#india chains war

[somerabbitholes]

Hey, Do you have any foreign policy reading recommendations?

Here are a few. Since I don't know what exactly you're looking for and foreign policy is huge, I've tried to go with a diverse bunch

The Revenge of Geography by Robert D. Kaplan: about what geography can tell us about conflicts and possible directions that international politics would take; really good analysis, really good starting point to learn how to think about geopolitics. You can check out his other books too, he's quite good

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall: more on what the map and geography tells us about global diplomacy and international politics

Belt and Road by Bruno Macaes: about the Belt and Road project and the kind of international order it and China through the project envisions; the politics of the project

The Chip War by Chris Miller: it's a history of semiconductors and through them, about global supply chains and industrial manufacturing circuits and how geopolitics and foreign policy impacts industry/business

The Blood Telegram by Gary J Bass: about US involvement in South Asia during the Cold War and particularly how it shaped politics between India, Pakistan and China

War by Margaret MacMillan: not strictly foreign policy, but it is about the place of war in history and politics

I'd also just recommend reading magazines and news and reporting about international politics; it's always more timely and easier to get the hang of. You can check out Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politico, Carnegie Endowment, Lowy Institute to start with; most of them also have podcasts

[thefirelookout]

Dead silence

This post is an attempt to share or let out some of my complex feelings about the situation in Bangladesh.

We went to our city's protest yesterday. It was a silent, peaceful protest. The Bangladeshi student community here in Kingston stood in a human chain with placards. "Save Bangladesh student", yes grammatically wrong, yes, it assumes that young revolutionaries need saving, so on and so forth. The protest started and ended quietly. My non-Bangladeshi friends were a bit confused, since they're used to chanty protests for Palestine, or union picket lines with cars passing by, honking in support. There was more noise even for the Iranian protests, Zan Zendegi Azadi. The silence of a graveyard in this one, though.

Who cares about little old Bangladesh? I sometimes wonder. We're not in the eye of the middle eastern storm like Syria, Lebanon or Palestine are. We're not strategically important, we don't even have many natural resources like Sudan or Congo do. The Prime Minister visited China recently to ask for an aid or a loan, and came back pretty much empty handed. China isn't very interested in us. India has gotten what it needed to get, and can milk more out of us, but they can do the same with Nepal or Bhutan too. We're never in the headlines, the US or the West in general isn't interested in us at all. And Pakistan denies that the 1971 genocide ever happened.

Which is why, the world isn't missing our voices due to the internet blackout.

The voices were all over my Facebook newsfeed. Aunties and apus on Facebook live selling sarees, jewelry, crafts, elderly boomers sharing gardening tips, quick fixes or herbal remedies that they swear by, people sharing posts about cricket or which cricketer's wife wore what, food bloggers calling every possible dish juicy (be it a burger or the meat in biriyani), celebrity drama, political drama to the extent of what was allowed back home. That sort of thing.

Now, again, there's the silence of a graveyard over here. And I feel like screaming till I snap my vocal cords. Can you all please come back? Please? The silence is unbearable! Please! I won't judge you if you sell your wares! Please! I won't judge if you think turmeric water can act as a miracle detox! Please, please I won't say a word if your post about your stupid cricket match! Just something, please say something! I haven't seen a single one of you online. Please don't die, please stay safe. When the internet comes back, please, post about your vacations and your pets. Not the dead, please, don't post about the bodies. I can take a bit of silence but not more bodies please!

Speaking of bodies. There was an armoured vehicle, painted navy blue in the colours of the police (fuck them). And there was a body on top of it. Dead, obviously, very dead, because it flopped down with the slightest nudge, and was left on the streets. Before that happened, the vehicle drove about as if parading its spoils of war, with the body on top. Sending a message. This will happen to you if you raise your voice.

That image has been haunting me for two nights now. So yeah, I'm not man enough to get some incisive political analysis out. I have no either or predictions for what happens if the regime falls or doesn't fall. My body feels numb, I've been binge eating because I still have food in the house and I won't be gunned down if I go out to get groceries now. My non-Bangladeshi friends, bless their first world hearts, have never had to live under fascism. Bless their hearts, have never had to stifle their voices to the extent that we've had to. Bless their beautiful hearts, could hardly pronounce Bangladesh. But they still showed up to that docile little protest because they care about my spouse and I. I can't even begin to thank them.

My insides are tearing up. I'm sitting with a poker face typing all this word vomit, but my insides are nothing but a scream. No clever realpolitik comes out of a heart that's screaming, because our mouths are sewn shut.

[nyxshadowhawk]

Hera: Dionysus is an embarrassment Zeus: Excuse me that's my son you're talking about. Hera: Yeah exactly, how the hell are you not embarrassed by your son? He's girly, he's always drunk, he wears a ribbon in his hair for gods' sake! He always hangs out with women, because he may as well be a woman. If he were MY son-- Zeus: You know what Dionysus did just the other day? HE CONQUERED INDIA, THAT'S WHAT! Hera: ... Zeus: He led the king away in chains! They barely put up a fight! He captured war elephants! WAR ELEPHANTS, HERA! Hera: ... Zeus: And he did it while drunk! With a bunch of women as his army! With ribbons in his hair!

Hera: ... Zeus: And no one dares to challenge him, because he'll bind them in vines or have them torn to pieces by their own mother. Isn't that manly? Worthy of a son of Zeus? Hera: ... Zeus: If this is what he's like drunk, imagine what he'd be like sober. Hera: So are you trying to say that the invention of wine was a good thing? I mean, have you *seen* drunk people? Zeus: It's not the wine's fault if you drink too much of it. Hera: Look at what happened to Ikarios! He gave wine to some Athenian farmers, and they killed him! You're proud of that? Zeus: That's not Dionysus' fault. He was pretty pissed about that, actually. You think he treats his own party guests like that?

Hera: Considering what normally happens at Dionysus' parties... Zeus: I know what's going on here. You're jealous. You're still sore about Semele, so you're trying to make her son look bad. Well, your son can't conquer shit!

--Adapted from Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods 22

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Al-Jazeera Arabic publishes new footage of desperate, starving Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza being shot and killed in cold blood by Zionist snipers who targeted the civilians as they attempted to retrieve food aid that was air dropped into Gaza a distance from where the group had been gathered, a direct violation of International humanitarian law and a crime against humanity.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏠💥🚑 🚨

ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES CAUGHT OPENING GUNFIRE ON STARVING PALESTINIANS ON DAY 182 OF GENOCIDE

On the 182nd day of "Israel's" Special Genocide Operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 5 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 54 civilians, mostly women and children, while another 82 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, many victims remain trapped under the rubble of buildings they were sheltering in at the time of being bombed and shelled, who, although presumed dead, are unable to be reached due to the IOF actively blocking paramedic and civil defense crews from reaching the sites of Israeli attacks.

Meanwhile, in an unusual move, the McDonald's corporation will be buying the entirety of the Alonyal McDonald's franchise In "Israel", which includes a total of 225 stores, employing approximately 5'000 Israelis.

