Indian History

1681 - Maratha ruler Sambhaji, son of Shivaji, attacks and sacks Burhanpur, then under Mughal dominion, from 31 January to 2 February in 1681.  1689 -  Sambhaji was captured in  Samgamneshwar   by the Mughals on 1st February in 1689 and was executed by Aurangzeb on 11 March. 

1561 - Death of Bairam Khan, the preceptor to Mughal emperor Akbar and Mughal military commander, on 31st January 1561 on his way to Mecca. Bairam Khan was relieved of his post and was ordered by Akbar to go to Mecca.   Bairam Khan was instrumental in establishing the Mughal rule after Humayun's exile from India during the reign of Sur rulers.    1600 - English company the East India Company was formed on December 31, 1600. The company was given a monopoly of all English trade to Asia by royal charter in that year.  

1948 - Death of Mahatma Gandhi on 30 January, 1930. Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse on 30 January, 1948. 

1780 - On 29 January 1780 , India's and Asia's first printed newspaper ' Hicky's Bengal Gazette ' began its publication. Started by an Irishman named James Augustus Hicky , Hicky's Bengal Gazette was a weekly English newspaper which ran for two years from 1780 to 1782. It was published from Kolkata. 1791 -  Lord Cornwallis  had  assumed command of the British troops on 29th January, 1791 during the Third Anglo-Mysore War. 

1865  - Birth of Lala Lajpat Rai on 28 January in 1865.   

1556 - Death of the second Mughal ruler, Humayun, on January 27 in 1556. He died in Delhi from falling down the stairs of his library, known as the "Sher Mandal," within the Purana Qila (Old Fort) in Delhi.

1620 - Death of  Amar Singh, the ruler of Mewar Kingdom and eldest son of Maharana Pratap, on 26th January 1620.  1915 –   Birth of  Gaidinliu Pamei  (26 January 1915 – 17 February 1993), popularly known as  Rani Gaidinliu,  who was a  Naga woman revolutionary leader and successor to the political movement launched by the Naga leader  Haipou Jadonang (1905-31) to drive away the British from Manipur. B orn in the present day Tamenglong district of Manipur  Rani Gaidinliu   led a popular rebellion against the British rule at the young age of sixteen after Jadonang was executed by the British.  In 1932, she was arrested by the British government who sentenced her to life imprisonment. This tribal freedom fighter spent fourteen years in different jails of   Guwahati, Shillong, Aizawl, Tura and others between 1932 and 1947 making her one of India’s longest incarcerated political prisoners by the British. Rani Gaidinliu  ...

1824 - Michael Madhusudan Dutt, famous Bengali poet and playwright, was born on 25th January in 1824.  One of the greatest poets of the Bengali language, Dutt wrote his magnum opus Meghnad Badh Kavya (The Slaying of Meghnada) in 1861 . Meghnad Badh Kavya is based on an episode from the Ramayana in which Meghnad (also known as Indrajit), son of Ravana, is killed by Rama's brother  Lakshmana .   Dutt introduced in Bengali poetry amitrakshar chanda , or what is known as Blank Verse. The celebrated epic Meghnad Badh Kavya was written in blank verse. In 1860, he had used amitrakshar in his work Padmabati.  He also replaced deva mahima, or praise for the divinity, with humanism. He had introduced the sonnet, or chaturdashpadi kabita, in Bengali literature.  Michael Madhusudan Dutt died on June 29, 1873 in Calcutta, 

1950 - On 24 January 1950 , Constituent Assembly in India adopts the Indian national anthem from a song written and composed by Rabindranath Tagore. The first stanza of the song Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India as the National Anthem on 24 January 1950.

1565 - The Battle of Talikota, also known as that of Rakkasagi–Tangadagi, was fought between between Vijayanagara empire and the Muslim Sultanates of Deccan on 23 January 1565.  It was during the reign of the Taluva ( Taluva dynasty was one of the four main dynasties, combination of which is known as the Vijayanagar empire) ruler Sadashiva Raya (1543- 69) that battle of Talikota in 1565 was fought in which Vijayanagar army was defeated by the combined forces of the five Muslim Sultanates of Deccan. This gave body blow to the empire. After this battle the Vijayanagar kingdom lost its grandeur and glory.  1897 - Nationalist leader Subhash Chandra Bose  was born on 23 January in 1897 in Cuttack in  Orissa .  He studied in  Presidency College and  Scottish Church College.  In 1920, Bose took the ICS exams in London and came fourth. I n 1938  he  became president of Indian National Congress. He was gain elected Congress presid...

