Historychatter Podcast

2024 marks the twenty year anniversary of Finding Forhotten Ciities, Prof. Nayanjot Lahiri’s landmark book on the various events and personalities which led to the discovery of Indus Valley civilization in the early twentieth century and later. In a freewheeling conversation with Anirban Bandyopadhyay, Prof. Lahiri recalls how she came to write the book, how the book presents a modern histor...

When economic blockade encouraged the Portuguese to hold on to Goa rather than abandon it, India finally decided to use force. Yet its long held pacifist position in international diplomacy misled Portugal and China into complacency that India would never actually use force. While secret military predications were afoot, the Defence Minister of India mounted a spirited press campaign virtually cal...

The third episode of Konkan Uprising, our special series of the liberation of Goa, focuses on the economic blockade during the late 1950s. India did not want to make a military intervention, even though diplomatic relations broke down irrevocably. Instead, it imposed an economic sanction, since trade with India made up the lifeline of the Goan economy. India hoped that the boka class would choke t...

Between 1946 and 1956, the Goa question had entered the international domain. India became independent but did not want to annex Goa by force. It stressed Goa’s social and cultural unity with India but insuu insisted on a diplomatic handover by Portugal. The latter had no such intention. Meanwhile, the freedom fighters in Goa carried on their struggles. In 1954, India imposed an economic boycott,...

The people of Goa fell into a peculiar problem this month due to a recent change in Indian passport laws. Early last year, Prime Minister Modi claimed that Jawaharlal Nehru deliberately delayed Goa’s liberation and integration with India. What really happened with Goa? I went back to Sushila Mendes’ work and the recent monograph of Valmiki Faleiro on the liberation of Goa. This and the next three...

🔎 Why 🧐 did #Nehru delay the liberation of #Goa from the Portuguese and make it a part of Bharat? A delay that was 15years after India got its independence from the #BritishRaj?? Was it on purpose? What was the real strategy? From the makers of chart-topping history series comes another gripping tale- 🥁🥁🥁 #KonkanUprising: Goa's Liberation Saga In the form of a 3-part series on HistoryChatter...

Coffee drinking on a large scale did not start in India before the early 20th century. Once it became popular as a leisure drink, many commentators responded to its novel appeal. Some believed it was making Indians more prone to diseases. Yet others believed coffee reduced breast milk supply in lactating mothers. This episode looks into such varied cultural responses to the introduction of coffee...

The G20, also known as the Group of Twenty, includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, in addition to the European Union. Presently, G20 nations collectively represent over 80% of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 7...

Sikkim followed a different trajectory from other former princely states. India virtually treated it as a foreign country, until early 1970s. The final episode of the series India United explores the twists and turns of internal and external politics around Sikkim between 1947 and 1975. Join us on  #HistoryChatter 🎤 as we bring to you a 4-part #docuseries - India United: Princely States and the I...

Jawaharlal Nehru was firmly against hereditary monarchs. But he made an exception in the case of Sikkim. He let Sikkim’s King stay on, until after his death. His daughter Indira Gandhi believed it was an indirect concession to China. But there were movements within Sikkim for democracy and the end of landlordism. Political dynamics slowly began to change during the 1960s and Indira Gandhi finally...

In the third episode on the incorporation of princely states within independent India, I take up a detailed case study of Hyderabad. It was the largest princely state in British India, and the Nizam of Hyderabad aspired for an Azad Hyderabad or independent Hyderabad. It was not an unreasonable aspiration as such. If it were to be independent, Hyderabad would have been as wealthy as the top twenty...

Integration of various princely states to the newly independent state of India was carried out primarily by the States Department. It came into being in July,1947 and was headed by Sardar Patel. He was ably assisted by V P Menon, who held the highest position among Indian officials of the Raj, as constitutional advisor to the last three British Viceroys. He laid down the legal and constitutional p...

Given a choice, many native princes did not want to become a part of the independent Indian republic in 1947. Quite a few of them had even hatched a conspiracy to create a confederacy of princely states. Some influential British officials still supported those ambitions, albeit with an imperialist motive. But Jawaharlal Nehru was implacably opposed to these fantasies. He had personally suffered at...