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinsky said the franchise has seen "meaningful business impact" as a result of boycotts and protests organized by the BDS movement against the Israeli franchise, along with other McDonald's chains, after the Israeli franchise announced it would be offering free meals to Zionist soldiers committing a genocide in the Gaza Strip, beginning after the events of October 7th.

McDonalds added that it “remains committed to the Israeli market and to ensuring a positive employee and customer experience in the market going forward."

Sales growth for the McDonald's division of the Middle East, India and China were down significantly, with sales growth for October-December at just 0.7%, well below the market expectations of 5.5%.

Similarly, sales for Starbucks, another U.S. company which has deep financial ties to "Israel," while the leadership of the company holds an openly Pro-"Israel" stance, has also seen significant harm to sales due to boycotts and protests, prompting CEO Laxman Narasimhan to state back in February that Starbucks had seen an "significant impact on traffic and sales."

Meanwhile, the Zionist entity's authorities released a total of 101 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who were kidnapped and detained by the IOF during its war of genocide in Gaza, many of whom showed signs of torture, and included some prisoners who were taken during "Israel's" raid of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, occupation warplanes bombarded agricultural lands in the vicinity of the Salah al-Din Gate, along the Egypt-Palestine border in the city of Rafah, in the south of Gaza.

At the same time, the carnage of "Israel's" war of genocide in Gaza resumed on Friday, with renewed artillery shelling of the central and western Khan Yunis governate, while the IOF also resumed bombing on the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

Intense Zionist airstrikes targeted Sheikh Zayed City, in the north of the Gaza Strip, while the central governate of Gaza also saw renewed artillery shelling.

At midnight, Zionist fighter jets bombed several residential buildings in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City, in the north of Gaza, while occupation forces directed an intense artillery bombardment on the southwestern and southeastern areas of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as directing artillery fire on residential homes to the east of the Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip.

The resumed intense Zionist bombardments across the Gaza Strip led to dozens of deaths overnight, along with the wounding of scores of others, including women and children, many of whom remain buried under the rubble of their homes and shelters.

IOF jets also bombed several residential homes in the Batn al-Sameen neighborhood, located to the southwest of Khan Yunis, while also bombing the village of Abasan, to the east of Khan Yunis.

Elsewhere, Zionist forces withdrew troops from the eastern region of Tanzania, coinciding with the intense bombardment of the area.

Tragically, local paramedic and civil defense personnel recovered the bodies of of three martyred civilians from the town of Al-Qarara, to the north of Khan Yunis.

At the same time, Israeli occupation warplanes bombed various parts of the central Gaza Strip, including the areas of Al-Nuseirat, Al-Maghazi, Al-Zawayda, and Deir al-Balah, resulting in the martyrdom of at least 15 Palestinian civilians, and also wounding a number of others.

Zionist occupation air forces also bombed a gathering of civilians near the Abu Holi Junction, northwest of Al-Qarara, resulting in the deaths of at least three civilians and wounding a multitude of others.

Back in northern Gaza, in yet another horrific tragedy, occupation warplanes bombed civilian structures in the Beit Hanoun area, with a second strike targeting paramedic crews as they attempted to transport the dead and wounded to a nearby hospital.

As a result of "Israel's" Special Genocide Operation in the Gaza Strip, the death toll among the Palestinian population has risen in excess of 33'091 civilians killed, over 25'000 of those martyred being among women and children according to the United States Pentagon, while another 75'750 others have been wounded since the start of the latest round of Zionist aggression, beginning on October 7th, 2023.

#source1

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#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 7/2/2024

as of friday i have lived in texas for a full year. that's the most neutrally diplomatic thing i can say about my time in this state so far

listening

i did a lot of driving last week and had the first album from genshin impact's legally-not-France nation on loop bc it's a lot of vivaldi inspired stuff and i find that soothing. however! one of my favorite pieces of music from this nation is this battle track. i don't have any music words but i do like the.. pipe organ emphasis? on the little flourish at 0:28. catholic brain go brrrr

-

reading

thank you mackintosh.

i liked gotham city: year one! many many many callbacks but framed in a way "and this is the start of the blueprint for how everything would go" which made me less annoyed than callbacks for their own sake. a very chandler-esque take on noir, by which i mean a fundamentally good (but tired) man gets beaten to shit and survives a doublecross as he unravels a fucked up little family dynamic for the pure nosy sake of unraveling it.

-

watching

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024, dir. Ritchie). a spy/action/comedy thing about Operation Postmaster, a wwii special operation off the west coast of Africa to disrupt nazi u-boat supplies.

i did not like this at all.

i generally like a guy ritchie film-- the holmes duolgy are movies i would happily rewatch at any time, but this one is very flat. there's very little banter and remarkably little dialogue-- long stretches of this film are of people getting from place to place in perfect silence. even the soundtrack is remarkably toned down. most of it sounds like ai-generatred morricone (very few of the musical passages like. resolve in any sensible manner. there is no theming and no noticeable leitmotif. one of the worst covers of mack the knife ive ever heard is at the climax of the fuckin film. what if someone ominously tapped a hihat to create tension for literally half the movie with NO other accompaniment). when it doesn't sound ai-generated and kind of off (morricone's cowboy western work is not what i expect for a largely seafaring wwii movie) it sounds like they rented a jazz five-piece for a weekend. one of the worst soundtracks i've ever heard. it was extremely distracting.

this is a heist movie that never really figured out how to effectively intercut actions its team is independently taking. there are also a lot of places where the cuts are very strange, especially in the final harbor scene flicking back and forth from the land crew to the boat crew. just felt very underbaked as a movie. i was frequently bored. not an effective comedy, action, or spy movie. just barely a coherent war movie, though not a very enjoyable one.

-

playing

the breath of the wild to genshin ripoff pipeline is pretty clear, esp in the legally-not-India nation with lots of legally-not-koroks. u get a bunch of chests and achievements if u find all 76, i finally sat down on friday with an hour-long walkthough video and found them all. every single four-leaf clover sigil is where one of these fuckers was. and to get to this point, i had to do a whole DIFFERENT quest chain with different collectibles to unlock some of the legally-not-koroks and also make room on my map to free up 76 markers. very annoying process. i fucking hate collectibles for the sake of collectibles and padding out gameplay. i could not imagine doing this if i were employed

-

making

cross stitch update.

i got this belt for the ren faire when my sister came down, finally got around to pulling it out of the freezer and cleaning it the other day, and it was what i can only call yucky-disgusting. an inordinate amount of scunge for a belt with very few signs of wear. it's impossible to photograph bc it's quite late and i did not think to take a before shot, but it straight up changed color. it is much lighter now

[talonabraxas]

Lord Surya and his Chariot Talon Abraxas

Their journey symbolizes the trajectory of the Sun across the sky from dawn till dusk. We find similar representations in Ancient Greece (The god Helios identified with Apollo), in ancient Iran (Mithra), in North Europa (Viking goddess Sol)

How can we explain these similarities? The answer is that all these gods are Indo-European.

