66
votes
Accepted
Is the photograph "England’s Revenge in India" real, staged, or fake?
It seems to be the painting Suppression of the Indian Revolt by the English, a painting by the Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin c. 1884
According to the annotation on Wikipedia:
It ...
- 77.3k
51
votes
Accepted
Why did the UK allow India to be a republic rather than a democratic parliament under the British Monarch?
That's an interesting question. When India first gained independence from the United Kingdom on 15 August 1947 it was as The Dominion of India, with King George VI as king and Head of State.
India ...
- 77.3k
44
votes
Accepted
Where was gunpowder invented/ discovered?
This confusion is A Thing. I actually looked into it a few weeks back.
Its quite likely that ancient Indians were the first people to harvest and make use of saltpeter. We certainly haven't found ...
- 118k
30
votes
Accepted
Why would anyone from Japan be in Northern India in early 1900s?
There would seem to be quite a number of possibilities, including:
Businessmen
Japanese business interests in India were extensive between the two world wars. Putting this together with "In the ...
- 108k
28
votes
Accepted
Did Napoleon plan to invade India?
The answer is a very solid yes although I'd prefer the word Intervene rather than invade.
India was one of the key possessions of British and Indian trade was crucial to British economy at that time....
- 8,185
20
votes
Accepted
Why didn't invaders of India ever cross into Myanmar and beyond (east)?
The region to east of Bengal is Myanmar. In between them, the Himalayan foothills taper off rather abruptly into the Bay of Bengal. They still form quite a formidable obstacle. Southeast Asia itself ...
- 3,340
20
votes
Accepted
Is Indus civilization over 8000 years old?
There's a bit of confusion over terms here. The culture that was first excavated at Harrapa, as per the idiom of archeologists, was named "Harrapan" after the first archeological site at ...
- 118k
19
votes
Is the photograph "England’s Revenge in India" real, staged, or fake?
Radio Yerevan reports that: "In principle, yes, the photo is absolutely real. Except, that it isn't a real photo, its name isn't 'England's Revenge in India', and the propaganda book never ...
- 80.8k
18
votes
Why would anyone from Japan be in Northern India in early 1900s?
(Some) Indians, and (some) Japanese share a common religion, Buddhism. This religion was founded in India in the sixth century B. C.,spread over East Asia, and found its way to Japan in the sixth ...
- 104k
17
votes
Where are the descendants of Mughals today?
No one knows where they are.
Professor Aslam Pervez, an historian of Bahadur Shah II's reign and a founding member of the Mughal Trust, told The Daily Telegraph:
"There are so many people who ...
- 8,185
16
votes
Accepted
Why did the Portuguese permit an Italian commercial agent to accompany Vasco da Gama on the 4th Portuguese India Armada?
This expedition was financed by the Affaitadi family (they were bankers), of which Matteo de Bergamo was a clerk. It is natural that the investors would ask the da Gama brothers to take one of their ...
- 4,656
15
votes
Accepted
Was Kandhar/Gandhar renamed Afghanistan?
No.
The word which appears in Sanskrit ancient tomes is "Gāndhāra".
That refers to ancient Kingdom of Gandhara which is now part of North-West Pakistan. It's boundaries included Peshawar Region, ...
- 8,185
14
votes
Accepted
What stopped the British from granting independence to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands?
On 30 June 1947 (one and a half months before the independence of India), there was a discussion in the UK House of Commons about Anglo-Indians and Europeans (alternative link):
Mr. Gammons asked ...
- 1,321
13
votes
Did India turn down a permanent seat in the UN in 1955?
Late Prime Minister Nehru himself has explicitly stated in Parliament that India was not offered a permanent membership on the UN Security Council.
News item from "The Hindu" (dated ...
- 133
13
votes
What is the origin of Khans? Is there any link between South Asian Khans and the Mongols?
RI Swamp Yankee has provided a good answer however I find some aspects lacking and some misinformation in the otherwise decent answer.
Mongols and Islam
When talking about Mongols, one has to ...