1666 - Death of Shah Jahan  on January 22, 1666 in Agra. He was  born on January 5, 1592 in Lahore. Shah Jahān was the Mughal emperor from 1628 to 58. 1760 - Battle of Wandiwash (January 22, 1760) is a confrontation between the French and the British,  part of the Third Carnatic War (1758-1763) fought between the French and British colonial empires, which itself was a part of the global Seven Years' War (1756–63). Fought in Wandiwash in Tamil Nadu, the battle resulted in the defeat of the French.  The Battle of Wandiwash put an end to the French challenge to British supremacy in India.

1945 - Death of Ras Bihari Bose , Indian revolutionary leader, on 21 January in 1945 in Tokyo in Japan.  Born  at Subaldaha village (in the present day Purba Bardhaman district of West Bengal) on 25 May 1886,   Rash Behari Bose played an important role in India's Independence movement. Rash Behari, who had joined Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, underscored the need for an armed struggle for liberating India from British rule. He was involved in the Delhi Conspiracy case, also known as the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy . The case refers to an alleged plot to kill the then Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge, in 1912. After the failed assassination attempt, Bose fled to Imperial Japan in 1915. Rash Behari formed the Indian National Army (INA) the reins of which was later on handed over to  Subhas Chandra Bose by him.  His wife Toshiko, whom he married in Japan, died from pneumonia in 1925. Rash Behari died on the January 21, 1945, aged 58.

1570 - On 20 January, 1570 , Akbar set out on foot on pilgrimage from Agra to Ajmer as thanksgiving for the birth of his first son Salim (later Jahangir )  1949 - Death of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru (8 December 1875 – 20 January 1949), an Indian freedom fighter,  constitutional expert, and statesman.  Born on 8 December 1875 in Aligarh, Tej Bahadur Sapru was a Kashmiri Pandit who died on 29 January 1949 in Allahabad.  Sapru participated as a delegate at all three Round Table Conferences held by the British Government in London on Indian constitutional reform between 1931 and 1934.  Sapru had pleaded from the side of Indian National Army Officers in their Red Fort trials . Also known as the INA trials , the Red Fort trials took place between November 1945 and May 1946. 

Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi was the most prominent saint of Naqshbandi Sufi silsila (order), one of the orders into which Sufis were organized. Chishti , Qadaria , Suhrawardy and Mawlawi are the other silsilas. he was a disciple of Khwaja Baqi Billah , the originator of Naqshbandiah silsilah in India. Also known as Mujaddid Alif, Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi was born in 1564 at Sirhind (currently in the Patiala district of the Punjab). He died in 1624 at Sarhind.  Ahmad Sirhindi disapproved of religious syncretism of Mughal emperor Akbar. Known for his orthodoxy and anti-Shia views, he was opposed to the Akbar’s religious views.  A notable work of Sirhindi is Maktubat-e-Imam Rabbani in which he has referred to the execution of Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Sikh Guru.   He had hailed the assassination of Guru Arjan Dev, who was executed by orders of fourth Mughal Emperor Jahangir, who ruled from 1605 to 1627. Guru Arjan Dev was charged with treason because he had given shelter t...

1597- Maharana Pratap, known for his valiant and spirited defence against the Mughal Empire under Akbar, died at Chavand on 19th January in 1597.    He was the ruler of Mewar kingdom in present day Rajasthan, from 1572 until his death in 1597. He is notable for leading the Rajput resistance against the Mughals in the legendary battle of Haldighati in 1576. 1905- Death anniversary of Debendranath Tagore (born May 15, 1817—died January 19, 1905), a philosopher and religious reformer, who was involved in the creation of the Brahmo Samaj which was founded on 20 August, 1828 in Kolkata by Rammohan Roy.   His son was Rabindranath Tagore (first Asian to receive Nobel Prize).  1936 -    First news bulletin was broadcast from All India Radio (Akashvani)  on 19th January, 1936 . 1990 -  19 January 1990 marks the day of the exodus for Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir valley.

1842 - Birth of Mahadev Govind Ranade , a scholar and prominent leader of the freedom struggle from Maharashtra. He was born on 18 January in 1842 . Mahadev Govind Ranade founded Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and was a prominent leader of Prarthana Samaj. He comes lauded as the prophet of cultural renaissance in western India. Ranade was the editor of Induprakash. 