Who are the Indo-Europeans? Linguists in the nineteenth century have noted similarities between languages, ancient and modern, spreading over an immense geographical space (Europe, Russia, India, Asia). This led to the hypothesis that all these languages were connected and had the same origin, the Indo-European. We still have no evidence of this ancient language, no archeological trace of the people who spoke it. But scientists have been able to reconstruct the evolution of this language and class it into subgroups. Other elements have backed up this theory.

All these nations share similar pantheons. Roman Jupiter is close to Greek Zeus, to Perun, one of our Herojis, and Thor, the Viking god.

They share similar institutions: family and social structures. Dumezil showed that basically these societies were divided in three classes or functions: the Priests, the Warriors, the Producers.

Surya’s chariot

Like many indo-European Sun gods, Surya is depicted riding a chariot harnessed to horses.

There are however variations from one region to another.

The Greek and Roman Apollo ride a two-wheeled chariot driven by four white winged horses (white symbolizes the light of the day).

A sculpture from the Bronze Age found in Denmark shows the Sun who is not yet pictured as a divinity, placed upon a chariot drawn by a horse.

Characteristics of Surya’s chariot: ancient sculptures and paintings show a sort of tiered construction. The god is seated majestically on the upper tier, legs crossed in a lotus position. In the middle tier, we found the goddess of Dawn and in the lower tier, the horses. There are seven of them symbolizing the seven days of the week or the seven colors of the Rainbow. In some pictures, the wheels of the chariot are enormous. Interestingly, the temple of the Sun of Konarak in Orissa is shaped in the form of a chariot and the wheel is a recurring element of decoration. It is a dharma wheel. The circle represents perfection of the dharma, the Buddha’s teachings, the rim of the wheel promotes meditation and concentration, the hub is for moral discipline. This shows by the way the influence of Buddhism on Hinduism.

Chariots in ancient civilizations were mainly used in battle and warfare: this picture shows a representation of an Assyrian war chariot.

This does not seem to be the case in most Indo-European cultures. Greeks valued and relied on the infantry and the Roman aristocracy fought on horseback. Chariots were however a symbol of prestige. The Roman general who was granted a triumph for his victories crossed the city standing on a circular chariot escorted by his cheering soldiers and preceded by the war prisoners covered in chains. In some representations, the winged goddess of Victory stood on the chariot behind the general.

The cosmic journey

The chariot in ancient times was a means of transport. However, Surya crossing the skies does not accomplish an ordinary journey. It is a cosmic journey. He enlightens the world in his passage. This symbolic aspect of the chariot is more universal and not specific to Surya. In many ancient civilizations, initiation to a superior knowledge is seen as a perilous journey from the earthly world to the celestial realms. The chariot or in some instances the boat symbolizes this transformation.

In the Bible, at the end of his life, after accomplishing his earthly missions, the prophet Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire drawn by fiery horses. The English poet Blake mentions this chariot and it has inspired the title of a film featuring the epic battle of two athletes torn between the claims of their religion and their ambitions as Olympic champions.

In some areas of ancient China, horses were sacrificed during burial rituals and chariots were buried in tombs. Chariots had come to play an important role in warfare. They accompanied the diseased in their final and most significant journey.

Mastering wild elements

Driving fiery horses across the skies needs the powerful hands of a god. Feeble creatures who tried to vie with the mighty Sun gods were punished for their pride. Phaethon, the son of Helios, begged his father to be allowed to drive the chariot for a single day. His father ended up yielding to his request but the young man was unable to manage the spirited horses. He was finally ejected from the chariot and fell to the ground.

Thus in many cultures, chariot driving became a sign of energy, authority, control, self will. In Buddhism, the body is equated to a chariot where the horses are the senses, the mind is the reins, and the charioteer is the intellect. The passenger is the Self. Greek philosopher Plato compared the soul to a chariot drawn by two horses. The Charioteer is the Reason or intellect who must guide the soul to truth. One of the horses is noble in breed and character and represents our moral and rational impulses. The other horse is wild and untamed and represents passions and base desires. Both horses try to go in a different direction. The charioteer has to master them to proceed towards enlightenment . The tarot of Marseilles is a set of cards used to predict your good or bad fortune. One of the major cards or arcanes is called the Chariot. The Chariot appears to the strong-willed and fearless. Drawing this card indicates that you are driven to succeed, with the will to work hard in order to get what you desire above all else.

It is common in many cultures to compare the state to a chariot. The good ruler knows how to manage his attelage. To quote the Latin poet:

et premere et laxas sciret dare iussus habenas.

In France, Louis XIV built a whole ideology around his identification to Apollo, the Greek sun god. He was called le Roi Soleil. The image of the sun appears everywhere in Versailles. In the gardens, there is a pond with a sculpture of Apollo and his horses. In a picture, the king is represented as Apollo driving the chariot of the Sun thus showing the cosmic nature of his power and his ability to hold the reins of France and Europe.

Let us end this cosmic journey with a mantra dedicated to Surya. The English translation is followed by the sanskrit transcription: Om, Let me meditate on the Sun God, Oh, maker of the day, give me higher intellect, And let Sun God illuminate my mind. ॐ भास्कराय विद्महे महादुत्याथिकराया धीमहि त नमो आदित्य प्रचोदयात

[stephensmithuk]

The Sign of Four: The Strange Story of Jonathan Small (Part One of Two)

I will split this in two parts as I've got a lot to cover here.

CW for discussions of nasty prison conditions.

The depth of the Thames is about 6.5 metres at low tide in Woolwich, near to the Plumstead Marshes as they were then. However, the river has strong currents and very little visibility, so it would be a risky operation even with 2024 diving technology for some rather small objects.

The rupee originally was a silver coin dating back to ancient times in India, becoming something of a standard currency during the Mughal period. The East India Company introduced paper rupees and while there was an attempt by the British to move their territory to the pound sterling, they soon gave up, minting their own rupees with the British monarch's head on. The currency was also non-decimal. India retained the currency post-independence and went decimal as well.

Mangrove trees are very common in equatorial coastline regions - they can remove salt from the water, which would kill many other trees.

Prisoners set to the Andaman Islands penal colony were forced to work nine to ten hours a day to construct the new settlement, while in chains. Cuts from poisonous plants and friction ulcers from the chains would often get infected, resulting in death.

The convict huts on Ross Island were two-storey affairs, with the bottom as a kitchen and took area, the prisoners sleeping on the upper floor. Designed this way as an anti-malaria measure, they however leaked and the prisoners themselves were constantly damp from the rainfall, offering them little protection from the mosquitoes in any event.

Ague is an obsolete term for malaria; adults experience chills and fever in cycles.

The British would conduct experiments with quinine as a malaria treatment by force-feeding it to the prisoners. This caused severe side effects.

