Today In Indian History (13th January)

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.  

 

India celebrates National Youth Day to mark the birthday of Swami Vivekananda

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 demonstrative recognition abroad for India’s ancient civilization and of her new-born claim to nationhood.”

  

Today In Indian History (12th January)

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. 

Today In Indian History (11th January)

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.

Today In Indian History (10th January)

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. 

Today In Indian History (9th January)

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. 

Today In Indian History (8th January)

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 November 1838, Keshab Chandra Sen was a strong votary of widow remarriage, He had started Bamabodhini Patrika, a journal for women.

Keshab Chandra Sen launched several radical reforms, such as giving up of caste names, advocating inter caste marriage and launched movement against the social vices prevailing at that time like child marriage. These radical reforms resulted in the first schism in the Brahmo Samaj. The original Brahmo Samaj, founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, came to be known as Adi Brahmo Samaj and the other, the Brahmo Samaj of India was established by Keshab Chandra Sen in 1866.

In 1870 Keshab Chandra Sen founded the India Reform Association which succeeded in persuading the British Government to enact the Native Marriage Act of 1972 (popularly known as Civil Marriage Act) legalizing the Brahmo marriages and fixing the minimum marriageable age for boys and girls.

It was under the advice of Keshab Chandra Sen that the reformist Dayanand Saraswati began to use Hindi for his writings and teachings.