🗓️15th of August 1947 On one side we see it as the day of India's Independence, on the other, the day when the country got partitioned. But there's one more side that is not much talked about, Just as our freedom struggle ended, a new quest began- To unite the Indian States & its people‼️ What if India were 29 countries and not 29 states? What if Rajasthan would have become a part of Pakistan?...

The Government of India began to encourage the manufacture of a small car only by the 1970s. Sanjay Gandhi, Prime Minister’s son and an automobile fanatic, carried out the audacious Maruti experiment during the 1970s. It was a giant dream, and ended up as a bigger failure. His mother Indira Gandhi finally revived the dream. For once, capable managers were hired, and the government or the bureaucra...

The first thirty years after independence were a bumpy ride for the private car dream. Automobile was considered integral to India’s self sufficiency but the private car was not a part of that scheme. The government focused on setting up a manufacturing base for automobiles in India. But larger vehicles for defence and freight and mass transport sectors received greater priority. The articulate pr...

A small car is not an unattainable aspiration for a middle-class family in India today. Forty years ago though, it was. Cars were considered an unaffordable luxury until the mid-eighties when Maruti 800 finally came along. However, attempts had begun as early as the 1930s to set up an automobile manufacturing industry in India. I take up this journey in a three-part series. The first episode profi...

A small car is not an unattainable aspiration for a middle-class family in India today. Forty years ago though, it was! Cars were considered an unaffordable luxury until the mid-eighties when Maruti 800 finally came along. However, attempts had begun as early as the 1930s to set up an automobile manufacturing industry in India. From the makers of HistoryChatter Podcast, we bring to you this exciti...

HistoryChatter enters into contemporary history in this special episode. Anirban speaks to political scientists Prof. Sudha Pai and Dr. Sajjan Kumar on the recent past and prospects of Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh. Pai and Kumar have recently published the much-acclaimed book 'Maya, Modi and Azad: Dalit Politics in the Time of Hindutva'. They argue that the Bahujan Samaj Party is probably in a...

Once the British conquered India, they invested in learning Indian languages. Initially, they searched for one common language for the whole subcontinent. The search for a common vernacular in India made an adventurer called John Gilchrist virtually invent a new language called Hindustani. The language was common enough in north India but its rise to the status of a pan-Indian lingua franca was a...

There was some controversy about whether it was right or fair to clothe the nude bronze figurine from Mohenjo Daro when it was recently adopted as the mascot of an International Museum Expo, 2023 being held in New Delhi. Dr. Ashish Kumar, an expert in ancient Indian history who teaches at the Punjab University, Chandigarh in a freewheeling conversation with the host Dr. Anirban Bandyopadhyay discu...

Cricket commentary has just turned hundred years old. It has undergone great transformation as it grew from modest beginnings in Australia and England in the 1920s. This episode looks into the debut and early history of cricket commentary in Australia, England, India and Pakistan. You can follow us and leave us feedback on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter  @eplogmedia, For advertising/partner...

India came close to testing an atomic bomb several times between 1974 and 1998. One of those times was in 1983 when Indira Gandhi withdrew authorization at the last moment. Narasimha Rao was about to test a nuclear weapon in 1995. This special episode examines why and how the test was considered necessary and why it could not be carried out. You can follow us and leave us feedback on  Facebook , ...

What happened to the Indian nuclear programme after the explosion? Did it settle into a regular rhythm of making bombs? Did it focus on producing electricity? Or did it lapse into factional fights and remain beholden to the personal interest of the Prime Minister? This final episode takes up these questions while examining the history of the prospects and performance of atomic energy research in I...

India’s atomic energy research took a new turn by the 1960s. On the one hand, the atomic scientists had to seek out a new challenge as the objective of nuclear power production was within reach. They had to do something dramatic to maintain the top-secret status of their enterprise. The bomb was the obvious answer. On the other hand, Americans were now ready to do business with India, since India...