The British would make use of locals as warders, who wore sashes and carried canes. I'd imagine they could probably be quite brutal.

Pershoe is a small town on the River Avon near Worcester. It has a railway station with an hourly service to London, taking just under two hours today.

"Chapel-going" in this context means that the people attended a non-conformist church i.e. not one part of the Church of England.

"Taking the Queen's/King's shilling" was a historical term for joining the armed forces - for the army this was officially voluntary, but sailors could be forcibly recruited, being known as "press-ganged" until 1815. You would be given the shilling upon initial enlistment or tricked into taking it via it being slipped into your opaque beer. You would return the shilling on your formal attestation and then receive a bounty which could be pretty substantial in terms of the average wage, although a good amount of that would then be spent on your uniform. Some enlisted, deserted and then reenlisted multiple times to get multiple payments. The practice officially stopped in 1879, but the slang term remains.

The 3rd Buffs refers to the latter 3rd Battalion, Buffs (East Kent Regiment), a militia battalion that existed from 1760 to 1953, although it effectively was finished in 1919. However, in reality, they did not go to India to deal with the rebellion, instead staying in Great Britain to cover for the regular regiments who did.

The British never formally adopted the Prussian "goose step" instead going for the similar, but less high-kicking, slow march.

The musket would possibly have been the muzzle-loaded Enfield P53, a mass-produced weapon developed at the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield. It was itself was the trigger of the Indian Rebellion in 1857 due to the grease used in the cartridges. They would also be heavily used in the American Civil War on both sides, especially the Confederate one as they smuggled a lot of them, with only the Springfield Model 1861 being more widely used. As a result, they are highly sought after by re-enactors. The British used them until 1867, when they switched to the breech-loading Snider-Enfield, many of the P53s being converted.

The crocodile would likely have been a gharial, which mainly eat fish. Hunting and loss of habitat has reduced their numbers massively, with the species considered "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN.

"Coolie" is a term today considered offensive that was used to describe low-wage Indian or Chinese labourers who were sent around the world, basically to replace emancipated slaves. Indentured labourers, basically - something the US banned (except as a riminal punishment) along with slavery in 1865. In theory they were volunteers on a contract with rights and wages, however abuses were rife. Indentured labour would finally be banned in British colonies in 1917.

Indigo is a natural dark blue dye extracted from plants of the Indigofera genus; India produced a lot of it. Today, the dye (which makes blue jeans blue) is mostly produced synthetically.

I have covered the "Indian Mutiny" as the British called it here in my post on "The Crooked Man".

The Agra Fort dates back to 1530 and at 94 acres, it was pretty huge by any standards. Today, much of it is open to tourists (foreigners pay 650 rupees, Indians 50), although there are parts that remain in use by the Indian Army and are not for public access.

"Rajah" meaning king, referred to the many local Hindu monarchs in the Indian subcontinent; there were also Maharajahs or "great kings", who the British promoted loyal rajahs to the rank of. The Muslim equivalent was Nawab. However, a variety of other terms existed. The East India Company and the Raj that succeeded them used these local rulers to rule about a half their territory and a third of the population indirectly, albeit under quite a bit of influence from colonial officials. These rulers were vassals to the British monarch; they would collect taxes and enforce justice locally, although many of the states were pretty small (a handful of towns in some cases) and so they contracted this out to the British. As long as they remained loyal, they could get away with nearly anything.

562 of these rulers were present at the time of Indian independence in 1947. Effectively abandoned by the British (Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, sending out contradictory messages), nearly all of them were persuaded to accede to the new India, where the nationalists were not keen on them, with promises they could keep their autonomy if they joined, but if not, India would not help them with any rebellions. Hyderabad, the wealthiest of the states, resisted and was annexed by force. The ruler of Jammu and Kashmir joined India in exchange for support against invading Pakistani forces, resulting in a war. A ceasefire agreement was reached at the beginning of 1949, with India controlling about two-thirds of the territory; the ceasefire line, with minor adjustments after two further wars in 1965 and 1971, would become known as the Line of Control, a dotted line on the map that is the de facto border and one of the tensest disputed frontiers on the planet.

India and Pakistan initially allowed the princely rulers to retain their autonomy, but this ended in 1956. In 1971 and 1972 respectively, their remaining powers and government funding were abolished.

Many of the former rulers ended up in a much humbler position, others retained strong local influence and a lot of wealth. The Nizam of Hyderbad, Mir Osman Ali Khan was allowed to keep his personal wealth and title after the annexation in 1948 - he had been the richest man in the world during his rule and used a 184-carat diamond as a paperweight, at least until he realised its actual value. The current "pretender", Azhmet Jah, has worked as a cameraman and filmmaker in Hollywood, including with Steven Spielberg.

[dailyanarchistposts]

To The Punjab Governor

Sir, With due respect we beg to bring to your kind notice the following:

That we were sentenced to death on 7th October 1930 by a British Court, L.C.C Tribunal, constituted under the Sp. Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance, promulgated by the H.E. The Viceroy, the Head of the British Government of India, and that the main charge against us was that of having waged war against H.M. King George, the King of England.

The above-mentioned finding of the Court pre-supposed two things:

Firstly, that there exists a state of war between the British Nation and the Indian Nation and, secondly, that we had actually participated in that war and were therefore war prisoners.

The second pre-supposition seems to be a little bit flattering, but nevertheless it is too tempting to resist the desire of acquiescing in it.

As regards the first, we are constrained to go into some detail. Apparently there seems to be no such war as the phrase indicates. Nevertheless, please allow us to accept the validity of the pre-supposition taking it at its face value. But in order to be correctly understood we must explain it further. Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toiling masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British Capitalist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian. They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even on purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All these things make no difference. No matter, if your Government tries and succeeds in winning over the leaders of the upper strata of the Indian Society through petty concessions and compromises and thereby cause a temporary demoralization in the main body of the forces. No matter, if once again the vanguard of the Indian movement, the Revolutionary Party, finds itself deserted in the thick of the war. No matter if the leaders to whom personally we are much indebted for the sympathy and feelings they expressed for us, but nevertheless we cannot overlook the fact that they did become so callous as to ignore and not to make a mention in the peace negotiation of even the homeless, friendless and penniless of female workers who are alleged to be belonging to the vanguard and whom the leaders consider to be enemies of their utopian non-violent cult which has already become a thing of the past; the heroines who had ungrudgingly sacrificed or offered for sacrifice their husbands, brothers, and all that were nearest and dearest to them, including themselves, whom your government has declared to be outlaws. No matter, it your agents stoop so low as to fabricate baseless calumnies against their spotless characters to damage their and their party’s reputation. The war shall continue.

