for him proves to be a terrible mistake. When Cordelia refuses to take part in her father’s charade, she is banished, leaving the king dependent on her manipulative and untrustworthy sisters.

Terrible Dad 101- He distributes his wealth on the basis of flattery and fulsome declarations of love, while completely disregarding his youngest, devoted offspring in favour of his two older daughters.

 

Pap Finn in ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’-Mark Twain

Mark Twain’s witty, satirical tale of childhood rebellion against hypocritical adult authority, the Penguin Classics edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is edited with a critical introduction by Peter Coveney. Mark Twain’s story of a boy’s journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken, abusive ‘Pap’ and the ‘civilizing’ Widow Douglas with runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous ‘Duke’ and ‘Dauphin’.

Terrible dad 101-One of the most terrifyingly vicious fathers ever written, he is an alcoholic, racist, repellent individual who beats his son to extract whiskey money and almost murders him with a hunting knife.

 

Harry Wormwood in ‘Matilda’- Roald Dahl

A splendiferous new hardback of Matilda, part of a collection of truly delumptious classic Roald Dahl titles with stylish jackets over surprise printed colour cases, and exquisite endpaper designs. Matilda Wormwood’s father thinks she’s a little scab. Matilda’s mother spends all afternoon playing bingo. And Matilda’s headmistress Miss Trunchbull? Well, she’s the worst of all. She is a big bully, who thinks all her pupils are rotten and locks them in the dreaded Chokey. As for Matilda, she’s an extraordinary little girl with a magical mind – and now she’s had enough. So all these grown-ups had better watch out because Matilda is going to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget.

Terrible dad 101-Pompous with a streak of venom jealousy, he really hates the fact that his daughter is a genius. He is somewhat verbally abusive and destroys her library books, before abandoning her without any noticeable qualms.

 

Adam Penhallow in ‘Penhallow’- Georgette Heyer

The death of Adam Penhallow on the eve of his birthday seems, at first, to be by natural causes. He was elderly after all. But Penhallow wasn’t well liked. He had ruled over his estate with an iron will and a sharp tongue. He had played one relative off against another. He was so bad-tempered and mean that both his servants and his family hated him. It soon transpires that far from being a peaceful death, Penhallow was, in fact, murdered. Poisoned. With his family gathered to celebrate his birthday, and servants that both feared and despised him, there are more than a dozen prime suspects. But which one of them turned hatred into murder?

Terrible dad 101-Vicious, domineering and gets his thrills from humiliating and controlling his family especially his sons.

 

 

Jack Torrance in ‘The Shining’ – Stephen King

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

Terrible dad 101-Deranged dad who lets his personal and external demons send him on gleeful spree to murder his wife and son.

Know the untold history of the first all-India team

On the morning of 6 May 1911, a large crowd gathered at Bombay’s Ballard Pier. They were there to bid farewell to a motley group of sixteen Indian men who were about to undertake a historic voyage to London. The persons whom the crowd cheered that sultry Saturday morning were members of the first All-India cricket team.

Conceived by an unlikely coalition of imperial and Indian elites, it took twelve years and three failed attempts before an ‘Indian’ cricket team made its debut on the playing fields of imperial Britain in the blazing coronation summer of 1911.

Prashant Kidambi, an associate professor of colonial history at the University of Leicester, introduces us to the first ever cricket team of India, in his book, Cricket Country.

Get to meet the team!

 

Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala :The First Captain of the Indian Cricket Team

Maharaja Bhupinder Singh was not the organizers’ initial choice to lead the first Indian Cricket Team. In fact, Framjee Patel wanted H.H. Jam Saheb to become the skipper of the team. The Maharaja was known to use cricket to serve his own political interests. In 1931, he shared strained relations with the Viceroy Willingdon and used cricket to regain influence on imperial affairs.

 

Major K.M. Mistry

“Said to be in a ‘class by himself’, Mistry had first made his mark as a bowler for the long- established John Bright CC in Bombay… But it was while playing for the famous Patiala team in the late 1890s that Mistry developed into a truly great batsman. This left-handed Parsi was adept at playing strokes all around the wicket, ’attaining the maximum of power with the minimum of power.’

 

Maneck Chand

“The Bombay Gazzete described the Punjabi as a ‘fast right hand bowler’ who could prove   ‘very deadly’ if the conditions were favourable. Some even considered him the quickest bowler in the entire country.”

 

Dr. H.D. Kanga

“..Homi was said to possess ‘nerves of steel’ and play ‘a scientific game’…. ‘He is one of those    brilliant cricketers who can bat against all kinds of bowling as calmly as possible and make runs freely.’ wrote one contemporary on the eve of the Parsis’ encounter with the Presidency in September 1905.”