1471  - Birth of Krishnadevaraya (17 January 1471 – 17 October 1529), an emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1509 to 1529.  Krishnadeva Raya  belonged to the Taluva dynasty, one of the four main dynasties, combination of which is known as the Vijayanagar empire.  One of the greatest kings of India, Krishnadeva Raya raised the Hindu power of Vijayanagar to the zenith of its prosperity and glory.  An epigraphical reference to the date of death of Krishnadevaraya was discovered at Honnenahalli in Tumakuru district in Karnataka. According to the inscription, Krishnadevaraya died on October 17, 1529. 

1399- Mongol leader Amir Timur, also known as Tamerlane, sacks Kangra on 16th January, 1399 during his invasion on India in which he massacred thousands of the inhabitants of many cities and places of India including Talamba, Delhi, Firuzabad, Meerut, Jammu and Kangra.  1680-  Shambhiji, the second Chhatrapati of the Maratha Kingdom and son of Shivaji, was coronated at Raigad fort in 1680. He formally ascended the throne on 20 July, 1680, and his coronation ceremony was performed with great splendour on 16 January, 1681. 1757-  The Battle of Narela took place on 16 January 1757, at Narela, on the outskirts of Delhi, between the Marathas and Afghans warlord Ahmad Shah Abdali. 1761 -  The British East India Company captures Pondicherry (Puducherry) from the French  on January 16, 1761. 

1661- Aurangzeb , the sixth Mughal emperor, sends Sulaiman Shikoh , the eldest son of his elder brother Dara Shikoh , for imprisonment in Gwalior Fort on 15th January.  During the course of the fratricidal war of succession among the sons of fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, (Murad, another brother of Aurangzeb) and Sulaiman Shikoh were executed on the orders of Aurangzeb in the Gwalior Fort. 1888-  Indian independence activist and Congress leader Saifuddin Kitchlew was born on 15 January 1888.  The infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13 April 1919 when troops of the British colonial power under the command of General Dyer opened fire on thousands of people who had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh public gardens in Amritsar to protest against the Rowlatt Act and arrest of pro-independence leaders of Amritsar, Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal.

Battle of Chillianwala / Image Credit The bloody battle of Chillianwala was fought at Chillianwala (now in Pakistan) between the British and Sikh armies on  January 13, 1849  during the  Second Anglo-Sikh war . The British and Sikh armies were respectively commanded by Sir Hugh Gough and the Raja Sher Singh Attariwala. Both sides  claimed victory. The British won the battle though it was a "pyrrhic victory" for them.  According to the historians, 757 soldiers of British army were killed, 1,651 were wounded and 104 went missing. Sikhs lost near 3,600  soldiers.  Lord Dalhousie  was the Governor-General of India during the Battle of Chillianwala.   Chillianwala Battle took place in the same area where King Porus had fought Alexander (r. 336-323 BCE) at the 326 BCE Battle of Hydaspes.

1551 - Birth of Abul Fazal (14 January 1551 – 22 August 1602), the Mughal historian during the the reign of Akbar. His notable works include the Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari.  1641-   the Dutch East India Company conquered the city of Malacca in Southeast Asia from the Portuguese on 14th January i n 1641 .   1761 - The Third Battle of Panipat took place on 14 January 1761 between the Marathas and Afghan invader Ahmad Shah Abdali. The Maratha supremacy was dented by their defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat. 

Battle of Chillianwala / Image Credit 1849 -  The bloody battle of Chillianwala was fought at Chillianwala (now in Pakistan) between the British and Sikh armies on January 13, 1849 during the Second Anglo-Sikh war . The British and Sikh armies were respectively commanded by Sir Hugh Gough and the Raja Sher Singh Attariwala. Following the battle, both sides  claimed victory. The British won the battle though it was a "pyrrhic victory" for them.  According to the historians, 757 soldiers of British army were killed, 1,651 were wounded and 104 went missing. Sikhs lost near 3,600  soldiers.  Lord Dalhousie was the Governor-General of India during the Battle of Chillianwala.    