It may assume different shapes at different times. It may become now open, now hidden, now purely agitational, now fierce life and death struggle. The choice of the course, whether bloody or comparatively peaceful, which it should adopt rests with you. Choose whichever you like. But that war shall be incessantly waged without taking into consideration the petty (illegible) and the meaningless ethical ideologies. It shall be waged ever with new vigour, greater audacity and unflinching determination till the Socialist Republic is established and the present social order is completely replaced by a new social order, based on social prosperity and thus every sort of exploitation is put an end to and the humanity is ushered into the era of genuine and permanent peace. In the very near future the final battle shall be fought and final settlement arrived at.

The days of capitalist and imperialist exploitation are numbered. The war neither began with us nor is it going to end with our lives. It is the inevitable consequence of the historic events and the existing environments. Our humble sacrifices shall be only a link in the chain that has very accurately been beautified by the unparalleled sacrifice of Mr. Das and most tragic but noblest sacrifice of Comrade Bhagawati Charan and the glorious death of our dear warrior Azad.

As to the question of our fates, please allow us to say that when you have decided to put us to death, you will certainly do it. You have got the power in your hands and the power is the greatest justification in this world. We know that the maxim “Might is right” serves as your guiding motto. The whole of our trial was just a proof of that. We wanted to point out that according to the verdict of your court we had waged war and were therefore war prisoners. And we claim to be treated as such, i.e., we claim to be shot dead instead of to be hanged. It rests with you to prove that you really meant what your court has said.

We request and hope that you will very kindly order the military department to send its detachment to perform our execution.

Yours

BHAGAT SINGH

[mariacallous]

What would you want to tell the next U.S. president? FP asked nine thinkers from around the world to write a letter with their advice for him or her.

Dear Madam or Mr. President,

Congratulations on your election as president of the United States. You take office at a moment of enormous consequence for a world directly impacted by the twin challenges of energy security and climate change.

Democrats and Republicans disagree on many aspects of energy and climate policy. Yet your administration has the chance to chart a policy path forward that unites both parties around core areas of agreement to advance the U.S. national interest.

First, all should agree that climate change is real and worsening. The escalating threat of climate change is increasingly evident to anyone walking the streets of Phoenix in the summer, buying flood insurance in southern Florida, farming rice in Vietnam, or laboring outdoors in Pakistan. This year will almost certainly surpass 2023 as the warmest year on record.

Second, just as the energy revolution that made the United States the world’s largest oil and gas producer strengthened it economically and geopolitically, so will ensuring U.S. leadership in clean energy technologies enhance the country’s geostrategic position. In a new era of great-power competition, China’s dominance in certain clean energy technologies—such as batteries and cobalt, lithium, graphite, and other critical minerals needed for clean energy products—threatens America’s economic competitiveness and the resilience of its energy supply chains. China’s overcapacity in manufacturing relative to current and future demand undermines investments in the United States and other countries and distorts demand signals that allow the most innovative and efficient firms to compete in the global market.

Third, using less oil in our domestic economy reduces our vulnerability to global oil supply disruptions, such as conflict in the Middle East or attacks on tankers in the Red Sea. Even with the surge in U.S. oil production, the price of oil is set in the global market, so drivers feel the pain of oil price shocks regardless of how much oil the United States imports. True energy security comes from using less, not just producing more.

Fourth, energy security risks extend beyond geopolitics and require investing adequately in domestic energy supply to meet changing circumstances. Today, grid operators and regulators are increasingly warning that the antiquated U.S. electricity system, already adjusting to handle rising levels of intermittent solar and wind energy, is not prepared for growing electricity demand from electric cars, data centers, and artificial intelligence. These reliability concerns were evident when an auction this summer set a price nine times higher than last year’s to be paid by the nation’s largest grid operator to power generators that ensure power will be available when needed. A reliable and affordable power system requires investments in grids as well as diverse energy resources, from cheap but intermittent renewables to storage to on-demand power plants.

Fifth, expanding clean energy sectors in the rest of the world is in the national interest because doing so creates economic opportunities for U.S. firms, diversifies global energy supply chains away from China, and enhances U.S. soft power in rapidly growing economies. (In much the same way, the Marshall Plan not only rebuilt a war-ravaged Europe but also advanced U.S. economic interests, countered Soviet influence, and helped U.S. businesses.) Doing so is especially important in rising so-called middle powers, such as Brazil, India, or Saudi Arabia, that are intent on keeping their diplomatic options open and aligning with the United States or China as it suits them transactionally.

To prevent China from becoming a superpower in rapidly growing clean energy sectors, and thereby curbing the benefits the United States derives from being such a large oil and gas producer, your administration should increase investments in research and development for breakthrough clean energy technologies and boost domestic manufacturing of clean energy. Toward these ends, your administration should quickly finalize outstanding regulatory guidance to allow companies to access federal incentives. Your administration should also work with the other side of the aisle to provide the market with certainty that long-term tax incentives for clean energy deployment—which have bipartisan support and have already encouraged historic levels of private investment—will remain in place. Finally, your administration should work with Congress to counteract the unfair competitive advantage that nations such as China receive by manufacturing industrial products with higher greenhouse gas emissions. Such a carbon import tariff, as proposed with bipartisan support, should be paired with a domestic carbon fee to harmonize the policy with that of other nations—particularly the European Union’s planned carbon border adjustment mechanism.

Your ability to build a strong domestic industrial base in clean energy will be aided by sparking more domestic clean energy use. This is already growing quickly as market forces respond to rapidly falling costs. Increasing America’s ability to produce energy is also necessary to maintain electricity grid reliability and meet the growing needs of data centers and AI. To do so, your administration should prioritize making it easier to build energy infrastructure at scale, which today is the greatest barrier to boosting U.S. domestic energy production. On average, it takes more than a decade to build a new high-voltage transmission line in the United States, and the current backlog of renewable energy projects waiting to be connected to the power grid is twice as large as the electricity system itself. It takes almost two decades to bring a new mine online for the metals and minerals needed for clean energy products, such as lithium and copper.

The permitting reform bill recently negotiated by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso is a good place to start, but much more needs to be done to reform the nation’s permitting system—while respecting the need for sound environmental reviews and the rights of tribal communities. In addition, reforming the way utilities operate in the United States can increase the incentives that power companies have not just to build new infrastructure but to use existing infrastructure more efficiently. Such measures include deploying batteries to store renewable energy and rewiring old transmission lines with advanced conductors that can double the amount of power they move.

Grid reliability will also require more electricity from sources that are available at all times, known as firm power. Your administration should prioritize making it easier to construct power plants with advanced nuclear technology—which reduce costs, waste, and safety concerns—and to produce nuclear power plant fuel in the United States. Doing so also benefits U.S. national security, as Russia is building more than one-third of new nuclear reactors around the world to bolster its geostrategic influence. While Russia has been the leading exporter of reactors, China has by far the most reactors under construction at home and is thus poised to play an even bigger role in the international market going forward. The United States also currently imports roughly one-fifth of its enriched uranium from Russia. To counter this by building a stronger domestic nuclear industry, your administration should improve the licensing and approval process of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and reform the country’s nuclear waste management policies. In addition to nuclear power, your administration should also make it easier to permit geothermal power plants, which today can play a much larger role in meeting the nation’s energy needs thanks to recent innovations using technology advanced by the oil and gas sector for shale development.

