Drafting the world's longest written constitution may seem like a task confined to committee rooms, but some parts of it needed wild inspiration, and, therefore, visits to a zoo. Artist Dinanath Bhargava visited Calcutta's Alipur Zoo for three months, to study the features of lions that were replicated in India's National Emblem, with which the Indian Constitution begins.
While millions of Indians want to reach America to lead a dream life, the first man from India in the US was kidnapped and taken there. The story of Sick Keesar or Sheikh Kesar, an 18th century lascar, makes an interesting read amid Donald Trump's citizenship and deportation plans. Keesar's path also crossed with that of Benjamin Franklin, one of America's Founding Fathers.
The killing of young businessman Abdul Kadir Bawla in Bombay's Malabar Hill 100 years ago, considered the most sensational murder in the British Raj, shook the empire in India. Bawla was with his companion Mumtaz Begum, a courtesan who had escaped the zenana of the princely state of Indore. The probe led to the toppling of a king.
When former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao died in 2004, his family members were persuaded against their will to conduct his funeral outside Delhi. Not only that, but Rao's hearse was also denied entry to the party headquarters at 24 Akbar Road, reportedly on the orders of then Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The 2005 agreement between PM Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush, which paved the way for the landmark 2008 India-US Civil Nuclear Deal, hit a deadlock just hours before it was to be signed. At this critical juncture, a two-sentence note from Anil Kakodkar, Chairman of the AEC, to PM Manmohan Singh proved instrumental in breaking the impasse and sealing the historic pact.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, born in pre-Partition Punjab and educated in the UK, had a Guwahati address. This is how house number 3989 of Guwahati's Nandan Nagar came to be associated with Singh, who passed away on Thursday.
The resignation of BR Ambedkar from Nehru's cabinet in 1951 has surfaced as a point of political contention after 'Ambedkar' remarks by Home Minister Amit Shah that sparked a controversy. PM Modi too claimed that Ambedkar was sidelined by Nehru over the former's Hindu Code Bill. This is how the Bill aimed at reforming Hindu personal laws to ensure equality, proved to be a catalyst for Ambedkar's Cabinet exit.
In contrast to Christians in Syria facing existential fear after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, the Syrian Christians of Kerala, one of the oldest Christian communities in India, have thrived. The Syrian Christians, who came to India 1,300 years before the Portuguese and British, blended Hindu customs with Christian rituals.
Amid security concerns, the BCCI had decided against sending the Indian cricket team to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. During the first Test in Karachi in 1989, a man shouting anti-India slogans invaded the pitch and attacked Indian captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth, ripping his shirt. Another match of the Pakistan tour had to be aborted because of unruly Pakistani fans.
Waqf Boards, collectively, are among the top land-owners in India. The first recorded instance of Waqf in India was the gift of two villages in Multan by invader Muhammad Ghori. It was, in fact, Ghori's victory in the Battle of Tarain that established sultans on the throne of Delhi, who institutionalised and oversaw the growth of Waqf.
An exasperated Shashi Tharoor asked if the national capital should be shifted from "unlivable" Delhi. The first bid to move the capital out of Delhi was made by sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq in the 14th century. Delhi wasn't smog-hit then, so what made the wisest-fool take the decision?
Exactly 45 years ago, Mecca Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest place, was taken over by 200 armed men led by preacher Juhayman al-Utaybi. Blood would flow before the weeks-long siege ended. The events of 1979 turned Saudi Arabia into a radical Sunni country, and split the Muslim world, the impact of which is felt to this day.
Donald Trump, now a right-wing Republican, switched sides regularly. He was once a registered Democrat and had a soft corner for the party he now bashes. Trump also funded the campaigns of Kamala Harris, twice. The same Harris he would go on to defeat in the 2024 presidential election.
The Bombay High Court in October prevented the customs department from destroying paintings of Akbar Padamsee over "obscenity". It was Padamsee's nude paintings, Lovers 1 and 2, which was Independent India's first major art controversy. Seventy years on, the nude Lovers have returned to public consciousness.
Sanjay Gandhi, son of then PM Indira Gandhi, devised a population-control policy and forced 11 million Indians into sterilisation camps. Salaries were deducted, irrigation water to villages stopped and police raided homes to drag people into Nasbandi camps.
Bindy Johal was the first prominent Indo-Canadian in the mafia world of Canada. The Punjabi gangster's sensational rise, his flashy lifestyle, numerous encounters with women and the shattering of the South-Asian stereotype, have given him a cult status. Killed in 1998, Johal continues to attract youths to Canada's gang world.
In the 8th century, a group of Zoroastrians, fleeing persecution in Persia (modern-day Iran), arrived at the coast of Gujarat, seeking refuge. The Indian King of Sanjan allowed the strangers to stay on his land. The migrants promised to blend in, like sugar in milk, which has been the hallmark of their relationship with India.
Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish royal and diplomat, saved thousands, including Jews, from Nazi concentration camps. He even brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Arab nations in the 1948 war. He was, however, shot dead by Zionists in Jerusalem in 1948. Jerusalem, was, in fact, one of the reasons why Zionists killed Bernadotte.
Indian sepoys who had raised the flag of revolt in 1857 reached Red Fort and urged Bahadur Shah Zafar to be the symbolic head of their fight. The last Mughal emperor, living off a pension from the British, wrote letters to the British conspiring against the Indian sepoys. A look at the pension worries of Bahadur Shah Zafar amid 21st century India's pension conundrum.
Yahya Ayyash, popular as 'The Engineer', was Hamas's chief bombmaker whose devices had killed around 150 people. Spy agency Shin Bet used a cellphone bomb to kill Israel's most-wanted terrorist in 1996, when most of the world hadn't even seen a mobile. His killing in Gaza City came three decades before Hezbollah pager blasts in Lebanon.
