Indian History

Leading nationalist and patriot Madan Mohan Malaviya was born on 25 th December 1961 in Allahabad. He is the founder of Banaras Hindu University in 1916 and remained its vice-chancellor from 1919 to 1938.

Photographer: Martin Hürlimann Source: ebay.com Adil Shahi Dynasty of Bijapur was one of the five succession states that came into existence after disintegration of the Bahmani Sultanate of Deccan. Yusuf Adil Khan was the founder of the Adil Shahi kingdom whose rulers ruled Bijapur from until 1686 when Bijapur was annexed into the Mughal Empire by the last great Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb . Yusuf Adil Khan A protégé of the wazir of Bahmani Sultanate, Mahmud Gawan, Yusuf Adil Khan was a descendant of a scion of the Ottoman dynasty. A prominent figure in the declining years of the Bahmani Sultanate, he was appointed governor of the Bijapur province of the Sultanate.  Yusuf Adil was married to a Babuji Khanam, sister of a Maratha warrior. After a reign of twenty two years Yusuf died in 1510. He was buried in  Gogi, a town in Yadgir district of Karnataka.  The first three rulers of Bijapur Sultanate (excluding Mallu Adil Shahi who was deposed within six months) wer...

Vasco da Gama lands at Calicut, May 20, 1498 On 24th December, 1524, renowned Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama died in Cochin (now Kochi), a major port in India. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, freedom fighter and president of Indian National Congress in 1948, was born in Andhra Pradesh on 24th December, 1880. He was defeated by Subhash Chandra Bose for the post of Congress President in Tripura Session of 1939. Mahatma Gandhi termed Sitaramayya’s defeat as ‘his own’. On 24th December, 1924, famous playback singer Mohammed Rafi was born. Periyar E.V.Ramasami, prominent social worker and freedom fighter, passes away on 24th December in 1973 at the age of 94. He started the Self-Respect Movement, one of the several social movements for the uplift of the society. Melakkath Gopalan Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR, dies on 24th December in 1987.   A very popular politician, he was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The crowd that gathered in his funeral was one of the largest in...

An 18th-century miniature in gouache and gold leaf of Aurangzeb seated on a throne   Photo: Bridgeman Art Library  The sixth and last great Mughal emperor Aurangzeb banned music in the tenth year of his reign, i.e. 1668, even though he personally enjoyed it. The contemporary Italian historian Niccolao Manucci writes about Aurangzeb's order to an official to stop all music: "If in any house or elsewhere he heard the sound of singing and instruments, he should forthwith hasten there and arrest as many as he could, breaking the instruments. Thus was caused a great destruction of musical instruments. Finding themselves in this difficulty, their large earnings likely to cease, without there being any other mode of seeking a livelihood, the musicians took counsel together and tried to appease the king in the following way. About one thousand of them assembled on a Friday when Aurangzeb was going to the mosque. They came out with more than 20 highly ornamented biers, as i...

Lord Ellenborough served as the Governor General of India from 28 February 1842 to 15 June 1844. He is credited with bringing the Afghan War to an end.   His tenure of office was marked by a successful expedition to Kabul which went a long way in enhancing the prestige of the British in India which suffered a lot due to mismanagement of the Afghan War by his predecessor Lord Auckland. During Ellenborough’s governor generalship, Sindh was annexed to the British government. This act has been condemned as high-handed by most writers.   Ellenborough also coerced Sindhia to enter into a humiliating treaty with the British. Ellenborough was recalled in 1844 owing to his defiance of the orders of the Court of Directors of East India Company.

Battles of Tarain (1191-92) were fought between Prithviraj Chauhan and Shihabuddin, popularly known as Muhammad Ghori.   Prithviraj, known as Rai Pithaura to the Muslim historians, was the greatest ruler of the Chauhan dynasty, whose kings also came to be known as Chahamanas of Sakambhari. Also known as Muizuddin Muhammad bin Sam, Muhammad Ghori was a Turkish invader who made his first Indian expedition in 1175 AD. After subjugating some of the Indian rulers, this governor of Ghazni met Prithviraj, the powerful Rajput ruler of Delhi and Ajmer, at Tarain near Thanesar in present-day Haryana in 1191 AD. According to the Persian historian Ferishta, Prithviraj, with an army of 200,00 horses and 3, 000 elephants, inflicted a terrible defeat on Muhammad Ghori whose army was completely overpowered.   Muhammad Ghori saved his life with difficulty and retired to Ghazni. This is famously known as the First battle of Tarain in history. The defeat however did not deter Muhammad ...

·          The Ninth Prime Minister of India, P. V. Narasimha Rao, passes away on December 23, 2000. Considered to be brain behind the Indian economic reforms, Rao ran a minority government which was marred by charges of corruption.   ·          Allah Wasai, famously known as Noor Jehan or Noorjehan in the celluloid world, died on December 23, 2000.