Even with progress on all these challenges, it is unrealistic to expect that the United States can produce all the clean energy products it needs domestically. It will take many years to diminish China’s lead in critical mineral supply, battery manufacturing, and solar manufacturing. The rate of growth needed in clean energy is too overwhelming, and China’s head start is too great to diversify supply chains away from it if the United States relies solely on domestic manufacturing or that of a few friendly countries. As a result, diminishing China’s dominant position requires that your administration expand economic cooperation and trade partnerships with a vast number of other nations. Contrary to today’s protectionist trends, the best antidote to concerns about China’s clean technology dominance is more trade, not less.

Your administration should also strengthen existing tools that increase the supply of clean energy products in emerging and developing economies in order to diversify supply chains and counter China’s influence in these markets. For example, the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) can be a powerful tool to support U.S. investment overseas, such as in African or Latin American projects to mine, refine, and process critical minerals. As DFC comes up for reauthorization next year, you should work with Congress to provide DFC with more resources and also change the way federal budgeting rules account for equity investments; this would allow DFC to make far more equity investments even with its existing funding. Your administration can also use DFC to encourage private investment in energy projects in emerging and developing economies by reducing the risk investors face from fluctuations in local currency that can significantly limit their returns or discourage their investment from the start. The U.S. Export-Import Bank is another tool to support the export of U.S. clean tech by providing financing for U.S. goods and services competing with foreign firms abroad.

Despite this country’s deep divisions and polarization, leaders of both parties should agree that bolstering clean energy production in the United States and in a broad range of partner countries around the world is in America’s economic and security interests.

I wish you much success in this work, which will also be the country’s success.

[zvaigzdelasas]

India and Mauritius inaugurated a new airstrip and jetty on the is-lands of Agalega, boosting military infrastructure in a region marked by increasing piracy attempts and forays by Chinese war-ships.

The new facilities are helpful in “upgrading and reinforcing our maritime security,” Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth said at Thursday’s inauguration ceremony. He added that the infrastructure is critical for countering terrorism, piracy, and the illegal narcotics trade near Agalega, which sits in an exclusive economic zone stretching 2.3 million square kilometers (888,000 square miles).

Prime Minister Jugnauth clarified that Mauritius will remain in control of Agalega, which is located about 1,080 kilometers north of the nation’s main island, also called Mauritius, and 3,729 kilometers west of Mumbai, India. Agalega — which is comprised of two islands — sits in a zone frequently used by cargo ships moving goods from Asia.[...]

The new facilities in Mauritius are advantageous for India. War-ships deployed by the South Asian nation can refuel from Agalega. Big aircraft — including the P8i, India’s fleet of US-made long range maritime surveillance aircraft — can also land on a new three-kilometer-long airstrip.

Nearby, the Maldives recently ordered Indian military personnel to leave the island nation and remove their helicopters and a radar chain used for monitoring commercial ships.

India has extended a credit line of $1 billion and a grant of $400 million to Mauritius over the last few years, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration ceremony on Agalega. India has also allocated 3.7 billion rupees ($44.6 million) as aid to the island nation for the next fiscal year, according to budget papers presented in Parliament.

29 Feb 24

[penhive]

A Stoic and Epicurean narrative

Now what is stoicism? Stoicism is an ancient philosophy that flourished in Greece. It is the philosophy of forbearance (being immune)  to everything that happens and also fortitude (mental courage).

Now what is Epicureanism? Epicureanism comes from Epicurus and it’s doctrine that espouses the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain.

What I am going to do here is to enlarge the philosophies of Stoicism and Epicureanism with certain typologies.

Morals and Stoicism

Stoicism is a philosophy that calls for conservative moralism. Morals are virtuous and therefore a principle to emulate in society. We have to lead a life with goodness, purity and chastity. Our relations with our fellow beings should be one of Godliness. Lust and sensual pleasures are an anathema for the stoic. Sexuality is limited to the confines of the family. Pleasures have to be overlooked and sacrificed with the ritual of righteousness. Stoicism is the absence of lust. Sensual pleasures are demoted to a lower grade in the hierarchy of Stoic tenets.

Seismic Stoicism

Seismic stoicism is an arcane philosophy that conducts democratic principles for individuals and nations. War is a demotivating force and should be eschewed at all costs. An individual should live life by practicing charity and benevolence with her fellow beings. A stoic principle from the Bible is: love your enemy as yourself. Stoicism embraces the philosophy of love, peace, tolerance and nonviolence. A notable stoic is Mahatma Gandhi who with his philosophy of nonviolence freed India from the yoke of British colonialism. Stoics are altruistic helping one another in need. Seismic stoicism adumbrates a love that is Platonic.

Tectonic Stoicism

Tectonic stoicism is a mental phenomenon, a philosophy of being limited and being satisfied with what is. Tectonic stoicism curbs the excesses of passion. The ID and the Ego are wrought in chains making the superego control all emotions and feeling. The pleasures of the body are obfuscated. The stoic mind is dull and pathetic weighing pleasures and pain with stoic reverence. A stoic plucks the roots of passion and denies with existence of free will. The body of the stoic is conditioned to the desert of denial. Stoic attitude is one of mental denial and immolation, a crucifixion of passions and desires. The stoic is an orphan desperado of negation of the pleasures of life.

Now what is Epicureanism? Epicureanism is the philosophy of Epicurus which is the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

Here I am expanding the Freudian theory of the ID, Ego and the Super Ego.

ID

The ID is the seat of passions and desires.

Ego

The Ego is the language, culture, customs and traditions of the Society.

Superego

The Super ego is the laws and morals of the society.

My philosophy of Freudian Epicureanism is Deify the ID, Glorify the Ego and Subvert the Super Ego.

ID and Epicureanism

The ID is the seat of passions and desires and the ID is neither judgmental mental or moral. Many a time the society conditions us and makes our passions compliance with the norms of the society. The ID for the Epicurean is of deification (praise). Celebrate the ID by surrendering to  passions and inhibitions. The ID is the source for all art and creativity.

Ego and Epicureanism

The Ego for Freud is the language, customs and culture inherited from the society. Society taboos the individual with its dogmas and conventions. An example can be taken from the LGBT community. The LGBT community was isolated from mainstream community until very recently. Do the institutions of the society limit freedom? The ego is celebrated with the nihilism of the society’s language, culture and traditions.

Superego Epicureanism

The superego is the laws of the society. It always acts as a limiting factor for the individual’s pursuit of freedom. For the Epicurean, the superego has to be subverted and that means circumcising the laws and following a path without getting caught. The Epicurean is a skillful acrobat who does his subversion with finesse and agility.

To conclude I would like to say stoicism is a philosophy of fortitude and forbearance and Epicureanism is the celebration of life with the deification of the ID, glorification of the Ego and subversion of the Superego.

