East India Company’s Plundering of Indian History (and why that matters today)

The Untaught Historian

This is Benjamin West’s famous painting of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam handing over the rights to collect taxes in Bengal to Robert Clive and the East India Company (1765). A little over 100 years ago, Aurangzeb had nearly evicted the British, but in the 1760s the scrappy East India Company (EIC) was on the verge of drowning Aurangzeb’s precious empire and emerging as the new power in the subcontinent. If you look at the painting closely, you will see how the British and their allies are cast in the light, while most Indians are in the shadow.

West was a romantic and a patriot. He liked painting famous scenes from history like The Death of Nelson or Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky. The painting above was recording the birth of British India and the British Empire at large. India was to be the goose that…

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Age Has Her Own Quest

One Woman's Quest

What is it that a woman of maturity quests for?

Autonomy: to feel that her decisions/wants/needs
are not overshadowed by the dictates of another,
or by a past that is forever looming.

Empowerment: to know, once and for all, that
the victim is laid to rest, so that she can embrace
her authentic self.

Inner peace: to live without guilt or the need for
permission. To be able to forgive and self and other
in order to be free. To trust, innately, her own
inner resources, releasing fear’s hold.

Sacredness: to stand firmly upon the Earth,
breathe freely, and engage with life. To make
a difference.

Celebration: to live with anticipation, surprise,
and ultimately joy.

Connection: to recognize in each living moment
that none of the above is obtained in a bubble.
I quest for true connection. The bravest quest of all.

(Reading through old posts I came across one…

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Across decades

Reena Saxena

1970’s

Every house does not have a phone. We get a new one
installed, and eagerly wait for it to ring. A sarcastic remark from a cousin, “Why
don’t you get phones installed in all your friends’ and relatives’ homes?”

1980s

Those anonymous calls are pesky, but our adolescent hearts
wonder if we have a secret admirer somewhere – too bashful to reveal identity.

There are calls which whisper sweet nothings.

Mom yells from the
kitchen “Whose call is it?”

Me: “Blank call, Mama. It
got disconnected.”

Mom: “Don’t entertain
these shady callers. Be quick to disconnect.”

Bonding with a male classmate:

“Dial this number, get
the girl on the line, and then pass on the phone to me.”

“Why can’t you do it?”

“She is not allowed to
receive calls from guys. A female voice is needed.”

1990s

Mobile phones have entered the market, and are a…

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Anjaan/Unknown

Anita's Perspectives on Life.

Tum hamare dil me,

Hamesha shan se rahe!!

Hum tumhare shehar me,

Anjaan se rahe!!

Gairon ki chot se,

Hum naraz se rahe!

           Jab apnon ne jakhm die,

Pareshan se rahe!!

🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

You always lived proudly,

In my heart!

I was just unknown,

In your city!!

I was ignorant of,

Injuries have given by others!

When close ones hurt,

I felt troubled!!

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Reena Saxena

I Write Her

Evie S. – Unsplash

THE MIDAS TOUCH

I am no Midas
yet everything I touch now
acquires new meaning
Is it an artist’s vision
or a poet’s call and yearning?

LIAR MIRRORS

change seeps in
imperceptibly
entrenches
itself in
deep psyche layers
mirrors lie with the same face

PRESSED FLOWERS

memories unfold
-a pressed flower in the book
crushed before its time
I strive to read stories etched
on petals, not the pages

