!["Car of Juggernaut" (1851) (Source: The Illustrated London Reading Book)](http://trivia.serendip.in/sites/trivia.serendip.in/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/image_primary/380px-Juggernaut_-_Project_Gutenberg_eBook_11921.jpg?itok=WBm0rhXC ""Car of Juggernaut" (1851) (Source: The Illustrated London Reading Book)") |
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If India is to be really capable of holding its own in future without direct British control from outside I am not sure that it will not need an increasing infusion of stronger Nordic blood, whether by settlement or intermarriage or otherwise. Possibly it has been a real mistake of ours in the past not to encourage Indian princes to marry English wives ... and so breed a more virile type of native ruler.
The British had the gall to call Robert Clive 'Clive of India' as if he belonged to the country, when all he really did was to ensure that much of the country belonged to him.
In the Madras (Chennai) of British India, people synced their clocks to a cannon fired daily at 4 PM in Fort St. George.
In 1842, Major General Charles Napier was commanded to quell a protracted rebellion in Sindh (now in Pakistan). He however exceeded his mandate and conquered the entire province. Once done, Napier is rumoured to have sent a telegram to his superiors with just one word, peccavi, Latin for "I have sinned".
Reginald Dyer, the Butcher of Amritsar, of Jallianwala Bagh infamy, was the youngest son of one Edward Dyer, the man often credited with establishing India's first successful brewery at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh. It would eventually become Mohan Meakin Breweries.
The East Punjab Agricultural Pests, Diseases and Noxious Weeds Act 4 reads,
In the event of any area being invaded, or in danger of an invastion, by locusts, the Collector of the district or other officer authorised by him in this behalf may call upon any male person not below the age of 14 years resident in the district to render all possible assistance in carrying out preventive or remedial measures and in the destruction of locusts …
Section 125 of the Indian Penal Code reads,
Whoever wages war against the government of any Asiatic Power in alliance or at peace with the government of India or attempts to wage such war, or abets the waging of such war, shall be punished.
The harmonium was banned on All India Radio's networks between 1940 and 1971. The instrument was deemed incapable of handling the complex notes of Indian classical music and was also dubbed un-Indian.
The British pop singer, Cliff Richard, was born Harry Rodger Webb in the King's English Hospital in Lucknow. His family later moved to Calcutta before leaving India for good when he was around eight years old.
The Durand Cup, Indian football's premier football tournament is named after Mortimer Durand, a British civil servant. So is the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Durand Line.