[nicklloydnow]

On Today’s Episode of World War III

“On Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed our worst suspicions concerning the pace of Iran’s nuclear weaponization program. “Iran,” it concluded, “has increased the rate at which it is producing near weapons grade uranium in recent weeks, reversing a previous slowdown that started in the middle of this year.”

According to the IAEA, Iranian enrichment of Uranium-235 to near weapons-grade level had increased to an estimated 9 kilograms per month by the end of November. It takes just five times that amount of uranium, enriched to 90 percent, to sustain a nuclear chain reaction for one nuclear bomb.

Presently, it is believed that Iran has enriched at least 128.3 kilograms of Uranium-235 to 60 percent, and 567.1 kilograms to 20 percent. Do the math based on Iran Watch’s estimates of its current centrifuge capacity, and Iran is now capable of enriching sufficient mass to 90 percent for three nuclear bombs in less than one week. Tehran could have a fourth bomb in one to two weeks more, and a fifth within roughly one month’s time.

(…)

We are in a very different world now than when that deal was first made. Moscow and Beijing are actively engaged in the equivalent of an ideological World War III against the U.S. that is increasingly turning kinetic. Iran has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to undermine U.S. diplomacy and national security interests throughout the Middle East.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind the funding and planning of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. Tehran’s plunging of Gaza into war undermined U.S. efforts to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and Iran-sponsored militias including Hezbollah and the Houthis are actively attacking U.S. military and naval forces in Iraq, Syria, Red Sea, and Gulf of Aden.

As his country nears a nuclear breakout, Khamenei is only becoming bolder. On Dec. 23, the Pentagon reported that the Chem Pluto, a chemical tanker sailing from Saudi Arabia to India, was struck in the Indian Ocean “by a drone launched from Iran.” Iranian threats against the West and Europe are also starting to come fast and furious. On Christmas Eve, Tehran threatened to close the Straits of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea.

Iran will become bolder still if allowed to achieve nuclear status. We are on borrowed time now, rapidly approaching the point wherein a kinetic response will be the only option remaining.

(…)

On the Doomsday Clock, it is already five minutes and counting past midnight in Armageddon. Unless the White House acts now, Iran’s status as a nuclear power will be a fait accompli.”

“More than 100 people were killed and scores injured Wednesday in two blasts that struck the central Iranian city of Kerman, emergency services said. Thousands of mourners had gathered there to commemorate Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his assassination in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in 2020.

A spokesman for the country’s emergency department was quoted by Iran’s state-run news agency as saying 103 people were killed and 188 were injured.

The deputy governor of Kerman, the slain general’s hometown, said the incident was a “terrorist attack,” according to Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The explosions occurred about a half-mile from Soleimani’s burial place, on a road to the graveyard, the agency reported.

(…)

The blasts Wednesday came amid intensifying involvement by Iranian-backed militant groups in a confrontation with Israel and its principal backer, the United States, during Israel’s war in Gaza.”

“Hamas on Tuesday accused Israel of killing Saleh al-Arouri, a top leader of the group, along with two commanders from its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. Mr. al-Arouri is the senior-most Hamas figure to be killed since Israel vowed to destroy the organization and eliminate its leadership after a deadly Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7.

Mr. al-Arouri was assassinated in an explosion in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, marking the first such assassination of a top Hamas official outside the West Bank and Gaza in recent years. It comes as officials across the region are worried about the war in Gaza igniting a wider conflagration.

(…)

“No one is safe if they had any hand in planning, raising money for or carrying out these attacks,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal discussions. Citing Israel’s vow to hunt down the perpetrators of the Oct. 7 attack wherever they are, the official added, “This is just the beginning, and it’ll go on for years.”

(…)

Mr. al-Arouri played a key role in Hamas’s relationships with its regional allies and in increasing Hamas’s military capabilities, according to regional and Western officials. A longtime Hamas operative, he was one of the founders of the group’s armed wing and was linked to a number of attacks on Israeli civilians, including the kidnapping and killing of three teenagers in the West Bank in 2014, which he called a “heroic operation.”

(…)

Mr. al-Arouri worked with Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s chief in Gaza, in recent years to link the group’s military wing more closely to Iran, which, regional security officials say, most likely helped the group develop some of the capabilities it used in the Oct. 7 attack. Israel has accused Mr. Sinwar of helping to plot the assault, which officials say killed about 1,200 people and saw 240 others abducted to Gaza.

(…)

Israel for decades has made assassinations of its enemies in other countries a key part of its defense strategy. In the past two weeks, Iran has accused Israel of assassinating two Iranian generals in Iraq and Syria who liaised with the regional militant groups backed by Iran. Israel has also carried out high-profile assassinations of senior Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists in Iran and Syria, including Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and Col. Sayad Khodayee, a commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.”

[dagwolf]

EVERYONE RECALLS THE SHORTAGES of toilet paper and pasta, but the early period of the pandemic was also a time of gluts. With restaurants and school cafeterias shuttered, farmers in Florida destroyed millions of pounds of tomatoes, cabbages, and green beans. After meatpacking plants began closing, farmers in Minnesota and Iowa euthanized hundreds of thousands of hogs to avoid overcrowding. Across the country, from Ohio to California, dairies poured out millions of gallons of milk and poultry farms smashed millions of eggs.

The supply chain disruptions continue. Last year, there was a rice glut, and big box stores like Walmart and Target complained of bloated inventories. There was a natural gas glut in both Europe and in India, as well as a surfeit of semiconductor chips in the tech sector. Florida cabbages, microchips, and Asian rice may not seem like they have much in common, but each of these stories represents a fundamental if disavowed aspect of capitalism: a crisis of overproduction.

All economic systems have problems of scarcity, but only capitalism also has problems of abundance. The reason is simple: the pursuit of profit above all else leads capitalism to produce too much of things that are profitable but socially destructive (oil, private health insurance, Facebook) and not enough of things that are socially beneficial but not privately profitable (low-income housing, public schools, the ecosystem of the Amazon rainforest). For over a century, from the Industrial Revolution through the Great Depression, crises of overproduction were the target of criticism from across the political spectrum—from aristocratic conservatives like Edmund Burke who feared the anarchy of markets was corroding the social order to socialist radicals like Eugene Debs who thought it generated exploitation and poverty.

But the idea of capitalism’s inherent predilection for overproduction has almost completely disappeared from economic discourse today. It seldom appears in the popular press, including in stories about producers destroying surpluses, a problem that is instead explained away by pointing to freak accidents, contingencies, and unforeseen dislocations. To be sure, many gluts of the past few years have been the result of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. But overproduction preceded 2020 and shows no signs of going away. Revisiting historical arguments about the problem can help us better understand the interlocking crises of supply chain disruption, deliquescent financial markets, and climate change. The history of overproduction and its discontents offers a set of tools and ideas with which to consider whether “market failures” like externalities and inventory surpluses really are exceptions or are intrinsic to commercial society, whether markets ever actually do equilibrate, and whether the drive for growth is possible without continual excess and waste.