- 8,185
13
votes
Accepted
Why did Bakht Khan switch sides in Indian War of Independence 1857?
For a possible reason, Encyclopædia Britannica says this about Bakht Khan (emphasis mine):
Related on his mother’s side to the ruling house of Oudh (Ayodhya),
which was deposed by the British in ...
- 3,179
12
votes
Who introduced coins in India?
"The first coins in India were minted around the 6th century BC by the Mahajanapadas of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and certainly before the invasion of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. " ...
MCW♦
- 32.3k
12
votes
Accepted
Was Winston Churchill really responsible for the 1943 Bengal famine?
tl;dr
No, he wasn't, although it might be argued that he might have done more, had he been blessed with the gift of 20/20 hindsight (like his modern critics).
Indeed, as the historian Arthur Herman ...
- 77.3k
12
votes
Why didn't Delhi became part of Pakistan?
Because Delhi was deep within majority Hindu territory.
As @MarkC.Wallace pointed out, the partition of India was made along religious lines. Here is a map of pre-partition India by religious ...
- 97.4k
12
votes
Accepted
Did the emperor Ashoka really build hospitals or is that a myth?
Short Answer
The available evidence for hospitals set up on the orders of Ashoka is inconclusive, but several scholars have suggested that it is at least likely that there was some type of hospital, ...
- 108k
11
votes
Did the US and Soviet navies really come close to blows in the Indian Ocean in 1971?
I was a navy journalist (JO3), working in the Public Affairs Office onboard Enterprise when we entered the Indian Ocean in December of 1971. We departed Yankee Station on the tenth of December 1971 ...
- 111
11
votes
Accepted
Why did Indira Gandhi lift the Emergency?
The same book 'India after Gandhi' mentions various possible reason for lifting democracy. Though the real reason may remain unknown, I will list the possible reasons:
It is said that her ...
- 356
11
votes
Why were Indians able to free themselves of the European Colonialists unlike South Africans?
Following up on Tom's answer, there is actually a reason there was a large white minority in South Africa, but not in India.
The Bantu peoples (of which most living native South Africans are ...
- 118k
11
votes
What percentage of the British Empire's economy was profits from the opium trade?
There is no doubt that opium and tea formed a "commercial nexus" that became an essential element of the British imperial economy. Although the British government wasn't directly involved in the opium ...
- 77.3k
11
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Asian teams participate in the 1950 World Cup?
Only four Asian teams – Burma, India, Indonesia and the Philippines - entered the 1950 World Cup qualification rounds and these were placed in Group 10 with the top team qualifying for the finals in ...
- 108k
11
votes
What factors explain Indian territorial restraint towards Pakistani occupied Kashmir despite military success against Pakistan?
The question, whatever objections are made to its phrasing, boils down to: India won 3 wars easily and hasn't pushed its advantage to take over Pakistani Kashmir. Why?
This is highly speculative, ...
10
votes
Accepted
Why was the Mughal Empire Persian oriented?
First, the relationship was
Mughal Empire -> Timur Empire -> Mongol
; I mean that while the Mughal Empire had distant Turco-Mongol origins, its most direct influence was that of the Timurid ...
- 12.4k
10
votes
Accepted
Why were Indians able to free themselves of the European Colonialists unlike South Africans?
First of all, both India and South Africa became free of Britain, shortly after World War II, India in 1947, and South Africa in 1948.
Your question appears to be, why didn't "indigenous" people in ...
- 104k
10
votes
Why did Gandhi give the violent "Do or Die" slogan to the Quit India movement?
'Do or Die' is a very common phrase in India which almost never infer violence. Google interpret this phrase as 'persist, even if death is the result.'
Thus, what Gandhi was trying to convey ...
10
votes
Accepted
Why did Gandhi give the violent "Do or Die" slogan to the Quit India movement?
Non-violent resistance doesn't mean there won't be violence (including possibly death) happening. It just means you won't be the one committing it. In fact, it is the goal to induce the oppressor to ...
- 118k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible