Today In Indian History (23rd March)

1351 - Firuz Shah Tughlaq, the third ruler of the  Tughlaq dynasty, succeeded the throne on 23 March 1351 at the age of forty-six.  He became sultan after the demise of his cousin Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq who had become second Tughlaq sultan in 1325 AD. 

Firuz Shah Tughlaq is credited with the founding of the cities of Jaunpur in 1359 (Uttar Pradesh), Hissar and Fatehabad (Haryana), Firozpur (Punjab). Jaunpur was named after Muhammad bin Tughluq who was known by the name of Juna Khan before his accession to the throne.

Firuz Shah Tughlaq was a religious bigot and this prevented him from being just to his non–Muslim subjects by imposing Jizya tax on them. Firuz died in 1388, aged eighty-two.  His tomb is located in Hauz Khas in Delhi.

1931 - Death of revolutionary leaders Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev on 23rd March, 1931. They were were hanged to death by the British government at the Lahore Central Jail in Lahore in 1931. They were given the death sentence in the Lahore conspiracy case. 

‘Shaheed Diwas’ is commemorated every year on March 23 to remember the unparalleled sacrifice made by Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Hari Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar.

Today In Indian History (22nd March)

1739- Military leader Nader Shah sacks Delhi on 22 March 1739 during the reign of Mughal emperor Mohammad Shah by killing thousands of the inhabitants of the city.  

1894 - Birth of Surya Sen, an Indian revolutionary, on 22 March 1894. He is best known for leading the Chittagong Armoury Raid in 1930.

A revolutionary leader from Bengal, Surya Sen had founded the Chittagong Republic Army with a view to freeing Chittagong (now in Bangladesh) from the British rule. A teacher by profession, Surya Sen led an armed uprising and organized simultaneous attacks on the British strongholds.

On April 18, 1930, the Chittagong (or Indian) Republican Army, founded by  Surya Sen, raided two government armories. The telegraph, telephone and railway station were disrupted. As a result, Chittagong was completely cut of from the rest of India. After these daring raids and attacks, Surya Sen declared the formation of a free National Revolutionary Government.

But his venture did not last long. As a result successive defeats, he went for guerilla warfare and in the meantime extended his fight to the adjoining districts of Chittagong. After nearly three years of valiant struggle, he was captured in February 1933 due to the betrayal by one his followers. He was sentenced to death in 1934.

Today In Indian History (21st March)

1887- Birth of Manabendra Nath Roy, better known as M. N. Roy, on 21 March 1887. M. N. Roy was a revolutionary, philosopher, radical activist and political theorist. Roy was the founder of the Mexican Communist Party and the Communist Party of India (Tashkent group).

M. N. Roy died on 25 January in 1954.

Today In Indian History (20th March)

1351 - Death of Muḥammad bin Tughluq on 20th March in 1351. Muhammad bin Tughluq was the second ruler of the  Tughluq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. He was the son of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq, the founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. He ascended the throne after killing his father. Born Jauna Khan aka Ulugh Khan, Muhammad bin Tughluq died 20th March in 1351 while fighting against the rebels in Thatta in Sindh. 

Muhammad bin Tughluq was among the most remarkable, enigmatic and controversial figures among the Sultans of Delhi. To his contemporaries, he was a mixture of cruelty and kindness.   

1602 - Dutch East India Company was established on 20 March 1602 to facilitate trade between the Netherlands and the rest of the world. Chinsurah (now Chuchura) in Hooghly district in West Bengal was a famous Dutch settlement. 

A View of Chinsurah  | Wikimedia Commons

1782 - 20th March marks the anniversary of the birth of the Oriental Scholar, Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod (20 March 1782 – 18 November 1835). He was an author and researcher of Rajput history.

 His magnum opus is Annals and Antiquities of Rajast’han’ (1829). 

Today In Indian History (19th March)

1919 - Rowlatt Act was passed by the British government in Delhi on 18 March 1919. The Rowlatt Act made it legal for British forces to arrest and hold Indians without a trial and judicial review. 

Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place in Amritsar to protest against the Rowlatt Act on 13th April in 1919.

In 1919, Satyagraha Sabha was formed by Mahatma Gandhi in Bombay to protest against the Rowlatt Act.  

Today In Indian History (17th March)

1920 - Birth of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 17 March 1920. Also known by the honorific Bangabandhu, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman and activist, who was the first president of Bangladesh.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was voted as the Greatest Bengali of all time in the 2004 BBC opinion poll. 

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed during a military coup in 1975, along with most of his family.

Today In Indian History (16th March)

1527 - The Battle of Khanwa was fought on 16 March 1527 at Khanwa, a village in the Bharatpur district of Rajasthan. Khanwa is 60 km west of Agra. The battle was fought between Babur, the first Mughal emperor, and the Mewar ruler Rana Sanga for supremacy of Northern India. The battle resulted in the victory of the Mughal forces.

1559 - Birth of Maharana Amar Singh I on 16 March in 1559. Amar Singh was the son and successor of Maharana Pratap of Mewar Kingdom. The first military campaign undertaken by Jahangir, the Mughal emperor and son of Akbar, was against Rana Amar Singh. The Mughal expeditions sent against Mewar in 1606 and 1608-09 proved indecisive, but in 1613-14 the campaign led by Jahangir's third son Khurram (later Shah Jahan) proved decisive and Rana Amar Singh submitted to the Mughals in 1615. Jahangir offered most liberal terms to Mewar and thus ended a long struggle between Mewar and the Mughals. The emperor installed two life-size marble statues of Rana Amar Singh and his son Karan in the garden of his palace at Agra. However, the glory and pride of Mewar was gone.

1693 - Birth of Malhar Rao Holkar on 16th March in 1693.  Malhar Rao Holkar was a noble subedar of the Maratha Empire and was the founder of the Holkar dynasty that ruled Malwa.

Malhar Rao Holkar died on 20 May 1766 at Alampur in Madhya Pradesh. Chhatri of Malhar Rao Holkar was built by his daughter-in-law Ahilya Bai Holkar at Alampur.