 

P. Baloo

Palwankar Baloo belonged to the class of ‘untouchables’, “However, it was precisely his tireless toil on the cricket pitch in the face of deep-seated caste prejudice that defined Baloo’s long cricket career.”  In fact, Baloo was considered to be one of the finest bowlers of the twentieth century and gave stellar performances in matches.

 

J.S. Warden

“The Bombay- born Warden, described by his captain Pavri as ‘a magnificent fellow’ was a relatively new find for the Parsis. This talented twenty-six-year old slow bowler – reputedly ‘one of the best in India’- was said to send down ‘balls which would beat the most wary of batsmen’.” He was a left handed bowler.

M.D. Pai

Mukund Damodar Pai was born in Bombay on 29th July 1883. His early cricket career was marked by consecutive success in playing cricket at schools and clubs. “The Bombay Gazette described Pai as a ‘fast run-getting bat, though. . . not quite of the hurricane type’; besides, he was said to be ‘a brilliant fielder’.”

 

H.F. Mulla

“Born in Bombay on 4 May 188, Mulla had first burst onto the cricketing scene as an undergraduate at Elphinstone College…. Even half a century later, one observer nostalgically recalled the ‘fabulous Homi Mulla. . . whose very turn to go in was the signal for us small boys to rush out of the tent or shamiana so as to be able to follow the ball as it became a tiny speck in the very clouds’.” He was considered to be a fine wicket keeper too.

 

K. Seshachari

Seshachari was one of the finest stumpers India has ever had.  He was trained by Charles Studd, one of the most well- known cricket players of his time. In 1906, the Cricket noted that Seshachari’s “… wicket-keeping is quite first-class and brilliant enough for any country…”

 

Salamuddin Khan

Born as a Pathan, in the Basti Sheikh Darwesh  district of Jullender, Salamuddin Khan was an all-rounder cricketer .It is said that he“ ‘ favourably impressed the Committee with his batting and bowling during the Bombay tour of the Aligarh team’.”

 

Shafqat Hussain

According the Bombay Gazette, Hussain had “ ‘been a revelation to local cricketers’ and commended his ability to bowl at varying speeds and lengths. ‘He scarcely bowls two balls alike in an over and we have seen no fast bowler in India who more admirable works with his head,’ the paper added.”

 

Syed Hasan

Syed Hasan was born in Moradabad and belonged to the North Indian Service Gentry. He was considered to be a reliable batsman- wicket keeper. Due to his cricketing abilities, he had also been a part of the Aligarh elite.

M.D. Bulsara

Maniksha Dadabhai bulsara was born in Daman on 2 September 1877. He was considered to be “‘a fast round- arm bowler of exceptional merit’, he was said to be ‘the only man in India who can make the ball “swerve” ‘“. It was said that he “could deliver a vicious leg break ‘that would beat the most wary of batsmen’. ”

 

R.P. Meherhomji

Meherhomji was a right handed batsman who,  “possessed the ability to time his strokes ‘to a nicety’, and therefore make them look effortless.” In 1905, Framjee Patel wrote that, “ ‘One finds it difficult whether to award the palm to him or Mistry as the most graceful batsman of the present time,’”

 

B. Jayaram

Jayaram had to face many obstacles in order to learn how to play cricket. However, when he scored his first century against the Yorkshire Regiment, he attracted ‘ widespread attention’  throughout the country. Cricketer Edward Sewel, even commented ,“… cutting is his forte and he is always dashing a bat, never scoring slowly.”

front cover of Cricket Country
Cricket Country | Prashant Kidambi

 

Noor Elahi

Noor Elahi was considered to be a ” ….fine batsman and a useful bowler”. I t was when he was playing in Kashmir, that he was invited to take part in the Indian Cricket Team tour of Britain. However, in the end Noor Elahi along with Maneck Chand withdrew from the tour. It is assumed that their employer, the Maharaja of Kashmir withdrew his decision of letting them travel abroad with the Indian Cricket team.

 

 

 

 


Drawing on an unparalleled range of original archival sources, Cricket Country is the untold story of how the idea of India was fashioned on the cricket pitch in the high noon of empire.

Which Guy from ‘Once Upon A Curfew’ Will You Fall For, Rajat or Rana?

Once Upon a Curfew takes us through the journey of Indu and Rajat; their love which blossomed during pre-Emergency India. With the socio-political situation of the time as a subtle backdrop, the book gives us a peek into love and romance in India in the 1980s.

The book introduces us to Rajat and Rana, two strong male protagonists, vying for Indu’s affection – each with a different demeanour and outlook towards life.

Who do you think you would have chosen? Take this quiz and find out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To get a true glimpse of love in the decade of ’70s, read Once Upon A Curfew  by Srishti Chaudhary.

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