[worldhistoryfacts]

A nineteenth-century German depiction of Alexander the Great's march into India in 327 BCE. After conquering modern-day Afghanistan, Alexander's army moved into areas across the Indus River. Eventually, his troops refused to go any further -- they had been at war for years and were incredibly far from home. Though Alexander did not conquer India, his invasion disrupted Indian politics. This set off a chain of events which led to the creation of the Mauryan Dynasty, a large empire that unified most of the subcontinent.

{WHF} {Medium}

[stephensmithuk]

The Sign of Four: The Episode of the Barrel

Victorian literature loves its fainting women. Was this down to overly tight corsets, ill health or someone just deciding to be dramatic for the sake of it? Possibly all of the three.

The woman Mary works for is not called Cecil Forrester. The conventions of this time were that women took their husband's legal identity. They certainly took their nationality, losing their own.

Forty-three is rather a large number of dogs to have. The RSPCA (which was a thing in 1888) would get involved if they knew about this facility today. Back then too.

The "wiper" or viper in this case is almost certainly Vipera berus aka the adder. Males are normally silvery-grey, females copper or brown. However, you can sometimes see black adders. If you want to see baldrics, go watch some Morris dancers.

The adder gives birth to live young (up to twenty at a time) and can live for over ten years. They are the only venomous snake of the three British native species, but for most humans, like Watson, a bite will just cause pain and inflammation. Ireland doesn't have any snake species at all, as the Irish Sea was too wide for them to get across.

The RSPCA would not approve of dropping an adder on someone as it would harm the adder. The police would not approve either.

It is legal to own a pet snake in the UK - indeed there are quite a lot of them - but you need a licence for the venomous ones today. This includes adders and all the viper family.

European badgers are different to the American ones. They are far more social, dig the most complex burrows and can also make a range of noises. They are also nocturnal, and they do bite if provoked. It is today illegal to have a pet badger, disturb their setts or injure them. Unless the government authorises a cull due to bovine TB, a controversial policy. Sadly, they frequently end up as roadkill.

It is legal to keep stoats, although controversial. They can kill animals much larger than themselves, like rabbits or birds. It is legal to kill them as a result.

Slow worms are legless lizards, not snakes despite their appearance. They do not have fangs. You could keep one as a pet, but not buy or sell one.

Sugar is not toxic to dogs but can cause problems in substantial amounts.

The penal colony on the Andaman Islands can really be compared to Devil's Island in French Guiana and should better known in the UK. The British sent many political prisoners, to wit independence activists, there from the 1857 Rebellion onwards. Crossing over the sea threatened devout Hindus with the loss of caste and the possibility of reincarnation, something known as "Kala pani". Arrivals would be put on chain gangs. Conditions would be harsh, with torture, medical experimentation, disease, and cruelty from the guards causing thousands of deaths. You could also be executed for trying to escape. Hunger strikes were common and responded to with force-feeding.

The worst prison at this time was on Viper Island, which contained solitary cells, whipping stands and stocks.

In 1872, a former police officer called Sher Ali Afridi sent there for murder after his death sentence, claiming he was acting on the instructions of Allah, assassinated the Viceroy of India, the 6th Earl of Mayo, who was inspecting the place. He had also wanted to kill the Superintendent but did not manage to do so. He was hanged a month later on Viper Island, where the gallows building still stands.

Viper Island lost its importance following the construction of the Cellular Jail at Port Blair, finished in 1906. That was also a very nasty prison, but it is beyond the scope of this post.

"Mohammedan" was a term used for Muslim in the West at the time, implying erroneously that Muslims worship their Prophet. They certainly hold him in great reverence, but they do not worship him.

Guess people started drinking early in Victorian times; licencing hours would not be introduced until the First World War.

The Oval is an international cricket ground in Kennington, the other famous ground in London along with Lord's. It traditionally hosts the final Test of the English cricket season and after getting gas lighting in 1889, it would get a Tube station nearby originally called Kennington Oval the following year, when the initial stretch of the City & South London Railway opened. Today, just being Oval and on the Northern line, it has cricket-related decorations on some of the tiling.

The land the Oval is on is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, the large property portfolio belonging to the Duke of Cornwall, the title given to the eldest son of the British monarch; this currently being Prince William, who is also Prince of Wales, that title trumping it.

Coal-tar creosote has traditionally been used as a preservative to stop wood rotting when outdoors, something necessary in the wet British climate. It was also used in dentistry!

However, it was discovered to cause cancer. While still allowed for general use by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the EU banned its sale to and use by the regular public in 2003. The UK carried over this law after Brexit. Coal-tar creosote products can only be sold to certified professionals for specific uses, like farm fencing and railway sleepers. The public have to buy substitutes like Ronseal, whose famous advertising slogan declares "it does exactly what it says on the tin".

[pizzapasta23045]

Did you know. Did you know Khaenri'ahn architecture is likely a mishmash of a bunch of different nations' cultural architectures due to it being a nation founded by ragtag people from all over who wanted to live without gods (Vindagnyer/Enkanomiya). Which means Khaenri'ah probably has a wild mix of complex cultural practices which opens up a whole new possibility of behaviors Kaeya exhibits that the mondstadt populous will see as "eccentric' when in reality he's just got the wildest mix of Khaenri'ahn superstitions (my favorite headcanon of which is that if you complain about the nighttime you'll never see the sun again) (sparked by another headcanon that stars hold a high symbolic prestige in Khaenri'ah due to the Khemia symbol being the Khaenri'han star) (And Khaenri'ah likely taking a lot of pride in the art of Khemia) (And the fact that it was/is an underground nation) (So stars are like perfect for the subject of mythos) (Also hi I see you are also insane about Kaeya)

Yes! I did!

But did you know that Alberich, the name, is based off a play called the Ring Cycle, the same play that inspired Tolkien's work, in which a dwarf named named Alberich makes a ring that gives one the power to rule the world and later gets said ring stolen by a god? So then he curses the ring to cause so much desire people would dies to even get it?

And did you know that in the ring cycle Alberich has a son named Hagen, in this specific depiction being half-dwarf and half-human, who later gains back the ring through wit and manipulation under, in part, his father's orders and in a chain of event causes Ragnarok and the end of the gods.

Also, both of these ars composite characters (or characters that appear in conflicting works and mythogies) and in some depictions Hagen is also one-eyed, which implies that the reference isn't just in name but in story.

(About Khaenri'ah, it seems to be heavily based on India and Nordic/Germanic countries, with a bit of Irish sparkled in for flavor. So I HC that there were two different waves of immigration, maybe one from Old Mondstadt and the likes and another from sumeru during the archon war. And I HC that both of Kaeya's parents are from Khaenri'ah expect Kaeya's father is from the Germanic part, as the surname implies, while his mother is from the second wave.)