Today In Indian History (25th January)

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, 

Today In Indian History (24th January)

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.

Today In Indian History (23th January)

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. In 1938 he became president of Indian National Congress. He was gain elected Congress president in 1939. After his expulsion from the Congress he left from India through Afghanistan in 1941.  

Subhash Chandra Bose was the president of the Forward Bloc.  

 

Today In Indian History (22nd January)

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.

Today In Indian History (21nd January)

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.

Today In Indian History (20th January)

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: Naqshbandi Sufi Preacher who did not like Akbar's religious syncretism

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 to Prince Khusrau at Tarn Taran, who had rebelled against his father Jahangir for the Mughal throne. 

Sirhindi was sent by Jahangir to the fort of Gwalior in 1619 for a brief period of imprisonment for his arrogance and rudeness.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first education minister of free India, eulogised Sirhindi as the defender of Islam and criticised Akbar’s religious policy.