BEYOND THE RAINBOW

rainbows show
multiple layers,
complex truths
in seven
predefined colors
-I look for what lies beyond

~~~

Reena Saxena is a former banker, coach, and writer from Mumbai, India. Published works are available on Amazon – When Time Stopped (Fiction), Com Pen Di Um (Poetry Anthology), Life As It Happens (Poetry Anthology), Basic Banking for Debt Recovery Agents, and E-books on Money Psychology available on the MoneyGoalz website. This is Reena’s first feature on

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Fairy Tales

Reena Saxena

The fairies that live beneath the ground always boost energy. It is strange how those with the power to fly choose to remain underground and inspire others.

The colors she sees flying across the sky in the form of clouds, rainbows, sunrise or sunset hues become fairies in her mind. They are real, visible but beyond her reach. All the books carrying fairy tales emerge from that space to become tangible dreams – like the 1131 letters written in 26 years.

She breathed between the alphabets and was happy to inspire so much of literary work.

Till that deadly sentence appeared …

“T.S.Eliot was in love with the younger version of Emily Hale. The present version would kill the poet in him.”

He secretly married his secretary who was an ardent admirer of his work.

So, all that a poet needs is a muse and an admirer. A sounding…

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She died yesterday

Reena Saxena

She died yesterday.

The priest chants mantras irrelevant to the essence of her life. She stood for freedom and path-breaking ideas. Rituals are about beating a trodden path with sticks shaped out of a murdered tree.

Those who pray for the soul to rest in peace know not that she exists beyond their reach – in the street of the sky night walks scattering poems.

Poems that carry strong messages – unheard, unread, unappreciated, but which flicker like an inexhaustible flame in the dark.

Those who encountered her spirit but feared the fire, refuse to acknowledge she was anything more than an anonymous, childless woman who left no heir.

Deep inside they know that a spiritual legacy lives longer than a child, hence they measure a woman by the children she bears and rears, assisted by a man. It facilitates denial of an independent living force.

---

Written for Prosery Monday

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10 Famous Temples Dedicated To Lord Vishnu And His Avatars # 1

Anita's Perspectives on Life.

Badrinath Temple, Badrinath

Lord Vishnu is the principal deity of the Hindu trinity and protector of the world, Vaishnavism is one of the traditions followed within Hinduism. Lord Vishnu has one of many distinct incarnations but ten avatars of Vishnu are the most studied.

Badrinath or Badrinarayana Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu which is situated in the town of Badrinath in Uttarakhand, India. pilgrimage sites. The temple is also one of the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to Vishnu, who is worshipped as Badrinath—a holy shrine for Vaishnavites.

Badrinath Temple is the holiest shrine of Lord Vishnu and part of Char Dham Yatra pilgrimage sites, situated at an elevation of 3,133 m in the town of Badrinath in Uttarakhand.

The temple of Badrinath is the holy shrine for Vaishnavites, along the banks of the Alaknanda River in the Garhwal hill tracks of Chamoli.

Badrinath Temple is the holiest…

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Clear the view

Keep it alive

Fog – Image by KL Caley

For visually challenged writers, the image shows a river, further along it you can see some shadows of trees which the fog is starting to blur.

➰➰➰

Eyes blinded by the fog of ignorance

Or the blindness of too much misery

Taking things as they come, not reacting

What does it makes us? Callous, heartless?

We are becoming desensitized to the pain

The cruelty and abuse around us because it’s prevalent

Are we losing our humanity, our empathy

It’s time to open our eyes, clear the fog

See what is, for what it really is as it effects us

Pain, unjust treatment, death and suffering

Never get used to bad things because they happen oh so often!

➰➰➰

Written in response to WritePhoto # Fog, hosted by KL Caley

#Keepitalive

#WritePhoto

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It’s True

michnavs

It’s True

i’ve heard it a million times

i couldn’t possibly be wrong

it keeps spinning back and forth

in my head 

in my heart

in my being.

i knew it, i couldn’t be wrong

don’t tell me i’m goin’ crazy

it keeps coming back and forth

why doesn’t the phone ring stop?

i’ve pressed all buttons.

no, i’m not delusional

no, i’m not crazy

no, i’m not paranoid

how dare you call me one

in names, i am not

i’ve heard it and i knew it to be true.

you’ve insisted it’s me being paranoid

nothing’s happening

nothing’s wrong

with the phone

or the surroundings

or the people around.

so you took your hands off me

after all, how could you possibly

be with someone whose

like me.

but really, it’s true

why doesn’t the phone ring stop?

i’ve pressed all buttons

it’s happening

you refused to believe

just…

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