Today ( January 12)  is Swami Vivekananda's birthday.  Every year on January 12, India observes   National Youth Day  to mark the birthday of   Swami Vivekananda , one of the country’s greatest spiritual leaders and philosophers.  Narendranath Dutta, better known as Swami Vivekananda, was a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886), a priest in a temple at Dakhinesvar in Kolkata. Ramakrishna believed in the truth of all religions.  A graduate of the Calcutta University, Vivekananda (1863-1902) carried his master’s message throughout India. Vivekananda was a Vedantist. In 1983 he went to the US and attended the famous “Parliament of Religions” at Chicago. His speech at that august assembly earned him fame and followers throughout the world. New York Herald wrote, “after hearing him we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation” Sir Valentine Chirol characterizes Vivekananda as “the first Hindu whose personality won demonstr...

1708- Coronation of Maratha ruler Sahu on 12 January.  1779 -  Part of the First Anglo-Maratha War,   the Battle of Wadgaon (12–13 January) was fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company near Vadgaon Maval village in Maharashtra.  The battle resulted in the victory of the Marathas who were  commanded by Mahadji Sindhia  (also known as Mahadji Shinde). 1934 - Surya Sen , a revolutionary leader from Bengal, was hanged on 12 January 1934 by the British. 

1681 - When the sixth Mugal emperor Aurangzeb was campaigning against Marwar, his forth son Akbar rebelled against him in 1681. On 11 January he issued a manifesto deposing his father and crowed himself emperor.

1972 - Following the defeat of Pakistani forces on 16 December 1971 , Bangladesh's independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was released from jail on 22nd December 1971 and came to India via London on 10th January, 1972. December 16  is celebrated to commemorate the defeat of the Pakistani troops in the  Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971  and the emergence of an independent Bangladesh.  On this day Pakistani army surrendered to  Lt. General Jagjit Singh Aurora , the chief Commander of the Joint military command of India and Bangladesh.  The day is celebrated as  Victory Day or Bijoy Dibosh . 

1399 - Amir Timur , the terrible Mongol military leader of Central Asia, overran Meerut on 9th January  massacring its inhabitants. Also known as Tamerlane , Timur (April 8, 1336–February 18, 1405) was a ferocious conqueror who is known in history for razing cities to the ground and putting entire populations to the sword. It was during the reign of Nasiruddin Mahmud (1394-1413), the last of the Tughluq rulers, in the years 1398-99 that Tamerlane invaded India creating havoc in the forms of massacres and plunders. 1760 - Battle of Barari Ghat was fought on 9th January in 1760 between Marathas and Afghan invaders who killed the Maratha chief Dattaji Sindhia . The battle took place at the Barari Ghat of the Jumna (Yamuna) River, 10 miles (16 km) north of Delhi. 

1884 -   Death of Keshub Chandra Sen, an Indian philosopher and social reformer, on 8th January, 1884.  Keshub Chandra Sen became a member of the Brahmo Samaj in 1857.   The first schism in the  Brahmo Samaj  raised its head  in 1866 when Debendranath Tagore , one of the founding members of the Brahmo movement, and Keshub Chandra Sen parted ways on the issue of integrating elements of Christianity, advocated by the latter.  On November 11, 1866  Keshub Chandra Sen  established his own breakaway " Bharatvarshiya Brahmo Samaj "(Brahmo Samaj of India). The branch led by Tagore came to be called as Adi Brahmo Samaj. Keshub Chandra Sen wrote articles for a journal named Indian Mirror which was started in 1861. In 1867, he helped Atmaram Pandurang establish the Prarthana Samaj in Bombay.  Keshav Chandra Sen also established the Indian Reform Association. Keshub Chandra Sen: A Biography Born to a respectable family in Calcutta on 19 Novem...

1738 -  Peshwa Bajirao and Nizam of Hyderabad signed a peace treaty on January 7, 1738 following the Maratha triumph at the Battle of Bhopal which was fought on 24 December 1737.  The Battle of Bhopal took place in Doraha near Bhopal between the Maratha Confederacy and the combined armies of the Mughal chiefs, Nizam-ul-Mulk(Asaf Jah I, first Nizam of Hyderabad), Rajput kingdoms and the Oudh State.

 Battle of Barari Ghat was fought on 9th January between Marathas and Afghan invaders  who killed the Maratha chief Dattaji Sindhia. The battle took place at the Barari Ghat of the Jumna (Yamuna) River, 10 miles (16 km) north of Delhi. 

1842-  Retreat of the British and East India Company forces from Kabul during the First Anglo-Afghan War begins from 6th January 1842.  The First Anglo-Afghan War (1838-42) was fought between the British East India Company (EIC) and, the Emirate of Afghanistan.  1885 - Death of Hindi poet, writer, and playwright Bharatendu Harishchandra (9 September 1850 – 6 January 1885) on 6th January, 1885. He was editor of Kavi Vachan Sudha and Bal Vodhini .  

