15
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Afghanistan accede to Pakistan in 1947?
Because Afghanistan had already been a fully independent country for 30 years, the population of which was no more interested in the being subject to the hegemony of Choudhary Rahmat Ali's Punjabi ...
- 71.3k
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 ...
- 8,153
12
votes
Accepted
How voluntary was Sati during the Mughal era?
Sati were supposed to be voluntary. Since it was offensive to the sentiments of the Mughals, its rulers such as Akbar the Great explicitly banned involuntary sati. On a superficial level, therefore, ...
- 96.9k
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, ...
9
votes
Accepted
What were Aurangzeb Alamgir's motives for reversing much of the religious tolerance in the Mughal Empire?
Political expediency.
A common, populist explanation is that Aurangzeb Alamgir was religiously conservative, as taninamdar has noted. However, this is certainly not the whole picture. Though his ...
- 96.9k
7
votes
Accepted
Interpreting two recent studies on Aryan Invasion/Migration theory?
The first paper basically says that genetically, some remains dated around 2500BCE from an Indus Valley Civilization individual show no central Asian (presumably Indo-European) component.
The second ...
- 115k
7
votes
Accepted
Why did Pakistan choose Islamabad as its capital?
Although the Final Report of the Special Commission has never been made public, Sarshar (2017) and Hull (2012) highlight a variety of reasons that were discussed at the time, which were as political ...
- 17.9k
6
votes
Accepted
When names of these countries were first called
India
The classical Latin was "India" taken from the Sanskrit "Sindhu" and Persian "Hindu" possibly referring to any large river which formed a natural border. The Greeks ...
- 54.5k
5
votes
Accepted
What was Babur's attitude upon watching heads of his enemies stacked up forming a tower?
In the memoirs Babur himself wrote, the Bāburnāma, there's indeed a lot of beheading.
Some examples (by no means an exhaustive list):
Husain Mirza ordered that all prisoners should be beheaded; ...
- 3,169
4
votes
What factors explain Indian territorial restraint towards Pakistani occupied Kashmir despite military success against Pakistan?
Based on news reporting on India/China of the last decades, India has taken great care in avoiding a conflict with China.
There have been many border conficts between them in the last decades on ...
- 9,014
4
votes
Why didn't the Pakistani military try to gain Kashmir from India in 1971 instead of launching an offensive in Rajesthan?
Background
The main thrust of the Indian Army during the 1971 war was directed towards the eastern theatre, with the western sector envisaged as a holding operation to prevent the Pakistan Army from ...
4
votes
What is the current state of historical thought on the Aryan invasion/migration theory?
A recent paper from Archaeogenetics might be of interest in this regard. I do not know enough about genetics and its methods, to comment on the validity of the results. But for those who do, this ...
- 3,780
3
votes
What was the size of the Chola Empire's navy under Raja Raja Chola I?
There was not any constant size for their navy. Their ship building was institutionalized. Ships were built for different purposes, such as war ships (like kanni, mandalam, thalam and a few more), ...
- 133
3
votes
Did Aurangzeb issue a farman promising 4 Rs for all males that convert and 2 Rs for females?
This is original pic of document placed at state museum bikaner rajasthan
- 31
3
votes
What irreplaceable manuscripts were lost in the burning of Jaffna Public Library and what history did they contain (and subsequently lost forever)?
Update: I located an article listing a few more documents which were burned.
Some rare
documents were: (i) Miniature editions of the
Ramayana epic, (ii) The only existing copy of the
Yalpanam ...
- 2,411
2
votes
Did Jinnah in 1947 or 1946 forsake his demand for Pakistan on the condition of maximum autonomy for the provinces within the united India?
In the article about Jinnah, Wikipedia says:
The British in May [of 1946] released a plan for a united Indian state comprising substantially autonomous provinces, and called for "groups" of ...
- 17.9k
2
votes
Accepted
Why do we study Mughals as part of medieval history of India and European conquest as modern India?
It would help to have specific examples of textbooks or courses that associate the Mughals with the medieval period, but the article "Early Modern India and World History" (Richards, 1992) ...
- 17.9k
2
votes
What time zone was used in Sikkim before it became a state of India in 1975?
One of the main imperatives for standardised time in India was the railways. Since the pre-1975 Kingdom of Sikkim had no railways, I suspect it may not have had standardised time either.
A lack of ...
- 30.4k
2
votes
What prevented the Indian Army to wrest Kashmir from Pakistan despite the UN Security Council's resolutions of 1948-49?
As one can see on a modern map, the region is contested from three sides, at least. At the time an intervention from the Soviet Union or China would be the least desirable for both Pakistan and India. ...
- 80.2k
1
vote
What factors explain Indian territorial restraint towards Pakistani occupied Kashmir despite military success against Pakistan?
Two reasons:
Most of the border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir is barren
land made inhospitable during winter. India trumped Pakistan and
occupied Siachen Glacier, which it continues to hold ...
- 228
1
vote
During the Chola dynasty how extensive was the use of Sanskrit in government and by the people?
Tamil-Brahmi and Sanskrit were both derived from the Brahmi Script of the Mauryas. Tamil Brahmi evolved into Vattelattu after 200 CE. Like Tamil-Brahmi, it was used to write the Tamil language. Around ...
- 3,280
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