1592 - The fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, builder of Taj Mahal, was born on January 5, 1592, in Lahore. He ruled from 1628 to 1658).  1659 - The Battle of Khajwa (Khajuha in the Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh) was fought on January 5, 1659, between the newly crowned Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and his brother Shah Shuja who had declared himself Mughal Emperor in Bengal. 

1316 - Death of Alauddin Khilji on 4 January 1316. 1931 - Death of Muhammad Ali Jauhar Khan (10 December 1878 – 4 January 1931), one of the founders of All-India Muslim League and a leading figure of the Khilafat Movement. Muhammad Ali Jauhar was poet and journalist. He had started an English newspaper called “The Comrade”.  1948 - Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, gained independence from Britain on 4 January 1948. 

Today i.e. January 3 is the birth anniversary of Rani Velu Nachiyar, a freedom fighter who  became the first Indian queen to defeat the British and regain her  annexed  estate in 1780.   Rani Velu Nachiyar ranks first among female rulers who fought against the British colonial power. Born in 1730 AD to the King Sellamuthu Sethupathy and Rani Sakandhimuthal of Ramnad Kingdom, this scion of the Ramnada Royal family in Tamil Nadu  gave good account of herself as a brave ruler who was a scholar in many languages including French, English, and Urdu. Nachiyar became queen of the Sivaganga estate (present-day Tamil Nadu) in 1780 after her husband Muthuvaduganathaperiya Udaiyathevar’s death by combined forces of British soldiers and the son of the Nawab of Arcot.  In 1780 Rani Velu Nachiyar fought the British and won the battle. She ruled until 1790. India paid tributes to her by issuing a commemorative postage stamp on 31 st  December, 2008.

1653 - By the Coonan Cross Oath (Koonan Kurishu Sathyam), the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage in both ecclesiastical and secular matters. Coonan Cross Oath (Koonan Kurishu Sathyam) refers to a public oath taken on 3 January by the Malabar Christian community in 1653 that they would not submit to the authority of the Jesuits and the Latin Catholic hierarchy.  1730 : Rani Velu Nachiyar (3rd Jan 1730 – 25th Dec 1796), first queen to fight against the British colonial power, was born in 1730 AD to the King Sellamuthu Sethupathy and to Rani Sakandhimuthal of Ramnad Kingdom. 1831 - Savitribai Phule, Indian poet, educator, activist, reformer and educationist was born on January 3, 1831 in Naigaon in a lowly Mali family in Maharashtra.  

Today is the 194th birth anniversary of   Savitribai Phule who   is hailed as the first female teacher in India. She was a poet, reformer and educationist. Born on January 3, 1831 in Naigaon in a lowly Mali family in Maharashtra she was married off at the tender age of 10. Critical of the prevailing Hindu religion and custom she along with her husband, Jyotirao Phule, established several schools for the uplift of the untouchables and women.  Savitribai Phule started India’s first school for girls at Pune's Bhide Wada in 1848. To make the depressed classes conscious of their rights, she and her husband founded the Satya Sodhak Samaj in 1873.  Savitribai passed away on March 10, 1897. Savitribai Phule was born in Maharashtra’s Satara district to Lakshmi and Khandoji Nevase Patil on January 3, 1831.  Her important works include: • Kavya Phule  (“Flowers of Poems”) (published in 1854) • Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar  (published in1892) • ...

1878 - Mannathu Padmanabhan, social reformer and freedom fighter from Kerala, was born on 2nd January 1878 in Perunna, Kottayam district of Kerala. He was the founder of the Nair Service Society (NSS). He participated in the Vaikom (1924–25) and Guruvayoor (1931) temple-entry Satyagrahas and the anti-untouchability movements.  1954 – India establishes its highest civilian awards, the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan. They were instituted on 2nd January.  The first recipients of the Bharat Ratna were: C. Rajagopalachari (last Governor-General of India and founded the Swatantra Party),  Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Nobel laureate C. V. Raman. They were honoured in 1954. The first recipients of the Padma Vibhushan award were Satyendra Nath Bose, Nand Lal Bose, Zakir Husain, Balasaheb Gangadhar Kher, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, and V. K. Krishna Menon, who were honoured in 1954.